FOOD PIC OF THE WEEK

Calle Ocho (***)

2756 Broadway, New York, NY 10025

I have been going to Calle Ocho (Cuban fusion) since the early 2000s, and it always hits the spot. To be perfectly honest, Calle Ocho was a favorite for my grad school buddies and me because the restaurant has an all-you-can-drink sangria brunch with the purchase of any entree.

LOOK AT ALL OF THESE DIFFERENT SANGRIAS!!!!

 
 

FYI: The Samba, Roja, Gramada Punta Cana, and Blanca are my favoritas.

Man those were the days when we did not have time limits for our all-you-can-drink brunch needs. Now, most places have a 1.5 – 2 hour time limit, which is fine . . . I guess.

For my most recent brunch visit, I went with something new and ordered the

Camarones Ahumados

 
 

Normally, I order the same things (ropa vieja or chilaquiles), but I am glad that I decided to go with something different.

While I love coming here, I will say that the prices have gone up a bit. Since I have been dining here for about two decades, I guess that’s understandable. Back in the day, dishes were about $20 and included all-you-can-drink sangria. Now, the delicious brunch options are around $40. I mean it’s not a huge deal because most places typically add an extra $15-$20 bucks if you want an all-you-can-drink option. I guess Calle Ocho now includes the all-you-can-drink in the price of the entree. There is no way in the world that anyone should pay close to $40 for a bowl of shrimp and grits. I guess this kind of sucks for non-drinkers to pay that much for a brunch entree.

That said, the muffin basket (err box) is totally worth it.

 
 

One tip if you dine here: As long as you continue to order food, the sangria will keep flowing. When we dine at Calle Ocho, we usually get a dessert after brunch so we can have one or two more sangrias for the road.

Food Pic of the Week

Tomiño Taberna Gallega (***) 

192 Grand St., New York, NY 10013

The place has appeared on FPotW countless times, folks should know the deal:

  • A Galician (a region in northwest Spain) restaurant in the heart of Little Italy (or Chinatown depending on who you ask).

  • Amazing food

  • Great gin-tonics

Chuletón de ‘vaca vieja’:

 
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Cigalas langoustines + Zamburiñas Bay scallops:

 
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Torrija de bica gallega:

 
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Food Pic of the Week

Cap’t Loui (***) 

3147 Broadway, New York, NY 10027

At this point, I probably should be saying “food pic of the month” instead of “food pic of the week”. That said, I will try to update this thing more often with yummy food pics. Because of the pandemic, it has been difficult to try out new food spots around the city. Since things are beginning to open up (a little too fast for my liking), I think that I will be able to update this blog more frequently.

Have you ever pass a restaurant on multiple occasions and think to yourself that you should try out the joint? A couple of weeks ago, Cap’t Loui was that place for us. To be perfectly honest, the hubby and I were going to have ramen at another spot about a block away from Cap’t Loui. Before going to the ramen place, I was like screw it, let’s do to Cap’t Loui.

Man Oh Man, I’m so glad that we went to Cap’t Loui because it was AMAZING. Long story short, the restaurant is pretty much a New Orleans-style seafood boil spot. You pretty much will pick a boil and select 1+ seafood options (crawfish, shrimp, crabs, etc.), a sauce, and any extra fixings. For our boil, we went with shrimp, mussels, corn, potatoes, garlic noodles, and sausage. Since I spent my undergraduate years in New Orleans, I guess that I was supposed to select crawfish as one of the seafood options. Under normal circumstances, I would have gone with crawfish, but I was EXTREMELY hungry and did not have time to fiddle around with crawfish. Sometimes, I find getting to the meat of crawfish takes too much effort for a little reward.

 
A seafood boil from Cap’t Loui in Morningside Heights (New York, NY)
 

One tip: Wear clothes that you do not care about messing up because the food will be quite messy (especially because of the butter sauce).

Although I did not relive my memories of New Orleans through crawfish, I did relive my time in New Orleans years through a Hurricane cocktail at Cap’t Loui.

 
A hurricane cocktail at Cap’t Loui in Morningside Heights (New York, NY)
 

In my opinion, I found my Hurricane WAY too sweet. Maybe Hurricanes are supposed to be really sweet, and I never really noticed the sweetness as a 21/22 year-old. Let me stop lying about the 21 year old thing, I probably had a few Hurricanes as an 18-year old freshman. If memory serves me correctly, I think Louisiana (or maybe it was just New Orleans) raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 a couple of years before I started college so many bars in New Orleans were pretty lax in serving underage folks. Yeah, I think it was the state because Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) successfully lobbied to withholding federal funds for Louisiana unless the state raised the drinking age.

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Food Pic of the Week

Tomiño Taberna Gallega (***) 

192 Grand St., New York, NY 10013

This place has made several appearances on here. Because of this pandemic, it has been a bit tough to check out new spots. I've been repeated many places because

  • many places are closed or do not have outdoor dining options;

  • if I have to wear a mask, load up on hand sanitizer, and eat outside during the winter, I want to go to a place that I know will serve up good food.

The hubby, one of his best friends from Spain, and I went here to celebrate Three Kings Day. Unfortunately, I was distracted by the events that were taking place in DC so I really did not take too many pictures of our food . . . and cocktails.

The plato fuerte - Arroz Caldoso

I wonder if the restaurant put three cigalas (Norway lobster) in the dish because it was Three Kings Day. You know, one cigala for each king.

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In addition to serving yummy food from the Galician region of Spain, Tomiño has a wide array of gin tonic cocktails. After learning how much sugar is in tonic water (prob back in 2004), gin n seltzer has been my go-to cocktail. However, Tomiño uses tonic water (I forget the brand's name) that's typically served in Europe, which is significantly less sweet than the tonic water that we use here in the States.

 
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I think this one was the roses and juniper berry gin tonica.

FOOD PIC OF THE WEEK

Mission Ceviche (***) 

 1400 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10021

We were on a mission to enjoy some ceviche and pisco sours.


Food Pic of the Week

Jackson’s Eatery (***) 

 10-37 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101

Bringing in the fall season with a bang.

I took an ‘adventure’ to Long Island City to visit an old friend, catch up, and get my grub on for Labor Day weekend. I will say that I was pleasantly surprised that the 7 train was running quite efficiently during the weekend. Sometimes the 7 train is hit or miss with more misses than hits. Coming here was not really planned. We pretty much ended here because the restaurant had open tables in the shade and it was like half a block from the Jackson Vernon subway stop.

OMG! I want to come back to this restaurant at least eight more times so I can try more of their brunch items . . . and cocktails. What’s brunch without a few adult cocktails? Seriously, I was experiencing FOMO looking at the food at other folks’ tables.

In addition to the amazing food, the service was also top-notch.

Can’t wait to go back.

Food Pic of the Week

Haru Sushi (***) 

 433 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10024

Yelp had a grand virtual event for its Yelp Elite Squad in which we received a $50 voucher redeemable at any Haru Sushi restaurant in the city. So today’s entry will be a picture of a simple sushi spread and a nice bottle of wine.

 
 

I was so anxious to eat that I did not even remove the top before taking the picture.

Food Pic of the Week

Tomiño Taberna Gallega (***) 

 192 Grand Street, New York, NY 10013

After our “prove to the US government that your marriage is real” interview with homeland security, the hubby and I stopped by this place for lunch to celebrate/commiserate the end of our grilling session. This place always hits the spot.

Food Pic of the Week

SETTEPANI (***) 

 196 Lenox Avenue, New York, NY 10026

A few weeks ago, I stopped this local restaurant to try their Limoncello Sorbetto. Oh, by “local” I mean a quick, 3-min walk from my apt.

 
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Basically, the Limoncello Sorbetto is tequila and limoncello (of course) infused with lemon sorbet that is placed into a hollowed-out lemon. Although I liked this dessert cocktail, going forward, I’m going to substitute gin for the tequila.

A couple of weeks later, I went back to try the orange version of this frozen cocktail.

 
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This version is pretty much a negroni infused with orange sorbet. Comparing the two, I think that I’ll lean toward the lemon version because it was less syrupy than the orange version.

Since we have to order food with cocktails in NYC, I had a delicious octopus appetizer with my orange negroni sorbet. Technically, wouldn’t the sorbet count as food?

 
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