Soda & Swine

I haven't been in San Diego for very long, but I already have my go-to places (obviously). I also already have a list of restaurants that I want to try out (suggestions always welcome!) One of my go-to places, specially to take visitors to, is Soda & Swine.
This first time I went to Soda & Swine I was craving chicken. That is something that never, EVER, happens to me, so I was feeling very weird about myself, but also - craving the chicken. It was the day after our three-day car ride, where we ate a lot of... shit. I don't know how else to put it. We had VERY limited options, some days consisting of only McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell. We ate at McDonald's (which was horrible - except for the Oreo McFlurry which was awesome!) once, a bad mistake. Deciding not to do it again, the next day we went to Carl's Jr and I swear to God, Carl's Jr. turkey burger tasted like heaven compared to the quarterpound I got at McDonald's. Ew.

Menu

So, the next day I am craving chicken. As I got to Soda & Swine, I looked at their super-cool menu written on a black chalkboard. And I saw a chicken meatball option! And, AND, it was served with mushroom sauce and provolone cheese! I could not have been happier.
The deal over there is: you can choose one (or more, I guess. I'd never thought about that... hum) out of four options: get your meatballs on a sub (2 meatballs), over pasta (3 meatballs), on sliders (1 meatball per slider) or just the meatballs and the sauce (3 meatballs). Considering the fact that I had just completed a trip where every single meal I had consisted of bread or pasta of some sort, I chose the "a la carte" option, as they put it. Just the largest amount of meatballs, no carbs.

There is also another chalkboard next to the one in the picture with a list of their sides, which must be like 15. So many sides to choose from! You don't HAVE to pick a side. But why not? Why would you not do it? It makes no sense. Anyway, I chose the bacon brussels sprouts because I am smart. Also, because my family decided we should each pick one side so everyone can try everyone's side (we do that a lot.) So, in reality, I had brussels sprout, asparagus and polenta as sides. Hum, where should I begin?

Meatballs to the left and asparagus to the right

So, the meatballs come in this mini iron cast, swimming in the mushroom sauce, with the provolone cheese melted over on top. It's beautiful. And you look at it and you think: "is this going to be enough food?" but what you don't know is that the meatballs are HUGE. They are. They are so filling. But most importantly, they are made of chicken and they blend perfectly - just perfectly - with the thick, creamy mushroom sauce they come with. Seriously. It's so good, I was moaning the whole meal. If you've never experienced chicken meatballs, that is the way to do it. I cannot imagine anyway that chicken meatballs could taste any better. On marinara sauce they would be RUINED. Ruined. Ok, maybe not ruined, but definitely not as good.

Brussels sprouts

The brussels sprouts come with bacon, so there's that. It's not like it's going to taste bad, ever. It's made with bacon. No, but really, they were cooked to perfection and tasted incredible. For realz. The asparagus comes with a little bit of cheese on top and it's also cooked to perfection and delicious in the subtle but unique way that only asparagus can be. The polenta, unfortunately, for my unending sadness, was meh. But just order something else, like, for example, they mac-and-cheese! Or, or, the goat cheese mashed potatoes (yum!). Better yet: order the crispy chick peas. They are divine! They are crispy and salty, and crunchy and delicious. I never knew chick peas could be so... crispy? It's super well-seasoned too, so it's really tasty, and you can't eat just one. It's like popcorn... you eat it and eat it until there's no more to eat.

#crispyanddelicious

After my very pleasant experience, I have made a point of taking everyone that comes visit me there. And it's been approved across the board. Because it's delicious!


Restaurant: Soda & Swine
City: San Diego, CA
Service: Great
Food: Delicious
Price: $

Enoteca Corsi

I am procrastinating. 
I haven't been posting lately basically because of the ridiculous amount of work I have for the next month and a week until graduation. But today I had to procrastinate a little. I mean, I needed to. Whatever, I want to. It turns out writing about food is much more fun than writing about Colombia's drug trafficking problem, Cuba's relationship with the U.S. or U.S. intervention in Latin America. And also waaaay more fun than applying for jobs. And less stressful, might I add.

So, today I write about the day I spent by myself in Rome. Beautiful Rome. After two delicious weeks in Venice, Florence and Tuscany, my family and I came back to Rome, where my parents needed to catch their flight back to the US and A. My flight got out of Paris only two days later, so I stayed in Rome for one last day. It worked out perfectly because I would get to see the Sistine Chapel - which I hadn't done five years previously when I had been to Rome for the first time.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

You know what? I was a little disappointed. I must acknowledge that my experience was probably something uniquely disturbing but by the time I got into that Chapel, I was so mad I didn't even enjoy myself. It turns out they only open it during certain times of the day. BUT they don't let you know that. Oh, no! They make you go on and on, always pointing in the same direction, which leads into a circle that never ends BECAUSE THE CHAPEL IS CLOSED. They could've just told me that. Instead, they decided to make me walk the same exhibitions five times! I was so hot from walking around the museum I took off my sweater and eventually LOST IT. So, as I said, by the time I got into the Chapel I was just mad. Plus, you have to look up to see the most famous painting one - which is minuscule! The one of David's finger touching God's? Yeah, small. 

I don't know. Maybe it was the result of hunger (of course) and the being tricked thing, but I saw things that were much more appealing to me. Monet's paintings at the Musée d'Orsay, for example. Or his garden at the National Gallery. Honestly, I am not as moved by art as I probably should be. Live music does it much more for me than art does. Although I do like going to museums, I am not as emotional as I am when there's a band playing. Stop judging me!

But what is important is what happened after I got out of that horrible place and went straight to eat! I went to a place called Enoteca Corsi, right next to the hotel I had stayed with my parents, close to the Pantheon. From the name, one already infers that it is a wine place. I read in an article from the 90s (which was framed and hung right next to my table) that around then there was a move for enotecas to start serving lunch, which were generally homemade meals for a much cheaper price than local restaurants would charge. They only serve meals during lunchtime, however, which is what makes them different from regular restaurants. 

I was there at the right time then (1:30 in the afternoon). From a very appealing list of choices, I decided to go with the homemade meatballs with peas and roasted potatoes, all with extra olive oil to top it off (you can actually see it in the picture.) I have to say one thing first - I don't like peas. After I ordered this dish, I was asking myself what was wrong with me that I just ordered meatballs with stupid peas? Why not pasta?! (probably because I had already been eating pasta every day for the past 3 weeks but shhhh)
Turns out - you guessed right - the peas were actually a great addition to this meal. Since the meatballs had so much flavor and the potatoes were seasoned with rosemary, I would go for the peas almost like they were a palate cleanser. Seriously. The potatoes were delicious. They weren't crunchy nor mushy, and the rosemary worked perfectly with the meatballs. It did taste like a good home-cooked meal. 

The restaurant

The place was small, but not claustrophobic and the service was great. Although I must say I didn't really understand how exactly these places are supposed to have a more agreeable price. This plate, although simple it may seem, certainly wasn't a bargain. From what I remember it was around 14€, which sincerely is expensive.

Hidden little place

After dropping my stuff at the hotel, I decided to go for a walk and then back to a gelato place I had visited when I was with my parents. Happy decision. San Crispino is a small, almost hidden "gelateria" two streets down from the Fontana di Trevi. Their gelatos are divine. Simply divine. 

I decided to get a pistachio (I love pistachio gelato) and grape ice cream. Which were heavenly. Delicious. Delectable. Tasty. The shit. However you wanna put it.

I love Italian gelato.

The inside 

Yes - I took a picture of my gelato. I'm not even sorry.

The rest of the day I spent strolling around and doing sight-seeing. I got to see this around sunset:

Saint Peter's Basilic - NO FILTER 

Great ending for our Italy family trip. I miss it - the food, the time we got to spend together, the picture-taking, the making-fun of my mom, the beautiful cities... But especially the food :)

Restaurant: Enoteca Corsi

City: Rome, Italy

Food: Great

Service: Good

Price: €€

Also featured on this post was Il gelato di San Crispino - holy gelato! 

City: Rome, Italy

Gelato: Divine

Service: Super-friendly

Price: Cheap!!

Recipease

Ok, this is embarassing. So school has been kicking my ass and I actually almost forgot I had a blog and a lot to post about. And then I remembered I haven't even talked about my amazing time in London yet!

I went to London mid-December to visit a friend and some family and it was great! I ate so many delicious things, and visited so many places I had never even dreamed of seeing in my life. Now that i think of it, the entire time I was traveling (read: all 4 months I spent in Europe) everything felt so dreamlike that it seems very distant now. But I've only been back for a little more than a month, which is crazy - feels like forever.

Street art at Brick Lane

Back to what I saw and ate. For me, the best thing about London was the Brick Lane Market. My friend took me there on my first day and she could not have made me happier. The "market" is basically a flea market all over the street (Brick Lane). They sell everything and anything. But the best part is the big warehouses in the middle (or sides) of the market. Inside each warehouse you find dozens and dozens of food stands. From all over the world. It's insane. Right next to one another, you have Venezuelan food, Vietnamese food, Turkish food, Chinese food, Japanese food... the list goes on with much more exotic "food" than I could think of. I loved it and at the same time hated it.

YUM

 I loved because, duh, there it is, the most diverse selection of cuisines I will probably see in my entire life, and all of it is cheap and looks delicious. The environment is super chill, even though it was really full you never feel overwhelmed - unless you're like me and love food then you were just overwhelmed by the amazingness of the existence of such a place. 
But I HATE it. I hate it because it's so far from me now. And also because there is no way I could've chosen what I wanted to eat. Thankfully, my friend already had two places in mind, a Turkish crepe and a Japanese omelet. Sweet Jesus. I don't have any pictures because honestly I was starving and wanted to eat that so bad. But trust me: they were delicious. The Turkish guys at the crepe place were really funny, they would shove samples of their food into other peoples mouths... hilarious! Stuff like that could never happen in the US... :(
For dessert, we shared this beautiful and delicious carrot cake, from a booth called Sweet Food. The rest of the day we spent walking around the area, taking crazy pictures in a photo booth and designing our own Christmas cards...

Big Ben and Parliament

My last day in London we decided to go for a walk around Notting Hill. I love the movie and was really curious to see that part of town. My friend knows every single thing there is to know, including the best bookshops! We also went with a tip from a Brazilian blog, Escapismo Genuíno , to go visit Jamie Oliver's Recipease.

Recipease is a store/market/restaurant/kitchen where everything is happening at the same time. It is beautiful, its outside walls are all made of huge glass windows. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was food, basically sandwiches and small bites for sale. Beyond it, there was a huge kitchen island with chefs in the hollow middle. Around the island, on the countertops, there were several place-sets full of ingredients, tools and containers - for the class that was about to take place. Recipease offers cooking classes for everyone, and has a variety of options on what cuisine you can learn about too. And afterwards you get to eat what you cook, with a glass of wine. I thought it was really nice, but kind of expensive - for special occasions, I would say. It must be an amazing experience.

I wanted to dive in.

Besides the finger food and kitchen, there was also a market of fresh imported produce AND a kitchenware store (sold everything kitchen, from aprons to knives - there was even a heart-shaped chopping board.) Upstairs, There is another huge kitchen island like the one downstairs, and the restaurant. First, the decoration of the whole place is genius. It is so cozy and comfortable inside, even at the market and shop parts. The restaurant part has little niches full of sofa pillows for people to get comfy in and shelves full of books (by Jamie Oliver and others.) 

The decoration

More decoration - restaurant part

The choice was hard to make, but I wanted something different and inexpensive, so I went with carrot pancakes with hummus, feta and mache (or flowerdale sprouts?) salad. Delicious!!!! The meal in itself was filling but not stuffing and I loved the presentation. I like hummus, but too much of it can be dangerous, because I feel it can get tiring. However, the feta cheese and the salad balanced it out perfectly and the meal was delicious! For around £8, I thought it was reasonably priced. Definitely recommend it! 

Preeetty

Restaurant/Market/Cooking Lessons/Kitchenware shop: Recipease
City: London, England
Food: Good
Service: Good
Price: £

Totò - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (22 days late)! After a long break, which was spent in lots and lots of restaurants acquiring new information for my blog, hence eating, I have the pleasure of writing this post. I hope I will accomplish my goal of awing everyone with this new post. Not because of my writing skills, which haven’t changed much, but by the food I have to present. This meal, ladies and gentlemen, was epic.

First, I must say I come from a culture where every single type of food can be sold in “all you can eat” style. In Brazil, we have the famous churrascarias, where meat is served to your table during the entire length of your meal – I know, amazing! This concept evolved through different kinds of cuisine, so now we have “all-you-can-eat” style sushi, pizza, pasta, and even beer! How crazy is that? You pay a certain amount and you sit at the bar and they keep the beers coming. Again: I know, amazing!

I recounted this to demonstrate that I am used to eating a lot. I love eating (big news), and I also like to get my money’s worth, so I would always dive in – who are we kidding? I still dive in!  So it was surprising that I – my extremely glutton self – would be impressed (and a little scared) of the Italian-style meals.

Me and my handsome "baby" brother

My dear family and I reunited on Christmas’ Eve in Rome, to start a trip of a lifetime through the beautiful country that is Italia. After Rome, we went to Venice and then to Florence for New Years. Our most pressing problem when we got to Florence was to find a good restaurant (we had an extensive recommended list) to have our celebratory capodanno meal on the night of the 31st. After seeing a lot of crazy-priced deals, we bumped into this little place called Totò which had a long list of plates and wine and champagne included in the 65€ per person fee. I know it seems like a lot, but the prices were not going any lower than that in the other restaurants. The place looked very Italian and smelled amazing when we walked in at 4 in the afternoon to make our reservation, so my parents decided to go with it. The menu was at follows:

·      A cart of antipasto

·      Gnocchi with truffle sauce and porcini mushrooms

·      Potato tortellini

·      Bistecca à la Fiorentina (T-Bone steak their style)

·      Florentine sausage

·      Deep-fried artichokes

·      House salad

·      House dessert

·      Wine

·      Champagne glass

·      Coffee

Let’s begin: the cart of antipasto was actually a cart! In the middle of the restaurant! With dozens of choices of antipasto! There was shrimp cocktail, octopus ceviche, prosciutto rolled in a breadstick, deep-fried olive-stuffed olive (!!!!!!!), chicken salad, roasted eggplant slices, boiled shrimp… and many other things that I couldn’t even try because I knew there was more food coming. And it did.

Genius!

The second part of the meal, also called “first course” in Italy, is almost always pasta. Amazingly enough, in the menu they had two different pastas listed – from which I assumed we would pick one, but no! Both came. Happiness… I have to say, the Potato-filled Tortellini (one of Tuscany region traditional plates) was delicious, but I am a sucker for mushrooms, especially when they are in a truffle sauce. Seriously, what can compete with that?! Mushrooms AND truffles. On colorful gnocchi. Beautiful! 

The third part of the meal, called “second course”, is generally a type of protein of some sort, such as beef, lamb, rabbit, sometimes fish. In our fortunate case, we got half of a T-bone steak grilled in Florentine fashion – a.k.a. wonderfully – and a Florentine sausage. The beef was very tender and cooked to perfection, still very red on the inside (they way it’s supposed to be) but almost crispy on the outside. It wasn’t the best we ate, but it was pretty good. The sausage was very different to me, used to the American southern usually over-processed sausages, because you could kind of feel the meaty texture in it. It was also divine. To accompany our outrageous meat selection we got fried artichokes and salad, which I obviously didn’t even touch – I was in too deep to care.

For meat lovers only

Artichokes

By the end of this, we were all on the verge of a food coma. Imagine pairing all of this with some bread and wine… two whole bottles of wine for three people (my mom barely drinks). But there was still dessert! The house dessert of choice was profiteroles. And then the glass of champagne came. I couldn’t drink all of it. Swear to God. I just couldn’t. There was too much in my system.

After this eating marathon, we had to walk somewhere, just to make this settle a little. The city was packed and there were free concerts going on in six different squares in the city for the 3809834723 tourists that were there (approximate number). We found a nice little spot in the Republic’s square, where there was a band playing bossa nova and then a jazz band came up. Dancing in the below freezing temperature of that Florentine night, we celebrated the coming of a new year, happy to be together.

Restaurant: Totò

City: Florence, Italy

Food: Great

Service: Good

Price: OK

Le Gil

Église Notre-Dame

After writing so much about other cities and feeling the suddenly creeping moment of my departure, I would like to post about another good restaurant in Poitiers. Although I haven't stayed long enough and haven't had the money that would allow me to try all the places I have passed by and interested me, I managed to have some good food here. Everyone seems to have a love/hate relationship with Poitiers, which in my opinion is this cute little French town (not so little, about 120.000 people) in the Poitou-Charentes region. When I arrived, Poitiers was all I imagined it to be and more. At the start I couldn't deal with the medieval buildings and look of things, I would squeal every five steps I took - I'm surprised I made any friends here at all. I live in the center of the town, in a very old building... next to me is a house from the 16th century and in the end of my street the Cathédral Saint Pierre, from the 13th century. It's so much history bundled up together that it takes some time to get used to. Now my friends and I joke that anything built from the mid 1800's is almost brand new. I mean there is a church from the 4th century here... how mind-blowing is that? 

I believe that it's only when people visit me that I am reminded of that early stage of amazement I was in the beginning. Unfortunately I tend to get used to the most stunning of views after living in them for a while - I would think most people do. So good thing for me my Brazilian friend that lives in London came to visit! Her excitement while we walked through the streets I am now so used to taking on every day made me revisit that same feeling. And I loved it.

Cathédrale Saint Pierre

I took advantage of the fact she was here and ate out a lot. One of the places I took her was Le Gil, a cute little bistro on the Charles de Gaulle square. Every day of the week they have a "plat du jour" for 8€, which isn't bad. I had eaten there before with my mom and the crème brulée was perfect - I risk saying the best I've had in France so far.

The first time, the choice of the day was a diced turkey in a creamy sauce, served with spaghetti, a tomato purée and spinach. The food was great! But the best part was the presentation. The plate was organized and the tomato and spinach came in little balls. I love eating out of beautifully set plates. Don't they say "We always eat first with our eyes"? Or is that only in my country? Well, I definitely eat first with my eyes. If the food looks weird or is badly presented, it will probably not taste as good as it is. If it is well-presented, maybe it might even taste better, just from the pleasure of looking at it. After the main course, we ordered a crème brulée which was divine! The crust was perfect and warm, the cream was cold and it all tasted incredible. That's why I went back again!

Preeetty!

When my friend was here, the choice was a kind of braised beef arranged in a stick, with diced potatoes and salad (some leafs in a sauce and some carrots). The meat was delicious, specially now that I eat so little of it - I only appreciate it more when I do. The potatoes were crunchy but not greasy, sprinkled with some herbs. The salad, well, it's salad. It's hard to say that salad is great. I felt the potatoes were a great combination with the meat sauce, which was strong, so they cleaned the palate a little. I loved it, my friend loved it, we were ready for the crème brulée! 

Preeetty again!

And it came, in all its glory. I knew what to expect, but she didn't. It was as delicious as before, except that they made a change - no whipped cream ball on top anymore! What the hell? So it looked kind of plain, but it was great. I just liked the presentation of the first one better. Below you will see what I am talking about... 

Before

After

See what I mean?! Crazy people, giving up on whipped cream ball, powdered sugar and the little green leaf. One would feel much more comfortable paying 5.90€ for the first crème brulée than for the second one, all because of the presentation. Anyway, the both were great. Both put a smile on my lips and filled my heart with joy. 

The desperation came later when my friend insisted we should go again so she could have another one, this time with some coffee. No deal! They are only served after food, as a dessert. Who are you, crazy person that wants to have dessert at five in the afternoon? The French have weird ways of serving sometimes... I don't get this strange rule. My friend was obviously very upset but became calmer after we bought some éclairs to drown our sorrows. Not bad.

I will definitely miss France. Not just the food, although OBVIOUSLY the food. The people, the feel, even the language. I was in Germany this weekend (post about sausage and glühwein coming!) and whenever I heard French being spoken I felt a little warmth feeling (little because come on, I was in Germany, there can never be a huge warm feeling, it's too cold). I will also miss the friends I made here, the people from all over the world and the whole experience of being in a different culture... And I will miss Poitiers! I am leaving Poitiers, but Poitiers will never leave me! "Aller Poitiers!!!"

City: Poitiers, France
Restaurant: Bistrot Le Gil
Food: Good
Service: Good
Price: €