Dinner made in heaven! Wow!

[Thumper]

Yesterday was Lynn's birthday and I took her out for a surprise dinner last night. We went to a Spanish restaurant in Tampa, but since we'd never eaten there before, it was a crap-shoot. DAMN was it a hit and will now be one of our "go-to" choices when we're deciding where to eat on a special night out.

Once there, we decided on Tapas (with a glass of wine). The food was fantastic, the wine was excellent and Lynn was still talking about it this morning. (I done good.) ;)

We ordered six tapas ...

1) Vieras Con Chorizo - Fresh sea scallops w/ imported chorizo & sherry vinegar beurre blanc sauce

2) Pulpo a La Gallega - Imported octopus baked on a wooden plate w/ spanish smoked paprika & olive oil

3) Rabo De Toro - Choice oxtails, Andalusian style

4) Datiles Con Panceta - Dates stuffed w/ manchego cheese & serrano ham, wrapped in bacon then fried. Honey aioli.

5) Caracoles Al Horno - Escargot w/ wild mushrooms, fresh herb butter wrapped in phyllo dough

6) Gambas Al Ajillo - Large prawns sauted in olive oil, garlic & parsley

Man-o-man, we can't wait to go back and try a few more items on the menu!

[BarryBobPosthole]

I wonder, is the old Columbia still open in Ybor City? Awesome Cubano food.

BKB

[Thumper]

Yessir ... we go quite often. They also have one in the Disney area now. It's actually in the Disney residential area (Celebration) and is basically a newer "duplicate" of the old Ybor restaurant. Great food! We ate quite a few Cuban meals while in Miami Beach a couple weeks ago. I can't get enough of that stuff! We love different ethnic foods and that's really our "thing" when it comes to eating out.

This is where we went last night.

http://www.vizcayarestaurante.com/

[Big Muddy]

Day'um, Thump!!!.....if I can't pronounce it, I don't eat it!!!....had fried rabbit, biscuits/gravy, rice, purple top turnips, and buttermilk pie, last night. ;)

[Chicken Dinner]

Snails, tails and octupussy! My kind of vittles...

[Thumper]

Ha ha! Yeah, I can eat redneck too Muddy! But this was a birfday dinner.

Today, we're gonna meet at a local Thai restaurant. She'll start out with a bowl of "Kaeng phak kat cho kraduk mu" followed by "Khao phat nam phrik long ruea" . I may order the ""Phla nuea makhuea on" to start, then the "Khanom chin kaeng khiao wan kai" and maybe a side of "Nam phrik kapi kap pla thu thot" on "Khanom chin" and wash it down with a big glass of "cha-dam-yen" ... but she'll prolly want the "cha-ma-now". :D

I'll send CD the doggie bag as I KNOW he'd like it!

[Chicken Dinner]

My problem is that I love the Tom Kha Gai and Pad Ped Pla Dook at my local place that I never try anything new.

[Bwana]

Thumper, that list looks AWESOME but would be a bit apprehensive about #4.

Going to have to look that place up whenever we get back down there.

[DeputyDog]

Sounds good. My wife isn't very adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, so I don't get to go to places like that very often. Hell, she was even worried that she wouldn't be able to find anything she liked when we were in France and Italy. (She did, though, once I got her to try some things.)

By the way, my 4 year old son has a friend at his school who's mother is from Thailand and from talking to her, she does a lot of traditional cooking at their home. I'd try to finagle an invitation for a dinner, but I know that my wife probably wouldn't eat anything there and I don't know them well enough to go alone.

[LJ3]

I'd try all those tapas plates except the ox ass (it is what it is, ass eater) and the octopus.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Ya know Len, every time I see oxtails or a reference to oxtail soup I get this mental picture of an old angus bull we used to have that had a case of the scours his entire life. We used to call him Blue Butt. That takes away any desire for that stuff.

BKB

[Hombre]

Thump those are my kind of eats. Just got back from Japan and had some fantastic Ox Tail soup. Of course my favorite place was a 5-6 table restaurant that had grills in the middle of the table and served Wagyu beef. I have a pretty good friend in Japan that takes me to all the local places for Sushi and steak....I'm pretty adventurous.....but when he said lets go get some Fried Whale Sperm....I had to pass,

One thing that we did do is the Tokyo fish market auction - I've never seen so much Sushi, they sell about $5B in fish a year.

[Thumper]

Actually, the ox tail was probably the most flavorful of the bunch. It had a sauce that was to die for and I had to order an extra bread basket afterwards because I sopped up every last drop. I'm sure you girlie-girls are aware of the fact most of your meat flavor comes from the bone, correct? The tail is 90% bone.

Bwana, I WAS with you. I don't particularly care for dates and had no desire to even try them, but Lynn loves them. I planned on leaving that plate for her ... BUT ... all it took was one taste! I couldn't believe how much I loved that dish. It had 4 dates on it and I was HOPING Lynn would only eat one. No such luck, the plate got split 50-50. I would most definitely order it again. I'd have to throw out that old cliche' ... don't knock it 'til you've tried it. I just KNEW there was a 99.9% chance I'd hate 'em, but I came close to asking for an additional order.

Deppity, I feel for you. Food is probably the biggest thing we have in common and I suppose we fit into the "foodie" category. All of our vacations or weekend get-away's are actually planned around where we're going to eat. We always have a list made out before we leave the house and we're both extremely adventurous ... her maybe even more than me if you can believe that. But, eating is all I do, I am NOT a cook and have no desire to cook. I could survive on my own, but Lynn's a gourmet cook and there's no reason for me to even try making anything more exciting than a bowl of cereal. As for the Thai lady, dang! I wish I lived closer! Then you wouldn't have to go it alone. Thai is a lot like France ... the Southern Thai and Northern Thai cooking can be quite different. In the north, the people are generally poorer and farming is the main occupation. Plus you have a strong meddling of Laotian cooking mixed with Thai. I spent close to 3 years in Northern Thailand (as well as 6-8 months in the south) and Northern Thai ("country cooking") is actually my favorite. Southern Thailand contains the more educated and wealthier Thais (generally speaking) and their cooking is more of what I call "pure Thai" (including the language). I actually speak two different "dialects" of Thai ... when I'm up north, I speak a mix of Thai/Laotian and when in the south, I speak "pure Thai". The food goes hand-in-hand with the language in some ways.

CD, I'm kind of like you. Of course, while in Thailand, I eat a bazillion different dishes ... but here in the states where I don't get that much of it, I generally only order one of my 3-4 favorites.

Hombre ... are you sure he didn't mean "fried Sperm Whale"? :D