Alana's in Columbus, OH

I love when people come to visit me because it's an opportunity to go explore the city I live in and try new restaurants (and obviously catch up and have some fun!). Recently, a friend came to visit me at school and a local friend and I decided we should all try Alana's Food and Wine. It's located in a little house on High Street in Clintonville, just north of the OSU campus. Alana changes her menu daily and creates new dishes based on what she finds fresh from the Ohio farms every day. It's rare to find a restaurant in the midwest who sources all her food locally and really embodies the farm to table concept. We decided to be daring at let her surprise us for our main course dishes. It was an exciting dinner and I can't wait to go back and see what else she creates, especially in different seasons. We dined there in November and the theme of the day was definitely pumpkin!

Entrance

Menu of the day

Carrot pancakes with harissa spiced kale and lemon yogurt

"High tech" black bean hummusu with pumpkin foccacia

(good but SO spicy!)

Beautiful fall greens with walnuts, pomegranates, dried figs, myzthira and clementine vinaigrette

A surprise...whole branzino with potatoes and cauliflower

Another surprise...I believe it was a cut of steak atop greens and pumpkin grits

My friend Nora & I

Catania La Jolla

Catania is a newer restaurant from the Whisknladle group in the California beachside town of La Jolla, where I went to high school. My parents enjoy dining here and made reservations for us, requesting a table on their nice deck outside. Of course upon arrival, they seated us inside and didn't honor our outdoor reservation since they were full. Nonetheless we decanted our bottle of wine and ordered our appetizers. Both the crudo and the octopus were wonderful. The waiter brought some type of deep fried mozzarella balls wrapped in risotto on the house. When he found out my mother and I have gluten allergies, he brought us an additional plate (amazing mozzarella and prosciutto) since the first treat contained gluten. 

When it came time to order our mains, we chose to order their special of the day - whole snapper. But of course, they had run out. Instead we ordered a pizza and a few of their pastas to share, including their duck pasta which is one of their specialties. We ordered two duck pastas, one gluten free and one regular, in addition to a gluten free Bucatini all' Amatriciana per the waiter's recommendation. I'm a huge fan of duck so I was pretty excited. The food was served in the middle of the table, looking hot and tasty. My mom and I dug into the gluten free pastas, only to have our throats burning from the amount of salt on these. It seemed like the gluten free pastas had double if not triple the amount of salt necessary. My parents had eaten this dish before and they claim it was never this salty. Luckily the non-gluten free version was well seasoned. We still ate the majority of the food but did mention it to the waiter. He proceeded to bring out three desserts (two of which were gluten free) on the house. Additionally, the manager brought us a gift card for $75 for our troubles.

We were intrigued at how the staff turned what could have been a bad dining experience into quite the memorable one. We counted about 7 dishes we received free in addition to the dining credit for next time. The service made up for the kitchen's mistakes and overall the food was very good (But could do with less salt, of course). Guess we will be going back here to use up that credit!

Local Halibut Crudo (Quince Puree, Olive and Pistachio Relish, Mint and Parsley)

Local Baby Lettuces (Dates, Pomegranate, Sweet Potato, Gorgonzola)

Crispy Octopus with Merguez Sausage, Chickpeas, Capers and Herb Salad

Merguez & Padrons Pizza (Spicy lamb sausage, chili, tomato, mozzarella, oregano, padron peppers and a farm egg)

Buffalo Mozzarella and Prosciutto, Tomatoes, Fennel Seeds, Chili

Duck Sugo Orecchiette 

Bucatini all' Amatriciana (Shrimp, Slow braised tomatoes, Guanciale, Calabrian Chili)

Gluten free version of the Duck Pasta

Torta di Ricotta (Figs, candied almonds, Fior di latte Gelato)

Chocolat and Amaretto Bonet

Infamous Zuma Miami

Our second night in Miami we chose to eat at Zuma. A trendy Miami hotspot located in the EPIC hotel in Brickell, Zuma is a place to see and be seen. It was a fun atmosphere for us girls to dine in before celebrating my sister's twenty first. I wouldn't say any of the dishes were absolute stand-outs, but everything was definitely tasty. We ordered gyozas again but they didn't quite compare to the short rib gyozas at Pubbelly the previous night. My favorite thing was probably their chocolate surprise dessert, which they brought out for us on a decorated plate with "Happy Birthday" written in chocolate syrup.
PS - The pictures didn't come out quite as good as I wanted them to but I still thought I would share.

gomae - Japanese style spinach salad with tahini

gindara to ebi no gyoza (prawn and black cod dumpling)

ebi no tempura (rock shrimp tempura with lime and chili mayonnaise)

Sorry for the poor picture quality!

Shiitake no garlic fuumi (shiitake mushroom, garlic and butter soy)

gindara no saikyo miso yaki (black cod marinated in saikyo miso with homemade hajikame)

Buta-bara yuzu miso (pork belly skewers)

Yaki-imo no teriyaki sauce gake (Japanese sweet potato, sesame with teriyaki sauce)

Infamous chocolate surprise

Birthday girl

A bit blurry but this is the only pic we got in the hotel lobby

Pubbelly Miami

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting up with a few friends in Miami to celebrate my sister's twenty first birthday! Our first night we ate at Pubbelly, owned by the "Pubbelly Boys" including Chef Jose Mendin. It is an Asian fusion restaurant in a gastropub type atmosphere that serves small plates family style. I would say the highlights from what we ate were the stuffed dates with chorizo, and the shortrib gyozas (like little dumplings). The gyozas were so good, we ordered a second serving. For our main course, we wanted to order the pork belly but our waiter cautioned us against it (I guess he thought us 4 girls couldn't handle pork belly fat!). We got the cochinillo instead which was tasty but a bit dry. Next time we will definitely be trying the pork belly. 

We loved the food and the vibe here. The plates came out really quickly (almost too quickly!) and our waiter was charming and even provided me with a Tide-to-Go pen after I made a mess of myself. Overall a really great restaurant choice and one I definitely recommend! Let me know if you guys get a chance to try it out.

Dates avec Chorizo (spicy tomato, goat cream, smoked bacon)

Shortrib Tartare (apple, tobajan, pinenut powder, yuzu dijonaise, quail yolk, goat butter toast)

Octopus (black romesco, nduja, desiree potatoes, watercress, piquillo pil pil, almonds)

Cochinillo (roasted suckling pig, fennel, green apples, chantarelles, soy butter)

Shortrib Gyozas (black truffle, white corn soy & parmesan)

Oak + Char in Chicago

We had a really great dinner at Oak + Char in Chicago, a modern tapas restaurant. I wish I got a picture of the decor at the restaurant - there were big lamps hanging from the ceiling covered in what looked like bed sheets, and big wooden bar-style tables and chairs. It was definitely unique. My favorite dishes were the MSG Chicken Wings (not normal chicken wings you would think of!) and the pistachio cookies next to the chocolate pot de creme. This was overall one of my favorite meals in Chicago! 

MSG Chicken Wings (Maple, Sherry, Gochujang Chili)

Salt baked beets, stracciatella, kumquats, rye crisps, smoked hazelnuts

Verdant spring salad, green goddess mousse, preserved limequat, quinoa

Beef tartare, uni aioli, smoked pine nuts, pickled mustard seeds, potato chips

Tandoori octopus, 'nduja vinaigrette, rancho gordo beans, sunchoke brandade

Chocolate pot de creme, pistachio amaretti cookies (the cookies were bomb!)

Cider doughnuts, maple foie syrup, chai milk jam

Chicago

On my way back from France, I stopped for a long weekend in one of my favorite American cities, Chicago. I love the food scene in Chicago - good, fresh, innovate food in fun (and not stuffy) restaurants. Most of the places we went to were small plate/tapas style, which was good for sampling the variety of dishes. The places we tried for dinner were Sunda (Japanese/sushi), Oak + Char (full post to come), Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba (traditional Spanish), and GT Fish + Oyster. We also ate at Au Cheval (one of the craziest burgers I've ever had), and Little Goat Diner for brunch. After falling in love with Eataly while I was in NYC last December, I had to squeeze a trip to Eataly Chicago on this trip too and it did not disappoint. Here are some of the highlights as well as some personal pictures!

Stuffed Avocado, Sushi Rolls - Sunda

Loaded Fries - Au Cheval

Burger with a fried egg on hash browns - Au Cheval

The Bean

Cute Banana Cocktail at a tiki bar - Three Dots and a Dash

Lakefront

Seafood Paella at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba

Chocolate Malt Pancakes - Little Goat Diner

Top of the former Sears Tower

Crab Salad - GT Fish & Oyster

Soft Shell Crab - GT Fish & Oyster

Nutella Bar at Eataly Chicago

Croissant with Nutella & Chocolate Pistachio Cake - Eataly

Amen.