Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant @ Sarasota - Cocina Muy Sabrosa!

Last night, we had a delicious meal with four friends at Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant near downtown Sarasota (http://www.ceviche.com/3134).

My wife had two tapas and dessert. I had two tapas, dessert and a double espresso. We shared a half pitcher of sangria. Everything we ordered was terrific. In fact, we liked the dishes more than most of the tapas we'd had in Spain 18 months ago.

My wife's tapas were:
- Gambas Romesco - Sautéed jumbo shrimp with roasted tomato, garlic, almonds, and sweet red peppers for $12.95.
- Solomillo a la Parilla - prime fillet grilled and slice with mushrooms and brandy cream sauce for $12.95

Her dessert was Torta Valenciana - chocolate ckae with vanilla ice cream, raspberry sauce, orange zest, and fresh berries for $8.50. Her dessert portion was very large, as was mine.

I had a very difficult time choosing tapas because there were so many that sounded delicious. I chose:
- Chorizo y Pimientos - five types of chorizo sausage sliced with roasted tomato and sweet peppers for $7.50.
- Piquillos Rellenos - Roasted red peppers stuffed with ground veal and mild chorizo sausage & served with a light sherry sauce.

My dessert was Pudin de la Pan - bread pudding with dried fruits and Spanish brandy served with vanilla ice cream for $7.95.

The half pitcher of red sangria was $16.75. It was very nice.

Our total tab with gratuity was $100.60.

They have an extensive wine list comprising Spanish and Portuguese wines. The Spanish wines are from all the major wine regions of Spain. Bottle prices are reasonable and range from about $19 to $199.

One of the dishes that some of our companions order was Champíñones de Sevilla. It was not quite what they expected. It was described as four types of mushrooms sautéed with sherry over goat cheese and toasted bread. They were expecting slice of toast on a dish. Instead, it was a soupy mixture in a bowl.

One of our dinner companions was unhappy with the cost of his ordinary well vodka - $7.50 a glass. I don't know what such drinks normally run.

I was unhappy with the fact that our waitress did not mention that a 20% gratuity had been added. While she was very friendly:
1. Because the table was small, we did not want all of our orders to arrive at once. All of us at the table asked that the one part of our orders come first and the other part later. She assumed we meant the first part of each couple's order, whereas we meant the first part of each person's order. Consequently, some of us were served our entire order in the first round and some were served none. She then tried to get more orders out and the table was very crowded.
2. She was inattentive toward the end of our meal.

We dined on the second floor. Some nights, there is live music and/or flamenco on the third floor. The schedule of events is on the web site.

There is a roof-top bar that is very nice.

We will definitely return and I suspect two of our companions will because the wife had previously enjoyed meals there with friends and they enjoyed last night's meal.

This restaurant is a part of a small chain with other stores in Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater, and Orlando.

Square One - Good Burgers

Last Saturday evening, seven of us had a nice family dinner at Square One Burgers & Bar not far from Lakewood Ranch. The menu had a great assortment of Angus burgers, as well as bison and ostrich burgers, aw well as pulled pork, "chicken burgers," sliders, salads, desserts, etc.

My wife had the Angus All-American burger for $6.99 and I had the Three-Mushroom burger with sautéed porcini, portabella, and garden mushrooms and a Sooner sauce for $9.99. My burger was one of the tastiest I have ever eaten. My wife's sweet potato fries and my regular fries were very tasty. My caramelized apple crisp dessert was also delicious.

The sandwiches all come with a side. Some sides, such as the sweet potato fries, cost a bit extra.

Our service was very good.

For the address, menu, etc. visit the web site at http://www.square1burgers.com/index.html

The restaurant is one of a small chain of three restaurants in Sarasota and Tampa. It has an Oklahoma influence on the menu and with its decor of Modern Cowboy Something or Other. Although it only opened recently, it seems to be doing very well. I had previously eaten at the Sarasota store across from Sarasota Memorial Hospital. My burger there was tasty, but not as good as this one. I'll definitely return.

A Delicious Encore at Ortygia

We returned to Ortygia Sicilian restaurant in Bradenton last Friday night for another great meal. Since the outside temperature was very comfortable, we sat at an outdoor table. We were entertained by the singing and guitar playing of Jay Turtlehawk, of Tuscarora Indian heritage.

My wife once again had the delicious Pate di Pollo con Pistacchio appetizer - chicken paté with basil, caramelized garlic, and pistachio. It was just as terrific as the previous time.

I had a fantastic appetizer of Finocchio Arrostito - fresh roasted fennel in an Italian chardonnay cream with olive & pancetta finished with an imported Caprino cheese bread crumb crust for $8.50.

My wife also repeated her previous entrée of Timballo di Penne - pasta with meatballs, egg, mozzarella, provolone cheese, and roasted pepper bathed in balsamic and parmesan and served with tomato sauce for $11.50.

I had a special - Sicilian pot roast cooked in Nero d'Avola wine (a Sicilian wine) with bay leaf and citrus zest for $18. It melted in my mouth. The bread we were served was a home-made tomato bread.

We both had the same chocolate dessert my wife had tried on our previous visit.

Our wine was a bottle of red wine from the Le Marche Region of Italy. It was a Piceno DOC - Il Conte Villa Prandone made of Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes for $24. (The wines at Ortygia are very reasonably priced. There was even a Barolo for $48.

The owner, Guy, came and chatted with us for a minute. He remembered us from our previous visit - mentioning several things we had told him.

A Nice Dinner with High School Classmates

We spent a delightful evening last Monday with some of my high school classmates with whom I had become acquainted/reacquainted at our 50th reunion last summer. Two came with their spouses and one with her cute and very-well behaved dog. One spouse is a retired pilot who has had some very interesting experiences, including being the pilot of Air Force One for one president and the pilot of a unique, around-the-world commercial charter flight. This flight was from north to south across the poles with a landing at McMurdo Station in the Antarctic.

We prepared a 4-course meal. I made bruschetta, spaghetti all'amatriciana, arista alla fiorentina, and cipolline alla fontina (pearl onions with fontina cheese sauce). My wife prepared a dessert of panna cotta. The arista was not as juicy as the previous time I had made it. I probably cooked it about 5 minutes too long. The cipolline alla fontina was ok, but not exciting. It was the only new dish for me and I probably won't make it again. It was from the Beautiful Italy cookbook. The spaghetti and bruschetta both turned out fine.

I served two red wines - a Mantellassi Morellino di Scansano from the Maremma, Tuscany and a Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico - both wines that we enjoyed.

Our guests brought us some very nice wines.

We look forward to getting together with them again.

A Mini Reunion at Trader Vic's

We had a really pleasant lunch yesterday at Trader Vi's near Fruitville and I-75 in Sarasota County. We joined three of my really nice high school classmates and one spouse. We ate outside overlooking a pond. The temperature was perfect. Even though we were just off I-75, there was no hint of noise from the freeway. All of our meals were tasty.

My wife had a sushi. I had a pulled-pork sandwich, sweet potato fries, and the 1944 Mai Tai. Everything was really tasty. The Mai Tais were among the best I have had. The total cost for the two of us was $36.

It doesn't get much better than that. We'll be back.

A St. Patrick's Day Dinner

We had a very pleasant dinner tonight with visiting friends and local friends. I tried to prepare something that seemed to be a bit more authentic Irish than corned beef and cabbage, which is Irish-Amreican.

The menu was:
                               

Irish cheeses & crackers

(Cheeses: Dubliner, Kerrygold with Stout,

Kilaree Irish Cheddar)

Bibb, Bacon & Apple Salad w. Camembert Dressing

Irish Onion Soup  wti Ivernia Cheese

Traditional Beef & Guinness Stew

Irish Soda Bread

Strawberry & Bailey’s Fool   

One of the guests made the dessert.

The cheeses were very tasty. I bought them at Whole Foods.

 I found the recipes for the salad, soup and stew at http://www.irishabroad.com/culture/kitchen/recipes.asp

That site has lots of great-sounding recipes. The dishes were all tasty. However:

1. The stew was more like a soup. For some reason, it did not thicken up.

2. Although the guest who made the dessert added extra Bailey's, there still was not a strong taste of Baileys's. However, the dessert was still very tasty.

For the soup, I could not find the recommended cheese, so I used Irish Ivernia cheese.

I loved the salad. I found Irish-style bacon at Whole Foods.

I bought the bread at Publix. It tasted good, but I think it works much better as a breakfast bread because it has lots of fruit in it.

This was my first attempt to do anything Irish. I was happy with the results. It took me about 8 hours to prepare the meal because there was lots of chopping, mincing, etc.

Another Tuscan Dinner

Last night, I tried making another Tuscan dinner. This one was for two friends (including a follower of this blog) and my sister. Except for the dessert, I was happy with the results. The menu was:

- Bruschetta
- Zuppa di Fagioli (Bean Soup), from Florence
- Peposo dei Fornaciari dell'Impruneta (Peppery Stew of the Terra Cotta Tilemakers of Impruneta)
- Tegamata di Peperoni (A vegetable dish of sweet peppers, tomatoes, and pancetta), from Grosseto
- Migliacco al Miele, a cake from Arezzo
- A backup dessert of store-bought gelato because the migliaccio was blah.

All of the recipes except the bruschetta were from the cookbook - Tuscany The Beautiful Cookbook by Lorenza De' Medici, a descendant of the Medicis of Florence. While I have made a number of dishes from the cookbook and have enjoyed most of them, the two desserts I have tried have failed. The other dessert was "Coffee on a Fork." Both were very simple recipes. I think something has been lost in translation with these desserts.

The bruschetta recipe was from the URL:

http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanycious/bruschetta-recipe/

I used four plum tomatoes rather than six Tuscan tomatoes. I used ciabatta bread instead of saltless Tuscan bread because that's impossible to find here. This bruschetta turned out much better than the last bruschetta recipe I tried. I think one reason for the last failure was partially due to the fact that the bread I used was a pseudo-baguette from Publix. (The only similarities between a Publix baguette and the real thing are the name and the shape.)

The wine I served was the 2008 Villa Antinori IGT Toscana red. As always, it was very nice.

Peposo is the signature stew of the town of Impruneta near Florence. Impruneta is famous for making terra cotta tiles. The fornaciari were the operators of the kilns (furnaces) in which the tiles were made. The wives of the fornaciari would make the stew for their husbands to take to work. They would warm it in their kilns. Peposo means “peppered” because it is made with peppercorns.

This dish is from the town of Grosseto in the Maremma area of Tuscany. “Tegamata” means “potful.” In Italian, “peperoni” means “bell peppers.” The word has nothing to do with “pepperoni” the salami which is an Italian-American creation, not Italian. The one problem I had with this dish was that it called for six yellow and/or red bell peppers. The peppers I bought at Publix were huge, so I really only needed two.

There are several very different Italian dishes called, "migliaccio," including one made with fresh pork blood. This one was a simple cake.