Text 28829, 63 rader
Skriven 2009-09-16 07:06:42 av Michael Loo (1:18/200)
Ärende: tapas meal 178
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I had to do some stuff at the bank, so I called my college
buddy Alan to join me at Jaleo for lunch. I'd not been to
this one (just the one in downtown DC) and was curious to
see if there were substantial differences.

I'd not seen the chorizo wrapped in a potato chip and fried
crisp before - a lovely dish, the sausage fingers nice and
spicy and contrasting well with the crunchy bland potato.

Lomo de bellota pato negro - Jose Andres has the exclusive
contract to distribute fresh black-footed pig meat in the
US, and so far all of it has been taken by his Washington
restaurants - Cafe Atlantico, Minibar, Oyamel, Zaytinya,
and Jaleo. It's good, clean-tasting, porky pork, sticky moist,
a little gristly (but tender gristle). The $18 boneless chop
was simply grilled and served with parsley sauce and mustard
aioli, both of which were extraneous. Not worth $96/lb, but
I can say I've had it. I could take the best chunk out of a
domestic organic pork shoulder and make much the same dish,
and it would cost me $10, with a couple pounds of stewing
pork left over.

Gambas al ajillo are better at the other: here, they were
oversalted and undergarlicked, though the shrimp were pristinely
fresh. I have never had gambas al ajillo that were as good as
mine, though.

Dos vegetales:

Cauliflower with dates, walnuts, and olives doesn't sound like
my kind of dish, does it. Still, quite good in its bland way,
the cauliflower fresh and al dente, and the other things doing
most of the work flavorwise.

Spinach, sauteed with pine nuts, apple, and currants, was
less sweet than at the original place, and I think I liked
it better here. Lots of pine nuts; but as it cost something
like $9 for a little tapas, they'd better not skimp on the
costlier ingredients.

We had a carafe (here, 2 glasses only, rather than the 4
that you expect) of some cheap Tempranillo, about which the
best that could be said that it tasted less disgusting than
it smelled. We switched rapidly to beer; the Hook & Ladder
golden ale was mild and quenching. Plus, as the pleasant
but sometimes overfamilar waitress informed us proudly, 10
cents of every sale goes to a firefighters' assistance fund.

Alan tried the flan for dessert, a respectable serving doubled
by 4 huge rosettes of creme anglaise; I had a peculiar but not
bad almond cake filled with custard, sided with ice milk of no
particular flavor.

Tio Pepe went well and added some much-needed interest to
the desserts.

As Alan isn't used to drinking (how can a college buddy of mine
not be used to drinking?), the 3 servings of booze pretty much
put him under the table.

___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
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 * Origin: Nocturnal State BBS - bbs.nsbbs.info (1:18/200)