Inoteca

One of my favorite joints for sharing plates, Inoteca can be busy busy busy on any given night for dinner. And for good reason, the food's fun, different, and creative. We tried 3 types of bruschettas, from top left goes gorgonzola cheese with grapes, white bean puree, and ricotta with marinara. White bean was the least favorite as it's not very flavorful compared to the other cheesy two.

DIY -  brush olive oil onto baguette sliced diagonally, bake till crispy, then spread with crap loads of spreadable cheese, kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper and your favorite toppings. I always love the sweet n salty combo, try fig with ricotta!

Another excellent selection was their bresola panini - bresola (aged dried beef), arugula, pears and parmesan. If you like prosciutto, you definitely need to try bresola, less layers of fat and hint of sweetness from the salty beef, not from the pears I swear.

Polenta with cabbage, cauliflower, raisins - not the most exciting dish...rather boring actually. Polenta was grilled till it's crispy on the outside and soft inside, but lacked flavor. Sorry chef, needed salt and for $15, I could have bought 10 boxes of polenta and a head of cabbage and made this shit my damn self.

Polpette - aka giant meatballs, were unfortunately also a big miss. It tasted like nothing but ground beef with shitloads of peppers. To give them the benefit of the doubt, it was winter and tomatoes are not in season...but season this shit then, man! It is what it is, protein + fat and a waste of calories. And for $12 for 3 balls, you're better off ordering another panini.

Then there's the truffled egg toast - good yes, but eh. 
Giant Texas style thick cut toast slathered with butter, topped with egg, cracked pepper and truffle oil on a bed of asparagus. You can definitely smell and taste the truffle oil, but still nothing to go coocoo for cocoa puffs over. 

DIY - if you wanna impress someone or fake it that you spent a shitloads of $$ on truffles, just get a bottle of the oil and add a dash (DASH ONLY, any more and your shit will taste bitter) to toast, pasta, risotto, etc. 

The most memorable dish actually was the one I have no photo of: salad. Gawd how I love vegetables, it was shaved radiccio, endive, toasted pistachio and gorgonzola dressing but what made the dish so wonderful were the shaved butternut squash. SHAVED, I know I know, it's not that hard to shave squash, but WHY have I never thought about shaving squash and tossing it my salads? I don't know, but that shit is wonderful and complimented the salty, sweet, crunchy salad perfectly. 

Another no fail dessert - affogato. Literally just a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of hot espresso poured on top. It's good, but how can you go wrong with caffeine over ice cream. The hot n cold combo is always amazing. We tried another dessert that was some pumpkin custard and tasted NOTHING like pumpkin. We thought they accidentally gave us a creme brulee, but the waiter was like "no, that's it, the pumpkin custard" and we ate that shit, we were thinking they must have ran out of pumpkin too...skip the dessert calories, nothing special here

FYI - if you're itching for a panini and the wait's insane, head a few stores down to Bruschetteria. Super cute, comfy, muuuch cheaper spot with awesome paninis.

Inoteca

Neighborhood: Lower East Side 98 Rivington Street x Ludlow  

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drunken goodness

Do you ever wonder why getting drunk makes all things extra happy? I DO, but fuck it, it feels great. as i type this damn drunken blog, why? because life is expressing yourself..and alcohol can either bring out the best or the worst in a person, and for me...shit, i think it brings out both.

You know when you're drunk, and your ears are on fire, and your face is on fire, and your heart is pumping like a million x/second. and all you want to do it tell off to the world what you really feel...

this blog is sooo not food related but it proves a point, i think or maybe not...that alcohol should go with food and so should the right company. it brings out the flavors of every bite and I honestly think it makes you more open (if you 're not already). wow i can even use parenthesis when im drunk. in any case, after a nice long taco night with Jia at La Palapa, this shit is awesome. How can anyone not like $10 Sunday Sangria Pitcher nights? even though that shit was watered down, i'm one cheap ass date and get drunk like no other...weeeeeeeee fun times. sorry done, done bye bye birdie..thanks for the best taco bday evaar!


La Palapa
Neighborhood: East Village
77 Saint Marks Pl

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Caracas Arepas Bar

Holy shit licks, yo yos rocks my world! If there's anything you must try in NY, try these bomb ass arepas and fried doughs of heaven. Seriously, I have no idea where you can find these anywhere else and if you know where, you besta tell me.


Their yo yos are Ah-mazing! Imagine fried dough stuffed with thin slices of plantains and chewy Mexican cheese with a side of molasses syrup (at least that's what I think it is) for like $5 bucks. Don't think twice,
just freakin get it!


Lovely Su and I started with the Ensalada Fresca ($8.75) - watercress, cherry tomatoes and avocado salad with more fried up plaintain or yucca chips, covered with cotija cheese and a tangy passion fruit vinaigrette. Yuuuum

And then our arepas came...arepas are really just dough made of mesa flour, that's it...simple, right? Think of an English muffin, but 100x better - crispy on the outside and oh-so fluffy in the inside, THEN stuffed with crap loads of awesomeness.

My favorite (like everyone and their mama's favorite) is numero 8 - De Pabellón ($7.25) with juicy stewed shredded beef, black beans, sliced plaintains and crumbled white cheese.


You gotta love the salty sweet combo messin with your taste buds. This is probably the most expensive one on the list, the others ranges from $6-7 dollas makes you hollas. These arepas aren't big, imagine your fist, no wait, imagine my fist...and that would be the size. So if you're a big fat cow, then order 5 of them, but I'm sure you'll find something you'd like from their list of 20 to choose from.


And as you all know, I can never end a meal without something sweet...the Marquesa de Chocolate $5.25 was literally so sweet and thick it made my brain hurt. Layers of THICK chocolate mousse and Maria cookies (you know, those ghetto fabulous butter cookies with "maria" engraved in the center that you can get for $0.99 in chinatown). When we stuck our spoon it it, that shit stood up. I give them mad props for making this, but maybe next time I'll stick to the traditional flan.


OH and don't forget to get some booze with your meal, you need the carbonation to wash it down, plus they have a pretty good selection of Mexi beers. If you're not a beer drinker, get one of their creative milkshakes like banana cinnamon or venezulean chocolate. 

Ambiance is cozy, dark and pretty cramped and noisy with small tables. (Probably no more than 10 two tops tables in there). Do NOT go with a large group, which means 4+ more people. You'll never get a table.

FYI - They have a take-out joint next door if you don't want to wait the 1hr + for din, or definitely try to go during lunch when they have their lunch specials - any arepa + soup or salad for like $7 or 8 bucks. Score!


Caracas Arepas Bar
Neighborhood: East Village
93 1/2 E 7th St

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