Tapas and Sunshine

Last night was pleasant one, indeed. Alas, no knitting to report. A good friend is in town and we went to Tapeo on Newbury Street in Boston for (what else?) tapas and then saw Little Miss Sunshine at the Lowes Theatre on Tremont. It was an oddly warm evening for October and a stroll through the Public Gardens was perfect. I always forget just how pretty it is until I'm actually standing in it.



At Tapeo the tapas were fine, but not extraordinary by any means. We weren't starving, so we picked just 4--Vieiras al Azafrán (scallops in saffron cream), Lomito al Cabrales (pork tenderloin with blue goat cheese and mushroooms), Butifarras con Brevas (pork sausage with figs) and Codorniz de Castilla (Broiled Herb and Garlic Quail stuffed with Bacon). Of the four dishes, I enjoyed the pork tenderloin the most. The sauce was so very delicious, but the pork itself was a bit overdone. I think if I could find blue goat cheese it would be easy enough to duplicate this particular dish at home. The pork sausage had a nice texture, but we agreed it could have benefited from a bit more spice. The scallops were just ok, not overcooked, but the saffron cream sauce tasted a lot like corn chowder, of all things. And finally, the quail---I was interested in that because I've never had quail and while it tasted nice enough, I think they're simply too much work for a small payoff. My friend did look fairly amusing though when he was chewing on one of their tiny legs. I thought that's how a giant would look eating a chicken leg and it made me giggle.

The very tiny pitcher of sangria was a tad weak. I'm not known for being able to hold my liquor, but I didn't even get a minor buzz. Shocking indeed. My friend had a piece of flourless chocolate cake and a glass of 10 year old port for dessert, and I had a rather awful berry crepe with chocolate sauce and a cup of old tepid coffee that I didn't feel like complaining about.

The bill came to $93 before the tip which is precisely why I don't go out for tapas more often, even though I love the concept and it's certainly fun. Two wafer thin slices of pork, two inches of sausage, 3 tiny scallops and half a quail doesn't exactly fill me up and the cost makes me feel a little guilty too. We could eat really well here at my house for a week on what that one dinner cost.

We really enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine. Go see it if you can for it's got substance to go along with it's humor. It starts out a bit slow, but the full on belly laughs you'll experience later on in the film and the excellent acting made it a totally worthwhile experience.