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Two weekends ago I went on a trip with some friends to Ft. Lauderdale. We had been talking about doing a trip forever. And all of us wanted to go to the beach. Just lay back, relax and veg out! Cancun was our first choice but we missing the window and the prices went up up up... :( Luckily, I found a pretty great flight deal to go to Ft. Lauderdale. None of us have ever been there. And we thought it would be quieter than Miami, since we just wanted to unwind. The trip couldn't come soon enough, and finally we were on the plane!!
We arrived late on a Thursday night. After we checked into our hotel, we asked the front desk where we can go eat. We didn't rent a car so we just walked around. Most places were already closing at this point but we found a hip little pizza place that is open late. The place was packed! Apparently Thursday night is ladies night and ladies get free wine with the purchase of an entree. Nice! We actually had to wait a while to get a table for our party of 5.
Piola
1703 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd.
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
(954) 457-9394
www.piola.it/countries/display/us
Price: $$
Finally, we were seated. Our waiter was pretty cool. Brought us some waters and took our drink orders. My friend and I both got a glass of wine. I don't drink wine but I gave it to another friend. hahaha.
Another friend ordered the Sgroppino Al Limone (lemon gelato and Vodka) $6~ It was definitely not what we expected. All of us thought it would be more like a slushy, but it was creamy. Very thick and rich. It was interesting for sure.
After we ordered , the waiter gave us some Complimentary bread. With olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
It was pretty late, so we got a few things to share.
D'Annunzio Salad (mixed greens, tomatoes, sweet corn, fresh bean sprouts, hearts of palm, mozzarella fior di latte, avocado, boiled eggs, dijon mustard dressing) Regular size $10.95~
This was a pretty big salad. Interesting too, with the bean sprouts. I think this is the first time I've had bean sprouts in a Western style salad. It was really good. Everything was fresh. The avocado added a creaminess. And I loved the dijon mustard dressing. It was the perfect size for the 5 of us.
Moderna Pizza (topped with fresh arugula, dice tomatoes, and shaved grana padano cheese) $11.95~ We added prosciutto on top +$3.50~ This was pretty good. But after eating the other pizza, this was pretty normal. haha.
Rio De Janeiro (oven baked pulled chicken breast, catupiry cheese, a dash of parsley) $13.95~
We decided on this because of the catupiry cheese. I had never heard of it. The waiter explained it was a Brazilian cheese that's like a mix betweem cream cheese and butter? Sounded super decadent and awesome! I took a knife and spread the catupiry all of the pizza. It was just as he described...super rich, super creamy, and super delicious. I loved the flavor with the pulled chicken. Love love loved this pizza. However, it was really heavy, so a slice and half in, I was stuffed! It's always cool to learn a new food. :)
It was a great first meal on our vacation. If I lived there, I'd go back. Service was great and food was delicious. And it had a good vibe.
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Sooo... walking there, we noticed that there's a Ben & Jerry's just a couple stores down and it opens til midnight!!! It's a sign. We're on vacation right? We're allowed to eat ice cream at 11PM. haha.
I always have a hard time choosing a flavor here cuz everything is so good. I ended up with Save Our Swirled (raspberry ice cream with marshmallow and raspberry swirls, white and dark fudge ice cream cones). Oh man... I was so full after this! haha.
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Earlier this month I was in Uptown for something in the afternoon. So instead of fighting the rush hour traffic back to Plano, I asked a friend if he wanted to have dinner in the area. He works downtown so it was only a short drive for him. We decided to go check out Crushcraft, neither of us had been. I've been hearing a lot about this place since before it even opened. I think I have some friends that are friends with the owners?
Crushcraft Thai street Eats
2800 Routh St #150
Dallas, TX 75201
(972) 677-7038
www.crushcraftthai.com
Price: $$
I love Thai food, but honestly, most of the places in DFW are all about the same. There are a couple bad ones, but for the most part, they are usually pretty good for my taste. Very rarely do I find one that really stands out to me. My current favorite is Koung Thai in Rockwall. Who knew Rockwall would have a hidden gem! :P And lucky us, it's like 5 minutes from my fiance's house.
Walking into Crushcraft, I already knew their decor was pretty interesting from photos I've seen. It's very casual, and I liked the ribbons/streamers that decorate their main dining area. It's very festive. They have their menu on the wall as you walk in. Then you order at the counter. They take your name, and announce it for you to pick up the order. The drinks are self serve, along with 6 different types of chilis/hot sauces you can take at your heart's content and spice the hell out of your food. Yasss!! Love it. We took a bit of every kind. I love spicy!
They also have a pretty nice patio area if you wanted to sit outside. I attract mosquitoes so I tend to stay in. hehe.
We each ordered an appetizer just to try.
Grilled Mou Tad Pork Fritters $3.75~
3 meatballs on a skewer. You get 2 skewers with an order. I thought that was a good amount for the price. I'm not sure how this is a fritter... It's mostly just a pork meatball. But it's very tender. The flavor is slightly sweet. Dip it in some sriracha or chili sauce and it's pretty good. Meat on skewers, definitely makes me think of street food!
Thai Fried Boiled Eggs $3.95~
These were a bit lackluster. I'm not one to be picky about eggs. I'll pretty much eat them any way. And I ate these too. But it was kinda chewy. I found the "fried" part to be unnecessary. It wasn't crispy or anything so I didn't get the point. The flavoring is ok. I pretty much just mashed them up with my rice. And why give us 5 halves?? Where does the last half go?? I thought that was dumb. Not worth the 4 bucks imo.
#3 Kra-Pao (jasmine rice, ground pork, fried egg, basil, mortar smashed chili, green peppers, onions) $7.99~
This was my entree. I asked them to put bean sprouts in there too. I think that was an extra 50 cent charge. Oh well, I wanted more veggies. It was good! Tons of flavor, maybe a bit too salty towards the end because there was more sauce. But bold flavors are always good in Thai cuisine! The fried egg on top was just sad though. It was so puny. My friend joked that it was the other half of the egg from the boiled egg appetizer. hahaha. Of course I doused everything with different types of chili flakes/sauces. I found the best combo for this was the dry chili flakes and then the chili oil. Mmmm! Spicy! It was a good portion. I finished it all and was very full.
#5 OG Phat Thai (rice noodle, chicken, tofu, tamarind, bean sprouts, garnish, lime wedge, toasted peanuts) $8.99~
I love me a good Pad Thai. This was ok. Pretty standard. I thought it was a tad sweet. Which doesn't bother me, but compared to other places it's a little sweeter than I would prefer. Seemed to have lots of tofu and chicken pieces which is good. I liked sriracha with this one.
It was a good meal, but we both thought the food here was pretty standard. Didn't stand out from the rest of the other standard Thai places in Dallas. Other than the fried boiled egg, I'd eat the other ones again. But I wouldn't drive out of my way to go there. If I'm ever in the area again, sure, I'll go back.
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Finally getting around to posting again. You'd think being done with school would give me all this free time. But hasn't happened yet! :-/
Anyhoo, I finally got around to checking out the new ramen place in Addison about a month ago. We had a group of 5 people. 3 of my friends go there around 12:15PMish. I was running late. They were able to get a table with no problem, no wait!
Ramen Hakata
3720 Belt Line Rd #3714
Addison, TX 75001
(972) 247-2401
http://ramenhakata.com/
Price: $$
We got there about 12:30 or so and it was almost all filled. My friends had just ordered. The place is cute! Pretty small space. There's bar seating which looks into the kitchen where they prep the food and maybe like 10 other small tables/booths? I liked the decor a lot. The waiter takes the order at your table and brings it out to you.
They have part of the menu still unavailable. I really want to try their cold ramen whenever they release it.
I got the Chashu Bun (steamed buns filled with grilled pork belly served with spicy sauce) 2 pcs. $5~
Even though I ordered later, this came out before any of the noodles. But the food came out at a decent time after being ordered. The pork in this was so tender... almost a little TOO soft? But it was good. Heavy handed on the sauce, which is creamy and slightly sweet. But I liked that it was loaded to the brim and more! The buns were steamed nicely. I would get it again, but maybe ask them to hold back on the sauce.
Then the noodles came. It was served on a tray with a giant spoon (a ladle is more like it), and reminded me of places in Japan. This is pretty typical. It was a good portion size too.
Spicy Miso Ramen (pork based broth with special spicy miso sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom, bean sprouts, corn, fragrant garlic oil) $9~
I got the spicy. It came with 2 slices of pork whereas everyone else's came with only 1. Woot! The meat was super tender and the noodles were cooked well. Personally they could've been a tad more al dente, but I also like really chewy noodles. The noodles weren't the typical curly ones.. I was a bit disappointed. I did love the corn and the black mushrooms and bean sprouts that added extra texture. Now to the flavor. It was ok. It was not spicy at all. The noodles didn't really absorb any of the flavor. The broth started out a little bland, but the more you ate, the saltier it got. I wouldn't recommend drinking all the broth. Too much sodium!
Hakata Miso Ramen (pork based broth with special miso sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom, bean sprouts, corn, fragrant garlic oil) $8.50~ (no picture. Just imagine the Garlic Miso without the garlic flakes on top.) 2 people got this. It was their namesake dish so I expected it to be more special. It tasted very similar to mine, with just 1 piece of pork.
Garlic Miso Ramen (pork based broth with special miso sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom, bean sprouts, corn, fragrant garlic oil, garlic flake) $9.50~ The other 2 got this. The only difference between this and the Hakata is the garlic flakes on top. -___- Really? And for an extra dollar?
All in all, it was good. The best in Dallas? Eh... there's not much competition.. but I still can't say it's the best. A little disappointed, but I really didn't have high expectations to get a phenomenal ramen place in Dallas. Sigh... The noodles all pretty much tasted the same. So don't spend too much time deciding what you want. I'd say still give it a shot. I think I'm spoiled by having ramen in LA, NY, and Japan. I do still want to go try their cold ramen sometime though.
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400th Post!!!!! Four and half years, 400 posts, and hundreds and hundreds of restaurants and cities. Wheeeeeeee! Thanks to all the people who read my little blog. :D
This will be a special post. Since I got to check off something on my bucket list, I got to visit a new city, and it's also the last post of my Japan trip!
This year's trip to Japan, we added Kobe to the list of cities to visit. This will be a new one for me since I've been to the other 3 cities. And how can you go to Kobe and not get Kobe beef?!?! I knew it was going to be a very expensive meal, but hey... when you're in kobe... haha.
I found this place from doing Google searches and also TripAdvisor. We had the hotel front desk call and make a reservation for us.
Wakkoqu - Kobe Steak
Kitano location
We arrived super early. (Due to the rain we didn't have many options of things to do to kill time.) But the restaurant was pretty empty so they were able to seat us immediately. It was a very small place. The front room only had 1 large round table and then a row of seats in front of a long teppanyaki. We were seated in front of the teppanyaki (which is basically an iron plate or griddle). We had our own personal chef. His English was very limited but he was super nice.
We ordered the following set courses. And he split everything for us so we got to try both types of cuts of meat.
Tenderloin 230g (230g tenderloin, appetizer, rice, coffee) 11,000Yen~
KOBE Sirloin 250g (250g special course sirloin, appetizer, rice, coffee) 13,700Yen~
While we were ordering and waiting for our food. The chef is already prepping for the steaks. He started with garlic slices on the stove, crisping them up. We also got a plate of different condiments and seasoning: mustard, sea salt, cracked black pepper, and the crispy garlic. We also got little dishes of soy sauce and vinegar. All those can be paired in any combination with the meat.
We started with appetizers while the chef starts cooking the meat. We were presented with the cuts before he started butchering and cooking it. Drooling.... (front piece is the sirloin, tenderloin in the back)
Smoked Salmon. I personally don't like smoked salmon, but it was tender and buttery. My bf loved it.
Seafood Gelee. This was mine. I had no idea what to expect because I actually didn't understand what the chef was saying when he told me about the dish. hahha. It's quite pretty! It's a cold dish and the flavors were light. I think there's little fish, uni, crab and maybe scallops in the layers? A refreshing start to the meal. I don't think I've had anything like this before.
Then we got salads. Fresh, loved the light dressing.
We watched the chef as he preps the meat on the stove. The shape knife cut through the meat like it's butter. Clean strokes, the chef works very efficiently. He starts cutting off the fat surrounding the steaks. I was so anxious watching him because I didn't know what he was going to do with the fat. I was so afraid he was going to throw it away because I'd TOTALLY eat it. hahaha. But there was no waste, he used every part of the steak. The fat was rendered down and he used it to cook all the veggies in. OMG GOOD!
The meat was seasoned simply with salt and pepper. You could get the natural flavor of the meat. OMFG! It literally melts in your mouth. It IS like butter. And the flavor of the meat was fantastic!! I tried a few combinations with the condiments and a garlic chip with black pepper and sometimes a bit of mustard was my favorite bite.
The meat was cooked to PERFECTION. The veggies were definitely just the sides.. they let the meat shine! And we were given one piece of cooked fat. NOM!! :P
The meal was also complimented with rice and pickled veggies. The acid from the pickled veggies paired really well with the buttery meat. Lightened things up a bit.
The last bit of the rendered fat and scraps of meat were used to sautee bean sprouts. YUMMM!
It was FANTABULOUS!!! Definitely the best beef I've ever had in my life. We enjoyed it thoroughly. Both cleaned our plates! I think the chef was also very pleased that we loved it so much. :)
The meal ended with coffee. Most of you know.. I don't drink coffee. At. All. But for the price I'm paying and the "whole experience", I doused the coffee with sugar and milk! And it wasn't too bad. It actually was a nice finish to this wonderful steak dinner.
One of the best meals ever. I'm glad I got to share it with someone that appreciated it even more than I did!! haha :) If you ever visit Kobe, definitely have a real Kobe steak meal!!!
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