Feliz Cumpleaños, Cariño

Mi Cariño decided at the last minute that she did want a birthday celebration after all, and so we got together with some of her friends and headed to El Barrio in search of some good food. We ended up at Amor Cubano.

The place is pretty nice; they have live music on Tuesday nights, which we enjoyed while we drank delicious Sangria.

I enjoyed some vaca frita and white rice. I also stole someone's maduros. The live band sang Feliz Cumpleaños, Salsa style. A good night all around.

The fun part was teasing mi Cariño, who knew that all her friends knew what she was getting as a birthday present. She didn't find out until Wednesday night, when I tricked her into thinking we were going to happy hour with my coworkers, but instead we saw The Lion King. It was great - we were mezzanine but able to see everything clearly. Hopefully it was a great start to her new year.

Latin Cabana

An afternoon of walking down Steinway in Astoria gave way to finding a restaurant that claimed to have authentic Cuban food, Latin Cabana. We walked in and talked to the owner, figured out it looked legit enough and decided to have dinner there as soon as possible.

And that we did, Mi Cariño and I with our different ideas as to how to test the place. Since my experience with "authentic Cuban food" is limited, I just go with what I think is tasty. A caribbean restaurant that can't do white rice right is not worth it in my opinion, and so I had me arroz blanco with maduros and picadillo (seasoned ground beef.)

For good measure, we tried the tostones

It wasn't the best white rice or picadillo I've ever had, but it was seriously good, and according to Mi Cariño, authentic enough. We'll be there again, for sure! 

Miami, Part 2

Spent another week in Miami with Mi Cariño and her family. It was a great visit indeed, and the time just FLEW. Which is nice, and then it isn't.

We flew in Tuesday night, in theory. By the time we were heading to the airport, thunder was crackling like crazy, which delayed us right off the bat - originally we were scheduled to depart at 9pm but that didn't happen until after midnight. Thankfully Mi Cariño's parents still picked us up and we arrived at the house somewhere close to 4am. But since we had nowhere to go the next day it was all good, and we just spent Wednesday lazying about and catching up on sleep.

Highlights from the trip: a visit to Coral Castle Museum.

This guy (25) is jilted by his 16 year old fiancee. After deciding he will never love anyone else, that no one else can love him, and being told by the "Sweet Sixteen" that she was saying no to him because he didn't have any money, he made it his life mission to build himself a castle. And he did so, by using Coral. It's essentially a sculpture garden, the guy's name is Edward (you look up his last name!) The amazing thing is that he built it all himself, and he did it at night so no one could see him. He "knew the secret of pyramids" apparently, and went about making reading chairs, thrones, bedrooms, a well, a confession room, a place to stargaze, and a place for children to play. It's actually kind of impressive. 

I mean, y'all, he made a heart table. Without modern tools. We're talking before 1951. Amazing. 

Another Highlight - Zoo Miami. Mi Cariño, two of my nieces, and my buddy O and his youngest son Caleb and I, had us a good time looking at animals and melting in the sun. We should've gotten a bike to ride through and minimize the walking and the child whining, but it was all good. Witness, cute picture of kid turned Jaguar!

We also visited the mall and had us some fun at Dave & Buster's and went crazy at the bookstore buying the kiddies books (and ourselves) and had us a 50% dinner at some chain looking restaurant thanks to the girls and their connections. Here, a pretty decent spaghetti bolognese. 

Which makes me say: let's talk about food! First there was Yucca with grilled chicken and maduros.

We ate that at Las Islas, where we ate at the last trip. The food was once again, uninspired. But the Abuela likes it, and so, we go. 

Then, we had pasta bolognese at some fancy outdoor restaurant by their "Lincoln Center." The area has a name. I do not remember it. It was very nice, like a loooong strip of stores and restaurants. Does it count as an outdoor mall? We ate there after watching "Sarah's Key," a movie that's just chock full of happy, happy, joy, joy. (Smell the sarcasm.) It was a nice movie, though. So was the pasta. 

A couple of days later we ate at some new trendy restaurant in the heart of Miami. Kill me because I don't have the desire to check for the name. I suck. We began with some cheese balls as appetizers

An I had me an extremely expensive Chicken Mofongo. It was worth it though, the stuff was delish. But don't tell Mi Cariño I said that.

On our last night there, we ate at The Cheesecake Factory, a first time for me. The food was good, I had meatloaf with mashed potatoes. I'm pretty sure I took a picture of that, but can't find it, so just imagine it. Mi Cariño sent me a picture of our dessert though:

The Cheesecake did not disappoint. Neither did this amazing week. I will leave you with an image from Matheson Hammock, a manmade area we visited (but did not swim in) that afforded us a great view of the Miami skyline. But don't worry, I did swim in Miami Beach. I even got a tiny tan! So, yay.

Brotherly Love

After a lovely week that involved watching two Harry Potter movies a day, a night Latin dancing at Henrietta's, and a day at Six Flags Great Adventure the girls, Mi Cariño and I got on the road to Philadelphia. Like last year, there were Queer movies to enjoy, and good food to be had.
First stop, a repeat, with Cafe Estelle. This time I had the corn and black bean omelette. I forgot to take a picture of pancakes, but believe me, we had them this time too. They were as good as we remembered.

Afterwards we made our way through Old City in Philadelphia, taking it easy and seeing the Liberty Bell from the outside once more, Christ Church, Old Pubs, and just generally enjoying the very hot day. In the afternoon we saw "Jessie and Jamie are Not Together," which was this hybrid of a romantic comedy with musical numbers thrown in. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Parts of it were really funny, while other parts, not so much. The musical numbers? Unnecessary, all of them. None of the songs were catchy or were saying things that were truly advancing the story (since most feelings expressed through song were said outloud before hand anyway), plus, the actors weren't really good singers anyway. That just takes away from that kind of thing. However, there were tons of nice sex scenes, funny date scenes, and the ever present gratuitous sex between best friends that doesn't really get addressed at the end. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 - much better than the disaster we saw last year, but not quite "Kissing Jessica Stein/Saving Grace."

After we followed Cariño's brother recommendation to find some cheesesteaks. We decided for Pat's.

I had me one with onions, peppers and mushrooms, and cheese. It was extremely tasty, but I didn't go crazy for it. It WAS a far better choice than the steaks we had last year. 

After, the girls dropped us off at the hotel before they set on the road back to New York. Picture of my hotel key, which I thought very clever and cute.

Phila, or at least Old City Phila, is chock full of these informative blue plaques. This one is right outside City Hall, by our hotel, and I enjoyed having the knowledge. I took the picture on my way to the bus stop so that I could go to NY.

Monday morning, after arriving in NY at 9:30, I watered plans and changed clothes to then go to work so that I could travel to... Philadelphia. Don't ask me. My co-workers and I drove down and arrived in the afternoon in time to record an interview and then be sent to a cocktail party at this boat/restaurant.

Very cute. Once work was over, Mi Cariño and I went for dinner to Cuba Libre. Very expensive, appetizers not really needed kinda place. Which we didn't realize until after we had the aforementioned appetizers.

The bread was great, though! Not Cuban bread, but close enough, and toasted, which makes a difference. Plus, it came with an amazing Mango Butter.

I had me a Mango Mojito to relax a bit. Once I took out all the extra mint they put on them things, it was not bad at all.

Main entree: Vaca Frita

con arroz blanco y habichuelas negras.

For dessert, Mi Cariño had a coffee and shot of liquor with soy milk concoction whose name I don't remember. Tasty but I wouldn't have been able to drink that whole cup.

The bill came in a very cute cigars box.

Another blue plaque, this one on the way to the place where we recorded. I find it lovely and hilarious that a branch of the U.S.A. Military Services was born in a bar.

View of Philadelphia from the Suite I was working at. Plenty of Memorials in that part of town.

We returned to NY Wednesday night after having had a great time. I wouldn't mind making this trip an annual thing, it was a lot of fun, and the lovely thing is that Phila still has many other things to go see. (Next year the Rodin Museum, for sure.)

La lluvia no daña mi fiesta

On Wednesday, there was rain. Like tons of it. Even some snow. Hell, anything that could fall out of the sky and not be part of a plague fell out of the sky. We didn't let it stop us though, and so Ida, Steph and I made our way to Victor's Cafe. This was my second time at the restaurant and the end of the night reminded me why, even though I loved the food I hadn't been there again (it's hella expensive, y'all.)

I began the night by following the waiter's suggestion and getting a classic mojito

I also decided to live it up by asking for tostones, even though green plantains are in my no-no list

They come with a garlic mojo sauce. Perfectly crispy and well done. For my main entree, I chose some picadillo, topped with an egg.

After promptly giving my avocado to Ida, I proceeded to devour the meal. The picadillo came in a maduros "cage". The best part however, was the opportunity to eat arroz con huevo in an upscale restaurant. My mother would kill me if she knew how much I paid for that meal. The portions were great however, and although I endeavored to not eat all of the rice I could not help myself. It was good though - even with the tostones and the maduros I did not feel super full at the end. To borrow from the Buddy Herms food tumblr style:

Yes, Ma, I cleaned my plate.

The evening was punctuated by the sound of rain against the skylight and the occasional flash of lightning. Afterwards, we walked in the rain/snow to Carnegie Hall were Ida got us free tickets to attend a concert by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. It was our first time at the Hall and the seats were amazing. It was also a lot of fun to see the musicians up close - the one's that were visibly passionate about what they were playing were the best. The Hall itself is magnificent... the seats were so big and comfortable compared to some Broadway theaters I've been at. But then again, they were orchestra seats, and I don't often sit in those. Although wet, it was quite a delicious night.

Nuyorican Redux

Two more nights at the Nuyorican, one more night at Cafecito, even more Tofu Pad Thai.

Yup, that's pretty much this whole post. First: Stop at the Nuyorican

Watched a one man show called "Cuban Joe" with Gabe Dorado. It was pretty good - although I admit that most of the funny parts came more from familiarity than from actual jokes. The house was packed though, which was nice, and the crowd was nice and responsive. Afterwards, we once again headed to Cafecito, and this time we sat inside. I feasted on el bistec de palomilla, con arroz blanco, habichuelas negras (Frijoles if you're mi Cariño), tostones, y el mojo de ajo that I loved the last time I was there.

I'm sorry the pictures are so dark - I didn't want to use the flash. The food was worth the second visit. Although the restaurant part is a little bit cramped, the service was excellent and my bistec was done to perfection. I enjoyed this second foray into Cafecito, very much.

On Saturday, we began the same way: head to Nuyorican's. This time though we watched a production of Twelfth Night, set in East Harlem. Frankly, I don't think this one was worth the entry price: The play / story didn't gain anything by being set in East Harlem, except for random club dancing scenes and several Coños and other Spanish phrases included within. A cross-dressing fool was included, to match Cesario/Viola, and aside from a kinda funny interlude between Cesario and the Fool lip synching "That boy is mine" over Orsino, I was pretty much underwhelmed. To boot they mixed Shakespearean with modern English and then slang Spanish in a way that was just too confusing. I'm sure that people that hadn't read the play before were probably severely confused while watching. However, the little Spanish interludes as well as the dancing were good enough for the audience, since they laughed loudly and frequently. To each their own, I suppose.

For dinner however, I chose thai, and wouldn't you know I did not order dumplings. Instead: Curry Puffs. My apologies for the flash -this place was even darker than Cafecito.

Mi Cariño describe these as little Thai empanada's. That's a pretty close assesment, methinks.
I was not, however, strong enough to not order Tofu Pad Thai.

I liked the peanuts on the side idea. The tofu could've been better, but the noodles were great. Plus I had a little Mai and a little Thai (or two) to help me enjoy the evening better.

Goodbye Austin, Hello New York

All things come to an end, and so did our Austin trip. We decided to make sure that we ended the trip with a bang and so woke up early for some breakfast before heading to the airport. Enter El Mesón Taquería.

We were there so early we had to wait in the car for 10 minutes for opening time. (7am on Saturdays.) You order and pay right away. I got the Chorizo con Huevo plate, which consists of Chorizo, egg, black beans, potatoes, corn tortillas.

I wasn't expecting ground chorizo, so I was very pleasantly surprised. It was also good and spicy and just pretty much perfect. Well worth almost missing our flight for.

Speaking of our flight - we flew American, from Austin to Newark, via Chicago. We stayed on the same plane, not even getting out in Chicago, so that we wouldn't have to take our stuff out, too. You know what didn't stay on the plane though? Our luggage. But we didn't find this out until we hit Newark, stand by the Carrousel, see everyone else pick up their luggage, and then suddenly the thing stops churning out suitcases. Uh oh. Everyone that flew from Austin had their luggage left in Chicago. It's the first time that has ever happened to me... the suitcase has stuff I want, of course, but since I travel with the real essential things with me I wasn't as upset as some of the other passengers were. American promised to ship it to my house by 10pm Saturday night, but that looks like it'll turn into Monday morning between 7 and 10. You know what was in the Newark airport and that someone forgot to pick up, for some reason?

A couple of boxes of donated human tissue, that's what. I have no idea what that means... is it skin? Dead skin? A little gross, but also funnily fascinating.

I had to rush back to Brooklyn to drop off the equipment and then run home, shower, get prettified, and meet mi Cariño at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to see parts of the Ultimate Latina Theater Festival. It was pretty interesting - these group of women played lines from a bunch of different movies, using all kinds of props and situations to give them different meanings. Only downside was that the whole program was too short: less than an hour. Really enjoyed it.

Afterwards we walked all over LES and found this place called Cafecito, for some Cuban Food. Not a real big place, but had a great set up. We sat at the bar, but outside, on stools facing the inside of the bar. The bartender was cute and friendly and quite personable. Mi Cariño declared that the food was the closest thing to Cuban Miami food, and the sitting outside and the mojitos probably helped. I had the picadillo (which is ground beef) with white rice and maduros.

Although I really enjoyed my meal I wasn't bowled over by it - I was more impressed with the tostones and garlic mojo that came with mi Cariño's meal. However I really enjoyed the ambiance, the Sol's and the Presidentes I had were great and perfectly cold and the music... well the music made it the entire visit worth it. Good, old school Salsa that made us wanna just jump up and start dancing.

Speaking of dancing, after la cena that's what we went off to do. First we met up with some friends, then ran into some other friends, and then the whole mess of us walked to a friend of a friend's birthday party before meeting with more friends and walking to Sin Sin for some more birthday partying celebrations. (Ha! Try making sense of that.) Good Times.

Havana, Alma de Cuba

Date Night! I chose Cuban food. We made our way to the West Village to Havana, Alma de Cuba. Sat up front, next to a man making cigars.

We chose to share our meals. Ropa Vieja con arroz blanco. La ropa vieja was in a cup made out of thin green plantain chips, resting on top of a bit of fufu.

There was also albondigas, and maduros

And finally some Moros, Yuca Frita, y habichuelas negras

Pair this with some delicious red sangria,

and some wonderful company and you have the perfect night.