Mango & Tomato: out of town

8/31/17

TBT: Postcard From Seattle.

Where to eat in Seattle?

It has been about two weeks since I came back from a week in Seattle where I visited family and friends. This turned out to be more of a vacation/staycation because my sister was able to take the whole time off work and our friend Jenny was visiting from Houston at the same time. We ate, danced, went hiking (!!), saw family and friends, and did some touristy things.

I wanted to give a few shout outs to some of my favorite bites from this trip.

The photo above is from General Porpoise. These doughnuts were worth a hike from the bus stop. I loved the bright interior, gorgeous flowers on the tables, and of course the doughnuts themselves. I had the lemon curd flavor, and was happy that it wasn't overly sweet. Definitely check out this place on your next Seattle visit.

For a neighborhood feel, a great selection of small plates, and a great Happy Hour, we went to Pair. Make sure to order their shakshuka for its smoky flavor, the gougeres if you like carbs, and the daily selection of cheese. The mussels were also superb. Below are the desserts we shared: an in season apricot cake and a mocha chocolate mousse.

For something away from the city, pack a picnic and head out to Taylor Shellfish Farms. Don't forget your oyster knife and patience: shucking 6 oysters takes forever but is so worth it. The view is stunning and makes you forget about reality.

And finally, The Walrus and The Carpenter. Make sure to show up as soon as the restaurant opens to be seated. The oyster happy hour is the main draw, but next time I'll definitely stay for dinner. These oysters were plump and sweet and I did not have to shuck a single one of them.

4/11/17

Travel Tuesday: 30 Hours In Philadelphia.

If you had 30 hours in Philadelphia, what would you do?

I realize that's a random question, but that's exactly what I got to ponder last month after on a whim I decided to whisk myself to Philadelphia to celebrate my birthday.

My original idea was to get out of DC and see if I could make a reservation at Zahav. I've been obsessed with wanting to go to this well renowned Israeli restaurant for several years after falling in love with its food when Michael Solomonov had a Zahav popup in DC. I called. Surprisingly, I was able to make a 5 pm reservation at Zahav. {Tip: don't go by OpenTable. If they say there are no reservations, pick up the phone and call!}

Next came purchasing Amtrak tickets. Then I booked a hotel stay at Club Quarters. Then my good friend Laura said she'll be able to come and meet me for dinner and my friend Kelly agreed to meet me for lunch the following day.

And then I filled in the rest of the time with food and walking around and a bit of salsa dancing.

Because this was my 5th time in Philadelphia, I've already toured The Reading Terminal Market, The Liberty Bell, ~~ran up~~ {who am I kidding????} walked up the Rocky steps, etc. This trip was going to be about food.

For lunch I went to Oyster House recommended by an older married Jewish man who tried to pick me up on the train. No, I did not take him up on his invitation to join me for dinner, but I'm really glad I listened to his food related recommendation. These Cape Cod oysters were some of the cleanest, plumpest and delicious I've had. I loved the oyster plates hanging on the walls of the restaurant and the entree of mussels with fries. {You can see all the photos on my instagram with #30HrPhillyBdayTrip.}

Then there was the main event: dinner at Zahav. That's my friend Laura on the left. The restaurant offered us sparkling wine to start our meal and gave me a menu with "Happy Birthday Olga" written on it. The meal was great. I think the little salads at the start of the meal were my favorites: beets, fennel, carrots, etc.

We also shared a few plates of raw lamb, chicken skewers, Turkish hummus and ended the meal with an assortment of dessert.

I need to say this: the service and the food were solid, but I wasn't blown away. I don't know if my expectations were too high, or family style pop up in DC was a better way to experience the meal than the tapas style in Philadelphia...I don't regret the meal at all, but like I said...I wasn't blown away.

After hanging out at my hotel for a bit I decided to go and burn a few calories salsa dancing at Brasils. Thanks to all the gentlemen for the leads.

After checking out of the hotel and storing my bag, I went to Rival Bros for caffeine and food. Below is Daily Bread: toasted thick slices of bread slathered with butter and topped with salt and served with blueberry jam. WOW. I must have gained 2 pounds just by looking at the plate ;)

My plan after breakfast was to walk around the city and photograph some of its many murals. On my way to find the murals I discovered Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and am so happy I walked in. Other than its stunning architecture, there were paintings and sculptures by multiple artists: and it was free!

This is one of my favorite murals. I have about 14 others on my instagram feed ;) You can find a map of the murals here and even take a guided walking tour, which was unfortunately unavailable when I was visiting.

And then it was time for lunch with Kelly. Guess what? We chose Michael Solomonov's restaurant again: Rooster Soup Company. Smoked matzo ball soup and meatball sandwich were great. Chatting with Kelly and being treated to lunch by her were greater. The fact that all profits go to Broad Street Ministry was the greatest.

After lunch I did a bit of shopping and more walking around. It was a perfect Spring day. Of course I snapped photos of doors. #ihavethisthingwithdoors

And then it was time to head back to the Amtrak station and board the train back to DC. How adorable are the swings next to the station? Dear Union Station, please take note.

But wait!! Before getting on the train, I stopped at Michael Solomonov's third restaurant in Philadelphia, Dizengoff, and picked up a bowl of hummus with brisket, a salad and pita. It was divine. This was probably some of the best hummus I've ever had, and let's not even talk about how tender and flavorful the the brisket was. I bet many of the Amtrak passengers hated me :/

In case any of you are wondering, this is not a sponsored post by Michael Solomonov ;) This was a great treat to myself to take a few days off for my birthday and spend time eating, seeing Philadelphia and catching up with friends.

10/13/16

Beef, Bagels & Brunch in NYC & Brooklyn

This past Friday I took Amtrak to New York City for a four day weekend. The occasion was my friend Jenny's wedding. I loved celebrating Jenny and Chris, getting out of town, hanging out with my friends Laura & Carlos and their kids and eating all the things.

The theme for this post is the letter B ;)

Above is an incredible sandwich of roast Beef I got for my Amtrak ride back to DC from the newly opened Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors at The Pennsy. To be honest, I wasn't sure about paying $12 for a sandwich, but it was so worth it. Sesame bread, goat cheese, watercress and pickled onions with thinly sliced roast beef: perfection. My fellow Amtrak passengers were probably super envious. {Thanks Jenny for the recommendation!}

Below is an everything bagel from Absolute Bagels that came highly recommended by Jenny and also my airbnb hosts. It was only a 5 minute walk from where I was staying and had a relatively short line thanks to Monday being a holiday. The smoked salmon was like butter!

I had not one, but two bagels in NYC. The other one was also an everything bagel, but with white smoked fish salad from Murray's Bagels. Fun place. Be ready to stand in line.

And finally, a double B: Brunch in Brooklyn at Rabbithole. It was a super rainy Sunday, so we had no trouble finding a table. There were roasted potatoes, bacon, Bloody Mary (ooh another B!), pancakes, hot chocolate and fun conversation.

Can't wait to go back to NYC to eat at more places!

9/15/16

TBT: Where To Eat In Seattle AND A DIY Magnet Project

I'm back from Seattle. Technically, I've been back since Saturday night, but my jet lag is still strong and my body can't figure out which time zone it's in.

I wanted to share a few photos of a couple new and old places I went to while visiting family and friends in Seattle. Make sure to read/scroll all the way to the bottom of the post because there'll be a super easy DIY project waiting for you!

1. Kobe burger at The Butcher and The Baker. This was pretty spectacular. I skipped the bacon and ate the patty with a fork and a knife because there was no way this monstrosity was going to fit into my mouth. Juicy. Flavorful. Beyond filling. The kale slaw made me feel a bit better about eating so much meat, and I went for an hour walk around Green Lake after lunch.

2. Delancey: this was my second time at Delancey, and it did not disappoint. The short menu changes frequently, so choose whichever pizza sounds the best to you. I really liked that there was an option to choose two different combinations on one pizza.

Not to miss, if you go soon, is the summer squash salad with pickled fennel and pesto.

3. Jebena: Of course there are plenty of Ethiopian restaurants in DC, but I'm always up for having Ethiopian food. This place is small, but has a great menu with options for breakfast, and an incredibly warm and welcoming service.

Have you ever had foul? It's a dish of fava beans topped with tomatoes, onions, feta, chillies and eggs served with warm French Bread (on the left).

4. Bongos: Seattle's weather was perfect for an outdoor lunch at Bongos. The tables and chairs are placed directly into the sand on a large patio...you almost feel like you are in the Caribbeans!

Definitely make sure to get their fried plantains!

While at Bongos, I picked up a bunch of bottle caps and turned them into magnets by adding a magnet (with super glue) to the underside of the cap. How cute are these?

Where have you eaten lately?

10/27/15

Oregon Wine Country

Happy Travel Tuesday and happy upcoming Wine Wednesday. I usually don't participate in such things, but I haven't photographed a blog worthy recipe in the last few weeks, so thought I'd share with you some great memories from a road trip to Oregon Wine Country I took with my sister Anna and our friend Lera when I visited my family in Seattle in August.

Visiting family is not exactly a vacation, am I right? Of course it's great to see my parents and siblings and have a few family meals together and sleep in and just hang out and go salsa dancing and meet up with friends. But I always crave something new and different and a bit touristy. That's why the last time I visited Seattle I was so happy Anna and Lera took a few days off work so we can take a road trip to check out some of the Oregon wineries and spend a day in Portland.

We visited 3 wineries with a stop for lunch before making our way to Portland. I loved the overcast cooler weather (because DC was experiencing one of the typical hot and humid weeks when I left), the friendly people who worked at the wineries, and the really generous portions of wine we were poured. Also, the price of wine tasting in Oregon is a lot less than it is in the DC area.

The first winery on our list was Anne & Amie Vineyards, named after the owners' daughters. It was founded the year Anna and I were born: how special!!

The second winery was Vidon named after the founders Vicki and Don: do you notice the theme? I loved the views from this winery and its symbol: a bee. Why the bee?

"The Bee on our labels and capsule came about because of an old well house on the property that contained a very large hive between its studs. After our home was built in the summer of 2003, we heard much buzzing while sitting on the deck one evening. Upon looking under the deck, we discovered that the electrician had left a hole that led to the space between floors. As they do every year, bees swarmed and set up housekeeping in our new abode. This experience resulted in many photos and a few stings and led to our use of the bee on our packaging."

I also fell in love with the old barn on the property and ended up printing this photo to hang somewhere in my condo.

The photo below is of Anna, Lera and me. LOVE our friendship.

Then it was time for lunch! Lera suggested Red Hills Market. Perfection! Super cute décor, amazing pizza and good coffee with dessert.

We had enough room for just one more winery: I'm a light weight and was already feeling boozy :)

At Colene Clemens I shared the tasting wine flight with Lera because Anna was driving and bought one of their beautiful candles to take home with me.

I look forward to more fun get togethers with these girls. If wine is involved, that's just an added bonus!

9/25/14

Pizza Dinner In Seattle: Delancey

Last week when I flew to visit my family and friends in Seattle, the one place I really wanted to eat at (other than my parents' house because of the awesomeness that is my dad's borsch) was Delancey.

Years ago I read Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table and not so secretly hoped that I too will find my ♥ through/because of my blog. It hasn't happened yet, but there's always hope, right?

A few months ago I read Molly's second book Delancey about an opening of their pizza restaurant, and although I really wish the book was written by Molly's husband, I decided that I MUST visit it the next time I was in Seattle. {The book was good, but I would have loved to read it from Molly's husband's perspective.}

And so I did.

My twin Anna and our awesome friend Lera took off an entire day to hang out with me. We met up for dim sum, did a bit of shopping (ok, just 30 minutes of looking around Nordstrom Rack), wondered around Volunteer Park and visited a few museum stores and then headed out to Delancey at 5pm.

God, I LOVED the space of the restaurant. It's this adorable low key neighborhood spot with minimalistic décor and bright lamps and stunning cement tables.

The menu is one page divided into appetizers, pizzas and desserts. The back of the menu lists where the ingredients came from: everything from flour and bread, to olive oil, milk and cream, eggs and even chocolate and sea salt. Speaking of sea salt, it was from Admiralty Salt in Whidbey Island and was incredible.

We started with a plate of Charcuterie, a tomato salad with preserved Meyer lemon, sheep's milk feta and shallot vinaigrette and wood-fired shishito and pardon peppers.

And some fresh bread.

And a bottle of sparkling rose.

Everything looked so good that we were pretty silent for the first 10 minutes other than saying how flavorful, fresh and SO GOOD everything was.

Seriously, this was a dreamy start to a great meal. I was soooo happy!

Once the appetizers were done, we took a bit of a break to catch our breath, to chat and to chat about after dinner plans: walking Lera's dogs and getting beer and dessert. We all love food.

For pizza, we chose white pie with housemade ricotta, fresh and aged mozzarella, garlic and Grana. We added housemade pork fennel sausage to one half and hot salami to the other.

Hot salami won as far as the better topping (at least according to me and Anna). The pizza was crispy, thin, satisfying and perfect. Yes, perfect.

I wish I had room to try a few other toppings. Next time!

Lera and Anna.

That's me.

For dessert we ordered this beauty: Eton Mess: blackberries, lemon curd, cream and crunchy meringue.

I should have taken a photo of the empty dish to express just how awesome it was.

You guys! This was one of the best meals I've had in a long time. Despite my high expectations and anticipation, everything was stellar. Great company, atmosphere, service and food.

This will become a regular on my trips to Seattle.

10/24/12

Visit to Sabra Factory in Richmond, VA: Sabra Tastemakers

Remember I wrote about my weekend in Richmond, VA? Well, it's time to give you a recap of the reason I went to Richmond in the first place: a tour of Sabra factory! {For those who may not know, Sabra is the maker of hummus. They also make guacamole, salsa and several dips and sides.}

I was super excited to be invited to be one of the Sabra Tastemakers. Early Saturday morning a car picked me up and whisked me to Richmond, VA. This was a new experience for me and I LOVED it! The driver even made sure my friends Jenn and Luis were home and let me in before he drove away. That's the service I could get used to!

After a fun weekend visiting my friends, I was dropped off at Marriott, checked into the lovely room and got ready to meet the other tastemakers for dinner at Can Can. {Be sure to check out the blogs of the other Tastemakers! http://shewearsmanyhats.com/, http://mommacuisine.com/, http://www.eatingbirdfood.com/, http://www.smithbites.com/, http://runeatrepeat.com/, http://nibblesandfeasts.com/, http://ramshackleglam.com/}

I was one of the five (or so) people who ordered the Pan Roasted Trout with grilled figs, fennel, leeks, potatoes and bok choy. It was a stellar dish. Alas, it was dark in the restaurant and the photos would not have done it justice.

After a glass of wine, goat cheese cheese cake and decaf coffee, I was ready for a good night of sleep before the visit to the Sabra factory.

The morning started with breakfast and a few presentations from Sabra employees about the brand's history, where it's heading, and it's focus on nutrition.

Turns out, that despite the fact that hummus is perceived as being healthy, there's been little research done about it. Sabra is planning on changing it!

Hummus is plant based, is very minimally processed, high in fiber and comes in a variety of flavors: all the things that are supposed to make you like it even more!

Additionally, chickpeas (the main ingredient in hummus) are low on the glycemic index and do not cause spikes in your blood sugar. There is also evidence that they can lower your bad cholesterol.

So hummus is definitely good for you. For me, however, what matters most is the taste!

I had no idea the variety of flavors Sabra made available for its consumers.

But before we got to taste hummus, we had a mini photography presentation from SmithBites.

Here are a few pointers:

* smaller plates work best for photo shoots

* pay attention to details

* remember that what matters is your own style: take inspiration from others, but concentrate on the colors, composition, textures that you like

* the Smiths showed us a technique called tethering where you connect your camera to your computer and can automatically see what you are shooting on your computer's monitor. I need to try it!!!

* don't be afraid to play with your food and try different camera angles

And then it was time for lunch!!!

We came to the room with a huge spread of the various products Sabra makes. Of course I knew about hummus, but I had no idea they also make salsa, baba ganoush, spinach/artichoke dip, and a variety of other non-chickpea products.

We all picked up little special tasting spoons and went to town!

My favorites were these flavors:

Asian fusion
Chipotle
Jalapeno

I also LOVED the grilled eggplant. I hope my store starts carrying a bigger variety of hummus products.

What shocked me was that you can make desserts with hummus! I was honestly very skeptical, but really liked them. Below is a recipe courtesy of Sabra:

Chocolate, Coconut and Caramel Hummus Pastries
Caramel can be prepared up to 2 days in advance. Purchased caramel can be used if you do not
have the time or temperament to make caramel on the stove top. Filling is best made the day it is
served.

Do not fill cups more than an hour before serving.

Caramel
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling
1 cup Sabra Classic Hummus
¾ cup toasted coconut
1 cup finely grated premium chocolate (60% cocoa butter or more)

20 prebaked phyllo pastry cups
1/4 cup toasted coconut

To make caramel:
1. PLACE sugar and caramel in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until
sugar begins to brown. Watch very closely, stirring infrequently. When sugar is a deep
brown (but not burned looking!), remove from heat. Immediately and carefully add cream.
2. STIR well. Add butter and vanilla. Stir until well blended.
3. POUR into a storage container and refrigerate until ready to use.
To make filling:
1. MIX all filling ingredients together. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To Serve:
1. SPOON a rounded teaspoon into phyllo pastry cup. Top with a rounded teaspoon of caramel.
Sprinkle with toasted coconut.
2. PLACE on serving platter. Drizzle pastries and platter with caramel. Serve immediately.

And then it was time to tour the factory! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside, but it was incredible. As soon as I walked in, I was surrounded by the scent of warm chickpeas. Sabra starts with dried chickpeas, cooks them, and then incorporates them with the other ingredients that make up the hummus (tahini, oil, etc). The hummus gets divided into containers and topped with ingredients such as roasted peppers, pine nuts, etc. depending on the flavor of the final product. I know this is a cliche, but it's so true: the factory runs like a well oiled machine.

Check out the bright yellow plastic toe protectors we had to wear!

Before it was time to say good bye, we had a spice presentation from the Spice Station. Not only did we get to learn and smell different spices (pictured below are sumac and coriander), but we also got to take home a collection of spice tins, which I can't wait to use in my recipes!

And then it was time to say good bye! My drive back started with the rain and ended in sunshine.

This was a wonderful weekend!!

Have you ever visited a food factory? Which one?
Do you like hummus? What's your favorite flavor?

Disclosure: Sabra provided transportation, hotel and meals during my visit to the factory. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are strictly my own.

INSTAGRAM

Looking for something?

Jewelry

Stats