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Bloggers and their boys

I met up with Lee from In My Tummy the other night so that we could enjoy a few beers together and let our husbands get to know each other too. They both like really good beer, apparently, and that’s as good a reason as any to go drink some!

Aren’t they cute?

Some of these pictures are yoinked from her own account of the evening, check it out!

Anyway, on to the booze! We met at The Brick Store, which was crazy busy even for a Monday night.

I started off with an Allagash Curieux, an interesting beer that is aged in bourbon barrels, it actually retains a slight hint of bourbon flavor! I didn’t love it, there was something cloudy and waxy about it, still enjoyable though. Jeff had one of his usuals, Chimay Blue, which I love as well.

We we super hongry. I got a turkey sandwich with smashed avocado and a salad with basil dressing.

Jeff had the roast beef sandwich with more spicy mustard than is right for any one person!

I was eyeing Lee’s hummus plate.

After we were sufficiently fed we could move on to round two. I got the St. Bernardus Abt. 12 and Jeff switched to scotch.

There was a slight mix-up with our order and we ended up getting a free round in apology. It was super-nice of them to do that, but man we did not need those extra beers!

We had a great time talking about all kinds of stuff. A lot about blogging, of course, but much much more too.

It was a fun double date. I am always reminded that I should do this kind of stuff more often.

Thanks guys for a fun night!

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The Iberian Pig

Today, I’m nursing a major pork hangover.

That’s because last night Jeff and I met up with our friends, John and Emily, for a special dinner at The Iberian Pig in Decatur Square.

Jeff and I have been there twice before, so we knew it was going to be amazing.

We had to wait for over an hour because none of us thought to make a reservation at a busy restaurant on a Saturday night during prime dinner hours. Oops!

No problem, cocktails make time fly by faster! I got an Old Fashioned…

It was an exceptionally good one too. Jeff and John both got Old Fashioned’s as well but theirs had drops of “bacon essence” added to make them an amazingly unctuous experience. Emily had a Bramble, a muddled blackberry cocktail that looked insane.

We decided to order tapas for the table rather than individual dishes so that we could try more things.

Before we could even get started though we were gifted a plate of the pork cheek tacos as compensation for our long wait. Don’t mind if I do!

Yeah, that took the hunger edge off.

We ordered a bunch of things to get us started. First up was the charcuterie platter, consisting of manchego and cana de oveja cheeses and jamon iberico slivers all with crusty bread, olives, espresso aioli, and fruity accompaniments.

I’m in love with the cana de oveja cheese. It’s the semi-soft sheep’s milk wheel-shaped one with apricot accompaniment. Tasted like a Spanish brie. Of course the Iberian ham wasn’t bad either!

Then we had the Spanish tortoloni, delicious tangy cheese-filled tortoloni in a pistachio cream sauce with golden raisins and pine nuts.

One of my favorites!

Then, the albondigas. These were meatballs made from wild boar sausage in a luscious pimenton pepper cream sauce. Very appropriate to say “Amazeballs!” here!

We also had a plate of asparagus with melted manchego and serrano ham in a moscatel wine sauce, but I forgot to photograph it as we were passing plates all over the table at this point.

Next round of yummies started with the barbequed octopus. Correctly prepared, soft but springy octopus is one of my favorite foods. It was served in BBQ sauce with crunchy roasted potatoes and bits of pork.

Then the huevos con trufa, a soft poached runny egg over slow-roasted pork cheeks and caramelized onions dripping on crusty bread slices with hints of black truffle.

Woah, totally killer! Every part of this dish was meltingly soft except for the crisp pieces of bread that served to sop up all the salty juices!

Then, we had a flatbread topped with arugula, smoked salmon, fried capers, red onion, and a citrus creme. Normally, I would have loved something like this, but in comparison to all the other amazing things we were eating, it just didn’t do it for me.

We were feeling the oncoming fullness, but figured we could split two more plates.

We got the croquetas de queso, fried balls of tangy creamy cheese with a lavendar honey creme slathered across the plate.

Each one was a two-bite ball of bliss!

Last dish of the night was the veal shank ravioli with roasted shiitake mushrooms, rioja creme sauce, and black truffle creme fraiche. Killer.

You know where this is going, don’t you? Dessert, that’s where.

Jeff and I split an orange cheesecake. It was so feather-light and cooling, not thick and heavy like you might expect.

John got the copa catalan, which we’ve had once before and loved. It’s a vanilla bean panna cotta topped with an espresso sauce. It has a kind of granular sugar quality that is texturally interesting.

We were so full!

So glad we got to go back to The Iberian Pig, it’s one of Decatur’s real treasures.

What’s the most delicious dish you’ve ever had at any restaurant?

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Lounging at Leon’s

You know what I like? I like drinking beer in the afternoon, that’s what.

We both really needed to get out of the house for a while today so we hit up Leon’s for a beverage or two. (All of these photos were taken on an iPhone, so sorry if they aren’t the best.)

We both had a glass of the Gouden Carolus Noel, a spicy almost licorice-flavored beer that was thick and sticky. We also had the following munchies: firstly, the standard side of frites with garlic aioli. (They always give us a side of smoked tomato mayo too, I wonder if it’s just not popular and they’re trying to push it?)

Best fries in town though, no joke.

Nextly: We ordered one of their newer offerings, the pork rillettes with orange marmalade:

A rillettes is essentially meat cooked confit (in fat) then potted and sealed with more fat to preserve it. You just spread it on bread and kronch right into it…

The orange marmalade sounded weird but it was really what made the dish. It cut through the fat with a bright citrus punchiness. There was also a line of pork seasoning sprinkled down the back side of the plate that you can’t see in the picture. Mixed with the marmalade, it was quite the robust flavor to slather over the luscious rillettes.

We demolished it, as expected…

Every time we go to Leon’s we end up ruining our dinner with all the amazing snack options they have. After all that and two rounds of beer, it’ll be 9:00 before I’m thinking about dinner! Totally worth it though for a fun date with my bebeh. 😀