Tertulia

We've wanted to go to Tertulia, Chef Seamus Mullen's Spanish restaurant, ever since it opened in 2011. Back then, they didn't take reservations and we didn't want to deal with long waits, so we put it on our list of places to try someday. Recently A saw a deal on Blackboard Eats, and it seemed like the perfect time to finally go. We had some fantastic tapas when we were in Barcelona a few years back (some of which we've written about here) and still dream about the dishes we got there, hoping we can someday find someplace at home that would meet that standard. We tried as much as possible at Tertulia hoping to find some new favorites. Here's what we got (in the order they arrived at the table) and our thoughts.

Pan con tomate (toasted bread rubbed with tomato), $8: 

M: If I go to a tapas place and pan con tomate is on the menu, I like to order it, both because I like it and because it offers a standard by which to compare places. The bread here seemed like country bread that was lightly rubbed with garlic and then tomatoes, and toasted on a grill. The crust was very crunchy, but the insides were nice and soft. The parts with garlic tasted really good, but the garlic unfortunately wasn't uniform throughout. I liked it and it was probably my second favorite dish of the night, but not the best pan con tomate we've had.

A: I liked that the bread was grilled as it gave it a nice smokiness and crunch while still allowing the inside to be soft and pillowy. The tomato was fresh and sweet, but there seemed to be a distinct lack of garlic flavor. I didn't really get any in the pieces of bread that I got. This wasn't bad, but we've definitely had better pan con tomate in our lives.

Rillette de credo (with beet mostarda and housemade pickles), $15:

M: This was one of the specials of the day, and it sounded really good. It reminded me most of the chicken pot we got on our appetizer board at our Sunday roast in London, as it literally was a little pot of pork and pork fat. The flavor was good, mostly just the flavor of the meat even if a bit salty, and it went well with the beet mostarda. The grilled bread on the side was good, but not enough so we had to get seconds, and also my first piece was a bit over-toasted and blackened. I wasn't that into the pickles though.

A: This was my favorite dish of the night. It was rich and creamy, and the grilled bread added a smoky flavor and some crunch. The pork was soft and flavorful, and the pickles were really interesting. They weren't traditional cornichons; they pickled all sorts of vegetables and fruit. The most interesting thing in my mind was the pickled strawberry. The beet mostarda added an element of spiciness, and the dill made it nice and fresh.

Nuestras patatas (crispy potatoes, pimentón de la vera, garlic all i oli), $9:

M: Potatoes are another thing I try to order at tapas restaurants. These potatoes were on the crispy side, kind of crunchy on the outside but nice and soft in the middle (at least for the bigger pieces). That was good most of the time until we got to some of the smaller crumbs which just tasted burnt. The best part of this though was the garlic aioli, and the bites that didn't get some of the aioli definitely were not as good. I love smoked paprika and it was very dominant in the flavor here, which I liked. This was my favorite dish of the night.

A: I usually really like patatas bravas (the closest comparison for this dish). They were crisped up really well, but some of the smaller pieces were overly crispy. I didn't mind that, but the seasoning that they put on the potatoes made those small, crispy pieces really salty. The aioli tempered the saltiness, but I didn't find it very garlicky. Also, the smoked paprika they dusted it with was very overpowering along with the salt.

Croquetas de jamón (Ibérico ham croquettes, membrillo), $12:

M: I love croquettes but hadn't even noticed these on the menu until one of the tables next to us got an order of them. I was expecting solid fried balls filled with ham and potato mush, but these were more like a hard shell with some sort of creamy ham sauce inside. I think I was expecting something denser. The ham was there, but not that strong in flavor, and I wasn't that into the quince paste (membrillo) but that could be more personal preference about mixing fruit into the dish.

A: I was not expecting what we ended up getting with these croquettes. I was expecting a solid croquette with jamon, but it was basically a fried ball surrounding a stew. It was really odd, and the quince paste made it even odder. It added a sweetness that didn't really seem to pair that well with the salty croquette.

Coles de Bruselas (grilled Hudson Valley brussels sprouts, wild boar bacon, mojo verde), $14:

M: I had high hopes for this dish but didn't really like it at all. The Brussels sprouts were fine, a little crunchy, but the entire flavor of the dish was a little on the bitter side. Not sure if that was from the meat or the sauce (even though there was not much of either), but the taste was a little off-putting for me, and I didn't really want much of it sadly.

A: I usually really like Brussels sprouts cooked with bacon, but there didn't seem to be much of any bacon in here. I had one piece, and that was about all of the bacon we got in the dish. I felt bad since M didn't get a piece, but I didn't think we'd only get the one piece. Other than that, the sprouts tasted pretty good. I didn't taste the mojo verde at all, but the sprouts themselves tasted okay. This was fairly plain, and it ended up being my least favorite dish of the night.

Txipirones a la plancha (baby squid, grilled bitter greens, warm tomato vinaigrette), $16:

M: This dish was pretty good. The "baby squid" weren't quite as small as what I was expecting based on what we had eaten in Barcelona that was called txipirones, but they were fine. All together, there wasn't really anything wrong with the dish other than it was a little bit salty, and the combination of everything together tasted nice and fresh with all the vegetables. Unfortunately it reminded me that we still haven't found a txipirones dish in the States that remotely matches what we had in Spain.

A: This was the dish that M and I were most excited for. On our vacation to Barcelona we fell in love with txipirones whether they were grilled or fried. The tomato vinaigrette was sweet and fresh tasting, and the grilled bitter greens weren't bitter, but they offered a bit more freshness to the dish. My big complaint, though, was that the dish was pretty salty overall. It made things hard to eat and made the dish rather disappointing.

Arroz a la plancha (Calasparra rice, snails, wild mushrooms, celery, fennel, Ibérico ham), $23:

M: I liked this one more than A did. The rice was a little bit like a risotto, very creamy, and the flavor was familiar, even if I couldn't quite place it. It tasted a little charred, but not in a bad way. The toppings were really fresh and it was nice getting some light vegetables alongside the heavier rice. After we ate it, I was listening to some guy at the table next to us who kept raving about this dish to his meal partner, and while I did think it was pretty good, I'm not sure if I'm even close to as into it as he was. It came out with the txipirones, and between the two, I liked the squid better, but this was fine.

A: I didn't know what to expect from this dish, but it sounded really interesting. I love snails as a general matter so adding them to what amounted to Spanish fried rice seemed like a great thing. Overall this was just okay. The main flavor came from the ham, and there wasn't that much of it. The snails also had a bit of a sour taste to them. It wasn't completely off-putting, but it wasn't great.

Tarta de Santiago (traditional almond tart, stewed berries, creme fraiche gelato), $8:

M: The dessert we associate most with our time in Spain is almond cake, having had an excellent one at the end of lunch one day and being completely surprised by how wonderful it was. This one was not as soft as that almond cake, and also just kind of stiff. I wasn't a big fan of the gelato and gave most of it to A, but I did like the berry sauce. Overall, it was just okay. Still better than the Brussels sprouts.

A: Harkening back to our Barcelona trip again, we had a great Tarta de Santiago at lunch one day. I even tried to recreate it here at home with mixed success. This rendition was... different. Instead of being a smoother, finer ground almond meal cake, this was very coarse and a little stiffer. The creme fraiche gelato was odd as well. It tasted just like creme fraiche, but I don't know that those two flavors go together. The berries were really nice.

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We did like our meal at Tertulia overall, even if it was a bit salty and not as good as we were expecting it to be. We've had so many amazing tapas over the years, both in the States and in Barcelona, so it's a decently high bar but one that we thought this one would soar over based on the reviews we remembered. In the end, it wasn't bad for tapas and we were glad we went, but not something we need to race back for sometime soon.

Week 49 - Spanish Tapas

I was really excited when the Week 49 theme turned up as Spanish tapas. I love tapas and I love Mediterranean food, so even though it meant a lot of dishes in one night (and I'm slow in the kitchen), I couldn't wait. I knew I wanted to make patatas bravas, because I had made them once before but forgot how since I never blogged about it. I decided to add on one of my favorite vegetarian tapas - espinaca con garbanzos - which I've made a couple of times but also hadn't blogged about. For the last piece, I chose something new, a bean and chorizo salad that I found when looking through lists of tapas recipes and which I thought would go well with the others.

Patatas Bravas

A couple of years ago, I did a tapas night that included patatas bravas based on a recipe from BBC Good Food. I chose to use the same recipe again this time, hoping I could remember what modifications I made that time since, from what I remembered, it had come out pretty well.

The ingredients for our version of patatas bravas were:

- 5 small to medium potatoes, peeled and chopped ($1.04)
- olive oil ($0.30)
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped ($0.10)
- 1 can of diced tomatoes ($0.80)
- 1 tbsp of tomato paste ($0.20)
- 1 tbsp of paprika ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp of chili powder (planned for a couple tsp but used more than expected) ($0.10)
- 1 spoonful of sugar ($0.05)
- salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)
- parsley to garnish ($0.45)

The steps for making the potatoes were:

- add peeled and chopped potato to greased baking pan and roast for about 50 minutes at 400 degrees until golden and a little more crisp
- add olive oil to large pot, heat, add onions and cook until soft and starting to brown
- add garlic to onions, cook for a minute or so, and then add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, chili powder, sugar, salt and pepper
- simmer sauce over low heat for at least 10-15 minutes
- when potatoes are done, add to the tomato sauce and mix together
- cook over low heat for a couple of minutes
- remove from heat and mix in parsley garnish

The potatoes came out pretty well, but they weren't really spicy like patatas bravas should be. The flavor seemed a little subdued despite all the paprika and chili powder that was added, so it was more like potatoes in a nice tasting tomato sauce. That said, it was still good, but just didn't have the kick that we wanted it to. Maybe next time I'll use smoked paprika instead.

Bean and Chorizo Salad

The new dish that was part of our tapas night was based on another recipe from BBC Good Food (didn't plan for this to be a BBC Good Food night, but just happened that way). I thought a bean salad would be a nice way to balance out two more hearty, rustic dishes.

The ingredients for the salad were:

- 4 large mushrooms, chopped ($1.05)
- olive oil ($0.50)
- 1 small red onion, sliced ($0.36)
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar ($0.25)
- 1 can white beans, drained and rinsed ($0.89)
- 1/2 batch of parsley, chopped ($0.90)
- 1 stick of chorizo ($3.34)
- salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)

The bulk of the cost here was the chorizo, which wasn't even regular chorizo but the chorizo seasoned salami from the salami trio gift pack at Trader Joe's. We just didn't have time to go out looking for actual Spanish chorizo and went with that instead. No idea how that would have impacted the cost if we did go looking for it.

The steps to make the salad were:

- heat olive oil in small pan and then add mushrooms, sauté until most of the water has released
- add red onions to pan with mushrooms for a minute
- remove mushrooms and onions to a small bowl and add red wine vinegar, chill for 10-20 minutes (I left it in there until everything else was done and it was time to mix the salad)
- in a large bowl, mix the white beans with the onion/mushroom mixture, parsley, some olive oil, salt and pepper, and the sliced chorizo, and season to taste

I had forgotten that the original recipe called for the onions to be mixed with the vinegar, and I had added them to the pan with the mushrooms to try and reduce the sharpness. I don't know how differently this would have come out if I did that instead but the onions would probably be stronger.

The salad came out pretty well and was A's favorite part of the meal, mostly because the chorizo had a lot of flavor. I thought that the salad tasted better the next day when I ate the leftovers for lunch, after the salad had a chance to chill in the fridge overnight. When eating it that way, the chorizo was actually my least favorite part of it, as I thought the salad was better on its own once the ingredients had sat together for hours.

Espinaca con Garbanzos

I have no idea what recipe or what place inspired me to make espinaca con garbanzos the first time, since I've been making this here and there ever since I first started cooking more a few years ago. Wherever it came from (and there are probably many similar ones to it online), it's one of my favorites.

The ingredients for this were:

- olive oil ($0.20)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped ($0.10)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- smoked paprika (to taste, but a generous amount) (still using one we got for free, which will skew the totals but is truthful)
- 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained ($0.75)
- 1 bag of baby spinach ($1.99)

The cost for the spinach and chickpeas portion of dinner was $3.59 (since the smoked paprika had no cost), which when combined with the patatas bravas ($3.69) and bean and chorizo salad ($7.34), leads to a grand total for dinner of $14.62. Not the cheapest dinner but there was a little bit of chickpeas, a small bowl of salad, and a large bowl of potatoes left over, so the price covered a couple of lunches too.

The steps were:

- heat olive oil over medium heat
- add onions and garlic and cook until softened
- add chickpeas, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, combine well, and cook for a few minutes
- push the chickpea mixture to the edge of the pan and add the baby spinach until the spinach leaves are wilted, mixing wilted spinach in to the chickpea mixture (maybe it's because we were using a different pan but it took a lot longer to do this than I remembered and I had to do the spinach in batches)

I tried the chickpeas prior to mixing in the spinach and thought the dish had much more flavor than the finished product, which was odd. There definitely was enough smoked paprika pre-spinach and there wasn't that much spinach. Even if it wasn't as strong in flavor as I was expecting, I still really like this dish and it was my favorite part of dinner.

It was a fun and tasty tapas night, even if we didn't eat until very late because of how much work it was. I tend to rationalize our tapas nights saying that we're eating at a very Spanish time of 10 or 11 pm, but that's never really the plan. At least it was good!

La Cova Fumada

It's been awhile but since we're in the middle of reliving our amazing experience in Barcelona, which was exactly one year ago, it seems like a good time to get back to recaps!

One of our most memorable lunches in Barcelona was at La Cova Fumada, a small spot in Barceloneta. La Cova Fumada is a tiny hole in the wall place, filled (packed, really) with mostly locals and without any signage whatsoever. It was a good thing we had the street address or else we never would have figured out that those plain brown doors were the entrance to an amazing find.

They don't really have a menu at La Cova Fumada, at least not one that they hand out. There is a menu board near the back of the room but no one really looks at it and we didn't even know it was there until we were on our way out. Usually they just make suggestions based on what you like and what's good that day. It was good practice for my rusty Spanish since they don't really speak English (nor should they need to since they're in Catalunya). 

We started out with the usual pan con tomate, which came with two large pieces of bread. The bread was fresh and crispy, the crusts were crunchy and flaky, and the tomato sauce on the bread was tasty. We didn't like it as much as the one at Paco Meralgo, but we still enjoyed it. A big difference in the way they made their pan con tomate was that they skewered and grilled the bread instead of toasting it. All in all, it was a good start.

One of the items that La Cova Fumada is known for is the bomba. The legend is that the bomba originated there, so we definitely wanted to try it.

The bomba is basically a mashed potato ball that is deep fried and topped with garlic aioli and hot sauce. Like a potato croquette but so much better. It was the best kind of mushy, creamy, delicious potato ball you could get. We immediately wanted more bombas but we knew more food was on its way.

Next up, alcachofas (artichokes). When the server suggested artichokes, we said yes. We saw plates/baskets of them all around the kitchen, but we had no idea what would be coming. The only types of artichokes either of us had really had prior to lunch were the pickled/preserved ones in the jars.

When the artichokes arrived, we were perplexed. How do you eat those? Luckily I had an international data plan so I googled it. After peeling away and eating all of the outer layers, we discovered the soft, meaty artichoke hearts that had been soaked in olive oil and it was a revelation. We had never had artichokes that tasted this good and we fell in love with artichokes right there. One thing we found fairly amusing is that after our order came out we kept seeing order after order of the artichokes going out to other tables. Clearly they were a popular item.

There's something really special about the artichokes in Spain. We can't find any artichokes here that look or taste like those, with so much soft flesh in the hearts. Would love to have a plate of those right now.

After a few vegetarian plates, it was time to dig in to the seafood. We ordered bacalao (cod), which came broiled and topped with plenty of tomato sauce. The fish was flaky and soft, and the dish tasted really fresh and light.

The calamar (squid) was next. I was expecting grilled rings of squid, but instead there was one large piece of perfectly grilled squid - head, legs and all. It was cooked with olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper. A made sure we each had a piece of each part of the squid as each held its own flavor and texture. The legs had a bit of crisp to them from the char of the grill, and the head was incredibly soft and tender. This was exactly the type of preparation and flavoring we had been looking for and expecting in Barcelona - fresh and simply grilled. 

The last dish of our lunch was the pulpo (octopus). Like the squid, it didn't come in pieces, but was one large single octopus. It was so tender, perfectly cooked unlike some other octopus we've had before. Between the two, we preferred the squid, but the octopus was also really delicious.

A also got a cafe con leche. It was smooth much like most of the coffees he ordered while in Spain, and had a nice earthiness to it.

We loved our meal at La Cova Fumada and were so happy that we had made the trip over to Barceloneta for lunch. It was exactly the type of authentic Catalan meal we had been hoping for, and everything we ate was so incredibly fresh and flavorful. We definitely want to return whenever we make it back to Barcelona.

La Cova Fumada is located in the Barceloneta neighborhood at Carrer Baluard, 56.  Closed Sundays and most evenings. In our opinion, lunch during the week is the best option.

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2012

2012 was a very interesting food year for M and me. This was an incredibly difficult choice to narrow my list down to 10 favorite memories, and there are so many great things that I had to leave off. With so many great food memories from this year, I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us. So in chronological order...

1) Alcachofas (Artichokes) from La Cova Fumada (Barcelona)

The thing about these artichokes was that they were so simply prepared. A drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper before being grilled/baked in the oven. This was the first time either M or I had ever had straight artichoke and not the preserved/pickled hearts you see most often here in the US. We never knew just how much we would love these wonderful little vegetables, and it spawned in me the drive to emulate this simple dish many times at home for us to enjoy.

2) Tickets Olives from Tickets (Barcelona)

I call these magic olives. This is the signature dish of the Adria brothers from back in their El Bulli days. Avant garde gastronomy at its finest. It's some sort of chemical reaction between olive juice, added chemicals, and an alginate bath. The end result is something that is the size and shape of an olive. You slurp the semi-solid oval into your mouth and let it burst. An intense olive burst is what you get, and it's an amazing and mind-blowing experience. Liquid olive that's actually solid too.

3) Fried Egg with Truffled Duck Fat and Potato Cream from Tickets (Barcelona)

This was not only a tasty dish, but it was another display of amazing melding of science and cooking. The dish claims to be a fried egg, but neither M or I remember a solid egg being present. It was more of a custard or pudding that was egg flavored. The duck fat didn't feel greasy or heavy, and the truffle added a nice decadence. The potato cream was much more of a foam than cream. Overall, it tasted like a really good Tortilla Española covered in black truffle.

4) Xipirons amb Mongetes (Baby squid with white beans) from Bar Pinotxo (Barcelona)

Xipirons are baby squid that are about an inch long or so. They are extremely tender, and most of the times we ordered them in Barcelona, they came fried. Juanito offers you these delectable squids sauteed with white beans and olive oil and then drizzled with a balsamic reduction. The result is one of my favorite dishes of all time. It's a dish I still think about today. If we ever make it back to Barcelona, I think M and I will need to make a beeline for La Boqueria to slide up to the counter.

5) Cigrons (Chickpeas) from Bar Pinotxo (Barcelona)

Oh hey, look, another dish from Bar Pinotxo. Along with the aforementioned xipirons, M and I also got a half order of his famous cigrons. They apparently come cooked with raisins, rock salt, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and parsley. Juanito also has a version that includes murcillo or butifarra, but we don't think we got that version. The chickpeas were perfectly cooked to be soft but still retain just a touch of bite. A wonderful, vegetarian option for a country full of meat.

6) A Whole King Prawn from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)

One restaurant we knew we had to try and get a reservation for when we decided on Barcelona for our European excursion this year was El Celler de Can Roca. It is currently the #2 ranked restaurant in the world, and we were ecstatic when we got our reservation. The restaurant was started by the 3 Roca brothers who all learned cooking from their mother who has a restaurant just up the street from them called Can Roca. She certainly taught them well. This dish was a masterpiece of ingenuity, creativity, and full-on flavor. The menu describes the dish as "a charcoal-grilled king prawn, king prawn sand, ink rocks, fried legs, head juice, and king prawn essence". What they did with this one prawn was nothing short of magnificent. The "sand" tasted like concentrated prawn, the prawn itself was succulent and sweet, and the fried legs added a nice crunchy texture along with even more prawn flavor. They even chose a wavy plate to mimic the sea floor. A truly magnificent dish.

7) Flower Bomb from El Celler de Can Roca (Girona)

This was one of the most beautiful desserts I had ever eaten in my life. Oh, it tasted really good too. "Rose cream, loquats and orange blossom, chamomile sorbet, calendula gelatine, violet cloud, and jasmine oil" is the description given. In essence, it's edible flowers, rose cream, and sorbet wrapped in a sugar spun "bubble" that you have to crack to get into. The violet cloud is cotton candy touched with lavender for a wonderful additional flavor. As much as it pained me to have to break open this beautiful dish, I was extremely happy to eat it.

8) Drunken Noodle with Fried Sea Bass from Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas)

Lotus of Siam is one of the supposed holy trinity of Thai restaurants here in the US. The other two are Jitlada in LA and Sripraphai  in NYC. Oddly enough, the only one we haven't been to is the one here in our backyard. It's hard to describe the flavor of drunken noodle, but if you have ever had some before, imagine the best drunken noodle you've ever had. Multiply that greatness by 10, and then add on perfectly fried pieces of sea bass, and this is what you're getting. The sea bass is very lightly battered and ultra crisp. The fish is perfectly flaky as well. Lotus of Siam was the only place we knew we had to go to in Las Vegas, and we'll certainly go back next time as well.

9) Adobada Taco with Pineapple from Tacos El Gordo (Las Vegas)

Tacos El Gordo is a taco chain started out of Tijuana. After M heard about this amazing taco joint, I knew we would be going at some point during our trip. She is, after all, taco crazy. As much as I loved all of the tacos we tried, the standout was the adobada taco with a slice of pineapple. Adobada is pork that's layered on a spit similar to shawarma. It's marinated, cooked, and sliced to order. It's piled on to a couple of corn tortillas, layed with onions and cilantro, and slathered with some green sauce that's just out of this world. The pineapple is optional, and you have to actually ask for it if you want. We actually tried it both ways, and the pineapple, while not 100% necessary, really made this taco sing. The sweet and sour mix from the pineapple paired itself extremely well to the flavors of the spices in the meat and also the sauce. The end result is a taco that, for all of $2, is the best bang for the buck on The Strip.

10) Thanksgiving Dinner at My Brother's Home (Chicago)

Sure, this is a bit of a cheat since it's not really one specific dish, but if you're talking about food memories, this is a great one. Ever since M and I moved out to NYC, we've never had a chance to spend a holiday with my family. This year, after my nephew was born, we knew we had to be with them. Now, this wasn't anything special with what we made, but it was the first Thanksgiving meal that we cooked without any help from any parents. My brother and I combined to cook a fantastic turkey, M and I made the stuffing and mashed potatoes, my brother made the cranberry-orange relish, and he took over for the green bean casserole while M and I were stuck still working on the stuffing. The only things we didn't make were a Brussels sprout side from Whole Foods that my brother bought in case we botched the turkey and the turkey gravy. It felt so satisfying to successfully cook this major holiday meal. And no, we didn't eat the little begging dog under the table.

2012 was such a great food year even if it wasn't great for most other things. Hopefully 2013 is even better overall.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2012

2012 may not have been the best year all-around but it was a fantastic year for food, which made choosing my top 10 food memories of the year really difficult.  When I "narrowed down" my options the first time, I ended up with 59 different dishes.  I could have made multiple top 10 lists just from our 10 days in Barcelona, so it's no surprise that it completely dominated this year's list.  Here's my top 10 (in no particular order, except to end with something sweet):

1.  Contessa de espárragos blancos con consomé de ibéricos (white asparagus contessa with Iberian consomme) from El Celler de Can Roca

We went to El Celler de Can Roca, currently the number 2 restaurant in the world, for a 5 hour lunch during our Barcelona trip in May.  One of the courses on our tasting menu was this amazing asparagus dish, with such vivid flavors that I can still taste it to this day.  It was a duo of hot and cold white asparagus bites - the hot consisted of tender white asparagus with black garlic that was so soft that it melted in your mouth, and the cold was an asparagus ice cream with black truffle that was buttery and salty and creamy all at once.  The hot asparagus alone probably would not have made it onto this list, but the asparagus ice cream was great, and together it was asparagus overload (in a good way). Good thing we love asparagus!

2.  Chicago Style Char Dog from Gold Coast Dogs

Despite living in Chicago for a few years, the only Chicago style hot dogs I had eaten prior to this fall were from Portillo's (and even then, had only had 1) and Shake Shack (here in NYC).  (This was in part due to the fact that I didn't eat red meat for much of the time I lived in Chicago and only started my "ballpark exception" for hot dogs near the end of my stay, but let's not talk about that now.)  In September, A and I decided to explore some of Chicago's best hot dogs, and made our own mini Chicago style hot dog crawl.  I love Chicago style hot dogs because they have so many vegetables, making them rather healthy! If you've never had one, it is a hot dog (in this case, charred) on a poppy seed bun topped with mustard, onions, tomatoes, pickles, (neon green) relish, sport peppers and celery salt. My favorite from our crawl was this classic char dog from Gold Coast Dogs.

3.  Alcachofas (artichokes) from La Cova Fumada

La Cova Fumada wasn't the first place I had ever eaten an artichoke in my life, but it is the place that made me realize I liked artichokes.  La Cova Fumada is a tiny hole in the wall place in the Barceloneta neighborhood of Barcelona, filled with mostly locals and without any signage whatsoever. They don't really have a menu, but just make suggestions based on what you like and what's good that day. When the server suggested alcachofas (artichokes), we said yes, despite not having any idea what kind of artichokes would be coming.  I think I was still picturing slices of artichokes like the ones in the jars, which I think were the only ones I had before.

When the artichokes arrived, we were perplexed. How do you eat those? Luckily I had an international data plan so I googled it.  After peeling away and eating all of the outer layers, we discovered the soft, meaty artichoke hearts that had been soaked in olive oil and it was a revelation.  I had never had an artichoke that tasted this good.  These artichokes would make this list on their own but they also get a place on this list because they completely changed my mind about artichokes.

We went on to order artichokes at many other places but they often came as alcachofas fritas (fried artichokes).  We loved those too, like these perfectly fried, delicious, hearty artichokes from Sant Joan, another place where we were the only non-locals having lunch and where they were really nice and served us really delicious food.  (These artichokes were on the short list but ultimately didn't make this top 10.)

4.  Nam kao tod from Lotus of Siam

When we went off on our Las Vegas mini-break in December, there was only one restaurant that we knew for sure we had to visit - Lotus of Siam, considered by many to be the best Thai restaurant in the United States.  One of the dishes they are famous for is nam kao tod - a salad of crispy rice mixed with minced sour sausage, green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice.  When I hear rice salad, all I think about is khao yam from Jitlada. This isn't the same and khao yam is still my favorite, but this was quite good.  The combination of flavors, the sourness and spice, was so nuanced and different from the Thai food we eat on a regular basis.  I love Thai salads and this one was one of the best.

5.  Pan con Tomate from Paco Meralgo

Paco Meralgo, one of our favorite restaurants in Barcelona, is also one of the few Barcelona spots (and the only one on this list) that we've gotten around to blogging about (post here).  Pan con tomate, literally translated to bread with tomato, is a Catalonian specialty and our favorite was here at Paco Meralgo.  The perfect crispiness, fresh and intense tomato flavor, just the right amount of drizzled olive oil - I dream about this dish to this day and hope to someday eat this again.

6.  Cigrons from Pinotxo

Another place we loved in Barcelona was Pinotxo, a tiny corner bar right at the entrance to La Boqueria, the famous marketplace on Las Ramblas. Pinotxo is famous for having good food but also for Juanito, the charming guy behind the bar who knows exactly what you should order.  He suggested that we get these chickpeas (cigrons in Catalan) which were incredible (and somehow only a half-order, so inexpensive).  The cigrons dish varies based on season and what's available in the market, and on the day we went, we tasted raisins, rock salt, parsley, olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed in with the chickpeas.  A simple recipe but an incredible dish.  I love chickpeas and could eat this on a regular basis (if only it were here!).

7.  Thanksgiving stuffing

This may seem like an odd entry in a list of favorite food memories since Thanksgiving comes every year, but there is a reason.  This year was the first time I spent Thanksgiving with A's family, and we, along with his brother, made the entire Thanksgiving dinner ourselves.  What I was happiest about was the stuffing (my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal!).  It's my mom's recipe - herb stuffing with sausage, mushroom, onion and cilantro - and I've made it before at home, but have never done the whole process (ingredient purchasing, all the prep and all the cooking) completely on my own.  It was bittersweet since it was the first Thanksgiving ever that I haven't seen my family, but there was also a sense of accomplishment and pride that I could carry on my family's stuffing tradition.

8.  Olives (and other things that burst) from Tickets

Other than El Celler de Can Roca, the only other reservation we made before leaving for Barcelona was for Tickets Bar, the tapas bar that was opened by the Adrias (formerly of the impossible to get into El Bulli).  Tickets was an entertaining and whimsical place and there were so many options that we picked the "let your server choose your food for you" option.  The only thing we knew we wanted to get were las Olivas del Tickets (the Tickets olives), which were a signature dish and the same ones they had at El Bulli.  These little green bubbles were relatively solid on the spoon (although you did have to be careful), but they liquified instantly when they hit your mouth, bursting open to reveal tons of olive flavor.  It was like eating an olive in liquid form.  The whole experience was so much fun that I think it left me giddy.

We also had some other dishes at Tickets with things that "burst" in your mouth.  The miniairbags rellenos de queso manchego (manchego cheese mini airbags) looked like puff pastries but were crispy shells topped with manchego cheese and caviar which, when you bit into them, exploded with cool liquid cheese.  The ravioli liquido de queso Payoyo (liquid Payoyo cheese ravioli) looked like big opaque white bubbles with crackers on top, but exploded with cheese once you ate them.

While none of these dishes alone probably would have made this list based solely on their flavors (not that they were bad, but there was some tough competition this year), the enjoyable experience of eating the olives (and the other bursting foods) let us know we were in for a really fun dining experience at Tickets, one we will never forget.

9.  Xipirons

To me, one of the greatest food experiences one can have is the discovery of a new food to love.  It was like that with the artichokes, and it was like that with xipirons (Catalan)/chipirones (Spanish), which are a tiny squid that I have never seen anywhere except for Spain.  They're small (only a few centimeters long), really tender, and so much fun to eat.

One of the greatest dishes we had with xipirons (and we searched for them on menus once we realized we loved them) was xipirons amb mongetes (baby squid with white beans) from Pinotxo.  Suggested by Juanito (of course), the dish that arrived was filled with tiny squid, lots of white beans, and lots of balsamic vinegar.  It was delicious.

One of more popular ways to make chipirones was to fry them.

These fried chipirones from La Paradeta (a casual chain of places where you point to the seafood you want, which is all fresh out of the harbor that day, and then they make it) were like popcorn. I could just imagine eating these as a snack while walking around the city. Also delicious.

10.  Flower bomb from El Celler de Can Roca

After trying the flower bomb dessert at El Celler de Can Roca, I knew immediately that this would be on this year's favorite food memories list.  Jordi Roca is a genius.  This dessert - full of edible flowers - just tasted like spring, if spring had a flavor.  According to the menu, there was rose cream, loquats and orange blossom, chamomile sorbet, calendula gelatin, violet cloud and jasmine oil.  It arrived with most of those ingredients, including the flowers, inside a delicate clear sugar shell, sitting on a bed of what looked like violet cotton candy.  It was sweet, it was floral, it was fruity, and most of all, it was perfect for May and springtime.  I've never had any dessert like it - which made me feel so present in the time and space in which we were living - so I knew this would definitely be one of the best things I would eat all year.

Hoping 2013 brings great food memories (and hopefully something in NYC will make the list)!