Doritos Locos Tacos

I've spent a long time of my life living a lie. Ew! Taco Bell? Who the hell eats Taco Bell???? I used to say this, but the truth is UHM... I do! Time to come out and admit Taco Bell is the shit. Luckily, my best friend also has this love for TB, so anytime I have my craving for a disgusting yet delicious taco, I call her. When Taco Bell announced the arrival of their Doritos Locos Tacos, there was no doubt that we were going to get that crunchy creation the day it came out. Spring break diet aside, we made sure we got our hands on one of these tacos. Things like this don't happen everyday. If Taco Bell comes out with a Doritos taco, you go and get it! 

Clearly, we thoroughly enjoyed the taco and there were absolutely no regrets involved. A few days after, I saw Taco Bell was doing this whole 'send your tweet and we'll put it up in the middle of Times Square' shindig and OBVIOUSLY had to do it! The Doritos Locos Tacos excitement doesn't stop there. Below is a real life documentation of my friend Lindsay's magical experience with the Doritos Locos Tacos. 

Playa Bonita

Customary in spring break Mexican villas, a private chef is there to cook your meals day and night. Jealous of Playa Bonita's man of the house, Pepe, I was intrigued to taste the food cooked by this manly Mexican. Saving the best meal for last, my friends and I waited until our last night in Puerto Vallarta to eat at our guy friend's villa a.k.a Restaurant Pepe. Expecting a Mexican meal filled with guacamole and fajitas, we were all taken by surprise when Pepe walked out with a five star Italian meal. Garlic bread, meat sauce, and salad, Pepe really out did himself. However, Pepe could not help but incorporate some Mexican flair into the meal putting out a side of sour cream to accompany....our pasta?? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if this meal was so satisfying because Pepe really is a master in the kitchen, or because I had so many shots of tequila on the booze cruise that at that point anything would have tasted good. We ended our meal with a Kahlua cake, that Pepe got from "the best bakery in town." The man clearly knows how to please a bunch of American kids on spring break. Miss that sweet man <3 

Guess I'm not the only one who enjoyed it...

BCM

Three simple words: Black Cod Miso. This simplistic dish by Nobu never fails to be jam packed with flavor. The white flaky fish with the sweet caramelized miso glaze is truly irresistible. I don't think I'll be flashing my titties anytime soon like another patron has done in the past, but I might consider some other extreme forms to show my appreciation to Chef Estrellado. (Stop with your dirty minds!!)

Birthday Bites

Thanks to some amazing friends, the birthday surprises kept on coming all week long! It started with three delicious cupcakes from Tee and Cakes. All flavorful and moist, it was hard choosing which one I liked the best. 

mint chocolate chip, red velvet & salted caramel

The next major surprise was so amazing it received a shriek! After getting ready for what I thought would be an afternoon of happy hour goodness, I was surprised to see Oak at Fourteenth's kale salad sitting on the porch!!! Better then any happy hour out there, Oak's kale salad is so beyond delicious - I'm addicted! The salad was also accompanied by some fried pickles, making it the complete delicious meal I had been yearning for since my last visit to Oak. 

Like I've blogged before in the past, everyone at Oak is amazing! Since I'm apparently super hard to get rid of, avoiding me until dinner time was not an option for my friends. They asked Oak to whip up this birthday lunch for me after they had already closed down for their siesta and they did! So nice & best birthday surprise ever!!

22 never tasted so good!

After a long hiatus, I'm back to blogging. This past week it was my 22nd birthday. Twenty two is a hard number to absorb. You're stuck between the party/drinking/college phase of your life and the mature/career phase of your life - It's just awkward... Anyway, moving onto the food. Being that my friends and I live 30 minutes outside of Denver, but yet never make it there to eat at any of their amazing restaurants, I decided there needed to be a change. Boulder has an amazing restaurant scene, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to venture out once in a while. After some research, I decided to make reservations at ChoLon - a modern asian bistro. The executive chef, Lon Symensma, is the former chef at Buddakan in New York City, so for all of us it was a little taste of home. Our meal started off with this large airy rice cracker thing. A change from the usual bread basket, I was excited to see something different. It started off the meal quite nicely. 

The concept of the restaurant is that all the dishes are served family style, so everything it meant to be shared - a little tapas action going down.

curried duck spring rolls w/ cilantro yogurt

pork belly pot stickets w/ ginger mustard

crispy calamari w/ lemon-chili aioli

soup dumplings, sweet onion, gruyere

beef tartare, chinese mustard, tapioca puffs

yellow curry mussels, pork belly, french fries

kung pao chicken, spiced peanuts, szechuan sauce

black pepper short rib, house made chow fun, chinese broccoli

vegetable fried rice, poached egg

shrimp & lobster chow fun, black bean sauce, scallion

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

Overall a pretty solid & delicious meal! Hopefully this dinner in Denver trend continues.

ChoLon

1555 Blake Street 

Denver, CO 80202

SOBE Wine & Food

Tomorrow kicks off the start of South Beach Wine & Food Festival. It's sort of hard for me to talk about this. I've been living my life in severe FOMO for the past couple of days. 
Fomo /foe-moe/ [noun]: Fear of missing out
Yes it's true...I sincerely fear that I'm missing out on some of the best food out there. A concentration of food, chefs, restaurateurs, and everyone in that business all in sunny Miami. Sounds like my idea of paradise. What's really getting at me is not the fact that I'm clearly missing out on the event of the year, but the fact that I'm missing out on BURGER BASH! I've seen the menu and man'o'man it's not normal! Burger heaven in a nut shell. Obviously I'm clearly team Burger & Barrel (Go Josh!!) but I can tell there is going to be tough competition. Do you see Sugarcane's burger?? Damn son. 

Until next year....

"All We Do Is Lin Lin Lin"

Jeremy Lin. Does that name mean anything to you? If not there is seriously something wrong and you should probably come up from underneath that rock you are living under. I think it is safe to say that J.Lin has officially taken over. Twitter and Facebook aside, Jeremy has now begun to get food named after him. Do you know what this means? Getting food named after you? That is celeb status right there. Congrats Jer! You've mad it!

Shake Shack

Baohaus - The Taiwanese Te Bao

Taiwanese pork chop with curry seasoning, pickled daikon-carrot, jalapeno, aioli and cilantro, served in a Bao

Oak at Fourteenth

Its been a while since I've had a meal totally knock my socks off. Boulder has some great restaurants, don't get me wrong, but I always find myself going to the same ones. After a while they loose their excitement, so when the special occasion of my roommate's birthday came around I decided to take the bull by the horns and go try a restaurant that very few people I know have been to. 

The amount of times I've past by Oak by Fourteenth isn't okay, but yet I never went in. Unfortunately a while back a fire got out of control and destroyed the restaurant. About 9 months later Oak re-opened completely remodeled and ready to take over Boulder. Ever since this re-opening I've been seeing amazing reviews pop up all over the internet. It was almost like a sign from God. Everywhere I clicked, I read something amazing about this place and it immediately moved up to my #1 must try in Boulder.

Stalking their menu for a week prior to the reservation, I walked in there knowing exactly my plan of attack. Every single thing that hit our table tonight was unreal. The dishes, simple yet very original, led all my friends and I to moan...maybe a little too much? 

We started off our first round of courses with a sampling of dishes from the shared plates section of their menu.

Lasater Farm Braised Meatballs & Burrata, Anson Mills Grits

Fried Risotto & Feta Fritters, Pomegranate Molasses, Roasted Peppers, Dill

Organic Shetland Salmon "Crudo" White Asparagus, Tomatillo, Yuzu

Crispy Fried Pickles & Green Goddess Aioli

With expectations set high from what we had already eaten, the next round of food, from their small plate section, was not a disappointment, to say the least. 

Wood Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, Cinnamon Spiced Marshmallow

Honey Crisp Apple & Kale Salad, Parmesan, Togarashi, Almonds

Now, as our stomachs start to fill, our main dishes come out and are just as equally irresistibly. The fact that I made my friends hold back their knives and forks in order to snap a pic was not okay. I feared my life for a good 2 minutes.

Wood Grilled Rocky Junior Chicken

Gruyere & Roasted Garlic Stuffing, Baby Carrots, Chicken Jus

Pan Roasted Striped Bass

PEI Mussels, Cerignola Olives, Oregano & Chickpeas

I don't have the exact description but I'll give it a try:

Taggliate w/ Scallops, Shrimp, and PEI Mussels in a Lemon Butter Sauce

Oak Grilled Hoisin Glazed Shortribs

Roasted Squash, Jalapeno & House Made Beef Jerky Salad

Officially in food comas, we seemed to get some sort of a second wind. Having a taste of the birthday root beer float, we knew instantaneously we have to check out their dessert menu. I mean it was a special occasion and all, how could we not? 

Sadly enough, I also don't have the descriptions of the desserts. I wish I could because they were unreal, but....Three more desserts later,  someone needed to rolls us out of there. Needless to say I kind of want to go back tomorrow. Would they think I was stalking them? The food is just that good. Dinner = unreal. Staff = friendly, cute, and attentive. Hopefully they also do take out because I'll be all up on that. Be it lunch, dinner, or late night - I'm so making my way back here real soon! 

Pizza a Quattro Mani

New York City's #1 Neapolitan pizzaiolos are making their way down to Eataly for a series of yummy collaborative pizza dinners with Rossopomodoro. Forcella, Motorino, Keste, Numero 28 Pizzeria (to name a few) are coming in and throwing down their pizza making skills. It's going down every Monday and is only happening for the next six weeks, so make sure to get your ass there! I'm pretty positive you won't regret it. It's like a huge pizza orgy!

Speaking of Eataly I would like to congratulate Michael Ran on his new gig at Manzo! 

Oh Carmellini

Andrew Carmellini, the chef and owner at The Dutch and Locanda Verde, just tweeted this picture and I could not resist posting about it. It is Black Kale mother fucking Carbonara. Carbonara for starters is my ultimate go to number one lover pasta. The smokiness from the meat and the creaminess of the egg. I can't. It's just too good. 

Stop it right now with that black kale! Are you kidding me Carmellini?! I need this pasta now. Would it be totally ridiculous if I booked a flight home from school to get my hands, or rather my mouth, on this pasta?? I think not.