Sortino's restaurant

We ate at Sortino's in Itaewon the other night for a co-worker's going away dinner. The top photo is of the penne with mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, with basil. The bottom photo is the potato gnocchi. For appetizers, we had the buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes and basil, and the sauteed mushrooms. Both of which were very good. I was slightly disappointed in the penne -- not much in the way of mozzarella, and it was slightly overbaked. The cheese risotto was very nice, with a rich flavor.

Korean Mexican food

I found a Mexican food joint (big sigh of relief). So when I'm craving Mexican, while this still isn't quite like home, it will at least satisfy the craving. That's two beef tacos in corn tortillas, with cheese, lettuce, tomato salsa (mostly onion), black olives, and sour cream.

The place is called Taco Amigo and is in Iteowan, near the office. They also had burritos, quesadillas, tortilla soup, and corona beer. They had taquitos on the menu, but they called them Mexican spring rolls.

Billy's Boathouse Grill

We ate at Billy's Boathouse Grill tonight. It was a bit on the disappointing side.

I had the shrimp and scallop alfredo (the fried shrimp looked good, but I just had fried shrimp last weekend). The shrimp and scallops were good, and there was a pretty even amount of both shrimp and scallops. But the sauce was heavy and cloying (yes, I know it's alfredo, but even this was a bit too much). I ended up picking out the shrimp and scallops, and just having a few bites of the side vegetables. I had the vegetables on the side, instead of potatoes or rice, and they were overcooked and bland. The broccoli was so cooked it was pretty much not green anymore.

Carlon had the steak sandwich. The steak was good quality meat, but it wasn't seasoned before it was cooked, which would have imparted a nice flavor. There was also a side of cole slaw, but it looked like KFC cole slaw, and tasted watery.

While we were there, there was a group of women in the next room over. They started screaming at one point in time, and the men from the bar started going to this room. Instead of baboon mating calls, I guess these were human mating calls. I never realized that if I screamed along with a bunch of other women at the same time that men would appear. And I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to try it at any time in the future, either.

St Petersburg, Florida

Pelicans at St Petersburg, Florida, near the pier, by the Art Museum.

Sea horse on the ground on the foot of the pier at St Petersburg, Florida.

Boats in Tampa Bay, view from the end of St Petersburg Pier.

We went to St Petersburg, Florida this weekend, staying at the Pier Hotel near downtown. It's an older hotel, and it's big selling point is a lovely veranda on which we sipped wine during afternoon/evening happy hour. The rooms were decent sized, but the bathrooms were tiny. And there was no view except for the backside of another building from our room. And the walls with the connecting doors were a bit thin, we could hear a lot more of our next door neighbors' conversation than we really wanted.

Another great selling point was the fact that there was so much within walking distance -- the art and history museums (which I hope to get to the next time we go to St Pete), the pier, Central Avenue (first Friday of the month is a huge street party), and lots of restaurants and shops.

For dinner on Friday, we ate at the Central Avenue Oyster Bar. I had the crab cakes and enjoyed them. There was clearly recognizable crab meat in them, and they weren't mushy. They had just enough spice for flavor (in other words, they weren't too hot for me!). Carlon had the bourbon salmon. Dinner started with a caesar salad. And was accompanied by bread served with olive oil drizzled over grated parmesan cheese. Sides were fresh vegetables (broccoli, yellow squash, green beans) and mashed potatoes. The vegetables were clearly fresh, although the broccoli was a tad overcooked. The potatoes were bland. Service was good.

Finally...

It's taken almost a year, but I've found a Mexican restaurant that can assuage those Mexican food cravings. Granted, we don't eat out very often, which might explain why it's taken so long. But I haven't been too interested in trying Mexican restaurants since the first one was not so great. I had heard that La Nopalera was good, and as we passed it while we were trying to decide where to eat, we decided to try it. We ate at the one on Philips Hwy.

Anyway, I had the taco plate, which came with 3 tacos with choice of meat, onions, cilantro and salsa on the side. Most places, instead of steak or shredded beef, serve ground beef, which just isn't right to me. So before ordering, I confirmed that these were steak and not ground beef. I was pleasantly surprised to see tacos looking very similar to those I can get in California. They didn't quite taste as good, but they will certainly suffice when I have a craving for Mexican food.

The Jacksonville version of In-n-Out

I had lunch at Five Guys yesterday. This is the Jacksonville answer to In-n-Out, and is as close to In-n-Out that I think I'm going to be able to get. Even the decor is similar, with white tile and red accents. The menu at Five Guys is pretty basic, but not as basic as In-n-Out's. Five Guys has hot dogs and a few other things as well, plus they also have peanuts in the shell that you can grab a handful of while you're waiting for your food. They cook the burgers when you order, and you can get a large or small version, and they have cheeseburgers, bacon burgers, and bacon cheeseburgers. And if you order fries, you get so many you have to share. One thing they don't have though is the lemonade. Other than that, I recommend Five Guys for lunch, just try and get there early so you beat the mad 12 o'clock rush.

The Grotto

Last Friday, we went after work to a place called the Grotto over in San Marco. This happens to be one of my favorite places so far because it reminds me of the wineries in Santa Barbara. And they have a very nice selection of wines by the glass.

This time, I tried the Penfolds "Bin 389" Cabernet/Shiraz, 04, South Australia and the Valdivieso "Reserve" Cabernet Franc, 04, Central Valley, Chile.

The cab/shiraz blend was quite delicious. Ever since I went to Canberra about a decade or so ago and met a wine connoisseur who highly recommended a Penfolds cab/shiraz blend, I try and taste them when I can. Of course, by now I can't remember which bin # he recommended, but I haven't been disappointed yet, as long as it wasn't one of the cheapest bottles on the shelf.

I decided to try the cabernet franc because first, it was from Chile, and I've really enjoyed Chilean wines lately, particularly the carmenere. And second, I'd tried some cabernet francs at several wineries in central California and I was interested in how the Chilean compared with the Californian. I enjoyed this wine also, but it had a bit more of a tannic taste to it than the cab/shiraz blend from Australia.

To go with the wines, I also had the mushroom, prosciutto and manchego cheese empanadas. The crust was nice and flaky. But the mushroom to prosciutto to cheese ratio was a bit off, with the mushrooms overpowering the flavor of the prosciutto and cheese. In fact, I could barely tell there was any cheese in there at all, let alone any prosciutto. The last time we went, I had the bruschetta, which was quite delicious with lots of nice tomato, garlic and basil.

Lunch at Lemon Grass

I had lunch at a restaurant today. I suppose for most people, that wouldn't be too big of a deal, but I think I can count the number of times I've eaten lunch out since I arrived in Jacksonville on one hand. Unless I count the sandwich shop on the first floor of my building; but then it's still probably under 10 times.

So, a friend and I went to Lemon Grass on Old Baymeadows Road for lunch today. And it was good. Apparently, lots of people like the Amazing, which is a peanut/coconut curry dish. For me, I had the sweet and sour with chicken. What I liked about this lunch menu was that you could choose which type of meat with which type of sauce/noodle. So if I wasn't feeling like chicken, I could have beef or shrimp. Or I could have chicken with either amazing or sweet and sour or any other number of curries and sauces available.

The sweet and sour chicken was very tasty -- not too sweet, and not too sour. It had some hidden bits of ginger, and also included baby corn, onion, pineapple, zucchini, snow peas, matchstick carrots, and bell pepper. Most of the time when I get this dish, it comes with just chicken, onion, bell pepper, and pineapple. So the addition of the other vegetables was a delight.

Also, we ended up sitting in the bar area -- this place gets crowded at lunch time. It was a tad bit cold when the front door opened, but otherwise service was good and timely. I noticed a decent number of Napa and Sonoma wineries represented in the bar -- many are ones that I particularly enjoy. So I may have to revisit for dinner one night.

Sticky Fingers

We went to Sticky Fingers in Atlantic Beach last night for dinner. Every now and again, there's nothing I like better than some messy ribs. I always go for the rib sampler so I can taste the several varieties of bbq styles.

Memphis Style Dry -- this is a dry rub, and while I'm not used to the dry rub since most ribs come with gooey sauce, I love the taste

Habanero Hot -- these are too hot for me; next time I'll have to ask them to replace it with the Tennessee Whiskey

Carolina Sweet -- these are good; a bit too sweet at first bite, but then the sweetness mellows

Memphis Style Wet -- similar taste as the Dry, but with the gooey sauce instead of the dry rub, good flavor