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| Lunch at Tapeo
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We had lunch at a Tapeo,
a tapas restaurant in Boston's Back Bay. It was a terrific meal: 3+ by my
rating scale.
This picture is of Tapeo's sunken entrance. The second floor of the
building also belongs to Tapeo. In fact, we got to sit next to the
picture window shown here!
| Inside the second floor of Tapeo, looking toward the picture window where
we sat. Through it, we got nice views of Newbury St, Back Bay's ritzy
main street. Across from us were lovely, high-class stone/brick
townhouses.
Incidentally, the first floor is much more bar-like, dark, and quite drab.
| The inside of the restaurant, as seen from where we sat. I like the
decorative copper plating on the walls.
| Sangria. Very good: strong, flavorful, and well mixed. I was
disappointed it didn't have any chunks of fruit.
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Dense, heavy bread. Eh.
Weak hummus.
Certainly, the least tasty picture in this set.
| "Gambas al Ajillo - garlic shrimp." One of the stars of the meal. We
smelled the dish as it approached our table. Delivered still bubbling
in a hot dish, the dish was "terrific," receiving comments like "Oh my
... oh my ... oh my" and "wow." Look at all the garlic in the picture!
After finishing the shrimp, we soaked up garlicky juices with bread. If
I recall correctly, my mom was double-fisting her sauces--she had bread
in both hands as she dipped and ate. (Note: I don't remember if both
dippings were for the garlic sauce or if only one was and one was going
to another sauce.)
| "Queso Con Miel - Goat Cheese with Honey & Sweet Onion." The other star
of the meal. We hesitatingly ordered this because neither me nor my mom
are generally fans of goat cheese. But, our waitress recommended it so
strongly and claimed rightly that it wasn't like normal goat cheese. It
was, in fact, sweeter than most goat cheeses, deep-fried, and served
with honey. Given that it's soft, somewhat sweet cheese inside something,
it made us think about cheese blintzes. We all really enjoyed it,
despite not normally liking goat cheese.
Incidentally, we thought the purportedly sweet onion puree might instead
have been apricot.
| "Chorizo a la Plancha - Grilled Spanish Sausage." Classic. Traditional,
interesting grilled spicy chorizo. Good, of course.
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| "Ravioles de Mariscos - Lobster and Crab Meat Ravioli with Langostino
Sauce." Pretty good. I think we liked this sauce enough to soak it up
with bread as well.
| "Setas al Ajillo - Sauteed Portabella Mushrooms." Basic, quality sauteed
mushrooms.
| "Pinchos de Pez Espada - Marinated and Grilled Swordfish Skewer." The
worst dish of the night, at least according to my parents. "Awful." Our
main complaint was that the swordfish was very fishy.
| "Tarta de Santiago - Almond Flour Cake with Coffee Cream." Dense. We
liked it. This dessert actually felt jewish. It tasted like almond
biscotti, though with a dramatically different texture. It reminded me
of a dessert I had at a Greek festival that people dip in coffee.
(Perhaps that dessert was the inspiration for this cake and its coffee
cream sauce.) I was surprised to find the coffee was mild enough so
that it didn't bother me.
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| "Tarta de Chocolate - Rich, Flourless Chocolate Cake with raspberry sauce
and pine nut sauce." So very dense that one can feel the resistance as
one cuts the cake. Good enough to get us to smack our lips. The
intensely sweet raspberry sauce, however, I felt overwhelmed the cake; I
tried to select pieces with less sauce on them.
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Our waitress was very friendly and open, and she gave good advice. Not
only did she describe dishes well and make recommendations--she didn't
lead us astray with the goat cheese recommendation--, she also made
anti-recommendations. We thought about ordering the vegetarian crepes.
She said, simply and directly, "don't get that."
| The total was $25/person including tax and tip but not including drinks.
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| Elsewhere in the Back Bay
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After lunch, we walked around the Back Bay. As I've described it
previously, I won't repeat myself here.
| Half a block from the restaurant, we came across this humorous sign.
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| Dinner
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Due to our large lunch, we had a light dinner at home in Maine: matzah
ball soup with vegetables.
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