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mario batali

Random Fodder

The Liebster Award and Some Stuff About Me

May 24, 2013

I was totally (and pleasantly!) surprised to find that my colleague (and someone I admire greatly and aspire to be like one day) Jenny Badman nominated me for the Liebster Award!  Yay, awards!

liebster2

Basically, the Liebster Award is a way for bloggers to share the blogs they read and love with others, which I think is super awesome. So when you get the award, you have to do 2 (technically 3) things. 1. You nominate other blogs for the award. 2. You answer a bunch of random, quirky questions and 3. You share 11 random things about yourself. So sit back and relax, and let’s do this thing.

Get excited.

Get excited.

What is your favorite book?

I’m so bad with picking favorites. I’m so indecisive, and my moods change so fast. Here are a couple books that I love. The entire Harry Potter series (Order of the Phoenix is my favorite); To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee; Bossypants, Tina Fey; Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Seth Grahame-Smith; The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood; My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett; Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams;  Water For Elephants, Sara Gruen …ok, I’ll stop there.

What is your greatest fear?

Well I’m afraid of 3 things. Two of them are pretty normal, the 3rd is a bit “out there.” 1. Clowns. 2. Tornados 3. Being in a car/train/airplane, falling asleep and then the car/train/plane crashes or something and I die and I don’t know that I’m dead. I realize how weird and morbid the 3rd one is, but I can’t help it. That’s why I rarely fall asleep while travelling.

If you could have one superpower what would it be?

Floo powder. I want to have floo powder. Which I guess is technically not a power, and more of an element, but I don’t care.

Ok, on second thought, fire scares me. Let's just go with apparition.

Ok, on second thought, fire scares me. Let’s just go with apparition.

What is the quality you are most proud of?

I really hate qualitative (no pun intended) questions like this. I guess that I’m proud of thoughtfulness? I like being able to help people out and pleasantly surprise them. Like Leslie Knope.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

When people refuse to try new food. I can’t stand picky people. It’s one thing if it came from a restaurant and you don’t want to try it, but if someone spent their time making something from scratch and you refuse to try it because you “don’t like avocado” or something equally lame, I’m pretty sure they’re reserving a special place for you in hell with all the other rude, selfish people. There are lots of foods that I thought I didn’t like until I actually tried them (see: tomatoes, beans, avocados, and sushi). One little bite to placate someone’s feelings isn’t going to kill you. Unless you’re allergic to shellfish and they’re serving shrimp, in which case you get a pass.

Who is your idol?

I’ll go ahead and be cliché here and say my mother. Tina Gallimore is a force to be reckoned with.

You don't mess with Tina Gallimorski... she will CUT YOU.

You don’t mess with Tina Gallimorski… she will CUT YOU.

What is your most embarrassing moment?

Oh God, where do I even begin. My brother would probably say it was the time my pants fell down in the middle of Ruby Tuesday’s. He tells that story pretty much anytime I introduce him to new people, which is annoying because it happened when I was in 5th grade or something like that.

Where do you draw inspiration for how you live your life?

My parents, my friends, fictional characters I admire, and Jennifer Lawrence.

If you could live in any era, which era would you choose?

I want to be 16 in 1980 and live through the 80’s. I love the 80’s. What a great time for music. And fashion

I really think I would've flourished in the 80's.

I really think I would’ve flourished in the 80’s.

If you could have lunch with ANYONE – living or dead – who would you choose?

Why do all of these questions have to be superlatives?! My catchphrase is like that old Lay’s slogan, only mine reads “Betcha can’t pick just one.” I want to pick one person from like 10 of eras and then have one amazing lunch where I learn all about the history of the world from people who were actually there to see it. Here’s my lunchtime Super Group lineup: Eve (the one from the Bible, not the rapper… although to be honest, I’d be fine with either), Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Queen Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Freddie Mercury, Princess Diana, Will Smith, Tina Fey, and all of the Spice Girls.

What is your ultimate life goal?

I want to be a good friend, to make people laugh, to love and to be loved, and to see and do as much as I can before I die.

11 random things about me:

  1. I can wiggle my eyeballs.
  2. My favorite movie is the Princess Bride.
  3. My go-to karaoke song is Don’t Stop Believing by Journey.
  4. I have a scar on my forehead in basically the same spot as Harry Potter (but it’s not a lightning bolt).
  5. I hate mushrooms.
  6. I hoard board games. I own probably 50 different ones, and I’m constantly buying more.
  7. I love gossip, but I’m terrible at keeping secrets.
  8. Mario Batali tweeted at me once.
  9. I’ve been to Dubai.
  10. My favorite planet is Neptune. Don’t ask me why, because I have no reason for it.
  11. Batman is my favorite superhero (and if you even try to argue that he’s not technically a superhero because he doesn’t have any super powers, I will light you on fire).

The final bit of this thing is to share the love with some other bloggers I love, so here you go. Please go check out these awesome blogs: Table Scraps, Greenville Bites, and Foodmancing The Girl.

Restaurant Reviews

Tico, Boston, MA

September 21, 2012

So unless you’ve been living under a rock, or you’re new to this blog, or you just generally don’t care about the goings-on of my life, you know that a couple weeks ago I flew to Boston to help my cousin move into her dorm. While I was there I ate some delicious food at some delicious restaurants. I picked most of the restaurants we visited by cross-checking Urbanspoon and Yelp reviews with their location and menu offerings. It’s a very scientific process.

Exactly like Bill Nye

While I was up late one night on Twitter, I decided to try my luck and tweet at celebrity chef Mario Batali, asking him where to eat in Boston. I didn’t expect to get a response. BUT THEN I DID. Here’s proof.

PROOF!

We ended up eating at Tico on our final night in Boston, which might have been part of the problem. We’d had such amazing food the entire time we were there, so my expectations were really high. When we decided to go to Tico, I was really going only because Mario Batali told me to. I didn’t really know that it was a Tapas restaurant until we got there. I’ve never had Tapas before, but here’s what I discovered. You’re basically paying for a full meal, but only getting appetizers. Odds are, you’re not going to leave feeling very full.

Truer words were never spoken.

When we first walked in, it was dark. Like really dark. Like, we had to use our phones to be able to see the menus. I’m all about ambience, but that’s getting a little ridiculous. We also were sitting for about 10 minutes before I went up and asked the hostess if someone could bring us some water, since we hadn’t seen anyone who worked there since the hostess sat us. Mind you, this was a Tuesday night. It was not busy.

Like this, only pitch black.

There were four of us, and the waiter (when he finally showed up) suggested that we order 2-3 things a person. Mind you, these “little plates” ranged from $6 to $14 a plate. Or you could do a chef’s tasting for $35, $55, or $85 a person, depending on how hungry you are. Thank god they bring you free bread, or we might have starved. We started with the two-textured beef with morita chiles taco. The tacos came on 6-inch corn tortillas and there were two of them, so we cut them each in half so all four of us could try everything. I really liked it, but Tina hated it. Also, it was very, very spicy. I thought it had a good texture and a good flavor, even if it did burn the tastebuds off of my tongue.

I should have drawn some flames or something so you’d understand that it was really spicy.

We also got the lobster and avocado tacos, which everyone seemed to love. These were also a bit spicy, but not as bad as the beef ones. I liked these as well, but I’m not sure 2 6-inch tacos were worth $12.

Obviously I didn’t take this picture. I stole it from Google.

From there we ordered off of the “a la plancha” section of the menu. We got meatballs with smoky tomato and chicken with spicy pomegranate. The meatballs were served in a sweet sauce, that Tina absolutely hated. I didn’t mind them, but they tasted a lot like the meatballs you get out of the freezer section of Sam’s Club when you’re planning your Superbowl Party. They didn’t taste homemade at all.

Still not entirely convinced that these didn’t come from Costco

The chicken was good, but it really just tasted like bite-sized pieces of grilled chicken. The pomegranate sauce was delicious, and that’s what made it stand out. But without the sauce, the chicken was just… chicken.

See. Chicken.

From there we moved onto the Small Plates. We ordered the Tico’s Mac and Cheese with serrano ham and crunchy bread crumbs. I don’t usually like macaroni and cheese with anything fancy, especially ham (since I hate ham). But I actually loved this. Uncle Greg thought it was a bit watery, but that was fine because it meant more for me.

CHEESY GOODNESS

Next we ordered chorizo risotto with pasilla chiles, scallion and parmigiano. For me, chorizo is pretty hit or miss. Some places do it really well, but most places miss the mark. I liked this pretty ok. Tina hated it, but she also hates chorizo, so. I probably wouldn’t order it again, but it was pretty ok.

Mediocrity in the form of risotto

After the risotto we ordered the crispy fried Manchego cheese with spicy pomegranate honey sauce, which was pretty popular on Yelp. It was a pretty unanimous favorite of the table. Basically it was a fried cheese stick with pomegranate dipping sauce. They came out hot and crunchy, and the cheese was ooey and gooey. I would definitely recommend ordering this if you ever end up at Tico.

Stolen from Google. Mine was all blurry

Another favorite was the sweet corn with bacon, chiles and Thai Basil. It came out nice and warm and tasted like it had been cooked with the bacon, very smoky and delicious. I love any vegetable that tastes like bacon. The corn was cooked perfectly. It was crisp and delicious, and I wish I knew how to make this, because it’s amazing.

BACON CORN. Ron Swanson would approve.

Finally the roasted cauliflower with creamy chipotle and crushed, crunchy Fava Beans. Cauliflower isn’t my favorite, but this wasn’t bad. I know Uncle Greg liked it, but I can’t remember Tina’s thoughts. I think we both just thought it was just ok.

I tend to avoid fava beans, because they always make me think of Silence of the Lambs and it creeps me out.

Our waiter asked if we wanted dessert, but they really didn’t have anything special on the menu. I mean, chocolate cake is a dime a dozen. We ended up going to Ben and Jerry’s for an ice cream instead, and it was a much better value.

This picture alone made it all worth it.

Basically, Tico would be a great spot for a first date. It’s very romantic and the food is good for having conversation, since you’re just snacking. I don’t think I’ll ever go back. I’ll take a little hole-in-the-wall place that serves amazing food, over a trendy, ambience-heavy restaurant every day of the week.

Tico
222 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA 02116

Tico Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato