On Wednesday night, Matt and I went with a large group, including a Captain and Master Chief who were in town from Italy, to a restaurant in el Puerto de Santa Maria. Upon entering the place from the street, I was SO excited and I made matt stop and take a picture. The courtyard was AMAZING! This picture is taken from the street into the restaurant area. Matt, as usual, was not pleased I chose to include him in the photo, but atleast I caught him off gaurd and he didn't have too much time to conjure up a silly face.
The dim atmosphere inside was excellent too (more like what us Americans are used to), unlike some of the local bar/restaurants around here that are more on the casual, well lit side. I immediately told matt that this place will be GREAT to bring people back to!
The menu was small, but decent. A majority of the table went with the safe choice of Atun (tuna). Although tuna looked good... I went with pulpo y patata asada. Baked octopus and potato. Hey, i've had tons of chocos fritos here and loved 'em (another variation of squidy, octopusy, calamari-ish deliciousness) so why not?! I was feeling brave.
Matt took a long time looking over the small menu and asked me if I knew what carpaccio was. I'd heard heard that word before. Darn it, what was it? Well, I was thinking it was the dish where they chop up bits and pieces of shrimp, onion... etc with olive oil and serve it in a glass. I tried this same dish when we were in Mexico and it was VERY good. Matt promptly told me that he would "NOT be ordering a dinner that came in a glass."
So, I wasn't worried that I could possibly be wrong about what carpaccio actually was, because Matt had said he wasn't going to get it. Well, the waitress came round the table... and Matt orders... CARPACCIO! Uh oh, this is when I start praying that is what I said it was and not some strange part of an animal.
Ummmm so this is what matt got.
LOL. It was when the plate arrived that I immediately realized I had confused the word Carpaccio with Ceviche. Whooops. Carpaccio is thin delicate slices of extremely rare meat. Wow. Who'da thunk that something would get ordered stranger than octopus and potatoes! :)
My pulpo y patata was good. I wouldn't order it again (would rather try some other strange plate), but it was edible aside from being a little too salty. Poor matt, this was all he ate. One bite. I also tried it and didn't think the flavor was so bad, but neither of us could get over the consistency. We all laughed.
Most of us ordered desserts, and the chocolate volcano cake took 45 minutes to bake. My sorbet (trying to be good) came out in a ice cream dish, melted with a plastic straw. Is that normal??? Anyway, it tasted like one of the bad flavors of Flintstone vitamins you avoid and leave at the bottom of the bottle. :)
Needless to say, it was an interesting night with interesting food that cost a bit too much for what we got!!! Matt and I WILL return, for ambiance and drink... but i'm not so sure we'll be ordering food!!!
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