Is there anything as delicious as a warm taco?

Yesterday was a seriously super rad day.

Work was bearable.

There was a delightful afternoon rain shower that kind of cooled off the hot nasty summer day.

I went and saw “Inception” (THAT MOVIE IS SPECTACULAR…except for all that unnecessary snow-mobile crap at the end)

And to top that all off, the lovely and talented Teresa of Mas Tacos was sweet enough to offer me an invite to the trial run or “soft opening” of her new stationary Mas Tacos shop!

First of all, the design aesthetic of her new place is beyond awesome.

Definitely Retro, but done in a smart way with a minimalist approach.

Her juke box is basically the best thing ever because:

1.) It’s free
2.) There are no record/song titles listed, so you just choose a letter and a number and see what happens! FUN!

The cacti situation was basically perfect.

This one made me wish I had flowers up in my do’.

This one was your typical “lean to the lefty”… AHEM.

And this guy was my buddy. He’s pretty.

ALSO, check out the light fixtures….so freaking smart…

It is truly the details that make a place interesting and beautiful.
Mas Tacos felt like home.
That sort of communal feeling of a tiny cafeteria or eating in a friends awesome living room.

WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO BUY TACOS FROM THESE ADORABLE LIL LADIES?

I asked Teresa if she was tired and this was her response!

Awwww….She’s so happy!!

Oh yeah. Delicious creamy-dreamy-magical-cool-that-fiery-mouth-off Hor Chata.

Always order this. It is god’s super special gift to the universe.
Trust.

And now, THE TACOS!

TACO #1: Quinoa with roasted tomatillo salsa, potato, jalapeno, corn, red cabbage, sour cream, lime, and cilantro!

TACO #2: Fried Tilapia with spicy dill yogurt, red cabbage, red onion, fresh lime, and cilantro!

I took a lot of pictures. They are just so pretty.

So pretty IN MY MOUTH!

Don’t ask me to pick a favorite because I WILL NEVER PICK A FAVORITE.

I was pretty much in Taco Heaven.

Because baby jayzus loves me despite my persistant disbelief in him, she opened her shop up two blocks from my house!!!
That means there will be a lot more taco consumption in my future.

Like, I may stop cooking altogether.

The restaurant is gorgeous.

The jukebox helps you take your taco experience to the max.

I love the gold paint. I love the layout of the place.

I love the retro-tastic trash can that I didn’t get a photograph of but will at some point.
(Again, trust me it’s wicked cool.)

I think you have a winner here Teresa. Congrats!
I’ll still be looking out for the taco truck, but I’m so excited to be able to get tacos on MY schedule now.

Mas Tacos will be opening officially this coming Tuesday July 27th at 11am til 8pm!
732 McFerrin Avenue
Nashville, TN
37206

Swedish Chef Popcorn

Um….yes please!

Get your giggle on!

Mint Cafe Coventry in Cleveland

Thai food makes me abundantly happy.

Which is funny, because I used to think I didn’t like it.

The first time I went to a Thai restaurant I was 16, on a date with a guy who grew up eating adventurous foods and definitely knew his ethnic cuisine.

Maybe he was trying to impress me, but at 16, if you take a girl out to a new scary ethnic restaurant when she grew up eating grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti, you have a really good chance of intimidating her into an awkward silence.

So, when I let my date order for me and I ended up with Soft shell crab atop noodles with basil and curry and peanuts and coconut milk my taste buds ran in the other direction not knowing how to cope with all these AMAZING FLAVORS!

I was horrified by the idea of soft shell crab (still not a fan) and I simply shut down at that point and didn’t give my dish a chance.

Let’s fast forward 11 years to current me, who loves curry, loves exotic flavors and looks forward to trying new foods with such enthusiasm you’d think I was a little soggy in the brain.

In Cleveland, tucked away in a cute hippie district called Coventry, lives a tiny little Thai place called Mint Cafe. I ventured in for lunch one of the days I was visiting my family and loved every minute!

I started with a big bowl of TOM KHAR GAI and I could have had 3 of them.
Rich and velvety.
Big plump mushrooms.
Perfect Sodium balance to cut the sweetness of the coconut.
TO DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS FOR! YUM!

Close-up…

Sweet little flowers on the table…

I also ordered Veggie Pad Thai and it was delicious, but I like mine to be peanuttier.
When I make it at home I make a peanut sauce using a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter.
It’s always freaking awesome.

Dig in!

Visit their website to see their full menu and more:http://www.mintcafecoventry.com/

Brunch Delights

Morning after wedding brunch set up by yours truly.
Enjoy!

Pound Cakes and Quickbreads galore…

Fresh Fruit Tarts & Carrot Cake mini cupcakes…

Quiches and Breakfast Casseroles…

I made little signs…with my horrible handwriting…

Cookies & Macaroons…

Fresh Skewered fruit!!!

Brunch is where it’s at yo.

Wedding Food!

So, as you know, if you follow my bloggity….a few weeks ago, I travelled back up to Ohio to attend my cousin Kacie’s wedding and made sure to bring the new camera along to capture photos of the food.

OMG YOU GUYS….THE FOOD!

This was hands down, simply the most delicious wedding eats I have ever had.
Fresh, Bright, and Summery flavors….gorgeous presentation…

I didn’t eat ALL DAY so that I would look awesome in my dress and due to that, and the fact that I have no self control around delicious food, I scarfed down an embarrassing amount of wedding snacks…

Check out the outdoor cocktail hour set up.

I think I ate 46 olives.

And I basically just hovered over the table for a straight hour shoveling delicious things into my face.

Fresh Pico….mmmmmm

Super garlic Hummus!

More olives for me to gorge myself on.

I ate so much cheese! SO MUCH CHEESE.

I know you need a close up of the cheese.

You are welcome.

Did you know that Pineapple salsa tastes good on almost anything?

Except maybe mint chocolate chip ice cream…but I can’t be entirely sure about that.

Ohhh these flatbread cracker guys were the ultimate vehicle for the Ceviche that I stalked and revisited again and again.

Shrimp & Avocado Ceviche of my dreams…

Another pretty shot. This stuff was addictive.

This was plate # 4….It is probably a good thing they didn’t have larger plates because It would have gotten really carnal up there…although small plates never stopped me from grubbing hard..

Washed it all down with a Cosmo…A really strong Cosmo that took me an hour to drink…

I’m assuming they are drinking sodas..

Unfortunately I forgot to charge my battery before the wedding and after all these photos my camera died…

So….this is all I got…but it was awesome and caused me to have somewhat of a food baby for the rest of the night and I didn’t even really eat much of the dinner or any cake…

BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!! I LOVE SNACKIE PLATES!

Asshole Comments & The Impulsive Buy

Obviously I have a blog, which is on the internet, and open to everyone….and of course, because the world is full of idiots that have computers, every so often I’ll get a stupid comment like:

” Your cookies look like dogshit” or ” Show me your tits because your blog is dumb”.

Very Original.

I’m used to this, and I usually delete them because I can.

One of the funniest, if not THE funniest food-related blog in the internet is “The Impulsive Buy”.
http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/wordpress/

I’ve been reading it for at least a couple of years and Marvo (Impulsive Buy’s main contributor/creator) is hilarious in a very specific way that approaches comic genius.

(Or at least it always makes me laugh out loud…)
He curses freely, talks about sex, and his comparisons of the products/food he reviews often border on the offensive.
But it’s always funny.
Always.
Big fan.

He even has video reviews…

http://www.youtube.com/user/theimpulsivebuy#p/a/u/2/uIoaM8cAa8E

Anyway, I was hanging out on his blog this morning and saw this comment by some fucktard “MIKE”, that was in reference to a post about McDonald’s new Fruit Smoothies.
Marvo’s response to Mike’s comment had me in a full on evil giggle trying to keep milk & cereal from launching out of my nasal cavities and onto my keyboard.
Might be one of the best handled bullshit comment responses I’ve ever seen…
I just thought I’d share….

Mike: because there is a touch screen it is part iphone? That is really stupid. Because I have two arms does that make me part octopus?

Marvo: Really? Is that the best kind of insulting comment you could leave behind. It’s like you put no effort into it. I know tweens that can leave better comments than you did. Geez, you need to go hang out and read comments on Digg.

Here’s how I would’ve done it.

First, you’re using capitalization all wrong. If you’re going to start off with a lowercase letter, then ALL of your words should be lowercase. Although, for more emphasis, you could’ve said “THAT IS REALLY STUPID!” in all uppercase. See that, it’s like you’re yelling at me because you can’t yell at me in person. I personally would said, “THAT IS REALLY FUCKING STUPID” because profanity, or as I prefer to call it, Webster’s Sugar, adds more emphasis. Also, I prefer to use contractions. “THAT’S REALLY FUCKING STUPID” flows better. Oh, don’t forget to include in exclamation point.

But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s analyze your first sentence. Again, use contractions. Also, use txt speak because it’s shorter and it make it harder for me to determine if you’re a teenaged girl or a 30 year old man pretending to be a teenage girl. Although, your username, kind of gives it away. But next time use something a little more ambiguous like iloveboys2010. Again, hard to determine if you’re a teenaged girl or a 30 year old pedophile. Another thing you’re missing is typos. Any good insulting comment has typos. So here’s how I would rewrite your first sentence, “cuz their’s a touch screen it’s part iphone?”

Of course, I went over your second paragraph, so right now we have “cuz their’s a touch screen it’s part iphone? THAT’S REALLY FUCKING STUPID!”

Okay, let’s move on to your last sentence. Again, let’s start off with the txt speak, so “because” is shortened to “cuz.” Now, I feel like your octopus example is kind of weak. I might’ve gone with “cuz I sit on the toilet whenever I have to take a pee, does that make me part woman” or “cuz I left a poorly constructed insulting comment on some shitty blog, does that make me a dick.”

So let’s put it all together. “cuz their’s a touch screen it’s part iphone? THAT’S REALLY FUCKING STUPID! cuz I left a poorly constructed insulting comment on some shitty blog, does that make me a dick.”

Perfect!

Go visit The Impulsive Buy:http://www.theimpulsivebuy.com/wordpress/

Presti’s Bakery in Cleveland (Little Italy)

I know, I was just in Cleveland last month!
Well, Here I am again, and this time I got tons of pictures from Presti’s Bakery!!

I took a lot of random pictures of tasties!

I would love a giant plate with a little of each of these right now….TUMMY GOES GRUMBLE….

OH THE SWEETS!!!

I feel my hips expanding…

Napoleon’s are so insanely heavenly…oh and the calories…

What more could you want? It’s chocolate, and it’s square!

These little beauties are mini cheesecake tarts w/ fresh berries…NOMMM

I’ve only had a Canoli once, and I think it had been sitting in the display case too long…was NOT a fan..I bet these would have changed my mind…

But, the MAIN attraction for me, was of course THE GELATO!!!

Fresh, light, and clean mint flavor with the most delicate and delicious chocolate brittle throughout.
A total knockout.

And here is a close-up because I’m mean.

Before you put your mouth on the computer screen remember it will only bring you sadness.

There were a couple of other little shops that also had Gelato in Little Italy but I just couldn’t stray.
I <3 Presti's
If you are ever in Cleveland do yourself a favor…

http://www.prestisbakery.com/