Saturday, June 13, 2009

Hooray for productive Saturdays!

Hello hello! I've had quite the productive Saturday, how about you?

My day started out with a long-ish run at 7:20 am. Jamie and I ran downhill (with every downhill there's a steep uphill) to meet running buddy numero uno by 7:30. I had to be back at the apartment by 9 to get ready for work, so I scrapped the original 8-9 mile plan so we wouldn't feel too rushed. We went with a basic out and back route that ended up being 7.5 miles...with a ginormous hill...so we only ran 7. Eh, I'm ok with that.

After getting back and showering, I shoved an english muffin with peanut butter in my face (Susan, you are a belly life saver) and then off to day number two at the running store! I kinda love it. I'm learning such random stuff about running shoes and it's fun talking to the customers and everyone I work with about running stuff (because I know most of my friends don't care ;p).

Wasn't really feeling the shred after running and standing for 7 hours straight, so
Day 4 will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm thinking no shred on long run days, yah?

I was thinking about making some sushi (california/spicy california rolls, eel avocado, eel cucumber) for dinner, but Jamie's tastebuds had something else in mind. We walked to Cleveland Park to check out Sabores - a tapas restaurant we had seen a few times but never visited. We read reviews on Yelp and across the board it seemed to get fairly good reviews about the food, but not so good reviews on the price. Figured we'd give it a shot anyway.

Tucked away on Ordway (just around the corner from Dino and across from California Tortilla), Sabores is entirely open air seating during the summer months. It resembles a side patio and has garage doors that are closed during the colder months. There aren't that many tables, but I thought it was a fun, cozy setting.

To start, we ordered (surprise!) Caipirinhas. Jamie went with the regular and I decided to try the
Caipiruva - a caipirinha with smashed red grapes!
It was really refreshing and I think the sweetness of the grapes were a great addition...it toned down the tartness of the lime. This is totally going on the next Caipirinha Saturday menu haha.

To supplement our bevies, our waiter brought out some crusty bread and this really good dip. It tasted like olive oil with coarsely chopped green olives and salt mixed in. Tasty!

For our dinner, Jamie and I decided to order 2 plates each and share. I picked the
Aguacata a la Reina "Sabores" (avocado stuffed with local crab salad and lemon vinaigrette) and the Taquitos de Borrego (braised lamb taquitos with red onion, radishes and salsa verde):

The avocado dish was surprisingly too avocado-y...and we all know how much I love avocado! I kinda wish they scooped out just a little bit of the avocado so you didn't just taste avocado. I didn't taste the lemon vinaigrette so I squeezed some lime from my taquitos on. I think the dish could have used some salt or something acidic. The crab salad was really mild tasting and creamy so it made the dish really rich. I don't know, I gave Jamie the top half of the avocado with the crab. Maybe that's where all the vinaigrette was??

I really loved the sauce on the taquitos, though I think this dish would be fine with beef. I don't think the lamb made it anything spectacular (and I love lamb).

Jamie picked the
Croquetas de Jamon (ham croquettes with serrano ham, green onions and manchego cheese), which were delicious because who doesn't love a deep fried ham croquette?? I only had one b/c I wanted to save room for dessert - these little suckers are heavy!
His second pick were the
Gambas al Ajillo (shrimp cooked in garlic, olive oil and oregano):
These were in an amazing sauce...tangy, garlicky and slightly briny. mmm. My one minor issue with the shrimp was that I'm used to this dish being less soupy/watery. Usually I've had the garlic shrimp that has a thicker base - almost like a garlic oil or butter. These were good, but c'mon...everyone loves some good garlic butter now and then ;)

Overall, the food at Sabores was fairly good...good sized portions for a tapas restaurant since each of these dishes could easily be split among 2-4 people. However, I don't think that I would go back again considering the prices. Well, maybe I'd go back for the Caipiruva ;)

For dessert we walked to Yogiberry for some frozen yogurt :) I'm always up for some Yogiberry, but I found myself craving it even more so today when I saw a bunch of people come into the store with cups this afternoon!

I asked the woman at the counter if I could sample some of the green tea flavor and yeah, not so good. Went with my standard:
Original with Yogurt Chips, Blackberries and Strawberries. They had a bunch of new toppings that I wanted to check out (cinnamon chips and canteloupe were on my maybe list, but not together) but alas, I am a creature of habit.

Jamie went with the candy filled dessert:
Original with M&Ms, Cap'n Crunch and Butterscotch Chips. He got all sad because he meant to ask for toffee crunch instead of butterscotch. All that just made my teeth hurt.

Time to watch the next installment of On the Road Again: Spain! Looking forward to a calm Sunday - 30 Day Shred and maybe an easy, mid to long run.

5 comments:

Mia {runs and rests} said...

Hi Karena!

It was sweet of you to drop by my blog. Yours is awesome!

What yummy eats you have here. From your previous post, I see you also like cold soba. Perfect for the summer heat, no?

Karena said...

Thanks! I'm still playing around with stuff...testing out new ingredients and recipes every day just so I can share :)

I love cold soba...so fast and versatile!

Anonymous said...

WHERE is cleveland park?!!! I live in the DC metro area, so I'm SO happy whenever someone arnd here post restaurant reviews. This tapas place looks SO awesome. I love the looks of that Aguacata a la Reina "Sabores"!! Whew! Say that 3 times fast!

Karena said...

Burp - It's just one stop north of Dupont Circle. Sabores is really easy to get to...you can practically see it as soon as you get off the metro :) I'll be sure to keep you posted on any other food adventures!!

Anonymous said...

No mochi on your frozen yogurt?!
-Selin