I had asked my parents if they wanted to babysit this past Friday so that the hubby and I could go out. My parents of course were very agreeable to the idea because they love the little man. Not only that, but they wanted to have him stay over for the entire weekend, and so here i am on Saturday night, missing the baby. Although I am sure he's having the time of his life. Probably doesn't miss us that much? It actually has been nice having a weekend with the hubby - renew and refresh - so date night Friday started with an early dinner. Last time we had a date night in Feb (my sis and her bf babysat), we were supposed to try eating at Talde. But the place had a 1.5 hour wait. Really not worth it since we live so close by. This Friday, we beat the crowd by going there at 6. No wait - free table. I was pretty happy with the food. The meals are supposed to be family style - shared - but since the hubby is vegetarian, he couldn't really share the stuff I was choosing because everything I wanted had meat in it. So I was stuffed to say the least. As a vegetarian, my hubby was very happy with the restaurant, as they were very accommodating and the waitress offered suggestions on how best to order. She was really nice and very knowledgeable about the menu. The menu isn't crazy big..the chef is Filipino so yes there are some throwbacks to Filipino food but it is an asian fusion restaurant, so other types of asian cuisine are represented. What did we order? For appetizers - my hubby got the Hawaiian Buns - These are basically 3 sliders with different fillings: Filipino Sausage, Fluke and Market Vegetable (which was Shiitake Mushroom), but my hubby opted to get all vegetable so 3 Shiitake mushroom sliders and wow they were really delicious. I snuck in a couple of bites. These had slivers of onions and some kind of awesome sauce..I ordered the Pretzel Dumplings because I read about them in NY magazine. This year they voted these the best dumplings. I liked the pork and chive filling and it came with a nice mustard dip, but not so sure how I feel about the whole pretzel-like outer shell. For me, dumplings should have a soft skin - that's what I'm used to. These had a bit of a crunchy chewy salty texture (yes like a pretzel should be). They tasted good enough but I wouldn't say the best dumplings ever. I could say innovative and original... For the main course, the hubster ordered the Ramen which was totally vegan. I tried the broth and I think it was a soy based one. Pretty good - the hubby liked it. How could I not order the Short Rib Kare-Kare? Their version has coconut milk (my family's version doesn't use coconut), so wasn't sure if I would like it but just the meat alone, how could I not like!? I have to give this dish props. I mean soft melt in your mouth short ribs..yum..the peanut sauce was thicker than the usual filipino version I'm used to. It also had shaved coconut on the top which was a nice touch. I think he translated the dish very nicely. I'm not sure what non-flips will think of this dish but I really enjoyed it. We also ordered a side of fried rice - come on it's just rice you might say, but it was really good - flavorful on it's own and had a crunch to it - which I think was toasted onion. It typically is Shrimp Fried rice but since I was sharing it, the waitress offered it sans shrimp. We also ordered brussel sprouts because I needed some kind of vegetable. Roasted - they typically come with some anchovy based sauce but the waitress also advised we could have the sauce on the side so that we could share it. So that's what we did and it tasted really good to me. The wine offerings were nice as well. I had a glass of Riesling and it wasn't overly sweet which sometimes can happen. It was just right. The piece de resistance was the dessert. They only have one dessert and it's once again a throw back to Filipino desserts which I love...Halo Halo! Shaved Ice with condensed milk, tapioca, mango, banana, macapuno, shredded coconut, I'm missing a couple of other things plus Captain Crunch cereal for a textural crunch. Every time I eat this, it brings me back to childhood and my family breaking out the shaved ice machine in the summer, and all the toppings we would add to it. It was always a treat. It is by no means a "fancy" dessert but it probably seems a novelty to Americans. I was happy that Talde offered it to be shared. It's something fun to eat. Hubby loved it as well. Overall we enjoyed a very good meal. Everyone around us ordered the Korean Fried Chicken - which looked pretty good - I want to try that next time.
After dinner, we headed to Manhattan to dance our ass off (my sister was throwing a Casmik Tribute to Biggie and other fallen legends party) and see friends who we haven't seen in ages. Having a baby does that sometimes...you feel kind of separated from the world especially if some of said friends don't have kids as well. I had a blast - got my drink and dance on - got the hubby to do a little dancing with me. Although I wore heels, which I don't know what I was thinking..Well what I was thinking was all day long, I work from home, wear sweats and pajamas all day. I wanted to look good for a change. But my feet took a beating and my knee still hurts today...getting old. Anyway, it was a good time.
Today another baby free day - I had to go to the dentist and get a full mouth debridement.. That's what happens when you don't go to the dentist for a couple of years. My gums are kind of hurting right now. But after the dentist, we went to L.I.C. to the Sculpture Center. I thought it was the sculpture park, my bad - this had art installations not sculptures...Anyway, it was pretty freezing to be outdoors. There's always next time. I also got this confused with the Noguchi Museum which is in the area...Naguchi was a Japanese sculptor and his work sounded interesting last time i read about it, so anyway I was expecting sculptures and got strange modern art exhibitions of sorts. But it was nice to be out and about and see something new. Tonight we are staying in and relaxing. I feel very tired and cold - maybe leaving the house with wet hair on a very cold day was not a good idea. We checked in this morning with my parents to see how the baby slept and all seemed fine. I'm thinking I should call again now to see how their day went... Who knows when my parents will bring the baby back to us tomorrow. They would probably keep him for a week (or longer) if we let them. It's a blessing to have parents close by who are willing to come and babysit at the drop of a hat.
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