WINTER RESTAURANT WEEK

(Sripraphai Restaurant New York)

WINTER RESTAURANT WEEK

Looking for deals this winter?  Check out the dining deals in your town during WINTER RESTAURANT WEEK.

Washington, DC beginning in mid-January http://www.washington.org/restaurantwk/

New York Restaurant Week January 18-23 and 25-30 http://nycgo.com/?event=view.nav&section=dining

Baltimore January 23-February 1 http://www.baltimorerestaurantweek.com/

Stacey recommends: Flemmings, Jack's Bistro, Meli, Tio Pepe, Roy's, Ryleigh's Oyster

Philadelphia January 25-30 http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?m=13&pid=95

Boston to be determined http://www.restaurantweekboston.com/

Denver February 21-27 http://www.denver.org/denverrestaurant/default.asp

Los Angeles January 25-30 and February 1-6 http://dinela.com/restaurantweek/partners.php

For more deals near you check out Open Table

http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?pid=156

Want to recommend a participating restaurant in your city?  e-mail staceytabor@gmail.com

Thanks!

THE OCEANAIRE SEAFOOD ROOM

THE OCEANAIRE SEAFOOD ROOM

www.theoceanaire.com/

I went to Oceanaire with my parents Saturday night.  Oceanaire is definetly one of my favorites. They are consistently delicious, give great service (I always sit at the bar), keep some classic favorites on the menu, but update the fresh fish selection and preparations to keep things interesting.  

Every day they have an awesome happy hour special at their Baltimore location (I am not sure if they do it at other locations)  from 5pm-7pm and from 9pm to close at the bar.  They have about 8 menu items to choose from at drastically reduced prices and a red and a white one on special as well.  My parents and I decided to order 4 things and share.  I ordered a glass of the campanile pinot grigio a tart and crisp white.  

They served us an amusee to start.  It was a rockfish cevichee.  It was wayyyy to citrus-ey!!  I did not like it.  It was sour and tart and had a really bad fishy flavor.  Good thing it was just one bite right?!!  I love the bread there, they serve you a huge, fresh loaf and the butter is melted and delicious.  They also give you a cold vegetable plate to start (this is standard of every meal).  We ordered the lobster flatbread, fried calamari, beef tenderloin, and cajun shrimp.  The lobster flatbread was perfect.  It wasn't too cheesy and overbearing.  It didn't have much lobster on it, but it was also under $13, so I wasn't expecting a lot of it!  The fried calamari (below) is my favorite calamari in the world.  It is hands down the best calamari I have had anywhere, and it never disappoints!  It is covered is a spicy sweet chili glaze with Asian slaw mixed it.  It is so great!  They have us a really big portion for $7 (way below regular price)!  I loved the cajun shrimp.  It was prepared in a red cream sauce with cajun spices and the shrimp were grilled.  The sauce was so good I couldn't resist dipping some bread in it!  The beef was pretty good, it was served medium rare with goat cheese and natural jus.  It had great flavor and was well seasoned.  This is not the place to order meat, but since it was a small portion, it balanced out the rest of our dishes.

I never get dessert at Oceanaire.  They have those chocolate mints which are the perfect ending to a meal without leaving you sickly full. 

HAVE A COCKTAIL AT: MELI

HAVE A COCKTAIL AT: 

MELI

www.kalismeli.com

Meli is one of my favorate places to eat, but it is also a great place to go for an after dinner cocktail and/or dessert since they do have an amazing selection of desserts, specialty coffee drinks and unique cocktails.  The place is gorgeous with an orange and brown color scheme.  They have a really cool downstairs lounge and they have started Jazz on Sundays.  They are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and you can't go wrong anytime you go.

Last night I ordered the HONEY BEE LATTE, which is a dessert coffee drink.  The honey bee latte is a regular lattee with bailey's and a honey liquer mixed in and served with one of their traditional Greek cookies (they have tons of delicious cookies!!)  It is creamy, rich and delicious, but a dessert in itsself, so if you are watching your calories don't also order dessert.

GREEK CHICKEN OVER LEMON ORZO

GREEK CHICKEN OVER LEMON ORZO

For the chicken you will use the same recipe as the http://chefstaceybeth.blogspot.com/2008/12/5-alarm-spiced-chicken-with-tzatziki.html

The only difference is that you will cut the chicken into cubes.  

For the Pasta you will need:

1 cup of orzo

1 cup of spinch

6 olives diced

1/3 cup of sundried tomatoes

2 tablespoons of butter

feta cheese

half a teaspoon of minced garlic

half of a lemon

1. cut chicken into cubes and season

2. sautee chicken with olive oil over medium heat until fully cooked

3. boil water and cook orzo for 10 minutes

4. then strain and put in a bowl

5. melt garlic and buter together

6. sautee spinach and sundried tomatoes until spinach is wilted

7. mix together, feta, spinach, sundried tomatoes, olives and orzo and squeeze half a lemon into pasta

8. plate orzo and place chicken on top

9. serve, eat and ENJOY!!!

STUFFED PEPPERS

STUFFED PEPPERS

I made these stuffed peppers vegetarian style last night for dinner as an appetizer (for two).  If you want to make this a meal, make both sides for yourself and add some kind of cooked ground meat to the mix (turkey, beef or chicken).  Anyway you make 'em, they are healthy and flavorful; a sneaky way to get all your veggies!

What you will need:

1 medium red pepper (you can use green or yellow if you prefer)

1 can of stewed tomatoes

1/2 cup of whole wheat quinoa

1/3 diced white onion

pepper

feta cheese

pine nuts

olive oil

1. preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. slice and clean pepper (as shown)

3. boil quinoa for about 10 minutes or until transparent and then strain extra liquid

4. stir in half a can of stewed tomatoes, a handful of pinenuts, tablespoon of olive oil, feta cheese, diced onions and add pepper to taste (I like alot!)

5. scoop mixture into peppers until overflowing

6. bake at 375 for about 1 hour (should be a little charred),  let sit for 15 minutes before serving

7. ENJOY (over and over again)

G&M RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

G&M RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

www.gandmcrabcakes.com

G&M have the best REAL MARYLAND crabcakes.  Those of you who are not from Maryland, may never understand.  G&M's crabcakes are soooooo good, that Oprah orders them and has them shipped to Chicago (she used to live here). G&M is located "near the airport hon" and is kind of in the middle of no where, "off the beaten track", but is a Baltimore staple.  My family orders carryout when we go and we always order the crabcake sandwich (12.95).  You get a jumbo lump all meat crab cake on a kaiser roll with your choice of sides. My parents love the cole slaw from there, I'm not really a fan of cole slaw in general.  I opted for a side salad which costs $2 extra and I got a handful of wilted lettuce with some stale croutons.  The crab cakes are always consistently awesome and I recommend you check if out if you've never had one before.  You won' be disappointed!!

EVOS

EVOS:

I went to Evos with my friend before we went out on New Years.  It was fast, cheap, easy, healthy and filling (the perfect meal before a long night of partying!!).  I hate eating out at real restaurants on new years; the portions are smaller, prices higher, they run out of everything and service takes 3 times as long.  New Years is ammature night and I prefer to avoid those crazy crowded scenes as much as possible, especially when I'm hungry!!  Evos is a healthy fast food chain.  All of the meat and cheeses they use are hormone and antibiotic free.  I ordered air fries, which are baked not fried french fries.  They looked and had the same texture as regular fries.  The trick is a special confection oven that makes them crispy without the addition of oils.  They offer 4 different kinds of ketchup which is always fun, I like options.  For dinner I had the spicy thai chicken wrap for dinner.  It was made of grilled chicken, spicy peanut and chili pepper dressing, long grain rice, mixed greens, crispy rice noodles wrapped in a spinach wrap.  They had 4 different kinds of tea to choose from when you ordered a fountain drink.  They were offered hot, but I filled my cup up with ice and made mine iced. It was a perfect amount of food and everything tasted great.  I would totally go back.  Log on to www.evos.com for nutritional info, menu and locations.