{"id":15378,"date":"2011-03-25T10:37:44","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T17:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=15378"},"modified":"2011-03-25T10:37:44","modified_gmt":"2011-03-25T17:37:44","slug":"date-night-tapas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=15378","title":{"rendered":"Date Night Tapas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thursday night was a long overdue Date Night for us. While I had a great time on vacation and it was nice spending time with my family, Michael and I never really had any alone time in Arizona.<\/p>\n

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\nI bought the Groupon for Patanegra <\/a>and I made reservations. I hadn’t heard of this local restaurant before but when I saw their tapas menu I was sold!<\/p>\n

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\nSorry the photos are so dark. It was a very romantic restaurant with dim lighting. The restaurant itself was very cool: rustic and industrial at the same time. The ceiling was exposed beams with track lighting.<\/p>\n

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\nThe kitchen was visible from the dining area. The place was completely packed. Luckily we had reservations. The restaurant was also a bit loud and not as intimate as I would have liked.<\/p>\n

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\nThe only complaint I have about Patanegra was that the service was insanely slow. We were seated and it took about 20 minutes because a waiter came and even gave us water or took a drink order. Yes the place was packed but seriously, they need to hire at least one more waiter if it’s going to be that busy on a Thursday night. I shudder to think how slow the service would be on a Friday night!<\/p>\n

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\nI had one glass of a nice red wine. It was just their house Rioja but I enjoyed it. (I would have ordered a second glass had the waiter ever made it to our table!)<\/p>\n

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\nWe ordered five tapas to share. The first was Tortilla Espanola<\/em><\/span>: “Spain’s Most Famous Tapa.” It’s basically a cold quiche with eggs and potatoes. It was just okay.<\/p>\n

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\nNext was the Vieiras a la Parilla<\/em><\/span>: grilled scallops wrapped in serrano ham on some delicious rice. This was my second favorite dish of the night. The scallops were absolutely perfect: they were soft and melted in my mouth. The ham was smokey and salty.<\/p>\n

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\nMorcilla<\/em><\/span>: spanish morcilla sausage with sweet oloroso and caramelized onions. It was a delightful surprise. The sausage was black–a tad disconcerting but we split it and both loved it. The sausage was soft and salty and the sweet onions were a lovely combination.<\/p>\n

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\nThe calamari was crunchy and flavorful. Calamares Fritos<\/em><\/span>: deep fried calamari rings with alioli. The alioli was garlicky and the lemon complimented the whole dish. They had the traditional calamari rings plus the little tiny squids–they creeped me out. I ate one but it was hard to dissociate from the image of a tiny squid. It was like a deep-fried spider. Eeew!<\/p>\n

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\nAnd the star of the night: The Empanadas! Empanada del D\u00eda<\/em><\/span>: turn-over of the day with spicy sofrito.\u00a0 The Empanada of the day was filled with Mexican cheese, ham, beans and onions. It was amazing<\/strong>. The salsa was spicy and sweet at the same time. The combination was a winner and I immediately said “I wish we had four more of these.” The empanada was crunchy and melted in my mouth. If I go back to Patanegra I would order these again!<\/p>\n

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\nHalf way through the meal I wanted to try a different glass of wine to go with dinner. Like I said, the waiter was non-existent so Michael suggested we skip the second glass of wine and get dessert instead. My arm was twisted. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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\nFlourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. It had nuts in it and a crunchy topping (not sure what it was–white chocolate maybe?). It was dense and the flavor was very mild.<\/p>\n

It was a really nice night. I enjoyed spending time out with Michael and I got to wear my new dress. The tapas were the perfect sizes too. I didn’t leave feeling like I’d overindulged in a bunch of food.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the food and would like to go back but the slow service makes me pause. I wasn’t in a hurry to eat and leave, but I do like having a waiter that is a little more attentive.<\/p>\n

How to Lose Weight – Week Four Check In<\/span><\/h4>\n

How did you do with Week Four<\/a>? Your tasks for this week revolved around food.<\/p>\n