Tastebud : Paladar

16 April 2024

Dinner at a Cuban restaurant - Paladar! A colleague spoke of Cuban food and mentioned of a restaurant which I googled and I found out portions are small and pricey. So, I looked for other recommendations and this place popped out. It got good reviews. Food was really great! 

For our drinks, I chose Old Cuban which is made of dark rum, cava, fresh mint, lime, sugar, soda water and Angostura bitter. This is a recommended drink in the menu. SEK159 for 50ml. So many ingredients in a 50ml drink. I was not drunk with this drink and I suppose that there is more soda water than rum. It tasted slightly bitter. I did a quick check and the difference between rum and whisky is that rum is made from sugar cane while whisky is from cereal grains for example wheat. rye and barley.

We received complimentary bread and paprika paste (could be ajvar?). I think we should have been given 4 pieces or 2 pieces as we were 2. So odd to be given 3.

For the meal, I chose the dinner set made of starter and main dish for 390kr. So, I took a combination which if ordered separately, is more than 390kr.

Starter - Tostones Cubanos com salsa de Aguacte. 140kr. Fried green plantain served with garlic mojo and avocado salsa. I did not know that mojo is a kind of sauce. I got two pieces of plantain. One long and the other was cut into half. The plantain was served in a seashell. It reminds me of banana fritters (goreng pisang in Malaysia) and the price is too much for banana fritters. Haha! So, the difference between banana and plantain is plantain has more starch and banana has more sugar.

From Wikipedia - Mojo is a herb sauce of finely chopped cilantro or parsley with salt, plenty of crushed garlic, and olive oil. In Cuban cooking, mojo applies to any sauce made with garlic, olive oil, or pork lard, and a citrus juice, traditionally bitter orange juice. It is commonly used to marinate roast pork or as a dip for plantain chips and fried cassava.

For the main dish, I had grilled entrecote with grilled potato, grilled avocado and bean salsa. 320kr. The entrecote is not a thick meat but the meal was sufficient for me. I thought it was a big entrecote but the meat was placed on the bowl of grilled potatoes. I did not know that avocados can be grilled! 

My boyfriend had the Ropa vieja which is Cuba's national dish - pulled beef with congri (Cuban black bean and rice), banana chips and avocado salsa. 270kr. The congri and pulled beef were very delicious!

Tastebud : Warung

10 April 2024

Indonesian food for dinner because we (2 persons) thought it would be nice to have almost-Malaysian food for Eid Mubarak today. We ate at Warung and I would not come to this place a second time - the portion is very small which makes the food pricey, the spices are not strong so it is quite bland for my Malaysian tastebuds and it was very noisy. We were placed right in front of the counter and the staff came out to do mojito and started shaking the canister so it was very annoyingly loud. The bench was high too so I sat in an awkward position, bending forward to eat. 

We had: 

1) Rendang roti SEK195 - long-cooked meat in spicy stew served on flatbread. The meat was chewy and the stew was not spicy as how rendang should be. The plus point was we got an extra piece of flatbread when we asked how many bread was there. There were two of us so we got an extra piece.

2) Ikan bakar SEK155 - grilled fish. The fish is so tiny and thin. There s no grilled taste. I doubt it was grilled on charcoal.

3) Nasi goreng SEK145 - fried rice with poached egg. Tasty but nothing to shout out. 

All portions were so small. You can see how small the bowls are compared to my fingers. I supposed that it is meant for 1 person. In the menu, it was recommended 2 to 3 dishes per person.

For appetizer, we got a complimentary bowl of spicy potato chips. I liked that. 

Tastebud : Coffeehouse 72

22 March 2024

Dessert after main meal, at Coffeehouse 72. We left Eatnam as lots of customers were dropping in and the place was getting noisier so we decided to have dessert. I found a place near Medborgarplatsen train station that is affordable as I saw retirees and adolescents (not dressed richly) hanging out here. It reminded me of a mamak stall in Malaysia but this is the indoor version!

My friend treated me to a raspberry chese cake and an apple pie served with custard sauce. Each slice costed SEK45. They were not very sweet desserts so I enjoyed them. 

Tastebud : Eatnam

22 March 2024

Vietnamese food! The last time I had Vietnamese food was last year in July at An Nam. There are quite a number of Vietnamese restaurants in Stockholm. I have tried 7 places including this - Saigon Baguette in 2019, Nha Trang in 2019 and 2023, Hanoi Pho in 2021, Restaurant Springrolls in 2022, Ong Vietnam in 2022 and An Nam in 2023. Looks like, on average, I have Vietnamese food twice a year.

Eatnam has 3 branches in Stockholm. We chose the branch located near Medborgarplatsen train station. The two of us shared Bo Kho (Vietnamese beef stew) with rice for SEK185 and Pho (noodle soup) chicken for SEK175.  The beef stew uses chuck steak according to the direct Swedish translation of högrev. This cut of beef is located on the shoulder. The beef stew was yummy. I put my hands to show how big the bowl is. I have slightly longer fingers than an average person. 

Tastebud : Lilla Prag

13 March 2024

Awesome dinner at Lilla Prag! The place got crowded very quickly by 6pm. Mostly locals and there were retirees too. So, you can count that this is a good place to eat. I had the Lilla Prag Special which is a pork schnitzel and cheese schnitzel served with thinly sliced fried potatoes, salad and tartar sauce for SEK249. It is important to finsh the food while it is still warm otherwise it can get a bit boring.