So dinner was AMAZING! If anyone is ever looking for a great place to eat for a special occasion in Quito, Zazu is the place! The food was decently priced and the wine list was sooo extensive. You can check out the menu at www.zazuquito.com. Don't miss the pictures too! There's a really cool one of the wine cellar.
The place was definitely trendy, but Ryan and I were dressed the part. I wore that fancy dress I bought for Rob and Cherice's wedding last summer. By my calculations, now that I've worn it three times I can justify what I paid for it! Ryan wore a black suite with a Ben Sherman shirt and tie. I even wore makeup for the first time since we've been here! The First and Second Pictures.
It was one of those really slow dinners, intentionally slow not poor service slow. The kind where you order one course and then another instead of everything all at once. The kind of meal where the food is the real star but the conversation is so great that you keep ordering more and more and more. All in all, it was the perfect evening! But without further ado, lets talk about the star of the evening... the food!
We'll we started with two appetizers and a bottle of Chardonnay (don't worry the Chardonnay lasted longer than the appetizers). I ordered the beef carpaccio and it was heavenly. First of all, we haven't had any beef (besides ground beef and you know how I feel about ground beef) since we've gotten here, with the exception of a hamburger (think fresh McDonald's quality not T's quality). So the idea of delicious, top grade raw beef was extremely enticing. To put me over the moon though, as if the raw beef didn't do it, they rolled the carpaccio around goat cheese and sauteed mushrooms... what? Ok, you know I'm not a huge mushroom fan but these mushrooms were chopped finely enough that they didn't overpower the goat cheese texture. Anyways, we knew we were in for a good meal once the carpaccio came out.
Ryan ordered the duck raviolis as an appetizer. Now, Ryan is a huge duck fan but we were slightly disappointed with the raviolis. Duck has such an intense flavor that these raviolis were missing. There wasn't any of that warm, earthy taste and the homemade raviolis could have used a few more minutes in the boiling hot water to soften them up a bit more. But oh well, the carpaccio made up for the flawed raviolis.
Then we realized we should probably take pictures of the meal so that everyone could see what we were eating.
We ordered the ceviche mixto next (see the third picture). OH MY WORD! The last time I had good seafood was in Chicago at Tapas Las Ramblas with all of the girls before Jess left for that one place she briefly moved to. Anyways, the beach is about an hour away, which makes the ocean about an hour away, which makes fresh delicious seafood highly available in Quito. DUH! Why didn't we realize this sooner? Why have I been ordering so much chicken everywhere? This ceviche. was. to. die. for. Yes, the sole was so fresh, the octopus so perfect, and I can't even remember what else constituted the 'mixto'. But what I can remember is the sauce. Oooooh, that sauce. Lemony fresh with just the right amount of acidity, and the cilantro, ah the cilantro. So perfect, so amazing, so energizing, so clean and fresh. Whatever you do, get the ceviche.
Then, as if we hadn't eaten more with the appetizers and the ceviche than we'd eaten at any other meal since we've been gone, we ordered our entrees. Now, don't get me wrong, the carpaccio was amazing, but it didn't quite quench my desire for beef. So, with the prompting of the waiter, I ordered the Uruguayan steak (see the fourth photo). I tried to switch the potato gratin for potato gnocchi but said waiter advised I shouldn't. So I went with his suggestion and HOLY COW (Uruguayan cow that is). I was not disappointed. The steak was perfectly medium rare, seasoned with aji amarillo. Before the meal, we thought aji only came in one color... red. We were wrong. Aji apparently comes in all different colors and, by golly, the red is probably the worst. Which is saying something because we LOVE the aji rosa and use it in everything. This aji amarillo gave the steak heat, but not cheap mexican food heat, it gave it that subtle heat that is more flavor than spice. You know, that 'I've been marinating in something oh so right for oh so long to make the flavor seem more apart of the meat than on top of the meat.' It gave it that kind of heat. And the potato gratin, well the waiter was right. It was delicious. The caramelized onions were shoestring thing and the tomatoes were a nice cross between grilled and confit. I'm not sure how they did it, but I could eat tomatoes like that every day.
Ryan had stone crab stuffed tiger prawns. I can't really describe them because he only gave me one intsy teensy bite. I guess that's description enough. (See photo 5)
Somewhere in there we ordered champagne and then dessert.
My all time favorite dessert in Creme Brule. I don't like a lot of chocolate; I don't like heavy desserts; I don't like a lot of fuss. Creme Brule is perfect because you've got the creamy texture of the creme contrasted by the brittle texture of the fire-glazed sugar. Its satisfying without being to heavy. And it comes with fruit... at least there's something healthy about it. I don't like flavored Brules, I don't like fancy fruit with it. Just give me a well made, not runny, vanilla creme brule with a couple berries and I'm a very happy girl.
Well, Zazu had no creme brule on the menu. Go figure. The next closest thing was Pana Cotta. Now, I've never had Pana Cota. I've heard of it and know generally what I would expect to get in front of me where I ever to order it. But I haven't because I've always been too busy ordering Creme Brule. This pana cota rocked my world to the core of dessert choices. It was that good. Light, creamy, a lot like brule but just a little different and still served with berries. YES PLEASE. (See photo 6)
Ryan ordered some chocolate trio. If you've read all of this you know my feeling about his dessert. But there was a chocolate espresso brownie of sort that was slightly redeeming. (See photo 7)
After two and a half hours of eating and talking and drinking, we were exhausted and sooo full. But not too tired for one last picture outside of Zazu after a fantastic evening. (See photo 8).
