Tasca

Last night Ameeka and I were in the mood for tapas, so after some Yelp research, we found ourselves at a restaurant in the Brighton area called Tasca.

We both hadn't had tapas in a while, so we had to ask the waiter about portion sizes and the appropriate number of dishes to order. He suggested three tapas each, and a shared "entree." Both Ameeka and I were pretty hungry, so that sounded reasonable to us, but in retrospect I could probably have done with a bit less.

(Upon arrival home after dinner, I felt like my stomach was about to explode, and I'm pretty sure my middle looked like I was carrying a 3rd trimester food-baby)

For our tapas, we ordered the following:

Salchicha de cordero: Savory grilled lamb sausage over Israeli couscous with roasted vegetables and mint oil (mine)

Salmón ahumado: Smoked salmon served on a potato pancake with red onion, capers and dill crème fraîche (mine)

The potato "pancake" part of this dish was not what I expected. Rather than being similar to the other potato pancakes that I've had - which were all quite similar to real pancakes in preparation -  this "pancake" was made of shredded and crispy-fried potatoes that were jumbled together in a very dry and crunchy mixture:

Patatas bravas: Fried cubed potatoes in a piquant tomato sauce and garlic aioli (Ameeka's) - this dish was basically home-fries, but with fancier sauces

Setas Ronan: Roasted portabella mushrooms with shaved manchego, capers, red onion in a sherry
vinaigrette with roasted red pepper toasts (Ameeka's)

The sauce in this dish was reportedly very good, although the mushrooms themselves were only "ok"

Empanadillas de queso de cabra: Herbed goat cheese empanadas served on a roasted red pepper relish (Ameeka's)

Confít de pato: Fall off the bone succulent roasted duck leg served over braised red cabbage and apples (mine)

[As you can probably tell, I like eating animals, and Ameeka likes eating plants]


Our shared "entree" was the Berenjenas Rellenas: Baked crispy eggplant stuffed with oven dried tomato and Manchego cheese served in a fresh tomato and basil sauce 

Although our stomachs were nearing maximum capacity at this point, I saw bread pudding on the dessert menu and had to order some:

Bread Pudding: Moscatel sherry and raisin bread pudding served in a warm caramel sauce

Unfortunately this bread pudding had a consistency similar to... it's hard to describe, but I suppose the closest thing I can think of is mochi (?). I'm an Asian who actually is NOT a fan of mochi, so there was only so much of this bread pudding that I could tolerate. The rest got abandoned.

Of note, as I relayed to Ameeka during our meal: a handful of people die in Japan every year during the New Years celebrations by choking on mochi. It's not only a food item with an icky texture, but it's dangerous too!

Ameeka opted for the warm chocolate pudding:
 

Overall rating: 6.5/10


Tasca
1612 Commonwealth Ave
Brighton, MA 02135