The taste of YUMMY: Toro

It's a little late in coming, but I'm finally catching up on my pre-vacation posts. The night before I left, Ameeka and Christina and I decided to have Spanish tapas at Toro - a restaurant that I've been wanting to try (and almost would have tried for a New Years Eve party, if not for a last-minute change in work scheduling).

The restaurant is small, and due to it's popularity, also crowded. The tables are close together, which offers opportunities for eavesdropping on your neighbors... which could be a good thing. Or bad thing.

Our first neighbors for the evening were two girls - one of which decided to wear a top that was too small. I don't have any special love for boobs: I guess I can appreciate nice vs. not so nice pairs, but I see enough of them at work, and hell - I have my own, so the view didn't do anything for me. Obviously my pals and I weren't her target audience though. Poor girl would have done better if 3 male docs had been seated next to her instead...

After the chesty lady and her friend left, they were replaced by a young Chinese couple. I couldn't tear my eyes away from them: they ordered almost everything on the menu, and the guy hoovered his food so quickly that I was surprised he didn't aspirate on something.

A few years ago my mom and I were discussing a recently-published article about how an increasing number of the affluent Chinese families -in not only Hong Kong but also mainland China itself- were sending their children to boarding schools in Europe to be trained in "Western manners." Unfortunately the reputation for the Chinese people is that we have terrible manners. Down-right disgusting. In fact, prior to the Beijing Olympics, the government was enacting harsh punishment for citizens that were caught doing things like spitting in the streets (a habit that's not-uncommon there).

I was pretty insulted by the article. I simply found it hard to believe that people of my generation would have such a poor concept of manners and appropriate public behavior - regardless of what country they're from. I insisted to my mom that maybe people of her generation were still blowing snot into their hands and coughing sputum into the streets, but that the younger generation knows better - without the need to be sent to foreign schools.

Mom - I was wrong. Sorry

This young Chinese fellow seated next to us that night could definitely have benefited from some lessons in etiquette. He literally grabbed pieces of meat and shoved them into his mouth like a cave-man. And then tossed back his head and dangled pieces of prosciutto above his gaping jaws before dropping them in... O_O

Anyway... enough of my rant and onto the food!

Tortilla Espanola: Egg, potato and onion omelet with alioli