Gah. Sorry about the quiet few days here, but I’ve been in Texas ya’ll! I flew down last weekend for my gorgeous friend Mariam’s wedding (I mean, STUNNING), and haven’t had much time at the comp. It was my very first time down in Texas and besides the wedding festivities, I was excited about the FOOD. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to explore Dallas by way of calories, but a group of us did manage to get away one day for brunch. My friend Masuma who lives down there recommended a few places, and we ended up going to La Duni Latin Kitchen at the Northpark mall location which was near our hotel.

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I’m sorry for a little lag in posting. It’s been a whirlwind of a week…of a month, for that matter. Trying to update this blog late at night doesn’t always work too well for me when I’m on zero to only a few hours of sleep (literally!). I felt like it was time for a little break. Well, it was actually brought on after my brother sent me a video of my eight-month-old nephew who’s growing up so freaking fast. I barely finished watching this one of him trying to “sing” (which was really him adorably trying to imitate a tune my brother made up), that I found myself booking a ticket to come to visit my family in the Midwest. Hey, you try to resist those dimples! It’s a nice excuse to mellow out before Fashion Week anyway.

Before I left though, I was able to catch a meal at Salinas for a beauty product launch. The Spanish restaurant is fairly new — I believe it opened up just this past summer — with a dimly lit tapas room and bar, dining room which opens up to an airy 35-seat garden in the back where we ate. It’s a gorgeous outdoor space if you’re looking for one.

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What to do on a warm summer evening in NY? I’m practically allergic to indoor dining on nights like these, so last week after the CoverGirl/Pat McGrath party, I decided to crash Archana and Eaman’s date join my friends for dinner at La Esquina in SoHo. It wasn’t my first time there, but it was my first time eating in their outdoor area. La Esquina pretty much has three parts to it: the taqueria, which is a small, to-go lunch counter; their cafe, which encompasses their sidewalk seating and their indoor space that serves the full menu; and their downstairs brasserie and bar area in the basement, where they have even more extensive menu, a DJ, and a (sometimes pesky) reservations-only list.

It took us about a hour to get seated once we got there, but we dove right into the queso once we did. Layers of baked cheese with roasted pumpkin seeds, served with plaintain chips was pretty much heaven on earth.

I was crossing my fingers that it would set the standard for the rest of the meal. I can’t even remember the last time I had tacos, so I decided to go for some steak tacos this time (why not?). The anticipation for the main course wasn’t worth the results…the steak was bland at best.

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On my recent trip to Miami, we made a little dinner stop at Havana Harry’s in Coral Gables, an authentic Cuban restaurant that happily keeps a very unpretentious, family-friendly vibe.

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I gotta admit, when I first heard of Zengo, I didn’t think it’d be so great (the name doesn’t lend itself much to first impressions). That and its dank location (40th and 3rd…I just think…suits…and…buildings…and…and yeah that’s also the first time I ever used “dank” on this blog). Plus the outside pretty much looking like a giant misplaced club made me a little dubious. But walk inside, and you’ll begin to realize all that is misleading (claustrophobics rejoice, this place is huge).

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Sorry for the MIA’ness everyone. The thingggg is, the cutest little guy came to visit me in NYC (also known as my nephew) and it was just a tad distracting. He LOVED the city. Well, he can’t talk yet but I’m pretty sure that’s what he would say. I’m also pretty sure if he could talk, he would say the food at Yerba Buena, a lively Latin American restaurant that he visited with his younger cousin was phenom.

OK, he really didn’t eat the food and he may or may not have slept throughout brunch but he did get a lot of attention from the ladies while we started with the Croquetes de Queijo, these little croquettes filled with manchego cheese that comes with pickled jalapeño salsa verde.

The real superstar is the Pan Dulce french toast. O Em Gee. My brother’s in-laws who took us here, were not kidding when they told us how delicious this dish was. It was the best french toast I’ve ever had, made with brioche toast and also stuffed with manchego cheese, dulce de leche and bananas.

We also tried the Green Chile burger (piedmontese grass fed beef, cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce, green chile sofrito), done medium. I prefer medium well but it was really tasty and came with a side of crispy shoestring fries (tasted more like potato chips). Also, you guys would be really proud of me — I actually ordered a seafood dish too. The Chupe de Mariscos — a spicy soup with shrimp, calamari, black cod, aji amarillo broth, rice queso fresco, choclo, and a poached egg.

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