IN THE CITY

Meena needed to get her hair cut downtown on Friday so after a long night at the office, I rolled down to meet her for some trendy (but quite good) food at Bacaro.

We were right in the thick of things. We were hoping for a nice spot downstairs, but we were dealt a spot right next to the door. So there was some commotion. But it was nice. It was sorta fun to be right there in the middle of all the too-cool-for-school comings and goings.

For starters, we had a couple little bites:
- fried baby meatballs
- charcuterie plate
- octopus and potato salad

And then for dinner, we sorta split two main courses (they were pretty small):
- beef stew over polenta
- whole wheat pasta in duck ragu

The food was really lovely. The octopus salad was exploding with garlic and really well done. Sweet, delicate octopus was the name of the game, not chewy, gross stuff. The meatballs were OK. I was looking forward to them and they weren't as special as I had hoped they would be.

The main courses were awesome. The duck ragu was beautiful. Lots of duck cooked down to its essence and thrown with some whole wheat pasta cooked to a perfect al dente.

The beef stew stole the show though. It wasn't so much beef stew in the traditional sense. It was just bits of slow cooked stew meat piled high over a really rich bed of creamy polenta. Not something I would normally gravitate to, but man, I'm glad I did. It was perfect.

So Bacaro was pretty rad. I'd a) recommend it and b) go back again.