Oggi e' il complanno di Lucas

Well, try to translate the title of this post - then you'll know why this day is important!
Anyway, Lucas and I went to a really nice restaurant to celebrate: Tasca Brava, in North Raleigh. It's a Tapas Restaurant. Lucas and I love tapas and last time we had good tapas was more than one year ago for my birthday in Chicago. In case you never heard this word, 'tapas' are small dishes - the size of an appetizer, so to say. So, basically, you try as many as you feel like. They can be cold or hot, meat, fish, veggies, and so. They come from Spain, but undoubtely, you could make Tapas from any type of cuisine. Still, if you go to a Tapas restaurant, usually you expect Spanish cuisine.

The owners of this place, husband and wife, are Colombian (although his parents are Spanish), and they know what they are doing! We spoke a lot to the husband (who's also the waiter, whereas she's the chef). He's a really nice guy and loves the food and the wine and the coffee he serves. Btw, about coffee: they roast their own and we had a pretty lively discussion about caffeine and roasting of coffee. :) He's really good at making you want to try his stuff :) - so in the end I decided to try the coffee, even though I was afraid I wouldn't sleep tonight.. but he may be right: I'm already sleepy now and I think I will probably sleep, coffee or not. :)
To speak about the food: we had the soup of the day (with coriander and cheese), then a sort of roll with Chicken and Ham, slightly spicy, then a really interesting croquette dish, coming from Columbia, with peanuts and a spicy sauce, then green beans battered and fried to dip in some interesting sauces, and some wonderful cod served in a pastry with a sauce that reminded me tremendously of 'merluzzo alla livornese' :). Everything was very good and well taken care, also in the presentation.
So, just to make you feel like eating this food, here is a picture of the cod:
In the end, I really liked this place, and both the owners, and I loved to talk to the guy. It's expensive compared to our standards (but I must say, we didn't really pay attention to the prices of what we ordered: so, together with what I already mentioned, we had two glasses of really good wine, and a rum and raisin dessert, plus, obviously, the coffee - total: $68 taxes included). But really, for a nice occasion, it's very much worth it. And the atmosphere and the music is very nice. They have live shows on Saturday, he told us.
Allora, ancora tanti auguri amore!