Tapas explosion, and my busy life.

This week has been exhausting. Between jetlag from my international flight, school, homework, and staging at various places, I haven't had too many free moments.

But it will all be worth it someday, at least that's the hope. After all, it seems like I've been doing this forever.

I even have photographic evidence, my dad sent me this yesterday. I love the 80's theme of my little kitchen.

Along with all of those other things, I've begun sommelier classes, (tasting all those wines is hard work) and on Friday I filmed a brief video for my entry into Basque Stage, which should be edited and ready to post in just a couple more days. We had one of Michael's co-workers film it for me, and I think he did a pretty good job. I can't wait to see the edited version- he kept making me do more takes, which was weird for me, but that's what happens when you get video guys involved in the process.

For my video, I just made a couple of simple pintxos, but I forgot to put the requisite toothpicks into them. Hopefully, the Basque stage people will forgive me. On the left was pepper crusted, seared Ahi tuna, with avocado cream, heirloom tomato, dehydrated olives, and red onion. On the right, piquillo pepper with anchovy, tarragon, and saffron foam.

For post-video munchies, we tried to go back to Lotus of Siam for more awesome Thai, alas, they were not open during the mid-afternoon. We ended up at Firefly, a place I used to frequent but hadn't been to in a while, and had some really great tapas. Please note that these pictures were taken during two separate visits, I'm not that much of a glutton...

Tortilla, an egg dish with potatoes, and a spicy red pepper sauce.

Firefly fries with cheese and paprika aoli. I would like to eat these for a living.

Manchego mac n' cheese. Also very yum.

Rich, pork filled empanada.

Passion fruit mini cheese cakes.

Ahi tuna tartar with mango, avocado, and taro chips.

Peppadew peppers stuffed with smoked tuna, with celery leaf on taro chips.

Albondigas, little meatballs in an amazing sauce.

Crisp duck eggrolls with cherry hoisin sauce, not very Spanish, but good nonetheless.

Now, it is time for sleep. I have so much homework to do tomorrow, and the rest of the week, so I will write when I can. If you really can't get enough of an Athena fix (or you want to know where I am so you can avoid me) you can follow me on Twitter (yup, I'm on there now) but that's not necessary.

Interesting things are sure to happen soon, I'll keep you updated.

Ciao!