Finally Back!

Well it has been a while... but for a good reason I suppose :) Michael and I finally got married!!

Precious, right?! Anyway, for our honeymoon we traveled to San Antonio and stayed at a wonderful hotel, La Mansion del Rio, and did lots of fun things around town.  SA has a great culture, so we tried to revolve our meals around what the locals recommended.  We had some WONDERFUL Mexican food in Market Square, which is an authentic market in downtown about half a mile off the Riverwalk. However, one meal stood heads above the rest; and it happened to be the cheapest meal of the whole week! I mean, we "technically" paid for it when we booked our hotel, but part of the package we booked included a "free" five course wine tasting dinner prepared personally by the head chef at the hotel's associate 5-star restaurant Las Canarias.

Upon first being seated, we were a little confused on which wine glass was for what...

Then we figured it out. I documented each course, which came expertly paired with a specific wine, and figured I would share the pictures here where other foodies can enjoy them :) (Note: I was so engorged in the meal I forgot to take pictures before we would start eating a course... I apologize in advance!)

Appetizer - choice of sourdough, pumpernickel, or whole wheat bread with three spreads: Goat cheese, hand-churned butter, and olive pesto spread (our personal favorite!)

First course- a melon salad with wilted kale and olives with a side of goat cheese feta.  This was such a light, summery salad that had beautiful bright flavors, especially the lemon dressing on the kale!

Second course - Escargot (!!) in shiitake and crimini mushroom sauce topped with fried wontons.  My vegetarian version was simply the mushroom sauce, but it was surprisingly meaty and savory! Michael actually liked the escargot, and I really loved the wontons' little crunch on top :)

Third/Main Course - Michael had a wonderful-looking filet with a side of asparagus.  I had gnocchi on top of a wilted spinach salad with cherry tomatoes and an herb cream sauce.  It was DIVINE! The gnocchi was perfectly cooked and had a ton of flavor infused into the dough.  This was my favorite course of the whole meal!

Fourth Course - Cookie crisps served with aged blue cheese, passion fruit jam and candied pecans.  These flavors were so rich yet perfect together; the blue cheese was deliciously pungent and was nicely offset by the sweetness of the jam and pecans.  This was a great palate cleanser before dessert!

Fifth/Dessert Course - This was such a FUN dessert! It was a "carnival" theme with three elements: Vanilla gelato Coke float shooter, Funnel cake topped with brulee'd bananas and reduced peach sauce, and a berry cream popsicle.  The funnel  cake was the best part; it was surprisingly light and the fruit toppings added the perfect amount of sweetness :) Such a great ending to such a fabulous meal!

I highly recommend eating at Las Canarias if you are ever in the Riverwalk area! This was Michael and I's first experience at a true 5-star restaurant, and we will always have fond memories of the exciting adventure we were taken on throughout our meal.  While we had a tremendous honeymoon, we are glad to be back in the humble one bedroom apartment in stinky College Station that we call home.  Until next time, happy cooking (and dining)!