SHRIMP SCAMPI RECIPE

Last Wednesday I promised to cook my boyfriend dinner, despite getting out from hosting trivia at 10:30. I bought some shrimp from the Farmer's Market on King's st. hoping to find a quick and easy recipe. Lucky for me I found a shrimp scampi recipe on epicurious.com that was fast and incredibly tasty with a light, yet rich flavor.

What you'll need:

- 1/4 cup olive oil

- 1lb peeled and deveined large shrimp (raw)

- 4 large garlic cloves

- 1 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes

- 1/2 cup dry white wine

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon black pepper

- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter

- capellini pasta

- 1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

What I added:

2 more cloves of garlic (because I love garlic)

2 large tomatoes chopped

I also tossed the shrimp with some extra hot pepper flakes before cooking them

a little lemon juice at the end

How to Make:

boil 6-8 quarts of water with a pinch of salt (or olive oil)

While the water is boiling, heat the olive oil in a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat until it's hot, but not smoking. Saute the shrimp, turning over once until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer shrimp to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add garlic to remaining oil with pepper flakes (you can adjust the amount to make it spicier or less spicy), wine, salt, and black pepper (I also added my chopped tomatoes here). Cook over med/high heat for 2 minutes stirring occasionally. Add butter, stirring until melted, and stir the shrimp back in. You can remove from heat if your shrimp are cooked through, I let mine simmer for a minute or two first.

Cook pasta until tender, reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water before draining. Toss pasta with shrimp mixture and parsley in a large bowl, adding reserved cooking water if necessary to keep moist.

I chose not to toss the pasta, but made it a "serve yourself" kind of thing with grated parmesan, parsley and lemon juice. It took about 30 minutes (after the shrimp were peeled and deveined), and was so good that my boyfriend and I ate everything! My only regret was not having a baguette or bread of some sort to dip in the awesome sauce that was left over in the skillet.. I can't wait to make this again!

Original recipe can be found here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shrimp-Scampi-Pasta-234258

Cajun Queen CHARLOTTE 78

Last night I was starving and craving some New Orleans style cuisine. The bf and I decided to try out Cajun Queen off of E 7th St. It was pretty good, but not great. We decided to start out with the "Cajun popcorn" (pictured left) which was lightly fried pieces of crawfish tale in a light and tasty sherry remoulade sauce. It was our favorite dish of the night. I was worried that the crawfish would be overly fried and overcooked, but this wasn't the case at all. The lemon wedges that came with the appetizer made it the perfect dish. The bf decided to try the shrimp and crawfish etouffee for his main course, while I opted for the blackened mahi mahi with a crawfish and tasso sauce. The etouffee was definitely the tastier choice, even though the shrimp wasn't seasoned and was pretty bland. The mahi was okay but the mashed potatoes it came with tasted old and dry (reminiscent of fast food KFC mashed potatoes). They had an almost overwhelming cocktail selection, which is cool because it caters to many tastes. I had a cadillac margarita which, if you like grand marnier in your margs, was awesome. I also tried a tornado (rum, banana liquor and OJ) and it was very very sweet. The meal was satisfying for my craving, but I feel as if I could find a better Cajun restaurant. Overall I gave Cajun Queen a 78; I'll go back, but not very often.

Taqueria Jalisco Mexican Restaurant COLUMBIA 89

Jaliscos is in my top 5 favorite Mexican restaurants of all time. I must admit that this isn't my first time dining at Jaliscos; when I lived in Columbia I made sure to eat there a couple times a month. It's by far the best Mexican restaurant you'll find in Columbia. Located off St. Andrew's road, Jaliscos offers amazing and authentic micheladas (Michelada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), ceviche, and tortilla soup. The ceviche (top right) is $3.95 and comes on a tostada with avocado slices on top. I have compared many ceviches, and Jalisco's version always comes out on top. The tortilla soup or their sausage and potato tacos are just the thing for a cold day. My personal favorite entree would have to be the Camarones a la diabla (bottom left). The delicious, spicy orange sauce tastes good on everything! Jaliscos is in no way expensive or gourmet, but the food is wonderful. The only thing that Jaliscos doesn't bring to the table are their margaritas. I personally don't care for them, they're very sweet. However, their pina colladas and beer selection are great! Just on the cusp of a 90, Jaliscos comes in at an 89 making it worthy of returning to.