Vamos a comer!

Frederick, MD is one of my favorite places to eat. There's literally a restaurant every 3 feet on Market Street, with others down some of the branching side streets. We've been to quite a few and have several that are favorites, but last night decided to visit Isabella's Taverna and Tapas Bar off of the recommendations of several people.

Isabella's has a colorful blue and yellow front with some seating outside on the street. While this would make for excellent people watching, we opted to be seated inside. Lots of exposed brick and Spanish art made for a cozy and authentic feel. 

No Spanish meal would be complete without some sangria, and I chose the white:

The restaurant also carries local beer from both Brewer's Alley and Monocacy Brewing Company:

Since Isabella's is a tapas restaurant, we decided to choose 3 different tapas and then do entrees, mostly because I was particularly interested in their paella and didn't want to fill up on too many other things but still have the tapas experience. 

First up, the ceviche. Typically the dish is made with freshly caught raw fish and seasoned with lemon or lime juice and some kind of spicy pepper. We opted for one with cooked shrimp and scallops, along with onions, jalapeno, at least one other type of pepper, and lime juice. This was so light and refreshing with great flavor. 

Our second choice was a goat cheese fritter with a shallot vinaigrette. Oh. My. Gosh. This was delicious. I absolutely love goat cheese, but only when warm and melty and this delivered. 

The third and final choice were chicken skewers with a spicy apricot dipping sauce. The chicken was seasoned nicely and was very moist. I had never dipped chicken in a fruit sauce and this one was a nice complement. The potatoes were a nice mix of crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and were great to dip in the leftover shallot vinaigrette.

Now for the main courses, and the much anticipated PAELLA. Paella is a traditional dish from the Valencia region of Spain and can have many variations. Mine included shrimp, mussels, clams, chicken, and chorizo along with green peas and red peppers. Saffron is also an important ingredient. This was my first time trying the dish and I was not disappointed. All the flavors meshed perfectly.

The boy chose a skirt steak dish with chimichurri sauce, potatoes, and onion straws. The sauce likely contained a combination of parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white or red wine vinegar. His steak was melt in your mouth good and that sauce was fantastic. 

Of course, no dinner would be complete without dessert, at least not for me. However we opted to walk around downtown a little bit before and did not choose one at the restaurant. While walking I spotted what looked to be a new bakery in an old bank building. I have cupcake radar and it was in full force yesterday. We discovered a new place called Cakes to Die For. This place goes along with its name with very gothic decor, skulls and red roses, a black crystal chandelier, and the piece de resistance, an old bank vault. This is the bakery's logo:

We chose the red velvet and chocolate caramel cupcakes and they were very, very good. The red velvet frosting had a good balance of cream cheese flavor, and the chocolate cupcake had an ooey, gooey caramel center. This is the red velvet (the chocolate got kind of messed up in transit). Comment below, what do you think this looks like on top of the frosting? ;)