We recently tried Tapas Barcelona in Evanston, which is a cute little bistro with drinks and Spanish-style appetizers. We started with sangria. And in the name of research, we tried both the red and the white sangria. The red was savory and more full bodied, whereas the white (my favorite) was citrusy and light.

The average person orders two tapas dishes. Tim and I tried several things, including black olives stuffed with chorizo and deep fried, then served in a tomato sauce. It was delicious — salty, crunchy and tangy, too. The second course was goat cheese baked in tomato sauce with olives served with garlic bread. It was also pretty tasty, but not enough cheese for the amount of tomatoes.

A stand out was the dates wrapped in bacon and served in a bell pepper sauce. The dates were delicious and the sauce they were served tasted a bit like caramel. I sopped it all up with some tasty white bread served with the dinner. The final thing was grilled crab cakes with sherry mayonnaise. I was not a fan. It really tasted just like a fish stick. Not pleasant.

Overall, the food was tasty and the sangria refreshing. We decided against this place, though, because it wasn’t big enough and would have had a weird layout for seating. Also, the patio overlooks a pool at a a nursing home. Not the kind of ambiance I was going for. Finally, the service sucked. Our waitress talked to her friends seated at another table while we went without water or the check and our used plates piled up. If that doesn’t bother you, I really recommend the food.

I’m fairly certain there is no Finn McCool hanging around Ireland anywhere, but I’ll let it slide.

Finn McCool’s in Crystal Lake pub is huge and very cool on the inside. While I’ve had many a cheap bar burger, this is by far the best. I’ve never had $3 go so far.

Here’s what your cash gets you on Tuesday’s — One burger, cooked to your level of doneness with your choice of cheese on a crusty roll with lettuce, tomato, pickles and red onion. It also gets you a good dose of deliciously crunchy and salty fries.

Washing it down with a cold domestic bottle beer makes your entire meal $5.23 on a Tuesday. How’s that for fiscal responsibility?

It’s that time of year when every little hamlet on Earth has a festival. It may be the same carnival rides from the same company every single time, the food changes. I’ve had some poor corndogs so I thought I’d try something else at the Crystal Lake Gala.

What I found was these delicious waffle fries from Fire Bar and Grill, located in Crystal Lake. I’ve heard a lot about the place, so I thought I’d grab a bite at their stand at the Gala.

I got some chicken strips because I was in a bit of a rush and I wanted to go for a cheaper option. At $5, the chicken strips and fries were a gem. The waffle fries were crisp but not overcooked and just the right amount of saltiness. The chicken strips were also well-seasoned and crunchy on the exterior without being dry.

My only complaint — the honey mustard. It was a bit watery and had no spunk.

Oh well, they were just chicken strips. I’m going to have to stop by their Angela Lane location to try out their three-appetizer plate or grilled-steak panini. Mmmm.

This weekend, despite having graduating six months ago and having my nicely framed diploma on the wall, I graduated from Northwestern. They only do a graduation ceremony once per year, so I walked at graduation Saturday for probably the last time ever. I don’t foresee a Dr. Kelly the Culinarian anytime in my future.

To celebrate, we went to Tacos el Norte, which is a delicious Mexican food restaurant in Gurnee near Route 21 in the Riverside plaza. The place is really hopping on the weekend.My mom said I don’t know why anyone comes to a Mexican restaurant to order steak or chicken. So of course, I had to order chicken, and I have to say, it was a delicious dish.I had the beer-battered chicken breast, which was served butterflied with lettuce, sour cream, rice and refried beans. It would have been nice to get tomato, but I can’t control the global market and my tomatoes aren’t ripe yet.

The chicken was delicious — moist on the inside but crispy on the outside. It was way more than I could eat though. They were also served with some corn tortillas and I tried some chunks of chicken with all the fixings and that was pretty tasty too, but there wasn’t enough lettuce and sour cream to make many of them.

Anyhow, the point of this story is try the chicken, fish or steak at your favorite Mexican place, it’s worth a taste.

Now, I have a smallish chocolate fountain I got for Christmas several years ago. It’s a tabletop model with three tiers. But Alissa went bigger . . . much bigger. She procured a five-tier fountain that was the same size as me.

It was served with Twinkies, Oreos, marshmallows, bananas and the biggest strawberries I’ve ever seen. They were at least the size of a ping pong ball.

That got me thinking. There are far more occasions that call for a chocolate fountain than people get them for. Graduation? Housewarming? Christening? All good occasions for the chocolate fountain.

In case you’re in the Chicagoland area and looking for something unique to bring to your next potluck, here’s a listing of many Chicago chocolate fountain purveyors.

The Ram Brewery and Restaurant is always packed. I’m not positive why, but the one in Rosemont is located close to lots of businesses and their brews are great for happy hour.

On Saturday, Tim and I went there with a friend. They always have delicious beers. Tim and I both like their blond beer (in the background), that has a light taste with a little bite as an aftertaste. Their new brew is the 71 pale ale, made with five hops to create a copper color and a nice hoppy flavor that isn’t overwhelming. Sometimes, when I order hoppy beers I swear it tastes like soap. Not at all the cast with the Ram’s newest brew.

As for their food, we went with appetizers. We shared the spinach and artichoke dip, which was a bit spicy and very cheesy paired with some garlic toasts. We got zingers, boneless chicken wings dipped in hot sauce, which I did not eat. We also got their potato skins — they make them quite pretty by cutting the skins into little petals and dressing them with cheese and bacon and serving them along side sour cream sprinkled with dill.

I love appetizers and beer.

And my new favorite out of the best is now Pequod’s Pizza in Morton Grove, although there’s one in Chicago too. I don’t know what’s with the logo (a whale with a pair of thong panties on its head), but let me tell you about the joint. It’s tiny and it’s a little dilapidated.

It reminds me of an establishment I used to frequent in Michigan that had a bar and some little tiny tables and a pool table. You might be able to serve the whole dining room from one spot and it’s delightfully and purposefully slightly ramshackle, just so you know what you’re getting into.

As for the pizza, it’s amazing. The crust is thick and yeasty, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The tomato sauces manages to be delicious without being sickly sweet; the tomatoes still have a kick. The cheese and pepperoni were delicious if not a bit standard. What Pequod’s does that’s different is they let the cheese on the edges burn or “caramelize” as they say, which produces a satisfying crunch. Same with the edges of the spicy pepperoni.

If you’re in the neighborhood, this is where it’s at.

Anyhow, I decided to forgo the normal beer for their martini special of the night, the lychee fruit cocktail. Anne later told me this is the next big thing. Lychee, or as the US Food and Drug Administration spells it, litchi, is a fruit from China. If you’ve never had it, it tastes like a tropical version of a berry. It’s quite delicious.

And let me tell you, it packs a potent punch in a cocktail. The cocktail was both sweet and bitter with nice little shavings of ice. Mine was made with vodka, as many martinis are, but I’d imagine lychee fruit would go well with rum as well.

If you’re looking for something new, here’s an option.

Everyone needs a girls’ night. I had the pleasure of meeting some of my ladies this week for a dinner and dish date at Brass Brewery and Restaurant in Barrington. It’s quite the classy place with a decor of exposed brick, oversized black velvet curtains diving the room and dark wood throughout. There’s also an open kitchen where you can see the staff hustle to get your plate together.

They brought us out a rosemary and salt foccacia, which was a little more puffy and not as chewy as I’m used to, but still quite delicious. Any they were generous with the bread too, but I wish they would have included a few slices when they packaged up our leftovers.

We had a spinach and artichoke dip as an appetizer, which came with toasted pita chips that were obviously made on site. They were thick and a little oily, but quite delicious with the dip. I liked the dip because it had sundried tomatoes in the hot cheesy dip, but it tasted like it might have Velveeta in it. I prefer spinach dips with more traditional cheeses, although I loved the tang of the generous helping of Parmesan.

For an entree, I ordered the pasta rigatoni, which was the special of the evening for $14 in vegetarian style, although I suspect the $22 price listed on the menu includes chicken. It’s rigatoni with fresh veggies such as asparagus, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes. They were roasted and perhaps steamed as well before being tossed with a vodka sauce and pasta.

I loved the dish because the veggies retained their individual crispness and flavor despite the prep. The vodka sauce wasn’t your typical sauce, either. It was smokey and perhaps included pan drippings from the roasted veggies.

The whole meal was delicious, even the leftovers. Although the prices are a bit high for everyday, the food justifies it, in my opinion.

My sisters really like fish. Me, not so much. I like sushi, but good sushi should never smell like fish.

Anyhow, on our travels this weekend, my sisters decided they wanted a perch dinner. Oasis came highly recommended. Apparently during lent, the wait for a table could take you three hours. Luckily, lent was over with and we only waited 10 to 15 minutes, just long enough to grab a tall draft for $2.50. The same beer here would run me at least $8. Ick, Chicago prices.

On to the food. I got the classic cheeseburger, we got an order of onion rings to share and everyone else got the perch. The portions were huge, just ridiculous. There was a school of fish on my sisters’ plates.

The onion rings were the first thing that came out. They were super crispy and delicious. My favorite part was that the onion didn’t come out during the first bite, because the rest of it is just fried stuff and kind of icky.

The fish looked crispy and delicious. The whole family raved. My burger was a bit on the rare side, but hey, I lived to tell the tale, so I think I’m just dandy.

MMmmmm, fried things.