IS THIS REALLY MEXICAN FOOD?

One of the nice things about Tom working from home is that on my days off, we can go out and have lunch together. Such was the case one sunny day. I had to pick up something from Kiehl's on 4th street, so we decided to have lunch nearby. There aren't a ton of food options on 4th St., and certainly nothing you'd consider cheap, but we decided to check out Tacubaya, the Mexican restaurant on 4th St.
Tacubaya is a casual "taqueria" owned by a well known chef named Dona Tomas. Now despite living in California, we've yet to had really great Mexican food. Actually, I miss El Pelon. Apparently, I need to go to LA for the authentic stuff- or make a trip to the Mission or Oakland. So I had high hopes for Tacubaya.

Tom and I got in line to order. I got a chicken taco and guac and chips while Tom ordered a torta al pastor. Also, we both ordered Mexican Coke. For those of you who are unfamiliar, basically formulations of soda can be very different depending on where they're manufactured. For example, you may know about my love of orange Fanta, but only from Europe. The European one is much less sweet and a lot more like Orangina, while the American version is a lot more like Sunkist. Same thing with the Mexican Coke. Coke made in Mexico is made with cane sugar, while the U.S. version is made with high fructose corn syrup. Coke claims that the flavor is the same, but they're lying to you. The Mexican Coke definitely has a sweeter, more real sugar flavor. But I'm so used to the U.S. version that I prefer it.

Ok, onto lunch. Here's my taco:
Can you believe that this lone little taco cost me $3.50. What the hell? Plus, the chicken in it was overly juicy, which resulted in it soaking the shell and making it all soft and messy. And the chicken in it wasn't even that flavorful or great. I did like the seasoned spicy carrots on the side, though.

Oh right, and our chips and guac.
It was pretty disappointing. It was really watery and the flavor wasn't so great. Plus authentic Mexican guac DOES NOT CONTAIN TOMATOES. It was so watery that Tom claims that took salsa and mixed it in with the guac. The chips were ok, but I prefer the chips from El Pelon.

And lastly, Tom's torta.
I think he felt it was pretty good, but I also think he preferred the tortas at El Pelon. Overall, we're still looking for a good Mexican place. I know there must be some around, so I guess I'll just be making a trip to the Mission sometime soon.

NY, DAY 3

Day 3 in NY was the day I actually worked. Tom and I spent close to 6 hours at the Fancy Food Show, walking the floors, talking to suppliers and trying lots of samples. My favorite was the duck magret from D'Artagnan, but then again, I am crazy for duck. By the time we'd finished, we were exhausted and staggered back to my cousin's apartment for a nap.

When we awoke, we were hungry. So we headed out to the local Mexican joint. We had always walked by this place on the way to the subway and I was always curious about it, so we figured it'd be a good time to try it out. I assumed it'd be one of these hole in the wall places. Not much decor or charm with great food at low prices (like Havana Chelsea in NY).

Here's a pic of the exterior. It's called Pedro's . Like I said, not much for charm.

You go down a set of stairs and place your order at a counter with a hot table. There really isn't a menu, so much as different dishes written on large cards and pasted everywhere. The service wasn't very helpful or all that nice, either.

Tom ordered a chicken taco and a tamale. As we watched the woman go for the tamale and then microwave it, we knew we needed to be skeptical about this place. After grabbing our food (which did end up being cheap enough) we headed out to park bench to dig into our food.

Here's a pic of Tom's chicken taco. It looks decent enough, but he found it tasteless.

Here's my order of arroz con pollo. I gave it 3 bites before giving up. First, it really wasn't flavorful at all. Also, it was about 85F and humid out, so I couldn't put down any hot food.

Lastly, here's Tom's tamale. I think it looks about as bad as it tasted. As in dry and lacking in any flavor.

So it wasn't such a great idea to go to Pedro's. We should've asked my cousin before going, but she was also taking a nap. But at least if you're ever in DUMBO, you'll know to order pizza, rather than going to the Mexican place.

RED HOOK BALLFIELDS

We didn't arrive to the Red Hook Ballfields until 3:30, and we were all starving and ready to eat. Luckily, there were plenty of food options. So what are the Red Hook Ballfields? You can read about it in the NYTimes review. Suffice it to say, it is filled with Latin American food vendors, so I could eat to my heart's content. When we arrived, it was pretty crowded, and even though it was late in the day, many of the vendors had lines for food.

We got in the first line we saw, a line for huraches. They're kinda like gigantic soft tacos, but the middle of each tortilla is filled with a thin layer of beans. Here's a pic of them being grilled. We ordered one for each of us, two chicken and two beef.

Here's mine, filled with lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, cheese and I don't know what else. Though the chicken wasn't grilled (unlike the steak), it was still really tasty. I enjoyed it a lot.

After acquiring are huraches, we got in line for drinks- fresh fruit juice. We ordered one lime, and Tom got a watermelon, which he really liked. Meanwhile, I was off buying one of my favorite food items, grilled corn. Here's a pic of the guy grilling the corn... And here's a pic of my half eaten corn. Smothered with mayo, cheese, chili and lime, it was delicious and I had eaten half of it before we even sat down.

We grabbed a seat on a grassy patch and munched away. And amazingly enough, I still wanted another corn after finishing my hurache. So off we went, and I finished that one, too. Meanwhile, Tom was also still a bit hungry, so he ordered some taquitos.

They had already been fried once, but they were put into the hot oil again, to be heated a second time. They were then topped with some pickled veggies and salsa. When Tom got them, they had been so over fried that they were tough and it was hard to even identify which type of meat was inside (I guessed pork or chicken). They weren't the best item of the day, but I thought everything else was great. And it was just nice to be outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and eating delicious food.

KEN ORINGER LITE

As I mentioned yesterday, Tom and I went to Ken Oringer's newest venture, La Verdad, for dinner last night. It's quite a departure from his usual m.o. His first restaurant, Clio/Uni, is ultra upscale and where he won his James Beard Award. His second venture, Toro, which I love, is a little more casual, though still serving excellent food to a very yuppie crowd. This third restaurant, La Verdad, is what I would call Ken Oringer for college students. It inhabits the former space of Tiki Room on Lansdowne Street, sandwiched between Tequila Rain and Jillian's. I'd never been to Tiki Room when it was open, but upon entering the restaurant, you could pretty much suspect that not much has changed since Tiki Room. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still using the same decor and same plastic cups. It was very much your typical college bar, with the central bar dominating most of the room and some small tables for two sprinkled around it.

But unlike Ken Oringer's other places, this was not an expensive night out. You can easily have a meal there for under $15, $10 if you're not super hungry. It was pretty empty when we entered and we were quickly seated at a high table from where we could peer into the kitchen. The Tortilla ladies (as we called them) were directly behind me, handmaking fresh tortillas. As befits it's setting, everything is casual. And there are still a lot of kinks that need to be worked out, which isn't surprising since the place has only been open one month. But I also think these problems will be taking longer than usual to resolve. When Toro first opened, and for months afterwards, you would always see Ken there. At this spot, he was nowhere to be seen, and I have a feeling that he's spending more time working on his latest venture, opening a steak house in the former Spire space.

Our waiter was friendly and super casual. We were given xeroxed copies of the menu which had a vast taco selection, and a few other items. He quickly offered us chips, salsa and guacamole, which we ordered. As usual, and per Leah's comments, I had already heard several things about La Verdad, and most were right on. First the guacamole was quite good.
And unlike Leah's experience, I felt that the chips were very well salted, almost too salty. But like everyone else had mentioned, the chips are cut far too thickly, so when they're fried, they don't cut out nice and crispy. Instead, they're a little chewy and tough.

We were also given this duo of salsas and a side of pickled carrots.

I found both salsas watery and tasteless, though Tom did like the salsa verde. I enjoyed munching on the pickled carrots, though.

At this point, we put our order in. We decided to get 3 tacos each (we knew that they were small) and Tom ordered a chicken burrito while I ordered my beloved "Toro" grilled corn. The list of tacos is quite extensive and I would have liked to try quite a few of them, with fillings ranging from steak and chicken to the more unusual tongue and tripe. What annoyed me a little was that when the first plate of tacos came out, the waiter didn't bother telling us what was on the plate. We assumed all tacos were Tom's but figured out one of them was mine (after Tom had bitten into it.) But here they are:

At the top position is my turkey pastor with cinnamon, brown sugar, mole and toasted sesame seeds. I wasn't a big fan because I found the turkey far too tough and chewy. At the bottom of the plate is Tom's carne asada taco with caramelized onions, guac and salsa ranchero. The last taco is Tom's Benny Lengua: smoked tongue, salsa roja, lime, cilantro and onion. Tom enjoyed both of his tacos. After a little time, Tom's burrito came out.

Despite being from LA, I have no idea why they call this the East LA Burrito. It was a heavy little guy, but we soon found out that it was mainly filled with rice and beans. There was chicken in there, but so much other filler that you couldn't really taste it.

Then our last plate of tacos showed up:Tom and I had both ordered fish tacos, and I also ordered a taco with chile relleno: roasted poblano, monterey jack and batter fried. For our fish tacos, it was a little odd, because Tom's was over battered and too crispy, while I had the opposite problem. We traded half way through. As Leah mentioned, I prefer El Pelon's fish tacos better. Rather than one piece of fried fish, El Pelon has little chunks of fried fish, which are all perfectly crispy. And I love the pickled veggies they add. As for the chili relleno, that was my favorite taco. Kind of hot, with lots of cheese, it was delicious.

My last dish was the famous "Toro" grilled corn. It took a good long time to come out, cause the corn takes a while to grill. So we'd already finished eating our meal, and were stuffed by the time this showed up. I finished it off, though, cause it's just so damn good. I think they put too much cheese on this one, and Chowhounder complaints that the kernels of corn are small were well founded. (it is still ealry in the season). But it was still tasty.

By this point, our waiter had become quite neglectful. We had finished eating, the plates were cleared and it was at least 10 minutes before anyone noticed. (He was drinking a soda at the opposite end of the bar) And it wasn't even our waiter, but a woman serving the next table that asked if we needed anything, and it took another few minutes to get the check for our original waiter.

Overall, the meal was quite good. I don't think we'll be returning to eat in the restaurant, but they have an area dedicated entirely to take out, so I imagine will be returning for some tacos to go. We grabbed a menu, but they're so new that they didn't even have the phone number printed on it. Normally I'd be thrilled to have a Mexican place like this near me. However, with El Pelon just 3 blocks away, I suspect that we'll still be getting our Mexican food from there. La Verdad is a little pricier, but to be honest, El Pelon is just better. I think it'd be wise of Ken to take a trip over to El Pelon and check out the competition. Maybe it'd help La Verdad become a truly great spot.

ONE LAST BITE

It was time to head back to Boston. Tom and I arrived at the airport super early, worried about the number of people who would be traveling on New Year's Day through LAX. However, we were able to get everything settled pretty quickly and ended up at our gate nearly 2 hours early. This left me plenty of time to get hungry while waiting to board our flight. (And now that you can only buy food on flights, I wanted to fill up). I'll pause here to say that even in LA airports, they have better food options than we do on the east coast. Yes, I know there can be large variations due to the terminal and airline. And I realize that we were in the recently renovated United terminal, but still. You have very few options when you're waiting at JFK or BOS. Actually, if I had a stop over anywhere in the world, I think my least desired airport to get stuck at would be JFK.

So after considering my dining options, I settled on La Salsa, a local Mexican food chain(It'd be equivalent to Anna's in Boston).
They have pretty good stuff at fairly reasonable prices, though I did feel that the prices at the LAX location were higher than the normal locations. I was suprised to find that no one was ordering food there (but there was a huge line in front of the neighboring Starbucks), so I stepped up and ordered some chicken taquitos. I was a little shocked by the price (nearly $8) and then was told they had run out of those. So I ordered some nachos instead and filled up at the salsa station while waiting for my order.And here's my massive plate of nachos. I was not expecting that much food, it took up my whole lap, and Tom didn't want to help me. I ended up eating about a third of it. (And by the time you get to the bottom the nachos are all soggy anyway). Without a doubt, this was a tasty treat for me, and left me questioning, once again, why we can have simply made delicious Mexican food in Boston. Ah well, I'll just have to keep loading up on Mexican food on my next trip home.

BACK TO LA: DAY 4

Welcome back to my posts about dining in LA. On our 4th day in LA, my mom wanted to go shopping at Marukai and Nijiya, both big Japanese grocery stores located a bit south of where I live. Marukai is more like a giant supermarket/warehouse and the experience is akin to the one you'd have if you were shopping at a Walmart/Costco than a typical supermarket. My friend Noel can go on and on about how much she loves Marukai because they sell things for much less than if you were to visit a normal Japanese grocery store. (which are typically small, pretty and hugely expensive). And did I mention the crowds?? It was even more crowded on the day we went cause it was the day before New Year's Eve, which is apparently a really big holiday for Japanese people. Tom and I wandered around, picking up snacks and random goodies and eventually, we thought it'd be smart to stand in line while my parents shopped. Each line extended to nearly 2/3 back into the store, so even though we got in line early, we still ended waiting a good 30 minutes before we checked out.

Afterward, it was time for lunch, so my parents thought to take us to Nijiya where they have a large Japanese food court (think Porter Exchange, but nicer and with better food) Here's a shot of the interior, with a faux Japanese tea garden. Each place was super helpful with their little plastic renditions of the food they serve (I always find this amusing). I ended up ordering some tempura with rice, but I forgot to take a pick until I'd finished most of it. Sorry, I know this is kinda pathetic. Meanwhile, Tom got some uni and rice. Eating here is a lot like eating at Porter. It's cheap, quick, and pretty decent. And here's a nice pic of a dessert display case. I really wanted a piece of strawberry cake, but just didn't have the stomach for it. After lunch, we decided to walk around the market a bit, to work off the meal. Here's a pick of some king crab legs that they had on display. My mom ended up getting some for the shabu dinner she was cooking on New Year's eve. And next to those were these special crabs that were brought in from Hokkaido. Do you know how much these were? $30/ea. Those must be some damn good crabs.We made our way back to the Westside and I took Tom to Venice Beach to show him around that area. Later that evening, we met up with friends at Tia Juana's. Normally when I have Mexican food in LA, I'll just hit up the local take out joint. But everyone (my sisters, Katie, Chowhounders) had been singing the praises of Tia Juana and their freshly made tortillas. So we picked that as a location for our group dinner. I was expecting maybe 8 people at dinner, but I'd invited Greg, a friend of Jayna's, and much like Big Ed, he showed up with his posse. We ended up having 14 people at dinner, but the staff at Tia Juana was very accomadating and put the tables together for us.

We waited 45 minutes before everyone arrived and we ordered, though it didn't really feel that long. I spent the entire time munching on these homemade tortilla chips. I think I ate nearly a basket by myself, and they just kept refilling them. I eventually had to stop myself.
When we finally ordered, we started off with a plate of guacamole to share. It was good, but to be honest, I can make better guac than that. And I didn't think it was salty enough, but I've been having salt issues. Also, I didn't know what was going on with that watery salsa stuff on top. I was kinda turned off by that. Next, I ordered my dinner. I ordered one enchilada and once hard taco (both with chicken). It came with this bowl of soup:Which basically tasted like Campbell's canned veggie soup. Tom ate the meatballs. (My other choice would've been an iceberg lettuce salad. Why do they even bother?)

But onto my main course. Here's it is, a massive plate of food. Now, Katie had warned me that the portions are huge here. Plus, she'd also mentioned she normally just ended up eating the tortillas with beans and rice, so she shared one dinner with Dustin. That turned out to be the smart move. I ended up with way too much food (and I'd eaten all those damn tortilla chips). I did finish off the enchilada, and thoroughly enjoyed the sauce on top, along with the taco.And of course, I had to eat one of their famous tortillas (which are served with butter on the side). They are made by hand at the front of the restaurant. They really were quite good, but I just couldn't finish it all! Oh, I also wanted to share a pic of Ben's dinner (my little sister's bf). He ordered the shrimp. And though well cooked, I want to point out that there are only a total of 4 shrimp served. So don't order that. Ultimately, I had a really enjoyable dinner at Tia Juana. The food was great and it wasn't too expensive. Plus it was really plentiful. I walked out of there painfully stuffed. (but still managed to go to the Balcony to fit in a last mocha. I'm telling you, I was amazed at my eating abilities in LA). I really do love Mexican food in LA, and will continue to hope for such a place to open in Boston. I mean really, with the number of LA friends that have lived out here and complained about Anna's qualifying as "great Mexican food", you'd think SOMEONE would've caught on and opened a good place by now. Sigh.

THE CITY TOUR, A DAY OF NONSTOP ETHNIC EATS

On our third day in L.A., I needed to visit my optometrist, who's located in Monterey Park, about 30 minutes east of the Westside. My mom also wanted to give Tom a city tour, since it was his first time in LA and apparently I wasn't doing a good enough job. (I like to stick on the Westside) So we packed into the car early and headed out. After I'd gotten my eyes checked, it was time for some breakfast and I wanted to stock up on some ingredients. For those of you unfamiliar with LA geography, Monterey Park is where a ton of Taiwanese, Chinese and Asian people live. For people who've always wondered how there can be people living in the U.S. who don't speak English, it's cause they've never left their little world and visited an ethnic community. Think Flushing in Queens, Jackson Heights in the Bronx or in this case, Monterey Park. You don't need to know English to function in this world, and actually, if you don't know Chinese, you'll have a much harder time.

Our first stop was at a giant herbal grocery store. My mom wanted to pick up some random ingredients, and I got some dried shrimp, scallops and shitake mushrooms. I used to love going into these places as a kid, cause they had all kinds of crazy ingredients. Like sharks fins, dried seahorses and turtles. The Chinese have a long history of Oriental medicine, so apparently, each one of these ingredients has it's own uses. The just used to freak me out as a kid. Anywhere, here's a pic of a bin of an assortment of dried sea cucumbers.And here's a pic of the ginseng section, which was huge. They have ginseng in all different forms and different grades.
Our next stop was for some traditional Taiwanese breakfast (what I call Taiwanese dim sum when I'm in Boston). Here's a pic of a rack of freshly steamed buns. In this area of LA, you can count the number of non-Asians that you find on one hand. This place had no English in menu.

Here's the guy standing in front a pan of freshly fried dough. Normally, I order one of these with my soy milk, but I wasn't in the mood that day. I ordered Tom beef in a sesame pocket, which I was a little disappointed in cause the beef looked dry and Tom confirmed it. Here's my bowl of hot soy milk, and a tea egg on the side. The soy milk was yummy as always.
And lastly, here's my scallion pancake. I was not thrilled with this pancake. They deep fried it rather than panfried it, so though it was crispy, it was completely drenched in oil and not very appetizing at all.Continuing on our city tour, we drove west to downtown LA where we visited Olvera St. I actually hadn't been here in at least 10 years. It's a really historic part of LA, one of the oldest streets in the city, which had a high concentration of Mexicans. Now there are a bunch of kitschy shops and there's a mission, just very California. I wasn't so interested in the knick knacks, but I was interested in a sign that said "Mr. Churro". Of course, I had to get a Mexican churro, which was being fried as I entered. We had a wait a few minutes for it to finish cooking, and then it was dusted with cinnamon and sugar and served. I ate it as we walked along, but I got stuffed pretty soon and handed it over to Tom. It was so yummy and warm, though.We got back in the car and continued to drive West and ended up Hollywood where we saw the walk of fame, and Tom got a cream puff and cheesecake stick from Beard Papa's. Apparently, Beard Papa is a recent phenomenon in LA, though we've had it on the east coast for a few years now. But it's amazing how that quality differs from one store to the next. The one I had in LA was actually quite good, but the ones at Fanuiel Hall suck.

After driving back to the Westside, it was time for lunch. I was stuffed full, and asked that we go somewhere where I could just get a salad or tofu. My mom decided to take us to Torafuku, which is a Japanese restaurant located right next to the Westside Pavillion. Apparently they are famous for their rice, called Kamado rice that's cooked in a special way. And they have homemade tofu. They have these huge rice pots located at the front of the restaurant where they cook rice in an old fashioned style. I took a pic, but I can't find it right now.

The restaurant was full when we arrived, even though it was a pretty big space, (apparently there was a private party in the back) so we snagged the last available table. The place was full of Japanese people, and I've always told you guys to eat where the natives eat. Here's a pic of the sushi bar. We were each served a little saladAnd then I got this little bamboo pot of freshly made tofu served with some ground ginger and soy sauce. It really didn't taste that different from normal tofu, but the texture was definitely silkier. It was expensive, though. $7 for this little guy.A lot of their stuff is made in house. Like the rice seasoning shown here. (aka Furikake, you can buy it in bottles at Japanese markets and use it on rice).Tom got this lunch set, which I think he enjoyed.My mom and I shared the chef's choice bento box. Even though I was stuffed full before I got to the restaurant, I still managed to eat half of it AND a whole bowl of rice! I was amazed at myself, I didn't know where I was putting it all. But the rice was quite tasty. Again, not so much for the flavor, but the texture. It just seemed extra springy.Ok, after this, I still continued to snack and eat dinner. But at places I've talked about. So I'll finish this post with a great pic of the Ugly Dolls exhibit at the Giant Robot 2 store in West LA. Isn't it great? Have you ever seen so many Ugly Dolls? (and there were Ugly Doll pinatas, too). AHH, so much yummy eating in one day, and it was only our 3rd day in LA!