Juliana’s Kitchen in Wilmington, DE

February 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment
arroz de mariscos

Juliana’s Kitchen
1828 W 11th st
Wilmington, DE

fried bananas

We came to this restaurant because it had a lot of good online reviews. There was only one other group when we arrived and yet service was super slow. Also, when we sat down, the owner wiped down our table with a dirty towel and so our table smelled like moldy laundry. An unfortunate way to start the evening. The fried bananas were alright, I guess I expected more ripe bananas.

 

arroz de mariscos

Joe got the seafood rice platter. It came with shrimp, scallops, and mussels cooked in Peruvian seasonings. Joe really liked his dish a lot. I’m not a huge mussels fan, so I just sampled the shrimp and rice. I thought the shrimp was cooked nicely and the rice was perfect.

Bistec Apanado con tacu tacu

I had the fried sirloin steak with rice. This is one of the most popular dishes at this restaurant. The portion sizes were huge! I really liked my sirloin steak, it was seasoned very nicely. And I liked the crisp contrast from the al dente rice. Very yummy authentic Peruvian hole in the wall!

Juliana's Kitchen on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Latin American, Philadelphia, PA Tagged With:

Taco Loco in Somerville, MA

January 29, 2013 By Leave a Comment
steak burrito

Taco Loco
44 Broadway
Somerville, MA

So parking in this area was not easy! The restaurant is like right there when you get off of 93 so you really don’t have a lot of options. Plus all these parking permit only signs and threats of towing doesn’t make finding parking any easier. But don’t give up! the food is well worth it.

extensive food options

This place has rave reviews online and I have to admit that this place lives up the hype. Fresh ingredients and authentic flavors! And it doesn’t break the bank to eat here which is always a plus. Not too many seats to sit down to eat, but I think the majority of the patrons get their food to go. But if you do end up sitting down to eat, you can watch Shrek in Spanish.

steak burrito

I think everyone has heard me lament about how unphotogenic burritos are, so I won’t get into that again. Plus points for having my favorite hot sauce! The burrito was huge!! this could have easily been 2 meals. The meat was tender and juicy. My only complaint would be the amount of white rice in my burrito, there was a ton! I take huge bites of food at once (attractive, i know) and there were some bites that were just all rice which isn’t right. but that’s just me being nit-picky. overall, the food was amazing and I will def return.

 

Taco Loco on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Boston, MA, Latin American

La Guadalupana Bakery and Cafe in Houston, TX

December 28, 2012 By
almond cookie

La Guadalupana Bakery and Cafe
2109 Dunlavy Street
Houston, TX 77006

the front

so i read online that this is quite the hole in the wall. at first, I wasn’t even sure I had driven to the right place cuz the plaza sign said “Food Mart”. But once I parked, I saw another sign that said bakery and cafe and assumed that this had to be it. As soon as you walk in, a nice waittress greets you and takes you to your seat (booths). We sat down and barely had a chance to glance at our menu before the waittress came back with our waters and asked us what we would like to order. Since it was breakfast, I decided to go with their breakfast taco especial! it had egg, sausage, potato, green pepper, onion and seasoning on a corn tortilla! it was muy delicioso! i probably could’ve eaten 3 of these but I was trying to pace myself for the day.

taco especial

Online, i’d read all these raves about the almond cookie so I went to the other room where the showcase windows were and I found the cookie! It was buttery goodness!

almond cookie

La Guadalupana Bakery and Cafe on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Houston, Latin American

Mission Burrito in Houston, TX

November 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Guacamole

Mission Burrito
2245 W. Alabama
Houston, TX 77098

Guacamole

I was hankering for a burrito and saw that this Mission burrito was nearby where I was staying. When I got here, I was reminded of Chipotle. It was a line-service with americanized mexican ingredients. The service was quick and nice and the lady at the cash register tried to help me save money by telling me which sizes to order. However, I am a guacamole nut and so I got a large order of it. It was alright.

burrito

I had the steak fajita burrito. It’s pretty similar to Chipotle, burritos the size of a baby.

Mission Burrito on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Houston, Latin American, Mexican

El Caribeno in Springfield, MA

October 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
lunch special

El Caribeno
858 State St.
Springfield, MA

This is a Puerto Rican hole in the wall across the street from the clinic I’ve been working at in Springfield, MA. I wonder whose great idea it was to call these hidden gems “hole in the wall.” How unappealing does that sound? A hole in anything doesn’t sound yummy to me. However, hidden gem is alluring, forbidden. This is an awesome option for those who are economical and in a rush (aka me!)

empanada

I usually get a lunch special w an empanada all for under $5! The empanada is like a Latin American dumpling. What? Did I just go there? Yes! The empanada is a cooked pastry dough, filled with a meat (seasoned chicken or meat) or veggie. The empanada is solid! I tried the fried balls (filled with mashed potato and ground beef) which just felt like a lead ball in my stomach. The empanada is savory and light enough that you won’t regret it. And oh so delicious.

lunch special

The lunch special is a smaller styrofoam square carton (the regular size is a circular tin container that is roughly 2/3 bigger than the lunch special size). But given how much rice there is in this, it is enough for 1.5 meals. You have the option of cut up pieces of pork (I wouldn’t recommend it cuz the pork pieces are not large) or one chicken drum stick (highly recommended!). The chicken is juicy and very flavorful. The lunch special alone is $3.50ish. Very reasonable!

El Caribeno on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Boston, MA, Latin American

Taqueria Sanchez in New Orleans, LA

July 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment
beef burrito

Taqueria Sanchez
46 Westbank Expressway
Gretna, LA

beef burrito

This area was so sketch that I didn’t want to take my camera. This is literally on the side of the highway! There’s no parking lot, no sidewalk parking, just cars pulled up onto the grass (over that street bumper thing to protect the grass). I parked in the parking lot of the nearby 9 Roses (known for their delish Asian cuisine) and prayed that my car wouldn’t get towed. As I walked up to this little taco shack to the side of the highway, I was reminded of that story from Friends where Ross and Chandler get tacos from a guy in a truck with a hibachi grill in his trunk on their way to Disney World. Chandler says, after Ross’s ride, they decided to rename it the “Crappiest place in the whole wide world.” hahaha………not the greatest image to have as you’re walking up to a taco shack.

chicken taco and pork taco

The chicken taco and pork taco didn’t come with any sauce. Luckily, they added green hot sauce which was good but not enough for the dry meats (perhaps it was cooked earlier in the day and then re-heated prior to assembly). Very authentic tasting though. So sad, the flavors were there they just needed a little help (and a lot of moisture).

huge burrito

The burrito came on a paper plate covered with a tin foil. Kinda ghetto. Right? Or am I being too hoighty-toighty….. Altho the meat tasted great, it was also dry. This was a great hole in the wall (literally). Not too sure if I’ll return tho because there are better burrito options on this side of the bridge with legit parking options. I’ll stick to Los Paisanos cuz you get the great flavor with moisture (and parking)! But this blog post was for all y’all who were curious about that taco shack along the highway on the West Bank, now ya know!

 

Taqueria Sanchez on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Latin American, New Orleans, LA

Fogo de Chao Brazilian BBQ in Philadelphia, PA

June 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
green for go!

Fogo de Chao
1337 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA

the front

We arrived at 7:30 PM on a Saturday night and the place was packed! There were people waiting outside front. I thought, luckily, I have a reservation. But nope, we still ended up waiting for a table.

salad bar

If you’re going to an all you can eat brazilian BBQ buffet, why waste time with the salad bar? I did stop by though to get this picture and to get some cheeses to adorn my meats with. I couldn’t believe how many people were in line for salads.

cheesy bread

the cheesy bread is orgasmic here!! We may have not gotten our money’s worth in meats but we definitely did in cheesy bread. The bread always came out hot and the cheese inside was still soft. Every time our bread bowl got empty, a waiter would quickly notice and replace it. Probably their ploy to get ya to fill up on bread instead of the meat, but I don’t care! If I had a last meal on earth, this cheesy bread would definitely be on the table.

the roasted banana

oh my gosh this banana was such a warm welcomed break from the meat. The banana was sweet and warm. We had 2 other side dishes (fried polenta and mashed potatoes) which aren’t worth mentioning.

green for go!

Green means business! It was a whirlwind of service. The service was so quick. And they were great about everything, when I started to get full, I started to look out for the filet mignon and garlic beef, and a waiter asked me what I wanted and I told him and next thing I knew, both of these meat servers were at my table!

meat server

 

 

1st meat plate

My first meat plate consisted of bacon wrapped filet mignon and beef ancho which is the prime part of the ribeye. The meat was tender and very flavorful. And what’s awesome, is that they bring their meat skewers to you and ask you for your preference in degree of done-ness and they cut it for you on the spot.

2nd plate

This plate had some lamb, pork loin, pork sausage and of course some more bacon wrapped filet mignon. I unfortunately did not take a picture of my other plate because it had gotten kinda unappealing-looking with all the meat juices everywhere, but I must say that the garlic steak was amazing!  All in all, this was a great dinner for a special ocassion.

 

 

Fogo de Chão on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Latin American, Philadelphia, PA

Viva Burrito in Boston, MA

May 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
steak burrito

Viva Burrito
66 Staniford Street
Boston, MA

the front

I discovered this gem when I volunteered at Schepens Eye Research institute next door. I used to come here during my lunch breaks, best $6 I’ve ever spent. This has got to be hands down the best burrito in Boston! the awesome thing about this location is that you can park at the parking lots on Charles Ave for the Whole Foods and CVS because the 1st hour of parking is FREE! The free parking makes the burrito taste that much better.

this burrito was bigger than my arm!

I am used to restaurants using crappy quality meat for steak but this place uses grade A meat! The steak was juicy and tender!

And the proportions are geneously obvious. And they are quick to make your food, Good food for a lot for cheap!! Sweet!

steak burrito

\\Boston Viva Burrito on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Boston, MA, Latin American

Bobby Flay’s Mesa in Las Vegas

April 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
pork tenderloin

Bobby Flay’s La Mesa
3570 Las Vegas Blvd S
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Dinner at Caesar's palace

Even though we arrived on time for our reservation, we were asked to chill in the bar area. Luckily it didn’t take too long for us to be seated (maybe there were busy? or was it a ploy for us to order drinks?) But nothing could sour this occasion where I get to dine at Bobby Flay’s first restaurant, the one that put him on the radar and jumpstarted his career.  Once we were seated, we were asked about drinks again, I decided to go with a house trademark.

 

House margarita

I ordered the white peach margarita.  I liked that the tequila flavor was downplayed.  Very refreshing.

corn and shrimp tamale

The tamale is a corn-based starchy dough filled with corn and tiger shrimp. I didn’t know that you aren’t supposed to eat the wrapping, whoops! but the rest was delicious. The creamy sauce was so light, I was surprised.

filet mignon

The filet mignon is coffee-rubbed and served with a side of ancho chili sauce. The waiter warned us about the chili sauce and he was right! The filet mignon was cooked to a perfect medium-rare. Seriously, a stupendous cut of meat.

pork tenderloin

I got the famous New Mexico spice rubbed pork tenderloin which was served medium with some pecan butter and sweet potato tamale. The ancho chili sauce was the same as the filet mignon.  So good! I could see why this was hyped up.

 

 

Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Latin American
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