Tacos Matamoros--Brooklyn/Sunset Park

Tacos Matamoros
4508 5th Ave
(between 45th St & 46th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11220

Last night I went with several friends to Tacos Matamoros. It was at the suggestion of our friend Jongre, who is a chef and therefore more of a food connoisseur than myself.
Coming from work in mid manhattan, it was an hour trek to get there. I would still say it was worth it but only on occasion.

First of all, it was cheap- not only for the food but the restaurant is also BYOB. And cheap=good for me right now. The tacos were $1.25-$1.75 a taco. The beef nachos were about $5. I was able to be full off two small tacos and the nachos. The guys in the group ate 7-9 tacos each and some flautas.

Second, the place was clean and quaint. Nothing fancy. Mexican soap operas (with no sound) were playing on 2 televisions in the restaurant. We weren't the only gringos in the place, but close to it.

We sat down with our 2 six packs of negra modelo and prepared to stuff our faces with awesome authentic mexican tacos- per the reputation of the restaurant. The adventurous ones in the group got tacos with meat I wouldn't touch: things like tendons and cheeks. I will report that they seemed very happy with their tacos. On the safer side, I got 1 el pastor taco and 1 chorizo taco along with a "safety" of beef nachos. In addition, I ordered my favorite food in the world: guacamole.

The tacos: I do not know if the pineapple was left out of the el pastor taco or if it was too little to notice- but it was still good. The chorizo taco was good as well- but the meat was not as tasty as the el pastor. The beef nachos were exactly what i signed up for: safe and good enough. The guac. was good but not the best i have ever had.

General rating: It was good and worth the trip. But I now realize that I am not the best person to be rating this restaurant anyway. I am a texan that was raised on tex-mex. And I love tex-mex. So, even if I knew I was getting authentic mexican- that of which is regarded so much higher than tex-mex- I still can't help it- what I really wanted was tex-mex.

Get Fresh (Table and Market)- A mix of comfort and health food in Park Slope

Though empty at 8pm on Tuesday night, Get Fresh was undeniably cute with its small candlelit marble tables and produce lined walls. Though beyond my ideal budget by a smidge Al promised that the reviews on menupages had been good, so we gave it a go. Why not?

The servings were small, but the prices were more than reasonable-- when it comes to quality we certainly got what we paid for. The slow roasted beets were chilled and tossed with olive oil, fresh tarragon, and my favorite sea salt by Maldon, while the cheese plate paired homemade goat's cheese, with blood orange cardamom chutney, honey comb, macadamia nuts and two other local cheeses. In fact, everything on the menu was either organic or local, and tasted wonderful. The half roasted chicken with braised winter vegetables was divine, moist and tender while crunchy on the outside and drizzled with a gravy. Al said it was a little salty, but really, you can never have too much salt, can you?

The only thing that disappointed was the desert: bread pudding with tres leches and a miniscule scoop of chocolate ice cream. The main issue was that it just wasn't our thing, not that it was unsavory. My only advice would be to put a trio of gelatos on the desert menu for people who are feeling a bit down home after their comforting meal.

http://www.getfreshnyc.com/

Thor- Norse for really bad food on the LES

I could forgive Thor for the bad service, tacky decor, and borderline offensive maître'd, but I cannot forgive Thor for screwing up my duck salad.

Okay, I should clarify, it's not that the restaurant screwed up per se, but rather that the very basis of their recipe undermined what is so wonderful and unique about duck, and transformed what I usually consider to be the most delectable of birds into chewy chunks of oversalted meat tossed with cheap truffle oil. True, the cheeseburger was good, the fries acceptable, and the pathetic serving of risotto was adequately palateable for a dish that is so easy to screw up, but that salad... it was so bad that when I was still hungry at the end of the meal I chose to go to punjabi's on Houston st for a three dollar bowl of rice with curry rather than risk further offending my tastebuds...

Oh and those chairs? Just as uncomfortable as they look. My ass fell asleep before the free bread came, which, come to think of it, was probably the best part of the meal.

Mobile Blogging from here.

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Thai Son- Chinatown Vietnamese delights

The first advice I have for anyone looking for good Vietnamese food is to abandon New York and move to Pittsburgh where they can have a one armed man feed them a variety of noodle dishes on holiday themed plastic table cloths while his son-in-law unloads fresh groceries from the Lexus. The man at Tram's Kitchen knows food I tell them, you cannot find good Vietnamese food in New York. Give up while you're ahead.

But after six years of trial and error I may have actually found Vietnamese food in New York that tastes like... Vietnam.

Despite its poorly chosen name, Thai Son is unexpectedly authentic. We chose it because it was almost completely full at dinner time, with not a white person in sight (I did find one later, hidden in a booth in the corner), and getting the same old thing at Pho Pasteur next door was getting... old.

Al looked around and ordered the dish he saw most often: Pho with Beef, $5. It was huge. And since the menu had few chicken items, and I fear vegetarian dishes in Chinatown, I sprang for the vermicelli noodles with grilled shrimp and lettuce, $6. It was perfect. In fact, it reminded me of Tram's.

The vermicelli was thick, white, and round, cut into three inch segments, tossed with shredded lettuce, basil, scallions and the classic salty sweet fish sauce that so many other restaurants fail at getting just right. A perfect spring dish, the noodles were cool and refreshing next to the shrimp warm off the grill. Thai Son may not be the last New York Vietnamese restaurant I try, but it will certainly be the yardstick by which I will measure all others.

The Orchard- Ápizz's Boring Younger Sister

Good flatbreads, bad entrees.
Maybe because of my intimate love affair with Ápizz, I expected her little sister to be just as good. They look alike; both having the same fiery orange lighting, but The Orchard looks more like the bottom floor of a luxury yacht (there are no windows) than a sexy lower Manhattan hotspot. The menu screamed for their flatbreads-- so we tried the steak tartare and the mushroom one. Surpringly, the latter greatly overshadowed the prime beef filet with its mouth watering herbs and mushroomy goodness. In fact, it might have been the best thing on the menu. We also tried the crispy lobster empanadas (Maine meets Miami?). The pulled lobster meat filling was wicked tasty, but the "butter leaf wrap" belonged more to a blintz than a "crispy empanada". (I should know, I'm a Jew married to a Cuban).
For $29, I got the olive-oil poached halibut with a kind of salsa on the side. I should have asked for chips with my salsa since the fish was just plain boring. We also ventured for the grilled filet mignon wraps. The meat was served in those crunchy, grasshopper color lettuce leaves (the kind the bodega puts in your sandwiches). Though boasting chimichurri pesto and spicy mayo, my dear jersey italian friend described them as "Lackluster. Unimaginative. Unimpressive"
Couldn't have said it better myself.

Cabrito

In my garden of gastronomic delights, roast pork definitely has a starring role but will roast goat win its way into the picture? “Cabrito”, Spanish for roast baby goat, serves up the Mexican food we’ve all come to know and love with a slight twist. The guacamole rivals many mainstay Mexican spots south of Union Square but what you really come here for is the dish it owners named the restaurant itself after: Cabrito…Sour orange, garlic and chili rubbed goat. Slow roasted and served chopped with salsa borracha & warm flour tortillas. It is indeed as delightful as the description itself but if baby goat just simply isn’t your cup of tea, the el pastor tacos are always a favorite. Although not the best Mexican I’ve had in the city (that title still goes to Barrio Chino), Cabrito is still worth checking out. It’s the perfect place to kick back with some friends and enjoy something new in the West Village.

50 Carmine St
(212)929-5050

Downtown Bakery- East Village

I could live without chicken, but not without tamales smothered in chipotle sauce.

While in truth I was too intimidated by the cracked window and graffiti covered tables to try Downtown Bakery the first year I lived in the East Village, after I finally tried my first burrito I was hooked. I now eat there at least once every seven to nine days. They know me by name, by address, and have been known to identify me by my order when I call on the phone.

My two favorite things at Downtown Bakery are the rice and bean burrito con todo, and the slightly dry chicken tamales paired with homemade chipotle sauce, closely followed by the chipotle chicken burrito, the bean and cheese tacos, the chicken fajita platter (feeds 2.5ppl!), and the pollo desmenuzado platter. Even their shrimp are surprisingly good given the sketchiness of the locale. The only thing I would suggest avoiding is the veggie tamales, unless you like green peppers, a lot.



Photo credit Food_in_mouth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foodinmouth/2070100891/

Rush Hour, Burger Bar- LES

I have a soft spot in my stomach for gourmet turkey burgers. It probably all dates back to when I was a little girl and still ate beef and I wouldn't eat my dad's homemade hamburgers unless they were topped with tiny chopped onions like McDonalds'.

Fortunately, down on the Lower East Side, tucked among bars and drunken hipsters, Rush Hour serves their hot little brioche burger buns anyway I like.

To begin with, beef is not the only thing for dinner at Rush Hour, aside from sandwiches and several incarnations of fried potatoes, diners have their choice of six different veggie, meat or poultry fillings for their burgers, paired with cheese, lettuce and tomato, or one of the 18 different signature toppings. (If I didn't fail grade school math that's 120 different burger possibilities).

Toppings vary from French themed goat cheese and caramelized onion (amazing!) to Brazilian mango and swiss cheese or Old Lady style pesto and mozzarella-- warmed individually a pannini press. In the end there is little to complain about, beyond the difficulty of deciding, and the ironically slow speed with which the food is served, even when there are only two people in the restaurant.


Photocredit Roboppy- http://www.flickr.com/photos/roboppy/226922998/

Ashbys- work lunch in Chelsea

Love at first bite. It may just be me, but I have an immediate respect for places that make 8 or more homemade soups each day, particularly the ones that let you taste their array before you buy.

Though I am a longtime fan of Union Square's Cafe Medina, Ashby's is just a little closer to work (22nd and 6th), cheaper, and possibly, faster too.

Somehow the catering/cafe managed to squeeze a juice bar, a salad bar, a sandwich spread, and an array of soups into what must be a 200 sq ft space. There is nowhere to sit, so line up, order and get out. The sandwiches look a bit uninspiring, but the store is clean, prices are fair, service is nice, and all ingredients are listed in detail on the backs of each food label.

Their salty chicken noodle soup ($4.25 for a large) was so tasty that I even detoured from my original path to Eisenberg's Diner on 5th ave for their matzoh ball soup.

Kif- Ft. Greene

Kif is a cute, mid-range, subterranean, Moroccan/Middle Eastern restaurant. Inside, dark woods pair with candle light and the occasional hookah to create an almost romantic ambiance. But many things about Kif are not as they appear-- Though pleasant, the romantic nature of the restaurant is limited by lack of space, large crowds, and the all too distracting flat screen TV over the bar playing classic movies like "Rear Window" and "Breakfast at Tiffanies."

The first thing I tried at Kif was their yam fries: tempura battered yam slices deep fried and served in a french cone, with spicy ketchup. Notably Al thought that the ketchup was uninspiring, while my only complaint was that there wasn't enough to go around. Overall I'd say the fries were well worth the caloric investment, but are probably best set aside for once per year celebrations.

Polonia- giant Polish pancakes in the East Village

It comes as no surprise that Polonia serves up a wide variety of polish foods. But the more than reasonable prices paired with the gigantic proportions couple to make Polonia an unexpected favorite.

I was first drawn to Polonia for it's too-genuine-to-be-a-retro-themed-diner style, for its cheap prices and multiple incarnations of perogies. But by the time I ordered I had been convinced to purchase one of the most expensive things on the menu ($10) and swing for their vegitarian platter: 1 blintz, 4 perogies, and two potato pancakes. It was delicious, a perfect pairing of salty and sweet, crunchy and tender. It was also the size of 2.5 meals.

In subsequent visits I've indulged in their matzo ball soup ($2.50/cup) with homemade broth, single orders of their potato perogies (5 for $5ish), and most recently their buttermilk pancakes with banana. Notably the pancakes come two to an order, both of which are independantly the size of a dinner plate. They are also well made. But unless you're in the mood for Aunt Jemimah, bring your own maple syrup.

Malatesta Trattoria- loved it.

Every time I roller blade down Christopher on my way to the West Side Highway, the tables are packed at this italian eatery. Two things I noticed the first time I walked in the door: there were people eating alone, and an old-fashioned clock on the wall (stopped on 4 o'clock). We started off with the grilled calamari. The slices were big, chewy, and chock full of tasty garlic and olive oil. I didn't even need to squeeze my usual 2 slices of lemon. We also ordered a piadina of mozzarella and prosciutto which turned out to be a cross between a quesadilla and a panini. Eh, nothing special.
Feeling dangerous, we went for Polpette, veal meatballs with tomato sauce. I kid you not, my girlfriend and I devoured these savory bundles in about two minutes, and finished off the sauce with pieces of bread. Though on a diet, we thought this would be the place to get tiramisu. Fresh as could be, there were delicate hints of espresso, chocolate, and liqueur.
I might even go back there tonite.

Tiffan Wallah- questionable curry in Curry Hill

After watching "Slumdog Millionaire" last night, it was hard to resist going to Tiffan Wallah in honor of Slumdog's Chai Wallah. Reviews for the South Indian vegetarian restaurant were overwhelmingly possitive. Myths of dosas of epic proportions were ubiquitous. So maybe it was a mistake to stand by my standard dish of punjabi style curry.

While it is easy to see in the hip and stylish restaurant (which thankfully shyed away from Curry Row's stylistic tendancies) that the dosas were indeed humongous, crispy, and overwhelmingly popular, the generous menu space dedicated to vegitarian curries of every type was not a direct indication that I should order one.

My aloo chana (potato chickpea curry in tomato sauce) was fresh but lacked the salty ghee infused kick that I have come to love, while the boyfriend's okra curry was surprisingly smokey and mild. We remained undecided at the end of the meal whether the smokiness was intentional or his curry was burnt.

Overall I may come back to give Tiffan Wallah another try- but it will probably be durring the $6.95 lunch buffet. Ten dollars is a decent curry price, but I'd prefer to spend that money elsewhere next time.

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