Miss En Place's Profile
San Miguel de Allende round-up
I'm wrapping up a month in San Miguel, and thought I'd share some of my thoughts on the local dining scene. Most of these places are in Centro, within easy walking distance of the Jardin.
Best semi-casual Mexican with reasonable prices: Ten Ten Pie. There's a whole page on the menu for tacos, and the service is fantastic. The friendly owner told me, "if you don't like it, you don't pay," but I loved it and happily paid (especially because it's significantly cheaper than any other restaurant within a block of the Jardin). The same table of local men is there often, playing dominoes late into the night.
Best super-cheap Mexican: the no-sign-out-front place across from the Biblioteca serving gorditas (fat tortillas) with your choice of 6 or 7 fillings. It's a little intimidating, and if you don't know your food words you have to just point and hope for the best (I did). Muy rico. There's a reason there's a line out the door at lunchtime every day.
Best salad: the tableside-prepared Caesar salad at El Pegaso. Lots of mashed-up anchovies, good fresh croutons... yum. Their octopus salad is also really good. Close second: the spinach and beet salad at Hecho in Mexico, near Instituto Allende.
Best steak: Casa Payo, an Argentinean steakhouse that offers free phone calls to the U.S., in case the enormous platters of tasty meat weren't enough of a draw. If you're a fan of offal, the grilled sweetbreads are simply but perfectly prepared.
Prettiest atmosphere: Villa Santa Monica on Parque Juarez. The restaurant is only open from 1-5, and the menu is a little weird. (They have a "quesadilla" that is "b&b style," which apparently they use to mean that it's actually a meat taco, no cheese. I tried to communicate that really, a quesadilla is only called that because it's made with queso, but the exceedingly polite waiter didn't have anything to say about that.) Still, it is such a pretty spot - a lovely courtyard with a fountain and abundant bourganvillia - that I went back over and over.
Best fancy dinner: Da Andrea, out in the country about a 20 minute/$5 taxi ride from Centro. It's fairly classic Italian food - including unbelievably good fresh ravioli - but this is really about dining al fresco at a centuries-old hacienda with the beautiful people.
Best non-Mexican food: Berlin. I resisted the idea of German food in colonial Mexico, but I have to hand it to Detlef, the owner (who also runs Viajes San Miguel, the airport shuttle operator): everything I have ordered here was fantastic. The serrano-ham wrapped asparagus and potato-crusted snapper are particularly good. Nice bar, very popular with Americans.
Best breakfast spot: This is a tossup: either Mama Mia for a groaning buffet of Mexican specialties including quesadillas made to order with huitlacoche, squash blossoms, and other fillings, or San Agostin, across from Iglesia San Francisco, where Mexicans and expats flock for churros and chocolate. I think they have the best coffee in town.
Best fish tacos: La Palapa, an outdoor tent-grill place on the way from the Instituto to Parque Juarez. The fish is freshly battered and fried to order, topped with chopped tomatoes and onions and a cilantro garlic sauce. 2 good-sized tacos for 25 pesos.
A few disappointments: La Capilla - it's a beautiful restauarant, but has sub-par service and weirdly unproessional food preparation (waffles were served cold at brunch, and the soup I had on my second try was so salty it was inedible - and I like salt!). Buganbilia was way more expensive than its competitors in the higher-end Mexican cateogy, and although I'll admit that their chilis en nogado are fantastic, I thought that the same dish at El Correo, right off the Jardin, was just as good and cost 5 bucks less. Harry's - obviously, you kind of know what you're getting at a gringo bar like this, but I had a pork dish that smelled rancid, and there's better seafood almost anywhere in town.
All in all, though, the food here has been varied and delicious. SMA is definitely a Chowhound kind of town, and walking all the hills to search out new spots for lunch helps keep your appetite up!
Fantastic find in San Miguel de Allende (Don't miss this place!!)
I couldn't agree more. I took my parents to Da Andrea when they were visiting me 2 weeks ago, and we all agreed that the seafood (especially the fresh sardines and grilled sea bass) and pasta (the same fresh spinash ravioli you had) were as good as any we have had Italy. I would say, though, that sitting on the patio is essential since the interior is a little gloomy.
Mitsuwa's "Monku Fish For Nabe"
Thanks for the responses! I bought some and lightly steamed it, then served with a little ponzu - it was great, and so much cheaper than I'm used to paying in restaurants. I'll definitely look for this in other markets as well, and next time maybe try a nabe...
Mitsuwa's "Monku Fish For Nabe"
I was browsing the sushi at Mistuwa today and saw on special a package of four disks labelled "Monku Fish For Nabe." I'm pretty sure it's ankimo - monkfish liver - and I know that nabe means quick-cooking hotpot, so my question is whether this is edible raw or must be steamed or cooked before eating. Anyone know?
Source for Kimchee in Santa Fe?
Does anyone know of a source for good kimchee around Santa Fe (other than the jarred stuff you can sometimes find in mainstream grocery stores)?
Yokohama Ramen Gone -
I just went there for lunch today. It was definitely Korean - we were greeted in Korean, most of the menu is comprised of Korean dishes, and they serve classic panchan. Could be they're still working out the kinks in the kitchen, but it was really disappointing. I had the soon tofu casserole with seafood and beef, ordered spicy. The broth was weirdly tasteless, not spicy at all, with a few pieces of tough beef and two head-on shrimp that were so tiny and dessicated-looking that I didn't even taste them. That magic texture from the raw tofu and the egg cooked in the hot broth never happened, and after the pot cooled a little the broth appeared to actually be separating - never seen that before. My friend's tofu salad was just chunks of firm tofu and avocado on a heap of lettuce with a bland sesame dressing. She was fishing around for the slivered red onion to try to give the dish some flavor. The panchan tasted excessively preserved and vinegary; if the test of a Korean place is its kimchee, Asian-Ya deserves a C-. I'm a huge fan of soon tofu, and I was excited about a new place to get my fix on the west side, but sadly, I won't be going back unless I hear there's been some improvement.
Good pho' in Marina Del Rey/Culver City area?
In addition to the places others have mentioned, there's a place called Phoreign (groan when you get the pun) at 2123 Sawtelle (formerly Hanoi Cafe across the street) It's serviceable, not great. I think it's on a par with Le Saigon on Santa Monica and Pho 99 - which is to say that they're ok if you're desperate for a local pho fix - with Red Moon and China Beach a step below.
strangely red kosher chicken breast. why, and is it safe?
Thanks for this link. The site is really interesting - I now know a lot more about poultry processing, and it didn't even make me queasy!
strangely red kosher chicken breast. why, and is it safe?
When I opened a package of boneless skinless kosher chicken breasts from Trader Joe's yesterday, one of the three breast pieces was noticeably reddish (the others were a normal yellow-white). I gave it a good sniff and there was no scent to indicate that it was off, so I cooked it with the other pieces in a stir fry. The red chicken bites were tougher and stronger-tasting than than the other pieces. All of this doesn't make sense to me, given what I know (not a lot) about kosher slaughtering - doesn't it entail draining the blood, so that the flesh would be, if anything, less red than non-kosher meat? And if it's something about the processing, then why just that one piece out of three? Any theories?
Danny's Deli in Venice?
I posted about this a few days ago (http://www.chowhound.com/topics/377630) and have since been back again for a frankly mediocre mediterranean plate (acrid hummous, tepid baba ghanoush) and a ho-hum cobb salad. Never tried the desserts.
Staying at Shutters, any Santa Monica tips?
I second all of TomSwift's suggestions, and if you're willing to walk a while (or take a taxi or shuttle bus - the Big Blue Bus is really nice, actually), you can get to loads more good places. JiRaffe is a great choice for French bistro food, and it's relatively near you. Again, this isn't exactly ethnic, but Chinois on Main is a pretty classic SoCal fusion restaurant. There's no really good Ethiopian or Middle Eastern near you as far as I know.
Staying at Shutters, any Santa Monica tips?
Are you looking for places that are near Shutters, or general recommendations for LA?
