La Mexicana Bakery y Taqueria

If you're near Alexandria, VA and you're looking for an authentic Mexican restaurant, you need to go to La Mexicana Bakery y Taqueria.  Its a little off the beaten path but its totally worth the drive.  Its a very humble place in the middle of a low-key shopping center off Rt 1.  The food is also very simple but man is it good!

Superking found this place a few months back and had heard really good reviews for it. He was in the area one day and stopped in for lunch.  He had tacos de lengua (beef tongue) and said they were really good and since it is also a bakery, he brought me home some of their cookies which were pretty good too.  But I was like, "you went on a food adventure without me?"  :(   "You have to take me there very soon!!"

breads...cinnamony and salty

So last week we were out and about and found ourselves looking for a place to have lunch.  Superking starts driving and says he wants to surprise me. I have no idea where we are or where we are going until he pulls into this kind of dumpy looking shopping center parking lot.  That may sound bad but I was excited, because yes, it may look a little dumpy on the outside but right in the middle of the shopping center was this shining gem called La Mexicana Bakery y Taqueria!!

brownies

cakes

I was little nervous but excited all the same to try these tongue tacos!! And as I waited for them, I explored their refrigerated cases full of cookies and pastries and cakes and breads all freshly made there! So pretty!

sweet rolls

cookies...very large cookies

And I also I tried a special drink called horchata.  Its a rice milk drink flavored with almond and lots of cinnamon!  It was really yummy and creamy, almost like a milkshake but not as thick.

can I take a swim in that?

Then the tacos come out...corn tortillas filled with small cubes of beef tongue slightly charred and crispy on the edges, fresh cilantro, diced onions, and a lime wedge on the side.  At first, I was thinking, "tacos without cheese?" But even as much as I love my cheese, these tacos certainly did not need it.  The meat was so flavorful and tender and since the other flavors were very light it allowed the beauty of the meat to really shine through. It was super delicious!!

a couple of hot sauces too

beautiful!

On the side was served some rice and refried beans which were also very simple yet delicious! And I couldn't resist taking home a big piece of tres leches cake!! I am such a chocolate peanut butter fiend but I seriously love a good piece of tres leches cake!! I even made my own once, which turned out not too bad.

some cherries on top

Anyway,  La Mexicana Bakery, te amo and your tacos de lengua! Can't wait to come back!

Salsa Steak Tacos

Of course everyone knows that one of the great things about summer is all the wonderful produce you can get and all the lovely fresh dishes you can make with that produce.  Last week, Superking and I combined such great fresh veggies with one of our new favorites pastimes...grilling.

We had picked up a couple nice steaks from the Organic Butcher and were trying to decide what to do with them when I remembered I had picked up some ingredients to make fresh salsa.  Bingo! Salsa Steak Tacos!

Though technically I think what I make is more like pico de gallo or salsa fresca because its more chunky fresh veggies rather than a tomatoey sauce used as a dip. Pico de gallo usually consists of tomatoes, onion, and a mixture of chilis or peppers. 

I usually like to use Roma tomatoes or tomatoes-on-the-vine because they have a nice fresh tomato flavor though you can use just about any kind of tomato as long as its fresh and still firm. Slice and dice each tomato into small chunks. Depending on how much you want to make, 3 or 4 small tomatoes makes plenty for  2 people to share over a couple meals. 

Superking and I love red onion. I feel like we use it in almost every recipe.  It adds a little spicy flavor when its diced up fresh which is a nice addition to a salsa, especially if you don't want a lot of heat but you do want a lot of flavor. 

Chilis or peppers...you can use whatever kind you want.  I personally can't handle a lot of heat so I stick to the Anaheim peppers, sometimes a little green bell pepper, or poblanos.  All these peppers add a good peppery flavor without a lot of heat.  The Anaheim are probably my favorite.  And its the closest thing to a hot pepper that I can actually enjoy (but they're not hot at all).  Sometimes I'll get a few hot ones for Superking to add to his own portion of salsa since he likes the heat...jalapenos and fresnos are good if want a little heat but still want to enjoy the other flavors. If you're just really into the hotness and don't care about flavor but want to burn all your tastebuds off, go for habaneros, scotch bonnets, or (God forbid) the ghost peppers.  Any way you slice it, whatever kind of peppers you use is up to your personal tastes and heat-tolerance.  Use one or two or six.

Once my three main ingredients are chopped and diced, I chop a few big clumps of cilantro. I love cilantro! Its aroma is just intoxicating and invigorating.  Another important ingredient for this recipe is lime juice. I usually get a couple limes, and squeeze a half of one (or sometimes a whole one) into the salsa and save the rest to squeeze over my finished dish just before I take a bite. Then I add a sprinkling of salt and pepper and cumin over the veggies and stir it all up.  Heres where you get to do a taste test to see if its seasoned properly and has the right ratio of tomato to onion to pepper to lime etc. And then take a big whiff...the spices, the herbs, the cumin, the peppers...it should smell amazing like you just want to dive right in the bowl!

We pulled our steaks off the grill and sliced them thinly before putting the meat onto a soft warm flour tortilla.  We topped the steak with a couple spoonfuls of our freshly made pico de gallo salsa and some finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese, maybe another squeeze of lime and a cilantro leaf to make it look pretty. Voila! Simple spicy salsa steak tacos!

Masa 14 in DC

So last night we had our first food adventure for Restaurant Week in DC.  We went to a place called Masa 14 located on 14th St NW between S and T streets.  Masa 14, only open for barely over a year, is a cool sophisticated place that serves a fusion cuisine of Asian and Mexican.  Whoever woulda thought to put those 2 things together? Well, someone did and it was genius!

can you see the snowflakes/ice pellets falling?

For most restaurants who celebrate Restaurant Week, they have a special prefixe menu specifically for this particular week.  And most menus have 3 or 4 courses for about $35 a person.  And in each course you usually have several items to choose from.

For our first course I chose the Tom Yum Soup...a sweet and spicy concoction of coconut milk, chicken adobado, masa dumplings, thai basil, bean sprouts, and some kind of spicy red peppers. Absolutely delicious and amazing how all those flavors work together.

Tom Yum Soup

For Hubby's first course, he chose Shrimp Ceviche...which contained juicy shrimp, yuzu (an Asian citrus fruit), melon, orange slices, cilantro, lime, and serrano chilis. For those who have never had ceviche, its essentially raw but then "cooked" in the acid of lime juice.  Its amazing how science can make food so yummy!  It was light and sweet and spicy all at once.

Shrimp Ceviche

For the second course, I chose the Country Ham Flatbread...a flat piece of bread (as the name implies) toasted crispy topped with salty very thin sliced ham, goat cheese, slices of cantaloupe (yes, you read correctly...cantaloupe), arugula, truffle, and lime.  Such a pantheon of flavors I never imagined together.  You could experience just about every flavor sensation in one bite.  Salty, sweet, crunchy, slight bitterness from the greens.  It was awesome.

Country Ham Flatbread

check out those slices of cantaloupe under the greens!

Hubby's second course was Pork Belly Steamed Buns...soft squishy doughy buns wrapped like a taco around the sweet shredded bits of pork belly topped with achiote (a paste made from annato seeds), hoisin sauce, pineapple, red fresno peppers, lime, cilantro, and pickled onions.  Again this combination of sweet, savory, and spicy was beautiful.

Pork Belly Steamed Buns

Third course...I picked Salt and Pepper Calamari...slightly crispy fried squid rings with flavors of madras curry, cilantro, mint, scallions, and a sweet and spicy chili sauce.  Fairly simple, not extremely unique but delicious and lovely all the same.

Salt and Pepper Calamari

Hubby's third course...Smoked Wagyu Beef Brisket Medallions...sweet and smokey shredded wagyu beef shaped into a lovely medallion, so soft and sumptuous you could eat it with a spoon!  It also was served with a wasabi parsnip puree, tat soi (a type of Asian green), hot and sour sauce, and truffled huitlacoche (which is actually a kind of fungus that grows on corn...sounds weird but was yummy).  There was definitely a little heat with this dish so proceed with caution if you're heat-sensitive as I am.

Wagyu Brisket Medallions

Our last course was dessert of course.  I chose a Molten Spicy Chocolate Cake...not your average molten chocolate cake here as there was definitely a hint of something spicy in that wonderful gooey melted chocolate pouring out of the center of the cake.  And next to the cake was served an orange tapioca/strawberry sorbet and gingered strawberries.  The heat from the cake (both temperature and flavor) mixed with the light fruity coolness of the strawberries and sorbet were a perfect combination of yumminess!

Left: mango panna cotta; Right: chocolate cake and sorbet

Hubby's dessert course was Mango Panna Cotta...something neither one of us had ever had and weren't even 100% sure what it was exactly.  Panna Cotta is traditionally an Italian dish kinda of like a creamy pudding type thing but with a bready texture to it.  This panna cotta was mango flavored which gave it a bright citrusy orange color.  It was topped with diced mangos, sake blackberry sauce, and a coconut tuille (which is a crispy cookie decoration on top).  Very unique for us.  It was odd and yet delicious.

the aftermath

Needless to say, our bellies were full to the brim and our plates scraped clean when we left!  Unfortunately we had a long drive home in the middle of a freezing rain downpour!! But we eventually made it home in one piece and very pleased with our food adventure.  We can't wait for Thursdays dinner now!  Stay tuned...

Rosa Mexicano: National Harbor

Rosa Mexicano is an upscale modern Mexican restaurant located at the National Harbor outside of DC.  The decor inside includes blue tile fountains, majestic flags, and Dia de los Muertos masks.  One wall was entirely windows looking out onto the harbor itself.  As we ate our dinner we watched the sun set over the water.

Our meal began with freshly made guacamole made tableside. A simple recipe of tomato, onion, jalepeno, and cilantro served with a cute little straw basket of mini corn tortillas, crunchy tortilla chips, and 2 kinds of thin salsas in varying degrees of heat to your liking. So fresh and chunky.  Perfect mixture of heat and avocado with the veggies and the warmth of the tortillas and the crunch of the chips.

Fresh guac and chips

My entree was a butterflied snapper served whole (minus the head) and pan sauteed, served with a chile garlic sauce and a tomatillo cilantro sauce, as well as habanero marinated red onions and a slice avocado. The fish was perfectly cooked, still with the bones mind you, which probably added some flavor.  The cilantro sauce bright green and fresh and the chile sauce with just a bit of a bite.

Edgar ordered a couple appetizers for his meal.  One being Berkshire Pork Belly Tacos.  These mini corn tortilla tacos were topped with tomato and cilantro.  Berkshire pork is about as good as it gets and pork belly is sweet and fatty, so full of savory flavor.

The other appetizer being duck tortilla pie.  Layers of roasted pulled duck (nice and smokey) and mini corn tortillas topped with yellow pepper habanero cream sauce (nice and spicy).

Now you might be asking how does pork belly and duck fit into the diet of someone who's all pesca-vegetarian and organic and whatnot.  Well, sometimes, you see things on a menu that you can't get just anywhere and you know they're going to be tasty and you think, "I've gotta try those cuz who knows when I'll get the chance to again?"  So that's how it fits.

Ok.  Ahem...Moving on...

Along with our entrees we were served a bowl of rice and a bowl of refried black beans with Chihuahua cheese.  We also had a lovely little pitcher of a raspberry sangria with diced apples.

For dessert (by this time we were so stuffed but we couldn't pass it up) we had churros which are basically elongated donuts...crispy on the outside, soft and doughy on the inside, smothered with cinnamon and sugar and served with 3 sauces, a raspberry puree, a creamy caramel, and a spicy Mexican chocolate.

                                              Oh,  so heavenly!!!  To the moon and back!

 

I'd definitely give Rosa Mexicano a 5 star (or 5 Yumma) rating!  Can't wait to go back and try more stuff on their menu!