Oyamel

"Every year, millions of monarch butterflies leave their homes in the US and Canada and migrate south to spend their winter in the mountains of Michoacán. The butterflies seek refuge in the oyamel tree, considered a sacred fir native to central Mexico. The forest appears to be draped in gold thanks to the thousands of butterflies covering the trees. Adding to the otherworldly quality of the place is the “shhhhhh” sound from the butterflies flapping their wings to stay warm. The locals welcome back the returning butterflies, which, because they appear about the time of Day of the Dead, they believe bear the spirits of their departed."

butterflies...

This is how Jose Andres named this Mexican tapas-style restaurant, Oyamel, located in the Penn Quarter area of DC.  When you step inside you are surrounded by colorful Mexican art, a canopy of bright yellow and orange flowers, and large butterfly mobiles.   For a second you might imagine yourself sitting under one of those oyamel trees listening to the fluttering of butterfly wings. But then you remember you're hungry and need some tacos! The food is awesome and I love the tapas style because you get to experience so many more things from the menu AND its fun to share too! Here's what we tasted...

yummy chips and fresh salsa with a bottle of fancy sparkling water

Coctel de camaron y jaiba...shrimp and crab ceviche with tomato sauce, avocado, red onions, and tortilla chips. A little spicy kick and a nice crunch from the chips accompanied by the creamy avocado. Divine!

Lengua guisada...braised beef tongue tacos topped with radishes and a pasilla chile sauce with tomatoes, onion, and garlic. The beef tongue was so tender it literally melted in our mouths.

Nopal asado con salsa molcajete...grilled fresh cactus paddles topped with salsa molcajete which is made with tomatoes, tomatillos, green onions, cilantro, and green chiles. It had a very "green" almost grassy flavor that mixed well with the salsa.  The only drawback to this dish is the juice from the cactus leaves can make it a little slimy. After eating about half of it, the sliminess started to turn off this texture eater. But I'm glad I tried it because it was different and it did taste good!

Quesadilla de chicharrones...a quesadilla filled with fried pork belly (straight from the Shenandoah Valley no less!) served with chihuahua cheese and a sauce made from five chiles. Delish!

Chapulines Tacos...anyone have a guess as to what chapulines are??  Grasshoppers!! Yes we ate grasshopper tacos! And they were actually very good! Apparently it is a legendary Oaxacan specialty. Our waiter told us they don't always have this on the regular menu but they will serve it for those customers who know about them to ask for them.  He also said the South American customers order them like crazy!

When we first asked about them, we asked for him to bring us each one taco. He looks at us, a little unsure, and says, "are you sure you don't want me to bring just one for you to try?" Superking and I looked at each other and thought, dude, you don't know these white folks very well, we've eaten testicles.  So we tell him, "bring us each one, lets do this!" He smiles and says, "I like your spirit!" 

can you see the whole grasshopper body trying to escape the taco?

The grasshoppers themselves are naturally very salty and they are marinated in lime juice and tequila, served in some kind of spicy chile sauce with shallots and a layer of creamy guacamole.  There are whole grasshoppers and pieces of grasshoppers...there is no question what you're eating when you see them.  Yes, there was a slight crunchiness but overall they were very tasty.  A very cool food adventure!

cool candle sculpture made of candle wax

The highlight of the meal though, came at the end...churros de San Angel con chocolate caliente...O.M.G. These were a-MA-zing!!  Whats not to like about fried pastry, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, thats served hot and covered in cinnamon and sugar?!?!?  Then to top it all off its served with a dish of hot melted chocolate...it was thick but frothy like a hot milkshake, if thats even possible.  And then you get to dip the churros in the chocolate....absolute heaven. 

best thing ever

I could just drink that right now...

Meatless Wednesdays: Vegetarian Tacos

Lots of people make New Year's Resolutions and probably the most common one has to do with losing weight or eating healthier or exercising.  So in an effort to jump on this band wagon ourselves, we have decided to have at least one meal a week that is vegetarian.  We've come a along way since Yumma Yumma first started almost a year and a half ago.  When I started this blog Superking and I were pesca-vegetarians...meaning the only meat we ate was fish and seafood.  While we still aim to be animal welfare-and-environmentally-conscious by choosing organic and local whenever we can, we have definitely broadened our horizons on the meat front, always looking for the strange and unique.

Now we've come full-circle...almost...not getting any younger and wanting to be healthier we have introduced Meatless Wednesdays into our lives.  I really wanted it to be Meatless Mondays because I love alliterations but the Monday thing wasn't working out so well with our crazy schedules. So Meatless Wednesday it is.

Our first go-round at a meatless meal was vegetarian tacos.  Some people might wonder what are you going to put in a taco thats not meat and still have it be filling? One of my favorite fast-food restaurants (and one of the handful I actually still go to) is Chipotle.  I love their tacos and burrito bowls and all their fresh ingredients.  And what's the best form of flattery? Be a copy cat! 

I tried to mimic their rice (which I love) by cooking plain white rice, then adding a chipotle lime finishing butter from the grocery store, a squeeze of lime, and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro.  A little different twist with the butter but it added a nice little kick. Cilantro and lime...you can never go wrong with that!

I picked up a couple small avocados and made some fresh guacamole with a little chopped red onion, fresh cilantro, another squeeze of lime.

We also whipped up a batch of pico de gallo (of which you can see my full recipe for here). Diced roma tomatoes, chopped red onion, whatever kind of peppers you like (I used yellow Hungarian wax peppers and green anaheim, neither of which are very spicy because I'm a spice whimp but I always get Superking a jalapeno on the side which he can then add himself), salt and pepper, cumin, garlic (freshly minced if possible or garlic powder is fine), and of course cilantro and lime.

We also had black beans and vegetarian refried beans, soft shell tacos and hard shell tacos.  Since we had both kinds of shells we made double decker tacos.  Take the soft shell, slather on a layer of refried beans, wrap it around the hard shell.  Not only is this yummy, it protects the hard taco since it will inevitably break when you put the toppings in, but it won't matter because the soft shell layer with the beans will still hold it all together.

Fill the shell with some rice, black beans, pico de gallo, guacamole or sour cream, a little shredded cheese ( a great white sharp cheddar works well), and dig right in!! Believe me, with all those flavors you won't miss the meat!

Failed BBQ and a Nacho Hippo

Superking and I just came back from a week's vacation in our beloved Myrtle Beach. We've been to that area so many times its like a second home to us. But one thing about Myrtle Beach that I must find fault in is that its virtually a foodie wasteland.  It reeks of boring chain restaurants and cheap buffets all of which produce mediocre food at best.  However there are a few gems in the area to be had if you're willing to search for them and take a little risk to try something new.  These next several blog posts will take you through our journey to locate some of these rare Myrtle Beach restaurant gems. A few of them I've blogged about before but they were written in retrospect as I hadn't started my food blog yet when we visited them last. Now you'll get to see a few of those in their full glory.

The Nacho Hippo...he is very hungry hungry.

We begin with our arrival to Myrtle Beach Saturday September 3rd. We got settled into our hotel room shortly after 3:00pm and headed straight out to the Market Common, a newer shopping area there reminiscent of our own Reston Town Center or the Village at Leesburg. We heard rumors that the weekend we were arriving there was to be a big BBQ festival there with over 60 BBQ vendors and you could purchase a wristband ticket for only $10 to sample any or all of these 60 vendors.  However when we arrived at the festival we quickly learned that it was not very organized as we had to walk all the way to the back of the event area before we reached the ticket table.  There were no signs with directions at all.  When we finally reached the ticket table we were told they had sold out of the tickets and the sample BBQ just about 2:45pm.

We were beyond disappointed and irritated at the poor planning of this event to run out of BBQ only three hours into a nine hour BBQ event. And even though the festival continued to the next day, the sampling was only for Saturday and on Sunday there were only about 4 of the said 60 vendors that were supposed to be there.  It was the BBQ festival that was not.

lots of people...

and lots of cars...no bbq.

However our disappointment quickly turned to hope as we looked for other dinner options for our first night in Myrtle Beach. Also located at the Market Common was a new restaurant we were already looking forward to trying called Nacho Hippo.

all the chairs were different and painted many bright colors

Nacho Hippo is a Mexican bar/restaurant with an open air eclectic them.  While they do serve burritos and tacos and quesadillas, nachos are their claim to fame.  So of course we both had different kinds of nachos. There are eight varieties of nacho plates (some with titles rated PG) plus the option to create your own.

very clever menu

I chose the Day After nachos.A huge pile of chips layered with chili, seasoned taco beef, black beans, jalapenos (though I opted to skip those), melted cheese, crema (which is a fresh cream similar to creme fraiche), queso fresco (similar to a white farmers cheese), lettuce, and pico de gallo. It was super tasty and super filling!

Superking chose the Fire in the Hole nachos. Crispy chips covered with chili, pepperjack cheese, jalapenos, mango habanero salsa, lettuce and pico de gallo. Talk about spicy! Though we all know by now how much Superking likes the hot stuff so it didn't even phase him.  Both of these nachos plates could've easily been shared they were so huge!