LIME Fresh Mexican Grill (next to the Cheesecake Factory)  2900 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 104 Arlington, VA 22201

 I was lucky to be invited to try the Menu at the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill along with other food bloggers and guests.  I appreciate vegetarian friendly places and this certainly is!

Let’s get it straight, I’ve never been to Mexico but yes I’ve had Mexican meals cooked by natives and at Mexican-Panamanian places which are different than the ones in the US.  If you have been to Chipotle, Baja Fresh or Qdoba Mexican joints the menu goes in some similar way but Lime has the advantage of offering a great ambiance, I was really surprised to find a restaurant-comfty set up, waiters bringing your food, yet it is fast paced (there are dishes I was told might take more time like the Grilled fish).

About the food, the most important detail, I tried 4 types of guacamole and my fave was the Abuela’s Guac, tasty, great portion and pure avocado flavor with spices and garlic.  The Nachos, tacos, salads, burritos, quesadillas, and fajitas all had fresh veggies, guacamole, sour cream, organic black beans, and for vegetarians like me instead of having any kind of meat you can request grilled peppers and onions.

For the drinks I had a Corona Light, I’m not a big fan of beers but this one got the job done though they have other options, soft drinks, jarritos and frozen tequila or sangria.

Sopapillas, oh how I miss those right now, they sell it in this paper bag covered with sugar and cinnamon, they are addictive, come to your table warm and with sides of agave nectar or you can always ask for whipped cream, this was simply delicious! NEVERMIND the cupcakes! It’s the time for fried dough to have some space and I don’t want to hear how easy it is to eat a cupcake while you are walking because the Sopapillas are even better, warm and you can share them, try them because I say so, trust me no regrets!

Lime also offers Cinnamon Chips & Key Lime Pie and friendly options for children, the place itself is very kids-friendly.

The Staff is menu-savvy and super friendly.

The Hot Sauces, I would really appreciate a birthday gift with those sauces, I enjoyed each one of them I was happy to be able to tolerate all the heat (after so much Laotian food I’m proud to say I can handle other kinds of heat haha!).  My big favorite was the Chipotle hot sauce, I regret not buying a bottle that day but I live nearby so I shall go back pay them a visit, enjoy a quesadilla, a beer and of course my new affair: those sweet & warm Sopapillas.

¡a comer!

Abuela’s Guac Classic kicked up with tomatillos, garlic and onions.

Beer & Jarritos selection

 Nach-Yo-Mooma’s Nachos 

Sopapilla

Key Lime Pie

Just when you find yourself thinking what to eat… For me it is difficult at this right moment, struggling to lose weight, be healthy and strong and also aiming to make everything delicious makes creativity hit you in the head few times and depending on your mood well it might work… and sometimes i might not.

Somedays I struggle so much with “what’s the right thing to eat?” that I find myself having an apple, half yogurt or just plain water, lunch arrives and I want to eat the whole world… fried…. with cheese… and juice. So yes imagine.

Anyways, this post is for those like me who want breakfast, who love breakfast, who can’t have pancakes and waffles everyday, or fried bread (hojaldras) neither corn empanadas.  This is still a tasty meal and depending on the season you can get creative with the options for vegetables.

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Eggs –> you can go 2 ways, 1 tbs of butter or grapeseed oil or any other oil, fry them?  I have a great non stick pan so i didn’t have to add anything so no extra calories (I know boring). but proper farm eggs, cayenne, touch of salt & pepper voila!

Spinach–> you can cook a lot of it and the extra one use it for lunch, mix it in your stew or beans or rice or potatoes, spinach just go perfect with anything.  I saute it w/ touch grape seed oil on hot pan, touch of salt, once it is cooked and taste as you want (the whole debate of if cooked spinach is better than raw that’s not for me to explain I eat them both ways mostly weekly and so far so good).  Adding a bit of smashed garlic before sauteing the spinach does wonders to the flavor, as well twist of lemon juice and pepper!!

Vegetables–> depending on the season I go about the vegetables, you can always get onions, garlic and peppers, right now tomatoes are gorgeous so I add tomatoes and zucchini… the herbs change completely the dish.. I finished this one with chopped cilantro..some others prefer parsley, basil, chervil, you choose it and experiment!!

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Overall I just love making a dish many times with few changes and trying them with different spices and herbs because it brings up different sparks on the vegetables.

This breakfast was made in about 15 minutes.  Yes I’m a Line Cook at the restaurant so I may be faster than a regular home cook for some prep and cooking, but I remember before working for the restaurant to save time I would prep vegetables the night before so for breakfast I could fix myself and the Boy’s meal pretty fast.. if you keep your kitchen always organized and clean, doing prep ahead you will notice how fast you can get around meals.

It’s midday and now I think of lunch.. that will be for another post.

Peace!

P.S. si alguien desea ver este artículo en español por favor escribir a littleladycook@gmail.com Gracias!

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¡a comer!

]]> https://www.cocinerita.com/breakfast-august/feed/ 0 https://www.cocinerita.com/bangkok-golden/ https://www.cocinerita.com/bangkok-golden/#comments Wed, 15 Dec 2010 18:15:37 +0000 http://www.cocinerita.com/?p=657

A good friend from the Chowhound community always organizes such amazing lunches, and he is great finding a “a hole in the wall†type of places, this time we went to Golden Bankgkok, a Thai restaurant that most of the group have tried already, except for me and one Canadian Chowhounder that joined us today.

The way the meal started made sense, with the softest and sweetest flavors, getting us to sour & bitter lands to end our meal with hot, pungent spicy craziness.

We started with this khao piak sen (chicken soup with homemade noodles), everyone liked it and to be honest it was good to start, the starchy soup opens your appetite, not salty, a touch of sweetness and bitterness thanks to the crispy garlic.

khao piak sen

Now this dish rice paste wrap was so simple yet so filling, wrapping in romaine lettuce pieces of Thai eggplant, ginger, peanuts, tomatoes, this sweet & savory rice paste and sliced lemongrass. It was just combination of aromatics and flavors still you feel light after having so much going on your palate.

rice paste wrap

I was very excited when I saw this dish on the menu Orm Lam (eggplant curry stew with beef) and yes the beef was tender and had a great texture, but the flavour was too mild, perhaps Iâ€m comparing it to the Vietnamese Goat Curry Stew I had a couple of weeks ago at Eden Center, but this dish didnâ€t deliver much flavors but for a non spicy Thai food person, this is a safe dish.

Orm Lam

The Banana Flower Salad, had tons of citrus touches with cilantro, it was very balanced, I wouldnâ€t order a whole bowl for myself, but it is great for sharing if ordering as a side dish. As you can see on the picture everything is mostly shredded so I didnâ€t get to make a distinction between the banana flower and the other elements on this dish.

Banana Flower Salad

Nam Khao (rice ball salad with pork), out of this world, personally this dish didnâ€t impress me on paper or when I saw it, then I had crunchiness of the fried rice (just as a good Panamanian Concolon!) then lime touches, cilantro, sweetness of the pork, it was heaven in my mouth and I could have had more and more of this dish, it is a must!

Nam Khao

Soup nor mai (bamboo shoot salad) I donâ€t even know if how to mention this, I feel terrible because my experience at this restaurant was really positive, this dish wonâ€t bring me down, and it wasnâ€t a matter of they missing something or poor execution, this dish was just Iâ€ll put it this way, I thought this salad was made of Durian, and I have never had Durian in my life, except for the candy my sister brought me from Nepal. this was serious, kind of smelly, I just tasted with the tip of my tongue and put a napkin and didnâ€t eat… some others at the table, as Chowhound warriors ate a spoonful and said it was ok but they couldnâ€t have a bowl or would order again.

The texture of the Koi Pa (shredded fish salad) threw me a little off at first, but its flavors were amazing, I am a huge fan of ceviche but I have to admit that the flavors on this salad were beyond the ones of a ceviche, it has so much going on without overwhelming the dish. there is galangal, lemongrass, touch of palm sugar that gave such complexity to the Koi Pa I just canâ€t wait to try it again.

Koi Pa

The Poon Pa (pounded fish) was just ok a little of the usual citrus flavors, lime & cilantro and the fish, nothing fantastic I can pass the next time.

Poon Pa

It was a revelation to try the Ping Ling (grilled tongue), you see my mother has cooked tongue so many times and even myself I have prepared it on dinners because of itâ€s demand by guests.  But I have never, ever even crave beef tongue, and yet I can still remember how I forgot to ask what dish it was while I was trying this Ping Ling I asked afterwards mentioned how soft and tender and tasty it was and someone “Itâ€s tongue Helena” and thatâ€s when I had this revelation, I had a slice of it without the sauce, and then with it. The bitter sauce I can live without tasting it for the rest of my life, the second sauce was amazing I even dipped my sticky rice in it, it was delicious, sweet, sour, citrus, pure tasty. Right now while typing this I want tongue and I want lots of it!

Som Pa (fermented fish) reminded me of a piece of beef jerky but with more texture and less chewy, it was another dish that at first sight I wouldnâ€t think it would tasty, but then this restaurant proved me wrong again with its fermented flavor and acidity it was another refreshing dish I would love many people to try.

Som Pa

Grilled Chicken the “Ping Kai” was served with a papaya salad which was really different and really HOT in compare to the ones I have tried before, it was not my favorite but I canâ€t say much because itâ€s heat was more that I could take, this dish was also served with a sauce that everyone called the soup because by itself with just some rice it was amazing.  Going back to the chicken itâ€s the closest I have tasted to my favorite kind of chicken the Jamaican Jerk Chicken, so yes it was as good as it sounds and as good as it looks.

Ping Kai

The last dishes Sai Oua (Lao sausage) it was nothing amazing for me itâ€s difficult to describe a dish that is safe and tastes just OK after having some disappointments and also so many great dishes at the same time. Forgettable is the word that comes to mind.

Sai Ou

At the end the kitchen sent a closing dish, it was a super ultra HOT past, I am not sure up to this moment what it was but it stayed in my mouth for a good few minutes, i tasted some sweet and salty but then the heat hit me like a bomb and I am very happy this was at the end of my meal because I wouldn’t have been able to taste anything after this dish.

A couple of ladies and I ordered white and dark Thai beers, I am not a huge beer fan but with this cold weather and so much spicy going on I would rather a glass of dark beer or I would suggest for non-beer fans, young coconut drink!

Rest of the pictures on my Facebook Page! CLICK

The next time I’ll make sure to check out their desserts!

¡a comer!

1.  Read, Read and Re-Read your recipe

I’ve always loved bread, with butter, or queso fresco, coffee, tea or my favorite hot cocoa in winter and cold milk in summer.

While living in Panama I can still remember my dad going to the “Panadería del Chinito” (bakery run by Chinese), and buying “viril” some sort of Baguette.  And I always took for granted that bread should be warm because my dad would wait for the ones coming out of the oven and that bread will be cool enough to slice while mom served breakfast.

2.  Work & Clean, Work & Clean

I always assumed that’s how everyone had their bread, my mom never liked Pullman style bread or “pan cuadrado” (squared bread) so unless I’m making french toast or “dieting” you won’t see that bread in my kitchen either.

Learning how to deal with bread at this restaurant has been an amazing experience, the Chef I work with, he has an incredible relationship with bread, he makes it look almost as baking was cooking, not an exact science, of course he measures and weighs everything, but it is different indeed, I will write another day about my bread baking days with him.

3.  If using expensive ingredients make sure you will use what’s left in another recipe or give it away (fresh herbs are so expensive!)

Chef lent me 2 Bread Baking Books, one is the Peter Reinheart “The Baker’s Apprentice” and the other is one is by Hamelman “Bread”, as a reference I’ve also used the Baking with Julia Childs book and I did a Finnish Pulla that was amazing (if you are a cardamon fan).

The same day I made the whoopie pies I made this bread because when I work on a project I like to do several things which is not too smart because then you are just dead tired.

4.  Trust the recipe, this bread was way too heavy because I didn’t trust the recipe and added too much flour.

I made the Poolish around 8 in the morning and baked the bread during the night and I swear if I was thin enough I would just keep doing this everyday but then I’m trying to watch my diet (so difficult cooking and testing recipes and trying to lose weight).

I bought Pillsbury Bread Flour, dry active yeast and spring water for the poolish.

Also I’m ashamed to say that I’ve killed my starter and I’m very sad about that because that was the first thing Chef gave me, but coming after work I havenâ€t been cooking at home and all I do is smoke and complain I should work out and that I miss having internet at home (I blog from coffee shops). I haven’t even worked out in ages, but let’s keep the topic about the Potato-Rosemary bread.

5.  Like Julia said, never apologize, keep your head up and show your food around, how many people bake their own bread anyways, right?

I used the recipe just as the books says except for some changes, I replaced a lot of the water quantity because instead of smashing the potatoes I blended them with butter and eggs, the dough looks very, very watery and I got scared so I split in half and I used one just watery like it looked, the other one I added more flour until it looked a little firmer.

The thing about being tired while baking is that you make mistakes or you just donâ€t see the light, and you are tired and you want to clean the mess (at least I was a little messy, when I’m tired I’m a disaster you can ask my boy).

I won’t post the recipe yet until I try this recipe again, but will share the Book information so you also feel free to try Bread Baking at home, trust me, once you bake your own bread you won’t be able to go back to the crap you see at stores.

And with that note I will appreciate if anyone has a recommendation of an amazing Bakery nearby DC area, and the furthest I will dare to drive will be Philadelphia (if it is an “out of this world” type of bread, I’ll do it!)

6.  Don’t be afraid and let other people taste it, the texture may have not worked, maybe the flavor was good?, but feedback is always great and you learn to repeat something good and avoid what didn’t work!

For more baking tips Follow Me here —> Little Lady Cook on Facebook

¡a comer!

This month’s food blogger happy hour is at Northside Social!

The happy hour this month is hosted by Capital Spice and the Arugula Files.

Come and join us!

Northside Social is a coffee shop, wine bar, and cafe located in the Clarendon neighborhood of North Arlington and the people behind this great place are:

Alison Christ
General Manager & Sommelier

Liam LaCivita
Executive Chef

Rob Valencia
Pastry Chef

RSVP here.

It was my 2nd Friday off from the restaurant so I thought about testing whoopie pies recipes.  My love of whoopie pies started when I tried one 2 years ago, it was rather bland, but I loved the fun shape it had, then I tried the ones Whole Foods sells and it was OK.

While working at Treet with the sweet Jenna from Whisked DC, I discovered whoopie pies could be fun to make and delicious to taste, and now I prefer them to cupcakes, even Macaroons, Iâ€m a simple girl as you can see.

The restaurant will be having a Pumpkin dinner, Halloween is very close, and there are pumpkins everywhere that you go in town so I chose pumpkin to be the first whoopie pie that I wanted to make, my other favorite Mint-Chocolate brings me memories of the Thin Mints cookies that are sold by the Girl Scouts.

For the Pumpkin Whoopie I went organic, including the butter as you can see, something about the whole Icelandic milk rave got my attention, so I paid almost $4 for less than 300g of butter, fine.  I got the Pumpkins at Whole Foods a Kabocha Delica (the green one), and what I believe is a Kabocha Gold Debut (the orange one).

Sliced them, removed seeds, and roasted them in the oven for around 45 minutes.

I loved this butter!

While that process I worked on 2 different Frostings for each Whoopie Pie, for the chocolate I made Vanilla-Chocolate and Mint-Vanilla, for the pumpkin I made Pumpkin-Vanilla and Cream Cheese.

These are the links that I used as reference, (Martha Stewart) for the Pumpkin and for the Chocolate Whoopie I used as a reference, the recipe from the Mad about Muffins Cookbook. I made a few changes on each recipe, on the Martha Stewart I roasted my Pumpkins instead of using the canned version, used everything organic, reduced the sugar, and used butter instead of oil.

I used Media Crema for the Chocolate (to add extra richness, but the next time I will try buttermilk or sour cream) and melted Ghirardelli Chocolate Semi-Sweet, lowered the amount of sugar in the recipe. On the cream cheese Frosting I used Neufchatel and also Cream Cheese and it worked perfectly.

I always reduce the amount of sugar I read on recipes because sometimes it is just too much, I did that with all of these frosting recipes.

The boy loved all of them except for Mint-Chocolate he can’t stand anything mint, a shame I know.

I brought samples of the Whoops to my sister-in-law house and enjoyed them with coffee, though I prefer a good old glass of  cold milk.

I also brought slices of my Potato Rosemary bread; I’ll share that story on the next post.

At the end these Whoops are fun to make and very simple, be creative don’t go over budget and make seasonal whoopie pies!

¡a comer!

Recipe for the Chocolate Whoopie Pie (based on Mad about Muffins Cookbook by Dot Vartan)

1/4 cups AP Flour
1 tbl Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate (or 1/4 cup powdered cocoa)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 stick unsalted butter
1 can of Media Creme Nestle (or 2/3 of milk)

Directions: (everything room temperature)

1.  Pre-heat Oven 350F (line up baking sheets with parchment paper)
2.  Cream sugar & butter, then add egg and keep creaming until well mixed.
3.  Melt chocolate either Double boiling or use the microwave pulsing 30 seconds everytime and stir.
4.  Mix wet ingredients, then in separate bowl the dry ones.
5.  At the end if the batter is too soft, refrigerate for a little while and scoop out with an Ice cream spoon, scoop as many as you can the size that you want.
6.  Bake 4-8 minutes (depending on the size of your scoop) then rotate halfway and bake until you press in the middle and the whoopie will hold its shape slightly.
7.  Let them cool before frosting them and putting together as sandwich.

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Frostings

1 stick of unsalted butter (room temperature), whip with powdered sugar, touch of milk, taste and taste, add pinch of salt, tsp of vanilla extract and mint extract and taste and depending on your palate adjust sugar, (before adding mint extract separate by half if you want to make a Chocolate Icing).

For the Chocolate just add melted chocolate, some milk so it is softer at the end.

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NOTE: I will add nuts and more things the next time it will add interesting texture to the whoopie, for a kid something similar with choco-chips.

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The Seville Orange Marmalade was inedible; the taste was as you were eating pure orange peel with the worst sourness you could imagine.  I checked the expiration date and it seemed fine, I must admit I bought it for half the original price at a Marshall’s, but in the past I have bought other marmalades that were just fine.  For now I will keep on my quest of the best orange Marmalade anyone can buy.

La Mermelada de Naranja de Sevilla fue casi imposible de comer; sabía a cáscara rancia con un amargor espantoso.  Revisé la fecha de expiración y estaba bien, debo admitir que compré esta mermelada por mitad del precio original en un Marshalls, pero en el pasado ya había comprado mermeladas en esta tienda que han salido bien.  Por ahora seguiré en mi búsqueda por la mejor Mermelada de Naranja que se pueda comprar.

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OK, I am not a Burrata expert, I have just probably tasted 3 types in my life, and I really want to try the one Pizzeria Orso offers on their pizza but I will find out first which burrata they get before I add a $5 topping to my over $10 pizza.

I feel I’m entitled to judge a product if I pay for it and this was by far the worst of the 3 burratas I’ve tasted, remember industrial Belgioso (reference click), or the one the Italian Store have sold in the past.

I drove so excited to Screwtop Wine Bar to buy it and even saved a piece of this burrata (Caseificio Maldera) to share with Chef, he confirmed to me it was awful and that’s not how it’s supposed to taste so my guess is that it didn’t do well while route from Italy, I really hope that was the reason because after this experience I’m not sure if I would dare to take another $14 risk for a piece of cheese that would make the infamous Yellow American cheese tastier on your toast.

Lo acepto, no soy una experta en Burrata, y solo he probado tres clases de este queso, (además me muero por probar la que ofrecen en Pizzeria Orso, primero quiero saber quién hace esta burrata antes de pagar $5 extra por este ingrediente en mi pizza que desde ya tiene un precio de $10).

Siento que tengo todo el derecho de juzgar un producto si he pagado por el mismo, y esta es la peor burrata que he probado de las tres que he comprado anteriormente, recuerdan la industrial de Belgioso (enlace de referencia), o la de la Italian Store.

Yo conduje hasta el Screwtop Wine Bar para comprarla e incluso salvé un pedazo de esta burrata (Caseuficio Maldera) para compartir con el Chef, él me confirmó que sabía muy mal, y que así no se supone debe saber este queso.

Puede ser que este sabor tan malo fue resultado del viaje de importación desde Italia, y en verdad espero sea esa la explicación porque luego de esta experiencia no me veo gastando $14 por otro queso que te haría ver al inpopular Queso Amarillo (americano) como una mejor opción para tu tostada.