cactus club: get tipsy quickly

The food at Cactus Club is abysmal. I would say it’s bordering on inedible. The chips and salsa were fine, and the only things I ate. But the $9 guacamole was clearly prepared hours before and then refrigerated until it was brought to our table, and the “Big Dig,” a supposedly “layered” dip, was soupy, gloopy, and nasty. The beans were bad but the cheese in particular looked like sticky yellow slime and had a really unpleasant twang in its taste.

But of course, we didn’t go for the food- we went for the drinks and its convenient location (it was New Year’s Eve). These Cactus Bowls or whatever, are enormous, and strong margaritas. We shared one between 4 people. At $18, that’s not a bad deal, but the food is so gross that I don’t think I’d go there again, even for a sweet drink deal.

Atmosphere: nothing really, drunk people, large space.

Guacamole: $9; Big Dig: $11; huge margaritas: $18
Cactus Club is at 939 Boylston Street, Boston, MA. (617) 236-0200

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west village mexican: la palapa rockola

La Palapa Rockola
359 6th Avenue
New York, NY
(212) 243-6870

La Palapa Rockola got a Critic’s Pick review by the NYT in 2003, so I decided to check it out. It was a slow Tuesday night when I went, and my waiter led my friend and I to a table snuggling a dark corner. We ordered guacamole to start, because regardless of how many times I am consistently shocked by $9 handful-sized portions of restaurant guacamole, I somehow cannot resist ordering it. La Palapa’s guac did not disappoint: true to my fears, it was served in a tiny bowl. But, it was spiked with sharp-sweet cumin, which accented the buttery avocados. It tasted like the guacamole we make at home, so I scraped up every last morsel of it with the warm corn chips.

We decided to share two vegetarian dishes for our main meal. I ordered the Tamal de Rajas con Queso Cotija Anejo Y Pipian Verde, a corn cake baked in a green pumpkin seed and tomatillo sauce and topped with onions and cheese. My friend ordered the Crepas de Huitlacoche, baked crepes stuffed with “corn mushrooms,” that were smothered with cheese and poblano sauce. I didn’t take to my corn cake dish and at first I couldn’t figure out why. The pumpkin seed-tomatillo sauce overwhelmed the dish, but it was too nutty and creamy for my taste, and didn’t provide enough contrast to the thick corn cake. I couldn’t identify the onions or the cheese in the dish, and after a few bites, I realized that the corn cakes had an after taste of the freezer. I asked my friend to confirm and he agreed: they tasted like they had been thawed, topped with sauce, and served. Totally disappointing. The mushroom crepes were better, since the mushrooms were very sweet and fat. The smoky poblano sauce ran through the dish like an earthy river, but the amount of cheese topping the crepes was, again, overpowering and unnecessary. In fact, we were full after three bites but dutifully ate on, since we had ordered so much food.

Guacamole: $8.95; Tamal de Rajas: $8.95; Crepas: $11.95

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12 tastes of bombay

An American reader visiting Bombay emailed me asking for recommendations of my favorite places to eat in the city. On my list, many places are associated with good memories as well as good food. China Garden might not be the best Indian Chinese in the city (what IS the best Indian Chinese in Bombay? Anyone know?) but every time we visit India, we go there for consistently tasty food and large, noisy dinners with my mom’s side of the family. Add your favorite places to the comments section!

1. We’ve been going to Cream Center ever since I was a kid for their chunna batura and sizzling brownie. Waiting in line during the lunchtime rush in order to eat a platter of spicy chickpeas and inflated, beach ball-sized golden puris was worth it back in the day. The lines aren’t so long anymore but the food is still pretty good. I think I had my first-ever batura there: crispy, fluffy, meltingly hot. The sizzling brownie – a warm chocolate brownie doused with hot fudge, topped with crushed peanuts and cold vanilla ice cream and served on a sizzling iron skillet- is happily messy, sputtering bubbles of chocolate. Scraping the remnants of chewy, hardened fudge off the skillet after finishing the brownie is my favorite way to end this meal.
2. Head to the Gateway of India if you’re thirsting for some made-on-the-spot sugarcane juice. Raw, sweet, and sticky-satisfying.
3. Craving a quiet conversation? Climb to the rooftop of the Strand Hotel, also near the Gateway of India, where there are tables, beer, and magnificent views of the Bombay harbor. Their menu is short; I got the hara bhara kabobs, which were not so remarkable except for their vivid green color– but the view, the beers, and the silence are things to savor.
4. The man next to the bus stop on Nepean sea road (opposite Chandralok) and the man parked outside Xavier’s College both serve mouthwatering dosas. Hot off a roadside stand, these dosas are so good I wrote my college essay about them. Get a cheese and chutney dosa and preferably eat it during an electric Bombay rain- breaking off dosa pieces with your fingers will quickly transfer the heat from the food to your senses and warm you up thoroughly. Disclaimer: you might get sick eating street food during the rain. Nevertheless, this is how I ate my first dosa outside Xavier’s and it was lovely.
5. Pizzeria on Marine Drive serves a surprisingly good slice. Most Indian pizzas taste overwhelmingly of a super-sweet tomato sauce, but Pizzeria’s sauce is mercifully savory, even slightly masalafied for a saucy Bombay kick. The crust is thin and the toppings are totally yummy: Tandoori Paneer and Bombay Masala are especially unique, but even more traditional onion and green pepper is great here, because in a proper Indian fashion, slightly browned onions are piled onto a slice. Tables line the enormous bay windows that open to a view of the sea; enjoying a tall glass of beer and a platter of crispy pizza while smelling the salty air is a delicious way to spend an afternoon.
6. The Breach Candy Sandwich. Need I say more?
7. Cafe Moshe in Crossword Bookstore is a sunny, peaceful place to sip on fresh press coffee and sample decadent pastries, cakes, and daily baked bread. Sometimes I bring a book or magazine from the bookstore below to keep me company while I enjoy a fruit tart or slice of coconut cake; sometimes I’ll split one of the Mediterranean inspired soups or sandwiches with friends for lunch.
8. Vegetable hakka noodles; sweet corn soup; Manchurian cauliflower: the Indian-Chinese food at ornately decorated China Garden is always a delight. The inherent sugar in Chinese food satisfies the Indian sweet tooth, but the more prominent roles of onion, garlic, and chili along with some Indian spices makes the fusion food a little spicier and a lot better. Indian Chinese food is also dramatically less oily than it’s American counterpart, which is a relief. Think: Sichuan cooking, but with an Indian twist, and you’ll understand why Chinese Mirch is failing miserably at emulating the food in China Garden.
9. Chili Cheese Toast is a very Bombay snack, and eating it at the popular Irani hole-in-the-wall, Café Churchill, is fun- if you can find seats. But if you can’t, or you’re not going to Bombay anytime soon, here’s how to make Chili Cheese Toast at home: get some Amul cheese (or another cheese that’s very mild and buttery) and shred it; chop tomatoes, cilantro and green chilies; mix the cheese with the veggies; and melt into a lickable goodness on rectangle half slices of white bread toast. For even crispier results, lightly toast buttered slices before adding the cheese mixture and then toast once again). Most Bombayites dip their cheesy wedges into ketch-up, but I eat ketchup sparingly and prefer them plain. You can also enjoy Chili Cheese Toast at Leopold’s, also in Colaba; the bar/café is a known hang-out spot for personalities like Gregory David Roberts, author of Shantaram.
10. Shiv Sagar: Shiv Sagar at Churchgate serves a wide variety of street snacks- under a restaurant roof. Pav bhaji, cheese pav bhaji, pani puri, regular masala dosas, fusion dosas like spring dosas (crispy dosas packed tightly with Chinese-style veggies and vermicelli noodles), idlis, Chinese-style idlis- it’s all there. Shiv Sagar cooks great versions of Indian street food, snacks, and fusion concoctions, but it’s hygienic, still cheap, and served in an actual restaurant, where you can sit on chairs to enjoy your meal. Thirsty? Try one of their various fruit juices or milk shakes- watermelon, banana, pineapple, mango, custard apple- they are all so fresh and so clean.
11. Bombay’s Mexican food is abysmally bland: baked sweet red kidney beans substitute for spiced black or pinto beans; the salsa is full of sugar; the cheese isn’t salty. But ever since Phoenix Mills opened, I’ve been able to get a partial, but totally lickable, Mexican fix from a stand outside the large mill converted to a shopping/bowling/sports bar/restaurant/nightclub complex. Lining the sidewalk are men who serve novel foods- varieties of toasted corn, popcorn, and my favorite- nachos. While not authentic Tex-Mex, the round corn tortilla chips topped with hot Bombay movie theater cheese, chopped onions, tomatoes, and cilantro, are still an appreciated addition to Bombay’s sorry scene.
12. Bade Miya/Ayubs: These two roadside stands are often grouped together because they both operate late at night, selling foods to satiate drunken hunger: paneer bhurji and kati rolls cooked over a grill, fresh and spicy. I went to both stands the last time I was in India; we ate our food against the hood of the car. It was all the more delicious because it was slightly forbidden: the paneer and roti were cooked out in the open air, sharing grill space with roasting meat, and perfuming the air with tandoori spices. And delicately biting into piping hot rotis garnished with the sloppy paneer bhurji was the best way to end a night.

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who knew- vegan chorizo rocks

Papalote served the Mexican food I had been dreaming about for weeks. I volunteered to go to San Francisco for work, and I won’t deny that the possibility of eating of a Mission burrito played a LARGE part in my decision to move boxes for a week. (Living in NYC, where Mexican food is so sub-par, made me desperate.) Sai, who lives in SF now, took us there (twice). The first time, I got a veggie burrito with VEGETARIAN refried beans- I never eat refried beans because they are never vegetarian, but Papalote’s are! It was great. We also got nachos topped with grilled veggies, guacamole, and horchata (this creamy, cold, cinnamon rice-milk drink). Everything was excellently fresh. But I tried Sai’s burrito- a Super Soyriso burrito, which had vegan chorizo, guacamole, and sour-cream. So good. Salty, tomato-y, chewy, smoky. So the second time, I ordered the super soyrizo and, despite being sick and dizzy from the preceding days, I was in heaven.

Papalote is at 1777 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA.

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pio maya, part 2

I realized that maybe nachos weren’t Pio Maya’s specialty and, my second time there, decided to try a spinach burrito.

The burrito was definitely better than the nachos, but that’s not saying much, since the nachos were basically just cheese with one black bean on the top.
The menu says that the burrito is “stuffed with beans, rice, guacamole, cheese” and in my case, spinach. But in reality, the burrito is STUFFED with rice and spinach and a little bit of cheese, and the beans and guacamole are on the top. I really dislike rice in burritos (I don’t eat rice folded up inside rotis) so I asked for it on the side. The man behind the counter smiled and said, we don’t do that. So I shrugged, and said fine and ate rice filled burrito. It was not bad, for a rice-filled burrito. The rice was mushy.
This burrito did not come close to an Anna’s burrito- no nice chopped up grilled veggies (onions, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes), no nice melty cheese (instead this weird crumbly white cheese that is so popular in NY Mexican restaurants) and no generosity in the portions of black beans. Oh well. Apparently, Pio Maya’s beef burrito is super good.

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mole sauce, mmmm.

Tulcingo Del Valle is a small deli converted to a restaurant with awesome mole sauce. We were seated after about 10 minutes and we ordered beer. Sandy got a Sol (which tastes just like Corona- is it the same thing?) and I got a Tecate, because in the restaurant window, a large red neon light flashed Tecate! Tecate! Tecate is YUMMY. Anyway, the beers came with little “beer ponchos” on them- to keep your hands from getting wet. They were cute because it really looked like the beer was a little person wearing a mini raincoat.
Anyway, the food was decent, despite the wonderful reviews I had been reading- but the one sauce I tried lived up to the hype. (I asked for salsa about 6 times- it is famous- but we never got any). I got cheese enchiladas with mole sauce:

Unfortunately, these turned out to be CHICKEN enchiladas, not cheese enchiladas, as I had ordered. I was into my fourth bite before I thought to ask my omnivorous dining companions why the cheese looked and felt so funny. I reordered with cheese but the cheese was really gross (think: oily, heavy, thick, NON-MELTY american cheese) so I didn’t eat it. I did lap up all the sauce though. It was chocolately and nutty and savory and so incredibly tasty that I’m sure they put chicken stock or something into it. Maybe beef stock. Whatever, I won’t go back, but I’ll lick my lips to memories…

Tulcingo Del Valle is on 10th avenue, between 46 & 47 streets.

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pio maya: i want you to be good so bad!

Ok, I think I ordered the wrong thing. I read rave reviews of Pio Maya on Yelp and then I googled it and read even more rave reviews: the thing is, I couldn’t believe that I was finally reading about a cheap Mexican place that people kept praising for its excellent, fresh food. And, it wasn’t in Brooklyn or way uptown somewhere- it was on 8th street, right in between Ali Babas and Union Square. So we went on Monday. While my friend did LOVE his steak burrito (he says its the best he’s had on the east coast, aside from Anna’s), I wasn’t too thrilled with my nachos.

So cheesy!! And I love cheese! But seriously, this plate of nachos was about 5 chips and 5 pounds of cheese. And I got the “Super Nachos” because they came with black beans…but I only had a handful of black beans. The beans were good, the guac was really tasty, and the jalapenos were spicy. But the dish was completely disproportionate, with cheese comprising about 75% of it, and the chips, beans, guac, and jalapenos scrambling for some face time in the other 25%. But I really want to go again and order something different, because with so many people loving this place, I need to give it another chance…because I am desperate to find cheap and delicious Mexican in this city.

Pio Maya is a nice enough place to eat in, though. It’s not kind of gross and dingy, like the take-out Mexican places run by people who are not at all Mexican. It’s clean, and had about 10 tables, and nice big windows that let in the sunlight. If I like the next thing I eat from here, I’ll be happy, because then I will have finally reached a middle ground between the take-out Mexican made by Asians and the super over-priced trendy Mexican places I haven’t eaten at yet because I’m too scared the food won’t be excellent and then I’ll have wasted a bunch of money on trendiness.

Pio Maya is at 40 west 8th street. (near the west 4th street stop).

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la esquina; zen palate

Maria and I had dinner at La Esquina tonight. We got these really tasty margaritas, which I guess were worth the $8. Then we ordered two dishes to share: the Quesadilla de Huitlacoche, a quesadilla filled with Mexican truffle, roasted corn, epazole (an herb), mushrooms, and cheese) and the Aguacate con Queso, a sandwich that was stuffed with avocado, red onion, cheese, black beans, lettuce, tomato and chipotle mayo, and came with a side of salad and potato chips. YUM! The quesadilla was good but nothing spectacular- I didn’t see any corn and didn’t taste much besides the cheese and mushrooms (still good things to taste) but the “traditional Mexican street sandwich,” served on a crusty wedge of bread, was full of garlic and the sharp onion and cheese and avocado deliciousness! A picture of the sandwich (whenever I hear “street food” I immediately love it…)

And a few nights ago, I went back to Zen Palate for the second time, with my cousin who was visiting from India. While he claimed that the food was “bland,” I think it’s really flavorful, healthy, and reasonably priced. Zen Palate serves a variety of fare- mainly Asian-influenced foods, like burgers, sandwiches, salads, pasta, and veggie medleys. Oh, and they are a vegetarian restaurant, which rocks- they have a ton of great fake meat and I never wonder if I am tasting the flavor chicken stock in a delicious soup or something. We got the Tex Mex Moo Shoo, which is kidney beans, barley, and soy protein (it’s actually really good) in a spinach tortilla, served with this really yummy guac and a side salad of carrot peanut cole slaw.

Oh, and it comes with two crunchy spring rolls, so the meal feels very complete. It’s in Union Sq, so central-ish and convenient and the waiters are very sweet.

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