Piosca Tiaxtla

This is our first foray into the "Mexican" food of New York. I had two bistec tacos with rice and beans and J-Rad had a steak quesadilla with rice and beans. It is interesting that grilled steak is not called "carne asada" here, just "bistec". However, "carne enchilada" abounds many menus. We'll have to determine the difference in the future. Looks pretty good, eh?

Though the rice and beans were pretty great the rest of the meal was a splattering grease-bomb! POW! The meat was not crispy enough and though it had the correct minced onion/cilantro accompaniment it dripped trails of oil upon the slightest tooth pressure.

Also, the hot sauces seriously lacked heat. The green sauce had no heat; even the red sauce proved no challenge for my wimpy gringa tongue. Jared was even less impressed.

Overall, it could satisfy a Mexican food craving if desperate enough and with heavy drunk munchies. Bring your own jalapenos. Awarded: Two palm trees

A Favorite

This is Champ. He guards the records at Vortex, a little thrift store on Montrose that has a dozen Freddy Krueger hands still in the wrapping. We think he would be a great beau for Capt. Sensible but supposedly he is a she! (Impossible) If you took three kitties and smashed them together he would still be bigger and heavier. That pillow he is sitting on is a couch cushion.

Aioli!

This is one of the first things I made in our new kitchen. Although we do not eat much mayonnaise I still consider a good homemade version an essential. There is no point in eating gloppy bland Hellman's when it is so easy to make your own delicious version. We found that NYC Driver's License on the street outside of the metro.

Aioli just means mayonnaise with garlic in it. I find that most recipes include way too much garlic which can overpower the subtle flavor of emulsified egg and oil. And you can use olive oil but I prefer not to because it's too strongly flavored as well. In this version I threw in a couple of mined basil leaves for extra flavor.

Ingredients:
1 small garlic clove
Big pinch of kosher salt
1 egg yolk
1 T water
1 T lemon juice
Just under 3/4 cup of canola or vegetable oil

1. Mash up the garlic clove really good. Put the salt on top of the mashed garlic and mush it all together to make a nice paste.
2. Combine the garlic/salt mixture, egg yolk, water, and lemon juice together in a bowl and whisk together.
3. Carefully, drop in just a couple drops of oil and whisk whisk whisk it all together till it is blended smoothly.
4. Repeat step 3 till you are done with the oil. Make sure to go slowly-emulsions can be tricky. The aioli should start to get thick and creamy.

Even people who don't like "mayonnaise" (Jared) like this stuff. Dip freedom fries in it.

This is our kitchen. There is no counter space.

I said I'd never

Hey! I, Escarlata, future culinary anthropologist, along with Jared, asthmatic extrodinaire, and Captain Sensible, purr-box, just moved from sunny Los Angeles to lovely and grey Brooklyn. We've traded tacos for pizza and are on the search for a grand LA-estilo taco. Here's what we put in our mouths...

To start it off, here's what our new home looks like.