Comparison of Mexican Restaurants

  I do sincerely apologize for taking so long. I've been busy with some matters so I haven't had time to write this post. Anyway, the restaurants we went to were in a Hispanic neighborhood in Queens, and one is well-known fast food chain throughout the U.S. and the other is an authentic restaurant: Taco Bell and Taqueria Coatzingo.
  Our group went with Jeff Orlick, who was basically the tour guide for this trip. We took the train to Queens and the first restaurant we went to was Taco Bell (although it isn't really a restaurant). Inside Taco Bell were only a few people, some were families, some were people who were probably working and were on lunch break. The style in the inside was appealing: it had the bright colors of a fast food restaurant, while there were low tables and high tables. Some art work decorated the walls, which definitely made it seem more family-friendly. We ordered burritos, nachos, tacos, gorditas, and many other foods, but unfortunately I only remember the tastes of these four foods. The nachos had regular nacho cheese, fresh tomatoes, cream cheese, creamy bean paste, and the nachos themselves were made of corn and were salty. There was a meat sauce on it, but what can I say? It was meaty. The burrito, or more specifically, the chicken burrito chalupa, had a burger bun taste (both probably use the same flour), some crunchy lettuce, and chicken. The chicken taco had a basically the same thing, except there was white sauce that made it more tastier. The gorditas were fantastic, with a soft, mild taste and tomatoes to make it seem fresh. Being that it was fast food, the food was of course, fast. And for most fast food, the food was actually pretty aromatic, but still somewhat bland. The only thing I didn't actually like were the different types of sauces. They just tasted like odd flavored drinks put into little packets. If I were to go there again, I would definitely order the volcano menu (I've heard of a very funny joke about it and I want to try it to see if it's true).
  The next restaurant we went to was Taqueria Coatzingo. It's in the same neighborhood, but I'm guessing people who want to eat more authentic foods would choose Taqueria Coatzingo. Inside, it is much different, and looks a lot more like a restaurant. The menu is even bigger, and we ordered much more (It could also be because I remember the tastes of the foods more). The appetizers were chips and salsa, and the salsa, I have to say, tasted like real salsa. Spicy, sweet, with a dash with what tasted like scallion. The quesadilla was wonderful, with cheese and some fried meat, and the dough/bread part of it was crumbly. The chalupas were spicy, with fried meat too, but it also had some vegetables. The burritos had fried pork (there seems to be a lot of fried stuff... still good though). There were gorditas with quesillo cheese on the inside with lettuce and pork, but the cheese was the most prominent ingredient within the the gordita. There was also chicharon pork skin in many of the dishes, which served as the crunchy part. There were nachos too, but they tasted more flavorful than in Taco Bell. What Taco Bell also didn't have was soup and their own special drinks. There was goat soup served that was splendid. The meat was soft, fresh, and nice, while the soup was flavorful not only from the meat but cilantro and tomatoes as well. The three special drinks we had were Porchata, Jamaica, and the melon juice. The Porchata is a rice based drink with a subtle sweet taste, a bit like bubble gum, but with a milky flavor. The Jamaica drink is made from the Hisbuscus flower, but was fruity like pomegranate juice. The melon juice had melon flavors, and was useful for exterminating the spicy aftertaste of the different dishes.
  Overall, Taqueria Coatzingo was a better restaurant because it wasn't as bland as Taco Bell. Not only that, but it offered more choices as well. If Taco Bell were to learn from Taqueria Coatzingo, the lesson would be to embrace the Mexican culture more.

Abyssinia Ethiopian Restaurant

  Prior to this visit, I had never had Ethiopian food, or even any type of food from Africa. Unfortunately, during this visit, I didn't take much notes or remember much about the food, so I must apologize beforehand if this post has less information than the other posts. The reason for the lack of information is because when we were waiting for food, we started to play a game that has one person thinking of a word, and the next person saying another word that starts with the letter the word before ended with. (Do not try this game if you are concentrating on something. It is very distracting).

  Our appetizers were the sambusas, which were triangular, and were crunchy on the outside, while filled with vegetables or meat on the inside. (The meat one was tastier in my opinion). Each platter had around 3 or 4 with a spicy sauce in the middle.

  The next one was the main dish, which was actually several different kinds of food placed on injera. What is excellent about the dish is not only was it exotic and flavorful, but the practical easiness of eating it. The injera is a soft and absorbent dough that is used to pick up the different kinds of food and then eaten with the food. The injera was beneficial because it replaced the need for utensils and absorbed the sauces of the foods.

  After eating we got to look into the kitchen. I was thinking more about the word for the game then the words the cook was telling us, so I didn't really hear much about how the food was made. One thing I got was how to make the injera. All that is needed is teff flour mixed with water, and then put on a hot surface. The one we saw was made took at most one minute.

  That was my first experience with Ethiopian food. I should try more Ethiopian food because I was really distracted by the word game.

Blue Smoke Restaurant

Dear readers,

       The second day of feasting was located at Blue Smoke. I've been to Blue Smoke before, so I was familiar with the restaurant. Unfortunately, we didn't have a tour guide like Scott for barbeque, so our information was greatly limited compared to our pizza tour, therefore forcing us to depend only on our observations and senses.

A brick place filled with the smell of smoke and rich, barbequed meat, Blue Smoke basically symbolizes all meanings of a barbeque restaurants. Inside the restaurants, you can see metallic stars that hang down by string, bouncy red booths, and windows that allow sunlight to stream in. Outside, a neon sign that displays "Blue Smoke" resembles that of diners you find near a highway.

The first dish I had was the Warm Barbeque Potato Chips, accompanied by a cheese dip. The cheese dip I can remember: it was salty and tasted like cheese. Sounds simple, but quite tasty. The potato chips, according to Josh, probably had "cayan pepper," and Sunny said it was "crunchy." (I disagree. I think it was quite soft compared to most potato chips, and had paprika.) The chips seemed attractive to the others, so unfortunately, my greed for chips was not satisfied.

Luckily, my main course of Applewood Smoked All-Natural Chicken was not stolen by the others. It had a sweet taste, which was probably due to the applewood, and the inside was pink. The chicken did taste like chicken, and I tasted some of the chicken with the sauces, and the chicken only by itself to sense the flavor. (Blue Smoke has a pleasant range of sauces/condiments: Magic Dust, Texas Pete Hot Sauce, Sweet+Spicy Kansas City Barbeque Sauce, Carolina Kick Barbeque Sauce, and a few more. I highly suggest you should try all of them).

By the end, I wasn't exactly completely full, and I wanted to eat something for dessert. However, my visit prior to this visit was quite unpleasant. I had gotten so full I was almost about to throw up. Literally. My lesson was well learned, so I looked at the dessert beverages. I suddenly had an urge to drink tea. Never before, I must say, have I had an urge for tea, but today seemed to be an exception. I came across the words of "Peppermint Tea," and immediately I ordered it. Some urge I had. The tea tasted like unsweet toothpaste. I added sugar, and the final result was the taste of sweet toothpaste. (Ugh).

After we ate, we were given a tour of the kitchen. A great surprise for me, because I always imagined it as big as a massive room, but it wasn't that bigger than a classroom at my school. We were allowed to see the ovens, which were like 12 times the size of the oven at my home. From the inside came a thick smell of smoke, rich with aromas from wood, unlike the stink from cigarettes you find on a NYC street. The number of dead animals used to fill these ovens were definitely above many.

From this experience, I not only got a great meal, but I also got to look at the kitchen and taste a tea that tasted like toothpaste.

Day4Pizza

Dear readers,
      On our first day of FWP, we went on a pizza tour. I had never went on a pizza tour before. The pizza tour was directed by Scott, and the pizza tour's name is Scott's Pizza Tours. (Heh).

The first restaurant we went to was Keste Pizzeria. Keste was a pizzeria that made pizza from Naples. As Scott explained to us, Neapolitan pizza is made is brick ovens. The brick oven burned wood, which is unlike some brick ovens that burn coal, because the wood put in natural flavors. The oven of the restaurant was shaped is a dome, which was not built for decoration, but rather natural convection. You see, modern-day ovens/microwaves depend upon a fan to blow the heat around. The dome-shaped oven needed no fan, because the fire was on the left side of the dome, and the smoke tried to escape. Instead of going directly to the entrance by floating to the counterclockwise direction, it went the long way by going clockwise; therefore passing the pizza naturally instead of by fan. The design of the oven was so efficient that the oven could reach temperatures to 1010 degrees Fahrenheit. (Scott had a special laser that could test the temperature just by beaming it at a certain area). It wasn't only the oven that was special; the ingredients were unique as well. The flour was imported from Naples, and it made such a soft dough. We all got feels the dough, and in my opinion, it was as soft as a cloud. Dough made from wheat from America would be much tougher. Pizzas made from this kind of dough cooked in the special kind of oven took less than two minutes to make, but did not mean it tasted bad. In Naples people would get their own personal pizza. In Keste, we just got the traditional New York way of getting just a slice. The first pizza we ate was mast'nicola, which is actually the first type of pizza that was ever made. It had no tomato sauce like the pizza we often interpret in our minds. It was a thin, light slice from that special dough, unlike that type of heavy, greasy pizza you get in NY. The main topping on the pizza was the pecorino romano, a grainy, salty cheese made from sheep milk. The other toppings were basil and lard. The taste was definitely nothing short of delightful. With the salty taste from the cheese, added on with the unique dough, basil, lard, and aromas plugged in by the oven, it had a twirling taste that moved around your mouth as if the taste was a fluid dripped from paradise. The second pizza was the margherita pizza, which is the pizza you would imagine in your mind. It had was tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil, which had a mixture of a cooked brick taste and a fresh taste, added on with the special dough, making a wonderful pizza.
The next restaurant we went to was John's, which served New York pizza. Almost everything was different between Keste's and John's. What I really liked was the graffiti carved in on the red walls, and the graffiti that didn't display John's in a negative way, but rather showed how historic it was. (Even the cash-register was old-fashioned). The pizza was just the regular New York pizza that's greasy and heavy in taste. However, the pizza made me compare the two restaurants. John's was a restaurant with much history, but served modern New York pizza. Keste's served pizza that was invented a long time ago, but the restaurant itself was newer. The pizza was made by a coal oven of 620 degrees. (I learned that different oven temperatures fit different types of pizzas). After we left John's we also learned that the cheese is greasy because people take out the water of the cheese and it with oil.
The last restaurant we went to was Famous Ben's. The dough mixer and the cheese cutter were operated by the same machine, which is pretty cool. They had a type of food that is called palermo pizza in the U.S., but is classified as a type of bread in Sicily. A rectangular shaped pizza, with a sauce that had onions. It had a sweet and salty taste which was in my opinion, very palatable.
From this tour I learned a lot about pizza, and before I just thought pizza was a very simple... study. After the tour I found out that the variety of pizza is very complex.