Hummingbird604.com » Mexican food

Impossible Cake (Pastel Imposible/Chocoflan)

Raul — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:00:27 +0000

My friend Dianne Chow (who writes the blog Living Fabulously and Frugally in Vancouver) was kind enough to make an Impossible Cake (Pastel Imposible or Chocoflan as we know it in Mexico) for my 5 years’ blogiversary. I was completely stunned. Making an Impossible Cake is quite a time-consuming task.

I searched Google for recipes for Impossible Cake in the remote case you want to make it, and I was happy to find this post by What’s Cooking Mexico with a PDF version of the recipe. Enjoy! I certainly did. Thank you Dianne for making me a Pastel Imposible! It’s my favorite cake, even beyond Pastel de Tres Leches.

Las Tortas (Cambie Village)

Raul — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:00:15 +0000

Some folks always find a way to debate with me the topic of finding good Mexican food in Vancouver. I’m Mexican, and love traditional Mexican food. But I understand that there are constraints to cooking “real” Mexican food in a city like Vancouver. So I take “the next best” approach. Full disclosure: my Mom’s cooking is, in my opinion, the best Mexican food I have ever had.

The above said, I have tried numerous Mexican restaurants in our beautiful city. Yet the one that I had not set foot on, despite its closeness to where I live, was Las Tortas (on Cambie Street and almost 17th Avenue). First order of business, the torta is a very traditional Mexican item, but the bun that Las Tortas uses is NOT a bolillo. Very, very close in texture but not a bolillo at the end of the day. So that affects how you perceive the torta.

Second order of business: whichever item you order in Vancouver, it’s always going to be cheaper in Mexico. That’s just a fact. So, knowing this, I ordered a Torta de Chorizo con Huevo ($6.99 sandwich with scrambled egg and chorizo). I have eaten tortas almost everywhere in the world where I have found a Mexican restaurant, but I had never seen a “chorizo con huevo” where the egg wasn’t scrambled with the chorizo.

That said, it was very filling and tasty. I found it a bit weird to have lettuce in my torta, when most of the ones I ate growing up in Mexico didn’t, but as far as I’m concerned, Las Tortas is probably be the only place where I’ll have tortas and be content and fulfilled, unless I come back to Mexico.

Inexpensive, tasty and well prepared. And most importantly, prepared with the utmost nice approach. The service was great. The fact of the matter as well is that this is a small, hole-in-the-wall place, staffed by nice people and with good comfort Mexican food.

Disclosure: I paid for my torta and drink on my own dime.

What Kind of Mexican Food Are You?

Raul — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:14:29 +0000

Well, given my heritage (and given that my favorite food is, indeed, Mexican) here is a little Blogthings quiz for you.

You Are a Burrito

You life large, and you’re happiest when you’re the center of attention.
You are popular and appealing. You are charming and naturally flirtatious.

You are a trendsetter. You’re always trying something new, and you never get stuck in a rut.
You are open minded and adventurous. You love to mix seemingly random elements together.

What Mexican Food Are You?

On the authentic Mexican food topic

Raul — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:00:13 +0000

I recently updated my post on places for Mexican food, and I got all sorts of feedback and suggestions for places to try.

However, I figured I’d let you know that I’ve been enjoying a lot of really authentic Mexican food. Since my eldest brother is in town visiting for a week, we went for breakfast this past Sunday to the same menudo place we usually go to (he’s a menudo fan) with Mom.

We didn’t order quesadillas or tacos, but I was SO tempted, since the tortillas are hand-made.

We all had a nap (since we needed it as we had been awake since 4 am) and then we hung out around the city, having a chance to sample a typical snack with cucumber and jicama (called “chalupa”, see below).

Finally, we ended up going downtown, attending a church service and then having hot-dogs for dinner. These are awesome times.

Mexican food restaurants in Vancouver: An updated post

Raul — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:00:20 +0000

Last year, Rebecca asked me to write a review post for the best Mexican restaurants in Vancouver. Not surprisingly, given how widely read her blog is, she is the top result for Google.ca’s search for “Mexican restaurant Vancouver review”. Luckily, that is also precisely my guest post, so I’m just going to update it here.

REVIEWING MY CHOICES FROM THE GUEST POST ON REBECCA’S BLOG

5. First off, I don’t know exactly how I ended up recommending Las Margaritas as one of my top five choices, given that I had a horrible experience a few months later.

4. El Rinconcito Salvadoreño isn’t right now my fave for Mexican food, but Karen Hamilton recently went there, so read her review and come back.

3. Taco Loco. Haven’t been there in months, so I’m going to hold back on my recommendation.

2. Casa Blanca. Haven’t been there in months either, so holding back on my recommendation too.

1. Sadly, apparently Tio Pepe’s was horrible for a visitor to UrbanSpoon (which is too bad because my experience was good). So, won’t make the top 5 anymore. Ooops.

SO HOW DID YOU UPDATE THE POST? THE METHOD

The first step I took was to narrow down the UrbanSpoon listings for Vancouver’s Mexican restaurants. I then looked at the listing and checked which ones I have recently reviewed to get a general feel.

So, here is the list of Mexican restaurants in Vancouver that I’ve recently visited and that I would recommend, in order of how much I like them.

THE NEW LIST

1. Salsa and Agave – Delicious. Tasty. Authentic. Inexpensive. Best place to have lunch with someone you care for (which then explains why I have been there so frequently with close friends of mine!).

2. La Casita – Inexpensive, surprisingly tasty and authentic, and they make some of the best margaritas in town.

3. Tequila Kitchen – Really authentic, very good food, upscale. A bit on the higher end in pricing, but good and very much real Mexican food.

4. Delicados – Kind of Tex-Mex-y. But filling, and quick for a cheap and good eat.

And of course, everyone and their mother have been suggesting that I go to Doña Cata. I was going to go just before I had to come to Mexico, but you can rest assured that I’ll update this post with a review of Doña Cata as soon as I go there for dinner.

THOSE THAT SOME OTHERS HAVE RECOMMENDED AND I HAVEN’T TRIED.

- Topanga Café. Don’t ask me why, but I might venture.
- Andale’s. Not sure about how I feel about this, but may visit.
- Casa de Amigos. They moved, and now there’s Chica’s (another restaurant) but I will try them at their new location.
- Poncho’s. Rebecca and John Bollwitt swear by this restaurant, so gotta try it.
- Zocalo. Even though I live literally 10 blocks away, haven’t tried it. May do it, but not 100% sure.
- Mexicali. Um, no, really not sure if I want to go there.

There were other suggestions in the Lower Mainland, so I might go to the one in New Westminster (Ole Ole I think it was called) upon my return to Vancouver. In the mean time, feel free to drop a comment and/or suggest any other new Mexican restaurants.

Tacos: the great societal equalizer

Raul — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 04:45:08 +0000

I took Mom tonight for dinner and she wanted tacos, so I gladly obliged. “Tacos Don Luis” is a chain of local “taquerías” that has provided much needed comfort food to lots of Mexicans, including highly prominent politicians such as former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox (there is photographic proof, I kid you not).

We ordered 7 tacos each (“al pastor” and chorizo). While we were there, we were recognized by lots of patrons, which was kind of cool (even though I’ve lived away from Mexico for so many years, I still get recognized here!)…

A common drink in Mexico is natural flavored water (in this case, I drank lime water with my tacos)

As I mentioned in the title of my post, tacos are really a social equalizer. People of all social strata eat tacos: rich, poor, well-off and struggling. Everyone enjoys a great taco, and the awesome thing is that just about everyone can afford at least one.

Every time I come back to Mexico, I am thrilled to spend time with my family, and when it’s having Mexican food and real tacos, it’s total bliss

El Panteón Taurino – tamarind margaritas and bullfighting

Raul — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:11:23 +0000

My brother S is definitely a Mexican food/drinks connoisseur. He always knows where to go when we are back at our childhood home. He decided that before he returned to Canada (which he will be doing tomorrow) he had to take us for drinks and “botanas” (tapas) at “El Panteon Taurino”. This hyperlocal, ultra-well known restaurant bar is famous for being a bullfighting-themed watering hole.

The food here is excellent, but it is not the main actor in this movie. The real star here are the drinks. I had two margaritas (one with Herradura Reposado and one with Patrón). You can’t be Mexican and not like tamarind and mango, so I ordered my margaritas with those flavors, respectively. WHOA. MargaritaCamp for one, thank you very much.

We had shrimp soup, guacamole, carne tártara (tartar meat, I guess would be the English translation), and lots, and lots of tequila. Mom is a tequila snob and thus she won’t drink hers mixed so she prefers a tequila puesto (tequila with a glass of lime juice and some sangrita).

To end a meal with a Mariachi serenade is a treat, in my opinion. My brother hired a Mariachi band to sing a number of Mom’s favorite songs. Given that I’m rather private with my family, I set the vast majority of my Flickr videos to private, but you can see a snippet of a song here.

I should also add that ever since I got a Flip camera and I learned how to embed videos and photos, I have started carrying my digital camera and the Flip. I almost feel like I’ve learned a totally different way of documenting my life. Anyways, family time is always awesome.