Azul y Oro

Ok, this time I'll rant about a really nice place called "Azul y Oro" this place is located inside CU and has some of the best and most economic dishes I've ever seen. The place's motto is "No dish has to be expensive in order to look well" and they really stick on the philosophy.
All of the dishes look amazing and taste delicious and the most expensive one cost 98 pesos. Desserts were a bit on the pricey side but they also are really good and the coffee beans they use come straight from Oaxaca.

Ok, first pic is a 'Chile en Nogada' which basically is a large chile, roasted and filled with prepared ground meat. Garnished with a tomato sauce and white chestnut sauce. This was my mom's dish, she loves this kind of chile.

This was my sister's dish, the Tikin-Xic fish is absolutely delicious, covered with adobo and filled with black beans, this fish has fried tortilla, tomatoes, avocado and fried banana wedges as garnish.

Going to my dad, here's a beautiful salmon, bathed in another type of adobo, this had steamed vegetables and creamed spinach, the plate also had a balsamic reduction. It also tasted niceeee, and the salmon was not over cooked, just delicious.

And here's my dish, fried ravioli filled with duck meat covered with mole. I have to admit that the duck lacked a bit of salt and the mole needed a tid-bit more chocolate, but then again, I like my mole on the sweet side so it was obvious that it wasn't just the way I like it. I had a glass of jamaica with my dish and it was great, very refreshing and cool.

Ok, now we'll head on to desserts, my all times favorite. I can tell you that I could fall in love with a guy who'd take me to a place just to have a nice dessert and tea... This cake here is filled with milk and it's soft and delicious. The raspberry sauce that garnished it was also really great and the right accent for the sweetness of the cake.

Ok, here's a guanabana mousse, the guanabana is a tropical fruit that looks rather odd for many people, it's green and covered with lumps, but it has a nice fresh and soft taste. It was a very light mousse so we found it really nice, plus it looks beautiful.

Aaaand, this is my dessert: soft centered chocolate torte, it was a really delicious and sinful warm chocolate cake with a smooth and velvet melting center. It was really strong! And don't be fooled by the ice-cream ball, that's no vanilla flavour, oh no, thats a gorgonzola cheese ice-cream!
To be honest, this is the first time I actually get to try the chocolate/strong cheese combo many gourmets and tv shows talk about as heavenly creations and I have to admit that it was a bit too much to my palate. I think that one of the main reasons is because I simply don't like strong cheese, and even though we're talking chocolate here... Anyway, I accepted the challenge and finished it all. The cake was of course the best part and many times I saw a spoon or two stealing bits of my cake. hehehe

Of vacations and leftover muffins

This year our family went on vacations to Puerto Vallarta and got the all inclusive so we had buffet breakfast meals and dinners all days. But it wasn't that bad, actually not at all. Everything was delicious and the meals restaurant was right beside the pool so we could go there when we started feeling hungry, from it all I believe that it's what I liked the most. They had everything! Pasta, pizza, salads, sushi, grilled meats and seafood, desserts, you name it. The only problem was that I couldn't eat it all unless I wanted to feel terribly guilty after. One day there was french food buffet for dinner and I thought it was ok, but then at the end of dinner I headed out for the desserts and there they were, profiteroles! Filled with whipped cream or chocolate cream! I had tons of them and couldn't help it, they're just so soft and light and sweet!
I could rant about them all day long but I didn't take a picture of them so I'll stop and rather show what I did take pics of.

This was my favorite breakfast buffet mix, chilaquiles, potatoes, mashed beans and sausages. Add to that fresh fruit with cottage cheese before and a glass of orange or carrot juice and it's the best thing ever. Besides I really, really REALLY love those small buffet sausages, I've never known where they get them from so I've only had them in buffets but if I could get them at the store I definately would.

One night we went to a really nice restaurant, it was great to dine there and the salad was awesome, it had two types of lettuce (though I don't really know their names in english) and portobello mushrooms grated with cheese, the dressing was sweet and delicious.

Although the trip was absolutely great, we went there by car and it was really tiring! Ten whole hours to get there and another ten on the way back. But we had a nice and sweet reward for the effort. They were selling strawberries half the way from there when we came back in cute weaved baskets at 4 bucks by kilo it was a great bargain!
They were truly delicious and we had strawberries the entire week. Alone, with cream and sugar and the last ones, the slightly less sweet ones were done in a milkshake. Yum!

Ok, and here's the leftover pic I had in storage. I've always wondered how cornbread tasted like so I went and had a look at some recipes in search for an easy start at the misterious thing. I found two different recipes and started to bake my own corn muffins.
Basically I did this Honey Cornbread Muffins recipe but instead of adding the cup of milk I added 1/4 and then 1 cup of sour cream which I had bought beforehand since I was planning on doing the Sour Cream and Lemon Corn Muffins instead. Why I changed my mind? Well, the first recipe looked easier (if that is even possible!).
The result is as delicious as it seems. The muffins were soft and sweet as honey (quite literally) and they were not dry at all so they lasted quite a bit. We don't eat much pastries or bread at home so I was afraid some of it would get old and dry. But I kept them in a sealed glass container and they lasted me the entire week! I don't know if they could last longer since that's when we finished the batch but I bet they could last longer.
Next time I'll add the lemon zest and see how it comes out.

Bought bento and senbei

Mikasa is a place I like to visit a lot, not only for it's food but also when I'm low on ingredients it's the best place to go and stock. It's basically a japanese mart so I can find anything I need for my meals.
Also there is the fast food zone where I can buy almost anything, from sushi to daifukus. My boyfriend and I went for dinner and here's what we bought.


This is my boyfriend's california roll, he always picks it up so I'm no longer amazed he chooses it, the good thing is that they put some tampico sauce on top of each piece so it's a nice flavor.


This is mine, I've been wanting to get one of these for some time now, hence I got it. It's a bento and it has small portions of different foods to taste. There was a cucumber salad, fried pork, shrimp, salmon and some other things I don't know the name of but tasted really nice. And the best thing of this bento is that it had a small pot of camelia, a dessert I really adore consisting in coffee gelatin mixed with a sweet coffee liqueur sauce. d(>///<)b


Finally, I got myself a pack of snacks called senbei, these are rice crackers that are eaten just like chips are for us, they taste really great since they taste of soy sauce and the green dots over there are peas, toasted and with a twist of wasabi.

The Apple Adventure

Yes yes... I know myself I'm not the best blogger around the block so please do spare my lazyness and lack of discipline to keep updating constantly on the blog. There are quite a few experiences I'd like to share stocked already at the incoming posts tray but making out an order from it is harder that I'd like to admit.
Anyway, here's the so promised post about my apple adventure and lo' an' see! It's nothing less than a Fake Strudel!
It all began the moment here at home we began to get fed up of apples all the time, so I decided it was a better bet to try and make a sweet out of it before the apples were (literally) gonna be left to rot. So next time we went to the supermarket I bought half a kilo of puff pastry and got myself to work.
Doing this dessert is awfully easy actually. You just chop around 4 apples (depending on size), season it with sugar and some cinnamon and stew it, add some raisins and nuts at the end.
Roll out the puff pastry long enough and around 1/4 inch thick. Place the cooled apples in the middle and close the puff pastry. Use some water to help it stick toghether and the brush it all over with an egg white.
Then place it into the over, around 375 ºF and 20 minutes or until the puff pastry has puffed and goldened enough.
Aaaand here's the result:


Not too bad for a fake one, right? The taste was great and remember not to use too much sufar at the beginning since raisins tend to be sweet and those are added in the middle of the preparation.

And here's the delicious inside. You can see my pastry didn't puff, well that was my fault, I tried to make as much space as needed... And there were a fairly big amount of apples. >.<;
It taste well, but I felt the lacking of puff in the puff pastry more than other's.
That aside, it was an absolute hit. Gone in a flash. ;3

Recovery and restaurants

Well, it seems I'm getting over my last episode of depression, yay me!
ヘ(^_^ヘ)(ノ^_^)ノ

And here I am to show you some new food pics, they are from a very nice place called Nube Siete, which is located in a recently opened museum, which is the MUAC. This is a very interesting museum where a diversity of pieces are blended toghether, most of times they have a singularity which puts them toghether, like same author or same theme. We were not able to visit the whole place because of time but what we saw was pretty interesting.

There was a small but nice selection of fresh juices, one was a mix of green plants, oranges and pineapples, I liked it but it lacked a bit of sweetness.

We arrived at breakfast time, but we nearly missed it, since it was around 12:00 o'clock. It was a really nice place to go, the eating area is located outside the museum yet it is covered by the building's floor. This is because the building is located on an area that has different heights. It was a very hot day outside but as we were in the shadow it was nice and the soft breeze was relaxing.

This is my plate, a truly large mushroom omelette, it had some baked potatoes as garnish and I loved it! I ate he whole thing! In the end I thought my tummy was gonna burst but it was worth it. It's been a while since I tasted such great omelettes.

This is Marianita's plate, delicious hot cakes made with wholegrain flour. They tasted pretty nice if you ask me, and they had a delicious strawberry marmalade (which is not shown) to go with them. She only got to eat two of them so I was the lucky one to have the last.
...And yes, I even devoured a piece of hotcake after that huge omelette, you can tell how tasty everything was by that.

This was my dad's omelette, it had ham and cheese inside and tasted just as great as mine. But it lacked a bit of salt... Which is weird because ham tends to have an enough amount of salt.

Last but not least was my mom's plate. It's sunny-side-up eggs covered in guajillo sauce. Accompanied by smashed beans. A typical mexican dish which was delicious.

Oh and if you were wondering what is a guajillo, it's what we call a 'chile'. Here in Mexico we have loads of different chiles. Guajillo is a chile that is commonly left to dry. There are two ways of preparing them for whichever thing one wants to do and that is to toast it and then put it into hot water. Or just putting it in hot water.
It has a nice smoked taste and is really good. And here's a pic of it (beware, it's pretty large):

Feeling Down

I've been feeling down lately, I'm not sure why though but it happens most times. Whenever I start to feel responsible or mature I back out from everything and run away. I believe I cannot handle anything and that I'll be crushed in the real world (if there is one). And I'm not proud of it but I hope I could stop myself before things go wrong.
I've got some pics to share that have been forgotten here and though I don't feel like saying a lot, I think this will help me a bit to get over the 'depression' I currently have.

Pasta with salmon sauce, it's always been a personal favorite. This was took on a trip to Cuernavaca.

In Cuernavaca as well, a plate with some cheese selection, grapes and small bits of bread covered with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

A croissant wannabe, it looks quite funny, doesn't it?

Espresso latte, mom loves this. I like how the swirls look, so I'd take any coffee shot as long as it's got swirls on it. XD

Sweet crépes, sprinkled with nuts and topped with an almond & vanilla ice cream.
This is from Neve Gelato, a very nice place to have a sweet delight. *o*

Neve Gelato as well, this was my dessert, cheese & raspberry pie; along with a delicious mint & chocolate ice cream. The tea is a ginger infusion, absolutely delicious as well!

And your classic moka chocolate cake, garnished with a cute music key made of wite chocolate.

Well... I'm not feeling specially fine but at least I'm less hysteric, hopefully I'll stop this stage soon.

My Boyfriend's B-day and Checkered Cookies

Last week was my boyfriend's birthday, he's 22 now.
My cooking adventure started when I realized I didn't have any spare money to buy him a present and then I thought, hey it doesn't have to be expensive in order for it to be a great present.
So I went and searched for my all-times butter cookies recipe. I had been surfing on the net and found a quite easy way to make them look great. Be warned, the next recipe make a large batch of cookies, the original was only half of what I use, but I love cookies so I always double proportions.

The close-up. :3

Ingredients are:
200 gr. butter
100 gr. sugar
300 gr. flour
1 tsp. vanilla essence
25gr. cocoa

Mix the sugar and butter until you have an even mixture, leave the butter ouside the fridge for some hours before. Then add the previously sifted flour and vanilla essence to the mixture and mix.
Now comes the fun part, separate the dough in two and mix one with the cocoa. Flaten each dough until they're 3/4 inch (1.5 cm.) thick and cut square straps, put them toghether and use egg whites as glue, these will make checkered cookies. Wrap them in plastic foil and place them at the fridge for at least 20 minutes, pre-heat the oven to 180 Cº and after the dough is cold, cut them in 1/2 inch (1 cm.) thick slices. These will double their size with the cooking so be sure to leave a fair amount of distance between them.

There was another tray full of these in the oven when I took the picture.

To make the rolled dought flatten both doughs and place the smaller one into the larger, to make the spot in the middle use a long cilinder of chocolate dough and start rolling.
To make cinnamon roll cookies flatten the dought and sprinkle cinnamon all over it, then roll.
All doughs shal be placed into the fridge before cutting.
Leave cookies in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
...Enjoy.

I had to put them in a platic bag as the recipient I used was a gift cardboard bag, in the end some broke during the journey. My boyfriend loved them anyway. <3

National treat, International delight

One of the reasons I barely achieve to go into a diet must be my love for sweet. It's one of my passions in life, tasting delicious food specially sweet food. And today was no exception.
We happened to go out to a small town called Tepotzotlán very near to the city. This is a very cute town, it has a huge monastery and Mexico's greatest collection of sacred art within it's walls. That however is not my favorite part of the town.
Each sunday, like in most towns, there is a market in the center of the town and loads of different things to buy, hand-made bags, blouses, carpets, paintings, accesories and many more. Also as you might have guessed, there is plenty of food, natural ice shaves, corn, fried potatoes, fried bananas... and a whole lot of traditional treats, tamarindos, cocadas, pepitorias, alegrías and many more.

Always colourful in Mexico!

From all of these variations and delicious treats, there has always been a personal favorite. This is a sweet I find so tempting and delicious that I must have it anytime I see it. That sweet is called muégano.
Muéganos are made by deep frying small bits of a paste, stack them in a small mount and then covering them in hot syrup made with piloncillo and water which is our version of common sugar syrup. After pouring it, the syrup will eventually cool and harden. Thus making very nice mounts of a hard crusted soft insided sweet.

Left's my mom's unopened one, right's mine... being eaten *¬*

Later on the evening, when we came back from our trip, dad wanted to have some pasties for dinner and stopped by a very well know pattiserié of Mexico, El Globo. And again I delighted myself with a delicious sweet called Napoleon made of layers. First and base level is a very thin layer of phyllo paste, second is a sponge cake, third is a deliciously (and sinfully fat filled) whipped cream layer that then is topped with another thin layer of phyllo. All covered in icing sugar.

Ah, such a delicious pastry...

Meat Cake Nostalgia

It's been days since I started feeling like I needed something different than the usual. And I definitely knew what it was that I missed.
My godmother used to make this particular meat cake when I was a child and I loved it, it was on my top favorites list, right next to the bread crumbles deep fried chicken (ah, how I yearn youth, not having to worry at all of oversaturated oils...).
I kept talking and talking about the meat cake for a whole week until we went to the market and bought some grounded meat. So I called my godmother and asked her for the recipe. I'm so excited that I'm posting the recipe and the results. By the way, I'm not sure whether it's a real meat cake or has any other name, but that's the way I've know it for my entire life.
With no more a-do, here's the easiest meat cake recipe in the world (or at least I think so):


600 gr. grounded meat.
1 diced carrot (into really small dices)
1 diced potatoe (into really small dices)
1/4 finely chopped onion
1 smashed garlic clove, be sure to have it like a paste or else the taste will be unbearable.
1/4 tsp. cumin (or less if you don't really like cumin)
1 tbsp. concentrated chicken broth
salt
pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and place them in a cake mold (20 cm with or larger). Cook it over boiling water for 40 minutes. To check it's done insert a knife in the middle, if it comes out dry then it's done.

Now, I'll give you some hints for this one, first of all, don't tell your family what the cake's got in until they taste it, my mother hates cumin but as I never told her the cake had cumin she loved it.
Second is... never ever of your life use a 2 pieces cake mold, I used one and after the cooking I realized that a lot of the boiling water had leeked into the cake. It was still very tasty but the water was definately not expected. XP

And here's my meat cake, ready to be eaten.

Bon Appétite!