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.