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.

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.

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!

En Cancún

En nuestras última vacaciones decidimos irnos de vago a Cancún. Pobrecitos de nosotros. Y debo admitir que comimos muchas cosas deliciosas pero solo unas cuantas gozaron de obtener una foto. Más que nada porque para el momento que recordaba tomarles la foto ya me lo había comido todo por completo. =P
Pero bueno, varias cosas se salvaron y me enfocaré en ellas.

El segundo día, si no mal recuerdo, fuimos a playa mamitas, una playa muy bella donde había palapitas frente a los restaurantes. Tenían unas aguas naturales muy sabrosas (yo pedí una de sandía) y el pescado que probé estaba delicioso. El nombre del plato era Pescado al cardenal cubierto de camarones, y era una pescado cocido a la plancha aderezado con salsa bechamel y camarones encima, sus guarniciones eran unas deliciosas verduras al vapor y un arroz exquisito. Tenía un gusto a paella excelente.

Como se darán cuenta, apenas me acordé a tiempo de la foto. XP

Esa misma noche fuimos a un lugar muy lindo llamado Ah Cacao donde el café es excelente y el chocolate ni se diga. Lo más llamativo del lugar es que venden cosas hecha con cacao, desde barras de jabón (que por cierto compré), aceites de aromaterapia e incluso frascos con ramas de vainilla.


Hubo una noche en que comí un delicioso sushi de atún con salsa agridulce de jamaica y el de mi papá era de salmón ahumado con salsa de tamarindo. Camila se echó una arrachera entera y Mariana un pastel de chocolate. Mamá y Olguita se tomaron un caldo de pollo.

La última noche salimos a un lugar llamado La Madonna donde naturalmente se especializan en comida italiana. Todo estaba delicioso y debo admitir que bastante llenador, como casi todo allá estaba caro, sin embargo las raciones eran bastante grandes y de hecho a mí me sobró tanto que pude desayunar más pasta al día siguiente. Mariana por cierto actuó como una adicta a la pizza de pepperoni y los nuggets de pollo, ya que no comió absolutamente nada más.

Solo la mitad sobrevivió. O_o

El 'pequeño' plato de Camila, brochetas de camarón y filete de res.

Boquinete al perejil. X3

Tagliolini de albahaca a dos salmones. Mi plato. *drool*

Creo que lo más sobresaliente del viaje en lo que a alimentos se refiere, es que la cocina en casi cualquier lado es excelente, con buen sazón y muy agradable. Imagino que ello es precisamente por la zona turística pero debo admitir que si así fuera en todas partes del mundo la gastronomía tendría una cara completamente diferente por lo menos en lo que a México se refiere.

Un Cosmopolitan de cortesía, delicioso y en su punto. Perfecto para refrescarme en la noche.

Aunque eso sí, al final del viaje, nuestra última comida en Cancún consistió en una sencilla hamburguesa del Burguer King y una pizza del Pizza Hut... Vaya manera de acabar. =P