Tag: restaurant reviews

Biannual list of top posts always diverse

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

You need hold your breath no longer. That much anticipated list revealing most-read blog posts over the past year is here.

While the brutally murdered Helen Madarasz was a real person, at one time I believed I invented her ghost refusing to leave the site of her former home in Brackenridge Park. So many keep reading the post six years later, even I am starting to think she might really be haunting the park.

My readers seem to be as Alamobsessive as I am, fretting over proposed plans for Alamo Plaza. Every time I think the plaza will remain fence-free and historic gems on the west side of the plaza will be spared, renewed threats arise. That barely watercolored-in white rail in the background of the image above is a fence. Just to be safe, please consider signing the San Antonio Conservation’s Society petition at change. org.

venison at Fricska Gastropub in Budapest

Thanks for taking trips with me; you seem particularly drawn to food. We fell hard for Fricska Gastropub in Budapest, and our taste buds feel vindicated with its recent receipt of Bib Gourmand recognition from Michelin. (And, yes, sister Susan, I promise to get to food posts from Italy soon. She has been whining about being sent into so many churches first. But it takes a long time for postcards to arrive from Italy, and the Alamo keeps interrupting.)

Margarita Cabrera

Like many of you, cannot wait to see Margarita Cabrera’s ‘Tree of Life’ take root on the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River near Mission Espada.

So here’s your top 12, with the numbers in parentheses representing the rankings six months ago:

  1. The Madarasz Murder Mystery: Might Helen Haunt Brackenridge Park?, 2012 (2)
  2. Forging consensus for the Alamo Comprehensive Plan: Don’t fence us out, 2018
  3. Postcard from Budapest, Hungary: Currently suffering from case of miss-you-Fricska blues, 2017 (3)
  4. ‘Tree of Life’ bears bountiful crop of tales from the past, 2018
  5. Please put this song on Tony’s pony and make it ride away, 2010 (4)
  6. ‘Just the Facts:’ A fence by any other name still smells the same, 2018
  7. Postcard from Guanajuato, Mexico: Wishing these dining spots were not 600 miles away, 2016 (8)
  8. Morning walk turns into thematic parade through San Antonio’s heritage, 2018

    San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo’s Western Heritage Parade
  9. How would you feel about the Alamo with a crewcut?, 2011 (10)
  10. The Curse of Madarasz Park: Another Ghost Wandering in Brackenridge Park, 2014
  11. Postcard from Mexico City: Pausing for a playful food break at Mercado Roma, 2017

    fried charl taquito amuse bouche at Seneri in Mercado Roma in Mexico City
  12. Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Where fiestas erupt all the time, 2017

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to chat back. We’ll wind up this round-up with a fiesta in Oaxaca.

Postcard from Mexico City: ‘For Main Course We’ll Have That’

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

Am slinging out these final food shots from our fall visit to Mexico City like a short-order cook in a bad diner, but I am off taking new photos of meals in an entirely different spot on the map.

Most of these are from the Roma Norte neighborhood where we stayed. Am keeping my comments at a minimum, so the pictures will have to serve in helping you decide about restaurants when journeying there yourself.

Particularly enjoyed the abundance of vegetable dishes, including a no-pasta spaghetti, at Bowie Cocina de Humo, but the restaurant does take its name seriously. Every course is tinged with smoke-infused flavor. By the end of the meal, my mouth almost felt as though I’d been smoking. We found the much-heralded Nudo Negro with its show-off parade up to the kitchen to receive your amuse-bouche from the hands of a chef a tad bit pretentious, but the long-roasted eggplant, split open and topped with humus tableside, melts in your mouth.

There must be thousands of less expensive places to eat a Mexican-style breakfast in Mexico City, but the park-facing patio of Café Toscano on Orizaba is so pleasant the higher price tag was absorbed without question. Both the red and green chilaquiles are wonderful, and the fresh juice combinations round out the meals.

We loved the neighborhood comfort feeling of having pizza on the patio at Cancino Roma or shrimp arancini and a bowl of robust roasted tomato soup at Macelleria, where, as you can see from the featured photo, the restaurant correctly profiled us with the name of the house wine. Few tables at the popular Huset fail to order avocado pizza.

The variety and freshness of ingredients and recipes never disappointed us at Delirio. Fresh salads and sandwiches, moussaka and falafel and fresh meringues are among the celebrated bakery’s fare.

Delirio meringue
Delirio falafel sandwich
Paprika roasted eggplant
Galanga Thai Kitchen green papaya salad
Cancino Roma fig and bacon pizza
Galanga Thai Kitchen seafood tom
NonSolo roasted vegetables
Bowie Cocina de Humo chicken
Nudo Negro splitting roasted eggplant tableside
Broka Bistrot concinita pibil
Huset roasted vegetables
Volver blue cheese burger
Paprika curried squid
Huset grilled tuna
Cafe Toscano chilaquiles verdes
Delirio moussaka
Casino Espanol beef filet with shrimp
Huset avocado pizza
Casino Espanol boquerones
Delirio curried rice with garbanzos
Casino Espanol
Cafe Toscano chilaquiles rojos
Casino Espanol seafood soup
Paprika lilo cocktail with tequila, ginger and spearmint
Paprika cauliflower
Casino Espanol croquetas
Nudo Negro roasted eggplant
Delirio mint and watercress salad
Huset grilled romaine salad
Broka Bistrot shrimp lunch special
Macelleria roasted tomato soup
Nudo Negro parading to kitchen for amuse bouche
Buenavida Fonda roasted vegetable cemita
Bowie Cocina de Humo grilled vegetables
Galanga Thai Kitchen platano and helado
Paprika rice with garbanzos
Huset huachinango
Paprika chicken with spicy sauce
Nudo Negro
Paprika falafel
Huset mezcal cocktail
Cancino Roma pear and gorgonzola pizza
Galanga Thai Kitchen amarillo curry with mariscos
Cancino Roma grain salad with cauliflower
Huset pollo arroz
Macelleria grilled squid
Bowie Cocina de Humo no pasta spaghetti
Delirio falafel
Macelleria arancini de camaron
Macelleria salmon

Veering even farther away from stereotypical Mexican food, the curries and toms at Galanga Thai Kitchen are worth seeking. The green papaya salad in particular drew us out for a return visit. With its flavorful chicken, roasted eggplant and falafel moistened with spinach, Paprika enticed us back for multiple meals as well.

From there, jump into downtown for the old-school formality of service in the high-ceilinged Casino Espanol, worthy of entering for viewing the stained-glass in its Porfirio-era home alone. The croquetas, boquerrones and seafood soup transported us to Spain.

We almost avoided Casino Espanol after reading a review describing it as the type of restaurant attracting old suits entertaining young mistresses, but there were only a pair or two seeming to fit in that category. The poor Mister and Vic, unsuited and in the company of old wives.

Whether squiring old spouses or young paramours, diving into a throwback to the past is a recommended ingredient balancing out all the trendy contemporary kitchens so abundant in this bustling culinary capital.

 

 

Postcard from Mexico City: Trolling for seafood in Roma Norte

postcardsfromsanantonioLeave a comment

We kept trying to find just the right seafood fit for our tastes while we were in Mexico City. The ceviche de atun with ginger at the reasonably priced Marlindo was among our favorite dishes, and the shrimp atop a tostada were beautiful. But Marlindo definitely is an ultra-casual neighborhood spot without much atmosphere, better for grabbing a quick bite than for lingering over a bottle of wine.

El Parnita is amazingly popular and bustling, but the dishes failed to excite us. On the other hand, we found ourselves the only ones in the dining room for lunch at Lucas Local. But the softshell crab sandwich at Lucas Local was phenomenal, and the pulpo and dried shrimp ceviche was refreshingly good and imaginatively presented in a coconut shell. Softshell crab is never easy enough for this Chesapeake Bay girl to find; wishing I had returned for seconds.

Campo Baja crab sopes
Marlindo ceviche de atun with ginger
Campo Baja salad
Campo Baja fish ceviche
El Parnita garbanzo taco
Marlindo rellenitas with shrimp and cheese
El Parnita
Marlindo shrimp ceviche tostada
Campo Baja gordita with pulpo and sausage
Campo Baja tostada with pulpo and black beans
Campo Baja tostada with scallops
Marlindo tlayuda
El Parnita ceviche
El Parnita flor de calabaza tacos
Marlindo tacos lugarenos camarones
Lucas Local pulpo and dried shrimp ceviche
Lucas Local softshell crab sandwich

Our final week, we finally hit our favorite spot, Campo Baja. Casual, bustling rooftop with an open-kitchen concept, and it was not even a full block away from our apartment. The approach to each dish was distinctively different, making wandering through numerous shared plates feel as though we were venturing into new territory.

If you are visiting the neighborhood, hope our photos help you find the right spot to suit your seafood mood.