Nicaraguan Food Abound

One of my biggest challenges in life is to stop being a Procrastinator. Not sure how to overcome this, as I have been one for many years now.

Hopefully one day, I will learn how and then you will be seeing alot more posts from me.

My wife is Nicaraguan and one of our many culinary joys is to discover Nicaraguan restaurants. Here in Los Angeles you can't walk 1 block without finding a Mexican or Salvadorean restaurant, but Nicaraguan, those are hard to come by.

Azusa has El Gallo Pinto. I haven't ate there in years, mainly because, Yes the food was decent but after 3 visits, being the only people in the restaurant and still having to wait 30-45 minutes to even get our food, I just lost patience with the place.

South La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles has El Nido. Again the food is decent, but they do Karaoke on weekends (during the middle of the day) so I can never hear myself think, let alone try to have a conversation with my table mates. Additionally I have ordered a beverage named "Arroz Con Pina" 3 times and all 3 times they have brought me something that didn't even resemble what my wife says is Arroz Con Pina. All 3 times we have asked the watiress if she brought me the correct drink and all 3 times the waitress has said, "Yes". But we know she didn't.

Staples Center aka Pico Avenue has La 27th. We just discovered this jewel a few months ago and really enjoy it. It's quiet enough, the food is quick and the portions are large tasty. Not to mention they ACTUALLY brought me Arroz Con Pina and it was great. My wife and brother-in-law had tears in their eyes as the food brought back their childhood.

I would post more about La 27th, except I didn't take pictures of the food, so we'll have another posting in the future. But one interesting story about La 27th is it's name. The restaurant has only been open for about 8 years, prior to that the Owners cooked out of their Home. Their home was located on the Corner of 27th and some other L.A. street (the name skips me) so when they opened their restaurant, since folks knew them as La 27th, they kept the name.

Now to the purpose of this post. At 11640 Victory Blvd in North Hollywood is Nica's Kitchen. From the outside of this place you would think, "Why am I going in here". But when you walk in, it's just a non-descript restaurant with a few tables. However the food is wonderful.

I ordered the Chancho con Yucca which are roasted chunks of Pork served with Yucca and topped with a vinegary cabbage slaw. Yucca is a root vegetable that is slightly firmer than a potato. A nice surpise was the SLAB Fried Cheese aka Queso Frito. Most restaurants serve you 1 inche slices, Nica's gives you a 3 inch by 3 inch SLAB.

The portion was soo large, I was delighted to take my leftovers home.

My Brother-In-Law had the Salpicon. Salpicon is ground beef simmered with onions and lime juice. Upon ingesting his first bite he proclaimed "This is EXACTLY how Salpicon should be." His dish included fried Plantains and Gallo Pinto aka White Rice with Black Beans.



Considering Nica's Kitchen is a tad bit closer and less navigation of freeway traffice than La 27th, I will deifinitely be frequenting this place again.

My rating: 3 Notches

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Kwality and the Goan Fish Curry

Quality can best be defined as a degree or grade of excellence. Kwality Indian Cuisine in Canoga Park fits this definition with a degree of excellence.

Today myself and 2 friends ventured over to Kwality to try their offerings. Having only been open 1 week, we wanted to experience this new found jewel in the San Fernando Valley.

Upon entering the restaurant we were pleased with the spaciousness of the place. Off to one side was a rather large buffet area. Next to the buffet was several tables and chairs. In the back of the restaurant behind fabric curtains was their booths or “private” dining area.

We were greeted by the Manager, Angelo and promptly seated. Fresh, hot Naan was brought to our table and we were asked for our drink orders. The regular choices of Soda, Tea, Water, etc were offered and also Mango Lassi. We opted for water.

The buffet offered many more choices than we are used to seeing at some of the other local Indian establishments.

Sambhar - Sambar is a vegetable stew or chowder based on a broth made with tamarind and toovar dal, and is very popular in the cooking of southern regions of India especially in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Upma - Upma is a South Indian breakfast dish. It is usually made with refined wheat grains, which Indians generally call suji and is also known in the south of India as rava.

Fried Rice – Self explanatory. White rice fried with vegetables. Different take on the normal Basmati rice.

Chana Masala - Chana masala or chole masala is a popular vegetable dish in Indian cuisine. The main ingredient is chickpeas. It is fairly dry and spicy with a sour citrus note. The dish is found throughout South Asia, and is particularly popular in northern India and Pakistan.

Saag Paneer - Saag is a spinach and mustard leaf based curry dish eaten in India and Pakistan. A common form of saag is saag paneer, which contains a type of cheese known as paneer (can be substituted with firm tofu for a non-dairy version).

Aloo Gobi - Aloo gobi, also spelled as alu gobi, or aloo gobhi, is a dry Indian dish made with potatoes (aloo), cauliflower (gob(h)i) and Indian spices.

Chicken Tikka Masala - Chicken tikka masala is a curry dish of roast chicken chunks (chicken tikka) in a rich red, creamy, lightly spiced, tomato-based sauce.

Paneer Masala – Similar to the Chicken tikka masala except instead of chicken, Paneer or chunks of cheese is substituted.

Aloo Tikki - A north Indian snack made of boiled potatoes and various spices formed into a mini pancake. One of my favorite appetizers.

Samosas - A samosa is a stuffed pastry and a popular snack in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, throughout the Mediterranean Sea (Greece), Southwest Asia, the Horn of Africa and North Africa. It can be stuffed with vegetables, meat or both. Here at Kwality it was stuffed with Spinach and Potato. Very nice flavor and the perfect size for snacking.

Chilli Chicken – This sweet and spicy chicken dish really hits the spot. Very similar to Kung Pao chicken but a little “drier” and without the nuts. The chunks of chicken are about 1 inch by 1 inch. Always have to have seconds of this dish.

Tandoori Chicken - Tandoori Chicken is a roasted Indian chicken delicacy.

Goan Fish Curry - Goan cuisine consists of regional foods popular in Goa, located along India's west coast along the Arabian Sea. Seafood, coconut milk, rice and paste are main components of Goan delicacies. This fish curry has large chunks of moist fish simmered in the curry sauce with the essence of coconut in it. A truly enjoyable bite.

Egg Curry - Similar to the Chicken tikka masala except instead of chicken, sliced hard boiled eggs are used.

Gajar Halwa – Warm shredded carrot dessert made with milk and sugar, often golden raisins are added.

Salad Bar with Fruit and various chutneys and sauces – The typical green salad with various dressing. The fruit was a mix of melons and strawberries. The chutneys and other Indian style sauces were a great accompaniment to the various dishes.

Lentil Soup – A very tasty, thin version of Lentil Soup. Flavor was worth a second cup.

Masala Chai Tea - Masala chai or spiced tea is a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs.

My friend, Nithin was quite pleased to see the Goan Fish Curry. He said that it’s rare to find this dish in Los Angeles. However considering Angelo is from Goa, this will be a common staple of the buffet. I too enjoyed this dish. It will now become one of my new favorites.

Another dish I enjoyed was the Upma. Upma is considered a breakfast food in India. It reminded me very much of our American Cream of Wheat. The Upma was mixed with onion and chiles. My first helping was nice, but after witnessing another patron top their Upma with the Sambhar, I had to do it too. What a change this difference made in the dish. I chuckled to myself that I was making a plate of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy as the Sambhar is similar to a vegetable soup but with a thicker broth.

The Samosas were really nice as well. These were on the small side, which is perfect for Samosas. Stuffed with Spinach and Potato it was a nice change from the normal Potato or Aloo Samosas.

If I had one complaint it would be the lack of desserts. Most restaurants offer 1 dessert choice, while others offer 4, so having only 1 choice was a bit of a downer. But considering the flavors and variety of all the other dishes, my waist line is all the better for not being tempted by dessert.

I would rate Kwality Indian Cuisine 2 ½ Notches. If there were more dessert choices, this would definitely be a 3 Notch meal.

I highly recommend you add Kwality Indian Cuisine to your list of places to visit. Their website is Kwality Indian Cuisine

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

Pata de Res and the Notch Rating System

Today was another adventure back to Tacos Y Cemitas, the wonderful Mexican restaurant in Canoga Park. My friend Kevin went along today.

Kevin opted for the Huevos Rancheros and said they were “Top Notch”. In fact he rated them “2 notches”. We’ll discuss The Food Dude’s new rating system a little bit later.

Ofcourse I wanted to try another wonderful Cemitas. This time I was intrigued by the Cemitas de Pata. Pata or Pata de Res is the Foot of a Cow. It is normally pickled.

All I can say, I tried it once and I won’t be trying it again. Pata had a slight vinegar flavor, from the pickling, otherwise it was pretty bland. The texture was like eating the knuckle of a chicken bone. You know? When your eating a chicken leg and you get that little piece of grizzly knuckle in your mouth? The texture really turned me off.

I have ate some pretty adventurous food in my life, but somehow I just couldn’t get over the texture of Pata. I ate my whole cemitas, except for the few bites of Pata that spilled out, those I left on my plate.

I would normally rate a Cemitas a “1 Notch” meal, but today I had to rate it “0 Notches”.

So, what is with this “Notch” rating system? Well my friend Kevin suggested this to me and I love it. Many times, after a great meal, one feels like they need to let a notch out of their belt, just to breathe. Sometimes if the meal is really great, we may need to let out 2 or 3 notches. Thus the concept of the “Notch Rating System”.

1 Notch – Good Meal
2 Notches – Darn Good Meal
3 Notches – A Feast for a King

What about 0 Notches? Well a Zero Notch Meal is one that we only “rent” we didn’t “buy”. (I’ll let you figure this one out).

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

New Twitter Name

My twitter account has changed. It is now www.twitter.com/TheFoodDude instead of The_Food_Dude.

TheFoodDude was taken when I originally signed up, but the account has been inactive for over 6 months, so I emailed Twitter Support and they took it away from the other person and gave it to me.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Chicken Adobo

When I first started blogging 3 years ago, I had a different site. Here is a post from that site. I no longer use that site, but wanted this here....Enjoy.
















Today at work my co-worker/friend Johnny and I were talking about a delicious Filipino dish called Chicken Adobo. For those of you not familiar with this dish it is a preparation style used to marinate and cook Chicken, Beef, Pork, Seafood, really any type of meat you choose.

The sauce or marinade if you will is basically a garlic-soy-vinegar style marinade. I Googled the word “Chicken Adobo” and found several sites that had recipes. The one I chose was http://www.virtualcities.com/ons/hi/gov/higov80.htm The reason I chose those site mainly was because the Governor of Hawaii, The Honorable Benjamin J. Cayetano endorses this recipe. Additionally, the other recipes I saw seemed to call for only a tablespoon or two of Soy Sauce and from talking to my buddy Johnny and from my readings online Adobo sauce is a Vinegar/Soy combination, and this recipe seemed to do ½ and ½ of each.

For those of you that don’t want to click on the link, the recipe follows (with some modifications that I obtained from Johnny): I will indicate the modifications I made afterwards.

3 pounds chicken thighs, cut into serving pieces
½ cup white vinegar
½ cup soy sauce
¼ teaspoon peppercorns, crushed
1 teaspoon brown sugar
5 garlic cloves, crushed
3 bay leaves
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in a pan, cover, and allow to marinate one to three hours. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan and allow to simmer for an additional 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the chicken is lightly brown. Serve with white rice.
Serves: 4 to 6

I made the following modifications to the recipe:

First, I didn’t marinate for one to three hours. Although this is highly suggested, I didn’t have the time when I got home tonight and the dish seemed to turn out just fine. Next time I may try this step.

Johnny suggested onion is delicious in Adobo, so I added 1 brown onion; ¼ of the onion was diced for a frying step I will describe later and the other ¾ was sliced into thin pieces to add to the cooking chicken. Basically cut the ¾ onion in half and make half moon slices.

I purchased Leg/Thigh quarters and separated the legs from the thighs. I ended up with 8 pieces (4 legs, 4 thighs) From my experience of eating Adobo in the past, I enjoyed the drum legs, so I thought why not use them also. As for cutting the pieces into serving pieces I omitted this step. The first thigh I tried cutting in half with my cleaver resulted in the chicken bone shattering and I spent the next several minutes picking shattered chicken bone from the thigh. I realized that hey, there is a reason you don’t give chicken bones to dogs, so if it’s not good enough for my dog, it’s not good enough for me to try. I left the rest of the pieces intact.

I used 1 cup each of white vinegar and soy sauce. Knowing the recipe needs enough moisture to not only cook the chicken but boil down afterwards for a sauce, I decided that 1 cup total liquid wasn’t going to cut it, so I doubled the liquid. This actually worked out nicely and left me plenty of sauce to enjoy.

I added a step of frying the chicken first before adding the marinade. This gave the chicken brownness to it. Many of the recipes I found online said to brown the chicken after cooking in the liquid, but I thought this would not only be messy but might dry out the chicken, so I chose to do the step first. In a deep sauté pan add 2 tablespoons Olive Oil, 3 cloves crushed garlic and the ¼ chopped onion. Sauté the chicken on both sites approx 3 minutes per side to brown. You can then set aside on a plate, empty out oil and chicken fat juices from the pan, return chicken and add marinade/sauce and remaining ¾ sliced onion strips.

So, how did this dish come out? DELICIOUS!!!!! My entire family enjoyed this dish, even my 3 year old daughter. I enjoyed this recipe because I was able to cook it all in one pan and it was easy to prepare.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Fab Hot Dog's

If you’ve read a few of my blog entries, you will know I’m a big fan of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (DDD) on the Food Network.

This past Monday’s episode Guy featured a hot dog joint in Reseda, on Tampa/Vanowen called Fab Hot Dog’s.

What caught my eye was the segment started out mentioning that if we are Pink’s Hot Dog fans, then Fab is the place for us.

I love Pink’s, however since I’m not a tourist, I don’t love having to wait 1-2 hours everytime I go to order. Therefore, I just don’t go to Pink’s.

On Wednesday evening, I decided to stop by Fab to see if it was worth the “hype”. BOY WAS IT!!! I wasn’t that hungry so I just ordered their Carolina Slaw Dog, which is a steamed dog, that “snaps” in your mouth topped with Chili, Onion and Cole Slaw. The dog also comes with Mustard, but I’m a firm believe that any hotdog worth it’s weight in chili should ever have mustard on it.

This hotdog was a true delight, and the chili was execeptionally tasty. I had a side of tater tots, and loved their crispy texture. I knew right then, Fab is the place and no more will I have to venture to Hollywood, if I need my hot dog fix.

Today I went back with a buddy from work and had their Cheesy Bacon Dog with Chili Fries. The dog was wrapped with bacon and covered with horseradish mustard and a cheese sauce, all topped with grilled onions.

The dog sat for the 15 minute ride back to work, and when I opened it, tasted as fresh as if I had ate it at the restaurant.





The chili fries were a sufficient amount, covered in chili and the same cheese sauce as my hot dog.

Fortunately for the owners, the coverage on DDD has increased their customers, unfortunately for me the customer, the coverage has made for a bit of a wait. From the time I stood in line, until I had my order was a good 30-35 minutes. Next time, I’ll be sure to arrive at 11:00 a.m. when they open or 1:00 p.m., after the lunch crowd has come and gone.

Fab is 2 for 2 in my book, and I look forward to many more trips to enjoy their delicious dogs.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Tacos Y Cemitas

On a recent episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (DDD) Guy showcased the only restaurant in Chicago which serves a torta style Mexican sandwich known as a cemitas, Cemitas Puebla.

For those not familiar with a cemitas, it’s basically a Mexican style torta sandwich. However this particular style, known as cemitas poblana originated in the City of Puebla, Mexico.

The sandwich, looked soo good, I had to find a place in Los Angeles which sold cemitas. I did a Google search and found 2 restaurants in Los Angeles. However about a week ago, I was driving around Canoga Park, near the intersection of Desoto and Sherman Way and saw a sign, “Tacos y Cemitas”. What? A cemitas joint 1 mile from my house? I have to stop, and so I did and had one of the most unusual but satisfying sandwiches in my life.



What makes a cemitas different from other types of tortas are 4 ingredients.

1. Type of cheese
2. Type of sauce
3. Type of leafy green
4. Type of bun

Generally a torta will use queso fresco which is a firm, yet creamy cheese, sliced into 1/8th inch thick slices and layered on the sandwich. The cemitas uses quesillo which is a Mexican style string cheese. The texture actually reminded me of a piece of packing twine, cut into little pieces. When I first saw the sandwich, I actually thought there was a piece of string in my food. It wasn’t until I picked it up and touched it, did I realize it was the cheese.

Most tortas are served with a salsa roja or salsa verde. Although these options are available for a cemitas, the most popular is the chipotle chile in adobo sauce. The uniqueness of this chile really sets the cemitas apart from other torta style sandwiches.

Lettuce is commonly found on tortas, but the cemitas uses papalo. This is a fresh Mexican herb, bitter in flavor. The leaves are about the size of a quarter. Papalo is often compared to cilantro, but after tasting it, I would say more like watercress. Funny though, when I received my cemitas it was missing the papalo. I went up to the counter and asked about it, and the chef, smirked and laughed, and then took my sandwich away, and delivered it back to my table with the papalo now on it. I suspect papalo is “optional”, so must be requested when ordering.

Lastly a torta is generally served on a plain bun. Cemitas are served on a sesame seed bun.

This day, I opted for the cemitas milanesa. The sandwich presented to me was very appealing. A sesame seed bun stuffed with a large thin beef milanesa, perfectly fried, with quesillo cheese, avocado, thinly sliced red onion, chipotle chiles and papalo. Some might not like the bitterness of the papalo, but I found it a perfect accompaniment to the cemitas.

Besides offering milanesa style, other cemitas offerings were queso de puerco or “head-cheese” and pata or “foot” sandwich. This is made with boiled cow feet. Next time I venture over to Tacos Y Cemitas in Canoga Park, I definitely will be ordering a cemitas again. The question becomes will it be queso de puerco or pata?

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude