And that's because my brain is currently being suffocated with crochet patterns and movies on satellite. I'm so close to being done with my mother in law's afghan I can taste it...which means I just move onto another pattern and then another until come January 1st I prolly won't want to hold a crochet hook again for at LEAST a month!
oh! We did try out a new Mexican restaurant in Redford last night before we went to see Ava. It's called Cinco de Mayo on 5 mile just east of Beech Daly. They just opened last week (or maybe 2 weeks ago...I'm not sure). Anyway, a friend said she went for the lunch buffet and the menu had stuff she didn't recognize on it, including menudo (the soup, not the boy band). This made me very excited with the possibility that they would have barbacoa and other Mexican delicacies you can't get in the more "americanized" Mexican places.
So we walked in last night all excited. I already knew I was gonna order the menudo. It's my test of how good a Mexican restaurant actually is. If a place can make that good, they can make anything.
For the uninitiated, Menudo is a soup made with beef tripe (tripas), chili peppers, garlic and hominy. Beef tripe is the lining on a cow's stomach. You must boil the tripas for at least a couple hours in order to cook them and remove any impurities (Kinda like chitlins). You then take it and put it in a pot along with the peppers, spices and hominy and cook for another hour or so. It is served with diced onions, mexican oregano and lime wedges on the side which allows you to garnish as you please. I personally like alot of onions and lime juice and just a smattering of the oregano. It's considered a hangover cure and is most often served at restaurants on Sundays. Some of my fondest memories are of going with my family to a bar in Delrey called "Soria's" and having Soria's homemade menudo each Sunday after church.
So in we walk and have the nicest server. He brought us drinks (i had coke, Kevin had non alcoholic Sangria. The Sangria was YUM!) and chips and salsa while we looked over the menu. I was a tad disappointed that the "caliente" salsa wasn't caliente at all ... but then I have a less tender palate than the normal Redford customer. It had a nice taste tho. and the tiniest hint of heat at the end.
In looking over the menu, it was pretty basic. They had a couple of ceviches as well as botanas. A Botana is kinda like nachos but a thousand times better. There used to be a mexican place on Northline (next to where Subi's is now) that had the best botanas. I haven't had one in years. Everything was listed in spanish but explained in english underneath (i.e. "tostadas de camarrones" ... a deep fried tortilla covered with sauteed shirmp, lettuce and tomatoes) which explains why my friend didn't recognize things on the menu. They did have a yummy dessert called "arroz com leche" which is basically a rice pudding with raisins. It is yummy goodness belueve me. Next time we go there I'm ordering a backwards dinner and having dessert first.
we ordered the Queso Fundido as an appetizer, which was melty muenster cheese covered with fried chorizo and sliced poblano peppers and served with tortilla. Kinda a mexican version on saganaki without the tableside fire. It was delicious.
I also tasted their mole sauce. Mole is a sauce made with mexican chocolate and chili peppers. Usually served on chicken. I've never had mole and figured it was a safe time to try it. It wasn't bad. I think I could handle it. Normally I don't like sweet with my savory (i.e. cherries on chicken salad) but I like peanut butter chicken, so I'm willing to someday give it a shot.
In the end I got the menudo like I planned and Kevin got the enchiladas mexicanas with shredded beef. When the giant bowl of menudo finally got to our table I was so excited. And when I tasted it I was in heaven! The only complaint I had was they didn't put hominy in it and I love hominy, but there was so much tripe in there i didn't miss it for long. It was so spicy! And the meat in it was cooked to perfection. It wasn't chewy or rubbery (which some places have a tendency to do). I kept sending my compliments to the kitchen it was so good. Kevin liked his enchiladas too.
In the end I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new mexican place to try. Get adventurous. Try the menudo. Or at least a botana and some chicken mole. Next time we go that's what we're having, and some margaritas or perhaps a bottle of my favorite mexican beer, Carta Blanca, to wash it all down with.
