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MEXICO – Beautiful and Delicious – Part 1

8 Sep

A few weeks ago I had to visit Guadalajara on business.  It had been over 15 years since I had last set foot on Mexico.  Having said that, I was not yet a vegetarian at the time, so I was a bit preoccupied with my meal choices once I would arrive…

Guadalajara 1

I ate sooooooo wonderfully and deliciously there… I am telling you I was left wanting more.   Many of the typical dishes in Mexico are very vegetable-centric, but in their typical preparation, they use lard and stuff that we need to be aware and try to avoid as much as we can.  And, in the event that we place something in our mouths that have been ages since we last tasted it… don’t fret about it.  Just try to get it out of your mouth or swallow it…. What the heck!!!  That’s what fasting and detoxifying diets are here for. 

Let’s start by my afternoon in Tlaquepaque, a section of Guadalajara dedicated to crafts from the region…  I met in a tour bus my friend Ana, from Puebla.  She was spending a few days in Guadalajara with her friends too.  Because she’s a local, when we got hungry, she directed me to the “kioskos” in the Tlaquepaque Plaza de Mercado.  There, you can find many stands serving very typical food, as eaten by the locals.  This is as far of a tourist-trap as you can get…

Ana and me - mexico

We ate at El Almuerzo Feliz and ordered the Chiles Rellenos with Cotija Cheese.  It comes with a sauce that had chicken broth, so I ordered it dry.  I ate it with a tomato salad and freshly made tortillas. The woman there was making tortillas right on front of us.  She never stopped, while we were there, making tortillas not even for a second.   She was amazing.   I asked, and the tortillas were made with vegetable shortening…  They sure did not taste like lard, or what I remember lard used to taste like.  The chile poblano was delicious…  and not spicy at all.  This is when I started learning that my heat/spiciness threshold is much wider than before.

Kiosko     Masa Tortillas     Tortillera    Tortillera 2      Chile Relleno 1

After wards, we took a stroll thru the plaza.  It was so colorful… the red tomatoes, the beautiful tomatillos, the pitahayas…  and the “tunas” .  This is the fruit of the cactus plant.  Certainly a fruit I have heard of, but never ever tasted before.  It is super sweet with kind of big seeds inside, similar to a guava.  Just ignore the seeds, chew the fruit a bit and swallow.  They’re eaten best super cold from the fridge, I was told…  these are sold all over town in fruit stands by the road side.  I was lucky enough to buy them a few times to enjoy.

Jitomates    Betabel

 Tunas     Tuna 2

Then we were on to the Mexican candy store… funny that I was visiting Guadalajara for a confectioners’ trade show, yet I was buying typical candy at a store outside.   I got to try a few local delicacies, as recommended by my new friend Ana: 

Tienda Dulces 2   Tienda Dulces 1

  • Arrayán– very similar to the tamarind balls I have mentioned to you before, but the seed inside is very little.

Arrayan

  • Amaranto – this is very similar to sesame seed candy, but lighter.  They say it has many health benefits. I must check them out.

Amaranto

  • Guava Paste – it looks like regular guava paste… but this is Mexican guava paste, so it’s not sweet as it is spicy.  Not a lot, but it gets you in the back of the throat when you take that first bite and expect super sweetness and can’t get it immediately.
  • Glorias – a goat’s milk candy… really good.

 Glorias y Pasta de Guayaba

This is It for now… I’ll keep you posted on my Mexican eating adventures soon enough…

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Galician Empanada

9 Jul

During my trip to Spain, Walter and I visited the north of Spain – San Sebastián, Bilbao, Santander – mostly part of Basque Country.  I was a little apprehensive at first because even though I have always heard it is super beautiful, the Basque Country does not have the best reputation of safety. 

I am here to attest that I never, ever felt unsafe while traveling in the Basque Country of Spain. The coast of the Cantabric Sea is beautiful and is something that needs to be enjoyed and visited by all.  We wish we had more time to stay and visit with even more leisure than we actually did.

San Sebastian 2      Santander Bilbao

One of the fascinating things about this region is it’s in the path of the Camino de Santiago – the Saint James Trail.  The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage made by the followers and believers of St. James.  People walk from Roncesvalles in Navarra to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia to visit and honor the remains of the Apostle St. James, buried at the Cathedral.  People take about 1 month to walk the whole trail, about 800kms, staying in posadas or places specially designated for the pilgrims. 

Walter and I were taken by the Camino and its pilgrims.  The scallop shell is the symbol of the Camino and you can see tiles marking the way in many of the cities we visited.  Partly because of the religious significance and partly because the adventure and our love for Spain and travel, Walter and I decided we would definitely make the Camino de Santiago, specially on a Holy Compostellan Year , which is whenever July 25 falls on a Sunday.  I just learned this will be NEXT YEAR, in 2010. 

Camino SAntiago 1    Camino SAntiago 2   Camino Santiago 3

On this year, I was told you’re given a “passport” that is stamped at several intervals to testify you’re indeed a pilgrim doing the trail.  When you arrive at the Cathedral in Santiago, you get the final stamp and your country of origin is mentioned during the daily mass at noon to bless and celebrate the pilgrims.  I really want to do that!!!!

And what does this have to do with food, you might be asking yourself?  Isn’t this a blog about vegetarian food???  

When watching my other favorite Spanish cooking and traveling show, Spain on the Road Again with Mario Batali and Gwenyth Paltrow, they mentioned how these Empanadas Gallegas were super popular by the pilgrims because they are very portable, they are very nutritious, they keep well without refrigeration and best of all delicious.  I just have always seen them in the Spanish panaderías here in Puerto Rico since forever, but have not had one in many years because they’re made mostly with tuna or chorizo…

So in honor of our upcoming trip to the Camino de Santiago, here’s my interpretation of an Empanada Gallega…

 

 Empanada Gallega

 GALICIAN EMPANADA / EMPANADA GALLEGA

1 sheet of puffed pastry, thawed on the counter for 30 minutes or in the fridge overnight
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
About ½ cup of TuNo soy-based product
1 tsp of tomato paste
1 garlic clove, minced
About 3 tbs of white wine or apple cider vinegar
1 tsp of Spanish pimentón
 5-6 Spanish olives stuffed with pimientos – sliced
1 bay leaf
Spanish Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
About 1 tbs of whole wheat breadcrumbs
1 tbs of buttermilk or butter
Some bench flour – whole wheat preferably…

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
  2. In a small skillet over medium heat, add olive oil, onions and garlic.  Sauté for a few minutes until the onions start to soften and become a bit translucent.  Add the bay leaf to season.
  3. Add the crumbled pieces of TuNo and let it cook all together.  TuNo usually comes frozen, but you will not need to defrost it for this application.  Just let it defrost and melt in the pan with the onions. 
  4. Add the tomato paste, pimentón and the vinegar to the pan and let it combine well.  Add the olives and season with salt and pepper.  Let it cook for a few minutes and turn the stove off.  Set it aside to cool off for while you work with the dough.
  5. I cover the baking sheet of my toaster oven using a layer of aluminum foil and then parchment to ease up on the cleaning. 
  6. The puffed pastry usually comes folded in thirds, I don’t even bother to unfold it… dust it with a little bit of whole-wheat flour, cut it into two halves and flatten it out using a rolling pin.  Roll the two halves of puff pastry one a bit larger than the other… Place the larger half onto the baking sheet lined with parchment. 
  7. Add the breadcrumbs to the onion/TuNo mixture and remove the bay leaf.  Transfer the mixture carefully onto the puff pastry leaving about a ½ inch border all the way around.  Try to flatten the mixture a bit to make it an even layer. 
  8. Empanada Gallega - Relleno
  9. Cover the filling with the smaller layer of rolled pastry.  Bring the edges of the puff pastry together folding one onto the other and securing by pinching with the tines of a fork.
  10. Brush the top layer of pastry with the melted butter or buttermilk, whichever you have on hand.  Make 2 slits on the top for the steam to escape.
  11. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and smells delicious.
  12. Take it out of the oven carefully and out of the baking sheet to cool off a bit into a cutting board.

   I just hope we can find a vegetarian version of this empanada like this along the Santiago Trail… what do you think??

 

Empanada Gallega 1

Getting a peak inside the filling…  yum!

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Running of the Bulls in San Fermín- My tribute to Spanish Cooking

6 Jul

Two summers ago I had my second visit to Spain.  My first I was just 17 years old and I spent close to a whole month in Spain traveling with my parents to cities like Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Barcelona, Valencia, Mallorca, Ibiza, Marbella, Torremolinos, Cádiz, Jerez, and Sevilla.  I was in LOVE… in love with Spain.  I may have been a Spaniard in another life and I remember telling my mom I would move to Spain in a heartbeat if given the chance…

I tried to grab that chance “by the horns” in 1992 (no pun intented)  when Puerto Rico was recruiting students to work in the Puerto Rico pavilion at 92 Seville’s World Fair, the first and only to date for the Island.  I wish my French was as good then as it is today… I may have made it.  Still, it took me almost 20 years to return to Spain and it was even more beautiful than before.

I arrived with my friend Walter in Barcelona… much cleaner and nicer than what I remembered.   Barcelona was the start of a 3 week tour around Spain that would take us to Villafranca del Penedés, Zaragoza, Pamplona, San Sebastián, Bilbao, Santander, and Madrid.

cabecera_logo

Our trip coincided with the infamous week-long festival called Los Encierros de San Fermín, which are celebrated in Pamplona every year from the 7th to the 14th of July.    They have become internationally known because of the running of the bulls, where the bulls are lead through the streets of the old part of Pamplona as far as the bullring by runners.   I’ve never liked, condoned or promoted bullfights, as I know what the ultimate fate of the bull is, but attending the Encierros is something else.

guia_encierro_es

The fiestas are celebrated in honor of San Fermín, patron saint of Navarra, although the religious aspect would seem to have taken on a secondary role over the last number of years.   Nowadays, the fiestas are seen as a mass gathering of people from all the corners of the world and where the partying, the fun and the joy of it all are the most outstanding ingredients.

I saw my first Encierro from a balcony… tour companies rent you the apartment balconies along the route of the bulls.   I have to thank my friend Ana Yolanda for this…  You must be at the balcony by 6AM to be ahead of the street crowd, because at 8AM sharp a rocket goes off and the bulls are let out of the stable.  They serve you a very small breakfast to keep your stomach in check until right after the encierro, when we are all let out to roam the street of Pamplona at leisure.

Vacaciones Espana - Julio 2007 443

  Vacaciones Espana - Julio 2007 447

Vacaciones Espana - Julio 2007 475

   zezenburu_g  Vacaciones Espana - Julio 2007 483

This is how some balconies in Pamplona are decorated, with big life-like cutouts of the kukuxumusu bull.

Several things fascinated me about my experience in San Fermín…

  • The history and traditions behind this event
  • The energy of the people running with the bulls and around the city in general , as so many people use it as a rite of passage for important moments in their lives – I met a US father who had run with the bulls in Pamplona right after he finished his tour in Vietnam and that day his son was running too after being released from a tour in Afganinstan…  death wish anyone?
  • The marketing developed by a local company, kukuxumusu, from which you’ll see various artworks throughout this Spanish Delicacies series… – they have these wonderful drawings of bulls and the runners.  They’re the official designers for San Fermín.  They’re original to Pamplona and have the best T-Shirts ever!!!  I have a few of their creations… the one on the left is the one from 2007 and the one on the right is the one from this year…  cute, huh?  What’s cool is that this year’s t-shirt is exactly the view I had from our balcony…

porelbull_g

AC0RLD21930_2_1

Today at noon Spain time (which happened at 6AM for us in Puerto Rico and the US East Coast), the Txupinazo marked the start of the Sanfermines…

guia_txupinazo_es

urmeneta

A big rocket is launched and everyone gathered in front of the Ayuntamiento opens up Cava bottles to celebrate 8 days of festivities.  Therefore we’ll be opening a bottle of the finest non-alcoholic apple cider and commemorate my love for San Fermín with a collection of Spaniard recipes…  all my vegetarian interpretations of Spanish food I love to eat.  Enjoy…

1 de enero, 2 de febrero, 3 de marzo, 4 de abril

5 de mayo, 6 de junio, 7 de julio, SAN FERMIN

A Pamplona hemos de ir…

VIVA SAN FERMIN, GORA SAN FERMIN

Vacaciones Espana - Julio 2007 480

Meeting new friends in the streets of Pamplona

If you would like to join me follow the Encierros LIVE, just tune into www.sanfermin.com all this week at about 1:30AM EDST where a live feed from CUATRO, a Spanish TV station, is aired.  The Encierro starts at 2AM sharp… which is 8AM in Spain.

sftv_m

Tomato Bread / Pan con Tomate

Pan con Tomate

Spanish Tortilla / Tortilla Española

Tortilla Espanola 1

Galician Empanada / Empanada Gallega

Empanada Gallega

Rioja-Style Potatoes / Papas a la Riojana

Papas a la Riojana

Piquillo Peppers Stuffed with Manchego Cheese

Piquillos rellenos de Manchego

Tortilla Sandwich

Bocadillo de Tortilla

Spinach Croquetas

Churros

Green Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette

Ana Yolanda’s Sangría

Brandad-Stuffed Piquillo Peppers

Goat Cheese Tapa

Queso de Cabra Tapa - KFC

Asturian Tomato Salad

Ensalada Tomates Asturiana - KFC

Eating Veggie in NYC… Again

31 Mar

I love NYC for many reasons, among them because you do not need to go to a vegetarian restaurant to find plenty of vegetarian, healthy alternatives to eat.  I mentioned this a bit in a previous post of my last visit to NYC.

I went to NYC to spend the weekend with my friend AnnieMariel.  We wanted to do something exciting so we hopped on a plane to visit “the city that never sleeps”.  AnnieMariel is an almost vegetarian and loves good food just like me… so here’s our recount of where we ate deliciously in NYC last weekend…

CO.

I have read about this place on the internet and then saw the chef, Jim Lahey, the guy behind the no-knead bread, make their Popeye Pizza on the Martha Stewart show recently.  I was staying in the Chelsea area so we had to go and try it.

As an appetizer, we had the Winter Salad with butter lettuce, roasted butternut squash and roasted pumpkin seeds.   I always like to have a salad when eating pizzas so I feel I am not being that bad.

co-salad

As main course, we shared the Margherita and the Popeye… both awesome!!  They both have enough sauce and enough cheese to match the thin crust.   The crust is whole-grain, thin but with some chewiness.  It comes with a few sections burned, but it tastes very authentic.

                    co-pizza-magherita       co-pizza-popeye

The restaurant is super cool… with these communal tables where people seat next to you – great when traveling and in the mood to meet new people.  We met the sommelier at Per Se restaurant and saw Andrew Knowlton from Bon Appétit magazine – super cute in person, by the way.  Our server, who happened to be Puerto Rican, told us Martha Stewart always seats in the seat next to me every time she has visited Co.

foodist_highlight2

 BAR JAMON

I mentioned we met the sommelier at Per Se, so he invited us to Bar Jamón after a night of music at the Fleetwood Mac concert.  (Thanks Chris for the wonderful tickets…)  Bar Jamón is the Spanish tapas place by Mario Batali.  It’s a super small place, but great for a late night snack with friends.  It’s very dark so that’s why I do not have any pictures of what we had…

We had Pan con Tomate and a selection of cheeses with their condiments – Garrotxa with Tomato Jam, Valdeon with Figs, and La Serena with Oranges.  That was enough for a late night snack, but I wanted to try out a few other options – like their Coach Farm cheese-filled Piquillo peppers, Beets with Valdeon cheese and their Cauliflower with Salsa Verde.

 LE PAIN QUOTIDIEN

AnnieMariel recommended this place for breakfast.  We did not know this is actually a chain, because it sure does not feel like one.  We had the Cut-Steel Oatmeal made with organic milk, fresh fruit salad and the Five-Grain Tartines with organic butter, their Red Fruit Jam and Brunette Spread.  This Brunette Spread is a nut butter made of pralines – loved it!!!

We wanted to buy the oatmeal, but out of everything we had for breakfast, that’s the only thing they do not sell separately to make at home.  What a shame… but I will definitely come back and look for every time I travel.

 ALLEGRETTI

We went to Allegretti by invitation of a very good friend and our host for the weekend, Chris. He’s relatively new to the city, moving there from Philly.  So far, this is one of his favorite restaurants and knowing the passion AnnieMariel and I have for anything French, he invited us here.  Allegretti is a Provencal restaurant, just like its chef/owner Alain Allegretti.

The menu is not very inviting to vegetarians at first look, but after mentioning I was vegetarian, they immediately offered suggestions.  I had the Casolette of Provencal Vegetables with black truffles, extra virgin olive oil and maldon sea salt.  I had it with a side of the Olive-oil crushed potatoes.  The combination was awesome, super delicious.

And just like in the clip in this link, Alain, the chef/owner came over to talk to us and many of his other guests that night.  We had a chance to speak to him in French and some Italian too.  He was very gracious when we congratulated him on the meal.  And he’s very easy on the eyes too…  I must say.

 

LE BERNADIN

Le Bernadin is one of the premier fine-dining restaurants in NYC.  It’s famous for its seafood menu and celebrity chef, Eric Ripert.  We wanted to dine at Per Se because we were told by our new friend James the sommelier that it has a true vegetarian tasting menu, but unfortunately, we were not able to get a table, even with our newfound connections… 

Le Bernadin, just like a lot of these expensive, fancy restaurants has either a Tasting Menu or a Prix Fixe Menu, the latter being that you pay a fixed price to choose from a selection of dishes in four different courses.  I loved the fact they have a vegetarian option in each of the courses.  We requested a French-speaking server, and we got to order in French, but we would have rather had a French-native as a server.

Again, I do not have pictures because the restaurant lighting was dim.  The place is so fancy, I did not felt comfortable shooting pictures with flash, plus they never come out pretty. 

From the Almost Raw section I had the Mesclun Salad with Shallot Vinaigrette.  From the Almost Cooked section I had the Cauliflower “Couscous” with a Warm Salad of Seasonal Vegetables and Argon Oil Vinaigrette.  And from the Upon Request section I had the Buffalo Mozzarella Pasta with Wild Mushroom consommé and Parmesan Emulsion.  They were like little purses of cheese with a great mushroom broth.  I really wanted some more…  For dessert, I had the blood orange sorbet and a mint tea leaves au naturel infusion.  They brought it in a French press so you can see it’s really only mint leaves in hot water.  Their raw sugar was awesome.

 eric_ripert1

Even though I prefer to eat in vegetarian places, it’s also nice to know that chefs and restaurants in a city like NYC are open enough to recognize that vegetarians are legitimate customers and they should be accommodated as much as our meat-eating counterparts. 

This was certainly a very exciting and delicious weekend…  we’ll see where we end up flying and eating next.

Greek Food – Great Vegetarian Alternative

11 Mar

I recently went to Houston for a business trip.  I asked my sister and brother-in-law for a few restaurant recommendations in Houston, because they lived nearby for about 5 years.  One of their recos was for a Greek restaurant called Niko Nikos…

Niko Nikos is a very casual restaurant in the Montrose area of Houston.  Nice, quaint area filled with lots of restaurants.  It’s definitely not the place to take any business associates, but if you’re looking for good food without the fuss, this is your place.  You order and pay in advance at a counter, they give you one of those buzzer things that buzz when your order is ready.  You get up from your table, go pick it up at another counter and then you eat it… you take your beverage from the soda machine or a cooler they have to the side…  plastic cutlery and disposable plates.  Nothing fancy here.

I ordered a falafel sandwich on pita bread and an eggplant dip called melizano salata.  Both choices were pretty good.  I liked the melizano salata better than the falafel… they were too “green” for my taste.  So I took the pita, lettuce and tomatoes and placed my eggplant dip inside the pita bread and had a melizano pita sandwich instead. 

niko-nikos

But this brought to mind how appropriate the Greek menu is for a vegetarian diner… they have a lot of great choices and at Niko Nikos they even highlight them on the menu:

  •  
    • Greek Salad – lettuce, tomatoes, onions, olives, feta cheese, vinaigrette
    • Tzatziki – Yogurt, sour cream, garlic & cucumber dip
    • Melizano Salata – Eggplant dip with tomato and onion
    • Hummus w/ Pita – Chickpea, garlic, fresh parsley dip
    • Falafel – Fried chickpea patties served in pita with lettuce, tomato, onion.  Tahini & tzatziki  on the side.
    • Veggie Kebob – Zucchini, squash, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes & tzatziki sauce.  Served with pita.
    • Spinach & Feta Pita – Sautéed spinach with dill, tomato, onion & feta on pita.
    • Spanakopita – Spinach pie in phyllo.
    • Cabbage Rolls – filled with rice
    • Dolmades– Grape leaves filled with rice.
    • Baklava – Flaky fillo filled with ground walnuts & cinnamon, topped with homemade honey sauce.

  

     greek-salad        sponokopita        baklava_main

I hope you have a Greek restaurant nearby and try and tell me all about your favorite Greek favorites.  We have a really nice Greek restaurant in San Juan called Fleria.  I usually order the stuffed vegetables or some stewed potatoes dish that is just heavenly.

I hope to be able to visit Greece soon and be able to taste all these delicacies first hand…  how about that!!! Opa!!!

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