Weblog
a phoodadventure
this is crossposted in my journal as well, but it needed to be here too :)
my cooking class took our tips from the semester and went out to dinner last night at Azuca and here’s the run down
the total bill (for food only – we each paid our own drink tab) was $448.00. so with our tip money, we each had to chip in $12. not bad i say. plus my drink cost me $3.
we each ordered our own thing, but shared and shared alike. so here’s what we had:
Baja Salad
fresh avocado, field greens and black bean salad, with red onions, orange and red wine vinaigrette
Pepita Goat Cheese Salad
pumpkin seed crushed goat cheese and mixed greens, strawberries, topped with some curly-qued beets and a strawberry vinaigrette
(this salad was yummy minus the beets and using the vinaigrette from the baja sald. the strawberry vinaigrette was a little too sweet for me)
Appetizer Samplers on the house
crab cakes, tostones, ceviche, coconut shrimp, and scampi al ajillo
don’t know what the ajillo means, but they were spicy! my favorite are the tostones with garlic mojo (basically fried plantains with a garlic sauce)
I ordered the Camarón Pelao
(6) sautéed large shrimp with garlic and tequila, huitlacoche sauce, wilted spinach, cilantro rice and plaintain sticks
was pretty good considering it was covered in fungus.
Pork Tenderloin
oven roasted bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with mashed sweet yam and tomatillo-cilantro sauce
always good, one of my favorites
Paella Latina
breast of chicken, jalapeño sausage, pork ribs, mucho seafood and vegetables, cooked with fluffy saffron rice
last night the mucho seafood consisted of mussels, whole crawfish, bay scallops, and shrimp.
Parillada Mixta (Mixed Grill)
array of beef, chicken, pork and sausage with chimichurri, grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes
Chilean Sea Bass
thick steak of flaky bass with cherry tomato-garlic stew, mashers and grilled vegetables, topped with malanga straws
Salmon Jibaro
fresh salmon fillet, crusted with thin plaintain with cilantro crab butter, baby carrots, mashers and chayote squash
Chicken Breast Azteca
tortilla crusted breast of chicken, with sautéed gandules and chipotle tomato cream sauce
this was one was kind of bland. but the bite i got was w/o the sauce, so maybe that would have made a difference.
Lamb Latino
imported lamb chops, grilled with spicy corn polenta, sautéed vegetables, beluga lentil ragout and mango-cilantro coulis
then it was dessert time (full?? who’s full!?)
Carmelized Banana Crepes
warmed, candied bananas in thin crepes, drizzled with cajeta-orange sauce and ice cream of your choice
Carribean Coco Cheesecake
creamy cake with coconut shavings, flambéd pineapple with rum and raspberry coulis
Chocolate Lava Cake
warm chocolate cake with pisco-flavored chocolate ganache, over strawberry soup
Flan Cubano
sweet caramel custard with fresh oranges, and cuban rum-marinated currants
Tequila and Raisin Pudding
warm homemade pudding with raisins, pecans, sugared buñuelo drizzled with coconut cream
at the end the chef came out and asked us how everything was and answered any questions we had. he gave away all his secrets, especially on this loose polenta cake he had under the lamb chops.
i definitely had a great time.
