Year: 2007 (Page 1 of 11)

Belizean Rice and Beans

December 30, 2007 / marga / 6 Comments

I got the following message today in response to my failed attempt at cooking Belizean rice and beans. I thought I’d share it with all of you who want to know how to do it right. Thanks Dorla!
—————————————————————————————————————————————-

I saw your recipe for the above dish from Belize. I wanted to share my
mother’s recipe with you, and see if you like this one better. The idea is
to make the rice somewhat fluffy, but not sticky, so after you add the rice
to the beans, as shown in step 5, stir (only once), after 30 mins the rice
will need to fluffed with a fork, and at that time, you will know the
consistency, and if a little water is needed, you sprinkle a little around
the edge of the pot and in the center, but I have made this recipe a
thousand times, and did not need any water. I also use long grain rice, and
it comes out perfect every time.

Ingredients

1 lb. Red Kidney Beans 2 plugs Garlic (crushed)
1 tsp. Salt 1 cup coconut Milk (either squeezed from grated coconut or bought prepared, canned, or made from powered variety)
½ tsp. Black pepper
½ tsp. Thyme 2 lbs. cleaned Rice
1 medium Onion (sliced) 6-8 cups of water
(optional) 1 small pigtail or salt beef or pieces of bacon

Method

1. Wash the beans, then soak beans for 4 hours, using the 6-8 cups of water.
If you are using distilled water, then soaked beans only needs 2 hours to
soften.

2. Boil beans until tender, with the garlic, onion and pig’s tail/or salted
beef or bacon pieces. Note: pre-wash the pigtail or salt beef and cut off
excess fat. You can use a pressure cooker to cut down on the time.

3. Season beans with black pepper, thyme and salt. Note: You may opt not to
add the salt if you used salt beef or pigtail above.

4. Add coconut milk. Stir and then let boil.

5. Add rice to seasoned beans. Stir, then cover. Cook on low heat until the
water is absorbed and rice is tender. If necessary, add more water gradually
until rice is tender. Note: Usually, one cup of rice absorbs two cups of
water, although rice grains can vary in the amount of water they absorb. To
warm up leftover rice-and-beans, you can sprinkle with water to re-moisten.

Belizean Recipes

Mae’s Soul Food

December 28, 2007 / marga / 0 Comments

2013 Update

Mae’s closed down. A Chinese fast food place has opened at the Dutton & Bancroft space.

May 2011 Update

Mae’s has now moved to the corner of Dutton & Bancroft. I hadn’t gone back to eat there because it’s open between 1 – 8 PM, too late for lunch, too early for dinner. But I’ll try it sometime.

—

Dec. 2007 Review

Mae’s Soul Food is the newest venture to open on Victoria Court in San Leandro – at the space occupied until a couple of months ago by Joplin’s. Indeed, it was to Joplin’s where we were headed today, for a burger, when we noticed that the sign with that name was no longer in front of the business. A new owner and a new menu greeted us inside, and always the adventurers we decided to give it a try. But for the fact that we got stuffed, it was not a bad call.

Mae’s Soul Food specializes in fried food, their menu, indeed, is pretty short and basically includes fried fish, fried shrimp, fried chicken and fried pork, available in various combinations with or without gravy. There are also a plethora of side dishes, from candied yams to red beans and rice. There are also po boy sandwiches, made with, you guessed it, fried meats. Don’t come here if you are watching your weight. Prices go from $7 for a 3 pieces of fried chicken to $17.50 for a seafood combo platter with shrimp.
I had the 3-pieces of chicken platter with french fries. The three chicken drumsticks were large and meaty, they were very nicely breaded and seasoned, and they tasted fresh and crisp. They also managed to not be oily. If I wanted fried chicken, I’d definitely come here. The fries were less successful, they were very thick and long, soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. Not my favorite type.

Mike had the chicken po boy sandwich, which was also enormous, and he liked it though he’d preferred less bones on his chicken. He also liked the crispy romaine lettuce in the accompanying salad. Mae, the proprietor, is proud on not skimping in either quantity or quality, and the results show.

Service, at the hands of her son, was good – but, as we were warned, it takes quite a lot of time to get the food to the table. It’s made to order and it takes time for chicken to fry. Don’t come here if you are in a hurry.

Atmosphere wise, the place is not very different from what it was Joplin’s – there are still some Joplin posters around. They have, however, decorated with a nice array of beautiful wooden African masks.

My final warning is that they still don’t have heat in the restaurant, so if you are coming here bring your jacket.

I should mention this is not the Mae’s first venture as a restauranteur. Her restaurant was previously open in a high-crime section of Oakland, Mae decided to move to make it safer for her customers to eat at her restaurant.

Mae’s Soul Food
585 Victoria Court
San Leandro, CA
510-382-9200

San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Matterhorn

December 27, 2007 / marga / 0 Comments

A few weeks ago I went back to Matterhorn with my friends Eddie, Parker and Katrina. It was our last girls’ night out, as Katrina was moving to Mexico for a stint and Eddie is moving away for good. I can’t tell you how sad I am. But that night was happy, and we had great food and conversation.

We ordered two fondues, a cheese one (the Highlander – with cheddar and gruyere) and a meat one (I think it was the fondue bacchus), and extra sides such as shrimp, sausages and apples. The fondues were great, but I wouldn’t recommend the sausages for the cheese one, their flavor was just too strong. The meats are high quality and come with a wide variety of sauces, I particularly liked a curry flavored one. There was a lot of food, and we ate an incredible amount.

They only have one choice of chocolate fondue for dessert, but it was very good as well, though perhaps a little too runny for my taste. I like the ones I make at home better.

The only sour note of the evening was the service. The waiter/waitress was MIA all evening.
Still, if I was in the mood for fondue, I’d go back.

Original Review

Xmas presents

December 26, 2007 / marga / 0 Comments

Most of what I asked for in my Christmas list was cooking stuff, so it’s no wonder that lots of my presents (from both DH and my mom) was kitchen stuff.
Mike got me a Wüstholf Classic Ikon 6′ cook’s knife. It’s small because he didn’t trust me with something bigger. I can also tell you it’s very sharp – I cut my finger just trying to get it out of the box. I’m now deadly afraid of it. And I need a sheath! I don’t know where Mike thought I’d store it!
He also got me a 250w Kitchen Aid mixer. I saw it as a deal in Amazon.com (it was $110, I think) and he said to go and buy it. I still have it unwrapped it as I know what it is, and I would prefer to clean the kitchen and figure out where I’m going to put it first. Meanwhile it looks nice as a present 🙂
My mother got me a Nonstick Aluminum 5Q Tools of the Trade “Chef’s Pan”. It sort of looks like a paella pan, but with a long handle. I’m not big in nonstick or aluminum. Well, I’m not big on cheap pans in general, but I guess I should find some use for it. Not sure for what, given that it’s not too different from a pan I already have and love – but we’ll see.
She also got me a cheapy nonstick aluminum skillet. That should be more useful, though what I really wanted was a good quality frying pan. But my mother believes one shouldn’t buy good quality pans because their bottom will turn dark anyway, so it’s better to buy cheap ones and then replace them. I don’t agree, but you can’t look at a gift horse in the mouth.
I’ve been looking for a spice mill, and she said she couldn’t find one so she bought me a salt and pepper set instead. And she got me a huge bottle of black pepper. I can’t imagine I’ll ever run out of pepper in this life time – specially considering that the children don’t like spicy food. But I think my mother may have been confused when she bought it and thought the flimsy plastic container of pepper was actually a pepper mill.
She did better with a very nice set of mixing tools from Kitchen Aid. There is a heavy plastic bowl, a whisk, measuring cups and spoons, and a spatula. I did need a spatula, and a mixing bowl is useful (though what I wanted was a set of larger mixing bowls with lids) – but I got set of whisks last year and THREE sets of measuring cups/spoons. Now I have four.
On the plus side, she did get me a tureen before Xmas, which I really wanted and was really useful for serving soup at Xmas dinner.
So that was it for this year, next I think I’m asking /Mike/ for a good quality blender 🙂

Sizzler

December 3, 2007 / marga / 0 Comments

UPDATE: THIS RESTAURANT HAS CLOSED

Yes, Sizzler. Mike wasn’t happy about it, but I’d seen it there, on the corner of Davis and East 14th, for years now, and I thought that sometime I should review it. And why not? Yeah, it’s a lowly chain, but once upon a time that lowly chain represented the epithomy of culinary achievement to me. Growing up, or at least during that period that constituted my growing up in America, we were poor. Our idea of a fine meal out – on those rare occasions when we had one – was Bob’s Big Boy (and really, their double cheeseburgers rocked). Sizzler was a couple of steps up from that, a place where we’d go in the most special of special occasions, and in particular if my aunt Gladys was paying. And indeed, I think I had my graduation dinner at Sizzler’s.

But times have changed, at least for me. And like it or not we look down at Sizzler’s. I haven’t had their food in many years, so it may be unfair, but we didn’t recall it as being particularly good. Our visit a few days ago, didn’t really improve our opinion.

Mike had their cheeseburger, which he couldn’t have made to order. It was well done instead – I guess they don’t trust their meat. In any case, it wasn’t dry. Still, he prefers the much cheaper burgers from Nation’s instead.
I ordered the ribs. Yes, I know, Sizzler is a “steakhouse” and I should have ordered the steak, but they just didn’t look good in the pictures. The ribs weren’t bad. The BBQ sauce was generic, the type of stuff you get from a bottle, but the ribs were tender and meaty enough. Of course, they couldn’t compete with those from Chili’s.

The kids had the equivalent to the chicken nuggets, and I thought they were pretty good for chicken nuggets. They didn’t taste frozen.
The fries that came with our meals were sort of wimpy. The cheesy toast was very good, however.

The really low point of the evening was the service. I wanted a refill on my drink, and not only the waiter never came to ask me if I wanted one, but he was nowhere to be found.

In all, it was an OK but not special experience, and I don’t see why I’d go back.

Sizzler
201 Davis St
San Leandro, CA
(510) 483-0110
http://www.sizzler.com/

Marga’s San Leandro Restaurant Reviews

Chain Restaurant Reviews

El Novillo

November 28, 2007 / marga / 0 Comments

El Novillo is only a few yards from my house but it’d been years since I had eaten there. I remembered the food not being particularly good and expensive in comparison to our staple, Los Pericos. Plus, I don’t like the fact that the place sells and advertises beer right in front of our elementary school. Still, today I was starving and I had practically no food at home, so I decided to give it a try again. Bad choice.
I had a burrito with sour cream and cheese, but without rice and beans (about $6). It just wasn’t very good. The meat didn’t have much flavor and was overwhelmed by the cheese. It also came with no salsa or anything beyond meat, sour cream and cheese, so it was on the dry side and pretty boring to eat. It was average size and I think still overpriced. I can get something much better at Los Pericos for less.
I ordered a cheese quesadilla for the kids ($3.50, I think), and it was just a plain tortilla filled with cheese. Nothing exciting there. The kids sort of ate it, but they are finicky.
On the plus side, their chips are quite good. Still, you won’t see me going back any time soon.

2005 Tierra Salvaje Carménère

November 18, 2007 / marga / 2 Comments

I have nothing to say about this Chilean TJ wine, as I didn’t actually drink it. It’s a kosher wine, which I didn’t realize when I bought it, not that it matters to me. In any case, I used this wine to marinate some braised short ribs I’m making today, so I wanted to remember what it was to let you know (and me) how the recipe turned out. I’m now off to throw away the bottle 🙂

Emil Villa’s changes ownership

November 17, 2007 / marga / 4 Comments

There was a sign on the window of Emil Villa’s saying that they are changing ownership. They are being bought by some corporation whose name I can’t recall. Stay tune for possible changes in the quality of their product.

Palomares Cafe

November 17, 2007 / marga / 0 Comments

Last weekend we went to brunch with Regina and Boris to the Palomares Cafe in Castro Valley. We’d been there once before, in our pre-kid stage, but I had no memory whatsoever of the place. These lapses of memories have become very frequent in my post-kid stage.
Palomares Cafe is a pretty nice place. It’s located in a strip mall, but it clearly has higher ambitions. It’s nicely decorated and open to an outside patio with seating, which I’m sure would be pleasant in a warmer day. As it was, the open door made it be a little chilly, but as the patio provided a place for the kids to play after they were done with their meal, we weren’t complaining.
The brunch menu is pretty extensive both its egg and non-egg offerings. They serve coffeehouse quality coffee drinks and real maple syrup. Offerings are generous without being outrageous. And what’s more important, the food is actually good and not overly expensive.
I had the sweet cheese crepe with raspberry sauce ($7), and very much enjoyed it. The dish was not overwhelmingly sweet, often a problem. I accompanied it with a mocha, which I also liked.
Mike had the chorizo omelet ($9) and was pleased both with the taste and size of it. Regina and Boris also liked their scramblers, though I don’t recall what they got (I want to say that Regina got the Neapolitan one). The kids shared a short stack of pancakes ($5) which consisted of two plate-size pancakes served with honey pecan butter and maple syrup. They were delicious – a bit on the dense side, with a very nice homemade taste – none of the bitter aftertaste that comes from using a mix. Indeed, almost everything at Palomares is home made.
Service was very friendly and efficient, which would make sense as we were one of three parties in the whole restaurant (and the place is pretty big). I don’t know why more people don’t go there, as so far I’d say it’s the best place for brunch in the area. I’ll definitely go again. And who knows? Maybe someday I’ll try it for dinner.
Palomares Cafe
580 Market Place
3779 E. Castro Valley Boulevard
Castro Valley, CA
510-733-5852
www.palomarescafe.com
(More info on restaurants at my restaurant review page)

La cocina de Raquel

November 16, 2007 / marga / 1 Comment

Let me start by saying two things. First, I really, really, really want whichever restaurants settles in the old Casa María space to succeed. We need more restaurants in San Leandro. That site is on walking distance from my home. It’d be great to have a restaurant there we like. Second, I don’t like Salvadorean food. I don’t dislike it altogether, but I find it boring and unexciting. So I was apprehensive last evening when we went to La Cocina de Raquel, but I was also hopeful. I thought, perhaps La Cocina could convert me. Alas, it did not.
La Cocina de Raquel hasn’t changed its decor since its andy & joe’s incarnation. That’s not a problem, as Andy and Joe had done a good job decorating the restaurant. The murals of a Mediterranean villa do not necessarily go with Salvadorean and Mexican food, but they make the place look cozier. That’s needed because the restaurant consists of one big square room with flat office-like ceilings.
La Cocina de Raquel features both Salvadorean and Mexican specialties – something not uncommon for Salvadorean restaurants. There are plenty of places in San Leandro where to get Mexican food, so we wanted to try the Salvadorean dishes. Our general impression was that the food was merely OK and somewhat overpriced.
We sat ourselves and the waitress promptly took our drink order and brought tortilla chips and salsa. The chips were pretty good, thin and not too oily. They had a subtle corn flavor and they could have used more salt. The salsa was very watery and tasted mostly of roasted chilis. Drinks available include American ($1.50) and Mexican ($2.50) sodas. They don’t have juices or milk, though the kids shared an apple soda they liked.
I started my meal with a cheese pupusa ($2). I had meant to order a cheese and chicken pupusa (also $2), but I got confused and ordered it with cheese alone. As it was, it was quite boring. It was full of stringy cheese, but the cheese didn’t have any flavor. I would not order it again, though I might try a chicken pupusa.
I also ordered the Bistec Salvadoreño ($11.50). The top sirloin steak came in a humongous plate with large portions of refried beans, rice and an iceberg lettuce salad. The steak was pretty much what I expected: thin, somewhat tough and overcooked. It was completely covered in a tomato/onion/green bell pepper sauce, which tasted homey and very Salvadorean. I’d say that this was a good bistec as far as Salvadorean food goes, but I didn’t really like it. The rice was pretty tasteless but was helped by the sauce. I found the beans to be pretty good as far as refried beans go, but Mike thought they were just OK.
Mike had the Tamal de Pollo ($6.25) and he was disappointed to find that it had both chicken skin and bones. He didn’t find it particularly tasty.
We ordered a cheese quesadilla for the kids, and while it wasn’t great, it was more flavorful than the pupusa. It was unbelievably expensive at $6.50 for two small slices. I would definitely not order it again.
There is only one choice for dessert and that’s the Empanadas, plantain envelopes filled with custard or beans ($5.50 for 2). We had the ones with custard and I thought they were OK, but Mika thought they were really yummy, she ate all of hers and wouldn’t share with her sister. Still, I thought they were very expensive for what they were.
Dinner came to about $41 after tax – a lot of money for what was a mediocre meal. We will not be rushing back BUT, I’d like to remind you once again that we are not fans of Salvadorean food. If you like Salvadorean food, you should certainly go and give them a try.
La Cocina de Raquel
1562 E. 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-357-3305
lacocinaderaquel@att.net