Tacos El Gordo

Three years ago today, we were out in sunny, warm Vegas (at least it was warmer than here). We spent the day at Red Rock Canyon, and then for dinner, headed over to one of our must-stop places in Vegas, Tacos El Gordo, just past the Wynn and Encore on the Strip. We had been there before on our first trip to Vegas together (that's where the daytime photo comes from), but since we never wrote about that visit, we're recapping them both here together.

When we first went to Tacos El Gordo back on our 2012 trip, we didn't know much about them except that they were a branch of a Tijuana taco chain, that the tacos were good, and that we should try the adobada. Adobada is basically pork in a red chile marinade that they cook on a rotating spit. For the tacos, they just shave the meat off the spit and add on some pineapple if you want. In addition to seeing the meat on the spit, much of the other cooking is pretty much out in the open at Tacos El Gordo too, so you can see them cooking all sorts of other meats from their diverse menu, everything ranging from beef brains to pork stomach.

The focus at Tacos El Gordo is obviously tacos, but they also had varieties of fries, as well as quesadillas, sopes, tostadas, and more. They also had a drink machine separate from the regular soda machine that made A very happy because it had horchata along with other aguas frescas.

We were really hungry the first time we went to Tacos El Gordo. We were having a late lunch and we had just walked all the way from the MGM Grand to get tacos, so we ordered a lot. Way more than we should have. We didn't take notes back then so unfortunately I don't remember exactly what tacos we got or every ingredient, but each taco came with a different salsa and toppings (mostly onion and cilantro) based on what type of taco it was. We also remembered to order a plate on the side of the grilled spring onions and peppers which were really tasty.

As for the tacos, I know we got adobada and lengua, and I can see that there was also an azteca (nopal asado) on the tray. I remember there was a taco de sesos (beef brain) because A tried it for the first time on that trip and we have video, but I'm not sure what other tacos made it on the tray. For his first time eating brains, he found them kind of creamy and having an odd mineral-like flavor, but didn't dislike it. It wouldn't have been his first choice for another one, but it wasn't bad.

We liked the adobada taco so much that we got more even though we had just eaten seven tacos between the two of us. The marinated pork was just so good, and the second time, we remembered to get it with the pineapple on top which made it even better. We probably would have gotten another lengua taco also, as we really liked that one too, but we just had so much food at lunch that there wasn't any stomach space. And why did we have no stomach space?

Because, in our hunger and with eyes definitely bigger than our stomachs, we also got an order of adobada fries. To be fair to us, we didn't know that they were going to come in a container that large, but we really should have guessed it since they were $10 (this was 4+ years ago, so no idea what it is now) and at the time, each taco was only around $2. They were basically fries covered in shaved pork, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole in a large styrofoam take-out container. So good, but so much food. We were so stuffed when we left Tacos El Gordo, yet somehow we still rolled ourselves into a Vegas buffet that night since it was our only chance to do so. Maybe not the best planning and maybe not wise, but we did it.

We were a bit more sensible on our second trip to Tacos El Gordo, this time for dinner on this date three years ago. We got seven tacos again - mostly concentrating on adobada, lengua, and chorizo - along with the grilled vegetables, but this time we did not get the fries. It was a much smarter decision. The tacos were just as good as we remembered them, so much flavor, and still so affordable. 

Tacos El Gordo is on our list for any Vegas visit, and we would love to go back again for some more tacos. We're a little upset with ourselves that we forgot that they also have a branch in San Diego and only remembered after we got back home, because we could have gotten some more tasty tacos last fall. There are good taco spots in NY now, more as time goes on, but we still plan to return to Tacos El Gordo on our trips.

Thai Times Three

The biggest hurdle with recapping our 2014 Vegas trip is that we haven't really made any progress (yet) with writing about our 2012 Vegas trip. That doesn't sound like it should be a problem, but we visited some of the same places (like Thai superstar Lotus of Siam) on both trips. It's a little difficult to write about our second visit when we never discussed the first. Complicating that matter even further in this case is that in 2014, we also visited Chada Thai & Wine for dinner. Some of the folks from Chada used to be at Lotus, and we got some dishes at Chada that we had previously gotten at Lotus, and it's tough to compare if we never talked about Lotus in the first place.

So what's the solution? What seemed to make the most sense was to go back a little bit, tell you about our very first visit to Lotus of Siam back in 2012, and then jump back to our 2014 recaps and talk about our visits to Chada for dinner and Lotus for lunch the very next day. Just didn't really make sense to break up all the posts at this point. It's confusing enough as it is. So without further ado, first up, our very first visit to Lotus of Siam!

Lotus of Siam, Part I

On our 2012 trip to Vegas, we stayed at the MGM Grand on the Strip. Although we mostly stuck to restaurants we could walk to, we definitely wanted to check out Lotus of Siam since it was considered one of the best Thai restaurants in the country. We called up for a reservation, knowing how busy they get, and even though it was last minute, we were lucky enough to get one. On the night we went up for dinner, we encountered a super long taxi line at the hotel which caused a bit of stress (we were there during both the rodeo and a Pacquiao fight), but we were lucky and got there just in time.

Once we got there, we were confronted with a gigantic menu. There were so many things that sounded good, but we had done some research in advance and were able to narrow our choices down to 4. One thing on our list that Lotus of Siam was famous for was the nam kao tod, described on the menu as a salad of crispy rice mixed with minced sour pork sausage, green onion (although from the pictures and our memories, it also seems like there was red onion), fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, and lime juice. We liked this a lot, and it ended up on my favorites list for 2012 because it was just so different from anything we had had before and incredibly delicious. I mentioned back then that when I heard rice salad, the first thing I thought of was Jitlada's khao yam, but while this wasn't that, it was still really good. That combination of flavors, full of sour and spice, was just so good.

One thing that wasn't on our researched list, but which sounded interesting on the menu, was kang ka noon (spicy young jackfruit curry). This was a Northern style curry dish and it sounded so different from the Thai curries we had had before, so we wanted to try it. This spicy curry was full of young jackfruit, spices, and catfish (the other choices were pork and chicken). I had never really had much, if any, jackfruit before, and I was curious to see if I would like it. A had eaten it before, just not in curry. They described the texture of the jackfruit on the menu as similar to artichoke hearts, but if I remember correctly, they seemed a little firmer than that. I also don't remember for sure but I think the fish pieces in the curry had bones in them, which made it a little harder to eat (for me). Although this wasn't bad, it was definitely our least favorite dish of the night because everything else was so good.

Another dish we had heard Lotus did well was nam prik ong, a red chili dip. This was a Northern Thai dip that combined ground pork, tomato, and dried spices, and tasted to us like a Thai version of bolognese. The flavors were remarkably similar to spaghetti sauce, and it was utterly bizarre (in a good way) for us to be eating that as a dip with raw vegetables and sticky rice. The small bowl of dip came with raw carrots, green beans, cauliflower, cucumber, and lettuce, as well as some pork rinds, making it very light and healthy overall. This dip made A's favorites list for 2014 when we got it for the second time and it was a strong contender for both of us back in 2012 (but 2012 had all that competition from Barcelona).

The last entree we got for our Thai dinner feast at Lotus was sea bass on drunken noodle which we had heard a lot about. This was deep fried sea bass topped with homemade fresh chili and Thai basil served on top of pan-fried rice noodle. As A put it in his favorites list for 2012, it was like the best drunken noodle we had ever had, multiplied in greatness by 10, with some perfectly fried, lightly battered, flaky sea bass on top. It was really, really good, and at the time, we weren't sure how we'd go back to "regular" drunken noodle at home. (Clearly we managed, as we have had much pad kee mao in the past few years, but we do still think about this dish.) We haven't really found anywhere in New York that makes drunken noodle this way (although there are still many Thai places we have yet to try), and we wish they would. It's such a great combination.

We were so incredibly happy with our dinner at Lotus of Siam, and we decided to cap off the night with some sticky rice with mango for dessert. This was sticky rice marinated in coconut cream topped with toasted mung bean (according to the menu, even though we always just thought they were sesame seeds) served with fresh mango slices. This is a dessert we have gotten plenty of times at home, and probably our favorite Thai dessert, so it was the perfect end to a good meal.

Chada Thai & Wine

When we returned to Vegas in 2014 for another long weekend trip, we knew we wanted to return to Lotus of Siam since our first dinner there was so good. We didn't want to deal with the hassle of making a reservation so we figured we would just go for an early lunch. Instead, we planned to grab our Thai dinner at Chada Thai and Wine, a spot that some Lotus alums had opened in late 2012, and which had become very popular and garnered lots of raves during the period between our Vegas visits. (There's now a sister restaurant to Chada called Chada Street that we've bookmarked because it sounds fantastic.)

While there were some similarities between the menus at Chada and Lotus, there were also so many unique things that we had never tried before and we were so excited to explore. One of these was called miang pou, which was a lettuce wrap with crab meat, ginger, roasted coconut, peanut, chili, lime, onion and sweet tamarind sauce. We love lettuce wrap in all forms (and we make it at home), but we had never had lettuce wrap with these ingredients before. It was a little bit spicy from the small piece of bird's eye chili in each cup, but otherwise it wasn't really spicy. All the ingredients, all the flavors, and that slightly sweet sauce all worked so well when combined, and the sauce helped bring it all together. The crab tasted so fresh and sweet, and the overall flavors of the lettuce wrap were so clean.

Without a doubt, our favorite thing at Chada that night was the spicy herbs spring roll, a soft rice paper wrapper lined with lettuce leaves and filled with ground pork, ginger, onion, lemongrass, wild cilantro, mint, kaffir lime leaf, and basil vinaigrette. This was so good that it made both A's favorites list and my favorites list for 2014. While many of the dishes from these 3 Thai meals were in contention for our favorites lists during both years, this was the only one that actually made both of our lists, which should tell you something about how good it was.

This spring roll was the best thing we had eaten on our trip by that point. Unlike a lot of summer rolls, the filling inside was warm. The flavors were floral and herbal and refreshing and bright. The flavor seemed so familiar, even though we had never really had anything quite like it, but we still haven't been able to figure out why or what dish it reminded us of.  It was somehow simultaneously delicate and intense, light and fresh and comforting. This was just really, really good, and every ingredient worked perfectly together.

By now, you probably know that larb is one of our favorite Thai dishes to eat. This version was ground pork (the options were ground pork, salmon, or king trumpet mushrooms) with rice powder, onion, mint, fish sauce, lime juice, and chili powder, and sides of cucumber and lettuce wedges. We had ordered everything medium spicy that night, and this was definitely the spiciest thing we got at dinner. It was a really tasty version of larb with a sauce that was a little thicker and more fragrant than a lot of other places. We were very happy with this.

Next up was sen mee kang pou, a homemade crab curry served with thin rice noodles. When the dish arrived, the little bundles of rice noodles reminded us of Sri Lankan string hoppers, and they were topped with fried garlic. The crab curry itself was quite good. There was a lot of crab in it, and the crab was so sweet inside the fresh and creamy curry. We had never had crab curry before, and we would definitely get more if it tasted this good.

The last dish we got from Chada was their drunken noodle / pad kee mao (flat rice noodles, bird's eye chili, garlic and basil) with sea bass, which was the same thing we had gotten at our Lotus dinner. We were curious to see how they would compare and which version we would like better. Overall, the noodles and basil were good at both places, but when it came to the fish, we gave the edge to Lotus. The fish at Lotus was deep fried in strips, whereas the Chada version was a whole filet of fish that was broiled, which made the edges a little bit on the drier side. It was still a really good drunken noodle.

Overall, we really liked our meal at Chada and would definitely go back on a future visit to Vegas. It's going to be tough trying to figure out how to eat anything other than Thai food in Vegas at this rate.

Lotus of Siam, Part II

Lotus of Siam had 2 options for lunch when we went back in early 2014. You could either order off the menu, just like you would at dinner, or you could go to their lunch buffet. From what we had heard, the lunch buffet was good, but it wasn't as good as ordering a la carte, where you could really focus in on their specialties instead of the more common stuff at the buffet. Since we already knew we wanted a couple of repeat dishes from our first dinner, we definitely were picking the a la carte option. (Just FYI, according to the Lotus website, they stopped serving the lunch buffet during summer of 2014.)

One easy choice was to get the nam kao tod again. We hadn't been able to find this sour sausage and crispy rice salad anywhere between our 2 Vegas visits, and it was still as good as we remembered.

Another repeat dish was the nam prik ong, which made A's favorites list for 2014. This was also pretty much the same as the first time we got it, or possibly even a little bit better. We still thought it tasted like bolognese the second time around.

We don't remember if sticky rice came with the nam prik ong or if we just got it on the side because we wanted it, but here's a picture of it.

We got 2 new dishes at our Lotus lunch, and one of them was the much talked about garlic prawns. This was described on the menu as "deep fried prawns with shells (almost like potato chips) sauteed with our special garlic sauce topped with ground black pepper." So many people had mentioned these garlic prawns, and they were so good that they made my favorites list for 2014. As I said there, we were expecting some deep fried shrimp, like salt and pepper shrimp, but what we got was so much better. Not only was there a bunch of fried shrimp, but also fried shells, and it was all nice and garlicky. We've had fried shrimp at Chinese restaurants where they are so deep fried that you can eat the entire shrimp - head, tails, everything - but this was different since the shells were off the shrimp but also fried. The thin crispy shells tasted like eating shrimp chips, and the flavor and texture of good, crispy shrimp chips has always made me happy. We would definitely get these again.

The last thing we got at lunch was Thai style spaghetti, described as non-spicy pan fried egg noodles in special sauce with egg, chicken, shrimp and tomatoes. While this was good and we liked it, we found it hard to describe the exact flavoring the day we got it and still can't really pinpoint the specific flavor.

Lotus of Siam and Chada Thai had some of our favorite dishes on both of our Vegas trips, and we definitely want to return whenever we make it back out there. The only problem is that we now have so many "favorite" dishes that we want to get again, which means a limited amount of stomach space to try new things. Maybe we'll just have to go more than once to each.

In-N-Out to the Valley of Fire

We got a bit of a late start on our second full day in Vegas. Our plan was to head out to the Valley of Fire, Nevada's oldest state park full of red sandstone formations, which was located about 50 miles outside of the city. We had quite a few possibilities for lunch options, but since we were already running late, decided to just get something quick. What's the easiest option for fast food when you head out west? In-N-Out, of course.

We've written about In-N-Out before from a previous trip to Los Angeles, so I'm not going to go into tremendous detail here since we got very similar things. We both got cheeseburgers animal style with some extras, as well as some regular fries and animal style fries. It's a fairly typical order for our In-N-Out fix, and it really hits the spot.

It's been a while now since we've had any In-N-Out, and we do miss it. It was perfect for our schedule that day in Vegas, as we fueled up on burgers and fries and then hit the road headed for the park. The Valley of Fire was one of our favorite spots on the entire Vegas trip and we were there during golden hour, which made everything in the park look even more gorgeous. In-N-Out was a great way to kick off the day.

Kinh Do

We're still recovering from this weekend's blizzard here in NYC, which means we're daydreaming about escapes to warmer places, like our Vegas trip from exactly 2 years ago. When we last recapped this trip, we had finished off a tasty Mexican lunch and were on our way to Hoover Dam, where we ended up spending most of the late afternoon, and Lake Mead, where we watched the sun set. It was a pretty great afternoon. After we drove back to Vegas, we stopped by the Silverton Casino to see the aquarium and then started thinking about what to get for dinner. We were kind of in the mood for pho, so we headed over to Kinh Do on Spring Mountain Road (the Chinatown area).

We started off with the nem nuong cuon (2 rolls cut in 2 pieces each), which were described on the menu as "charbroiled pork patty rolls with noodle and vegetables." This intrigued us, as we had never had anything like it before, and it was awesome. The pork patty looked a bit like breakfast sausage when we first saw it, but it didn't taste anything like it. We couldn't identify the spices that were used to season the pork patty, but the flavor was so good. Inside the roll with the pork patty was some vermicelli and lettuce, and the entire roll tasted so fresh.

After we ordered, we noticed that if we checked in on Yelp, we would be able to get free spring rolls (egg rolls on their menu). A was a little hesitant since we had already ordered, but M loves cha gio and really wanted to try them, so we checked in and asked for the special (which they had no problem honoring even though we had already ordered). A normal order of cha gio came with 4 pieces, but we got 2 rolls for checking in. No complaints from us. We just wanted to try them and we were so glad we did.

The rolls came with a plate of lettuce, mint, cucumber, and carrot/radish pickled salad, and we were pretty happy to see that. We love eating cha gio with all those fresh vegetables. It's always sad when you order cha gio at a restaurant and you don't get all the accompaniments.

These spring rolls were so good, and the flavor put these among the best we've had. The outside of the rolls were crisp (without the flakiness of some Chinese egg rolls), and wrapped up with all the vegetables, they were so tasty. We were so glad we took the opportunity to get these.

We both decided on pho for our entree, so they brought out a big plate of bean sprouts, basil, and lime for us to share. It was about the same amount as we've gotten at other pho places and it all looked very fresh.

A got the beef combination pho which contained every cut of beef they offered: rare steak, flank steak, tendon, tripe, and beef balls. The broth was fragrant and rich, but not quite as flavorful or rich as the broth from Tank. The one really good thing about this pho was that it was loaded with meat and onions. It seemed like beef was pouring out of everywhere, and A kept discovering more and more tendon as he dug through. It was a treasure trove of tendon, and A was so happy to partake.

M got the pho ga (chicken pho). The broth here tasted the same as what A got in his beef pho, but she was okay with that since the broth was good. The chicken pieces were generally moist, but a few were a little bit dry. Overall, the flavor of the pho was generally good, not Tank level good, but very fresh and clean tasting.

We were pretty happy with our Kinh Do dinner and the fact that we were able to get a tasty and very affordable meal off the Strip. On our previous Vegas trip (which we were pretty bad at recapping, more on that soon), we ate almost all of our meals on the Strip, with the exception of one Thai dinner at Lotus of Siam. This time we rented a car, which gave us the ability to branch out and try new places like Kinh Do instead of sticking to all the restaurants at hotels on the Strip. That was great, but one bad part about thinking back on this dinner today is that we could really go for some pho right now after a long weekend of snow shoveling, and we can't get any!

Kinh Do is located at 4300 Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas.

Las Cazuelas

Our first meal on our Vegas trip (one year ago today) was at Las Cazuelas, a Mexican restaurant in Henderson. We were going for a bit of a later lunch after trading in our rental car (really didn't want to drive a minivan (our only choice when we arrived) around the whole time) and before driving out to Hoover Dam. Henderson seemed like the perfect stopping point for us to grab some Mexican food.

Las Cazuelas is a small and cozy family-run restaurant - only a few tables indoors but more outside. We ordered at the counter and then they brought the food out to us as it was ready. We loved how informal, friendly and casual it was, and the people running it were so nice. They specialize in food from Puebla. We can get some of that at home, but haven't found most of the things we got at this lunch, so it was wonderful to explore.

The first thing to arrive at our table was complimentary chips and salsa. The salsa was pretty good, and this was a good snack as we waited for them to prepare our other dishes.

We got a bunch of dishes to share, focusing mostly on things that were new to us or that were difficult to find back in NYC. We ordered:

Enchiladas de mole poblano (shredded chicken rolled in corn tortillas, covered with mole poblano and topped with cotija cheese, white onion and roasted sesame seeds):

How could we go to a restaurant specializing in food from Puebla and not get mole poblano? Although this wasn't our favorite mole preparation ever, we enjoyed it and it was really tasty. You could taste the chocolate and cinnamon in the mole, and there was a definite sweetness. Our favorite is still probably the mole we got in Los Angeles, but this was quite good. We really liked the sweet and complex flavors.

Chanclas (sliced roll bread, stuffed with shredded chicken, avocados and onions, and a mild spicy chorizo sauce drizzled over the top):

These were interesting and not at all what we were expecting. We figured they would just be sliders with some sauce on top like the menu said. Instead they were soaking in the chorizo sauce, which made this a very messy dish. We did like the flavor of the sauce though and it was probably the best part of the dish. It tasted tomato-based and we would eat that sauce over pasta or another starch any day. A didn't get a huge amount of chorizo flavor, though.

As for the rest of the sandwich, A found the chicken to be very moist, while the chicken M got was a little bit stringy. The avocado added texture but not much flavor, since the sauce was pretty dominant. This was a really interesting choice and we were glad we tried it.

Pelonas (2 fried rolls with a touch of olive oil, stuffed with shredded beef and refried beans, cream and spicy mild sauce):

We had never had pelonas before but they looked just like sliders and the "dry" counterpart to chanclas. These were good, but not amazing. The sliders tasted buttery from the griddled rolls. The meat was shredded beef, but you couldn't really tell from the flavor. It just tasted like meat. M found the meat to be a little chewy; it probably was supposed to be that texture but that's why she doesn't eat that much shredded beef. The slaw on it was pretty good and the creamy mayo-like sauce was good too.

Frijoles charros (pinto beans stewed with onion, bacon, chili peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, ham, sausage and chorizo), which unexpectedly (in a good way) came as a side dish to the pelonas:

This bean preparation was interesting and something that neither of us had seen in a Mexican restaurant before. It was on the watery side, but very tasty and one of our favorite things that we ate at lunch. You could taste a strong bacon flavor and there were also some hot dog-like sausage pieces mixed in. The beans tasted like they had been stewed for a while with lots of herbs, and they just had so much flavor. This was a really great surprise.

Taco arabe (seasoned pork meat with onions and parsley on a flour tortilla, served with special hot spicy sauce):

The single taco arabe that we ordered was our favorite part of our lunch and if we hadn't ordered so much other food, we might have gone back up to get another one. Tacos arabes (literally, Arab tacos) have an interesting history and can trace their lineage back to Lebanese and/or Iraqi (depending on who you ask) immigrants to Puebla back in the 1930s. As a result, the spice combinations used to make tacos arabes are really complex and so different from so much other Mexican food, and the tacos pick up some great aspects of both cuisines.

The chicken was really juicy and was covered in a zesty spicy sauce. This was just an intense blast of seasoning and we really loved it. There are a couple of places here in Queens that do have tacos arabes, and we loved this one so much that we want to go see how those measure up.

Overall we had a good lunch at Las Cazuelas. It was a bit out of the way from where we were staying, so we're glad we had the opportunity to try it on our way out to the dam. Great start to our Las Vegas eats!

Las Cazuelas is located at 9711 S. Eastern Ave near Target.

A's Favorite Food Memories 2014

So like the last few years, M and I have decided to write up our favorite food memories for the past year. 2014 was different from previous years. We didn't have a big, food-centric vacation that dominated our lists, but we did get to explore the world through our World Cup eating challenge and M's 52 week cooking challenge. Here are my top 10 favorite food memories of 2014 in no particular order:

1.   Uni Tostada - Cosme (NYC)

This was a dish that opened my mind up. I love uni, and I love bone marrow, but I had never thought to put them together. The crisp blue corn tostada provided an amazing crunch and base, and the bone marrow salsa added a beautiful richness, but the true star of the show was the uni. It was so fresh, and you could definitely taste the sea with this dish. When you paired everything together it all melded into a seamless, perfect dish.

2.   Lobster Pibil - Cosme (NYC)

I usually don't go out of my way to get lobster. I find that, for the price you end up paying I just don't find the value to be worth it. Sure it's tasty, but I'd rather split the cost of a lobster dish into two dishes to try. I'm really glad we got this dish, though. The lobster pieces (claw, knuckle, half tail) were so sweet and tender. There was no chewiness to them at all. The black bean puree mixed with the avocado leaf puree offered richness and body, and the chorizo added some saltiness to balance out dish.

3.   Gorgon - Otto's Tacos (NYC)

After M showed me a picture of what this special "off-menu" item looked like, I knew we had to try it. It's a San Antonio style puffy taco filled with their carne asada, chopped onions, cilantro, guacamole, and a serrano chile crema. It's a gut bomb, but at the same time it's one of the most delicious things ever. I would eat this again in a heartbeat, but you need to make sure to only order when they're not busy. Since it's a special order they have to make it fresh so it takes some time.

4.   Cevapi - Cevabdzinica Sarajevo (Astoria, Queens)

As part of our World Cup eating adventure, M and I were fortunate enough to try food from some new countries. One was Bosnia, and we made a special trip out to Astoria for cevapi, which are a homemade sausage. The spice mix is obviously a secret, but it was delicious, and when paired with their homemade bread, chopped onions, and ajvar was an amazing dish.

5.   Crab Spaghettini - Jamie's Italian (Quantum of the Seas)

On our big vacation of the year, we found ourselves on a boat in the Atlantic with limited food options. All that said, we did find a really nice meal at Jamie's Italian, the restaurant designed and created by Jamie Oliver. This dish tasted and felt really clean and fresh. The crab was sweet and delicious, and the pasta was simply prepared with olive oil and garlic.

6.   Herbs Spring Rolls - Chada (Las Vegas)

The reason this dish resonated with me so much this year was that it was so different than anything else I had ever eaten at a Thai restaurant. Sure, I'd had fresh rolls and summer rolls in the past, but this was something entirely different. I couldn't quite place the flavor, but the herbal nature of the vegetables was so refreshing and so bright. The filling was warm and added a nice balance of salt to the dish. It's something that I would love to have again.

7.   Nam Prik Ong - Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas)

This is something that is something else. It's often described as a spicy pork and tomato dip that gets served with sliced vegetables. Obviously there's much more to this than just being a simple dip. In the end, the only way I know how to describe this is as one of the best and richest bolognese sauces ever. I would pour this all over pasta and eat this every day if I could.

8.   Hungarian Pancake - Smak-Tak (Chicago)

On our most recent trip back to the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago for a wedding, we made a trip into the city to get some Polish food. Chicago has a thriving Polish community so we knew our best chance of getting something for the World Eats Challenge would be there. I'm not sure why it's a Hungarian pancake in a Polish restaurant, but it's a specialty of Polish cuisine apparently. It's a massive potato pancake folded over and filled with gulash with red cabbage slaw and sour cream on the side. It's hearty, it's filling, and it's amazingly delicious. This is one of those dishes where you eat it and instantly need a nap. I'm also pretty sure that's exactly what I did.

9.   Arepa Con Queso - Arepa Lady (Elmhurst, Queens)

M and I have always talked about how we want to find the Arepa Lady in Queens. She's famous for her amazing arepas and also for her insanely inconsistent hours. Often times she doesn't even show up to her spot until right around midnight. Recently she had also opened up a brick and mortar store, and we really wanted to check that out, but people always said that the cart was still better. Luckily for us we were able to get to the Viva La Comida street festival where she and her cart were vending. She has two options available, one made of corn and one made of choclo (a Peruvian large kernel corn). The one I selected was the corn version. It has a subtle sweetness from the corn, but it's stuffed with cheese, griddled, and then covered in more cheese. 

10. Home cooking (NYC)

This year M did a lot of cooking at home. She unofficially participated in the Reddit 52-week cooking challenge, and it turned into a lot of amazing meals. I'm highlighting four of them here as these were my favorites. For TV inspired she made Hawaiian Garlic Butter Shrimp inspired by Hawaii 5-0. It was such a rich, amazing flavor. You could really taste the butter and garlic paired with the sweet shrimp. For street food she went Mexican and made esquites. Charred corn mixed up with chilis, garlic, scallions, cilantro, spices, and mayo ended up being one of our most favorite things she made all year. For "American" she made Hoppin' John and Collard Greens, and the collards were unbelievable. I'm a huge fan of collards, and these rivaled almost every other one I've had in restaurants. For Belgian week she made Carbonnade and Stoemp, Flemish Beef (M used chicken) and Beer Stew and Mashed Potatoes with mixed in vegetables. We'd had carbonnade while in Belgium, and this was just as rich and sweet as we remembered. The stoemp was filling and a perfect complement to the rich stew.