Frozenyo

After our tasty dinner at El Jibarito, my parents told us that they wanted to take us to an ice cream place that they had discovered on a previous visit to San Juan. A was pretty excited since he loves ice cream, and I'm always happy to try someplace new in our explorations. We walked around Old San Juan for a little bit since they couldn't remember exactly where it was, and then we ended up at Frozenyo on Calle Tetuan.

Our first thought was, "This isn't ice cream..." We don't have any issues with frozen yogurt, but we were expecting to see an ice cream shop and this wasn't that. Frozenyo was one of those yogurt shops where you filled up the cup yourself with the flavor you wanted and then added toppings to it (we think), not like Pinkberry. Since getting ice cream or frozen yogurt on the ship was extremely unreliable (machines constantly broken), we were happy to be getting any type of frozen treat.

While we remember going to Frozenyo and we remember eating frozen yogurt, this is the point where this review is going to fall apart. It's a perfect example of why we should have finished all of our Quantum reviews prior to the date it shipped off to China. We barely remember anything about the yogurt. That's not to say it was bad. It's just been two years. And unfortunately our memories aren't what they used to be. And our notes for that trip were scant, and in the case of the yogurt, nonexistent.

Did we get one frozen yogurt or two? We think we got two, but why didn't we take a photo of the one A got? We think he got something chocolate-flavored, because I have a vague memory of eating chocolate with cookie dough toppings that looked just like this but I don't remember for sure. What flavor yogurt did I get here? Pink lemonade? Kiwi strawberry? It looks pink to me. Did we try different flavors before we chose? What did we like? What did we not like? I know that my toppings were strawberry, kiwi, and cookie dough because that's in the picture, and I remember the cookie dough being good, but that's about it. I also remember that we sat outside eating our yogurt, which was quite a pleasant experience on a warm December night.

We wish we remembered more about this, but unfortunately we don't. What we do remember is that when we were in DC earlier this year, we saw a Frozenyo when we were walking around Columbia Heights. We hadn't known that they started in DC at that time (since we hadn't looked them up yet to write this post), so that was a surprise for us. We had a giant dinner that day and no room for yogurt so we didn't go check them out. Hopefully the rest of our Quantum reviews aren't going to be as lacking in detail as this one.

El Jibarito

Two years ago today, we were on the Quantum of the Seas, finally arriving at our first port, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was A's first time in San Juan and M's second (previously there for a business trip). Unfortunately the ship didn't get to San Juan until late afternoon, and with that type of scheduling, you couldn't visit the rainforest or do much sightseeing because it was almost dark. By the time we got off the ship, there wasn't a lot of time to do very much other than stroll Old San Juan and get something to eat. 

We had narrowed down the dinner options in Old San Juan before the trip, and the one we picked was El Jibarito, a centrally located restaurant specializing in local dishes, which had been around for decades. We started off the meal with some juices - acerola/Puerto Rican sour cherry and maracuya/passion fruit. The passion fruit one was nice and sweet, and the sour cherry one had a really familiar taste that we couldn't place at the time (and still can't). A got the sour cherry, and M got the passion fruit, but we obviously shared.

After our double lunch, M wasn't really that hungry when we got to the restaurant (but we couldn't find anything else to do at the time other than to just go to dinner). Instead of getting an entree, she got two appetizers for her meal. (We were sharing anyway so we could try as much as possible, so this meant we could try even more.)

The first appetizer was the alcapurrias, plantain fritters stuffed with beef. These had a general meat taste and were very deeply fried. M isn't as big a fan of just "meat" flavors so she was a little disappointed by these, but overall they were still okay. For A, they just seemed like wonton wrapped, deep-fried meat sticks.

The second appetizer was the bacalaitas, flat, saucer-like cod fritters. We had never had cod fritters in such a flattened shape before, but they were pretty good. Unfortunately neither of us really remembers much about these two years later, but our guess is that we both preferred these more as bacalaitas are more our style than that type of fried ground meat.

M's mom and A both got variations on the same entree - camarones al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce). This entree was better than both of M's appetizer choices, and we were glad we ordered it.

The shrimp dish was full of garlic flavor, and featured shrimp mixed with onions and green peppers in a butter sauce. This was so good. It had a heavy but not overpowering garlic flavor that paired nicely with the sweet shrimp. The onions and green peppers also added some nice freshness to the dish.

Each entree came with a choice of rice, plantains, or mofongo, and the mofongo itself had a bunch of options. A chose to go with the trifongo (also called the mixed mofongo), which combined sweet plantain, green plantain, and yuca (cassava). All three were mashed up together and fried, and it paired so well with the garlicky shrimp. M liked this so much that she put it on her favorites list from 2014. A had read about and often wanted to try mofongo so this was a great experience for him, and he's glad that it was so tasty.

We really enjoyed visiting El Jibarito, and it was nice to get some Puerto Rican food while we were in San Juan. While there were some tourists there, there were also locals, so it didn't feel like a total tourist trap. We would definitely go back there for some more shrimp and mofongo if we found ourselves in Old San Juan again.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2014

I can't believe it's the end of the year and time for another top 10 food memories list already. We didn't travel that much this year, which is probably why half the list is from New York, but we still had a lot of great food memories to choose from. So here's my top 10 (in no particular order).

1. Cevapi from Cevabdzinica Sarajevo (Astoria, NY)

The cevapi we got for our Bosnia visit during the World Cup challenge was probably my favorite meal of the challenge. It was the first time I'd had Bosnian food and I was hooked. I was ready to ditch the rest of the day's food crawl plans and just eat more cevapi. The grilled sausages, raw onion and ajvar together were such a delicious combination. Add in the soft and fluffy lepinja and it was an excellent lunch that I can't wait to have again.

2. Spicy herbs spring roll from Chada Thai (Las Vegas, NV)

This spring roll got penciled in on the top 10 list back in January when we tried it at Chada. The spring roll consisted of a soft rice paper wrapper lined with lettuce leaves and stuffed with ground pork, ginger, onion, lemongrass, wild cilantro, mint, kaffir lime leaf, and basil vinaigrette. Tons of herbs but all complementary and not clashing one bit. Somehow they combined to form a roll that was both delicate and full of intense herbal flavors. It tasted like something I had before and liked, but I couldn't quite place it, maybe something from Jitlada. All I knew was that I could eat this every day, given the opportunity. It was so light and fresh, exactly the type of thing I want on vacation.

3. Garlic grilled chicken from Charlie Brown's Fresh Grill (Staten Island, NY)

I'm probably as surprised as anyone reading this to find a dish from a chain restaurant on this list, but I can't stop thinking about this garlic chicken. The chicken breast was cooked perfectly, and was juicy and full of garlic flavor. It was accompanied by some roasted potatoes that were completely covered in garlic, as well as brussels sprouts, which I had expected to be roasted but were instead lightly fried and drizzled with balsamic. This dish just screamed rustic to me and it's the type of thing that I wish I could recreate at home. (How do they get it so garlicky?!) We had just disembarked from the Quantum a couple of days before and this dish was better than almost everything I'd had on the cruise. It was also my first "real" flavorful meal after recovering from the food poisoning/stomach virus/bug thing I picked up on the ship, so it was especially good.

4. Uni tostada from Cosme (New York, NY)

We planned to eat at Cosme from the minute we heard it was in the works and obsessively followed it until its opening. Once we finally got there, it absolutely surpassed our already high expectations. The dish that was the best for me and completely transporting was the uni tostada. A tostada made in-house from their usual purple (or blue?) corn and fried up, topped with bone marrow salsa, avocado, jalapeño, and a very generous amount of uni... It was so good. I took one bite and I could taste the salty air and almost feel the sea breeze, as if we were indulging in the tostada while sitting on the beach. It was a perfect bite and just zapped all of winter's cold right out of my mind.

5. Flying fish sandwiches from Cuz's Fish Shack and Harbour Lights (Bridgetown, Barbados)

The one thing we knew we wanted to eat in Barbados was flying fish and our first stop was Cuz's Fish Shack for a flying fish sandwich. It was really good, as was the fried flying fish sandwich we got later in the day at Harbour Lights, but that's not really why they're on this list. This is one of my favorite food memories because it was the perfect beach day that I had daydreamed about the entire time leading up to vacation and the perfect summer day that I didn't really get to enjoy all year because of my various ailments. Flying fish sandwiches on the beach, rum punch in hand as we basked in the sun, perfect turquoise water and soft white sands. This was everything I wanted our vacation in the Caribbean to be. This was a day that I was extremely thankful for every minute we were there and one that I will never forget.

6. Camarones al ajillo con trifongo from El Jibarito (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

A picked this one out when we were at El Jibarito (we were sharing and I ordered the alcapurrias and bacalaitos) and I can't stop thinking about the trifongo. I can't put my finger on what I liked so much about it, but it's a mixed mofongo with sweet plantain, green plantain, and yucca. Somehow that combination, mashed together and fried up, just won't get out of my head. It was better than I ever imagined it would be. It was paired up with some super garlicky shrimp, peppers, and onions in butter sauce, and together, they were great.

7. Garlic prawns from Lotus of Siam (Las Vegas, NV)

One day we'll get around to recapping our visits to Lotus of Siam. This time, we got something new - the garlic prawns. Everyone talked about the garlic prawns and I was expecting some good, crispy fried salt and pepper shrimp, but what we got was so much more. In addition to frying the shrimp, Lotus also fries the shells. The result is a thin crispy shell that tastes just like you're eating a shrimp chip. I love shrimp chips and I was so surprised by how great those turned out to be. I'm not sure how we're going to handle subsequent visits to Lotus because our "must order next time" list keeps getting longer and longer. This is definitely on mine.

8. Gorgon taco from Otto's Tacos (New York, NY)

We've already posted about the amazing "secret" Gorgon taco that you can get at Otto's Tacos, so you know how much we love it. It's completely unhealthy but I love these puffy tacos.

9. Super onion chips from Superdawg (Chicago, IL)

I love onion rings so there was no way we were leaving Superdawg, the famous drive-in hot dog joint in Chicago, without getting their super onion chips. They're like onion rings but in smaller pieces, so you don't have that problem where you bite into a ring and the onion separates from the breading. These were perfectly breaded and fried. I could have eaten an entire meal of these super onion chips and was so sad when they were gone.

10. 52 week cooking challenge

Home cooking has really become a part of my life and this year I took part in my first 52 week cooking challenge (even if I did it unofficially). I'm pretty proud of sticking with it and finishing it, and I learned so much along the way. Over the past 52 weeks, some of our favorite meals have come out of dishes that I made for the challenges. Among our favorites were Southern night (Hoppin' John and collard greens), Belgian night (carbonnade and stoemp), Hawaiian night (garlic shrimp and mac salad), and the incredible esquites that we've gone on to make several times because we love them so much. I am so glad I decided to do this challenge, and it definitely deserves a spot on this list.

So much good food in 2014. Bring on 2015!