La Sonrisa Empanadas

One of the things I like about the Urbanspace markets (and now food hall) is how many choices there are. You can get tacos or African food or pizza or lobster rolls or countless other things all in one place, and the locations are usually very convenient. The downside of the markets though is that, because of the cost of doing business in those locations, the vendor prices aren't always that affordable for a snack or a food crawl. I made my way through the Garment District market the other day looking for a snack (which, to me, means under $5, since it's only a snack), and wasn't surprised at all to find that most things would top that limit, even things like a single taco.

When A and I walked through this season's market for the first time a week or so earlier, we had noticed that La Sonrisa Empanadas looked like one of the more reasonably priced options, and after I went by all the stands carefully looking at all the menus, that still held true. I decided to order the coconut curry chicken empanada, described as chicken breast prepared with Caribbean curry and sweetened coconut milk. With tax, it came out to $4, so that made me happy.

When I got the empanada, I was surprised at first by its appearance, mostly because I'm so used to baked empanadas at this point. The way it was fried and the bubbles in the dough reminded me a little bit of the pastelillos I used to get all the time from El Rey. It was also a little bit funny to me, since part of the reason I got the empanada instead of other things (like croquetas or bombas at another place) was because I had assumed it wasn't fried and I was trying to avoid fried food that day. That's on me though for not asking and just assuming it was baked, but I was also not unhappy with the choice once I tasted it.

The chicken curry inside the empanada was incredibly flavorful. You could taste the coconut milk and the curry, and it was really good, even without adding any extra sauce to it. I did add the chipotle mayo to the parts of the empanada that were more fried dough and less chicken, and it was a good sauce, but while it was fine with the curried chicken, it wasn't necessary. I didn't try the hot sauce this time, but maybe next time. I would definitely get this empanada again, because the flavor of the chicken was really good. The menu also has quite a few other options, so I could see myself stopping by for another snack while the market's open.

Hatch Chile Mac and Cheese

It's late at night and I'm kind of in the mood for some mac and cheese, so here's another TJ's review!

Product: Hatch chile mac and cheese

Price: $2.99 for a 12 oz tray

Quick review: I've never tried any of the microwavable mac and cheeses at Trader Joe's before, but I've seen plenty of rave reviews about them. When they came out with the hatch chile mac and cheese this year, I knew I had to try it. I'm a big fan of green chiles and previously tried the hatch salsa, so I was intrigued. I figured it would just be mac and cheese with the chiles mixed in, and it basically was, but it was a good opportunity to try out the mac and cheese as a general matter. I really liked it. The mac and cheese was creamy and rich (but not overly rich), the chiles added a little bit of heat, the texture of the pasta had just the right amount of chewiness, and microwaving it in the tray gave it those really crusty cheesy edges that are some of my favorite parts of mac and cheese. Really good.

Buy Again? Yes! I've gotten it a couple of times now. I often try to stay under $3 for microwave lunches at home, so this just makes the cut at the high end, but it's really good and worth the "splurge."

Week 23 - Deep Frying

Even though I'm doing the 52 week cooking challenge just for myself (and not for points on Reddit), I really hate skipping a week and breaking my streak. I've only skipped a week once - molecular week during the first year I did the challenge (the reasoning explained here) - but I doubled up some other challenge weeks to "make up for it." The Week 23 theme this year was deep frying, which I just don't do at home. I don't cook much (if any) red meat at home, and I don't deep fry. Those are basically the only "rules" I have, which keep our home cooking a little bit healthier, but it also means I don't have to deal with my issues with deep frying (wasted oil, possible burns since I'm a giant klutz, the fear of burning the kitchen down). I didn't want to skip the week altogether though, so I figured I would just pan fry something. I ended up doing shallow frying for the first time, and since the challenge is all about stretching your boundaries and trying something new, I think this should count as much as deep frying for me since the effect on me is pretty much the same.

Chicken not pictured because it had been thawing in the sink

Just like Week 22, I ended up finding a good recipe for this challenge from the Everyday Harumi cookbook. This time it was for fried chicken with a leek sauce. The original recipe called for deep frying the chicken, but I planned to modify the recipe to pan fry it. The ingredients for the fried chicken dish (as adapted) were:

for the chicken:
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($4.50)
- 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce ($0.05)
- 1 tbsp sake ($0.10)
- potato starch to coat chicken (about 6 spoonfuls) ($0.40)
- canola oil for frying (a few tbsp) ($0.30)

for the leek sauce:
- about 1 cup of leeks, finely chopped ($0.70)
- 1 red chili pepper, seeds removed and finely chopped ($0.28)
- 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce ($0.20)
- 1 tbsp sake ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar ($0.10)
- 1.5 tbsp sugar ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp canola oil ($0.10)

The total for the fried chicken was approximately $6.93. We ate it alongside some brown rice and a cucumber salad, which probably added another $3, making the grand total just under $10. Not bad at all.

It was really easy to make the leek sauce. First up was prep - finely chopping the leeks and the chili pepper, and combining the soy sauce, sake, rice vinegar, and sugar in a separate bowl.

To make the sauce, I added the canola oil to a small saucepan, and then sauteed the leeks and chili pepper until soft. After that, I added the sauce bowl ingredients to the pan, stirring frequently to help the sugar dissolve. I started the sauteing right before I started frying the chicken, and cooked it all on low so it wouldn't be done too quickly. I ended up removing it from the heat only a few minutes before the chicken was done.

The prep for the chicken was a little more complex, but still not difficult. After slicing the chicken breasts into smaller, thinner pieces, I added the soy sauce and sake to a bowl and let the chicken marinate for about 10 minutes. After that, I set up a bowl with potato starch to coat the chicken. I was pretty excited because dredging the chicken in the potato starch was probably the best I had ever done at breading something, and I was really proud of that. Unfortunately, I then piled the chicken (coated in potato starch) in a bowl with pieces on top of one another, and let it sit that way for a few minutes while I set up the stove. That meant that when I picked up the chicken to drop it into the oil to fry it, quite a few of them came out missing one side of their potato starch coating. Oops. Lesson learned.

For the frying itself, I added a few tbsp of canola oil to the wok, probably half an inch or less. I was planning to pan fry the chicken, but after I added the first batch (of 2) to the wok, the chicken displaced so much oil that it looked like I was going to end up shallow frying instead. That still worked for the challenge, but I was a little uneasy about it because of the prospect of all of the bubbling hot oil. Sure enough, the oil was boiling loudly at some point, but since the original plan was pan frying, it never occurred to me that I should wait for it to do that before dropping the chicken in. As a result, the first batch of chicken came out missing even more of the potato starch breading since it stuck to the pan.

The second batch, since the oil was already hot enough, came out much better, much more golden brown, much crisper, and with much more of the breading intact. Lesson learned, even if I don't particularly want to do that again. For each batch, I flipped the chicken over partway through (which was a challenge when the breading was stuck to the wok). I don't know exactly how many minutes in that was though, since I did it entirely by sight and guessing. Once the chicken was fried, I removed the pieces with a slotted spoon and let them rest on paper towels to soak up some of the oil. We topped the fried chicken with the leek sauce when it was time to eat.

This challenge meal confirmed for me that frying at home is really not for me, and I should avoid or adapt recipes that require it. I don't think this was so much of a self-fulfilling prophecy as being pretty certain about the reasons I wouldn't enjoy it because I know myself when it comes to some things. The chicken itself turned out okay, even if the second batch was much better than the first, and the leek sauce was really tasty and a good complement for the flavor of the chicken. That said, if I made this again, I think I'd rather just saute and/or bake the chicken and use the sauce. I didn't really enjoy shallow frying that much, and I still have no desire to deep fry at home. I appreciate the challenge for making me try doing this, but honestly, I'm just glad this challenge week is over and hopefully will not return anytime soon.

Noosa Yoghurt

On Friday afternoon, A was headed back to the office from lunch when he ran across someone giving out free yoghurt (and trying to offload the rest of their supply). They had 3 different flavors, so he grabbed one of each flavor so we could both try each one. We had both seen Noosa yoghurt in the store before, but had never tried it as it was never on sale, so this was the perfect opportunity. Noosa is an Australian-style yoghurt made with whole milk, honey, and fruit purees, and having never tried Australian-style yoghurt before, we were excited to test them out.

First up, lemon.

M's review: I didn't love this one, not because of the texture or style, but the flavor. The texture was fine - very creamy and smooth. The flavor, even though it was supposed to be a natural lemon curd, just tasted a little artificial to me, like lemon candy. It's kind of the same problem I often have with orange-flavored stuff. It was okay, but I wouldn't get this flavor again.

A's review: I liked this as the lemon tasted sort of like a lemon candy. Would I have liked it more were it more like a fresh lemon flavor? Maybe, but this was still good. What struck me with this yoghurt, and something I noted in every flavor, was that this seemed creamier than most other non-Greek yogurts I had eaten in the past.

The second one we tried was blueberry.

M's review: I liked this one much better than lemon, confirming for me that the problem wasn't the brand or the style, but the flavor itself. The blueberry flavor here was really natural, and there were actual blueberries mixed in (the small wild ones, not the big ones a lot of other places use). It reminded me of when I would buy vanilla yoghurt on its own and mix in the frozen Maine wild blueberries we have in the freezer, just very natural and full of real fruit. I would get this one again.

A's review: I liked the blueberry flavor more than the lemon. It tasted more like actual blueberries (though slightly sweetened), and they were whole enough blueberries to still have a little bite to them. It was a much more naturally flavored yoghurt as compared to the lemon.

The third and final yoghurt we tried was the strawberry rhubarb.

M's review: I really liked this one, and it's tough for me to decide between this one and the blueberry as my favorite. What I liked was that this one had a mild sweetness and wasn't overly sweet like a lot of strawberry yoghurts are (the reason why I avoid a lot of them). It tasted really natural, which I also appreciated. I'm not an expert on rhubarb flavor, so I'm not sure how much of that was there, but I liked the flavor overall.

You may have noticed that the lid phrases changed in every picture but somehow through luck of the draw every single one of A's said xoxoxo!

A's review: I liked this flavor a lot. They didn't make the strawberry syrup overly sweet, and it really tasted of strawberries. The rhubarb also added a really nice texture to the yoghurt. I don't know if I liked this or the blueberry more, probably the blueberry if I'm being honest since I think the blueberry really let the overall flavor of the blueberry shine through a little more than the strawberry, but they were both really good.

Overall, we thought the Noosa yoghurts were pretty good, but we did like some flavors better than others. We would be interested in trying some of the other flavors, like maybe the Colorado-exclusive blackberry serrano, or (from those probably more widely available) blood orange or pineapple, so we'll keep an eye out for sales or good prices in the future for sure.

Wickedwich

We've been to Hill Country Chicken more than 10 times, yet we've still never written about it (despite starting several times). I think part of the issue was that we kept adding every visit to the same post with the intention of publishing one giant post about all the good stuff at Hill Country Chicken, but it just got so monstrous that we never made any progress. Probably better to just talk about what we've been getting recently in pieces so we don't forget whether we liked it!

On my first few visits to Hill Country Chicken, I got chicken tenders or a fried chicken breast, but lately I've been getting their fried chicken sandwiches. I've made no secret of my love for fried chicken sandwiches, and on my most recent visit, I got the Wickedwich, which I think I got before, but since I never posted about it, am not 100% sure. The Wickedwich is a fried chicken breast with "spicy (but not too spicy!) honey, red onion, cheddar cheese, and sour pickles." It's $9.50, so not cheap fast food, but not as much as a sit-down restaurant could be.

I'm a big fan of this sandwich, although it's a little bit messy to eat because the honey drips everywhere. One of the best parts of the Hill Country Chicken sandwiches is that the chicken itself is always good, very juicy and never dry. They absolutely get the fried chicken part right. The cheese adds some richness, the honey has a little bit of zing to it (but really isn't spicy), and the red onion and pickles provide freshness and crispness. It's a nice, balanced combination, and I would definitely get this again (after trying all of the other fried chicken sandwich options).

Hill Country Chicken is located at 1123 Broadway, right near Madison Square Park.

Potato-Free Meze Meze

For our last dinner in Naxos, we went back to Meze Meze, getting another table outside on a nice spring night. We had had such a good dinner the night before, and the menu had so many other things that sounded good, so we wanted to try more. But one thing was for sure - we were not ordering any more potatoes. The fries and potato salad from the night before were so good, but we had gotten our fill of delicious Naxian potatoes and now it was time for other stuff.

We started off with some drinks, a beer for A and some iced tea for M. Not too much to say about those.

The first thing to arrive was, just like last time, a basket of bread, which cost €0.80 for each of us. Same as the night before.

After all those potatoes, we wanted to get a potato-free salad, choosing to go with the traditional Greek salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pepper, onion, caper, olives, xinomizithra local cheese, and Cretan crispy bread with olive oil and lemon sauce - for €7.50. This was very similar to the Naxian potato salad from the night before, but with the potatoes being replaced by lettuce, cucumber, and Cretan crispy bread. The Cretan bread was one of the things we were most interested in trying since we weren't going to Crete on that trip. Five years later, we remember the salad being good - light and clean and satisfying - but not too many specifics. It just didn't imprint in our memories the way the Naxian potato salad did. The bread also didn't leave a lasting impression on us.

Since we were in the Greek Islands, we also decided to get some fish, another thing we skipped the night before. We went with the grilled fresh mackerel for €8, which came on a platter with some rice. The issue with the mackerel was that it was a thinner fish than other fish we had eaten in Greece so it was harder for M to get much of anything skinned and also off the bone. The fish itself was very fresh, though, and most of the work went to A to get the meat out. Memories of the rice have sadly also faded over time.

The last thing we ordered came as a recommendation from the waiter. We weren't sure what to order between three types of fried seafood, and he offered to let us have some of all three just like some other tables were enjoying. What arrived was a giant platter of what looked like "popcorn seafood" - half orders of small fried fish, small fried squid, and small fried shrimp - for €12. You ate the fish and squid whole, but the shrimp, you tore the head off and then ate the rest. It doesn't look like an especially huge plate, and the size of the plate itself wasn't very different from some of the others, but it was packed full of really tiny pieces of seafood. It took us an hour to eat all of it, as it just seemed like a neverending plate. We had eaten so much shrimp, fish, and squid, yet every time we looked up, the plate still looked full. We were happy though that we had the option to try all three and weren't disappointed at all with any of them. Everything was really good, but it took forever to eat, an experience we certainly wouldn't forget from our last night. Good thing we weren't really in a rush to go back to the hotel to pack.

After we (finally) finished our dinner, they brought out more complimentary citron and yogurt to end the meal, which we appreciated. The hospitality and the food at Meze Meze were superb, and we were so happy that we had chosen to eat there twice to try a wide range of what they had to offer. We were trying not to overdo it for our last dinner since we wanted to make one last trip to Milkato to get some more gelato, so there were so many more things we didn't get to try. We would definitely return here if we have the chance to go back to Naxos.

Serrano Salsa Fresca

It was close to 90 degrees on one of my recent Trader Joe's visits, and all I could think about was refreshing salsa. That's probably why I ended up with both pico de gallo and this serrano salsa in the cart. I couldn't remember ever seeing this one before, but I don't think it was new. I think I just never spent as much time in the refrigerated salsa section as I did that day.

Product: Serrano Salsa Fresca

Price: $2.99 for 12 oz

Quick review: Looking at this salsa, for some reason I expected it to taste like that smoky salsa from Chevy's. Probably the dark color of the salsa. Not surprisingly, it didn't, since I don't think their salsa is serrano-based. Instead, this salsa is filled with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, serrano peppers, garlic, and a bunch of spices and seasonings (including paprika, celery, chili pepper, ginger, basil, cumin, cinnamon, thyme, and turmeric). The flavor is a bit unique and something I don't think I've had in salsa before. It was very fresh, a little bit floral, but also a little bit bitter. I've never tried a serrano pepper plain like I have a jalapeño (at least I don't think I have), so I'm not sure if that was the taste of the serrano or the combination of all the spices. The one thing I noticed was that the salsa had barely any spice at all to it, which was surprising since serranos are supposed to be hotter on the scale than jalapeños.

I also feel kind of bad that at least a third of the salsa went to waste since the package was pretty blown up on day 6 and we threw it out to be safe. The container says that it is perishable and it should be consumed within 5 to 7 days, so we did know that, but I thought it would at least make it to day 6 (and bought more chips specifically for it!).

Buy Again? Maybe. Not my favorite salsa, and probably prefer that smoky Chevy's salsa to this one, but I did like it enough that I'd consider getting it again if I were in the right mood for it. Right now, it's the only salsa I've tried from the refrigerated section so far (other than pico de gallo which we used to top tacos instead of as salsa), so I can't compare to the rest of the selection. Yet.

Corn Chip Dippers

I probably should have titled this post, "Ode to Corn Chip Dippers," or something like that, considering how many bags of these chips I've bought over the years. We've bought more bags of corn chip dippers than any other chips at Trader Joe's by a huge margin. I've always liked corn chips, but I never bought Fritos this frequently. These are pretty comparable to Fritos as far as nutritional value; these have a little less sodium and calories, but nothing major is different. I can't explain why, but for some reason, even though I like Fritos, I just like these better.

Bag of corn chip dippers in our hotel in Cleveland

Considering how often we buy them, I'm still surprised that we haven't posted about them yet (although I shouldn't be considering our backlog). We've definitely mentioned them before - about eating them with chili, with bean dip, and with black bean and corn salad. We've eaten them with salsa every so often. But more often than not, we're just munching on them plain. They're just that good.

Nice snack especially on the road

I really, really, really, really hope Trader Joe's never gets rid of these corn chip dippers (which, by the way, are $1.99 right now). Far too many products get retired from the lineup, but hopefully all of our purchases of corn chips keeps them on the shelves. This is obviously a yes as far as our usual "buy again" question, and it's definitely on our next shopping list.

Teixeira's Bakery

After our feast at Seabra's Marisquiera we took a walk around the area and also down by the river to try and digest a bit. It was a nice stroll because the weather wasn't too hot, and it wasn't that humid either. After a bit we walked back towards the main street, and M asked if I wanted to try the Portuguese version of the egg tart (蛋撻) that we'd both had while growing up. I'm not a huge huge fan of the Chinese version, but I like it enough that I wanted to see how it compared to the Portuguese version.

The place that we knew was supposed to be known for these pastries was Teixeira's Bakery.

Once inside we were greeted by the sweet, warm smells of the breads and pastries contained in their glass case. We took a quick look around to see if anything else caught our fancy, but in the end we opted for just the one of the pastéis de nata. At $1.35 it wasn't super cheap, but it also wasn't too expensive.

I liked this a lot more than the Chinese counterpart. For starters, the pastry crust is flakier and actually reminiscent of pastry dough as opposed to being doughy and crumbly. The pastry crust on the Portuguese version is also much lighter and airier. Finally, there's a hint of a savory, salty flavor to the crust on the Portuguese version that really brings out the flavor of the custard.

Speaking of the custard, it's much more of an actual custard consistency. The Chinese version is often more gelatin-like and far sweeter. The milder sweetness allowed more of the egg flavor to come out, and when combined with the slightly salty crust formed a perfectly balanced dessert. The charring on top didn't really add any flavor, burnt or caramelized, but it made it look nice.

Overall, I definitely think the Portuguese version (also the original) is better than the Chinese adaptation. While I wouldn't necessarily need to get one the next time we were in Newark, I would certainly consider it.

Coconut Water

We're huge fans of coconut water, and A especially loves it. The usual problem with coconut water is that it's fairly expensive. Earlier this year, we were looking into drinks that would replenish electrolytes instead of just drinking regular tap water, so we decided to pick up a 1 liter container of coconut water on our next visit to Trader Joe's. It was $2.99, so not cheap, but not as bad as some other brands.

One thing we noted once we tried it was that the TJ's coconut water wasn't as sweet as other brands we've had in the past and also since. That's actually a good thing as it was even more refreshing since it was less sweet. If we ever find that TJ's lowers the price on this, then we'll definitely consider grabbing as many as we can to stock up, maybe even a case. It's really just that much better in our opinion.

A couple of TJ's trips later, M found herself dehydrated while shopping and grabbed a smaller sized coconut water on the way out, $1.49 for 500 milliliters. It was nice that TJ's didn't charge a premium to get a smaller size. The coconut water was a really refreshing treat. We would definitely buy this again, but for right now, we only pick it up every so often because of the extra cost.

Week 22 - East Asian

The theme for Week 22 was originally miso, but after a bunch of people complained because we already had Japanese week earlier this year, they switched it up to East Asian. I hadn't planned out something with miso before the switch, but decided to make something with miso anyway. It was easier to find something with that theme than trying to narrow down the vast amount of options that would qualify for East Asian. What I ended up choosing was a recipe for udon with a ground meat miso sauce from a cookbook I had borrowed from the library a couple of years ago called Everyday Harumi. I think the original may have been with pork but when I copied the recipe out for my own library, I just wrote ground meat (it's been over 2 years, so I don't really remember).

The ingredients I used for the recipe (as I adapted it) were:

- 1 tbsp canola oil ($0.10)
- 1 heaping cup of frozen leeks, divided ($0.70)
- 1 piece of ginger, about 1 inch long ($0.30)
- 1 lb of ground turkey ($4.30)
- 1/2 hothouse cucumber, seeded ($0.65)
- 3 bunches of dried soba noodles ($2.50)
for sauce:
- 1/2 cup dashi stock ($0.25)
- 1 tbsp sake ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp mirin ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp agave ($0.10)
- 4 tbsp miso ($0.55)

Since we got a lot of these ingredients a few years ago, most of the amounts above are estimates. But the total cost came out to about $9.75 for the entire dinner, which was pretty good. (It tops out a little over $10 if you count the other half of the cucumber which we ate as a snack before dinner was ready, but that wasn't technically part of dinner.)

The steps for making the soba with miso meat sauce were:

1. Prep - peel and finely chop ginger; finely chop about 2/3 of the leeks; slice the remaining 1/3 of the leeks vertically; cut cucumber in half lengthwise, remove seeds from cucumber, slice into rounds, and then into vertical slices; mix together miso sauce; boil water for noodles.

2. Heat canola oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add ginger and the finely chopped leeks, and saute for a minute or so.

3. Add ground turkey, breaking it up as it cooks, until fully cooked through.

4. Add sauce to turkey, make sure everything is mixed well together, and cook until sauce thickens. (It didn't really "thicken" so much as get soaked up by the turkey and/or evaporate.) Keep stirring periodically.

5. Make soba (or whatever other noodles) according to package instructions.

6. Add soba to a bowl, cover with the miso meat sauce, and top with garnishes (sliced cucumber and the remaining leeks).

I was skeptical about this recipe after I made the sauce in the beginning, because I tried the sauce and thought it didn't have much flavor. This was when I first mixed it together, before I added it to the meat. A noted that I should be patient because cooking it down would concentrate the flavor. He was right. I was so pleasantly surprised when I had the first spoonful of sauce mixed with meat, after it had cooked for a bit, as the flavor was completely different. The miso really came through, and the sauce was so much more robust and full of flavor. Adding the cucumber and the leeks gave it a lot of freshness and lightness, and overall, it was a really good, well-composed dish. We were pretty happy with this and would make it again. The only thing I'd do differently next time is to use the entire cucumber and even more leeks. It was pretty good as it was, but more vegetables for garnish would probably make it even better.

Week 21 - Cheap Meals

When the theme for Week 21 popped up as cheap meals, I figured most of our everyday dinners would probably qualify and I could just make whatever I wanted. I always prefer for our dinners to be under $10 for the two of us (although sometimes if they are meat or seafood-heavy, it makes sense that they don't), and like it even better when they come in under $5. I figured I would aim for close to $5, but if it went a little bit over, that would be okay.

I thought some cheap options could be vegetable omelettes (especially since the price of eggs seems to have gone down recently), but I've made so many omelettes for previous challenges, or maybe something basic like pasta with some olive oil and garlic. Those would both probably come in under $5. But I had some soy chorizo in the fridge, so I decided to go with soy chorizo and mushroom tacos. The tacos would definitely be under $5 without the mushrooms (and we often make it without them), but I wanted to get more vegetables into the meal to make it more balanced. Working out the total costs of a lot of the other challenges really helped with this challenge, as I already had a pretty good idea of how much various ingredients cost and it wasn't a foreign concept to me to be keeping that in the back of my mind while meal planning. (I didn't realize until writing this post that I actually made soy chorizo tacos for the Mexican challenge last year, but that one was really more about the homemade tortillas. We also posted about tacos the first time we used the soy chorizo. It's clearly our favorite use of the soy chorizo.)

The ingredients for the tacos ended up coming out to a total of $5.33. They didn't put a cap on the cost of the challenge since cheap means different things to different people, but as much as I would have preferred to come in under $5, I'm fine with it since it was close. The ingredients were:

- 4 tortillas ($0.30)
- 1 package of soy chorizo ($1.99)
- 1 onion ($0.50)
- about 12 oz of mushrooms ($1.90)
- 1 potato ($0.49)
- olive oil for sauteing ($0.15)

Making the tacos was pretty easy. There was some prep - chop onion, chop mushrooms, boil potato until tender and then chop potato, heat tortillas in a nonstick skillet (without oil) - and then just cooking the onions, mushrooms, potatoes, and soy chorizo together in a large pan until it was all done. It's one of our easier dinners and works out well for Meatless Monday (or Taco Tuesday or any other day). Definitely part of our rotation.

Seabra's Marisqueira

Ever since we changed the way we approach our WorldEats challenge, we've been mostly visiting places out of "convenience," like happening to be somewhere and realizing it would work for WorldEats, or doing some other challenges like the Women's World Cup challenge (which we still need to finish recapping). While it's been great to try lots of new foods that way, there was something about the intentional trip to somewhere new that we missed. We remedied that this weekend. Instead of falling into the old trap of going someplace easy and convenient, M pulled out her trusty random number generator and let the numbers dictate where we would go. The numbers sent us to Portugal (technically, they sent us to Malawi first, but we are not aware of any Malawian food in NYC), and off we went to the Ironbound District in Newark specifically to explore Portuguese cuisine and culture.

Once the numbers popped up with Portugal, we immediately knew the place we wanted to visit in the Ironbound was Seabra's Marisqueira. We've been hearing about this seafood place for years, and it's actually the place we wanted to visit for the 2014 World Cup challenge until there were torrential downpours the night we planned to go. After looking through a lot of pictures and recommendations, we were relatively sure about what we wanted to order and were really excited for our Sunday supper.

After being seated in the dining room, they brought over a bread basket. The reviews that we read stated that it was a "crusty loafed bread" which made us think of something akin to a French baguette with a hard, crusty exterior. This couldn't be further from the truth as the crust itself was extremely pliable and matched the soft, spongy, and absorbent interior. We only ate a little of the bread before the food arrived, because we knew that it would be wiser to save the bread for soaking up all the delicious sauces of the dishes we ordered.

It was in the 80s and pretty humid outside, so a half-pitcher of sangria ($17.50) sounded perfect. Also, it seemed like every other table had a pitcher or half-pitcher of sangria, so who were we to break the trend? This really was refreshing. It had a nice mild sweetness from the added fruit juices, and just the right amount of hit from the wine. We each had some of the apple that was added in as well, and that was a nice, crisp way to end everything.

The first dish to arrive was the salada de polvo ($14), a cold salad of octopus in vinaigrette sauce. According to this Serious Eats piece, the octopus is flown in from Portugal and then poached. Joining the octopus in the salad were onions, garlic, parsley, and a light dressing of oil and vinegar. This was amazing, definitely in the top 3 for octopus dishes we've had. Every single piece was tender, and although the flavors were a simple combination, the quality and execution was just incredible. It was a great start to the meal. The remaining sauce on the bottom of the plate also made for an excellent dip for the bread.

Next up was berbigão à bolhão pato ($16), cockles in a garlic, wine, and cilantro sauce. This dish as a whole was incredibly tasty. The cockles themselves were soft and easy to pry out of the shell with or without utensils, but it was the sauce that was the star of this show. It was a simple broth/cooking stock consisting of water, garlic, white wine, olive oil, and cilantro, but it soaked into the bread so well, and it was amazingly delicious. They also offer clams cooked in a similar fashion, and while we were there it seemed like every table had at least one of these metal tins full of cockles or clams.

The last dish we got, and it was enormous, was the açorda de marisco ($21), "a traditional Alentejo 'dry soup' consisting of a hearty mix of shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, and cubed Portuguese bread. Flavored with an olive oil, garlic, and fresh coriander sauce, crowned with a poached egg." This was a rich, decadent, creamy, thick stew once the server finished mixing the raw egg and bread into the rest of the soup. When we first looked at it, it didn't look impossible to finish, but pretty soon after we started spooning it out, we realized that the dish was really, really deep, and because of all the bread, it was really, really filling. The 2 other dishes with the bread probably wouldn't have been enough for our meal, but this dry soup definitely filled us up (and we ended up taking the rest home).

Of all of the seafood, we thought the shrimp was the best part. The mussels and scallops seemed tougher and chewier, but they still had very good flavor. You also couldn't always tell the difference between the scallops and pieces of bread by looking at them, but everything was tasty. The egg was also interesting because, since it was added right at the end and mixed in, the yolk added an extra layer of richness to the soup, while the egg whites added a soft, creamy texture to everything. Overall this was a very rich and garlicky soup/stew chock full of delicious seafood.

We loved our meal at Seabra's and while eating, were already planning out what we might order when we came back as we looked at all the dishes arriving at tables around us. (There were, as mentioned, lots of cockles and plenty of octopus, but we already knew those were winners.) We had a wonderful experience, and we definitely want to return for some more excellent Portuguese seafood.

Seabra's Marisqueira is located 87 Madison Street in the Ironbound District of Newark.