Have you ever had a dinner so good, that it makes you both satisfied and relaxed?
Tigger came over today to pick up some stuff I bought for him using my employee discount, and offered to take us to dinner. We were craving Mexican, but not necessarily Mission taqueria mexican. I was interested in more hearty authentic Mexican, not Cal-Mex.
C and I searched online for quite some time for a restaurant, and I stumbled upon this place I have never heard of on Yelp (Michoacan cuisine – they call it a mexican bistro). The reviews were consistently good, and the menu was interesting, so, we went for it.
God. We expected it to be good, but instead it was so fucking amazing. I have eaten at many well-known and well-established places in SF, but very few have been memorable. This restaurant was exquisite. Every fucking bite – from the hand-made corn tortillas (THIS is what corn tortillas should taste like – so fresh that you can actually taste the roasted corn) to the warm mexican chocolate cake – produced orgasmic responses. So much so, that our neighbor at nearby tables had to ask us what we were eating.
Our dinner:
Hand-made corn tortillas w/3 salsas – a red, a verde, and a mango-corn salsa.
Guacamole – made fresh at the table
Sopes surtidas (pollo, chilorio y vegetables) – sope assortment with beans, chicken, shredded pork, sauteed vegetables; with crumbled queso fresco and a drizzle of sour cream
Pechuga rellena de huitlacoche – chicken breast stuffed with a mix of huitlacoche, chayote squash and fresh corn, served over a roasted garlic sauce (dude, I have no idea how they made chicken this good, but this was fucking insanely good)
Pescado del dia – pan seared sea bass served over garlic-chorizo sauce with sauteed green beans adn chayote squash, topped with huitlachoche
Carnitas – Michoacan style marinated chunks of pork served with guajillo and arbol chiles salsa (the salsa was perfection. I could have drank the stuff. Just the right amount of heat)
Pastel de chocolate – warm Mexican chocolate cake (when C took a bite of this, she dropped her spoon, it was so good)
Flan con cafe y tequila – Coffee and tequila flan.
After eating the meal, we were so giddy and happy and in love with everyone. When the food settled, it felt so satisfying, our entire bodies felt so relaxed.
I have no idea where this restaurant came from or why we never heard of it, but its one of those places where you can tell they really care about the food. It’s not yet trendy, and I hope that nobody catches on, bc once people get wind of this, it will be all downhill. We have a pact to only let people know of this place if they are truly a foodie, if they truly will appreciate it, and if they promise to keep their mouths shut. It really was that good.
And I am so fucking happy right now. It’s like the world just became a better place because of that one meal.
In other news:
while purchasing items for my costa rica trip, I was hit on by a guy in the store. This is kind of a boring story, but I figured that its been a while since I’ve written about anything but work, that I should go ahead and include this in.
Anyway–I went to the store to get some crap for my trip. I was wearing these shoes I bought a long time ago that are kind of (why am i describing this) like a combo of hiking shoe and water shoe. They are kinda weird, so I thought I would wear them out and about to see if they were comfortable enough to, say, hike in costa rica with. While at the store, this guy came up to me and said, “hey can I ask you a question.” I was really taken aback by this random guy asking me a question. I waited for him. “Hey, what do you think of those shoes? I was going to get some like that, but I didnt know – do you like them?” We talked about my shoes, and then he said, “I’m not trying to hit on you or anything, I just really wanted to know if you liked those shoes.” I said no problem and we parted ways.
A bit later, he came up to me again and said, “I know this is weird but I saw you again in the store and I knew that if I didn’t at least try to talk to you again, I would regret it.” We chitchatted. He asked me if I was in school and I said no, I graduated. “I mean from college?” Yeah, I graduated. “Not high school…” yeah, Ive long since graduated from high school and college. He was in disbelief. We talked about work stuff for a while and then he said that he was sorry to bring up the topic of work. More chit chat and then, “well, I don’t want to bother you any longer, but I have to ask – do you have a boyfriend?”
In these situations, I really wish I could lie, but I fucking couldnt. so I sorta lied and said that I dont have a bf per se, but that I’m separated from my exbf who is living overseas for 2 years and I want to work it out with him. He said, “oh, so he’s in iraq or something?” (I never thought about that, but I think I will use that as my new excuse) I said he was in the Peace Corps and that he was going to move back to SF soon and even though I was technically single, I didn’t want to jeopardize anything. Obviously I was referring to X2 – he was the first person who came to mind, and the most accessible story I had at the moment.
He asked if I wanted to be friends and I said, sure, we can be friends if thats what he really wanted. And that he can email me if he wanted blah blah. I mean, nice enough guy but I dunno. I highly doubt we could be “just friends” or for that matter, more than friends. And secondly, why is it that guys always hit on me when I look my ugliest?
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Last boy tidbit that is not really a boy tidbit – Before costa rica, I was seriously considering hawaii because i found tickets there for $250 RT. One of the guys I met at the wedding, Dave, lives there, and so I emailed him out of the blue to ask him if he thought it was worth it for me to go there (Honolulu) as a solo traveler (i didnt want to impose, nor did I want to suggest). He wrote back to tell me that HI is cool and all, but that I’d probably enjoy Maui more and that the nightlife and restaurants – aka “the scene” – was nothing like SF, or even Austin.
After his words, i really started to reconsider hawaii, and then started to think of going to mexico. He told me to let him know either way.
And then, as you know, mexico turned to costa rica.
I wrote to tell him that I had changed my mind and he wrote back:
Ahhhhh Man, I already told all my friends my girlfriend was visiting from San Francisco.
heh. I only include this not bc there is anything going on between us, but bc I find it amusing nonetheless.
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But back to my fucking fantastic meal. For once, I didn’t think of Sunday as in “God, I hate Sunday nights” because of the looming fact that work falls the following day. No, this meal pretty much snapped me into the most visceral of moments and now I can go to sleep satisfied and full.
I think I will sleep very well tonight.
