So I'm doing a restaurant review here.
For my birthday, my family and I went to The Breadfruit in downtown phoenix.
For my birthday, my family and I went to The Breadfruit in downtown phoenix.
The place is a pretty modern upscale tiny restaurant. There were about 5 tables when we walked in and they had to push two of them together to fit out party of five. One thing they promote is that they get all their ingredients from a local farm down on 24th st and Baseline. The prices weren't absurd. Most entrees were 10 dollars and some were 13 to 14. We didn't try any of the desserts because they each ran close to full entree prices. The portion sizes for a few of the dishes were a little small but others weren't. I want to go back to check out a few of the dishes we didn't get, namely the Curried Chicken and Dumplings.
I got the Escovitch Fish and Festival which is pictured above. Before going in I knew this is what I wanted to get to compare it to Jeremy's Island party fish escovitch. The fish was talapia and the festival in the name referred to the sweet bread stick sitting on the cabbage and carrots. Right above that in the picture you can see a small bowl that contained the escovitch sauce. This was quite a few degrees hotter than Jeremy's sauce. It didn't have bell peppers, only onions, habenero and whole all spice berries. I actually preferred Jeremy's escovitch over this one, which isn't to say this one was bad. The talapia was just a lot thinner so you didn't get that good full bite feeling from it, and the fish itself wasn't as full bodied as the red snapper. In Jeremy's, he had enough veggies to eat with the fish, while this, the onions on top only added a slight seasoning to each bite of fish. But enough about the comparisons. Now we talk about the other good stuff here.
My dad and I both got a mango mint lemonade that was really tasty. There were quite a few chunks of mint and mango pulp but the flavor was awesome.
My mom got the Jerk Chicken off the Grill. It was maybe my favorite thing I tasted. The chicken had a mango chutney stuffed into the crevices of the breast and on top that was killer. My dad got the Jerk Shrimp off the Grill that I didn't get to try because he ate it fairly quickly. I did try his corn on the cob that came with it. It tasted like are really nice fresh grilled corn but had another layer that tasted like it had been marinating in coconut milk before being cooked up.
My sister and Tarrin both got the Brown Stew Chicken which was pretty good. The serving size on this dish was much larger. It was filled out with basmati rice and red beans which I finished off both of their plates when they couldn't eat any more. It was seriously good, especially when it mixed into the Brown chicken sauce. The chicken was really soft and fell apart, and the stew sauce was dark and tasted like a beef stew that had been cooked down to a much richer gravy. Super good.
So yeah we didn't get any desserts but on the way home we stopped at the Churro Station and got like 6 churros filled with a variety of sweet stuff and since they were closing for the night, they tossed in like 4 extra regular churros for free. So I guess this is also a Churro Station review.
My Kitchen My Country - An Ecuadorian restaurant on 43rd Ave. and Bell.
For my birthday dinner, my family and I went to this small restaurant that I have been to a few times before. There are only about 5 tables, and I have only ever seen working there the one waiter who is also maybe the owner. There are other people in the kitchen, but I have never seen them. The food is really cheap, less than $10 for most plates, with healthy portions.
Everything I have eaten there has been delicious. Most of the meats are semi-sweet and seem to have been slowly braised until they are tender and full of flavor. They serve complimentary chips and salsa before the meal, and the salsa is hottest thing I have eaten there. That is not to say that it is super hot; it is only warm with lots of flavor.
Here are a few of the dished we ordered:
This is my plate: ceviche de pescado. Fish cold cooked in lemon and lime juice with spices. It was a massive plate with onions, cilantro, and lettuce. Instead of a main dish, I would next time get this as an appetizer between a few people.
Our actual appetizer: tamales combination plate. 3 different tamales, all yummy. The lightest colored one on the top had cheese, egg, and a large pepper in it. The middle was the official ecuadorian tamale with tomato, peppers and pork wrapped in a banana leaf. The reddish one on the bottom tasted more like a traditional mexican tamale. NOM!
My moms plate: Mi bandera, my flag. This one has a little bit of everything on it and is one of my favorites. Fried plantanes, roasted pork, a potato pancake with a cheese and peanut sauce, hominy, pickled onions, avocado, fried empanada with a creamy filling, and a spicy pico de gallo made from aji chillies which is the same source of heat as the salsa
My Dad's: Sobrebarriga Bogotana. A big ole plate of slow cooked beef brisket with carrots and onions with a side of potatoes and cream sauce. This is half way through eating. It is super tender and rich as hell. The potato side is mild and gives a good palate cleansing between bites of the beef.My sister ordered the pollo de seco, a chicken stew, that we didn't get a picture of. It comes out in a large bowl with an island of yellow rice sitting in the middle of a flavorful stew with pieces of slow cooked chicken. I've had this before and when I ate it I first eroded the island away with my spoon. The rice then soaked up most of the liquid of the stew and it was like eating a delicious paella.
Another thing we didn't get a picture of was my drink. I ordered the chicha morada. A unfermented, and so non-alcoholic, black corn juice tea thing with some spices. It tastes like sweat pineapple-grape juice with some mild spices. Spices that might be found in an eggnog. This recipe here might be accurate.
I have also found, online, one of my favorite dishes from the place: sango de camarones. A shrimp stew in a spicy sweet peanut sauce.And as I said, this place is cheap, filling and most importantly delicious. GO THERE!
http://chicagohamburger.com/Where: 3749 E. Indian School Road - Phoenix, Arizona
What: Some of the best burgers in Arizona.
This place has been one of our favorites for years now. We were originally turned onto it by Mike, who had originally seen it in a vision after hours of torturous vomiting induced by ingesting the sacred ayahuasca vine on one of his weekly excursions to the Amazon.
It is greasy. It is messy. It will give you heartburn, and just sort of generally mess your whole system up potentially. But ignore all that, because most importantly it is super, duper good. The place has charm up the flue, and a staff that is really friendly, and obviously bonded like family. It's all run by this guy Bob who is one of the coolest, and nicest people I've ever met.
Anyway, onto the food:
This particular outing I went with my usual - the 1/3 pound cheddar burger, with a side of fries. It's big and fantastic, and ranks in the top 3 of my favorite burgers anywhere. It's got cheddar in the title, but instead of using real cheese they use that fake, cheez-wizish stadium stuff that just makes it that much greasier. Some people would view fake cheese like that as a negative, and for most everything else I would too, but in a burger - the kind that seems to celebrate ignoring better judgement and lets good health be damned - it's exactly what the doctor ordered.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out, for those of you who haven't seen it already, our restaurant map. It is currently featured at the very bottom of this blog, so if you scroll down you'll find it. Basically, our plan is to put any restaurant that gets reviewed on this blog, good or bad, on the map. So don't hesitate to post a review for any restaurant. Pictures are appreciated but not necessary.
