I have excellent news for my neighbors: the new Mexican place at the Market 32 shopping center near the high school (formerly Tequila’s and before that, LT’s) is open and it’s very tasty.
I took this quick picture of the front of Catrina’s Mexican Grill & Bar as I was biking by to report the good news to Cute W, and we reported for dinner almost immediately. The windows are basically blacked out, so you just need to go if you want to get a good look at the place. First, the bad news: they do Pepsi products instead of Coke, and they don’t yet have a liquor license: they’re hoping they can start serving alcohol in about two weeks. Now the good news: it is fully redecorated, so it’s not that vaguely depressing, half-assed decor of Tequila’s (I’m sorry: Tequila’s was fine and Cute W and I definitely enjoyed splitting nachos and a pitcher of margaritas, but it never had much of a vibe). The service was excellent and quick, and the food was really good. After noshing on chips and salsa (tasty), we started with the Guacamole Azteca, because even though we would have happily eaten any of the appetizers, guacamole is essential. And hooray: it was excellent. After that, Cute W ordered the Chile Verde (pork with tomatillo sauce) and I had the mixed Chicken & Steak Fajitas. Cute W was extremely happy with his choice: the tomatillo sauce was very tangy and the pork was good enough that I liked it too (I can be fussy about pork). The fajitas were a step above average, in my opinion, because they actually had a nice char to them, and every bite was tasty. The rice and beans were yummy, too. We look forward to going back and working our way through the margarita menu! Forgive the very poor lighting, but here’s the guacamole and the sizzling portion of the fajitas:
If you’re not in my neighborhood, or if you just don’t mind eating aaaalllll the Mexican food available, we also recently tried Don Juan’s Mexican Grill & Cantina, which in on Route 7 between the Sonic and the Northway. We were just in the mood to try something new, and I’m so glad we went. Their guacamole was phenomenal. It was one of those spots where the server pushes around a cart of supplies and mixes and mashes it up in front of you. Honestly, the rest of the food was good, but the drinks and guacamole was the highlight. I hadn’t intended to write about our outing, but then the guacamole was so tasty that I was like, “I must tell The People!”, and that’s why I just finally took a picture after we’d eaten a lot of it.
That big ol’ drink you see is a Mangoneada, which was frozen mango nectar, tequila, and fresh lime. It was delicious.
In between these two Mexican adventures, we went out on a date to see the extremely fun Beauty and the Beast at Proctors (I wrote a review), and before the show, we went to The Nest.
You already know that we’re a fan of The Nest, but I feel compelled to alert you to a dish you absolutely must try if you are a meet eater: that item on the left is the Short Rib Hand Pie, and it was fantastic. So good. You can also see that we ordered the “Baller Biscuit Experience,” which offers up biscuits with honey butter, pimento cheese, ham, and pickles, and the biscuits are tasty and so is all of it, but, in a pinch, we could make all of that at home. The crab cake was tasty, as expected, but this time I was not as much of a fan of the horseradish slaw on top. But I didn’t know all that, since this time I took a “before” picture. I would soon learn that the hand pie would take it’s place alongside the Fried Green Tomatoes (of course we ordered them; they’re just not in the picture) as one of my absolute favorite appetizers ever.
Now to balance out all that eating, we’ve been doing a lot of biking and other things. But that’s for the next post.
