Olive Oil Ice Cream

To a non-Italian like me, this ice cream flavor initially sounded really strange. I mean, olive oil is almost never served in a sweet capacity, right? We enjoy it dipped in bread, drizzled over fresh mozarella, or poured over a savory soup. But then this past year, I started hearing about other ways in which olive oil could be used in a  sweet dessert.

First, there was the olive oil cake I had in Napa Valley at the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef's Competition Welcome Reception. Then I started seeing tweets from a certain food blogger who was basically obsessing over olive oil ice cream she had just enjoyed at Momofuku. She then somehow managed to procure a few pints (a secret supply that they keep in the back) from my favorite ice cream place in the world. A week later, after getting this exciting message on twitter, I walked, no I ran, down the street to pick up my own secret pint that was hidden in the back for me.

Though at first it took a little getting used to, the ice cream definitely grew on me. By the third night, I was craving the stuff, and would anticipate my bowl of olive oil ice cream every night.

So of course when I ran out, what did I do? I learned how to make it, of course. The recipe is surprisingly simple, and after doing just a tiny bit of research, I realized that this stuff is actually quite common in Italy. The quality of the olive oil matters a lot, so try to get the fruitiest, most floral olive oil you can find.


Heavy cream is not cheap, and I think most people would agree that making ice cream at home is actually not economical. It probably costs just as much as buying a tub in the supermarket.

The cheapest place I've found selling heavy cream, by far, is Costco. You can get a quart for less than $3, which is about half the cost of most places. Half and Half at Costco is really cheap too. As a result, I have optimized most of my ice cream recipes according to ingredients I can easily and inexpensively obtain at Costco.

Definitely don't skimp on the quality of the olive oil, as this recipe is so simple that the quality of every single ingredient matters a lot. This recipe also makes an ice cream that is not super sweet. If you like sweeter ice creams, I would recommend adding more sugar than what I have added. Personally, I think an olive oil ice cream should not be too sweet. Some recipes even recommend pairing the ice cream with a dash of sea salt on top.


Olive Oil Ice Cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
4 egg yolks, beaten
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Dissolve sugar, heavy cream, and half and half in a pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar has melted. While stirring the heated mixture with a whisk, add in the beaten egg yolks in a slow but steady stream. Continue stirring until all the egg yolk is incorporated. Continue heating and stirring over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon (~8-10 minutes). Optionally filter the mixture through a sieve to remove any small egg yolk solids. Add the olive oil and stir to combine. You can put the mixture into an ice bath and stir (like I did) to cool it more quickly before putting it in the refrigerator. Cool the mixture overnight.

The next day, you may notice that the cream mixture may have separated from the oil mixture. Stir to re-mix the two different phases and pour into an ice cream maker. Make ice cream according to the manufacturer's instructions. I personally use a Lello Gelato Pro, which I love because it has its own condenser, which means you can make ice cream anytime of the day on a whim. I've had the unit for years and have never had a problem with it. It is very reliable.

Most ice creams that I make need to be put into the freezer for a few hours before they can be served. This ice cream is so thick, rich, and creamy, you can serve it right out of the ice cream maker!

Enjoy!


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Frozen Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches
Frozen Yogurt (Froyo) Popsicles

Top Chef Master Mini-Series Part II: Rialto

As Top Chef Masters comes to a close, I thought I would do a tiny-mini-series highlighting the two chefs from my hometown of Cambridge who competed this season. Check out the first post in this series, Oleana, Ana Sortum's Mediterranean restaurant in Cambridge. Ana Sortum was eliminated early in the show. Jody Adams, on the other hand, made the final eight and did not get eliminated until her undercooked goat dish in the "Exotic Surf & Turf" episode.

Rialto is Jody Adams' restaurant and it sits in the Charles Hotel right in the middle of Harvard Square in Cambridge. Known for rustic Italian food with a local, New England flair, Rialto has long been regarded as one of the best modern dining experiences in Boston.

Unlike many chefs who competed in Top Chef Masters, Jody was never formally trained in culinary school. In fact, she graduated with a degree in Anthropology from Brown University (!). She then started by working as a line cook at Seasons restaurant for Lydia Shire, and moved up the ranks, opening Hamersley's Bistro as a sous-chef with Gordon Hamersley and eventually opening up Rialto in 1994. Since then she has won numerous awards, from the James Beard Foundation Award for the Best Chef Award, Northeast to having Rialto named  as one of the best restaurants in the country by Esquire Magazine.

We visited Rialto on a beautiful Friday evening when we were able to book an early reservation for a wonderful seat right next to the window.  The critics are right - the food is fantastic and definitely worth trying. Currently, Jody Adams is featuring foods inspired by Venice, so you'll see some dishes reminiscent of that region.

Parma prosciutto… sweet and sour beets, burrata, candied walnuts $17
I love the simple freshness of this dish. The creamy burrata is heavenly, and the rest of the ingredients work very well together. Having said all that, the preparation of this dish is very simple, and if you bought the same ingredients, you could probably just as easily roast your own beets, buy some high quality burrata (or at least a fantastic local alternative), and make this dish at home.

Pat and Barbara’s perfect grilled littlenecks… andouille, toasted garlic bread  $18
Bryan ordered these clams as his starter and they were very good. The clams are super fresh, simply topped with some chopped parsley and lemon juice. 

Nettle minestrone… morels, tiny pea ravioli, pesto $13
I loved my farm fresh soup full of morel mushrooms, fresh peas, and these tiny pea raviolis, which were just delightful. These tiny handmade pasta pockets have the perfect al dente texture, filled with tiny bursts of peas. I love it. The broth is also very light, yet full of flavor. I love it when a dish is super healthy and incredibly delicious at the same time.

Wavy black ink risotto with New England razor, mahogany and littleneck  16/30
Jody Adams took the classic Venetian dish (squid ink risotto), and gave it a New England flare by adding local clams. The resulting dish is richly full of strong seafood flavors, both from the squid ink and also the countless clams that were cooked to make the broth. There are several types of clams, including the unique longish one (razor clams) you see in the picture. Overall, a deep, dark, rich and savory dish. 

Slow roasted Long Island duck breast… escarole, roasted fingerlings, Sicilian olives 36
This is the most popular dish at Rialto and Jody Adams has been making it the same way for 20 years. Jody even said that whenever she tries to take it off the menu she gets letters of protest. Bryan enjoyed the duck immensely. It was perfectly cooked and had a wonderfully fragrant, slightly sweet flavor.

Pansôti… herb ravioli, nut sauce, farm egg 15/28
Looking to get something a bit lighter, I decided to order a pasta dish instead of a meat dish as my main entree. This simple pansôti, which is like a ravioli of sorts, was delicious. The pansôti, when cut open, explodes with chopped up fragrant herbs mixed with a creamy sauce. The perfectly poached farm egg on top is a delight to break open.

Of course, I happily mixed the egg yolks around and enjoyed it together with the rest of the elements on the plate.

Here is a close up of the pansôti cut open and the egg yolks oozing all over the place!

Pistachio olive oil cake, Toasted almond panna cotta, Chili chocolate sorbet $12
For dessert, we shared a trio of desserts. I thought the dessert was fine, although nothing particularly special. 


Overall Thoughts
Jody Adams clearly has a knack for creating wonderfully flavorful dishes that really bring out an ingredient's natural flavors. I love how she really focuses on local organic farms, to the point where she actually takes her staff to these farms once a month (she calls it "Guerilla Grilling") so they can become better acquainted with those that source the ingredients at Rialto. She is also passionate about a variety of social causes and is a strong supporter of Partners In Health. Currently, all proceeds from vegetable side dishes at Rialto go directly to Partners In Health.

I definitely recommend trying Rialto. You won't be disappointed with the food, and the ambiance and service are fantastic as well. They are currently building an outside deck that should be ready mid to late June. Though the interior space is already gorgeous (recently renovated), I think sitting outside would be such a fun thing to do on a perfect day. You can almost imagine you are in Italy - savoring delicious Italian-inspired dishes made with fresh, local ingredients while sipping on a glass of wine on a warm summer night.

Rialto
Harvard Square (inside the Charles Hotel)
1 Bennett St
Cambridge, MA 02138

Top Chef Masters Mini Series Part I: Ana Sortun and Oleana

As Top Chef Masters comes to a close, I thought I would do a tiny-mini-series highlighting the two chefs from my hometown of Cambridge who competed this season. Of course, that would be Ana Sortun from Oleana and Jody Adams from Rialto. I first reviewed Oleana back in 2007 (in the super early days of this blog when it still had a different name!) right after I had passed the bar exam. Because it's been 3 years since then, I thought it was time for another review.

Hot Pepper Labne with Olive Oil & Dried Mint $4

Oleana is a Mediterranean restaurant tucked slightly off the beaten-track in between Central Square and Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA. Interestingly, Chef-owner Ana Sortun is actually Norwegian-American by background, but she learned and fell in love with Turkish cuisine on a trip to Turkey in the late 1990's. Before long in 2001, she incorporated these ideas into her new restaurant Oleana, which focused on inventive dishes made with local, organic* produce using the unique spices of the Mediterranean region. By 2005, Chef Sortun had already won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Northeast.

Oleana sources its vegetables from Siena Farms, a local farm that practices sustainable organic methods of farming. Conveniently, Ana's husband Chris Kurth is a farmer and together they own this farm. I recently received my first shipment of vegetables from them.

Some of my favorite items on the Oleana menu include Whipped Feta with Sweet & Hot Peppers($5), the Deviled Eggs with Tuna & Black Olives ($6), and the Vegetable Tasting Menu (5-course + dessert $40). Here's a sampling of photos from our last visit. I ordered the Vegetable Tasting Menu and Bryan ordered a traditional appetizer and meat entree.

Tasting Menu
The first course of the vegetable tasting menu was the Hot Pepper Labne with Olive Oil & Dried Mint $4 (pictured above). Labne is a super thick Greek yogurt. It's so thick, it's almost like eating cream cheese (except that it tastes sour like yogurt). Though I thought the yogurt tasted interesting and pretty good (in small doses), I found it to be extremely heavy and rich. I actually had a hard time finishing it. Frankly, I would have preferred a smaller portion!

Asparagus, Cucumber, Radish with Chopped Nuts
I love getting the vegetable tasting menu because you never know what you expect. Furthermore, it often features very fresh, seasonal vegetables straight for their farm. Here, we have sugar snap peas, asparagus, cucumber, radishes, and a tiny bit of lettuce. Sorry, I can't remember what the yellow cubes are - maybe some sort of turnip?

Fresh crushed English peas, Quinoa, and Pea Tendrils
I love fresh peas, and these were no exception. This dish was light and flavorful and I just felt good eating it because the components were so healthy yet delicious because the ingredients themselves are just inherently already so good.

Spinach Falafel with Tahini, Yogurt, Beets & Cress 11
I've said this before, but the spinach falafel is not my favorite. The beet sauce is unique and the flavors are enjoyable, but I'm always disappointed because the falafel itself tastes a bit bland to me. I think much prefer a traditional falafel.

Wild mushrooms, ramps, and goat cheese
This was one of my favorite dishes. The dish is simple, but the flavors of the ingredients really shine: the sweetness of the ramps, the earthiness of the mushroom, and the creaminess of the goat cheese.

Bryan's Dishes

Kingfish Nayeh with Turkish Spices, Pickled Spring Onion & Tarragon
Bryan got this as his appetizer. Raw Kingfish is served under a bed of pickled spring onions and spices. Fried pita chips are included on the side. The waitress had recommended this as one of her favorite dishes (I told you Bryan loves asking waitstaff their favorites dishes). Personally, I don't think either of us loved the very sour preparation of this dish. The flavor of the pickled onions was quite strong. It was hard to actually taste the flavors of the Kingfish. We were both relatively lukewarm about this appetizer.

Bryan ordered this roasted duck (a special of the day), also based on the recommendation of the waitress. Bryan thought the duck was very well prepared, with excellent texture and flavor. (I did not try it - the 5 course tasting was already plenty of food!).

Dessert

Here is a duo of desserts, with a strong apricot juice on the left and a phyllo dough cake on the right. I loved the crisp, fresh flavor of the apricot juice. The flavors were so real - it tasted like someone pureed an apricot right into the cup. The phyllo dough cake was also very good.

Salted Butter Ice Cream & Petite Caramel Soufflé with Pineapple & Cashew Crisp 13
I loved this dessert. I think it was either because of the salted butter ice cream or the cashew crisp. Whatever the case, I could not stop eating it. The crunch from the candied cashews matched perfectly with the butter ice cream and the tart pineapple. Delicious - highly recommended.

Ana Sortun is a really hard worker, and she still is in the kitchen seemingly most nights. Bryan snapped a few photos of her inspect final dishes before they went out.


Overall thoughts

I really think this is a very unique restaurant in Cambridge and definitely worth visiting. Ana is very creative and comes up with all sorts of interesting dishes. If you love vegetables (like I do), you should definitely try the vegetable tasting menu. I do like some of the other non-vegetarian entrees, though, so it's still worth going with someone else who can order the rest of the non-vegetarian things so you can try them too!

I guess the only reason why you might not like this place is if you don't like Turkish spices. Even though Ana is an excellent chef, Bryan just doesn't get that excited about the food at Oleana because, at the end of the day, he just doesn't love Mediterranean cuisine.

I personally love it, though, and it's still one of my favorite restaurants in Cambridge.  They have an awesome roofdeck dining area that I still have not had a chance to experience. I hope to go back soon - if nothing else, to get better photos of some of her fabulous dishes outside where lighting is better!

Oleana
134 Hampshire St
Cambridge, MA 02139


*Siena Farms' vegetables are not USDA certified organic but they use sustainable organic farming methods. See more here.

Tiny Urban Tidbits #7

Tiny Urban Tidbits is where I share with you some insights, "tidbits", or just random encounters from the week. I carry my camera with me everywhere I go, and I love capturing photos of interesting things that I discover. These may include new dishes from a restaurant that I've already reviewed, updates on what's going on locally, or encounters I've had in the kitchen. It could even include a beautiful sunset, a funny sign, or just stuff I find amusing. Think of it as snapshots (literally!) of my weekly experiences with food - intertwined with stories, of course.
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I am a member of the wellness committee at my workplace, and I love some of the benefits we dream up for our workers in an effort to keep them healthy. This year, we provided an opportunity for our employees to participate in a CSA (community supported agriculture) with Siena Farms in Sudbury, MA. Employees pay in advance for a "share" of the season's produce. From June until November, crop share members receive a new box of vegetables every week, delivered straight to our workplace.

Siena Farms is owned by Farmer Chris Kurth and his wife, Ana Sortum, chef/owner of Oleana and Sofra Bakery (not to mention Top Chef Masters contestant this season!). The farm is named after their daughter, Siena.

Here's a peek at what I got this week. I decided to share a box with a co-worker, so what you're seeing is half a box (~$15 worth).

French Breakfast Radishes
Related to the turnip and the radish, these babies are milder in flavor and typically are harvested early in their growing season. If they are harvested too late, they become bitter and pithy.

Cilantro
Also known as coriander, this herb has a very distinct flavor, loved by some (like Bryan), and despised by others. About half a dozen unsaturated aldehydes make up the flavor profile for cilantro. Some of these aldehydes are very similar to aldehydes found in soaps. Other aldehydes contribute to the pleasant cilantro-like aromas that cilantro-lovers embrace.

There are several theories as to why people are so divided about cilantro. Some say that people who hate cilantro do not have the ability to detect the positive smelling compounds in cilantro, and thus only taste the soapy stuff. Harold McGee in an oft-quoted New York Times article surmises that our brains make associations between various compounds and food experiences. If a particular flavor does not match a food experience, some people may automatically classify it as "chemical" or "soap" and thus reject it outright.

I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm not like Bryan, who will happily eat cilantro in handfuls like he's eating a salad. Yet, I am not turned off by it either, and will happily enjoy food garnished with the herb.

An interesting fact: in Mandarin Chinese, cilantro translates to "fragrant greens." Maybe most Chinese people have the gene that allows them to smell the sweet smelling compounds?

Dill
This fragrant herb is best used fresh as it loses its flavors pretty quickly. I hope to make some delicious gravlax with it, maybe using the same method I used in making my citrus-marinated salmon.

Mottistone "Summer Crisp" Batavian Lettuce
This relatively uncommon lettuce is uniquely speckled with patches of red. Trevor from Siena Farms cautions against dressing these delicate leaves too heavily with strong acids or thick dressings.

Broccoli Rabe
Also known as rapini or broccoli rape, this relative of broccoli has a much more pungent and slightly bitter flavor. It pairs wonderfully with sausage for a fantastic Italian pasta dish.

Romaine Lettuce
You see this at every supermarket, but I have to say this is the largest Romaine lettuce head I have ever seen in my entire life. Keep in mind I was sharing this, so I had already removed half the leaves of this giant for my box-share buddy.

Though most people associate Romaine lettuce with salads (most notably Caesar), I personally love stir frying it with garlic,a little bit of salt, and a splash of soy sauce. It's a great way to use up such a large head of lettuce (since vegetables shrink significantly when you stir-fry them), and it tastes light and refreshing.

Salad Mix: Mini Green Oak Leaf Lettuce, Arugula, and Peppercress.
I've never had peppercress, but Trevor says it's tangy and peppery. I can't wait to try making some salad with this delicate bunch of leaves.

Next Week: Mini Top Chef Masters Series
As Top Chef Masters is coming to a close, I thought I would do a mini-series based on the show. Some of you may be aware of this, but Cambridge was fortunate enough to send TWO chefs to compete in this season's show. Ana Sortum from Oleana (wife of Farmer Chris from Siena Farms), and Jody Adams of Rialto, who made it pretty far before being eliminated because of her undercooked goat.

Bryan and I visited both of their flagship restaurants in Cambridge pretty recently. Next week, you'll get a detailed look into the meals that we enjoyed at each of these two very different yet excellent restaurants.

Ana happened to be in the kitchen the night we dined there. Bryan caught a photo of her inspecting the dishes before going out.

No sighting of Jody, but I did think it was cute how all the waitstaff were dressed in that same white top and orange apron that Jody wears on the show. It felt like dozens of Jodys were roaming around the restaurant serving us.

Stay tuned next week for detailed descriptions and many photos of food from both of these excellent restaurants.

Until then, have a fabulous weekend!

Sous-vide Steak

One of my most popular posts of all times is my tutorial on how to make perfect steaks in a tiny apartment by first cooking the steak at low heat in the oven and then briefly pan searing it. I have used this "oven to pan" method countless times, and it was my favorite way of making perfect steaks at home.

Until now.

Last week I figured out a way to use my Magic Cooker (which, frankly, had been basically collecting dust up to this point) to make sous-vide salmon. I was so thrilled with the results that I knew I had to try it with steak.

As you can see from the above picture, the steak turned out beautifully. And honestly, using this method, you spend even less time searing it, which means even less smoke - perfect for a tiny kitchen in a tiny condo.


What had made the oven-to-pan method work so well was that you monitored the temperature religiously with a thermometer, taking the steak out the moment it hit a certain temperature. You would then pan sear it briefly to create the beautiful crust.

The sous-vide method works on the same exact principle, except that the water bath prevents the steak from ever getting hotter than the desired temperature, which means there is no risk of overcooking your meat. You can stick your steak in the water bath for hours before cooking it, and it will still turn out the same level of doneness.

Using a similar method as I used for the salmon, I added hot water to the Magic Cooker and slowly added cold water until it was 124 °F (51° C).  120 °F (49° C) is the temperature for rare, but the water bath typically loses about 3-5 °F (1-2 ° C) when the cold steak is added to the water bath. I let it cook for 45 minutes, occasionally adding 5-10 mL of hot water if necessary to bring the temperature back up to 120 °F  (49° C).

According to this great Serious Eats article by Kenji Lopez-Alt, that I used as a reference, here are the temperatures you should aim for:

Rare: 120 ° F (49° C)
Medium Rare: 130 ° F (55° C)
Medium: 140 ° F (60° C)
Medium Well: 150 ° F (66° C)
Well done: 160 ° F (71° C)

According to Lopez-Alt, cooking medium rare provides the best combination of texture and flavor. Referring to the medium-rare steaks cooked at 130 ° F, Lopez-Alt remarked "even self-proclaimed rare meat lovers preferred this one, making it the most popular selection."

After 45 minutes, I removed the bag and pan seared briefly (about 1 minute), just to get the crusty edge. Make sure that the grill pan is plenty hot and ready to take on the steak. You don't want to cook it for too long!

Turn around, briefly sear the other side.

No need to rest, serve immediately!

I shaved some asparagus to put on top as a garnish. I first saw this done when I had the Tasting of Vegetables at Per Se in New York.

Serve!

Sous-vide Steak in a Magic Cooker
1 inch thick steak (around 16 oz)
Vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Season steak liberally with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Seal with a vacuum sealer.

Boil 1.5 L water (e.g., in an electric kettle). Add the boiling water to the Magic Cooker and slowly add room temperature water until the temperature is around 135 °F. Submerge the vacuum-packed steak and cook for 45 minutes, adding small amounts of hot water as needed to keep the temperature around 130 °F. When the 45 minutes are about up, prepare a hot pan with vegetable oil for searing. After 45 minutes, remove the vacuum packed steak from the bag and sear briefly for 1 minute on each side.

Serve immediately (no need to rest).

Notes & Lessons Learned
Maybe it was beginner's luck, but my first time making this was so easy and everything worked out perfectly. Confident that I had mastered sous-vide cooking, I invited a couple of people over and ambitiously decided to make FOUR steaks at once.

Well, I learned a few things.

1. Don't try sticking two steaks straight from the refrigerator into the little Magic Cooker. It will significantly bring down the temperature of the water bath (like 8-10° F drop!).  You will spend much of the remaining 45 minutes adding hot water to the Magic Cooker trying to bring the temperature back up. The act of pouring hot water into the Magic Cooker will inevitably cause uneven cooking, as the parts of the steak that come in contact with the hot water will cook a bit more.

Bottom line: volume of water to steak size ratio is important for maintenance of constant temperature in the magic cooker.

2. Make sure to dry defrosted steaks before vacuum sealing. The first steak I made was fresh from the market, so it was not too wet. As a result, I obtained a beautiful sear on my steaks. My second set of four steaks had been defrosted from the freezer. The frozen steaks had lost a bit of water, and therefore a little ice had accumulated outside of the steaks. I had failed to dry the steaks well before vacuum sealing them, so my steaks were wetter than I would have liked, which means they did not have as lovely as a sear as my first steak.

I Still Love This Method
Despite the difficulties I encountered when cooking four steaks, I still stand by my original assertion that this is my new favorite way of making steak. There was hardly any smoke created when searing, even less than my oven-to-pan seared method, which is so nice when you live in a tiny condo. Plus, you don't have to stress that much about possibly overcooking the meat. The worse that could happen is that the temperature drops, meaning you have to add hot water to bring it back up. And the steaks turn out perfectly!

I guess the only negatives I can think of are the time it takes (45 minutes minimum for steak), and also the possible risks (if any) associated with cooking your food in plastic.

In any event, only time will tell which method I end up using going forward. At the least, I am thrilled to have at least TWO awesome methods for making steak at home.

El Potro

I love cheap ethnic hole-in-the-walls that are hidden finds. When I started reading about El Potro online, I became excited at the prospect that this just might be another one of those gems. Though El Potro calls itself a Mexican Grill (most likely in order to attract enough business), it's actually arguably a Salvadoran/Colombian restaurant at its roots. Maybe all around "Latin" or "South American" cuisine would be a more accurate description of this place.

Bryan always likes to ask the server for recommendations whenever we visit a place for the first time.

"What's your favorite dish? What do you like on the menu?"

In this case, I think the server was the teenage son of the family. He was quite cordial and very kind. Of course, he said he liked "everything" on the menu, but in the end he recommended Plato Montañero ($11.95), which is a traditional Colombian dish complete with plantains, fried pork belly, a skirt steak, and a fried egg on top. It sounded interesting, and definitely different from the typical Mexican food we'd tried, so we went for that. We also ordered up a storm, since we had purchased one of those restaurant.com coupons where we had to spend $35 in order to receive our $25 discount. Not an easy task when most menu items hover around $10!


We started with this salad that was included as part of the Plato Montañero (see below). It was not particularly memorable. Honestly, I don't really remember much about the salad, although the fact that it has avocados elevates it at least one level above your typical garden salad.

The Plato Montañero is one of their unique dishes, and it was definitely interesting.

What's in it? Grilled steak, deep fried pork rind, avocado, rice and beans plus a plantain all topped with a fried egg. I definitely have never had anything quite like this before. I think it's hard for us to be completely objective in this case because we are not familiar with Colombian food. We both thought that the pork rind was impossibly chewy and very very difficult to eat.

This would normally be a criticism, but I just don't know whether an authentic version of the dish is supposed to taste like that or not. Is this normal? Impossibly-chewy-pull-your-teeth-out tough pork rinds? Anyone know? The rest of the dish was fine. The meat was a bit tough, but given the price of the dish, you can't exactly expect them to use the highest quality beef. It was also a bit more over-cooked than Bryan would have liked. The plantain, however, was sweet and nicely grilled, and the avocados and fried egg on top were a plus.

I thought this shrimp dish was pretty flavorful and well executed. At $9.95, it's a bargain overflowing with shrimp that's cooked to a perfect, bouncy texture. This dish felt reasonably healthy, which made me happy. I ate about half and took the rest home for another meal the next day.

Grilled Fish Tacos
This was probably the only completely Mexican thing that we ordered.  Bryan thought the grilled fish tacos were pretty good, but still conceded that he like the traditional Baja-style fresh fish tacos better.

Concluding Thoughts?
So was this the amazing ethnic hidden gem I was anticipating? Not exactly, but it's still a nice additional to the neighborhood.

It's definitely cool to have a Salvadoran restaurant nearby. I like how El Potro actually sells several authentic Latin dishes that you may not find elsewhere. Of course, they have your run-of-the-mill Mexican entrees, which they execute well enough. But what makes this place more interesting are the other Latin dishes such as fried yucca root, pupusas (Salvadoran), and the Plato Montañero (see above).

I am guessing the Latin food is relatively authentic. While we were there, several Hispanic customers came by and ordered interesting looking food that I wanted to try too. At one point, we were the only non-Hispanic people in the dining area (although to be fair there were only like 6-8 people in the dining area).

The prices are pretty cheap (most things cost under $10) and the portion sizes are generous. It's by no means the best Mexican restaurant around (we think we'll stick with its neighbor Cantina La Mexicana from now on for that), but it's worth checking out, if nothing else, to get a little taste of Salvadoran / Colombian cuisine in a small, quaint and cozy family-run restaurant. They often have coupons on Restaurant.com, so if you want to try it without spending a lot of money, that's not a bad way to go.

If you want to keep your teeth, you might want to avoid the fried pork rinds. Other than that, definitely try some of the other Latin dishes! I'm still wishing I had ordered some pupusas or fried yucca.

El Potro
61 Union Sq
Somerville, MA 02143