Home of the Salsa Tower

We met some friends for dinner last night at Evitas Botanitas - a hole-in-the-wall interior Mexican restaurant.  Their claim to fame is apparently their TOWER OF SALSA (I imagine a booming, echoing announcer saying that).  The salsa was definitely tasty – they have several different flavors and heat levels, so everyone was happy. The service was outstanding! Our one-woman-wonder of a server was friendly, offered suggestions, was on top of all of our needs…and was serving the entire restaurant and working the bar! She suggested the cilantro lime rice (they offer a traditional spanish rice as well) and the borracho beans – both were really incredible. Rice isn’t usually something people exclaim over, but this rice was out of this world! I’m not a huge borracho bean fan, but these beans had tons of flavor.  They even prepared a dish that wasn’t on the menu at the request of one of our friends (chicken enchiladas suiza). We’ll definitely be headed back there!

Austin’s Culinary Delights

 

 

After we packed up the yard sale remnants for the Salvation Army Saturday afternoon we headed out to meet some friends for dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants – Polvos, on South 1^st Street.  If you’ve never tried it you need to get up now and go.  Our table was loaded down with some seriously tasty dishes. We started with nachos and a sampling from the salsa bar. My favorite is the roasted salsa, though it’s not very spicy. We had the Puntas de Filete – beef sautéed with mushrooms and corn in a chipotle sauce, topped with Monterey Jack cheese and the Pescado al Horno – a lovely fish filet cooked in a foil pouch completely smothered in a ton of vegetables. The fish is served with a bowl of caldo de pollo – a chicken and mixed vegetable soup with Spanish rice. You can tell its been slow-cooked for hours – the flavor is unbelievable. My hubby had a fish exotic taco – fish, beans, rice, pico and an almond cream  sauce called Cartuja Pipian. The only sour note was that my Mexican martini was, well, sour. After I stirred in several packets of sugar it was much better. I think it was just lime juice and tequila. I think next time I’ll stick with the frozen margarita.  

 

 

After dinner we ran by Sugar Mama’s, a new bakery down the street.  A friend recommended we try their cupcakes. We’ve tried three of the flavors so far – saving the last two for tomorrow. Our favorite so far is the Peanut Butter Cup(cake). A super-dense chocolate cupcake, with peanut butter chocolate chips, and a rich peanut butter icing.  The Banana Puddin’ is pretty darn good too – banana cake filled with banana pastry cream, topped with fresh whipped cream, and of course, a mini nilla wafer.