La Cabana – St. Paul, MN

Coach was in town and we thought we’d get some Mexican food for lunch. La Cabana had been recommended by one of D.Rough and my friends, Fanny and Manny, so we headed over to Dayton’s Bluff in St. Paul to check it out knowing nothing other than it is tasty.

When we got inside, we realized this was a happening place. It was apparently Mexican Karaoke Saturday Afternoon and the music was rockin. There are two dining rooms in the place. The main seating area was where the karaoke was happening and was almost full of people. Then the extra dining room looked like they had just purchased it and had put some temporary folding tables and chairs in there. Maybe not, since the restrooms were off this dining room. Obviously, I don’t care what I’m sitting on while I eat, so this isn’t a downside for me. We thought we’d escape the volume of the music in the auxiliary dining room, but it was still pretty loud in there. Mainly because the people singing were having a blast. People were laughing at the non-professional singers and Coach and I found it amusing that people didn't even get up from their lunch when singing. The guy would just bring the mic to their table and let them belt out their song. Really, it was a fun vibe here.

The server brought out a delicious basket of thick-cut tortilla chips and a red and green salsa. Coach isn’t much for salsa, so I ended up cleaning up both bowls. The green was cilantro-based and the red was more tomato-based. Bother were pretty fantastic. A little bit of heat, but not too much.

The menu is pretty geared to Spanish-speakers, so be ready for that. But most things have an English translation. Hey, they have the home-court advantage here, so if I can’t read the menu, then it’s my own fault. Thankfully, they had lots of things I recognized on the menu (and quite a few I didn’t – which is awesome). I ended up ordering Puerco en Salsa Roja (pork in red sauce). Coach got chorizo and eggs.

The food came out fairly quickly and looked and smelled delicious. My pork was shredded into pieces and came with beans, rice, and a simple salad drizzled with sour cream. I started on the beans and rice. They had decent flavor – nothing ground breaking, but good. The pork had some onions in it, which I sifted through quickly, since there weren’t a ton (I love the flavor of onions, but I’m mildly allergic). Both of our dishes came with small corn tortillas, so I ended up rolling and devouring four or five tacos with pork, rice, beans, and lettuce. The flavor of the meat was pretty darn good – one of the better red-sauced-porks I’ve had, in all honesty. Not greasy or gristly, and the flavor was warm and vibrant. There wasn’t a ton of heat in these, which would have been my only issue with it, but flavor-wise, it was fantastic. Very authentic and not watered down with American boringness (THANK YOU, La Cabana!).

Coach’s eggs and chorizo were a little disappointing to him, since he was expecting Mexican chorizo sausage and he said his tasted more like American breakfast sausage. It must not have been that bad, since he beat ME to a clean plate. But he also was disappointed with the lack of heat, just a little bit.

Overall, I’m looking forward to coming back to La Cabana with D.Rough and getting a few non-standard items. Who knows, maybe I’ll bust out a Mexican karaoke song of my own. I’ll be working up some magic between now and then. There’s a few people that have expressed interest in me watching me bulldoze my way through a Jose Jose song in 2013. It may happen…

Top 5 things about La Cabana
1. Puerco en Salsa Roja
2. Mexican Karaoke
3. Table salsa was very good
4. Very nice staff
5. Generous portions

Bottom 5 things
1. It was very loud in here during karaoke (not complaining, just warning)
2. Not very spicy
3. Chorizo may not have been Mexican chorizo (I can’t confirm, since I didn’t try it)
4. Just a tiny bit bummed there wasn’t pozole here. I bet it would be awesome!
5. The temporary tables and chairs might throw people expecting a fancy atmosphere

La Cabana
868 East 7th Street
St Paul, MN 55106
(651) 774-7547

Los Arcos – Saint Paul, MN

D.Rough and I were in the mood for some delicious Mexican food. OurManFlip had just told us about this amazing restaurant that was his favorite Mexican place in the Twin Cities, bar none – Los Arcos. Now that we live blocks away from it, we decided to check it out. We are glad we did.

It’s a pretty small unassuming place at the end of a strip mall (which, as we know, means good things in Minnesota). A couple of posters with food advertisements on them hang in the windows so you can see them from the parking lot.

The menu seems pretty standard in that we recognized just about everything on the menu, and of course it looked good. The waitress brought over chips and two salsas – a red and a green. D.Rough and I kept swapping the salsas trying to figure out which one we liked the best.


D.Rough ordered the Barbacoa and I got the Pozole, since it was the weekend (the only time they serve Pozole). Things were fine until the waitress came back and told me they were out of Pozole. Sigh… I went with my second choice which was Carnitas.

We hung out for a while waiting for our food, but since it was the weekend, there was a Karaoke DJ spinning the best Mexican hits and singing along, since no one else was doing it. I really think I’m going to work up some Mexican karaoke songs and bust some out the next time I go to Los Arcos. I think it would be a blast.

The food came out and looked great! The barbacoa was quite good and flavorful. It was a little smoky for my tastes, personally. I liked it just fine, but it just had a hint of too much smokiness for me.

The carnitas, on the other hand, were outstanding. I definitely won this contest with D.Rough in the ordering choice category. The pork was perfectly tender with just a bit of deep fried flavor and there was plenty to go on the tortillas they brought out. With all the fixings on the plate, I got really full and happily sat and enjoyed the guy spinning karaoke in the corner. He was having fun, and so were we.

Los Arcos does some pretty sweet happy hour deals and I think we’ll be back quite a bit now that we’re so close. We’re looking forward to it. Thanks again, OurManFlip. Excellent recommendation!

Top 5 things about Los Arcos
1. Carnitas
2. Barbacoa
3. Red salsa
4. It’s basically in our back yard
5. Super awesome waitress

Bottom 5 things
1. Still bummed about not getting Pozole
2. No one was singing karaoke besides the DJ
3. It’s pretty small inside
4. No margaritas, just beer and wine
5. OurManFlip didn’t get to eat lunch with us

www.losarcos-mn.com

Boolay – Minneapolis, MN

I was really hungry for Mexican food and ventured to a new place to take a study break – I brought my book with me to study, so shut it (your face, not the book). When I got to the place I intended to go to, they had just shut off the lights and closed. It was 8pm. Seriously? 8pm? You’re closing for the night? Whatever.

So I walked down the street to a place I had walked past before but never tried. It was called Boolay and judging from the building that it’s in that contains an African Market as well as some other African shops, it was a safe bet it was African food. Ding! Ding! Ding! I was right. The address, since it's impossible to find on the Internet, is 1817 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis.

I strolled in and looked around. It looked pretty beat up, but there were a couple of people at various tables, so I grabbed a spot in front of the TV which was playing soccer. I didn’t care that it was a game from November of 2008 – soccer is soccer (Except when it’s futbol, then it’s still soccer). I looked around and someone saw me and came over with empty hands. I asked if they had a menu and the guy said in broken English, “we only have menu of the mouth.” This was going to be interesting. “We have Rice chicken. Rice fish. Spaghetti chicken. Spaghetti fish.” I waited for the rest. And... we’re done, apparently. My lovely vegetarian friend would be SOL in this place. Oh wait! She could get all crazy and get spaghetti rice maybe! I asked for the chicken rice. The man asked me what kind of chicken. He said a couple of words I didn’t understand and then I heard “bar-b-que.” I told him bar-b-que was fine. He hollered it back to the kitchen and walked away (back to the kitchen where he could have said the same thing much quieter). Ha ha ha ha.

I opened up my book to study, and got about three paragraphs in and then started watching soccer. Oh well. I tried. The guy came back and brought a banana and a bottle of water. I REALLY need to figure out the proper timing of eating the banana at African restaurants. Can anyone help with this? I ate it with my food, and this time didn’t get yelled at about it, so I figured at least that timing wasn’t offensive to Africans.

I watched some good soccer between Madrid Real and Malaga (I have NO idea where Malaga is at). Then the food came out on two large plates. Since I had no idea what to expect (other than some iteration of chicken and some iteration of rice), I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently, the people of Boolay are freakin serious about their rice. It was a platter dedicated to saffron/curry rice with some shaved carrots and onions. It was fantastic, but wowwie kazowie there was a lot. The other plate held some veggies (onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce) and three pieces of fried chicken. There was also a menacing looking dipping sauce as well.

The food was really really good. I was very impressed. It’s not flashy, it’s not highly seasoned, but it’s really tasty. Normally, I don't like to eat fried chicken as it's in my category of high-labor foods due to bones and such. This chicken fell off the bones and was fork tender, so I didn't complain at all. The dipping sauce was kind of a bbq spicy chutney kind of sauce. It was fantastic and spicy and also combined with the banana I was eating was a really unique experience. I devoured this meal, including almost all of the rice on the plate. There were a couple of limes on the plate, so I squeezed those over the chicken but it just made it taste more limey – not bad, just limier.

I watched way more soccer than I should have since I needed to get home and study. The guy checked on me and made sure I was doing alright (this was the opportunity I expected him to yell at me about eating the banana wrong, but it didn’t happen. Maybe I did it right this time.). I saw another dish brought out for someone else with an even larger platter full of rice, which made me think you’d really better like rice when you come here.

I will definitely go back here again, especially when I don’t feel like I can handle too many choices thrown at me. The food is really good, but don’t bother looking for a menu.

Top 5 things about Boolay
1. Honestly, the rice was the best part
2. The chicken was quite tasty, especially with the spicy sauce and banana combo
3. They show soccer on their big screen
4. It’s the perfect place to study if you want to watch soccer instead of studying
5. No one gave a single questioning look at the blonde Viking sitting alone with a text book in a crowd of…um…non-blondes…

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd would have written a MUCH funnier review than I’m doing if she went here. I wish I could have read her review and toned it down before the public saw it
2. It’s not the cleanest place in the world (Boolay OR Africa)
3. There’s seriously no menu
4. I need to figure out the banana timing (twss)
5. I had no idea spaghetti was a popular dish in Africa

Sambuza Grill – Minneapolis, MN

EyeHeartPizza assured me she was feeling adventurous tonight, so I suggested Russian food or East African food. She said African sounded good, so I tried to find Safari. Safari had an express food booth in the Midtown Market, and both Gerd and I loved the food there. I wrote down the address for Safari and we headed out in the rain.

When we got there, we saw the place had changed names to the Sambuza Grill. It was still serving East African food, so we thought we’d better try it. We walked in and sat down and the waiter brought us menus. I’ll be honest (as usual), the menu didn’t really have much on it that seemed specifically African. Lots of chicken sandwiches, wraps, and various curries. I saw like three or four things on there. (I checked online and there seemed to be more than I remembered seeing on the menu in the restaurant.)

The guy brought us silverware and a banana for each of us, but we were unsure of what to do with the bananas – eat them now? Eat them with the food, eat them afterwards as dessert? Still no idea. EyeHeartPizza ordered the curried chicken and I couldn’t decide whether to get the Goat Curry or the Sambuza KeyKey. The waiter said to go with the Goat, so I did – and he suggested having it spicy, which I did. The waiter then returned with some soup which he said the name of, but I didn’t catch. It was green and thick and really good.

The food came a short while later and looked delicious. Both meals came with a big portion of rice. The curried chicken was a whole mess of chicken and green peppers in yellow curry. The goat was a big pile of various bones and meat with some onions and peppers.

The goat was seasoned and cooked really nicely. It was a bit gristle-y but the meat was still good. There were a lot of bones to work through as well. I ended up using my fingers a lot and biting through each piece pretty carefully. The meat had a pretty good zip to it and tasted great, despite the bones.

The waiter came back and asked us if we didn’t like bananas, so I guess that means we weren’t supposed to wait that long to eat the bananas. Maybe with the meal itself or maybe with the soup. I tried the last couple bites of mine with the banana and it actually killed some of the spice, but also added a really good flavor. I wish I had tried it earlier. I ended up finishing what EyeHeartPizza couldn’t eat, and once again, her’s was better than mine. I think I’ll go with the chicken if I get back here again.

Despite being bummed that I didn’t see anything I recognized from Safari on the menu, I was pretty happy with my meal. It wasn’t the best African food I’ve ever had, but it was good.

Top 5 things about Sambuza Grill
1. Chicken curry
2. Goat curry
3. Random soup
4. Banana was an interesting touch
5. All meals are under $9, so we ate for like $20 - wurd

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd really wanted to try Safari, but we didn’t get to
2. The menu seemed to lack a lot of African dishes
3. I’m going to have to listen to Peaches complain that I intentionally ate goat
4. Wish I knew when to eat the banana (twss)
5. Now I’m worried the booth at the Midtown Marketplace is closed…

www.sambuzagrill.com

Popeyes – Minneapolis, MN

As many of you know, Popeyes is my favorite fast food joint of all time, hands down. I don’t usually write about places I go regularly, but since I haven’t written about Popeyes yet, I figured I would at least give it some attention in case I hadn’t mentioned it in the previous posts. . . Plus, so many weird things happened here, I HAD to write it up.

First off this location is typical – not in a great part of town, but not outright dangerous or anything. In fact, it’s in a better part than most I’ve been to (East St. Louis for example). Inside, there are signs everywhere about everything. If you are illiterate, you can just go to hell. Some are hand written, some are typed, some are plastic, some are small, some are large, some are legitimately TINY for their new menu items, some have words underlined for angry emphasis, etc. You get the point.

Gerd ordered her food and had no problem. I ordered mine and apparently they were out of everything I ordered. I was trying to mix it up and get one (or both) of the new items on the menu that came with the subtle name change (Chicken N Biscuits is no longer the game, now it’s Louisiana Kitchen). I tried to get something new and they were out. So I fell back on to the standard (but awesome) strip meal I usually get. I tried a couple different sides and got yelled at because they were out of red beans and rice. Then I got yelled at because onions rings are no longer a signature side (or they were out of them – I couldn’t tell which). I ended up getting mac and cheese. Then I ordered the one new menu item they DID have.

I started with the biscuit. Always buttery and flaky and buttery (did I mention the butter?). Wurd. The Mac and Cheese I had high hopes for, but those were dashed on the rocks of hope. It was really runny and watery and tasted terrible (didn’t stop me from finishing it though, let’s be honest). Stole some of Gerd’s fries which ruled, and then finished up 3 spicy strips. I seriously love that chicken from Popeyes. Wash all that down with a strawberry soda, which I can always count on at Popeyes. I took a couple of bites of the sausage and chicken jambalaya (one of the new menu items), it was really tasty, although a bit dry. This new menu item was a temporary seasonal item a couple of times, but I guess now it's permanent. I took it home and it’s in the fridge for tonight!

At the end of the meal, I looked down at our tray and GASP!!!!!..... Gerd had not eaten her biscuit!!! At this point, I began to question our suddenly shaky relationship. Who was this person sitting across from me (not next to me – I’m not one of those people)? Had she taken a blow to the head? I couldn’t stand it anymore!!!! “Are you gonna eat that biscuit?” She snapped back, “Don’t you touch my biscuit!” Hilarious. I said, “Uh what’s going on? You haven’t touched your biscuit.” Apparently, Gerd saved the biscuit for last as a sort of dessert. She called it dessert since she squirted three packets of grape jelly onto her biscuit and inhaled the thing. Apparently, she saves the best for last and I almost lost a finger trying to commandeer her biscuit.

Bottom line, I love Popeyes, even though this trip wasn’t optimum. Also, there was a toothless woman in the restaurant who was wearing a leather Popeyes jacket (I wonder how long her 13 kids didn’t eat for her to afford that?)

Top 5 things about Popeyes
1. Red beans and rice when you can get them
2. Chicken
3. Onion Rings when you can get them
4. Strawberry pop/soda (depends on where you’re from)
5. It can also be pronounced Pope Yes, since there’s no apostrophe

Bottom 5 things
1. Mac and Cheese
2. Out of a lot of things on Mondays apparently
3. Signage is hilarious
4. Got yelled at
5. The heart attack caused by (what I assumed was) a wasted biscuit

http://www.popeyes.com

General Pancho Villa – Brooklyn Park, MN

So we were driving around trying to find some Mexican food, which (mainly due to the fact that Mexico is REALLY far from Minnesota) is very difficult to do in the suburbs of the Twin Cities. We had one in mind but we said, if we find another Mexican restaurant before we get to our destination, we’re stopping there. We found one. In a strip mall.

Despite my previous distrust of strip mall restaurants, I think I’ve come around to be more tolerable of them. We walked inside General Villa and were one of two groups of people inside this place. We grabbed the menus and set about ordering. Seemed to be mostly traditional Mexican dishes so our part would be hard to screw up – it’s up to the restaurant after that.

To start with, the chips and salsa were really good – spicy but good. This reinforces my policy of waiting until the drinks (or water) hit the table before sampling the chips and salsa – just in case. I got the chimichanga and Gerd got the chicken enchiladas. The chimichanga was amazing. Two kinds of cheeses and some enchilada sauce. It was very generously proportioned – I ended up bringing half home and I’m not a pans. The chicken enchiladas ruled as well. I don’t generally take the gamble of the roulette wheel that is enchilada red sauce. However, this stuff was really good. Lots of cheese, lots of flavor, and lots of enchilada.

Despite the horrific experiences we’ve had with Mexican food since we moved to Minneapolis, we’ve had a couple of meals at Mexican restaurants that make me think there’s hope. I’d recommend this place. And don’t think I won’t comment on the number of years Pancho spent in the military to become a General. It’s not Infantryman Pancho, it’s GENERAL – don’t forget it.

Top 5 things about General Pancho Villa
1. Enchilada sauce
2. Generous portions
3. Multiple cheesey goodness
4. Mexican soap operas on the TVs
5. Got full and brought home left overs for under $20

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd hates it when pop is served in a can since it slows down her drinking of 32 sodas (I didn’t say stopped)
2. The bathroom had freshly been cleaned with a bucket of bleach – I almost passed out
3. GPV is really far out of the way
4. Gerd complained about too many vegetables on top of her enchiladas
5. No margaritas

Map to General Pancho Villa