Foodie Weekend--Taco Trucks, New Restaurants, and Chocolate!

Holy mackerel, this weekend was a food fest if I've ever seen one. I'll get to what's in the lead photo in a minute, since I'm going to try to keep this in chronological order.

First up, Friday night was a impromptu Westside taco truck tour with 4-5 friends. We hit Los Potosinos (chorizo tacos), La Super Torta II (for a torta de tasajo con quesillo), Los Gauchos (tacos al pastor), and Otro Rollo (for a huarache).
My charming friend Ella vamps in front of La Super Torta II

As always, Los Potosinos and Los Gauchos was delicious. Los Potosinos gave us some really great pickled carrots to munch on while we were waiting for a tacos, and while we didn't get the superb chicken al carbon, we did really like the chorizo tacos. (Oh, and we also shared a horchata, the cinnamony, sweetened rice-milk beverage, to drink. Big yum!) The second stop, La Super Torta II, was just down Georgesville Rd. and we stopped on the recommendation of my friend Lauren, an expert in all things Mexican. Sure enough, the torta (sandwich) she recommended--la torta de tasajo con quesillo--was fantastic. Between two slices of soft, chewy bread was thinly sliced steak, black beans, avocados, and thinly shredded cheese. With a little splash of their house hot sauce, it was even better. There will most definitely be a return to La Super Torta II to check out their other offerings.

The third stop was Los Gauchos, where we indulged in their spit-fire grilled tacos al pastor. Excellent. Our final stop was Otro Rollo, and based solely on the Columbus Alive article from a couple of weeks ago. We ordered the recommended huarache, a pizza-esque dish composed of a masa crust with beans, meat, cheese, and the usual onions, tomatoes, and cilantro. Due to communication complications, we also ended up with a chicken taco, which was, sadly, rather dry and uninspiring. The huarache was ok, but nothing to really write home about--the chicken was (again) dry, and didn't really offer up any noticeable seasonings. We also tried their horchata, and while it wasn't bad, the one from Los Potosinos was still better. Of course, having informed my friend Lauren that we went to Otro Rollo, she informed we that their taco truck is not that great, but the bakery that it is parked next to is quite good. So maybe we'll just stick to their pastries....

Saturday night brought me to Basil, a newish Thai restaurant that opened in the Short North. Having scored a Groupon for Basil last week, I figured Saturday would be the perfect opportunity to try it out...
...And it was delicious. Things started off on the right foot when they offered me and my friends complimentary cocktails when are table wasn't ready at our reserved time. The chrysanthemum martini I tried was quite good, with a strong vanilla note (probably from the vanilla vodka). We started with the chicken potstickers (good), and shared the Pad Thai (better than most), the Gang Mhoo Tepo (spinach and pork in a tamarind/coconut curry), and the Pineapple Chicken Curry. Both the Gang Mhoo and the Pineapple Curry were fantastic--rice, perfectly spiced, with crisp-tender veggies. They were probably some of the best curries I've had in Columbus. Long story short, go there, get some curry. You won't be disappointed.

Finally, Sunday was Mother's Day (yay for Moms!), and being that my mom is a huge fan of chocolate, I busted out a couple decadent chocolate recipes. First up, bittersweet chocolate covered strawberries (first ones of the season from the North Market!). How can you go wrong? To be fair, I kinda cheated on these, and just melted some bittersweet chocolate chips then dipped the strawberries into it...no tempering the chocolate or anything like that.
The other dish for our feast was a Chocolate Cream Pie from Epicurious:

I made just a few modifications to the recipe: I used chocolate graham crackers instead of chocolate wafer cookies for the crust, and I used Kahlua instead of rum in the filling and whipped cream. Finally, since I didn't have a piping bag/tip at my mom's house, I just spread the whipped cream on and shook some unsweetened cocoa over the whole thing. Decadent, delicious, dreamy--an indulgent end to an indulgent weekend.

Comments

LeXXicon said…
i need that pie in my mouth. good call on subbing out for the graham cracker crust. Everyone knows that the graham crust is superior in every way, especially when it contains the right amount of saltiness. nummy nom noms
May 10, 2010 at 1:06 PM
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