Local Restaurant Review: Station 22

There is just something about having a good local place to eat at, on your own turf, that gives you a sense of pride.  I love having a good place to eat right near home. Half the reason I like local restaurants is the feeling of community and comradely I get when I eat there. The other half being I just like dang good food.

Station 22, the newest sandwich cafe at 22 West Provo Center Street, has stolen my heart because of both of these things.

There is a happy community vibe in their restaurant, and the food is unique and delicious. After going there a few times, I started following their tweets and status updates on facebook, because I love seeing their daily specials, example:

Asian inspired Wich'- Schezwan Pepper Crusted Ahi Tuna~ Ginger, Cucumber Slaw ~ Wasabi Garlic Mayo and all between a warm Ciabatta Roll.

Other days, stuff like this: 

Today we are featuring our delicious Bratwurst; traditional German Bratwurst Sausage, Butter, Bacon, Beer Kraut, Whole Grain Mustard on a Sourdough Hoagie roll. Put your lederhosen on and come down to Station 22, to get in the spirit of Oktober!

Soups Today: Quinoa & Roasted Pepper Soup - Sharp Cheddar Chili.

Falafel special today! Made Egyptian-style with fried potatoes, eggplant, baba ganoush, lettuce, tomato, & our special sauce. Spicy or not!

Today is the Meatloaf Sandwich special! Meatloaf filled with cheddar cheese, wrapped in bacon & served with lettuce & tomatoes on ciabatta.

Battle of the Specials! New favorite, the ultimate Meatloaf Sandwich will be opposed by the Meatball Sandwich in a meaty battle of flavor!

Don't they sound amazing? They look amazing too, check out their facebook album. My brother and I ran over the day they had the Ahi Tuna sandwich, and the following day we both woke up wanting another one. So good. Even if I don't have time to go in and get food, I am just happy to read the updates on my phone and know that somewhere, someone is eating well.

Most meals, after you add a side of beer-battered fries and fry sauce (which you should, because they are easily the best fries in the county), end up costing you around ten bucks. Typical, higher-end lunch price, I think it's worth every penny.

I also love that they have a salad bar, which is fresh and tasty, and has delicious dressing options. Reasonably priced at $3.99 for a large plate.

Other reviews of Station 22:
Utah Diners Guide

Yelp
Happy Cow


I love Station 22. But I guess I am pretty biased, I am a foody who loves sandwiches... I believe every sandwich should be a meal, and every meal a sandwich. And Station 22 makes good sandwiches. I am also just proud to say they belong in our Provo neighborhood. Read what they stand for in the "About" section on their website, and you'll feel proud too (I also like reading the little bit of Provo history they have written up on their napkin dispensers). I think whoever is in charge over there has done a good job at creating a cafe that feels like it belongs to the community, and that enriches the vibe of the city. The sign says “established 2011”, but the way it has nestled itself into Provo Center Street gives me the feeling like it should have been there all along.


Go visit yourself, and tell me what you think!

Diego's Taco Shop Review

Growing up in the southwest, Mexican food is one of the few cuisines that I rarely get tired of.  Yesterday I had Mexican twice.  I'm not tired of it at all, but one of my meals seemed like tired Mexican.

Sorry Diego's, you just didn't come very close to getting the job done for me.  Now I know that Diego's is somewhat of a Provo favorite, but in reality there are just too many other good to great options for Mexican in Utah county to have to put up with mediocrity.

Why the beef? A few reasons.  The first of these doesn't have to do a whole lot with the food, but rather the lack of it.  They were out of Carne Asada on a Saturday evening.  Having worked in the food biz, running out of something that you're "known for" is a huge faux pas, and in turn probably reflects in the rest of the review.

Second, the Carnitas and Al Pastor pork that I had in my tacos was just average.  It was good, but I can make good Mexican at home.  A tacqueria should be great. (On a side note, their Al Pastor does not have any pineapple in it like you would find in an authentic Tacqueria).

Third, and this was the primary reason that Diego's gets a negative review, THEY DON'T MAKE THEIR OWN TORTILLAS!  What the...???  Seriously?  I even make my own tortillas when I have time.  This is how easy it is:

As a result, the tacos I had (on corn) were dry.  The burrito my gf had (on flour) was store bought floury.  I just can't give a taco shop a passing grade when they choose not to do something that is so simple and cheap (i'm sure it costs more to buy pre-made) as making your own tortillas.

I apologize to all of the Diego's lovers out there, but if you want to have some real Mexican, give El Giro Gallo a try.  Diego's gets 2.5 stars.  Maybe 3 if I was really hungry.

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/54/1221667/restaurant/Salt-Lake-City/Diegos-Taco-Shop-Provo"><img alt="Diego's Taco Shop on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1221667/biglink.gif" style="border:none;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>

Swanky Restaurants at Cheap Prices

So I know this is supposed to be a blog about eating for cheap, but there are two ridiculously good deals right now available online for a couple great high class restaurants.

The first one is to the Tree Room at Sundance.  I've never been there, but I've been to Zoom in Park City (its sister restaurant, also owned by Robert Redford) and it was amazing.  The deal is $80 worth of food for $40.  Still a little expensive, but not too bad for a very special occasion.  Word to the wise...$80 there can go pretty quick.

Tree Room Deal

Here's a link to reviews about the Tree Room:  Tree Room Reviews

I'm a little more excited about the second deal though.  It's at 501 on Main in Park City.  They have a good looking menu, and I think I'm going to buy this one.  For $29 you get a shared appetizer, two entrees (up to $21 each, which would include everything on their regular menu), and a shared dessert.  Again, $29 plus a tip on the full value is gonna be a little expensive, but it's a great deal for a special occasion meal during the Holidays.

Here's the deal and some Reviews:

501 on Main Deal

501 Reviews

If anyone buys these let me know how they like the restaurants!

Must have App for the Foody!

When I went to San Diego in August I downloaded an awesome App on my Android.  It's called TV food maps.  It literally gives you maps and directions to just about every restaurant that has ever been featured on Triple D, Man v. Food, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, etc.  

Here is a link to their website, and their app is available in the Android Marketplace.

Tv Food Maps

Tonight, after I visit H&M in Salt Lake (yes, I won a contest and get to shop a day before everyone else at 25% off) we're going to hit up Lone Star Tacqueria, a triple D hot spot.  I'll do a review of the restaurant tomorrow.  Can't wait to try their fish tacos.

Back to School and Eating Healthy? This is some kind of joke.

So apparently I had the longest back to school transition period known to man, because I haven't blogged since early August.  But here it goes.

The last few weeks I have been on a healthy kick.  I have a bet with my friend Laura Marquez that I can lose twenty pounds by Christmas.  The problem is, as you all know, that I love to cook and eat.  But i wasn't going to let that stop me.

Without further adieu, here is the best whole wheat Banana Pancakes recipe that I have tried.  Sorry mom, it's better than yours.  But yours are great.

Pat's Favorite Bananapancakes (sorry for no space, but the amount of "a"s looks more impressive without).

There is one alteration you should absolutely make to the recipe!  Separate the egg and stir the yolk in with the other wet ingredients, but beat the white to firm peaks and fold into the batter once everything else is incorporated.

There is a second alteration that is optional.  Add an extra banana.  The recipe as called for doesn't have a ton of banana flavor, fyi.  That may be good for some people, but I like it with two.

Enjoy my friends.

BTW, it doesn't take much to eat healthy.  I started working out and eating healthy two and a half weeks ago and I have lost six pounds.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Food Destinations: When in Rome...You should eat here.

As many of you know, I spent a good portion of the summer away from my beloved red rocks and mountains of Utah.  I was fortunate enough to spend five days in and around one of the world's great cities: ROME!!!

Rome really is an astounding city that everyone should visit at least once.  Alongside these famous sites,

there is one of the largest aglomerations of great food within one city that I have ever seen!  New York is the only other city I've been to that has so much great food within such a small geographic area.

This created a bit of a problem for me...how do you pick where to eat?  Luckily, I had the good fortune of being hosted by a local, and only had to put up with one crappy meal when in Rome.  Here are my three favorite places that I ate at in Rome.

#3- Pizza Ciro
Ciro's is awesome for multiple reasons.  It is within a 5 minute walk of Fontana di Trevi, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and a smattering of other significant sites.  The pizza is awesome. It's cheap.  And my host Fausto let me in on the secret that Ciro is a men's name that you will only hear in Naples (Fausto's hometown and the birthplace of pizza), and that Ciro himself, at something like 85 years old, still makes the pizzas.

Sure enough, after letting the maitre'd know that we want our pizza to go, we walk back to a huge woodfire oven to find a tiny little old man stretching dough, and topping with sauce, cheese, and everything else, at the rate of about 1 pizza per 30 seconds.  It made the meal that much better to know that such an awesome old man was making my pizza.  I had the pizza diavolo (spicy sausage), and Fausto had one with roasted vegetables.  Both were awesome, and the grand total was about 15 Euros for both of us, a dirt cheap meal by Roman standards.  The secret was that the pizza there is cheaper if you get it to go.  It's way cooler to walk around Rome with good pizza than sitting in a restaurant anyways.

Try Pizza Ciro, you'll like it.

Next up:

#2 Palazzo del Freddo Giovanni Fassi

There are two things you need to know about this place: 1. The best gelato I've ever had, at a price that's significantly lower than all of the tourist gelaterias.  2.  It's a 3 minute walk from the #1 restaurant below!

Their claim to fame is that it's the oldest gelateria in the world.  For 2 Euros (the cost of a small), you get to pick three flavors piled side by side onto a cone.  I had Coconut, Pineapple, and Blood Orange.  All three were awesome!  I wasn't as big of a fan of the chocolatey more dairy based gelato's, but i can honestly say that the coconut gelato at this place is the best frozen treat that I've ever had.  Period. 

Here's the review from Tripadvisor

This is a picture of maybe 1/4 of their gelato selection.  It makes Baskin Robbins selection seem apathetic.

Here it is...the best place that I ate in Rome.

# 1 Trattoria Vecchia Roma

Vecchia Roma is a traditional Trattoria, and it had the feeling of a locals spot.  It's down in the foundations of an old building near Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele.  You go down a steep set of stairs into a cellar style restaurant, loud, hot, and lively.

We started off with the mixed fried vegetables, which came with zucchini, cauliflower, eggplant, and artichoke hearts.  I wish my mom had made me eat more vegetables like those as a kid!

The remainder of the meal is a fog to me...because I had the best pasta of my life!  I had the house special.  The Buccatini L'Amatriciana Flambe.  Flambe is French though right?  Well get this, they take bucatini noodles and saute them with pancetta and a creamy tomato sauce, and then it gets crazy. 

They have a giant wheel of pecorino romano cheese that is hollowed out to look like a large basin.  They take the scalding hot pasta, put it in the cheese basin, and LIGHT IT ON FIRE while stirring as fast as possible, coating every strand of pasta and every piece of pancetta with cheesy goodness.  Aside from being incredible food, it was unreal to see your pasta on fire inside of a huge cheese wheel.

I didn't get a picture of it, but here's a random one I found online.

I really hope that you all get to go to Rome.  When you do let me know and I'll give you more info on all of these places, along with some contacts for people that can show you the city!

Ciao!

TRIFLE WITH THE BRITS? You must be crazy.

While I was in England earlier this summer, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the majority of the meals that I had, aside from the dinner I ate here, at Merton College's dining hall:

For some reason, the Brits just don't believe in salt or seasonings too much.  If they only knew how good Bangers and Mash could be...

They do get one thing right though nearly 100% of the time.  ANY DESSERT THAT HAS WHIPPED CREAM IN IT!  Their whipped cream rocks.  So in tribute to my British friends, behold my Trifle recipe.

Trifle is easy, three components: 1. Pound Cake, 2. Whipping Cream or Custard, and 3. Fruit.  I've listed them separately in the recipe.  Once you've prepared all three elements, start with a layer of pound cake, and then layer fruit, followed by cream, until you reach the top.

Pound Cake:
Buying is easiest, and possibly cheapest, or you can make it from scratch.  I go Sandra Lee style, semi-homemade.  Here's the recipe I use.

1 Yellow Cake Mix
3/4 c. Vegetable oil
1/2 c. sugar
4 large eggs, well beaten
1 c. Sour Cream (you can use fat free if you insist)
1 tsp. Almond Extract
1 tsp. Lemon Zest

Preheat oven to 350, Mix all ingredients and then pour into a 12 cup bundt or tube pan.  Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Let cool 10 minutes before taking cake out of pan, and cool completely.

*The reason you use a bundt pan is because it allows you to cut thin slices of pound cake that you'll use to layer the trifle.  You could use cake chunks or whatever, but I like the layers to be even.

Fruit
You can really use any fruit you like in your trifle, I just like to use something that will give off a little bit of juice.  The recipe above is Blackberries, Strawberries and Peaches.  This is your opportunity to color theme your dessert for 4th of July, Valentines day, etc.

4 medium peaches, sliced and peeled
6 oz. clamshell of blackberries
1/2 lb. strawberries, quartered

Place cut fruit in a bowl and cover with 2-3 tablespoons of sugar/artificial sweetener, stir.  This helps to draw the juice out of the fruit.

Whipped Cream:  I'm gonna let you in on a secret...Lemon Curd (you can find it in the jam or baking goods section)

Whip 2 cups of heavy whipping to a stiff peak, add 2 T sugar, and fold in 1/4 c. of lemon curd.

Got it all done?  Start layering.  This really is a recipe that you can tailor to your crowd.  I had a pumpkin trifle last fall that was to die for, and I've seen richer trifles made with chocolate cake.   Make it your own and let me know how it goes.

Total Cost: $12-15.  I know that's a bit on the spendy side, but it serves about 10-12, and it's more of a "special occasion dessert" due to the work that goes into it.

Peculiar Food for a Peculiar People: What's with Mormon Cuisine?

Before we get into all of the weird culinary combinations that Mormon's are renowned for, I'd like to give my fellow peasants something to think about.

Have you ever thought about how many of the foods you love are foods of necessity and convenience rather than foods of luxury.  Take, for example, tortillas.  Cheap enough to feed whole families without breaking the bank, easy, keep for a long time, no need for any leavening agent.  Yet we use them for recipe after recipe!  Chicken noodle soup is another example.  Most of us would rather eat a whole roasted chicken, I'm sure.  But what to do with the rest of that carcass...BAM...chicken noodle soup.  Cheap, convenient, wholesome foods have become staples of our culinary world, as well they should.

That's why I'm going to give my Mormon Forebears a pass.  I'm going to assume that many of the foods listed below were thought up out of convenience, necessity, or both.  I'm sure Utah mothers in the '40's were limited in their culinary options as their husbands were fighting for our freedom.  Make do or do without!!  So, without further delay, here are some of the Mormon recipes that I have always thought were a little bit crazy.  We'll move from less weird to more weird.

(Brief side note:  I really do like many of these foods, but that doesn't mean they're not weird.)

This first one isn't overly weird, I just think It's a disgrace to quality Mexican food:

THE CREAM OF CHICKEN/SOUR CREAM ENCHILADA.  

I'm all about fusion cuisine...but Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup does not fall into that category.   SORRY.

Next: TATER TOT CASSEROLE

I feel like the picture here says it all, but I have to make one more observation.  THIS HAS TO HAVE BEEN MADE FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT TEETH!  Everything in it is already ground up for you, all you have to do is gum it, swallow, and digest!  Ground beef, ground (and then put back together) potatoes, shredded (almost ground) cheese!

This is the last one that I'm going to share, becuase I want you to comment below and share your favorite weird Mormon guilty pleasure.

The world famous Jello Salad?/Somethingthatisthecolorandtextureofvomit

Specimen #1

Specimen #2

Specimen #3

I really don't know what to say. . . Seriously. . . there are no words to describe what I feel about jello "salads." Help me out with your comments.

Speaking of comments, let me know what your favorite, or most repulsive, Mormon food guilty pleasure is.  The commenter that leaves what I, at my sole discretion, deem the oddest concoction, will be the beneficiary of the Key Lime pie recipe post coming later this week!  The only rule is that you have to have actually seen the concoction at a pot-luck or ward event.

Ready, set, GO PEASANTS!

One of VERY FEW reasons to get up early on Saturday!

Since the demise of the Saturday Morning Cartoon I haven't had much reason to get up early on Saturday mornings.  Maybe for a trip to the lake or a longer bike ride that would be intolerable in the heat...maybe.

There is one other "best part of waking up" that I get excited for though, and it's not Folgers.

BOUNTIFUL BASKETS!

Bountiful Baskets is a co-op (that's right, nobody is benefitting except everyone that participates) that, for now, is mostly in the western United States.  Through a series of regional growers, volunteers, etc., BB has created a network that enables you to get fresh quality produce for a good price.  I've found it to be a step above your average grocery store produce.

How much?  The above spread is a typical example of what you would get in a weekly basket, and it cost $15.  The price is the same every week, although the produce may vary.  BB's website states that each basket typically contains around $50 of grocery store priced produce, and I don't think that's a stretch at all.  I was at Albertson's and Gala apples like the ones above were $1.99/lb.  I estimate that the apples alone above would cost $6.  Throw in grocery store prices of $3 cantaloupe, $3 grapes, and $3 combined for celery and lettuce, and you've got a slew of free apricots, beans, bananas, tomatoes, and broccoli.

While I still feel farmers markets are the best way to get great produce, Bountiful Baskets has more locations and is a great price for great produce.  Give it a try if you don't have fresh fruit and vegetable markets in your city.

Fwd:

Sent from my mobile. Enjoy.
_____________________________________________________________

Yogurt marinated chicken, rosemary-garlic roasted potatoes, and bruschetta with tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Good way to end the work week!

Weekly Outdoor Cooking Info: RIBS!

Welcome to the Weekly Outdoor Cooking Post.  It's summer, and nothing is better than cooking on the grill!  Later in the summer we'll try other methods of outdoor cooking like dutch oven, tin foil dinners, and maybe even smoking!

Baby Back Ribs are one of those Catch 22's in cooking.  They're really not a great cut of meat, full of connective tissue and all sorts of membrane, yet they're one of the most expensive things on the menu at many restaurants.  This all comes down to how time consuming and difficult they are to prepare.  Do you know anyone who has a smoker?  Yeah, me either.

Last year, after watching someone on the foodnetwork pressure cook beef short ribs, I decided to try the same for baby backs, with great success.  The only special equipment you'll need is a pressure cooker and any type of grill (in a very worst case scenario, you could use the broiler in your oven).  They're not quite the smokey ribs you get from smoking for 6 hours, BUT YOU WON'T HAVE TO SPEND 6 HOURS, or buy a smoker, or chop wood for your smoker, or smell like smoke, or...

Here's my recipe for ribs done easy in less than an hour:

Ribs (depending on the size of your pressure cooker, you may be able to fit in two racks cut into thirds, but may have to do this in two batches if you've got a big crowd.)

Cooking Liquid (I recommend something sweet like apple juice, you can use anything.  you'll need enough to have about an inch of liquid in the bottom of the pressure cooker.

1 Onion

BBQ Sauce (I recommend Sweet Baby Ray's, available at most stores, and definitely at Wal-Mart).

Spice Rub:  Buy one, or mix the following:
1/2 c. Brown Sugar
2 T. salt or seasoned salt
1 T  garlic powder
1 t.  black pepper
1 T  Chili Powder (That's Chili, not Chile.  If you don't know the difference leave me a comment and I'll respond)
1 t.  paprika


Got all of the ingredients?  Ok, here we go:

1.  Lay the ribs meat side down.  You'll see the membrane covering the underside of the rack.  To remove this, insert a small knife, ice pick, or any sharp object underneath the membrane between any two of the ribs.  Once you can grip the membrane, pull back the membrane and further separate with the sharp object until you have removed the entire membrane.  This can be a tough ordeal sometime, but it's absolutely necessary!  If it's too slippery, try using a paper towel to help you grip the membrane.

2.  Once the membrane is removed, rub both sides of the ribs with the spice rub, working it in with your fingers.  Then cut the rack into manageable size portions of ribs that will fit in your cooker.

3.  Place in the cooker with the cooking liquid and quartered onion.  Once you've sealed your pressure cooker, cook on medium high until it comes to pressure.  Once you've reached pressure cook an additional 30 minutes.  At this point remove from heat and let cool down slightly before removing the lid.
*Here's a pressure cooker safety guide in case you've never used one.  Don't blow yourself up.

4.  Now the fun part that is gonig to make your ribs tangy and slightly charred.  Make sure you have your grill on medium high, and spray the cooking surface with non-stick cooking spray before using.  When you remove your ribs from the cooker they won't look very appetizing.  We're gonna change that!  Using a pastry brush, rub one side of your ribs with a coating of BBQ sauce.  Place the ribs sauce side down on the grill, and let the sauce caramelize for a few minutes.  In the meantime, baste the other side with sauce.  When the sauce is just starting to char, flip the ribs. You'll repeat this process, basting and flipping every few minutes so that your ribs will form a juicy caramelized BBQ sauce crust on the outside, as the bbq sauce will adhere to and build up on the ribs with every basting and flipping.  I usually do this about 4 times.

Enjoy!  I'll admit ribs can be an intimidating task, but you can do it.  With ribs usually running between 2.99 and 4.99 a pound, this recipe will allow you to comfortably provide a rib dinner for 4 at around $15, or roughly the cost for one of you at a restaurant.

I love me some St. George! Check out the St. George Daily Deal.

I love Groupon, Living Social, City Deals, and all of the other discount sites out there.  I've had many a fine meal on a peasant's salary thanks to their offers.  However, the lack of services these sites provide to beautiful St. George is unacceptable.

Check out stgeorgeutah.com!  It's essentially a groupon with a daily deal just for St. George.  Yesterday I bought an $8 gift certificate to the Bombay Cafe on 7th East for $4.  Can't wait to see if St. George is finally home to some decent Indian Food.

Enjoy! And remember, eating like a king doesn't have to be pricey!

Smart Phones and Smart Cooking

Have you ever gone to the grocery store and spent a bunch of money on food Wednesday, and by Friday, "There's nothing to eat in this house?"  Me too!  I don't think it's because of an actual lack of food, but simply because our culinary creativity is gone by the end of a day at work or school.

Well check out Recipe Search.  It's an app that allows you to type in a few ingredients that you have on hand, and returns recipes you can make with those ingredients.

I entered "celery" and "gravy,"  and the first results were Beef Roulade, and Shepherd's Pie.  If you really want to dip your celery in gravy, go ahead, but I think I'd prefer the Roulade!

There are lots of other features too, like forums and a place to store your recipes.  Best of all it's free and helps you cut down on your wasted food.  Let me know how it works for you by commenting below.

Mayonnaise Doesn't Suck! I promise!

Best Foods mayonnaise sucks.  So does Kraft.  I'd even go so far as to say that Hellman's is mediocre, and I hope that Jimmy John's will forgive me for that statement.  But Mayonnaise done right ROCKS!  If you don't believe me, go to Bruges Waffles and Frites in SLC and then get back to me.  You'll love it.

Europeans know what's up, and any good French chef will tell you that knowing how to make a good Mayonnaise is the basis for literally thousands of recipes.  When I was in Romania recently I made Salata de Beouf with my favorite Romanian Grandma.  It's essentially potato salad but with a crazy tangy mayonnaise for the base.  And yes, yours truly made the Mayo.

Two weeks later when I got home I tried to make it for a 4th of July BBQ.  Epic Fail.  So in honoring the ever important Mayonnaise, here is a video with old Gordon Ramsay himself (I think he was on crack when he filmed this) teaching us how to make Mayonnaise our friend!

Give it a try, and mix in some chipotle, or roasted garlic and red peppers, or whatever your heart desires.
Total cost for this recipe: LESS THAN $2.00.  Peasants Unite!

What's for dessert?

Ok peasants!  For our first dessert, I'm going to let you decide what we're having.  Leave a comment letting me know which of the following you'd like to try.

1.  Homemade Ice Cream Sundaes in Crepe Cones

or...

2.  Cool Raspberry Sour Cream Pie

The choice is yours.  Don't blow it.

All you can eat* amazing Mexican for $6.99! Me Gusta El Amate!!!

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I went on a great adventure...DINNER WITH MY FAMILY!  While it may sound more like a nice night out than a Lewis and Clark-esque foray into the world of high adventure, you have to understand that with 8 very opinionated persons arguing over where to dine (think of your favorite Always Sunny in Philadelphia argument and magnify it by a few additional people), coming to a concensus on the hosting restaurant was beyond difficult.  After the common suggestions - Applebee's, OG (that's Olive Garden, not Original Gangster), etc. - we settled on Paula's cazuela, an old family favorite that really shouldn't be.  It's bad.  Gringo Mex at it's worst.  That's right, I won't even give it the title of Tex-mex.

I could go on, but i won't.  Sadly, I remember somebody mentioning on that outing, and everyone shooting down the idea, of going to what I now consider the newly crowned "Best Mexican Food in Southen Utah."  EL AMATE,  Located at 974 w. Sunset, next to Papa Murphy's Pizza.  If only we had listened...

Since I'm working this summer for the 7th largest law firm in Utah that has revenues in the multi-multi millions of dollars per year for somewhere in the range of ZERO DOLLARS PER HOUR, I jumped at my Mom's text yesterday offering to take me to lunch.  We headed over to El Amate, her having been there once over a year ago, and I never having visited.  Best decision either of us have made in at least the last eleven days.

The restaurant is small, with only about 10 or 12 tables.  After being seated, my eyes were immediately drawn to the white board listing the day's specials, each at $6.99 and served with frijoles y arroz.  Chile Rojo, Chile Verde, or crispy Fish Tacos...option #1 for me, and fish tacos for mi madre.

Let's start with the fish tacos.  Crispy and flaky is a wonderful combination that I don't know that I've tried before yesterday.  Rather than the typical corn tortilla, El Amate served up their fish tacos in Freshly Fried crisp taco shells, and then topped them with cabbage and crema.  That's right, Mexican crema, not American sour cream.  Yes, there is a difference.  While I'm not usually a fan of Tilapia, it worked here.  Well done.  On to the Chile Rojo.

I'd never had Chile Rojo before, most likely due to the fact that nobody else in St. George makes it!  It was amazing.  Think Chile Verde, but with a richer red sauce and beef lending it's flavor to the already amazing sauce.  It was perfect in every way, and just what I was hoping for.  The spice level was spot on as well, which means, as you'll know if you've ever eaten with me, that my forehead and face were just starting to glisten with sweat. (unlike runners and perpetual gym rats, "It's a good sweat" for me means that the spice was perfect, not that my spin class almost killed me.)  To top it off, THEY MAKE ALL THE TORTILLAS IN HOUSE!!! My dish was served with 4 piping hot corn tortillas that were somewher in the range of twice as thick as anything you can buy anywere else.  So good were the tortillas, that my Mom bought a dozen to take home for $3.50.

The beans and rice with both dishes were above average, which I think is about as much as you can expect from beans and rice.  Is it really every going to be the most memorable thing on your plate?  I've always believed that you can identify a good Mexican restaurant by its frijoles, and that holds true here: above average beans definitely equaled an above average restaurant as a whole.

If you don't want to take my word for it, here are the yelp and urbanspoon reviews for El Amate (yes, one of them on each is mine.  It was just so dang good I couldn't resist.)

<a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/312/1449239/restaurant/Utah/El-Amate-St-George"><img alt="El Amate on Urbanspoon" src="http://www.urbanspoon.com/b/link/1449239/biglink.gif" style="border:none;width:200px;height:146px" /></a>
El Amate Yelp

Yesterday, July 27, 2011, Paula's permanently lost a customer.  And I won't miss you (except maybe the fried ice cream).

*Disclaimer:  It's not really all you can eat, but I really think that my plate ended up being just about all that anyone could eat.  You shouldn't eat at buffets anyways, or you'll end up like me.