Tacos el Bronco

I would be surprised if anyone tells me that haven't had some sort of Mexican food in their lives.  Mexican food is just a part of American culture nowadays as the hamburger.  Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, taquitos, salsa, mole, nachos, tamales, quesadillas, and guacamole.  Is your mouth watering yet?  Mine is too.

But like many cuisines across the United States corporate monkeys looking to make a quick buck destroyed the image of Mexican cuisine.  Chain and fast food restaurants like Taco Bell, On the Border, Chilis, and even Chipotle are using sub-par ingredients, dismal food pairings, and charging customers an arm and leg for it.  What's even more surprising?  People are willing to pay for it.

Mexican food is about love.  Mexican food is about simplicity.  It's not about deep-frying a burrito and covering it in three types of cheese, with a side of "Spanish" rice and beans.  It's about taking quality meats, slow-braising them until tender, and serving them inside soft, warm tortillas with onions, cilantro, and lime.  It's about taking homemade masa (corn-based dough), stuffing it with braised meats, and steaming it inside a banana leaf until tender.   In Mexico they fill their burritos only with meat and refried beans.  Whoever came up with the idea of stuffing rice, meat, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, avocado, beans, and cheese into a burrito is just looking to scam you by making you pay $12 for it.  Mexican food doesn't need all that.  As long as you have a passionate cook that knows how to handle the ingredients, you realize you don't need all the extras.  You taste the love that they put in with their own hands.

Saveur Second Annual BBQ Event

Great food, great people, plenty of chef sightings, and grilling bbq on a pier.  Now that makes for a good event. 

Going to a chef event is sometimes hit-or-miss.  Most of the time they are great.  Plenty of restaurants doing what they do best with a hot guest list, serving top-notch food in a beautiful setting.  Others, however, not so much.  Sometimes you can head to one where every restaurant runs out of food within an hour (that's poor planning due to the PR team, not usually the restaurant), and there's not a lot of care put into the food.  This, thankfully, was a major hit. 

This is the second year Saveur magazine threw this event, and it was so discrete from the public that it was invitation only.  Everything was served off of Pier 66 in Chelsea Piers, very much away from the public eye. 



There was no shortage of top restauranteurs and chefs here (yes I was giddy with excitement because these guys are like rockstars to me).  Here are just a few:

Pictured are Marco Canora (Hearth), Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster), Merri Lee Kingsley (Saveur magazine), Marc Murphy (Landmarc), and Dan Kluger (ABC Kitchen). 

Casual Habana

I want to start off this post by apologizing.  I’m sorry.  I don’t want to come off as a food snob or think I’m better than some other chefs/cooks out there.  But in this case, I can’t help it.  Every industry out there has people that are great at what they do, and then there are the majority that are good at what they do, then the few that just can’t quite cut it, and then the last group, the group of people that just don’t give a shit whatsoever.  I know not every restaurant out there can live up to NYC standards.  I truly believe you should support your local businesses.  Last night I ate at a Cuban restaurant called Casual Habana located in Hackensack, NJ.  By golly, everything inside of me told me not to write this post, but I will let every reader out there know that with every last ounce of passion and respect that I have for this field, that I can’t wait to rip this place apart. 

Let’s start with the dining scene in NJ.  I am sure every person out there has seen an episode of “No Reservations”, featuring Anthony Bourdain.  A few years ago Bourdain, who actually grew up in NJ, did an episode of No Reservations based on his home state.  He was quick to say that the state that was located so close to the epicenter of dining in the world (NYC) could be such a culinary wasteland.  New Jersey, the “armpit of America”, and the most densely populated state in the nation.  The first half of the episode is so depressing.  Bourdain makes a point to revisit some of the cheap eateries he spent most of his stoner teenage years at.  First stop, a fried hot dog in Leonia, followed by an Italian sub at a strip club called “The Bada-Bing Club”, then ending with none other than a grilled cheese sandwich at a desolate beach in Asbury Park. 

Although he finished the episode on some high notes dining at a Korean bbq restaurant located in an empty parking lot, showcasing fresh seafood down the shore, and even bringing Mario Batali into the mix to visit an Italian bakery, anyone that is new to New Jersey can’t help but think the state is nothing more than endless parking lots, industrial wasteland, strip malls, jug-handles, and round-a-bouts.  Having lived and worked in NJ for a few years I can tell you there are plenty of great restaurants and dining destinations if you look hard enough.  But Casual Habana is not one of them.