My Pants Fit Funny

On this day two of Restaurant Week (or three or four when you count Saturday's visit to The Herkimer [great time with a great friend] and Monday's visit to Cocina Latina) and my clothing is doing something funny.  Either I am smaller (doubt) or I am have stretched it so much that's falling off.  And four more restaurants to go.  Yes, four.  In addition to Red Stag for brunch on Sunday, I will be venturing to Apple Valley for a go at Wild Bill's with another awesome friend.  Next week it's all organic salads and meatless stir-frys.  

Except for Thursday when I am going out again.

Just back from Barrio a bit ago.  There's been a bit of a discussion over on Chowhound with opposing terms like "overrated" and "excellent."  After tonight's visit, I'd have to agree that both words fall into my experience.



I have the best friends in the world and tonight's dining companion is no exception.  We got to the St. Paul location during happy hour (4-6 pm), ordered a couple of drinks.  I had the Barrio happy hour marg (tiny! thankfully, but why was there salt only on one side of the glass?) and her the Mama Cita (Tequila Hibiscus punch with a splash of Cava).  It made her a bit punchy (ha!)  We gorged ourselves on another happy hour special:  chips, three salsas, and guacamole.  I liked the chips.  They were crispy, not oily or too much salt, not out of a bag.  The guac was awesome and fresh which was good because the processed stuff usually sits in my stomach like a rock.  I tried the salsa closest to me, assuming because it looked the most like a "fresh" salsa that it would be the mildest one.  My friend dipped into it before I was able to warn her it was the hot one and it took awhile to cool her off (she's not one for the hot stuff.)  I liked it of course.  The other two salsas were a tomatillo and what looked like some kind of roasted pepper.  I found both of them surpisingly sweet and not entirely to my taste.  Of course it could be that my tastebuds were totally thrown off by the first salsa.  It's interesting that this particular presentation is not on the on-line happy hour menu and I wonder how much the chips and salsa were a bow to peoples' expectations of a "Mexican" restaurant.

Happy hour progressed and we thought we would try another small plate, the Queso Fundito.  This is where things went a little south (pardon the pun.)  My standard of queso fundito may have been tuned to the expectations I formed when eating at two particular Mexican restaurants when living in Iowa City, Cancun and El Ranchero (though current reviews are quite split, they were loved back in the day.)  The queso at those two restaurants perhaps is not comparable to the queso that Barrio attempts, but it was far creamier (made with plastic cheese perhaps?) and the jalapeno chunks were discernable and had taste.  Unfortunately this was not the case with the cast-iron contained dish I had tonight.  The cheese is out of the box for the standards of "regular" queso and perhaps I should have known better than to expect anything less at a Tim McKee (name dropping!) establishment, but it didn't have the mouth feel of a well blended concoction of what is essentially a cheese dip.  (That makes it sound like I was expecting Cheese Wiz.  No, thank you.)  What I did expect, as promised, were some poblano peppers which were no where in attendance.  It also had the gritty feel of a cheese sauce that is beginning to separate.  Well, I just ripped all over that one, didn't I?  Perhaps it is that I love cheese so much and was so greatly disappointed.  No one wants to eat bad food, right?  (I admit I did anyways.  I have to stop that.)  Oh, and yeah, the tortillas that come with the queso came out with some hard edges.

Neither of us were full enough, or we told ourselves we weren't.  Happy hour was over and we decided to go for the big stuff. The have only a few "large plates" and although my friend lives only about a block away, she hadn't tried the bigger portions yet.  She ordered the SAUTÉED SHRIMP with tangerine-serrano mojo and cilantro rice.  It was excellent, an opinion shared by a few people I've read.  The shrimp were simply perfect.  It was because of the shrimp that my friend rated the dinner so high.  She let me try one when I forked over a bit of the GRILLED SKIRT STEAK with chile-lime-tequila butter and fried yucca that I ordered, which I also found to be awesome.  Really excellent flavors with that butter.  I'm liking this whole cassava/yucca thing.  They were fixed and fried like potatoes, but I felt somehow that I may have been eating something healthier than the average fried food (probably not.)  A couple downer notes.  There was entirely too much flavorless cilantro rice under the luscious shrimp and there was a really odd piece of romaine stuff in the middle of my plate that seemed to be there for nothing other than looks.  Please, don't waste good greens on plating or at least give it a nice little vinagrette that would fit with the rest of the dish.
One other problem that I hate to mention because the flavors were so excellent on the skirt steak.  Although the yucca came out right out of the fryer, the steak was at best, luke warm to downright cold.  I mentioned something to the waitress, not wanting a replacement or anything else but some feedback on a poorly timed plate and she ended up completely comping the dish.  Totally unnecessary, but indicative of the service that we recieved from her the entire time we were there.  (And the water guy kept my glass full which is half-embarrassing, half awesome.  I tend to drink about a gallon with every meal.  I've got great skin.)

Birthdays being an occasion to celebrate (all week), we had the churros with a Mexican chocolate sauce.  I wished there was more of the occasional zing of a nice hot spice in the chocolate, but it still was pretty good.

I think if you are super into tequilla, Barrio must be pretty close to nirvana.  Having to work the next day I wasn't much into them or the resulting issues that tequilla shots tend to cause in my being.  Though a nice, casual night with a couple of drinks and the chips and salsa plate might be just what's in order someday.

So, it was fun and I am glad I tried it.  Company was excellent.

Couple of notes:

It's been awhile since I've written and with these long posts, I've woken up in the middle of the night a couple of times with serious arm cramps.  Is that bizarre.

Cat food strike appears to be over.  Apparently they just got hungry enough to continue with the chicken and herring.

And thank you to my first commenter, la chinesepoblana.  Thank you for answering so many of my questions prompted by my visit to Concina Latina.  You are a super fantastic friend.

Would love some more comments, people.  I know you are out there.  Let me know if I am a self-important windbag who writes for her pleasure and her pleasure only (though your comment may be moderated, ha!), or let me know if you really like it.  And let me know if you would like to go out for dinner.