http://leoweekly.com/dining/mr-pollo-restaurant-offers-simple-and-safe-taste-peru
(Mr. Pollo is currenlty sans website, so I will defer you to the source that originally offered me a waft of Mr. Pollo)
No, you cannot find Peruvian food at my friend's, Will's, house. You may find it in Louisville - and only in one place in Louisville - at Mr. Pollo, a peruvian chicken and chips shop located off Klondike Lane. Assimilated poorly into its surroundings as it sticks out like a green egg, it features roast chicken, roast chicken, and roast chicken as its entree options. I am not a fan, generally-speaking, of roast chicken; however, the rub on this chicken is so spectacular that I become a fan yesterday evening (it gave me thoughts of the distant Rollo Pollo that used to be situated by the mall that I would frequent in my middle school years). The rub was a spicy jamaican sort of rub that needed no sauces.
The chefs do give you two sauces with your meal, though: a yellow and an orange. The orange is spicy and amazing - I would literally put that sauce on anything. The yellow is more buttermilky and celery like - good but not clearing my taste bud hurdles of amazingness. Our family meal (number 6) was served with rice and beans and a whole chicken. The rice and beans weren't up to Havana Rumba standards, but were a nice accompinament to the main show.
The restaurant offered many drink and dessert options, which looked yummy. The chef asked us if it was our first time there, to which we responded yes. He gave us all small, appetizer portions of the house's soup. Soooo exquisite! It reminded me of indian cuisine in its spice-choice and had little bits of rice mashed up in it (which, texture-wise, I love for some reason). I would definitely come back again just to get soup or a chicken.
While Mr. Pollo is located near tons of ethnic groceries and restaurants on Klondike Lane, its building is small and hard to find. It's a shot-gun, hole-in-the-wall that's painted an ugly dark blue. Several families of teenagers came in to eat while we were there, but we saw one car of upper-middle class males pull up and then away from the restaurant after deciding it looked too shady. It was simply splendid (but probably did a number on my sodium count!).
I'm going to go re-heat and re-eat it in the lunch room right now. Smells like a plan!
This restaurant should be put on your list of Louisville must-eats. It's inexpensive (six dollars for a meal) and completely different and better than all other roast chicken in town. When a restaurant serves me a dish that offers my tastebuds something completely novel and completes the meal with other suburb items, it gets a must eat recommendation from me. Go there now!!!!! (I will leave you with no culinary alternative on this posting! Do it!)
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Joe Huber's Family Farm and Restaurant
Huber’s is good country cooking. Plain and simple. Huber’s in its entirety is an orchard, store, winery, several restaurants, petting zoo, play ground, donkey ride, hay ride, u-pick patch, garden jazz eatery, fishing hole, and so much more. What can you not do at Huber’s these days?
Well you probably can’t move if you go there right now. Just before Halloween is when parents from the city and nearby countryside flock to the Indiana farm-o-polis to pick some friggin’ pumpkins. It’s a zoo, I’m sure. This was always when I went when I was a kid. Recently I’ve been going in the wintertime and it’s soooo peaceful there! Taking friends from college there is always a treat – who doesn’t love watching goats frolic while very full and slightly toasted from a free wine tasting?
The eatery itself offers many options of salads, sandwiches and entrees at somewhat expensive prices. The side orders are my go-to items now. They are about three dollars and absolutely huge. They include the typical: cole slaw, mashed potatoes, chicken and dumplings (what I always get!), and sweet potatoes (yummy too!). I also must say that the catch with hubers – and what has always been the catch besides the good fried chicken – are the rolls. They serve these desserty, dumpling-like roles as appetizers along with an apple spread that is killer! Oh my, I could eat a lot of those. They are also good for feeding ducks or stray dogs after your meal, if you ask your waitress for a second or third serving.
Fifteen big ones is the price for the family style meal that includes lots of chicken (cuts and preparation of choice) and unlimited family-style sides. Warning: you will walk away full.
On one side of the room, which is more like an amphitheatre, is a row of several tables strung together for large parties to sit at. As a youngster, we’d sit over there with our school group (~70 people). Today I’ve seen some companies take their workers out to eat at Huber’s and sit over there. Maybe if you had enough offspring in your family who didn’t die of coronary failure before the age of four, you could all eat over there. The dining setup still confuses me.
On the other side of the acres of land is the winery’s tasting room. It’s in the upstairs to this building that sits across from one of the country stores down from the petting zoo. On the second floor is a room just sheerly for tasting wines. Now they always have free wines to try, but you have to be careful about how you go about tasting the “free” wines because they continuously change their policy (perhaps to charge those who haven’t yet gotten their degrees in drink mooching or who pre-gamed their entrance to the tasting room).
If you’re looking for some even better home cooking, try Colonel Sander’s place – the Colonel’s Lady (now known as Claudia Sanders). It’s worth the drive out to Shelbyville, Kentucky!
Nepal's Cafe
In downtown Estes Park Colorado along the backcorner of a city block is a hole in the wall (almost literally) that serves exquisite Nepalese and Indian food. A family run business, the shop offers a buffet for nine dollars for lunch or a dinner menu full of entrees for around ten dollars.
What is unique about this place? Everything. The owners bow down to you practically while serving you the food, take breaks to go outside and scrape little pieces of dirt from the local green space into a bag to bring inside (is that their secret ingredient?), and have exquisitely friendly attitudes. The décor is from Nepal and includes many interesting and jaded tapestries. Additionally, a large liquor collection covers one wall.
The menu is incredible and full of food I have never heard of (but lacks the beloved durian, that Indonesian dessert-tasting fruit thing). We had Nepalese noodles similar to pad thai, but more with greater texture to the flavor and an order of Indian chicken saag. The freshness of the dishes and the mix of flavors (all complimented by the heavenly herb, cilantro) was unbelievable – especially from this chaqteau of a restaurant with no one in it at 6pm. I don’t think I will eat another chicken saag like that one again. It didn’t taste overly creamy, but the balance and freshness of herbs just melted it away into my mouth. The cuts of meat were juicy, but firm and without fatty pieces (we ordered chicken in both dishes).
I do know the restaurant’s secret – I overheard it! They mix all their sauces together fresh using a blender. The Indian dish was out of this world – the taste of the fresh spinach and cilantro together with the chicken was literally unlike anything we had tasted at a typical Indian restaurant. When a restaurant doesn’t follow a normed formula of heating premade sauces that other restaurants follow, it stands to gain a lot!
If I could go back, I would skip the Nepalese naan (it’s too similar to regular naan) and I would get some odd dish on their dessert menu that was poorly described as an ice cream-like concoction of chocolate and coconut (I love coconut!). They also have rice pudding, which is my go-to dessert at Indian restaurants.
We found this restaurant because on google it was one of the few restaurants in the area with a five-star user rating (it’s hard to get this with so many people commenting on restaurants online these days and the opportunity for one customer to be disappointed!).
Looking for more authentic, inexpensive local grub in Estes Park, check out Tulum’s Mexican.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Grape Leaf
My father always revels about the breakfasts the grape leaf now serves (they’re even open before 8am on Sunday morning!). This is the local Greek original, and to me, steadfast staple of an aware Louisvillian’s palate. The shwarma, the lamb, the Spanish burrito, the salads (oh my!), and the hummus are all part of the experience. I can still remember bringing my high school’s cultural awareness club to the Grape Leaf and downed a lamb gyro. The bliss my peers and I experienced was rather extreme. It was an excellent bonding experience of joy and warmth.
Last week I went there and tried out a new dish for me – chicken sumac. I had recently discovered sumac at Saffron’s Persian cuisine on Market Street. They sprinkle it all over the humus served there and include it as a rub on meats. It’s rare to find and expensive to buy, but armed with a good recipe can do wonders in a simple fashion to any meat. At Grape Leaf the chicken was fried with vegetables and had an excellent, unified taste. The server was smart enough to bring out our Greek salads (like the house except served with feta cheese) before the meal so that we could enjoy some early yummyness. The salads include lots of romaine leafs, cut up fresh fruit (pineapple and melons), some craisins or pomegranate seeds, big almonds, and a wonderful vinaigrette dressing applied liberally. Wow! Everytime I eat that salad I’m reminded of just how wonderful a creative salad – and healthy – can be.
Recently I also ventured to try something known as the Spanish burrito. It’s pinto bean madness with gooey cheese. I don’t remember much else about it except that it was served with very good pico de gallo and was enough for three people. It was extremely good as well!
The ambience of the restaurant I should note as well. It used to be a well-lit, smelly hole in the wall. Since it expanded into the beauty shop the owner’s wife owned next door they have upgraded the interior. It’s now calming and quiet, complimented by a waterfall, and wonderful bathroom – but odd floor-length mirror on the way there. There is also a patio area for dining with large grape leaves covering the latticework hanging above. Trains occasionally pass and surprise rains also occasionally ruin the blissful moments spent in the outdoors, but otherwise dining outside is not to be missed!
Next time you’re looking for limitless Greek choices and the best ambience in town, come to the Leaf! For a cheaper, speedier Mediterranean experience walk a block west to Shiraz on Frankfort Ave.
Monday, October 4, 2010
To try this week or next...
In the coming weeks, I hope to sample the likes of:
Angio’s Italian on Old Bardstown Rd.
Dejlah Bistro on Oeschli Rd.
Little India Café on Breckinridge Rd.
Some Peruvian Pollo spot on Klondike Rd. or something that was written up in the paper recently
Saigon by Trinity
Simply Thai by Rainbow Blossom St. Matthews
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Comfy Cow
Wow! Cinnamon, that beloved flavor of my days of yore that I can still not spell correctly, is currently one of the rotating flavors available at the comfy cow, located on Herr Lane in the new Westport Village.
Anyway, the comfy cow is a new business establishment that actually fulfills what the homemade pie and ice cream kitchen claims. Having tried both their ice cream and their ice cream pies, I am qualified to say that the boundless options that comfy cow offers are unprecedented in their flavor. For instance, when eating their peanut butter flavor it actually tastes like distinctive, homemade goodness in a cone, not some singular Reese’s taste that is not a novel experience on your taste buds. The butter pecan is fabulous, as is the peanut butter ice cream cake. The thing about their creations is that none of them are just filled with simply one thing, but rather a combination of flavors that the owners take seriously in their design and formulation.
The options at the comfy cow are endless: they have many ice cream flavors, ice cream pie flavors, frozen banana sprinklings, cookie and regular dessert options, tea flavors, and soft drink options. Their most recent flavor creation, one that pays tribute to the great Steely Dan song, Pretzel Logic, purported combines their signature vanilla ice cream chocked full of chocolate covered pretzels, Reese’s peanut butter chips and a decadent peanut butter swirl. While this concoction of flavors leaves me speechless, all that one can add to this posting is that life is too short for you to not know – and I mean really know through and through – what each of the ice cream flavors at comfy cow tastes like.
PostScript: I read in the paper yesterday that they are to open a second location on Frankfort Avenue where Ginny’s Diner used to be. Yes please!
PostScript 2: How many followers do I have? This is an Xplosion!
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