Kitchen Chick

Frita Batidos — Quick Photo Tour

 

Last week, I went to Frita Batidos with some friends/co-workers for lunch. The space is casual, with white picnic tables and some bar-style seating at the window. The old Cafe du Jour space has been renovated from the tiny cozy lunch room into a contemporary casual white box. Really, it's quite casual, and really, quite white, and really, quite boxy (well, rectangle-y).

We must have hit a pause between rushes, because the tables were full but there were only two couples ahead of us. I was envisioning a line out the door given that we were going to this much-hyped restaurant in its opening week, so that was something of a relief. Though by the time we ordered and found some seating space, the line had quadrupled in size.

You place your order at the counter then find a space to sit if you're eating in. The servers will bring out your food and call your name a la Zingerman's Deli. Everything is a la carte. There's a nice selection of Cuban-style Fritas plus some other sandwiches like pulled pork, a selection of sides, and assorted drinks, including the batidos (shakes) that are half of the restaurants name-sake. 

I opted for the black bean frita and added a fried egg to it. Tasty, though I'm thinking that it could have used a touch of hot sauce or salsa to add some zing. (I should have investigated the sauces on the shelves at the end of each table.)

And my friend Barb had the pulled pork sandwich and a side of really delicious coconut-lime rice. I suspect the pulled pork is going to be the next sandwich I try there.

I'm still thinking about that rice, though perhaps not as much as I'm thinking about these garlicky plantains, being photographed by my friend the awesome photographer Tafari.

And because they are simply that tasty, here's a close up of those plantains. You can see that glistening garlic sauce...

We finished off our meal with some passion fruit batidos and Spanish hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was thick and deliciously sludgy, just like Spanish hot chocolate should be (order with a churro for the proper Spanish hot chocolate experience), and heavily flavored with cinnamon. And the passion fruit batido? Well, I think Tafari's expression describes how he felt about that batido.

 

 

I wish I had a chance to eat my grandma's cookies

Some of you probably recognize the brand of cookie in the picture. When I was a kid, they were one of my favorites, so when I saw them at the grocery store dressed up for the holidays in sparkly red I made an impulsive decision to buy a package. And you know what? I still like them.

Why was this one of my favorite cookies? It was one of the cookies that my grandmother frequently bought. She bought a lot of cookies. I ate a lot of cookies sitting in front of her television. Little did I know that my grandmother was, at one point, renown in her community for her cookie baking. Renowned! Famous! Envied for her cookies! She'd bake up a storm during the holidays and store the cookies in tins to be shared out later. My mom told stories about how she'd find where grandma had hidden the cookie tins and sneak cookies, and then later when grandma demanded to know who ate the cookies there would be all sorts of denials.

When the era of mass produced and factory food really took off, my grandma set aside her baking. She got her GED, went to work full time, had less time for all that time-consuming home labor that home baking and canning required. Factory cookies and processed foods saved her time and made life easier. She was done with all that. Well, that and her kids grew up and moved out, and when I came around as the first grandkid I guess she didn't feel like starting up again.

My mom gave me the recipes shortly before she died. I was hoping we'd have a chance to bake them together, but that was not to be.

I guess I'll just have pull out those recipes and make them myself. But, you know, I just really wish I had a chance to eat some of my grandma's cookies made by her own hands.