Citygirl Bites: Milagro Modern Mexican

After falling my ass down our basement stairs last Friday and spending some time at our friendly neighborhood urgent care, I was sore, traumatized and tired. I needed a treat. And, thanks to my fairly new job we had enough cash to go out to lunch at a place that didn't reek of fryer grease and stale buns: Milagro Modern Mexican.

The food was so good that after one meal there, it's already become our new favorite Mexican restaurant.



We had a good portion of their thick, non-greasy complimentary chips and smoky/sweet salsa, and then dug into our appetizer: Carne Asada Fries.



Oh! The toasty carne asada. The seasoned fries. The well-distributed cheese so that every bite has some. The mounds of guac, sour cream and pico. Perfect and very difficult to stop eating.



HUBS feels the need to order chili whenever he has the opportunity, so we got a cup of their Statesmen Chili to share. I simply am not exaggerating when I say that this was THE BEST RESTAURANT CHILI WE'VE EVER HAD. Upon finishing one bite I declared that the next time we're there I'll be ordering a full sized bowl of it for my ownself, and if he wants some he'll have to get his own. I mean, my God, they put chunks of steak in it!



My main course was the Tacos al Pastor, featuring chile marinated pork and grilled pineapple in a soft shell. When it first came to the table I thought the tacos were a bit small, but they turned out to be the right size considering how much pre-food I'd already eaten. Plus, they really mounded up the side orders of Cilantro Rice Pilaf and Jicama Slaw (not shown). It was all so good I die a little thinking about the fact that it's not in front of me RIGHT NOW.



HUBS fell for the Cochinita Pibil Street Tacos. Yucatan style pulled pork, orange habanero salsa and hibiscus pickled onion. What is that, even? Doesn't matter if it's good! I was so full I didn't try his tacos, but I did try his side of Charro Beans. If you've had Southern style beans, these were basically that...but smokier and somehow more Mexican. Amazing!

I really can't rave about the food - all reasonably priced, by the way - enough. If I could eat there every day without feeling bad about not cooking any of my own food, I WOULD TOTALLY DO IT.

What cool places have you eaten at lately?

Citygirl Bites: Taqueria Durango

Oh. My. Lord. Do you see that? It's a sandwich. That's right, a sandwich the size of a smallish plate. This, friends, is your intro to Taqueria Durango.

On a cold and snowy night near the end of December, HUBS and I ventured out to one of St. Louis Magazine's best cheap restaurants in the area. We'd never been before, but we'll definitely be back. Everything was amazingly good and plentiful. Let's talk details.

It took a while for our waitress to get to use once we sat down, but she brought us lovely homemade chips and three different house salsas, so all was forgiven pretty quickly. We ordered the above appetizer because it was something different. These are the $9 Papa Nachos. They are, hold your breath people, nachos made of crinkle cut fries instead of chips. HOLY GOD. Chicken, fries, cheese dip, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. It was...AHMAAAAAZINNNGGGG. I was fully planning to nibble a little and then leave it alone so I'd have room for my entree. I couldn't. Neither could HUBS. We ate all of it and I was tempted to lick a plate in public. Yes I was.

We'll start with this, the Torta Ahogada, which is what I ate. The above photo is a closeup of the giant sandwich in the first pic. It's pork tips and grilled onions on a bun that's covered with a spicy sauce. I know, sauce on top of a bun sounds like a bad idea. Trust me, it. Is. NOT. This was sooooo gooooood. The meat and onions were crispy. The bun was a bit sweet and tender. And, there was just the right amount of sauce on top to make it different but in no way soggy. Awesome! You should also know that there was enough food here for three meals. I literally ate off of this $7 sandwich for three days.

HUBS got their Burrito Majado. Meat, rice, beans and lettuce wrapped in a massive tortilla smothered in red sauce and cheese. I don't remember what type of meat HUBS got, but I remember that it was GOOD.

You know how you find the perfect meal and you're eating your face off and then you start to get full, but the food is so good that getting full makes you sad because you know it means you have to stop eating. That's what eating at Taqueria Durango is like. If you like Mexican food and you ever hit St. Louis, don't hesitate, just go.

What was the last really good thing you ate?

Citygirl Bites! Smashburger

HUBS and I have been having what I'm going to call mono flashbacks this week, and Lord knows the last thing you want to do when you're headache-ridden, weak and racked with dizzy spells is...Stand. So, cooking anything major is out for a few days.

I drove us out to Smashburger for lunch today. It just opened a few months ago and still has that new restaurant feeling inside. The first thing we noticed? Their little corner of the strip mall smelled amazing as soon as we opened the car doors. That's always an impressive sign of quality, I must say.



The small (1/4 pound) Spicy Baja Smash with sweet potato smashfries and chili was my choice. It was topped with guacamole (which I passed on to HUBS), lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese and spicy chipotle mayo on a chipotle bun. What else can I say about it...Oh, yeah. GOOD! Juicy and spicy without being killer, meaty and crunchy and really just perfect.



The fries were covered with rosemary, olive oil and garlic, which was a nice change from your traditional cinnamon-sugar topped sweet potato fries. There was a lot of nice crispness in that basket, too. Yummy (said with guttural growl).

Their Angus chili was truly some of the best I've had. They laced it with onions, jalapenos and cheddar cheese. It was really meaty, which usually gets on my nerves, but the sauce was so good I just wanted to suck the whole thing down. My only gripe is that I wish they'd chopped the jalapenos so I could have skipped that step while eating.



HUBS enjoyed this production, which is a St. Louis Big Smash with chili cheese fries. His burger was on a nice pretzel bun (good, though it didn't taste as pretzely as some of the other pretzel breads I've had) with grilled onions, sweet peppers and garlic mushrooms, and provel cheese. He, of course, loved it. And, in case you're wondering, the standard fries are great as well.

I can absolutely see us going back; it's about a 20 minute drive away but it's worth it. Yea! New food!

What new food have you enjoyed lately?

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #3

Well, we are finally at the end of our Philly food adventure, and the end of our trip all together. Sad, isn't it? Our Thursday was rounded out with a trip to The Franklin Fountain. Look at that photo up there. The staff all wear early 1900s soda fountain/ice cream shop uniforms, and the whole place is set up like a classic ice cream place. They even have a vintage cash register.



I don't remember what I got and I don't remember what HUBS ate. But! They were both amazing and refreshing and sweet and yummy! All their ice cream is made in-house, how can you beat that? Plus, our dishes were filled to the absolute brim. Don't you love getting your money's worth?



Our last stop, on Friday, was technically in Gettysburg. We'd visited the battleground and extremely thorough museum and after a few hours needed dinner. HUBS had pre-scoped a restaurant located in a building built in 1776, The Dobbin House Tavern.



We shared a bowl of revelatory French Onion Soup. I capitalized each word there because this was the best FOS I've ever had. Ever. EVER, PEOPLE!! I generally avoid such soups because they tend to be hellishly salty, to the point where it feels like my throat is going to close up. This? This was perfectly seasoned, cheesy, with bits of tooth tender beef and onion floating in there. Oh. My. God. So gooooooood.



In addition to the soup (which immediately made me want more when we finished the bowl), I got a club sandwich and HUBS got a burger smothered in mushrooms and onions. Everything was amazing. These folks know food! And, again, all the servers are in period costumes. This means the ladies are dressed like old tyme serving wenches. I know what you're thinking, cleavage and good soup? That's right, people. Everything you could ever want in one spot!



Now I'm starving! That's what I get for talking about food for three days straight, huh? Before I go stuff my face, here's a Friday Funny for you:



Happy Friday, friends!

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #2

When we hit Cape May on Tuesday, our first stop was The Sea Shanty, a tiny spot in a strip mall-esq spot right across from the beach. The food was simply amazing. We actually had so much that it was hard for either of us to finish. I barely managed to eat all my lobster roll, while HUBS had to donate some of his fried clams to the seagulls. We did box up our mountain of fries, though, and luckily they held up well as we explored Cape May and Atlantic City.





Our big meal on Wednesday took us to the corner of two rival Philly cheesesteak behemoths: Pat's King of Steaks on one side and Geno's Steaks on the other.





Geno's wins in the cheese sweeps; it was loaded to dripping wit whiz. But HUBS and I both thought Pat's had slightly better meat. Plus, the sweet peppers on his were the bomb (yeah, I know nobody says that anymore...). I apologize, but for the second time in just a few days my ravenous hunger prevented me from thinking clearly and snapping shots of the sandwiches. Suffice it to say, they both looked roughly like this:


Photo

Now, here comes something truly special. On Thursday we were determined to get up early and get some major museum-going out of the way. As a reward for getting our asses out of the hotel pre-noon, we picked a spot for a nice breakfast out. We decided on Honey's Sit-n-Eat.



I don't even know how to describe the amazing-fantabulousness of this food. It's so good that I immediately knew I needed more of it after taking one bite of my challah French toast. It's so good that we went back again on Friday, our last day in Philly. It's so good, people, that about two weeks after getting home I yelled out I WANT HONEY'S SIT-N-EAT!! one night when we were debating dinner options. It's so good that you'll have sweet, maple syrup scented dreams after seeing what we ate:











See? Awe inspiring! Tomorrow? Part 3 of our Philly food adventure and some Friday goodies. Yea!

Citygirl Bites! Philly Road Trip Edition, #1

I haven't done a Citygirl Bites in ages, so, what better way to wrap up our Philly road trip story than to spotlight all the straight-awesome food we had while we were away. Mmmmm...Food porn!



On our way into Philly we stopped in Pittsburgh to eat dinner at Primanti Bros. Restaurant. They're known for their huge sandwiches with fries and cole slaw on the sandwiches. This is my fish sandwich. HUBS got a root beer float and some giant red meat sammy, plus we shared an amazing order of chili cheese fries. (That's right, we got fries even though each sandwich had fries on it. We are special.) If you're ever in the area you need to eat this food. Really.

Our next meal was a hotel-delivered one from Romano's on Sunday (our travel recovery day). Of course, I forgot to photograph a single item we ordered, but everything was good. We ordered a pizza (great crust, sauce and toppings), chili (filled with sweet peppers and meat and giant beans), a crab cake sandwich (yum) and a stromboli (HUBS ate this one by himself, but he loved it.) There were a ton of leftovers. Thank God we got a kitchenette in our room!



On Monday we stopped at Moshulu. It's an early 1900's sailing ship that's been turned into a restaurant. HUBS and I had been walking around all day and were tired, sweaty and sticky. We were also starving and my feet were aching. I was so glad that this place didn't have a dress code, we would not have gotten in with our tennis shoes and shorts otherwise.



This is my pulled pork sandwich. Um...You will not have a better pulled pork sammy, people. I swear. It was served with homemade chips and a little salad. Both very, very good as well.



HUBS ordered this. I think it's pork with some rice. Now, it was really tasty. But, you see how little is on that plate, right? Does anyone think that HUBS, who routinely eats two Bic Mac's, fries and a giant soda in one sitting, could be even close to full by eating this? No? Wow, you guys get smarter every day. Again, glad we had those leftovers!



We also shared dessert. Do you see this beauty? It's the Mosulu Coupe and it includes: banana fritters, dulche de leche ice cream, caramel peanuts, flourless chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, fresh chantilly cream, chocolate sauce and wet pecans. Dammit! It was good! God!

I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of our eats. But, in the meantime, I'm working on ideas for my Tuesday Tipday series. I need to know: What kind of tips would be helpful to you? Let me know in the comments!

Citygirl Bites! Bar Louie

Someone is enjoying his mojito, alright.

I have never claimed to be a food snob. Some people would actually scoff at going to a chain restaurant, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. Does the place look clean? Is stuff well-priced? Is the food good, for heaven's sake? Then why pretend like it's beneath you, really?

A couple of weeks ago HUBS and I hit up our local Bar Louie for happy hour. We've been there several times since we moved near one a few years back, and the food is always good. Since we were trying to save money, we got three appetizers and shared them. Two were happy hour specials, so they were cheeeeeeeaaaap!



We love the loaded fries, but decided to get the tots this time because we hadn't had them before. As usual, they were super fattening and amazingly good. I only wish that the tots had been cooked a little longer so they'd stand up to the cheese sauce better. Though, it's not like they were a soggy mess or anything.



We also shared their bruschetta. We get this almost every time we go to Bar Louie; it's some of the best bruschetta ever in the history of the world. And, it's served in a giant martini glass! Yay!



This was the piece de resistance. Their mini veggie pizza. Now, there's mushrooms on it, which I despise, but HUBS was having a hard day, so I got this for him. (He loves the fungi. Oh yes, he does.) After picking off the 'shrooms, I can tell you that this was great pizza. Perfect crust, perfect sauce, and the veggies were cooked just right.


The drink in question.

HUBS loves him a good beverage. And, like I mentioned earlier, he'd had one of those shitty days that are so common when you work with other people on a regular basis. He came home frustrated, hungry and needed to get his buzz on. He chose their mojito and was happier for it.

See, ain't nuthin wrong wit a chain.

Happy Friday, my peeps!

Citygirl Bites! Plush Pig Barbeque

We here at Citygirl headquarters lurve us some BBQ. By the time Sunday rolled around we needed sauced up meat like never before. So, we headed to the Plush Pig to see their new digs in Rock Hill. The last time we dined with them, their place was in Clayton and we had just lost a lawsuit against the former owner of our house (long story, y'all).



I got the rib tips and fries, plus sides of cole slaw and green beans. Man, that was disappointing. It wasn't inedible, but, you know how you build something up and then when you finally get to it it's just...meh? That's how this was. The tips were kinda fatty and none of the food was actually hot when it got to me. And we all know that lukewarm fries are meh, right? The waitress originally brought the wrong sides, but when I finally got the ones I ordered, they were ok.



HUBS ordered the sausage and meat cmbo with baked beans and potato salad. I didn't try any of his meat (heh, heh, heh) but he said the meal had a similar effect on him. It was edible, but didn't burn him to the ground and make him want to go back to the Plush Pig anytime soon. Even the baked beans, which I can honestly say were some of the best in St. Louis, were really good but not amazing, like I remembered them.

I don't know what happened. Is there a new cook? Are they preparing stuff differently? Were our tasebuds deformed the first couple of times we ate there? I don't think we'll be going back to the Plush Pig. Bandana's has much better food for a similar price point, plus they have several locations and whip fast service.