Camel milk–we gave it a mixed review. It’s one of the products in our grocery store that’s unique to us, although we hear it’s becoming more prevalent in health food stores in the US. It has it’s own special refrigerated case in the store here–kind of a featured product.
We found the taste…interesting…perhaps an acquired taste.
Popularity: 2% [?]
After a very short stop in Nairobi (8 hours), I left Jeff and headed out again. Thankfully, my next flight was just a couple of hours. I flew north to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Addis is about 750 miles north of Nairobi. I’m here for about a week traveling with a co-worker, David. We are here to learn more about Bible translation programs in the country.
I’m not usually a coffee drinker, but coffee is an important part of Ethiopian culture. So, today, while enjoying the company of co-workers including some Ethiopian colleagues, I had my first macchiato. It’s a coffee drink with lots of milk and sugar that is popular in Ethiopia. Yum. If all coffee tasted like this, I’d drink it more often. Macchiato came to Ethiopia along with pizza, pasta and gelato during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia shortly before World War II.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Before we arrived, we wondered what typical meals were like in Kenya. We’re finding that we usually eat the same kinds of things we ate at home. However, at lunch-time we sometimes take advantage of the food service at our office, and they serve typical Kenyan food.
Here are some foods many people eat in Kenya and in other parts of East Africa:
Samosas and pilau are some of our new favorites.
Find some recipes for Kenyan food on these web sites:
Just Kenya, Recipes
All Things Kenyan–Food
Popularity: 5% [?]
Because he grew up in Los Angeles, Jeff’s experienced a host of good Mexican food. I grew up having an about once-a-year taco dinner, eating chips and salsa, going once or twice to Casa Lupita (Mexican restaurant that used to be in Warwick, RI) and then Taco Bell came to Woonsocket when I was in high school. Those were all good, but I hadn’t yet really experienced great Mexican food.
I went to Mexico in November of 2000 and searched in vain for some of the Mexican favorites I knew. I didn’t find them, but I did find a lot of great foods that I really loved. So, when I met Jeff, I was ready to experience the Mexican food he liked.
Shortly after we were married, he started making me tacos (not like I’d ever had), enchiladas, burritos… I’ve never been the same.
We’ve spent part of this year traveling in the northeast, and we’ve been searching whenever it was possible for some good Mexican food. Not Taco Bell…not Don Pablo’s…real Mexican food. We’ve been looking from Philadelphia to Boston. Finding good and truly authentic Mexican food has been a challenge. There are more Mexican eating establishments here than when I was I younger. Some of them even say “authentic” on their sign, but we’d define many of them as tex-mex restaurants in disguise (trust me, there is a difference). However, we have found a few gems. Our test food is carne asada/bistek (steak) tacos.
How do we distinguish an authentic taco from a tex-mex one? We look for soft-corn tortillas, meat (chopped steak, shredded and seasoned beef/chicken/pork and other meat like lengua), onions, cilantro and occasionally fresh jalapeno, tomatoes and/or guacamole on top. Hard shells, flour tortillas, cheese, lettuce or hamburger usually signal to us that the tacos aren’t the real thing.
All of these places offer great steak tacos for between about a dollar or two.
La Lupe’sThe sign on the front of their building reads, “The very best Mexican in Philly”. We think they’re right. What did it for us? Homemade corn tortillas. They have a full menu (sit-in or take-out), including a nice selection of Mexican sodas. This restaurant is located close to Gino’s (a famous cheese steak eatery).
Tacos El PaisanitoI stopped by here during a visit with Aileen, Kate & Susan. I don’t think many tourists stop here. They seemed pretty excited about our stop. Excellent tacos, great sauce. I would stop here again.
Taco MixLocated in Spanish Harlem, their tacos were made in the authentic style (soft corn tortilla, meat, onion and cilantro). Their meat was seasoned slightly different than we’re used to, but it was still very good.
La Lupita
1950 Westminster St
Providence, RI 02909
(401) 331-2444
You’ll find this place in the Olneyville section of Providence. They have excellent tacos, and they sell Sangria soda. This non-alcoholic drink is my favorite Mexican soda.
Tacos Lupita
13 Elm Str
Somerville, MA 02143
617-666-0677
They serve both Mexican and Salvadorian dishes. Great tacos. We’d first tried another place up the street just over the Cambridge line because we’d read so many great reviews on it. This Chipotle-like restaurant had nice decor but only OK Mexican food. They substituted roast beef for steak (but still called it steak), and had skimpy-sized burritos. The real Chipotle is much better. Thankfully, we found Tacos Lupita, and our trip wasn’t wasted. The decor was not as nice as that other restaurant, but the food was far better.
Have you found any great Mexican food establishments in the northeast?
Popularity: 7% [?]
One of the fun parts of traveling is trying new foods. Jeff and I have tried all kinds of local foods all over the US. There are fun things to try abroad as well, and we both enjoy a variety of ethnic dishes.
I’ve been a fan of the food from this area for a while, but there are so many dishes that I haven’t tried, yet. I got a spicy pork salad last night. Yum! The meat had a great flavor, and it was in a delicious ginger sauce. Now, when they put spicy on the menu here, they mean it. It was so hot, my poor tongue was hurting! With every bite of my spicy salad, I quickly had a large bite of rice to cool off my mouth. Water doesn’t work, in case you were wondering.
Popularity: 2% [?]
