Not that we haven't been eating out. We actually visited two restaurants in August and September and planned to blog about them but then school started and all the extra work of sixth grade and life, in general, seemed to preoccupy us. In addition, to our local spots, we're also happy to report (well, at least, I am) that Eataly has opened in our neighborhood. While we haven't been able to eat at its restaurants, it's amazing roasted chicken -- among the best I've ever eaten -- has become part of our regular dinner repetoire.
MARCI
Jeremy is a huge a huge taco fan. So, for his birthday in August, the whole family journeyed to Corona, Queens to Tortilleria Nixtamal, a small family run business where they make their own tortillas from actual corn. Sounded interesting. Their website also says they use natural corn oil instead of lard and buy local produce, meat from the local butcher and even fish from Whole Foods.
Tortilleria Nixtamal has only about a half dozen tables. It reminded us of many of the local spots we ate at while on vacation in Mexico last spring -- only much cleaner. A friendly waitress came by and we proceeded to order almost everything on the small menu.
JEREMY
I don't remember much about the restaurant except that I ate a lot of food and enjoyed it. What I liked best was the pork tamales. The guacamole was also pretty good and the tacos were good but the meat was a little fatty. The food was very authentic. It didn't taste like my favorite, Chipolte, but then again, that's more Tex-Mex than real Mexican. Would I go back to Tortilleria Nixtamal? I would if it was within a 20 block radius of my house. Since it's not, I probably won't.
MARCI
The tamales were tasty. My favorite was the Rajas tamale which had tomatoes, chile and cheese. We tasted plenty of homemade corn products from the posole in the soup to the tamales to the chips for the guacamole and the tacos. While everything was very fresh, I honestly don't know that I could tell the difference between the tortillas here or at some of our other favorite Mexican restaurants.
As Jeremy stated, the food is definitely authentic. The good news is the Tortilleria is starting to supply other taco shops and Mexican restaurants in the city. I'll have to take Jeremy to the taco shop just south of Union Square which is now using their products.
Tortilleria Nixtamal
104-05 47th Avenue (between 104th and 108th Streets)
Corona, NY
a diagonal thumbs up, according to Jeremy, is 3 out of 4 stars
FINGER LICKIN' GOOD
MARCI
We were very excited to hear that Hill Country, the Texas BBQ place near our house, was opening up a restaurant devoted only to fried chicken. We never got to go to Piece of Chicken, the Hells Kitchen chicken ship which closed late summer. So on its opening weekend, Jeremy and I made an early visit to Hill Country Kitchen.
The restaurant looks like an old fashioned kitchen with vintage wallpaper, chrome tables and chairs. It's cafeteria-style so you line up to pick your chicken. As usual, Jeremy and I ordered far more than we could eat...
JEREMY
There are two choices for fried chicken: Hill Country Classic (with skin) and Mama El's, a skinless fried chicken. I liked the Mama El's chicken because it had extra crunchies. The chicken tenders were also really good. My favorite side were the cole slaw and the french fries. I didn't like the carrot and raisin slaw; it was nasty. The restaurant also serves mini pies small enough for one person to eat. We tried a bunch: double cherry, cowboy and banana cream. My favorite was the cowboy pie. It had caramel, chocolate chips and some sort of cookie crunch. They also serve a pie shake which sounds really interesting but we didn't order. I definitely would go back to Hill Country. It's near my house and the chicken is really good.
MARCI
I'm with Jeremy: great skinless fried chicken and chicken tenders, terrific cole slaw. Not only is it close to our house, it's close to my office and sometimes after a particularly crazy morning, we need comfort and cholesterol. We're happy it's in the neighborhood but it's one of those foods you can't really eat on a regular basis.
Hill Country Kitchen
1123 Broadway (25th Street)
http://www.hillcountrychicken.com
a thumbs up, according to Jeremy is 3.5 out of 4 stars
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