INC Street Food

Last weekend we took a drive into Downtown Roswell. It was a beautiful day that was calling for food and drink outside and a stroll. We saw an open table at INC Street Food and sat down without a clue as to what was on the menu. Turns out it was inspired by Mexican street food…score!

 

These were our damn fresh cocktails. The margarita was good but the Pomegranate Paloma was fantastic. I can appreciate that they used Heradura Blanco and freshly made sweet and sour but it tasted a little flat especially next to the Paloma. While not an authentic Paloma, I can appreciate the new take on it. It didn’t help that it was good. They also had a stout tequila menu with some killer prices. We didn’t try any but we’ll definitely be back. The only thing that I question about the tequila menu is the abnormally low prices. This could be a 1 oz. pour instead of a 1.5-2 oz. pour that other place would normally do. We’ll find out and update you.

 

INC Street Food

948 Canton St
Roswell, Ga

770.998.3114

http://www.incstreetfood.com/

Cinco de Kentucky Derby

Wait…what? This year Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby fall on the same day. So I thought about bringing together two of my favorite adult beverages that are synonymous with each of their prospective holidays, Tequila and Mint Juleps.

4 Mint Sprigs
2.5 oz Tequila Reposado
1tsp Powdered Sugar
1tsp Water

Muddle the mint, water and sugar in a Highball glass. Add crushed ice and pour tequila over top, add more ice until it forms a mound. Garnish with a spring of mint. Enjoy!

Airplane bottles aka minis

Since we’re on a booze kick we might as well run with it for another day. Over the years I’ve been picking up these 50ml “airplane” bottles or mini’s to taste different bottles of alcohol(mostly tequila’s) and I’m always thrown by the range of tastes I get from them. Case in point, Avion, which we reviewed here. While I had posted a decent review of their juice, I had written Avion off as a bottle I keep around as I just never found it interesting. I felt it’s flavor profile was too “Americanized” like they filtered all the stuff that could have made it great, out. Recently I had a chance to taste it out of some airplane bottles and it was far different than I had remembered. When we tasted it from the mini’s, it took on a completely different profile, for the worse. All the ages had this weird salty, spiky agave vibe, especially the blanco which I had previously enjoyed. This and some previous tasting from mini’s got me thinking that they aren’t always the best way to review spirits, so I did some research.

It turns out, the internet told me that a lot of distilleries will bottle the different sized bottles at different times, say the 750ml’s first, liter’s, handles, and onto the mini’s. So it makes sense that the alcohol at the top of the vat can taste different than the bottom. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen as the distilleries aren’t exactly forthcoming about their processes, and rightfully so. Now I’ve had mini’s that I thoroughly enjoyed, both as introductions to the brand (treasure bottle Espolon) and samples of things I’ve had before (Casa Noble).

So where are we going with this? Don’t take a sampling of mini bottles as the end all be all of a brand. You owe it to your pallet to get a second taste from a different source. Now that I think about it, I’d be willing to do the same for brands I’ve had pours from at a bar. So I’m not rendering previous reviews as useless but as a reviewer I will do due diligence in having another pour before reviewing. I’d love to know your thoughts on tasting mini’s as well.

Salud!

Another Mango Margarita…

 

This is quickly becoming a cocktail webpage, guess I’ve been drinking lately and not eating. Don’t worry, we’re still covering foodstuffs. This is a variation of the mango margarita recipe we posted back in October. I had a nearly full bottle of Siete Leguas Blanco ( a great sipper btw!), it was a reasonably nice day spent cleaning the house and finishing a book on the porch when I decided to put that bottle to good use. Dave Yan of Casa Noble posted this recipe years ago online, he had given me the original recipe posted here so I though why not mix things up. This one uses orange liqueur and grapefruit soda but still adheres to all the freshness and natural sweetness of the original. Dig it!

1 Tablespoon of Tajin Chili powder
1 Lime wedge
3oz. of freshly pureed Mango juice
1.5oz. Agave Nectar
2oz. Orange Liqueur
3oz. Blanco Tequila, Siete Leguas
1.5oz. Freshly squeezed lime juice
3oz. Grapefruit soda, Mexican Market Fresca
Ice

Grab a small mango, peel and remove pit. Cut into cubes and puree in a blender. Yield should be about 3 oz. Blend ingredients together and shake with ice. Using the lime wedge, rim the glass and dust with the Tajin Powder. Salud!

 

Rio Grande

Today a coworker and I were digging on some Mexican, well she was at least. I dig on Mexican all the time. Its been a while since we’ve gone out to lunch and we were in the mood for something new. We’ve been to a few places neaerby but none even worth mentioning here, today that changed.

I had checked out the menu online prior and it had promise, but it was also filled with all those typical cheese covered, pre-made salsa type dishes. While eyeing the menu I saw my ticket, Tacos Jalisco Style available in asada, pastor, chicken or carnita’s…Pastor please!

 

Well you should have known, but I ordered the Pastor AND carnita’s. They were made just how I like too, freshly chopped onion, cilantro, radish and double wrapped in corn tortilla’s. First up was the carnita’s. They were a little light on the amount of meat used but they were still great. You could make the case that they were slightly overcooked but I liked the crisp edges in contrast to the juicy meat inside that added a wonderful “homemade” feel to them. I ended up ditching  the second tortilla being that they weren’t too wet and the tortilla’s were pretty thick and soaked up all the flavors. I ended up doing this for all the tacos although the al pastor tacos were on the verge of busting for the last bite. The al pastor was phenomenal!  Wonderfully spiced with earthy dry flavors of achiote but still moist and sweet from the pineapple. These are a must get. In fact they could be the best in Greensboro…for now. Carnita’s 3.5/5, Al Pastor 5/5.

Everything was fresh, including the salsa and my coworkers veggie burrito was filled with squash and broccoli which also looked great. I didn’t try it but she enjoyed it. They had a decent tequila selection so my next visit will include beers and a shot…or two. Give this place a shot, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Apparently this place must be starting a trend. Soon you’ll see his face just like you see Soprano’s pics in Italian restaurants.

 

Rio Grande
6909 Downwind Road, Greensboro, NC
(336) 393-0524
riograndegrillandcantina.com

Juan los Bota’s Margarita

After picking up this Oogave Ginger Ale I decided to use it as a topper in a margarita. I have to say, this could be my go to ‘grit. The spike of sweetness and bite of the ginger really works well with this puro style margarita. Check it out

1.5oz Blanco Tequila
1oz Lime juice, freshly squeezed or GTFO
0.75oz Agave Nectar
Splash of Water
Heavy splash of Oogave Ginger Ale

Tequila and Ginger

I was at Fresh Market a while back and saw this agave sweetened Ginger ale called Oogave. While I’ve never thought of pairing ginger ale and tequila, this seemed like a match made in heaven. I had always figured the ginger would overpower the delicate complexity of the tequila and while I’m not completely sold on this concoction maybe you could try it out and come up with something even better. Here was my recipe

3oz. Azul Reposado
0.5oz Lime, freshly squeezed
5oz Oogave Ginger Ale
Splash of water

You could spice it up by using some cilantro or lime as a garnish.

The Crimson Ghost

No this isn’t the logo to the misfits or the 1940′s movie which inspired it but you should be jamming out to the ‘fits while drinking this. Over Christmas my wife and I went to Holeman and Finch, the serious craft cocktail bar and amazing eatery. One of their featured cocktails was the Crimson Ghost made with mezcal, vermouth, aperol and orange bitters. I couldn’t resist and ordered one. It was everything I wanted and more. Silky, smokey, sublime and any other descriptive word that begins with “S.” The next day I wanted another so I raided our liquor cabinet and started concocting.

Luckily I knew the ingredients, now it was just about proportions. I’ll cut to the chase but the first one was pretty spot on, by the third batch it was about perfect. The recipe is below, now you have an excuse to buy that mezcal you’ve been wanting.

1.5oz Sombra Mezcal
.75oz Dolin Vermouth
.75oz Aperol
2 dashes of orange bitters

Pour all the ingredients into a shaker add ice and pour into a martini glass. Don’t be lazy like me and add a twist of orange to garnish. Salud!

How to make your own tortilla chips…the easy way

This is my standard “making fresh chips” recipe. It doesn’t take to long and the taste blows the store bought crap out of the water. Usually I buy my tortilla’s, sometimes making them from scratch is just too much work even for me. When I buy them, I usually pick up a larger bag than I need specifically to make chips later. These always get rave reviews from friends and I typically get asked who’s brand are these…WIN!!!

So I pour some vegetable or canola oil in a frying pan and bring it to temperature. The I take 10 or so tortilla’s and cut them into quarters. When the oil is ready I throw a handful into the oil making sure they aren’t touching (or mostly not touching) and not covering each other so they cook evenly. When they start to take on a light golden hue I flip them. Be careful, they go from white to brown pretty quickly. Although the darker ones taste pretty damn good too. I’ll line a large bowl with paper towels and have some kosher salt and a few slices of lime handy. When they’re done cooking I take some tongs and try to shake most of the oil off them and drop them into the bowl. I throw a liberal amount of salt on them and squeeze some lime over top then shake them into the paper towel. Wash, rinse, repeat. It’s that easy.

Make sure you use corn and not flour tortilla’s, otherwise you’ll end up with ritz crackers and dont worry about using too much salt most of it falls off the chips. They’re usually good for a few days so make a large batch. If your preparing them for company do them the day before or earlier and bag them in a paper bag so you have more time to prepare the other goodies. It’s that easy, now you have no excuse for not making fresh chips. Your salsa isn’t store bought, neither should your chips.

More bites from Austin…

After getting to my hotel I took a cab into downtown and got dropped off on the corner of 4th and Colorado Streets since I wanted to try Frank, the gourmet, artisinal hot dog joint. After stuffing an antelope, rabbit and pork hot dog covered in siriachi and huckleberry compote in my piehole and washing it down with a cold beer and some of the best waffle fries I’ve ever had I made my walk to the convention center where I had to install some lighting in an exhibit. I walked past Chi-Lantro, a Korean taco truck. How could I pass this up? The dilemma was I was full from eating just 5 minutes earlier. I can always make room for tacos!

While I would have loved to try the short rib or tofu taco’s, I opted for the spicy pork belly. Shazaam this was some good eating. I was almost angry at myself for being to full. It was a pretty simple taco. Pork belly topped with cabbage and a slightly sweet spicy sauce wrapped up in a corn tortilla. It was worth every bit of the $2.50 I paid.

The guy working the truck said they usually set up around 5th and Colorado so check them out if you’re heading onto 6th st for an evening of debauchery.