Peru, Coco Roco

Elliot and I used to go to Coco Roco in Park Slope on 5th Avenue at 6th Street all the time before the kids came along.  I hadn't been in years and forgot how great it was.

JK, Jacob his older brother and younger sister accompanied us this time which distracted us a little from our mission. I wanted to go to Peru, but Coco Roco was the next best thing. 

True story. When JK and I had a couple of days to travel somewhere during spring break, he wanted to go to Lima but settled for Boston.

Peruvian food at Coco Roco in Park Slope

When you sit down at Coco Roco, they give you these really great plaintain chips with a delicious dipping sauce (if we weren't distracted by our additional guests, we would have asked the waiter what it was called).

We LOVE plantain chips

JK was psyched to order a steak, 

I freaking loooooove steak.

The little sister and I shared a half chicken (knowing full well that I would end up eating the kids' leftovers).  Jacob ordered paella and he inhaled it. We even opted for dessert:

Coco Roco chicken is SOOOOOOO GOOOD.

Empanada de Chocolate - Chocolate filled pastries topped with chancaca syrup and ice cream.  Chancaca syrup is sugar/honey sauce.  Too good.

No description necessary

Yemen, Yemen Cafe Review

Yemen Cafe

176 Atlantic avenue in Brooklyn

The food was amazing, but it might have been a little too much for me. We got so many appetizers, one literally opened up my taste buds (the lamb soup). I ordered a mix grill, Which was delicious, it was chicken, lamb, and rice.  JK was very vocal about how much he liked the food and the server was very appreciative.

I got chicken and lamb kebabs which
I loudly proclaimed was the best I ever had.

My mom was terrified of the boiling dish she ordered, the server had to show her how to eat it. Yes, it's true.  It was served in a black clay pot at a mad boil and there was a layer of whitish fenugreek on top which you are supposed to mix up into the stew before eating it (to be fair, the bubbling was more alarming than the fenugreek). It was also very delicious!

This was a the Fahsah (lamb stew).
Ours was served in a small bubbling cauldron

We tried to think of some questions to ask the server.  We came up with: "What is your favorite dish?".  He said we'd be better off asking "What is the most popular dish?"  And we decided that we should go for restaurants that have at least half the menu published in the native language.

The bread was a big as a manhole cover - they gave us three!

Ethiopia, Injera Restaurant

Injera
11 Abingdon Square

After seeing Miyazaki's last movie Princess Mononoke at IFC, we decided to walk around the West Village and JK (10 years old) asked if we could try some Ethiopian food. Considering this kid has a palette limited to hot dogs and sausages and pancakes (and ketchup), we quickly agreed and found Injera on Abingdon Square.  

We ordered the meat platter for 2 plus one vegetarian platter or the 4 of us (2 adults and 2 non-adventurous eating kids).

The food was beautiful and delicious.
The server had to tell us (a couple of times) what was what.

JK gamely tried a little bit of each type of food that was on the plate but it was pretty spicy for him "hot! hot! Mom! Water!!!!!"  The highlight of the meal was eating with our hands. SK (6 years old) enjoyed rolling up bits of food in the injera and feeding it to us but I don't think anything passed her little lips. When we went for cups of ice cream later on in the evening, they asked if they should eat that with their hands also - I should have said yes.

The beets were a hit because they were
the least spicy food on the plate

The injera is made from Teff (the world's
smallest grain as we learned from the menu).

They gave us as much Injera as we could possible eat.  

There are how many countries?

A family walk around the West Village a couple of weeks ago led to JK (10 years old) asking to go to an Ethiopian restaurant.  We found one close by called Injera (see later post).  To our surprise, JK really liked the food (although, admittedly, he fed us more than he ate himself - it was pretty spicy.)

We had such a good time that we (JK and me, his mom) decided to embark on a culinary adventure - we want to try every ethnic food there is.  And we think we can do it without leaving NYC.

My guess that there are 182 countries was pretty close (192 sovereign states according to Wikipedia!)

We calculated that if we hit one per week, we'd get through them all by JK's bar-mitzvah and at one per month (a likelier scenario, we wouldn't be done until he hits his 23rd birthday).

Both of us are contributors to this blog and we will use it to review and track our ethnic cuisines.

please follow this blog. If you have a suggestion for an ethnic meal, we will gladly invite you to dine with us.

Ellen and JK