I love taco’s. More specificially, I love Taco’s Al Pastor, that delectible Mexico City street food tradition. Not that I have ever been to Mexico City.

I have been checking out a new mexi joint at Central and Lowry called Adelita’s quite a little bit, and it seems pretty solid.

Decent molé, tasty salsa, and nice carnitas and tacos al pastor. Polle en adobo is pretty rightous.

Check it out, and let me know if you think it stacks up!

-shogunmoon

Adelita’s

2405 Central Ave
Minneapolis - Northeast/St. Anthony
612-789-2526

Last friday, the wife and I were in search for cheap eats. Lulled by the new sign hanging outside the NE Palace proclaiming for the world plus dog that Juicy Lucy’s are now available, we took the bait.

The NE Palace is a cool bar! We ordered Juicy Lucy’s, and they were as good as the “Jucy” Lucy that can be had at a certain venerable place in town, no joke. On top of all that, the guy in the kitchen is not an inch less then seven feet tall.

If you decide to get the Juicy Lucy’s and NE Palace, do yourself two favors:

1) Ask for a little pink in the burger… much much better then well done. That is the secret to a Lucy that is actually Juicy.

2) Go on friday night, and have a hand at Karaoke. For the record, they have plenty of Billy Idol songs in the book. What did I sing, you might ask? Rebel Yell of course! Raawr! In the midnight hour babe… more more more!!

Anyhow, that is all I have.

10-4

-shogunmoon

NE Palace
Lowry and 4th (One block east of University on lowry.)

Well well well! We have finally arrived as a full fledged city! In addition to such notable achievements as our very first light-rail train, our very first Wolfgang Puck franchise, and our very own Tiffany, we can now count among our local establishments our very first Trader Joe’s! Yay!!! Go Minneapolis/Saint Paul!

Oh wait… go Saint Louis Park. I suppose, to be fair, the Tiffany is in Edina. Hey, what can you do. SLP, you may have Trader Joe’s, but we got a shiny new library! That’s right, don’t get cocky.

Ahem.

Anyhow, though I am sure I will eventually go into the grocery store and see what’s what, my first concern is naturally to investigate the phenomenon known as “Two Buck Chuck.” For those of you who don’t know and/or give a damn, Two Buck Chuck is the legendary $2 bottle of wine available at Trader Joe’s locations across the nation. Course, every state has it’s own prices due to local and state tax variances, the prices vary from the california standard $2 to ohio, where it is $3.39 or something. Here in minnesota, we get it for $3 a bottle. Thusly, I shall dub it as Three Buck Chuck. Yea, that’s right, shogunmoon, marketing genius.

So, blah blah blah. Trader Joe’s, having had its grand opening today, was ballistic. Sometimes the fact that this puritanical state has deemed us unready for the responsibility of being able to shop for wine and groceries at the same time turns out to be a good thing… the lines were much shorter in the little booze annex.

The booze area has a somewhat typical selection of beers, peppered with several Trader Joe’s branded items, such as the house brewed Vienna Style Lager Amber Lager - we picked up a six-pack while we were there. Sipping one now, I have to say it tastes ok. It is hardly a Two Hearted Ale or a Bohemia, or even a Stella Artois, but not too shabby, and not too expensive.

And, the wine. How about that Three Buck Chuck, anyway? Joe’s had five varieties on display, Merlot, Cab, Sauvignon Blanc, Chard, and a Shiraz. All for $3. I grabbed the Sauvignon Blanc, a cab, and a shiraz. Hey, variety is the spice of life, right? Out comes the shogun special rabbit ear corkscrew. First up, the Cab.

Turns out, it is actually drinkable. Would I say it tastes good? Not exactly good. But, it does not have that ultra sweetened taste of rotgut wine known around the country as the flavor of bad hangovers. Unsure of how to describe it, I turned to the following description from Ben Giliberti of the Washington Post:

What’s up with Two Buck Chuck?

Anyhow, what this guy says sums it up. Basically, quality wine it ain’t. However, what they have done is leave out all the added sugar, leaving you with nice dry wine at $3 a bottle. Is it worth the $3? To me, it is, but with one caveat- I am not a serious oenophile. I do my best, and I love good wine, but I can’t buy a $10-$15 dollar bottle of wine every-night, that is for sure. Even the vastly superior Tempranillo’s I have been drinking lately usually cost around $7, double the price.

I will let you know tomorrow if I end up with a splitting headache.

-shogunmoon

Trader Joe’s
Saint Louis Park

What is in the Shogun’s Celler? 2002 Manyana Tempranillo. It. Is. freaking. good. How much? $5.99 a bottle.

A solid spanish red, smooth as buttah, but with a nice strong, plush, almost cherry flavor. Hell yea. Get a case, I did.

Cheap Date Idea Number 01 - Tiburon Happy Hour

Your intrepid amateur writer is going to start a new feature called Cheapdates for cheap skates. Why? Well, though I am not really much of a cheapskate, I am something of a bad budgeter. This means that yours truly is frequently in need of a beer and some din on the cheap. So, without further ado, I give you your first lesson on how to eat cheap, shogunstyle.

The first step in this endeavor is to find a good happy hour. At first glance, Tiburon is on shaky ground here, as their happy hour only runs till 6:30, and I personally consider happy hours shy of 7PM useless and not ideal for anyone who works til 5. However, Tiburon has some pretty good offerings, and besides, my co-workers picked the place. Who am I to turn down a happy hour? I just left work early so that I could get there in time for at least a few cold ones before the last happy call.

Oh yea, and the other reason I left early? Parking. As anyone who has attempted to go to Eli’s, Buca, or Espresso Royal near MCTC know, parking is absolutely brutal in that area. At around 5, the area is wide open. 5:30? Game over. You lose. So, make sure you get there as early as possible.

Anyhow, the Happy Hour. For cost analysis purposes, and am going to think of Figlio is the value leader in happy hours. $2 will get you anything on tap, mini pizzas (one of which is vegetarian), mini burgers or sloppy joe’s, and fries with gorgonzola on them. Who can beat that? Probably a lot of places, but still, makes a great bench mark. They DO have Two Hearted Ale on tap as well, so a fella can get his drunk on, a mini meal, and tip generously for $12 - $13 clams.

So, where does Tiburon compare? Definitely not as cheap, but much better variety overall. Vegetarians will certainly be a lot happier here, unless said carrot muncher has a penchant for pizza. They have a wide variety of items to nosh on, ranging from jerk chicken sandwiches to yucca fritters. They also offer $2.75 taps, $2 drinks, and some $4 fancy drinks as well.

Upon arrival, I ordered myself a beer and waited a while for my co-workers and wife. Christie, being smarter then the average bear, knew not to dally and arrived having located reasonable parking. The others, however, were no so fortunate. They did not arrive till nearly six.

After a look at the Happy menu, we ordered a lobster taco, pork quesadillas, (FYI, for whatever reason, quesadilla is NOT in the OS X spellcheck dictionary) a rum cured pork sandwich, calypso chicken wings, conch fritters, and some caribbean nachos. Also? More beer.

They bring out the food in a haphazard fashion, which is just fine for a happy hour feast. The nachos showed up first, and were, hmm. How shall I say this? Very much like what you would expect. A large portion of blue corn chips, chicken (they have vegetarian version as well), approximately 2 gallons of a soft mexi cheese, veggies, and some salsa. I liked the salsa. yum. (They would have been better without the chicken though. The meat tasted, as we sometimes say about old meat around shogun manor, sweaty.)

The Quesadilla? Skip it, or get the black bean version. the pork version was overburdened by a non specific mass of heavy but not especially flavorful meat. The chicken wings were not too shabby, though not hot or anything. They did sport a nice bright but savory caribbean flavor and came with a nice buttermilk dipping sauce– definitely solid for happy hour fare. Would I order them if I was ordering off the dinner menu whilst out on a romantic night on the town with the wife? Probably not. THen again, I rarely order chicken wings unless I am hanging out with the poppa, and we are at a bar out in the sticks. I heartily recommend the conch fritters. Simple, deep fried goodness served with grilled pineapple salsa and cilantro sabayon, you get a very positive bang for your buck in the flavor department. I don’t doubt that the yucca fritters are just as good!

The lobster taco is a blue corn shell loaded with a very fragrant mixture of lobster, roasted corn, and chipotle peppers. At happy hour, you get one with a side of quac and queso fresco. I really dug the bold and smokey juxtaposition of the supple roasted corn and the lobster meat. I recommend getting it to share if you are not the sort that digs a large quantity of lobster because of the richness. I will say this though, you get a pretty good deal with this one… fully stuffed and a cool way to get a little peek of what they serve the real guests.

The sandwiches are probably the best deal, happy hour wise. I have tried both the jerk chicken and the rum cured roast pork sandwich, and was quite pleased. These guys are a steal at happy hour! Though perhaps a bit more expensive then our benchmark figlio sandwiches, you get a hell of a lot more bang for your buck. The solid jerk chicken sandwich is sure to please if you, like me, cannot get enough of the deliciously tangy jamaican marinade. Even better is the cuban style roast pork sandwich. Tender pork on a soft bun with tetilla cheese, pickles, and some good old fashioned mustard. This sucker is a party in every bite, as you can imagine. The tender warm ham bonded to the tart crunchy pickle by way of the soft melted cheese, all anchored by the distinctively low brow hot dog mustard. Definitely a cousin of the infamous miami style smashed cuban sandwich. This, I will get again. Oh yea, both sandwiches comes with (what kind?) fries and a few sides sauces.

So, that settles that. Despite that fact that Tiburon ends its happy hours a half hour earlier then I like to see, they really do a solid job. Sure, I have nothing good to say about the quesadilla, but who cares about that? The sheer variety of good quality stuff available makes this a solid cheap date for a cheapskate.

-shogunmoon

http://www.tiburonbistro.com/

http://www.restroomratings.com/reviews/restroom68.htm

http://www.mplshappyhour.com/bars_detail.php?bar=323

http://www.thriftyhipster.com/minneapolis/downtown/tiburon/

This is where mosemose and his buddy off the rails will post about such illustrious topics as good food we have eaten, fantastic new businesses that have opened, and whatever else we want to chat about. Since we live in Saint Paul (mosemose) and Minneapolis (Off The Rails) a large percentage of our posts are likely to be centered around the twin cites area here in our beloved rustic minnesota.