Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Holding On to You

When we left Houston, I regretted that I had not tried many of the thousands of restaurants in the area. However, I am grateful now, because I'd have probably found lots of good ones that I'd really be missing now.

There are several restaurants and foods that I am missing the most:
1) Texadelphia cheesesteaks, particularly the Mustard Blend sauce
2) Chipotle burritos (1450 calories each!)
3) Ninfa's and/or Don Carlos' queso and fajitas

None of these restaurants exist in Utah.

I have located two Utah restaurants that are known for their cheesesteaks*. One is in the Piper Down Irish pub in Salt Lake City, and the other is Philadelphia Sub Shop in Clearfield. I will most likely be disappointed if I try them, because I am craving Texadelphia's taste, and nothing else. I can also guarantee that neither will have Mustard Blend sauce, which is the most important part of a Texadelphia cheesesteak. I have found a couple sources on the internet claiming that the ingredients for the sauce are mayonnaise, yellow mustard, Gulden's spicy mustard, Kikkoman Teriyaki sauce, honey, and water. I'm going to experiment with the mustard blend sauce and then maybe I'll take some with me to the cheesesteak place in Clearfield someday. I knew before I left Houston that I needed to buy at least two jars of Mustard Blend from Texadelphia, but I forgot about it :-P If my experiment doesn't work out, I'll order some or have my Houston co-workers send me some.
* I understand that places like Subway and Quizno's have cheesesteaks, but they seem to have pretty consistent bad reviews.

I've tried New York Burrito, which seemed to be similar to Chipotle, but it wasn't even close. The basic idea was the same, but the burritos were small, and the ingredients were tasteless. The guacamole tasted like it was made from a powder.

I tried the fajitas at Bajio Mexican Grill. They were OK, but they weren't anything like Ninfa's/Don Carlos. Ninfa's/Don Carlos fajitas are simple Tex-Mex fajitas - flour tortillas, steak or chicken, onions/peppers, pico de gallo, guacamole, and sour cream, with beans and rice on the side. Everything is fresh (the key) and flavorful, but none of the flavors are overwhelming. Bajio Grill's fajitas had a bunch of strong flavors all competing for attention, which made everything kind of gross.

The final thing I need is queso. I have found a bunch of different recipes for queso, so I'm sure I'll find one that is satisfying. I used to melt Velveeta and add canned jalapenos and thin it with milk, and that worked all right. However, I want to find something that uses real cheese instead of Velveeta.