Vida Taco Bar

When The Minx told me that we were invited to a special media dinner at the new Vida Taco Bar location in Harbor Point, I wasn't quite sure where she was talking about. I didn't realize that the 27-acre former industrial site situated between Harbor East and Fells Point had been given a new designation. Along with the new name, Harbor Point is being developed into a modern site for office. living, retail, and dining spots, and Vida Taco Bar is one of its newest tenants.

While Harbor Point is still very much a construction site, the completed buildings and streets are quite impressive and offer a terrific view of the harbor. As we arrived at Vida, mother nature was entertaining us with a spectacular sunset of orange and purple. To compliment the view, we were offered our first of five margaritas for the night.

The Paloma is a blend of Altos tequila, ruby red grapefruit juice, and lime agave.  Later, each course of tacos was paired with a particular margarita, which I'll get into in a moment.

You can't really be a taco joint without serving tortilla chips and ours were paired with tangy and creamy guacamole made of avocado, jalapeño, tomato, red onion, scallion, lime juice, and queso fresco. Sometimes I feel like I could have a meal of just tortilla chips and guacamole, but I had to save room for the main event: tacos.

Our first course consisted of two vegetarian tacos. The fried Brussels sprouts taco had slightly crunchy fried sprouts topped with cherry bomb peppers mellowed out with spiced agave and queso fresco. The Buffalo cauliflower taco featured fried cauliflower and cabbage slaw covered in Buffalo barbeque sauce, queso fresco, and cilantro. I was really impressed with how much flavor and texture they were able to create without any protein. In fact, these were probably my favorite tacos of the night.

They were paired with a smoked margarita made of Ilegal Mezcal Joven, Vida margarita mix, and a chipotle/cinnamon salt around the rim. To reinforce the smoky concept, the drink is served in a bucket of dry ice which, when hot water is added, smokes up like a concoction from Grandpa Munster's laboratory.

The next course was a seared scallop taco served with roasted corn salsa, chipotle aioli, and queso fresco. I was concerned that the chipotle aioli might overwhelm the subtle flavor of the scallop, but the aioli, corn salsa, and queso fresco combination nicely complimented the perfectly cooked scallops.

The scallop taco was paired with the 24 Carrot margarita: Suerte Reposado Tequila, carrot juice, gala apple, ginger, Vida margarita mix, and "dirty" salt. Full disclosure: I'm not a big fan of tequila, but I do like reposados and this particular margarita was my favorite. Such a great balance of sweet and spicy.

Next up was a taco that hadn't been served in the restaurant before: seared mahi mahi topped with eggplant caponata, curry spiced fried chickpeas, and a curry vinaigrette. Since The Minx gets tummy upset from chickpeas, she removed them from her taco, which is a shame because the curry spice on the chickpeas gave the taco a certain Indian flair. Let's face it, mahi mahi is a pretty bland fish and it needs some spice to compliment its meaty texture.

The margarita pairing was the Some Like It Hot, with jalapeño-infused Suerte Blanco tequila, Vida margarita mix, and a jalapeño-salted rim. I think this margarita had the most tequila flavor with a lot of heat and only slightly sweet.

Finally, we were treated to the lamb barbacoa taco with roasted corn salsa, salsa verde, and queso fresco. The lamb is the star of this taco and there's quite a bit of it. While I would have preferred it to be more tender and shredded, the meaty chunks of lamb were quite moist and flavorful.

For this taco, we had a margarita made with Herradura (Double Barrel) tequila. This tequila is a Vida Taco Bar exclusive and was showcased with a mix of mojito lime, Valencia orange, Herradura agave, and sugar cane. A bottle of the special tequila was passed around so we could use it in our photographs. It turned out that the Herradura (Double Barrel) was a reposado as well, so I drained my water glass and poured a shot of the special tequila for myself. Its smooth, slightly smoky flavor lived up to the hype.

Despite the variety of tacos and margaritas we experienced, there's still more on the menu I want to go back and try. I'm especially eager to try their octopus taco and specialty tequilas.

Vida Taco Bar – Harbor Point
1401 Point Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
Telephone: 443-835-3474

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Roy's My Prix Fixe Mondays Giveaway

Back by popular demand is Roy's My Prix Fixe Mondays! Every Monday for the rest of the year, diners can choose any appetizer plus any entree for $29.95*. It's an amazing value, considering that appetizers average $12 and entrées $29. 

Roy's invited us in for dinner to check out the promo, and we jumped at the chance. Roy's has long been a favorite restaurant of ours; we've celebrated countless special occasions there and attended several wine dinners.

The Baltimore location has been open for 12 years now and it's still going strong. There's a new chef in the kitchen, Matt Ellis, who worked as a sous chef at Roy's Tampa location before coming to Charm City. In addition to the classic Roy's menu of Hawaiian-inspired dishes like the misoyaki butterfish and macadamia-crusted mahi mahi, Chef Ellis has added dishes with a Baltimore twist, like the "Crab Pretzel." Imagining a typical soft pretzel glopped with cream-cheesy crab dip, we were quite surprised to see that Ellis' version was closer to a lobster roll. The pretzel roll-style split top bun was toasted and buttered and filled with crab in a creamy cheese sauce.

“Crab Pretzel” Lump Crab Meat, White American Cheese Fondue

It was outrageously good, and the generous portion is perfect for sharing. The lobster potstickers were nice as well, with a uniformly-browned top crust and a miso butter sauce standing in for the typical soy and sesame dip.

Crunchy Golden Lobster Potstickers, Spicy Togarashi Miso Butter Sauce

We also had the misoyaki butterfish, the rich fish plated gorgeously with swirls of three sauces flavored with wasabi, chile oil, and misoyaki. The pork tenderloin entrée was fork tender and served with a heap of smashed potatoes and a spicy gravy, continuing Roy's record of impressing us with their meat dishes as well as their fish. We also tried dessert, which is not included in the My Prix Fixe Monday special, but who can pass up Roy's famous melting hot chocolate soufflé? We also tasted one of the pastry chef's latest creations, a caramel pretzel bread pudding with honey graham ice cream. It was lighter than the typical bread pudding, had a nice crunch from the pretzel topping, and we really loved the ice cream.

Am I making you hungry? You can have a meal like this at Roy's too, mostly for free! Minxeats has one $50 gift card to give away to one lucky winner! All you need to do is leave a comment at the end of this post, and you're golden. Please make sure you use a valid e-mail address or leave some way for us to contact you electronically if you are the winner.

The Fine Print:

Winners must be 18 years of age or older and a resident of the 48 contiguous United States.
A valid e-mail address must be included.
Contest ends September 30, 2013.
Winner will be notified via e-mail.

Roy's has locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, and Texas.

*This offer excludes Sushi/Sashimi, Surf and Turf, Shellfish Sampler, and the Canoe Appetizer for Two.

** Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Simple Summer Supper

Another great thing to do with a plethora of tomatoes is to make salsa.

Pan-fried, cornmeal-crusted mahi mahi on a bed of dead-ripe tomato salsa.

Simple Summer Salsa

2 cups ripe tomatoes, diced
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, ribs and seeds removed, minced
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld. Drain off any excess liquid. Serve salsa with tortilla chips, or as a topping for chicken, pork, or seafood.

(Mix drained liquid with vodka or tequila; drink.)

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Fancy Schmancy

Sometimes I'm too ambitious for my own good. The other day, I decided to make some mahi mahi for dinner. Because we had a couple of oranges and ripe avocados, my original idea was to make a pretty orange-and-green salsa-like topping for the fish. And then I noticed that we had a handful of cloves of black garlic and mmm...wouldn't that taste good?

Unfortunately, black garlic + citrus + avocado = ugly.

I cut the orange into supremes, something that always gives me trouble. I can usually get three or four slices cut before the whole fruit collapses in my hand, making the remaining slices impossible to remove whole. The avocado was a bit too soft, so rather than nice cubes, I had ones that were a bit smooshy on the edges. And unfortunately, the black garlic lent its blackness to the mix, almost like a jolt of squid ink. Oops! Rather than a broken orange/pasty avocado/black stuff salsa, I mashed it all into a guacamole...which was a more uniform army-green color.

Very ugly, but also very delicious. I'd eat this slop again in a heartbeat!

The guac in this pic has been color-enhanced for your protection.

Citrus Guacamole

2 navel oranges
5 cloves black garlic
2 ripe Haas avocados
juice of half a lime
1 scallion, green and white parts, chopped
salt and pepper

Slice bottom end off orange. Hold it, cut side down, on a cutting board and with a very sharp knife, slice off the skin and pith, leaving only the flesh. Pick up the orange and cut out slices between the membranes, placing orange "meat" in a bowl. After removing all of the "meat" of the orange, squeeze out the remaining juice from the leftover pulp into the bowl over the segments. Repeat with second orange.

Mince the black garlic as well as you can (the stuff is super-sticky) and add to oranges and juice in bowl

Cut avocados in half, twist out pit, and scoop out the flesh with a spoon into the bowl with the orange and garlic. Mash well. Add lime juice, scallions, and salt and pepper to taste.

It's not pretty, but it tastes damn good.
-----------------------------------------------
If you're curious about the other elements in the photo, the mahi (broiled simply with salt and pepper and a dash of olive oil) is atop a bed of Trader Joe's brown fried rice with mushrooms, with the addition of a bit of napa cabbage and turkey bacon. Drizzled on the plate is a bit of cilantro oil made by whizzing cilantro in a blender with canola oil and straining out the solids. More turkey bacon was used as garnish, as were fresh chives from the garden.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.