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Colonia Taco Lounge — Party Trays

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taco party

When we were thinking of what food to serve at Robin’s 1st birthday party, we primary wanted things that 1.) tasted good, 2.) was low effort, and 3.) most people would like.  After shooting around some options and finding pros and cons of each, I suddenly thought of Colonia Taco Lounge. Will and I already loved their food, but the question was whether or not their stuff would travel well and whether or not they would do party trays.

The answer is yes and yes.

Some taco fillings at Colonia are better suited to making the trip in a party tray from the restaurant to the park than others.  Luckily, the folks at Colonia took the stress out of deciding which fillings traveled better than others by giving us a suggested list of things to pick from. We chose the tesmole (chicken and mole), pork & pumpkin, huitlacoche, chayote, and a tray of guacamole and chips. The trays also included their delicious house-made tortilla. The total turned out to be $200 not including tip.

We were told that each tray would feed 15-20 people, so we expected four trays (plus a tray of guacamole) to feed at least 60 people. Well, their food was so good that the two meat trays were gone in a short amount of time and the vegetarian trays (huitlacoche and chayote) were also very popular.

I was happy with our decision to get the party trays from Colonia because it meant we didn’t have the stress of cooking or making food for our guests at the party, and we got to eat delicious food.  The restaurant also went out of their way to accommodate us by having a person at the restaurant on a day when they were closed (Labor day) so that we could pick up the food. A-plus!

I would have taken a picture of the food, but I was too busy eating and by the time I was done, there was not much to take pictures of.

Colonia Taco Lounge
13030 Valley Blvd
La Puente, CA 91746

Contigo (SF)

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I don’t usually think of Spanish food as vegetarian friendly, but when I inquired about the menu at Contigo, the woman who picked up the phone said it would be no problem for not only a vegetarian, but even a vegan. And no advance notice was necessary! With that type of attitude, I couldn’t not go to Contigo with Will.

The restaurant sits in the middle of Noe Valley, flanked by expensive childrens’ apparel stores and expensive pet apparel stores. The space itself is scarcely big enough to contain a large wood-burning oven, the open kitchen, a bar, a few seats, and an outside patio.  Thankfully, the outside patio had heaters and was some-what enclosed, which made our dining experience a lot nicer.

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I started off with a piece of toast with house-cured sardine and a nice bite of olives and anchovies. It was the perfect thing to get me in the mood for the food to come.

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Will had the avocado and pea toast topped with fresh porcini.  The avocado and pea mixture was good enough already, but the porcini sent it over the top.  Can I just sit outside and eat a plateful of that with a glass of Txakoli, please?

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The white gazpacho was similarly great.  It really surprised me because I’m usually lukewarm about gazpacho. This one was creamy, savory, and had those great tart cherries as garnish.

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Next, Will had the chickpeas and spinach, which looked almost like an Indian dish.  They were pretty good and nicely spiced.

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I had the chorizo, chickpeas, and tripe, which is a fairly common Spanish dish.  It was my favorite thing of the night. The tripe was wonderfully tender and the amount of paprika from the chorizo was perfect.  The dish had that wonderful stick-to-your-ribs satisfying taste that only things that are slow cooked for a long time seem to have.

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We also had the patatas bravas which we knew we couldn’t pass up as soon as we saw it on the menu. These were probably the best version of the dish I had ever had. The potatoes were shatteringly crispy on the outside, hot and fluffy on the inside. And the sauces! Wow.  I’m drooling just thinking back to that dish.

Is Contigo worth the bus ride into Noe Valley? Yes.  Would I return again? Yes.  Am I sad that there’s nothing like that near me? Yes, but my wallet is happy.

Contigo
1320 Castro Street (at 24th)
San Francisco, CA 94114
415.285.0250

Kale and Pistachio Pasta

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Kale from our garden in pasta with ground pistachios. And an egg.

Here comes another quick 30-minute meal.  I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to go to the supermarket, so I snipped a few leaves of kale from the backyard to add to spaghetti.

Ingredients:

  • 6-8 leaves of kale chopped finely
  • 1/4 cup pistachio
  • garlic
  • 1 dried chile (I used cayenne, but crushed red chili works)
  • half a lemon
  • olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper
  • pasta (I used spaghetti)

Boil water and cook pasta to just before it’s done.  While the pasta is cooking, sautee chopped garlic, crushed chile, and kale leaves in olive oil on low heat.  Salt that mixture to taste, but it’s ok if it’s a little under salted if you’re used salted pistachios like I did. When the pasta is about to be done, add in a few teaspoons more oil and the crushed pistachio to the pan and toss to mix the ingredients.

When the pasta is just about done, turn the pan with the kale’s heat to high, add in the pasta and 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid.  Stir and toss to distribute everything. This should make a sticky, creamy sauce as it cooks down.  If the pasta is still too chewy for your taste, add more pasta cooking liquid. Salt to taste.  When it’s done, turn off the heat, squeeze half a lemon over it, stir, and it’s done.

For a complete meal, I like topping it with a runny fried egg.