Showing posts with label Mexican. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexican. Show all posts

Thursday, January 8, 2015

taco tuesday - orale mexican kitchen in jersey city

taco tuesday.  it's like it's too silly of a name to actually do it... except... when you REALLY like tacos, and you REALLY like the tacos at a restaurant just blocks from home, and you REALLY like a good deal.....  YOU DO IT.

hung and i stayed in jersey city for christmas in 2013.  christmas eve happened to be taco tuesday at orale, so it was the obvious choice for a little date before christmas after ice skating at newport skates.  the tacos are half off, guys.  i think it makes them even tastier knowing that they are half off.

we had such a great time that we decided to make it a tradition:
"taco tuesday on the tuesday before christmas"

some people open one present on christmas eve, some people go to church, some people always go to grandma's house.  our tradition is that we eat tacos.  weird? maybe. fun? definitely!  the rule is that if christmas falls on a tuesday, we're making tacos for christmas dinner.

...but tacos at orale in downtown jersey city just hit the spot though.  this year hung ordered the peking duck tacos, and i ordered my normal vegetarian ones (even though i'm not a vegetarian, they are my favorite!!)  i got there late, but hung had already made friends with the bartender, and had a few drinks down, when i got there.  he already ordered the esquites (like a hot corn and cheese salsa) and the baked cauliflower (who knew that grapefruit and cauliflower could pair well together!?)

beyond the stoop at orale mexican kitchen, jersey city

Monday, July 28, 2014

not a sit-down concert

....but in my FAVORITE music venue to date! have you ever been to bowery ballroom ?  being in the back at bowery ballroom feels the same as "getting there early" to a show at terminal 5 terminal 5 is big enough to get those crazy fans who get there insanely early just to snag the front row, so when you go thinking you're there "reasonably early", you're already 20 heads back. 

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with that said, if we never went to the naked and famous concert at terminal 5, we never would have discovered the colourist ! their songs are catchier than i'd like to admit, and after seeing them open for the naked and famous, we couldn't get enough of them.  when hung told me they were playing at bowery ballroom, i couldn't say no.

opening for the colourist was first a local nyc band called mainland .  these guys... they're going to make it big soon, i can feel it.  their stage presence feel like they've been at it for years, and the lead singer has such a strong energy you can't help but dance.

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chatting with the lead singer after the show? sure!

when the colourist came on though, the crowd went nuts.  it's so fun going to these kinds of concerts.  you tell you're friends you're going to see "the colourist" and they have no idea who you're talking about, but when you go to the concert, everyone knows all the lyrics, and just. goes. nuts.  i mean, you would too if you saw the GIRL drummer at the front of the stage playing her heart out AND singing lead much of the time. 

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(can you tell our obsession with the drummer?)


The Colourist - Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan NYC from jenn @ beyond the stoop on Vimeo .

this concert was one of those "fuck it i'm already out late, lets get tacos too" nights.  who cares that it was a week night and i had work the next day. (ok i DID care the next morning when no amount of coffee could cure my sleepiness). but when you're just a few blocks from the corner deli , you gotta take advantage of it!

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(when i spotted elote on the menu, it totally trumped tacos that night)

sometimes you gotta live it up and be adventurous.  that's what new york city is for, right?

cheers.
jenn

Monday, May 5, 2014

5 minute monday

groggy-eyed and barely moving, i'm exhausted from our weekend with friends.  we didn't really do anything that was physically tiring, it's just the staying up late, the eating out, the laughing, the city walking, the being on my feet that wore me out. but a weekend with out-of-town, rarely-get-to-see-them friends is totally worth it!

a few things of note from the weekend:

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1. walking through the streets of new york is meditation for me.  whether it was the bustling neighborhoods of hell's kitchen and chinatown or the more serene, calming sunday afternoon walk through soho and west village... i love it all.   i need to spend more time doing this.  i've (almost) come to accept that my life is one that will just always be on the go, and if strolling through an inspiring neighborhood makes me smile more than sitting at home watching reruns of friends or reading a book, i'm ok with it.

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2. cards against humanity. best ice breaker ever.  but only for those who can find humor in the inappropriate... our small but diverse group that played the game was italian-white, korean, vietnamese, mutt-white, chinese, black, taiwanese, straight, gay, single, engaged, girls, guys, conservative, liberal, priviledged and not... but we could laugh about just about anything that made its way to the table.  we went for the chocolate soufflé, we stayed for the game :P

3. maybe i actually DO like karaoke.  wanna know one of the busiest times for bars in new york city?  when it's raining.  unprepared for rain on saturday afternoon, we dipped into what google maps told us was the closest bar, and we suddenly found ourselves in an empty japanese karaoke bar upstairs above your average canal street trinket shops.  not sure what we got ourselves into, we just went with it and ordered a drink.  two hours and rounds of karaoking to pink, beyonce, spice girls, mariah carey, and the 'cups' song later, we decided maybe it was time to head back outside.  i suppose i don't have to give the stink face anymore when friends say "hey, wanna go karaoking in k-town?" i should give it a shot ;)

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4. vegetarian tacos at orale might be my new favorite.  with grilled peppers and seitan, i was totally in love (and normally i'm an al pastor kind of girl, loving the grilled pork with pineapple!) make sure to go on taco tuesdays.  you get all that above for just $8!

5. catching  up with friends is so nice.  maybe we only get to see them once a year, or for some once every couple of years, but when we do see them it feels like no time has passed.  hung and i both admit we are BAD about keeping in touch with far-away friends. however, we're lucky enough to have some of those far-away friends that feel like we have maybe lost touch with, but when we see them we can have fun and have deep conversations and pick up the face-to-face friendship right where it left off. 

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we're thankful for those who came this weekend, and look forward to our big celebrations next year :)

cheers!
jenn

p.s. check out that VIEW!!

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Monday, October 22, 2012

tacos and fried chicken







saturday after the hunt, friends from ohio came to visit.  we welcomed them to jersey city by taking them to some of the best tacos around, at taqueria!  double corn tortillas is the key to great tacos, and they serve double corn tortillas, indeed!

followed by zeppelin hall beer garden, followed by hollywood fried chicken (because really, people, sketchy ghetto fried chicken blows KFC outta the water).



it's a good thing we had an impromptu dance party until 2am after we got back to work off all those extra calories (or that's what i tell myself).  my neighbor insured me she wasn't home, so we cranked up the tunes, turned down the lights, stood on the furniture, and shaked our groove thangs.  i rocked the "strobe light" by spinning my mini maglight by the nylon handle, and charlotte showed some youtube DJ mixing skills i didn't even know were possible.

(i found out today how loud the music was when i wanted to turn on some quiet dinnertime music.  sorry to the rest of the neighbors who had to endure our obnoxious dance party, because our windows were WIDE open...)

tonight's the last night with our friends from ohio, and we are completely exhausted.... visit deemed a success!

cheers!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

weeknight double date

i love date night.
date night on a double date is super fun too.
the icing on the cake is that we can have date night in manhattan on any night we want.
(sometimes i still have to pinch myself to know this is really my life!!)


it was such a beautiful afternoon in jersey city, wasn't it? want to see pics of the double date?

Thursday, July 19, 2012

green chicken tacos

these tacos were ah-mazing.  

and totally not mexican at all.  well.. except for the whole corn tortilla thing.  and the salsa thing.

but the rest was totally a "whatever we had in the fridge" sort of thing that turned out super delicious!  and pretty ;)

mr p has been on this kick where he cooks chicken breasts in the crock pot in chicken broth and lots of herbs, then when it's done in the morning, we have insta-pulled chicken! ...for sammiches, salads, and... lately... tacos!

we've been adding spinach, plain greek yogurt, chopped onions, pickled jalapenos, and salsa we bought from a local guy, JC Hot Sauce at the craft fair.

hope you enjoy as much as we do!  we had it two nights in a row... so far ;)


Green Chicken Tacos

shredded/pulled chicken breast
yellow corn tortillas
plain greek yogurt ( chobani is best! it's super thick almost like sour cream)
fresh spinach, chopped
yellow onion, chopped
pickled jalapenos
green salsa ( JC Hot Sauce Jalapeno Onion is our green salsa of choice)

heat/toast tortillas under broiler until they begin to JUST turn brown, flip and repeat on the flip side (they shouldn't crack when you fold them into a taco, that's TOO crispy!).   smear yogurt on one side of the tortilla, add some fresh spinach, chicken, onions, jalapenos, and top with green salsa.  put on as much as you like of all things, but remember not to put TOO much or you won't be able to fold the taco without spilling!!  mr p also likes to use 2 tortillas like they do at our favorite mexican place in philly!

mr p's tacos: double tortillas and some bright green el yucateco

my tacos:  spinach on the bottom, 1 tortilla, and JC Hot Sauce

we know it's a little unorthodox to put yogurt and spinach on a TACO , but hey, we like to mix it up a bit and occasionally NOT use a recipe ;)

cheers!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

BEST GUAC EVA.

(oh yumm... "i can't wait to go to (insert favorite mexican restaurant) so i can get some of their delicious guacamole!!")

wait a sec. 
haven't you ever tried making it at home ?

NO!?!?!

it's one of the easiest things to make. and totally makes an appearance in our home about once a week (we can't help it!!) sometimes we just automatically pick up an avocado at the bodega with anticipation of eating it in a few days once it's ripe.  then, even if it doesn't go with our meal, we "have" to eat it or it will go bad (not a bad routine, if you ask me!!) 

call us crazy, but we almost always have onions, tomatoes, limes, and jalapenos on hand too.  sometimes we need to make a mad dash to the bodega to pick up some cilantro, but hey, at that point it "feels" like we're scoring a $.50 snack, so it's all good.

guac is one of those things that everyone makes it (and likes it) differently, so take the quantities and ingredients lightly.  if you know you don't like tomatoes, leave them out! if you like it spicy, add another jalapeno, or maybe try pickled jalapenos (never tried them in guac, but i basically eat them out of the JAR, so i bet they would be good :P)



enjoy! some of our friends have deemed it.... 


...(drum roll please)...