Devil-Mary and Garlic Burgers

So this past weekend B and I were in Las Vegas. It was freaking awesome and you should all join us out there some time. But this blog is not about Vegas -- I mention it because since we got back on Monday we have been rather wiped out, and have eaten out a couple times in lieu of cooking. And we hit on two really cool places.

The first is Salsa a la Salsa Mexican Grill, in downtown Minnefabulous. B's birthday was on Tuesday, and although we definitely celebrated in Vegas, for her actual birthday night we ate at what www.citypages.com calls thebest Mexican restaurant in Minneapolis. Kind of:

Regular readers will know I've been tracking trends obsessively, trying to chart the emergence of a real Mexican restaurant we can all get behind, one that offers authentic food in a nice room, with beer, and (dare to dream!) margaritas; one that offers the chef talent that has been immigrating here in droves from Mexico and Central America along with in-the-city convenience, and all the pleasantries of a restaurant.

And I think, I almost, almost am ready to declare that we have it.

While citypages may hesitate, we loved it. B got fish tacos and they were the best we've ever had outside San Diego and Mexico. I got "Carne Asada a Maria a la Diabla." This name was interesting partly because the shrimp and chicken with the same sauce were called "Pollo Devil-Mary style" and "Camarones Devil-Mary style," but for carne asada (marinated steak) it was "a Maria a la Diabla." No matter, the meal was delicious but it did live up to its name and I was sweating from the heat. But if a menu is going to have "diablo" in its name you oughtta sweat, right? All of it reasonlbly priced. We will definitely be back.

Also we asked the waitress about pulque, "the drink of the Aztec gods" according to the menu, and she let us try a can for free. Evidently it is fermented agave juice. Smells kinda loud but it went down easy :-)

Speaking of smelling . . . [pats self on back for segue]

Tonight we ate at Bullwinkles, which is a bar and grill right by where B works. We had actually gotten pizza at a place in Uptown after we hiked around Lake Calhouna couple weeks ago, and on the wall of the pizza place was a framed review of both the pizza place and Bullwinkles, and in the review they were raving about Bullwinkles for its garlic burgers. Discoveries like this are all part of the food chain. So we ate at Bullwinkles tonight and we both ordered the garlic burger with cheese. Tons of garlic smashed in with ground beef, grilled up, and served on a bun. Again, delicious, although my breath is just awful two hours later. They have a more intense version of the burger that is called "The Lonely Guy." Anyway, fun place. It's so near B's work that we agreed that it should be our default "eat there if we don't feel like cooking" place.