#dos perros

[enteringvulturedimension]

When you really like a place's salsa and ask for it to go....

[rossgrady]

January 30 - February 1, 2015

Friday night we attended the pre-opening of Dashi Ramen, which, when it opens officially, will be the 2nd-closest restaurant to our house. McDonald's being the first.

M has been on a sort of semi-committal not-overly-strict Paleo thing for a while, and while I do my own thing, I have tended to eschew carb-heavy meals. Although lately I can't resist getting fries with my burger at Geer St. I'm going to blame the cold weather for that.

Anyway, point being that the last thing we need 3 blocks from home is a noodle place. So I'm actually really excited about the Izakaya portion of the place, where presumably a variety of meaty skewers await.

Billy & Kelli Cotter have been our friends since the early days of Toast, which was nearly as close to our then apartment in West Village as Dashi is to our current home. I'm pretty sure there were entire months when I ate at Toast at least four times a week.

Judging from what I saw the other night, Dashi is aiming at a slightly higher price-point, which might piss off some of the locals who've been dreaming of a giant $8 bowl of ramen, but which should hopefully also minimize the line-out-the-door factor that plagues so many other ramen joints around the country.

The space is gorgeous, the people are friendly (and we saw a lot of familiar faces, including the woman who was the longtime front-of-house manager at Panzanella), and the food was of course outstanding.

Saturday I took M's dad to the Wal-Mart to shop for jeans. I think the last time I set foot in a Wal-Mart was on a trip to Kentucky to visit M's mom, so I guess this was kind of appropriate. Wal-Mart sure is weird, though.

Saturday night we saw the Branford Marsalis Quartet at Baldwin Auditorium. Branford's drummer had been misled into having the eggs & salmon at Elmo's, and was laid up with some heavy-duty food poisoning at the start of the set, so Branford & his longtime pianist Joey Calderazzo tapped one of their former NCCU students, Tyler Leek, to sit in for the first half of the set. He did a solid job, particularly given that he'd only gotten the setlist two hours before the gig.

The whole evening was loose and goofy and felt more like a Tuesday-night club gig than a Saturday night university performing arts thing. Lots of clowning around and shout-outs to friends in the audience. And the music was outstanding. I've seen & heard plenty of avant-garde/modern jazz in my life, but I'm still partial to a quartet that swings (and a rhythm section that doesn't take many solos).

Sunday was Sunday. There's a new taco night menu at Dos Perros which has a couple more appetizers and a couple more large entrees in addition to the tacos. The barbacoa taco is gone, which is OK with me since it was always kind of overly damp. The biggest & most important change is hand-made tortillas! Huge step forward & one they should've taken the day they opened.

[jayarrarr]

The bad thing about dropping posts whining about how stressed you are and how much work you have to get done in a short amount of time is that when that time passes and you say nothing more about it, people assume you're probably dead.

I'm not. I'm pleased to report I made it through April intact, and although May promises to be just as busy, I find myself excited for it rather than stressing out over it. Funny how once you prove to yourself you can do something, doing it again is really no sweat.

One of the things that makes it a little easier, and a little sweeter -- dear friends who know how to spoil you rotten. The beer in the glass is a local microbrew I heartily recommend to anyone who has a chance to drink it: Dos Perros, by Yazoo Brewing Company. Needless to say, there's something of a theme this evening.

[briankinzie]

Working for you.  El Carmen, Argentina, 2013.

[briankinzie]

Adventures near San Cipriano.

[graceinplace]

last night was for celebrating a special girl's birthday,

even if it was one day late.

she suggested margaritas, and margaritas she we had.

plus a shot of [very] smooth tequila on the house,

thanks to a nice friend who enjoys schmoozin' it up with the ladies.

killer guacaomole + salsa, many laughs and stories shared,

while being on the same page about so many different things.

great food & being the last few to leave on a work night,

realizing just how nice it is having this girl sharing a town with me.

friends. perhaps not ones with years behind us,

but it surely does feel like it -- and that feels just right.

[foodsnobdurham-blog]

Dos Perros: Incredible Service and a Dessert Surprise

Dos Perros! Authentic Mexican cuisine in an "elevated setting," as they describe it. Most of us, when we think of Mexican food in the Triangle, probably imagine one of the many taquerias or taco trucks that abound in Durham. (Carpe Durham talks about some of them here, here, here, and here.) Dos Perros is different, though. It's high-quality Mexican food in a more elegant, though by no means formal, atmosphere. DP is not a regular stop for us, but it's a nice treat on occasion, and we wandered in one night recently for a late dinner.

  It is extremely dark in Dos Perros at night, which makes photography difficult.

DP offers a relatively simple, short menu, with fewer than a dozen entrees and about the same number of appetizers--which I appreciate. It's best to do a few things and do them right: quality over quantity. Besides, there's nothing worse than going to a new restaurant and discovering a twelve-page menu with an overwhelming number of food choices. It inspires a condition I call NMA--New Menu Anxiety--which is a rather distressing way to begin a meal.

Dos Perros starts every table off with tortilla chips and a couple of fresh-made salsas. The salsa verde was the most interesting to us--comfortably spicy and with a richer flavor than the tomato salsa.

We shared a lovely chicken tamale that Dos Perros had on special. Its flavor was mild, but very good.

I actually have a new appreciation for tamales after learning how to make them this year from my Texan friends, who customarily gather a group of people and make a huge batch at Christmastime (we were slow on the draw so we did it in February instead). Tamales are something I missed out on for the first twenty-eight years of my life and plan to fully enjoy for the next twenty-eight. And Dos Perros is a good place to do so.

Mr. Food Snob was feeling adventurous and ordered a tuna steak. It isn't the prettiest plating we've ever seen, but it was a huge, tender cut of tuna, cooked according to the cook's preference (I told you . . . adventurous!) and served over zucchini rice with a creamy sauce. He was happy and has no further comment.

I had North Carolina shrimp "chilpachole," in a chipotle and ancho chile sauce, with rice and beans on the side. Given the description, I expected a good bit of heat in the sauce, but it was surprisingly mild and well-rounded. While I'd have enjoyed more spice, the shrimp had a smooth, clean texture and a delicate but satisfying flavor.

Rice and beans--such ordinary food, the simple dish on which much of the world survives. Rice and beans can be boring and dry, or they can be full of flavor. Dos Perros' rice and beans complimented the shrimp nicely and were each well-seasoned and cooked.

I didn't get a picture of them, but my shrimp, rice, and beans came with warm tortillas (made fresh at a Roxboro Road tortilleria). These were the greatest tortillas ever, just perfectly soft and smooth and wonderful. They were clearly fresh, and as I'm learning, freshness in tortillas makes a world of difference. I will now be going out of my way to pick up some of these when I want to make Mexican food at home.

For dessert we had what was clearly the highlight of the night: the chocolate poblano ice cream. When it first hit the tongue the ice cream was a perfect balance of richness, creaminess, and almost-dry dark chocolate flavor. It was just a bit sweet, the way good chocolate should be. The hint of poblano pepper came upon swallowing as a pleasant warmth in the throat. I'm really not an ice-cream person. I know that's weird, but the stuff is all too damn sweet for me. But this ice cream's truly complex balance of flavors was brilliant. Good one, Dos Perros!

I hope, for all the world's sake, that they keep this one on their menu.

One final note: our waiter was outstanding. He was attentive but not overbearing; he was congenial and easy-going; he came to the table just often enough. I wish I could remember his name because I'd give him a shout out. All in all we had a good dinner (though nothing we'd go running back for), a fabulous dessert, and great service at Dos Perros. 

[curiosidades-de-todo-un-poco]

Únicamente dos perros sobrevivieron al naufragio del Titanic.