Lessons learned from Mancora

Bubbles wanted to go to Mancora since we had it as an option a few weeks ago. And since we have Pio Pio near by, we thought a comparison was in order.

Decor-wise, Pio Pio is more “loud.” It is painted in very vibrant colors and brightly lit. By contrast, Mancora is dimly lit, with pictures of Machu Pichu and other vistas from Peru hanging around the restaurant.

There was also a basket of banana chips and a green sauce to dip. It was either really good or we were really hungry. Both, probably.

For drinks, I had a lovely mojito – chopped up fresh mint, served in a glass with a real sugar cane sticking out of it. O_O. Yum. Bubbles drank 1/2 glass of her red wine – merlot? I dunno. (W/E, I don’t do wine.) Some reviews of Mancora said their drinks were really strong but I did not feel it was. However, I have been told that Midori is very strong and I love it…so it can not be that strong, right?

Anyway, it was pretty awesome, actually. Not as great as the one I love from Ugo in Culver City, Cali but pretty darn good.

Egg with Olive

To start we had some appetizers… The first was supposed to be an egg and potato thing with black olives. Anyway, it tasted pretty good! It was demolished almost completely before a shot was taken.

The second was the empanadas with crab meat and shrimp. These were tasty too. And the last appetizer was like a potato thing??? I hope one of the two cohorts remembered. Because I sure do not.

Crabmeat and Shrimp Empanadas

Other Potato Appetizer Equally as good

And of course, they tasted really good but unfortunately, I can not really name them. I just know that I loved the egg and potato – reminded me of freshly made potato salad, the empanadas were just as yummy and the last potato one was also quite good. I just am a bit flabbergasted with the completely mixed reviews. Some are quite good – and because of our experience this past Friday, I quite agree with them. I can not say how authentic it is, but the fact was, it was very tasty to me. Flavorful and I just loved the green sauce, which I would pour over everything, if possible.

I was being a complete geek and decided to compare the two marinated chickens – Mancora’s against Pio Pio, which I have eaten quite numerously at this point. Both Haydee and I ordered the Rotisserie chicken. She had an order of rice and beans, whereas I opted for the deliciously golden, crispy yuca fries. I think Mancora wins the best tasting yuca fries contest. It was not overly fried to the point of “This is SO hard that my teeth will fall out” like Pio Pio sometimes does it. They gave plenty of sauce for it. Haydee needs to wax on the rice and beans as I ate none of it.

Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken

Rice and Black Beans Tasty

Yuca, fried to a golden crispy finish

The chicken. Yes, we get to the main dish. Chicken from both places are nice and juicy. The flavor of Pio Pio though, is much tastier, with a more complex flavor than Mancora’s chicken, which is more salty. Not that it stopped me from devouring the chicken. I ate almost the whole thing. Mancora’s prices are more reasonable as well. We went there for dinner and the half chicken with a side was like $9? For dinner, at Pio Pio, it is $14 for the full bird and sides are all extra.

I have no name for this. Tasty!

Three Different Sauces Orange, Green and Chili

Bubbles ordered this tasty looking plate. She almost ate the whole plate except…

We noticed the three different sauces after we ate and pretty much finished our meals. All we had was the green sauce. We ignored the orange one.

But we could not ignore the reddish brown one. We sniffed it. We thought to our naive selves, “It looks and smells harmless…” Let’s try it…it couldn’t be that bad.” And so Bubbles takes a heaping spoonful and plops it on her food. Then she takes a big bite and faints. No, she did not really faint but she was drinking wine like a true lush. For it was numbing her mouth like novacaine. I decided to try it. Haydee was telling me that I needed MORE. I was like NO…there is enough on my spoon. I spread a little bit on my piece and gingerly place it on my tongue. My mouth faltered. Then my tongue cursed at me. The slow numb went up from the tip. This chili sauce was just really novacaine in disguise.

I even pulled over the waiter to ask him what chili was used. He said, “Peruvian chile.”

I am NEVER eating that sauce again. It was not heat but a numbing sensation that spread in your mouth. Not a pleasant surprise.

At any rate, Bubbles could not finish her food at all. And we were stuffed so that night, we had no dessert.

Out of 5 stars, I would rate Mancora overall as a 4 – good value for the meal, 0 for the scary chilisauce, and 3 for food overall.

Originally posted 17th February 2009

Blackhound Cakes

After a spicy pad thai meal this past friday ; the hungry chicas had cravings for something sweet to balance out our meal. So, we visited Blackhound cakes on second avenue and approximately 10th street.



I had a triple chocolate brownie which was gooey, sweet and very rich just like a good brownie should be. I would have liked a little crunch-maybe some nuts...



I also took home a raspberry chocolate cake and immediately put it in the fridge for my next day eats.



However, I would recommend thawing the cake since the chocolate covering became a bit too hard, almost like the magic shell; if you can remember that stuff. Okay not that I stopped eating, no I continued eating the half of the small cake and then I made the same mistake and put the other half back in the fridge. (not recommended)



About the cake-the raspberry top went well with the dark chocolate shell, the inner layers of chocolate cake had some type of what appeared to be mousse filling interleaved with raspberry jam. It was also rich but not as sweet as the brownie. I think this would be very nice with different types of red wine. Although, the acid from the rasphberry would have to be paired with a spicy wine or something with vanilla notes. I would like that right now...



Overall, I liked this place and I would like to go back to try different cakes to have a full review.

I would give them 3 out of 5 stars...