January 24, 2020 Lunch – a Costco hot dog dinner – “Mommas in the Kitchen” Puerto Rican meal at the Greenhouse Bistro

January 24, 2020 Lunch – a Costco hot dog  dinner – “Mommas in the Kitchen” Puerto Rican meal at the Greenhouse Bistro

What a fun day of food.  I drove to my 10:00 meeting without having eaten any breakfast only to discover that Dana and Susie had bought a dozen Einstein bagels and two types of cream cheese. So I had a really fresh whole wheat bagel for breakfast with cream cheese.  Heaven.

When the meeting ended at noon I drove to Costco and bought mushrooms, diced tomatoes, a 32 oz container of chocolates of the world, and freezer bags.  I then ordered a hot dog and a drink for $1.50 at the new ordering kiosk, where you touch a picture of the item you want and stick your credit card into a slot and the machine simultaneously sends your order to the kitchen and prints your order number on a receipt.  Within a minute a counter staff member calls out your order number and hands you your order upon tender of the receipt.

I love Costco’s new technologically enhanced payment and delivery system. Our fast food service has become practically instantaneous.

I garnished my hot dog with onions, sweet relish, mustard and ketchup.

Here is a photo.

After I ate my hot dog I drove home, arriving just before 2:00.

I did a bit of work and then drove to the Center for a Ageless Living in Los Lunas, arriving at 4:30 for my facial with Rosemary.  I love facials with Rosemary because we are the same age and have so much to talk about.  Also she gives a really wonderful facial, cleansing, exfoliating, masking, and then rehydrating to a glowing polished shine.

We finished at 5:50, just in time to get dressed and meet Suzette for the special dinner starting at 6:00.

This was a very special meal that was prepared by the cook’s Momma, Sylvia, who was raised in
both Brooklyn and Puerto Rico.  Thus the name “Mommas in the Kitchen”.

The meal was unique in lots of ways.  It included dishes and ingredients I had never tasted before. Sylvia made fresh sofrito, which I have never tasted before from ingredients grown in her family’s garden in Puerto Rico, including red, yellow, and green bell peppers, sweet peppers, and tomatoes. Sofrito was the backbone of the meal.

The recipes will be inserted herein after Monday, January 27.

The first course was an appetizer the combined three cooked shrimp sautéed in tomato sauce and sofrito and stacked at the core of a mound of mofongo, baked and massed yellow plantain that had a slightly sweet flavor. The dish had a zesty flavor with a bit of zip.  A spicy pepper must have made its way into the sofrito, because I detected some latent heat.  This was a very successful dish.  I had never eaten yellow plantains and I loved them.  I had never eaten fresh sofrito. It was an ecstatic experience. Every bite of the dish resonated with sofrito flavor. Sylvia told the assembled dinners that she would spent summers in Puerto Rico with her grand Parents on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico and much of their food came from their garden, including the vast array of peppers.  She said her fresh sofrito included yellow, green, and red bell pepper, several small peppers, including a small sweet pepper, plus tomato sauce and a couple of secret ingredients. She says she adds sofrito to almost every dish, so it is a basis Puerto Rican cooking condiment.

About thirty minutes later the entrée was served, a plate with a pile of rice and pigeon peas cooked in coconut milk and sofrito on one side and a pile of shredded roasted pork shoulder (pernil) on the other side.  I tasted each dish separately and together and both way were delicious.   Neither Suzette nor I had ever eaten pigeon peas. We were amazed by how tiny the are. They look and taste like tiny garbanzo beans.   Sylvia said they were members of the lentil family. Wikipedia identifies pigeon peas as a legume native to tropical and sub-tropical climates thought to have originated in India.

The flavor of the rice and pigeon peas cooked in sofrito and coconut milk was a unique flavor I had never experienced. Not sweet or bitter, but a bit like the peppers that form the main ingredients of sofrito.

I cleaned my plate, including the fresh lettuce salad.

We drank Stella Artois beer with dinner.

This was a very leisurely dinner with lots of talking. The chefs’ three children/grandchildren sat beside us and their playing and jiving kept us entertained.

The meal began at 6:15 and dessert was served at around 8:00.

Dessert was interesting but a little greasy.  It was a guava paste stuffed deep fried dumpling shaped like a empanada (pastelito) served on a piped zigzag of raspberry preserve.  The cake like pastelito was more dense than a doughnut. I did not taste the guava paste but Suzette did.

We went home at around 8:30.

This meal was $20.00. It was the best $20.00 meal I have had in a long time.  All the Mommas meals will be $20.00, a real food value for such unique cuisine.

Also the Bistro’s upcoming Valentine’s Day meal will be a great value as well at $45.00 per couple that will offer a three glass wine flight for $15.00.  Here is the menu.

I strongly recommend the Special meals that the Bistro is planning for the near future as fabulous food adventures at amazing prices.

Bon Appetit