date night for a few hours, so off we went to Linda Vista...
at Andres Restaurant on Morena Blvd. We hadn't been here in more than five years and I had a coupon just begging to be used.
I chose the Bistek Encebollado while Bert wanted the Chuletas de puerco...
Bert's soda (it was super sugary) and my Cuban coffee to which I had the guy add some milk. I also added some sugar because it was pretty strong and I needed to make it sweeter for once.
The marinated pork chops with rice and Puerto Rican style red beans.
My steak smothered with onions also served with rice and beans (which also had potato chunks in it, which I liked).
Our dinner was also served with heavily buttered (as in dripping with it) bread. Look at the paper liner, omg, totally soaked in oily badness.
I liked the fatty edges of Bert's pork chops.
The caramelized onions made this a little better. Unfortunately for both of our meat dishes were on the "dry"/overcooked side.
I'm sure we would have liked it much better if the meat was cooked more on the rarer side.
Next door was the adjoining Andres Latin Market which was closed by the time we left. My last visit was back in 2009 and I remembered buying jars of dulce de leche and obleas wafers as gifts. I swear, the best places to buy food gifts are at ethnic markets. Food items are always a great gift to give and receive.
I looked longingly through the bars and made a mental note to come here again during the winter break.
Wanting something sweet before calling it a night and picking up TC, was another coupon for our dessert spot. We lucked out by scoring a parking spot right across the street from Gelato Vero Caffe.
There were no seats inside so I wanted outside for Bert and once he got our orders, we went to the now defunct (but open for seating) cafe upstairs to enjoy our coffee and affogato.
Bert's mocha and my affogato with dark chocolate ice cream. I asked Bert to surprise me and choose. He chose well.
Enjoying affogato is pretty much the only time I will tolerate mixing hot with cold. I wanted to
drink this with a straw!
The painting you see as you descend the steps from the upstairs cafe.
Previous visit to Andres:
August 2009
Previous visit to Gelato Vero Caffe
December 2014 where Bert and I had brunch at the now defunct vegan cafe upstairs.
Gelato Vero used to be the only gelato place in San Diego in the late 80's. Astroboi, N and I liked going here. Back in the early 90's, "going out for coffee" was a thing but ironically I was not a coffee drinker. Nevertheless, I would still go out with them during their jaunts to coffee bars downtown that no longer exist but through the decades Gelato Vero remains. It's nice to know that they still offer a quality product.
2 comments:
I've wanted to try Andres b/c I see them on Groupon all the time. I wasn't sure about the food though. I like the fatty edges on pork chops too. That was alot of butter/oil on the bread! I kinda like that though.
I'm surprised you can tolerate an affogato. It makes me cringe right now thinking of the cold gelato dying into hot coffee. But what other way could you enjoy this drink right.
You should give them a try but hopefully their meats won't be overdone like ours was. :( Also, the butter on the bread was a little too much. Especially after seeing it pool up in the basket.
I know we share the same hatred of mixing hot and cold (ha ha) but affogato is the ONLY thing i'll have that way. nothing else. Forget pie a la mode. don't dig that at all but affogato, yes.
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