Tropical Star Revisit

Last night TC was enjoying homecoming...

After dropping her off, it was time to do a revisit to Tropical Star!

Return to Latin Chef

Here's another post from earlier this summer...I forgot when this was, but it was the day we went to Great News! in PB to get our knives sharpened practically for free ($2 each knife). There was a rep from Wusthof there. Bert was ahead in line while TC and I waited on the side. There was an old man in a soccer ref uniform carrying a big ass knife (it's in his left hand - you can't really see it here). All those people had knives. Luckily no one went postal and stabbed anyone !

It look nearly an hour to get my chef's knife and paring knife sharpened. For each person in line, factor in about 5 minutes of chit-chat and if they really had questions about their cutlery, the customers really grilled the dude. Even Bert had a few questions for him. So that is why it took so fkg long.  After all that, we headed over to Latin Chef on Garnet...I haven't been here in awhile so it was time for a revisit...

Here's their menu which looks like it changed a tiny bit - now there are Brazilian items on the menu. Do any readers know if they changed ownership? I didn't see Freddie there from before....

The interior looked a bit different too. There were some Brazilians at another table; I could hear them speaking Portuguese. World Cup soccer was also on one of the tv's but I didn't really give a fk about it...

This side of the restaurant looked the same...

Looks like this shelf is new with Brazilian and Peruvian food/snack items...there was also a freezer on the side. It looked really out of place in my opinion.

This sign was on the sidewalk...I don't really like black beans so we did not order the Feijoada.

For our appetizers, we ordered the Kibe (on the left) and the Coxinha (on the right) along with Inca Kola. Turns out that North Park Produce near us (in Chula Vista) sells Inca Kola so it's not as nearly "exotic" since I can just get it there now. I also saw that they had it at Mercado Internacional 2000 as well. Inca Kola is a really sweet soft drink that kind of tastes citrusy. I looked it up on wikipedia and the flavor is described as "lemon verbena". The maker is actually Coca-Cola.

About these Brazilian appetizers now...The Kibe tasted kind of dry - there were some spices in there but I don't recall what they were.

"Kibe (or quibe): extremely popular, it corresponds to the Lebanese dish kibbeh and was brought to mainstream Brazilian culture by Syrian and Lebanese immigrants." (wikipedia, "Brazilian Cuisine").

I had to lookup "Kibbeh" becuause I didn't know what it was - it is actually a dish made of chopped meat and rice or bulgur.

Furthermore (also from Wikipedia, "Coxinha"):

"The Coxinha is a popular Brazilian snack, also popular in Portugal. It is made from shredded chicken and spices (occasionally including Catupiry-style cheese), enclosed in wheat flour—variants made from potato or manioc are also common--batter, and deep fried. It is shaped to roughly resemble a chicken drumstick, and sometimes a toothpick is inserted where the bone would be.
Coxinhas were originally made with a chicken thigh, thus the origin of its traditional shape. The batter used to make the dough is often prepared with the broth of the chicken, enhancing the flavor of the dough.

Coxinha literally means "little thigh", and it is how chicken drumsticks are known in Brazil."


As Johnny Carson would have said, "I DID NOT KNOW THAT!"

Of the two appetizers, I liked the Coxinha much better. So did TC. Bert enjoyed both and finished off that dry Kibe for us. Ha ha.

Below is the fish fillet we ordered for TC which came with one scoop of rice and a dressing drenched salad. We ended up sharing our dishes with each other, as is usually the case. We liked the fish but found a few tiny bones. The fish was lightly battered and fried and the portion was about right for us three. My daughter wouldn't have been able to finish this off by herself.

This is what I ordered, the Aji Gallina (Shredded chicken with yellow chili sauce). The sauce is thickened with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. There is a tiny kick to it but for the most part, it's pretty mild. I've had it before and really enjoyed it so I had have it again.

It was a nice and laid back revisit to Latin Chef. The last time Bert and I had Peruvian was a Nazca Grill back in February (see that post here). After lunch, we decided to check out Mount Soledad. We'd been there before but that was years ago and before TC was born. This photo below is heading East on Garnet...

Passiing by World Curry which has been there for at least 15 years but I've never eaten there (yet). Any readers eat here before? The verdict?

Street art on Garnet...

PB is just not PB without a local head shop...(one of many, I say)

And here's the original location of the Broken Yolk Cafe which is always packed in the mornings. The other location is in Eastlake in Chula Vista.

Other folks who have blogged Latin Chef include:
Dennis from A Radiused Corner
Kirk from Mmm-Yoso (part 1 and part 2)
as well as my previous posts:
Latin Chef in Aug 2008 with TORC and again in Nov 2008 with Bert. Next up, the place that all the atheists love to hate, Mount Soledad!