La Cabana Argentinan Steakhouse

I'm not going to write much about this one. Pretty bad food despite the great Yelp reviews. Friends and I were pretty disappointed.

At least they offered complimentary bread ;)

Sangria

I've had better. A bit watered down.

Veggie Soup

Chicken Empanada

I'm not a fan of the shell and the inside could have used a bit more flavor. It was also too dry for my taste.

Spinach Empanada

Don't think my friend was impressed.

Grilled Skirt Steak with a Chicken Leg and Mashed Potatoes

The steak was too chewy and bland. The only good thing about the chicken was the skin. The mashed potatoes was sooo plain and bland.

Same dish except this one has a sausage instead of a chicken leg. My friend didn't eat the sausage because it didn't look "appetizing". ;P

Same dish but with regular potatoes instead of mashed potatoes.


Truly disappointed. Ah well...you win some, you lose some.

La Cabana Argentinan Steakhouse
8607 Northern Blvd
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

(718) 426-5977

Peruvian Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Green Sauce

This post is dedicated to a certain someone that has the same initials as me. Sorry you couldn't make it for dinner.

I was browsing some food blog sites and came across the recipe for peruvian chicken and the green sauce. The pictures looked really good so I decided to try out the recipe myself.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good meal. However, I will definitely make some adjustments the next time I cook this. The chicken was moist and packed with flavor. It might have been packed with a little too much flavor, especially since I had the green sauce. I did think that the combination of the chicken and green sauce did conflict with each other. I feel like if you are going to use the green sauce, you should use it with a lightly seasoned chicken. The next time I make the chicken, I will cut back on the salt and see how it goes.

I liked the roasted potatoes as well. It was simple to make and tasted good. Soft on the inside and somewhat crisp on the outside (well, at least the thin slices). The next time I make this, I will make sure that I cut the potato into thinner slices.

The green sauce was really good. I think it is just as good as the one from pio pio. I am super happy I found this recipe. I definitely don't have to go out to pio pio as much anymore.

The salad was a nice complement to the meal. The chicken, potatoes and green sauce was very hearty. The light and crisp greens was a nice way to balance things out.

I can't wait to make this again with my adjustments!

Recipe for Chicken and Green Sauce
http://tasty-eating.blogspot.com/2013/03/lunch-week-10-peruvian-chicken-with.html

Recipe for Roasted Potatoes
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/oven-roasted-potatoes/Detail.aspx

*Notes*
For the Roasted Potatoes recipe, I used 5 Yukon Gold Potatoes. I also did not put every ingredient listed on the recipe. I only added the following ingredients: Olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, salt, black pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of paprika. I baked it for about 45 mins (@425-450F)  and then broiled it for 10 minutes. At the 30 mins mark, I would check on the potatoes to see their progress and adjust the timing according.

For the chicken I had baked 7 chicken thighs. I found that it needed to be in the oven (@ 375 F) for about an hour before the thickest part of the chicken reached about 180-190F.

Since I didn't know how to adjust the temperature and timing to cook both the chicken and potatoes in the oven at the same time, I decided to cook them separate. I cooked the potatoes first (for approx 45 mins) and then cooked the chicken. Once the chicken was done, I took it out to let to rest and then broiled the potatoes for 8-10 mins.

Pio Pio

After promising my brother that I would take him, I finally took him this weekend (10 months after I made that promise ;)

When you go to this location, you gotta be careful to find the right one. There are actually two Pio Pio restaurants there. One is on the corner but it's more of a take out restaurant. There are about 5 or so tables? The main one (pic above) is the main restaurant.

The inside is pretty dark. I'm not sure if they renovated recently (past few years) but the place is pretty nice. Lots of tables. There is also an outside patio.

 Cute chicken ;)

Ahh...the green sauce...This has got to be the best reason to come here. I mean, the chicken is good but the green sauce makes the place stand out.

Sangria (White Wine)

Ordered a pitcher of Sangria. Waiter recommended white wine so we went with that. This wasn't bad. I liked it a lot actually. I've recently ordered quite a few glasses of sangria lately and they all sucked. I was starting to think it wasn't my thing. I guess I've just been ordering it from the wrong places.

I was the driver so I only got to enjoy half a glass of it :(

Papa a la Huancaina

Underneath all that yellow sauce is sliced potato (that was baked/steamed?). I can't describe (or remembered) what the yellow sauce was like. Overall though, this was alright. I wouldn't ordered it again though. Too boring for me.

Calamar Frito

Calamari was pretty good. The sauce however, was lacking. It's not your typical marinara sauce. I think it had a hint of some sort of yogurt base. It needed was some spice. I didn't bother asking for tabasco sauce because I figured they didn't have it. It would have been so much better if there was though.

Maduros

 Ah...sweet plantains. So yummy ;)

Avocado Salad

This was given to us by mistake. They gave us this instead of the rice and beans we ordered. Took a pic before they switched it out.

Rice and Beans

You know what I hate? I hate it when restaurants give you too much rice and not enough beans. I hate it when it's not proportional. That was the case here. I had tons of rice leftover. Luckily, it was full so I didn't need to eat anymore.

This was your typical rice and beans. Nothing special. (Pic is deceiving. It looks like there was a lot of beans but it was mainly liquid). 

One Whole Chicken

The main event...We were so hungry, we digged in right away. After a few pieces went missing, I remembered to take the pic ;)

Chicken was good. It was moist and flavorful. The skin was awesome! I drenched it with the green sauce and it was yummy...

So overall, it was a good meal. I wanna go back soon. One thing I gotta say is...wow $30 for the pitcher? I wonder how much the red wine version cost. Maybe it's cheaper and that's why he was pushing for the white version? Almost everyone got the red version. But either way, no biggie. It was good so that's all that matters in the end.

One thing I gotta mention is that the service was kinda slow. It might have been our waiter but we had to wait a long time for water and our check. I was getting kinda annoyed although, I might have been easily annoyed that night...

Anywayz, I recommend this place!

Pio Pio
8402 Northern Blvd
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Neighborhood: Jackson Heights
(718) 426-4900
www.piopionyc.com

La Boina Roja Steak House

A friend found this place and I am soo glad she did ;) I now have another place for steak besides my BIL's!

Me getting ready to cut that piece of meat!

This was someone's drink but I have no idea what it is called.

Cups of sauces they give you. The red one is the best. I like to put both the red and green on the plate and grab a bit of both with each bite.

 Someone's tripe soup. I didn't eat this but I believe the person that did liked it.

House salad that comes with your meal. I didn't bother filling my stomach with this crap either. I need room for the below...

Ta da! The main course...Grilled Shirt Steak

Here's another set of pics but with flash.

Man, this was some good stuff. I got mine well done because I'm still afraid of pink meat. They cooked it perfectly for me. It wasn't too chewy or dry at all and it wasn't pink at all. It was cooked just right! Flavor was great too.

Filet mignon, stuffed filet of fish and lobster tail with seafood cream

This was one of there specials. It was our "appetizer"...maybe sampler is a better word.

 The Filet mignon wasn't too bad. I liked it.

The fish was okay too. Nothing spectacular.

The lobster was okay. I didn't like this too much. I think the only lobster I like (as of right now) is luke's lobster!

Rice and beans...main reason this restaurant came to mind. It did its job...

This was delicious as usual...sweet and soft.

This was good too. It's not something I would get normally but if it's on the table, I wouldn't mind eating it.

So overall, I really like this place. I am ready to go back again and eat some more steak. I'm gonna try to wait a bit though. I don't want my heart to give out on me.


La Boina Roja Steak House
80-22 37th Ave
Jackson Heights, NY 11372