Before I start telling you about my first visit to No Thai, I should explain that I am completely head over heels in love with Thai food.  I love everything about it.  The (usual) freshness of ingredients, the mixture between heat and coconut milk, and especially the heat.  If you walk into a Thai restaurant and tell them to make it extra spicy, the chef takes it as a challenge to his manhood.  If you want it extra spicy, he’s not going to throw another drop of hot sauce on your food, he’s going to make it a fiery oblivion to make sure that you never challenge him ever again.

Just for the record, my favorite Thai in the area is served at TupTim in Ypsilanti.  For the longest time, Blacked out Sarah had been raving about this place in Ann Arbor called No Thai!.  For some reason, I never made it out to give it a shot.  Looking back, I think it might have been the name.  Why would anyone open up a Thai restaurant and call it No Thai!?  It always confused me.  I wouldn’t open up an Italian restaurant and call it No Italian!.  It might confuse people and make them think I was serving authentic Mexican food but making an attempt to be humorous with the name.  For this, I took to their website for an explanation.  It goes as follows..

This epic story begins on a cold winter day in February of 2005. On that fateful day, four close friends united to form a pact to bring a modern Thai restaurant to the University of Michigan campus. So the fellowship began, each person would bring to the table their own unique set of abilities. Ultimately, one partner, Noerung “No” Hang, rose above the rest to become the head chef, and so the restaurant came to be known as “No Thai!”. This name would come to bring amusement, confusion, and intrigue to the masses, but now you know No Thai!, or do you?

So it started making sense in those not making sense at all kind of ways.  Regardless, I love Thai food and I decided to make a trip with Blacked out Sarah to experience this food she had been raving about for so long.

No Thai(i’m sick of adding the exclamation mark) is kind of like the fast food of Thai restaurants, and in no way am I trying to badmouth the place by saying that.  If you’re an ethnic food snob, you’ll probably have a great time badmouthing the place to anyone who is willing to listen.  I, for one, am not.  It’s not incredibly authentic and the ingredients don’t taste terribly fresh, but they’re not advertising incredibly authentic food made with terribly fresh ingredients.  It’s a Thai restaurant that offers quick service and anywhere from above average to solid Thai food.  To me it’s a fun, light interpretation of Thai cuisine using basic Thai principles and dishes as it’s basing point.  As the website clearly states, it’s a modern approach on Thai food.

In my opinion, No Thai is a great place to visit if you like Thai food and don’t require an incredibly authentic experience every time you dine out.  You might call me a hypocrite for saying this when I trash Tios Mexican Cafe every chance I get, but if you do I just have to say that you’re kind of dumb.  Tios is an incredibly Americanized version of Mexican food that completely destroys the very idea of Mexican cuisine, while No Thai gives you a basic idea of Thai cuisine, that in my opinion, leaves you with a very positive outlook on Thai food in general.  It’s like the farm system of Thai food that gets you prepared for the big leagues.

I went with the Potato Curry with Chicken, which is described as Cubed potato, white onion, & bell pepper in our curry sauce. I got it at Yoga Flame spice level, which is the second hottest you can request.  I didn’t dare choose the Dim Mak, for reasons I explained earlier.  I paid $8.50 and got a very nice portion of what looked like a pretty tasty looking dish.  Not bad so far.

The food was solid, not great, which I expected.  The meat was tender, the potatoes were delicious(by far the best part of the dish), the vegetables were somewhat fresh tasting, and the “curry sauce” added nice flavor.  I was disapointed with the heat of the dish, but I really didn’t expect to have my tongue burned off.  I actually ended up adding Sriracha to this which did the trick.

All in all, not bad.  Exactly what I would expect from a plate of $8.50 Thai food.  If you’re into Thai food but don’t feel like paying $13-15 bucks per plate, check out No Thai.  Just don’t walk in there expecting to have a little Thai baby Jesus on your plate.  You might be a little disappointed.

No Thai!
1317 S. University
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
http://www.nothai.com/

For the longest time, my friend Sarah “Blacked Out” Caudill has been telling me about this down river restaurant that serves chili made with peanut butter and chocolate.  As someone who likes eating foods with strange ingredients, this had me interested.  I’ve made chili with all kinds of things, including chocolate and beer, but I had never heard of a chili made with peanut butter.  About a week ago, we finally got a chance to check the place out.  It involved going to Taylor, MI but I felt like it could be worth it. Hell, there was even a chance we would run into Steve Avery, who for some reason is not considered a hero in this city.  That baffles me.

I was surprised to find that the Matador, which is the name of the restaurant in case you were wondering, is actually a tiny Mexican joint. “Blacked Out” Sarah had only mentioned to me that the place serves peanut butter and chocolate chili.  Nothing about Mexican food.  She must’ve been blacked out every time we spoke about it, I guess.  The inside was small and dark, with no booths and a single TV hung from the corner of the wall.  I had no doubt that the waitresses were lifelong Taylor residents.

I gazed at the menu and saw the chili that I had come for.  It was described exactly as “Blacked” Out Sarah had described to me.  I demanded that the waitress bring me a cup of this black gold as quickly as possible.  Seeing the possibility that I had a career, a house and working plumbing, the waitress saw her opportunity to get out of Taylor and sprinted to the kitchen to retrieve my chili.  She brought it back and I thanked her for her kind service.  She stood there staring at me, which was a little awkward, so I had to tell her to leave for exactly 12 minutes while I enjoyed my chili.  She obeyed.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chili

The chili was actually incredibly delicious.  It’s not like the chili tasted anything like peanut butter or chocolate.  They both simply contributed to a chili that had a very unique taste.  It was a thick, dark chili and I have to come expect from Mexican restaurants.  Ground beef and cheese sat at the bottom of the cup, and when you mix everything together it lightens up a bit.  I was very impressed by the chili, but disappointed that I had only ordered a cup.  The waitress offered me a free chili refill, but I politely declined.  I told her that I would be having her finest Mexican sandwich for dinner. She sprinted off to the kitchen and I resumed eating my chips and salsa.

Mexican Sandwich AKA Pile of Slop

The Mexican sandwich is one of my favorite things to order at lesser authentic resutraunts.  It’s basically a pile of slop, layered throughout a few tortillas.  Matador’s Mexican sandwich certainly did not disappoint in the slop department. In fact, this is quite possibly the  biggest, sloppiest Mexican sandwich I have ever had.  The taste wasn’t too bad either. Their idea of a Mexican sandwich involved a pork stew that was poured throughout the sandwich.  The stew had large pieces of pork and was pretty flavorful.  Definitely more impressive than your normal shredded chicken or ground beef Mexican sandwich.

All in all, not a bad little joint.  Especially for Taylor.

Oh, and I married the waitress.

Just a few days ago I had the day off from work and not much to do.  I decided that it would be perfect to make one of my favorite meals in the entire world, which is fajitas.  After much thought, it came to me that fajitas were just not enough for this glorious day lacking any sort of labor.  I decided to take my world famous fajita recipe and turn it into enchiladas.  You may ask yourself how I can claim that my fajita recipe is world famous.  I would direct you to Tios Mexican Cafe, where they have declared their wet burrito to be world famous.  Apparently anyone can now claim that any dish is world famous, so I will now freely use this title to describe any food I cook. 

My fajita recipe was one of the first things I posted on Epic Portions, way back in February of 2009.  My mom found a fajita recipe in the Detroit Free Press and made some changes based on our likings.  We lost the recipe in a move a few years ago so I took it upon myself to re-create it.  It’s not the exact same recipe that we used before, but I think I did an admiral job at putting everything back together to emulate a similar taste.  I did add a few things to add a little spice, which is more to my liking than my family’s, but it is fully adaptable if you’re not into that kind of thing.  I’ve had people say that this is more similar to a taco recipe than fajitas, but it’s my damn recipe and I’ll call it what I want.  Haters.

Remember that when I cook I’m more of a “throw everything together based on memory” kind of guy, but I’ve done my best to give you measurements where I can.  Like I said before, the best thing about this recipe is that it’s fully adaptable to however you like things.  If you don’t like your veggies cut as small as I do, leave them as larger slices.  Want to add additional seasonings?  Go ahead.  I’ve never been someone that ever uses or follows recipes.  I find it more fun to take an idea and make it my own.

Just a little heads up, my family eats A LOT.  This will make you a whole lot of chicken but you can seriously turn this into any dish you want.  The leftovers make great tacos, quesadillas, and nachos.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup tequila
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• Canola Oil
• 1/2 White Onion minced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped (a can or two of Rotel will work as well)
• 3/4 cup fresh cilantro — This is what makes the recipe, I think.  Use as much or as little as you like, but I usually keep it around 3/4 cup, finely chopped.
• 2 jalapenos minced — I include the seeds and membranes because I like the heat.  If you don’t like the heat, just add the skins and throw away seeds and membrane.

• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin – 2 tsp — Don’t overdo it.  This adds a smokey element to the dish.
• Cayenne Pepper – 1 tsp — Depending on how spicy you like it.
• Chili Powder – 1 tbsp
• Paprika – 1 tsp
• Basil – 1 tsp

Directions

1. Cut chicken into small pieces to your liking and place in bowl.
2. Add tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapenos, and cilantro to bowl.  Mix.
3. Add all seasonings and mix.
4. Add tequila, lime juice, and 1/3 cup of the Canola Oil.  Mix.
5. Let sit, covered, in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2-3 hours.  The longer these sit the better they are.  I would let them marinate over night.
6. When ready, cook on high heat until chicken is done.

With everthing has been marinated, your ingredients should look like this while cooking.  My apologies for the following pictures.  I did not have my camera so I had to rely on my Blackberry camera.

At this point, you could just throw these into some tortillas if you didn’t feel like doing the whole enchilada(HAHA!).  This, however, is an enchilada recipe, so I will keep going.

From there, get whatever fixings you want ready.  I added black beans and fiesta rice.  Roll the chicken, beans, rice, cheese, or whatever you’ve added into tortillas and line them into a pan.  Top with enchilada sauce and cheese then throw the pan in the oven on 350 for about 30 mins.  I like the cheese to be a little brown on top before I serve them.  This is why it looks like I used yellow cheese.  Please trust me, I did NOT use yellow cheese.

After many months of attempting to persuade the city of Ypsilanti to rid itself of of Tios Mexican Cafe, it was brought to my attention this morning that I have won the first battle in my defense of Mexican cuisine.  Tios’ Ypsilanti location is now closed for business. 

I say this is simply a victory in battle, rather than a war, because there is still a Tios location open in Ann Arbor and while the seats stay primarily empty, it has managed to stay afloat.  Tios must be stopped.

If you have forgotten why we fight this bloody but important war, I urge you to review the Tios Battle Archives and renew your hatred for their attempted destruction of authentic Mexican cuisine.

• Tios – A Rant (May 13, 2009)
• Tios Recieves a Good Review???? (August 5, 2009)
• Dear Tios, You Suck (November 20, 2009)
• Tios.  Torn Down. (December 9, 2009)
• Tios.  Torn Down.  Part 2.  (December 29, 2009)

Thank you, residents of Ypsilanti, for resisting their signs advertising a “World Famous Wet Burrito”, “Best Mexican Food in Ypsilanti”, and other propaganda aimed at destroying Mexican food in our community.  This city is host to many great Mexican restaurants, and I urge you to give them a try.

I now give you Tios on fire.  I love this picture.

I’m back with yet another report on an authentic Mexican joint in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area.  If you know me well, then you know La Fuente is my favorite place in the entire world.  Well, that may be an exaggeration but it’s certainly up there.  Not only do they have the best chips and salsa guy in the entire world, but the best Mexican food in the area as well.  My buddy Tommy has been arguing with me for some time, and trying to say that Los Amigos kills La Fuente.  After my first trip, I completely disagreed with him.  I wasn’t impressed at all.  After a few months and multiple people telling me that Los Amigos has the best Mexican food in the area, I decided I didn’t have an open mind during my previous visit and it was time to give them another shot.  Not that I was going to be unfaithful to my beautiful La Fuente.  I’m what you could call a Mexican restaurant polygamist.  It’s OK to have more than one favorite.

Los Amigos is a bit of a cruise down Michigan Ave into the middle of nowhere, but nothing ridiculous.  It’s actually right past Gabriel’s Hoagies which almost lured me in and ruined Los Amigo’s second chance.  They’re housed in a building that’s a little intimidating looking, but once you step inside you find yourself in a very friendly, clean atmosphere.  The bar is right by the front door which is housed in a medium sized dining area where the smoking takes place.  I got there at about 4:30 PM on a Tuesday and the bar was completely packed.  More on this later.  As you walk to the back section of the restaurant, you enter a very nice and should I say festive(?) dining room.  I was surprised to see the area completely empty at this time, but that would change later.

Chips and salsa guy got chips and salsa down before I could even take a picture. Impressive.

After we sat down, about 5 seconds had elapsed before the chips and salsa were on the table.  Los Amigos chips and salsa guy definitely has talent, but just isn’t quite a first ballot hall of famer like La Fuente chips and salsa guy.  I don’t mean to take away from a very impressive effort, he’s just the early 90′s Buffalo Bills of chips and salsa guys.  No shame in that.

The chips and salsa at this place are quite good.  The chips are warm and obviously made in house, while the salsa is smooth, full of flavor and completely fresh tasting.  I’m not a huge fan of chunky salsa so this was perfect.  It looks a little like a picante sauce at first, but once you dive in there’s a few chunks of tomato, onion and other goodies.

I had heard rumors of drink specials that could make a grown man cry, so I asked the waitress what the current special was on margaritas.  The answer I got?  Half off all alcohol.  Yes my friends, half off all alcoholic beverages.  What she means by that is you take the price you would normally pay for what you’re drinking, divide it by two, and that’s what you’re actually paying.  So for every two drinks you have, you’re really paying for one full priced drink.  I know this doesn’t require that much explanation, but it sure is fun to explain how half off all alcohol works.

Naturally, I ordered a large margarita pitcher on the rocks which cost me $8.50.  Happy hour is 7 days a week from 3-6pm at this place.  This explains the full to capacity bar area on a Tuesday afternoon.   Alcoholics.

This place was impressive so far.  Talented chips and salsa guy delivering tasty chips and salsa and incredible drink specials?  They couldn’t possibly screw this up, could they?

The menu at this place has a ridiculous amount of items.  Usually I use the system of finding three things I want then picking one when the waitress puts the pressure on me, but I had to ask for more time TWICE.  They have your standard Mexican categories, but so many varieties of each item.  They have 26 combos, 14 specialties, 4 different types of fajitas, 11 burritos and much more.  I ended up sticking with the burrito portion of the menu, even though the Enchiladas Poblanas were stuffed with BRRF.  Yum.

I went with the Burritos Tampiqueno, which is two burritos – one steak, one grilled chicken, topped with green salsa and served up with black beans a rice.  I was almost lured in by the Pollo Loco, but the burritos just sounded too good to pass up.  What I got was a HUGE double burrito platter with plenty of beans and rice on the side.  This was the perfect portion for me.

The burritos were smothered in the delicious green salsa and were stuffed to capacity with fillings.  The steak was perfectly cooked and very flavorful.  The burrito consisted of nothing else to mess around with the flavor, just good ol’ salsa, tortilla, and steak.  The chicken was surprisingly flavorful as well, although not as impressive as the steak.  I have to say this is one of the more impressive burrito offerings I have ever received.  The fact that it’s as simple as it is but still incredibly flavorful is a huge accomplishment in my book.  Ahh, the beauty of Mexican cuisine.

Stephanie went with the Special Dinner, which had caught my eye as well.  This Special Dinner, which is a perfect name, comes with one chalupa, one chile relleno, one taco, one tamale, and served with beans and rice.  I’m pretty sure she assumed that it was mini portions of each, which I did as well, because her facial expression turned to horror when the waiter brought her out two completely full plates of food.  This was like a Mexican combo for the Gods.

The special dinner turned out to be pretty so so, or to be really clever… not so special.  The enchilada was just as good as my burrito and topped with an absolutely delicious sauce.   Unfortunately, the taco was your normal every day taco, the tamale was very average, and we couldn’t even remember what the chile relleno was until we took another look at the menu.  Chile rellenos are normally one of my favorite foods in the entire world, but this one just fell a little flat to me.  Overall not an awful dish, but I would suggest wandering your eyes elsewhere.

Special Dinner part 1: Chile rellano, guac, taco

Special Dinner part 2: Tamale, enchilada, beans, and rice

Completely stuffed after finishing mine and half of Stephanie’s dinner to go along with two baskets of chips, I sat back and let my stomach stretch out a bit.  I couldn’t possibly eat any more food after what I just ate.  The portions were perfect and that was a whole lot of lime juice and tequila that I had just taken down.  Definitely couldn’t eat anything else even if I wanted to.  Nope.

Oh wait, they have Fried Ice Cream.  Yes, I ate more.

All in all, not a bad place at all.  Drinks are cheap, portions are large and fairly priced, and the food was good.  I would have to say they easily make my list of top 5 Mexican joints in the area, but no where close to #1, which is still reserved for my beautiful beautiful La Funete.  Definitely worth a try if you’re a fan of good, authentic Mexican food like myself.

If you’re going to head over there, make sure you print out one of the many coupons on their website.  Savings is always a good thing.

About a year ago, the old A&W location on Washtenaw that had been vacant for years had a sign out front advertising that a burrito joint called Pacific Beach Burritos would soon move in.  This caught my eye because I am a burrito fanatic.  They’re like beauty wrapped in a tortilla sleeping bag.  It saddens me that I don’t have a place around here to get a quality burrito to go.   Sure, we have Qdoba, Chipolte, Panchero’s, and Moe’s within a 15 mile radius, but no actual burrito joints.  Big Ten Burrito is great and all, but it’s a ways to drive for me.  About three months ago the place finally opened and I was there.

The following is a multiple part piece.  I have been to Pacific Beach Burritos several different time and have had mixed feelings on the food I have received each time.  The food given to me during one of my visits was enough to make me never go back again.  I decided to return today to give them one final shot.  They had one final opportunity to earn my love.  This sounds like some sort of VH1 reality show, but hey.. I take my food seriously.  Especially my burritos.

During my first visit to Pacific Beach Burritos , I noticed several things right away.  First, there were several cars parked right out front, but no actual customers in the place.  Apparently these first few spots out front are for the employees.  One of them drives a Mercedes.  Weird.  Second, there is a salsa bar.  To me, salsa bars = success.  Give me the freedom to sample every kind of salsa you have and control how much goes on my food and you might have a loyal customer just because of that.  Bland food?  That’s OK.  I’ll cover it in salsa and things should be alright between us.  Third, the cooks in the back are wearing actual white chef coats.  There’s not just one guy wearing a T-shirt in the back rolling up your burritos.   There’s three or four guys in full chef attire making burritos and whatever else they do back there.

The menu consists of burritos, tacos, tortas, combo platters, and salads.  The menu is simple but the few options that they have are very diverse.  There are 13 different types of burritos, 7 different types of tacos, 3 different tortas, 6 combination platters, and 4 salads.  There’s a side section where you can add quesadillas, nachos and other items to your meal for only a few dollars more.  You can also add items from the “extras” menu, such as mexican carrots, tortilla chips, jalapenos, pico de gallo, or guacamole.  Most of the items are available with Carne Asada steak, chicken, or pork.  The menu is very impressive and is available on their website.

I ordered the Macho Ypsilanti Burrito which consists of Carne Asada Steak, pico de gallo, rice, and beans.  I figured this was the best burrito for me to try because it consisted of ingredients that I was most familiar with.  If this standard issue burrito was good, I figured I would return and sample some of their other menu items.  I stopped by the salsa bar and picked up some of the spicy and mild salsas, as well as their green salsa verde.  I was impressed so far.

Macho Ypsilanti Burrito

The burrito I got was good, but nothing great.  The size was large, but nothing close to the burritos I had heard stories about on the West Coast.  The steak was very tender and juicy, but really lacked flavor.  The fillings were light, and most of the burrito consisted of tortilla.  The most disappointing part was that the salsas completely lacked flavor, as well.  Not only was the spicy salsa not spicy, but it really didn’t taste like anything at all.  The mild had a little flavor, but was almost as bland as the spicy.  The salsa verde was the same story.  The meal ended up being rather bland and I was not impressed.  I was actually rather disappointed.  I figured I would have to give them another shot at a later date.

About a week later, I returned to give Pacific Beach Burritos another shot to earn my love.  I decided to switch it up and order the Chorizo Burrito, Enchildas Combo Platter and a Shredded Pork Burrito.  This may seem like a lot of food for one person, but I wanted to give them every chance to impress me.  Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera so you’ll just have to trust me.  The Chorizo Burrito consists of chorizo, of course, and eggs.  Pretty simple.  What I got was a gigantic burrito stuffed with about 99.85% chorizo with the rest being egg.  It was completely overwhelming and I couldn’t even get through a quarter of it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some chorizo but as the only component in a burrito?  It just seemed completely ridiculous to me.  The Enchiladas Platter was/were ONE ENCHILADA that was the size of a frozen taquito that one might purchase at the grocery store, and topped with a flavorless red sauce and a drizzle of sour cream.  It was horrible.  Somehow, the pork burrito topped each of them.  The Pork Burrito was the same as the Chorizo Burrito, in that it was all pork.  This would be excusable if the pork is flavorful and juicy, but it wasn’t.  It was tough and lacked any flavor whatsoever.  I ended up taking two bites and throwing it away.  I immediately wished I had brought my camera, because Pacific Beach Burritos would have felt a Tio’s like wrath on Epic Portions.  I swore this would be my last visit.

Recently, I decided to give the place one more shot.  I’m not sure why, but I wanted to like Pacific Beach Burritos.  The place the kind of charm that I look for in a joint and I had been waiting forever for it to open.  It couldn’t be that bad, could it?  We would find out…

This particular visit, I decided to order the San Diego Burrito, which consists of Carne Asada steak, french fries, cheese and sour cream, and three Rolled Tacos with chicken and guacamole on the side.  I asked for several cups of the hot sauce hoping they had adjusted their recipe due to massive amounts of customer complaints.

San Diego Burrito

San Diego Burrito

The burrito was a little better, but it still shared that bland taste with the other burritos I had tried.  The steak was once again juicy and tender, the fries were crunchy and made a nice addition, the cheese was a little heavy(and yellow), and the sour scream was a pretty scarce.  It was filling and tasted pretty good, but it just wasn’t what I had expected when I first saw the place.  The salsa was once again tasteless and not impressive at all.

Rolled Tacos

The rolled tacos weren’t too impressive either.  Actually, they were rather terrible.  They resembled the same microwave style taquitos that came with the enchiladas.  They were tiny and sprinkled with what looked like just  a bunch of random toppings(tomatoes, onions, ect.).  I ordered mine with chicken because I had stuck to the Carne Asada in every other item I had ordered and was horribly disappointed by it.  I guess it’s rare that you actually get chicken that’s anything special at a Mexican or Southwest joint, but this chicken just wasn’t good.  The beef made up for a lack of flavor with juiciness and the chicken completely lacked that.  It was dry and tasteless.  I will say that the guacamole was good stuff, which made the tacos edible.

Dry chicken tacos

It’s been a pretty disappointing few visits to Pacific Beach Burritos.  I had very high hopes for this local burrito joint, but every thing I’ve eaten has either been very average or fallen completely fat.  I can’t decide whether or not I will give them another chance, but the fact that they’re about to start offering delivery will probably mean I’ll give them a chance for redemption for the simple fact that it will be convenient.  Don’t get me wrong, they’re not terrible and I would recommend that you give them an opportunity.  I just wasn’t horribly impressed by them.

In my continued effort to visit every authentic Mexican joint in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area, I stopped into Taqueria la Fiesta in Ypsilanti.  This is a little hole in the wall that meets every single one of my criteria for a respectable Mexican restaurant.  They even serve menudo on the weekends.  That will have to be my next meal there.

You’ve heard me talk enough about how much I love authentic Mexican food, so I will let the photos do the talking here.  If you like the stuff as much as me, Taqueria la Fiesta is a must stop for you.

Taqueria la Fiesta
4060 Packard St
Ann Arbor, MI 48108