Dos Caminos, New York, New York

I was going through my pictures today and I realized I forgot to blog about Dos Caminos, the restaurant we ate at on the last night of our recent New York trip.  Now I know if you live in a big city, you may have access to many wonderful, authentic Mexican restaurants, but where I come from, the selection is limited.  Very limited.  And I'll be honest, almost everything around here tastes the same from restaurant to restaurant, and from menu item to menu item.  The chimichangas don't taste a whole lot different from the enchiladas, and it's all covered in the same cheese and sauce.  The plates are always filled with refried beans and orangey-colored rice, with a pile of shredded lettuce and pale tomatoes for garnish.  Now don't get me wrong, I love me some cheesy refried beans and orangey-colored rice, I brake for deep-fried chimichangas, and I'm all about some shredded beef enchiladas, but it's nice to break out of the rut.  It's nice to taste food that is out of the norm from whatever your norm normally is.  (Yeah, that sentence confused me too.)  So after some recommendations from some of the staff at the Cooking Channel (and they ought to know, right?), we walked down the street from our hotel to Dos Caminos with the high hopes of getting a table without a reservation.  And the place was packed.  But, they just happened to have a small table outside and we were able to get seated right away.

Clearly New York loved us.

So for starters, chips with three different salsas.  All smooth.  I really prefer a smooth salsa over a chunky one.  Except pico de gallo.  I love pico de gallo but I don't really consider that a salsa.  Richard and I looked deep into each other's eyes and we knew it was going to be a good night with three. different. salsas. before us.

There was a salsa verde, a milder salsa, and a hot salsa.  I really don't like spicy food so I steered away from the hot one.  But the chips were warm, salty, and slightly oily, just the way they should be.  I hate a dry chip.

And we couldn't help but order quacamole for two.  Guacamole for two cost us $14.  Yes, $14 for quacamole.  I think it was a tad high; however, it was made fresh to order, although, and I'm just being honest here, the quacamole I make at home is just as good.  Theirs looked like it had some pico de gallo in it just like I put in mine.  I will say that it had quite a bit of lime juice and I made a mental note to up my lime juice during my next guacamole making session.

The ceviche caught my eye on the menu.  (Like we really needed another appetizer.) But heck, we were on vacation and livin' it up, so the ceviche trio was ordered.  I was already getting close to full, but I'm nothing if not a food trooper.  I could push through my fullness to super fullness.  I'd done it before, I'd do it again.

Lobster, red snapper, and tuna ceviche.  The lobster was my favorite.  It was quite sweet and I believe our server said it was soaked in coconut milk.  The tuna ceviche tasted Asian to me, but it was totally delicious, and the red snapper was to die for. 

Can't get lobster ceviche in Buckatunna, people.

I ordered a grilled shrimp quesadilla with chili-marinated grilled shrimp, Mexican cheeses, smoked wild mushrooms, and oven-roasted tomatoes.  See what I mean about Mexican with a twist?  Smoked wild mushrooms?  I took about three bites and had to quit.  It was huge and I had already reached super-fullness, but, and I hate to be redundant, it was also delicious.

Richard ordered some tacos.  Honestly, I don't remember what kind.  I think they were steak and I certainly didn't hear any complaining from him.

Good times, good memories, good food.