Long time coming

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
I just got back from Christmas vacation... yes I say Merry Christmas still, none of that happy holidays political correctness crap. I just got back from New Jersey, where my wife is from. Funny thing is the majority of her family doesn't even live there anymore. Her parents rented a house in Hillside (for those that know where I'm talking about) which is really close to Newark. We had a good time just hanging out with the whole family which is spread out from Colorado to Pittsburgh to Ireland. Good times had by all, until the last day of course when many of us caught the stomach flu. My 10 month old son still has it so you can imagine how the flight back to Denver went. Oh wait no you can't I will tell you the highlights. He was squirming all over the place trying to get comfortable while sitting on my lap the whole time, his belly hurt so he cried for like a half our during the flight and there was nothing me or my wife could do about it, and to top it all off he pooped out all sides of his diaper right into my lap. All I could do was laugh. It was the most humorous and unexpected thing, thats all my first reaction could be. But all said and done we are home now, bags still packed and presents strewn all over the house. Plus a nice new LCD TV. Thanks mom and dad.

So its been a while since I blogged about anything. I've been to a couple mexican restaurants since my last blog but to be honest its getting kind of expensive. What I'm going to do tonight is combine my experience from the last couple places and I promise I will keep up to date from here on out.
My brother in law saw that I haven't blogged in a while so he told me he would buy me a couple chiles if I blogged about them right afterward. Well I'm just now getting to it about a month later. We went to a place called Taco Mex on the longest avenue in the U.S., Colfax Avenue. Known for its length, prostitutes and most especially mexican cuisine. Taco Mex is always a good choice. I believe they use anaheims chiles with a soft egg outer layer. The cheese is sliced and placed in the chile so when you cut it open its still like a chunk of cheese kind of melted but not melted out which is good. Over all a very good chile relleno and I would highly recommend going to this restaurant on east colfax.

Actually here is what I'm going to do about this second restaurant. It's in Fort Collins and is easily the best chile relleno in the Fort. and the best one I have had so far. I am going to take tomorrow to get another one and talk to the manager so I can give you the full lowdown on this particular relleno. I will be back tomorrow for this one.

Until tomorrow

Zquia Mexican Restaurant

Zquila Mexican Restaurant
2400 E Harmony Rd # 2
Fort Collins, CO 80528

Hey again! I got busy with life. You know school, wife, son, DOG, etc.etc. Sorry for those that have been waiting. Here it is. I have one thing before I start. If you noticed there isn't a picture of the dish, I forgot to bring my camera with me so that just mean I will have to go back and get it right next time.

Zquila was a pretty good restaurant. The chiles were not full chiles which I think I like more. I didn't have to cut around the stem I could just dig right in and enjoy.
Again, like the last restaurant, Zquila had two fillings for their rellenos. The first one I had was crispy with asadero cheese which is a white cheese that melts well and doesn't let off excess amounts of oil. It was actually very good. I really like the crispy texture of this relleno. It seemed the cheese melted out or was a bit too mild. I only had small tastes of the cheese which would be the only thing I would say about that particular relleno.
The second relleno was a very good one as well. This one was 180 degrees from the first one. It was a soft egg batter which is not deep fried. To be honest, it was a bit of a weird texture for me, but still tasted very good. As with the first it was filled with asadero cheese with an added bonus of ground beef. The reason I really liked this one was because of the beef. The cheese and the beef melted together which I love, even when it's not wrapped in a pepper.
The highest criticism I can give Zquila is not to smother the rellenos so much with green chile. The green chile is very good, but the amount was over powering the main entree. When you go to Zquila, I would suggest asking for the rellenos just to be laced with green chile or even better, to the side.
Over all I would give both versions of Zquila's chile rellenos a thumbs up. I could taste the chiles this time even with the overpowering albeit good, green chile.

Until Next time

Oh wait... I will be changing my format up a bit. I will be adding some posts here and there between restaurant visits, just to add some flair to the blog. I realize it could get pretty dry and even down right boring if I just review chile rellenos.

Tortilla Marissa's: North of the Border Cafe

Tortilla Marissa's
2635 South College Ave
Fort Collins, CO 80525

I just finished at Tortilla Marissa's and all I can really say is average at best. They say their chile rellenos are their specialty, but by the look of my wife's fajitas I would have to say those should be the specialty.
They offer their rellenos with two filling types... monterey Jack Cheese and the other with chicken. Both start with a whole (stem included) fresh, mild anaheim chile (I prefer spicier chiles); and then beer battered and fried. Now on to the not so good similarities. They were both fairly bland, and seemed like they had no spices added at all. The chile itself was very bland which, to be honest, surprised me. Most anaheims I have tasted usually have more flavor.
The Monterey Jack chile was just blah. I'm kind of sad I ate it second because the chicken chile tasted a bit better. That being said, all I could really taste was the sauce the chicken was smothered in. I am not exactly sure what the sauce was but it was alright. I would call it the highlight of the chile on this one.
I would be hesitant to suggest going to this restaurant for the chile rellenos, but if any of you insist on eating them while you're there I would suggest the chicken rellenos over the Cheese rellenos.
Sadly that's all I have to say about these rellenos because I was really looking forward to the specialty on the menu.

Until next time

In the beginning there was the chile

Well to start this whole thing off I'm new to this blogging thing, and I'm Italian.SOO I have blogging and chile rellenos going against me, which is nice. I do however, have extensive experience in eating chile rellenos. I've eaten rellenos from northern Colorado all the way down to Arizona, from California to Massachusetts. Not to toot my own horn but... toot toot.
For this first post I'm going to keep it pretty short. To be honest I'm not completely comfortable with this yet, so I'm just going to warm up a bit to this whole thing and power through it.
My name is Ryan, I'm a 25 year old non-trad college student at Colorado State University here in Fort Collins, CO. I have a wonderfully supportive wife and the funniest most energetic 8 month old son. I was born and raised in Colorado, with a short stint in Tucson, AZ when I was young. You might think the love affair for chile rellens began there, but to be honest, I was young enough that if I ate one I wouldn't have even known what it was. In fact, I didn't even realize I loved eating this mexican delight until I was in high school all those year ago. Ha just kidding. I make it sound like I'm in my 50's or 60's. Not that that's old. I digress. Back to high school I went to a restaurant with my family right around the corner from our house. The name escapes me now but I was looking it up and it looks like its out of business. Regardless, this is where I first fell in love with that deep fried cheesy peppery goodness. Every mexican restaurant I have gone to since I have ordered this heavenly dish. Some sucked, some were pretty good, and then there have been some that I dream of eating again.
My quest is to find the best chile relleno out there. To start things off I will be visiting one to two restaurants a week here in Fort Collins and moving my way out in all directions. There is a twist. If anyone out there has a killer recipe or if you even want to send me some chile rellenos I will be glad to try them out.
Until next time.