Le Bistro

Beautiful setting perfectly compliments great food.

The parents of one of my coworkers are from Vietnam, and just opened a new restaurant about a month ago. I'd been hearing about the restaurant from work, and decided to go test it out.
The setting is great. It has vibrant red walls, great lighting against a black, modern ceiling. Beautiful neo-classical Southeastern-Asian paintings were tastefully placed around the room. There was some music playing that seemed slightly out of place- early 2K pop music. It was kind of a funny addition to an otherwise very tasteful setting.
There were so many things on the menu. I didn't even know where to look to pick out what I wanted. I think if I went there more, I'd love that. For a first time it was a bit overwhelming, but I loved how much variety there was. We ordered shrimp spring rolls for appetizers, an avocado shake, a piña colada, spicy lemongrass beef, and a big bowl of pho. The food was slow coming out, but the spring roll was amazing while we waited, and the avocado shake was beyond creamy and pretty fantastic. The piña colada was super good but curdled within minutes.

The pho was great. Probably the best broth I've ever had. There was so much, too! It was a really high quality soup. The beef was really good, the perfect level of spice and really fantastic flavor. The lemongrass was not at all reminiscent of fruit loops, and went well with the spice, and the veggies. I guess the Vietnamese do fish sauce a little differently- it's fruity, sweet and tangy, and kind of an orange-ish color. We finished off the superb meal with sesame balls.
So, great setting, cute restaurant, with slow, but helpful service, and fantastic food.

So overall?
4.5/5 stars
Will I go there again?
Absolutely.
Do I recommend it?
Definitely.

Guava Tree

Amazing drinks accompany good food in a fair, though fitting, setting.

There's this new restaurant in town called the Guava Tree. It's a pan Latin American restaurant, primarily serving Cuban and Colombian food, but with a flair of Peruvian/Ecuadorian influence as well.

The restaurant itself is small and not particularly well designed or self explanatory. When we arrived two doors were open on different sides of the building, one leading down a very narrow, dark hallway, the other having an open view of the kitchen-- which at first we thought might have been an entrance only for employees directly into the preparation area. We were not seated, and there was no sign behind the counter with the menu, and not a large enough space for larger groups to fit in front of the counter, with only three menus to share, sitting at the cash register.

After looking over the menu, we ordered Colombian lemonade (lemonade with cinnamon and other spices), a mango-passion-fruit smoothie, an arepa (Colombian version of pocket bread or gorditas), and a Caribbean sandwich. It took a while for the food to come out, but when it did, it was excellent. The lemonade was great; the smoothie was incredible. The Colombian food was on point, with amazing fried plantains, and a perfectly crunchy fried arepa, without being greasy. The black beans, meat, and sweet plantains worked together to make quite the meal, with a corn/ yucca wedge deep fried like a tater tot on the side, topped with sweet and savory tomato sauce.

I'm not familiar enough with Cuban food to gauge the authenticity of the sandwich, but it was quite good. It seemed fairly European, but had a good blend of sweet sauteed onions and marinated chicken. The yucca fries were quite great.

The Mexican dessert was quite good. It would have been improved with a little fruit, but was quality 3 leches.

So while the setting wasn't particularly enticing, I think it fit relatively well with the authenticity, and friendly staff. 

So overall? 4/5 stars

Will I go back? 

Probably.

Do I recommend it?

Yes, especially to people interested in Latin food from somewhere outside Mexico.

Surgical Summer

This whole summer, I've been working my first full-time job, interning as a surgical assistant for an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. It's been great! I've learned a lot about dentistry and surgery, and I'm officially preparing for dental school. 

I've really loved my job at the surgical clinic, and it was also fun shadowing a general dentist I've known for years. So with plans to shadow more dental specialists (prosthodontists, periodontists, endodontists, orthodontists, etc) I'm getting really excited about dentistry, and expecting to find a really great match either in general dentistry or in a specialty.

As part of the decision to pursue a career in dentistry, I've changed my major from bioinformatics to biology. I've always loved animals, and a major in general biology is going to allow me to take some zoology classes, such as herpetology, ornithology, and mammalogy, which is really exciting.

Most exciting of all, however, today I got the contact information for the dentist of all the animals at the Albuquerque zoo! Yes, that's correct. Somebody went to dental school, is a normal dentist on humans, but also cleans tiger and elephant teeth. I'm sold. So hopefully I'll be able to arrange a professional interview with that guy, because that's pretty much the coolest job I've ever heard of.

Coyote Creek Camping

This weekend we went camping at Coyote Creek. It's an awesome campsite, complete with running water, clean bathrooms, and electrical hookups. There was even a little visitor center complete with free WiFi. So while we may not have had the rugged escape we may have thought of when we started planning the camping trip, it was nice to sleep on air mattresses.

Part what we'd been so excited for on this camping trip was the Perseid meteor shower, which was supposed to be the best it's been for years. Unfortunately, the meteor shower lined up with one of the rare New Mexican rain showers. So while we saw lots of water falling to the earth, we saw no meteors.


As we were driving to the state park, my mom asked "If you become a dentist, what will your avocation be?"
Thinking of how excited I was to go fishing at the most densely stocked river in New Mexico, I said it could be fishing. Once we got there, the fishing adventure began! But, after about 7 hours of fishing and only one fish on my line through that whole time (it snapped my line), we decided to relocate. We drove to a private lake and both Mom and I fished for about 3 more hours. After only one bite between the two lines, I decided fishing was probably destined to be more of an occasional pastime than something to dedicate my life to pursuing.

Still the scenery was beautiful, the camping fun (and comfortable!) and we ended with grilled shrimp from our favorite restaurant in Taos.