In Celebration of Nachos, and the Man Who Invented Them!

Today's Google Doodle commemorates Ignacio Anaya Garcia's 1943 Invention of Nachos

Yes, today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 124th birthday of Ignacio Anaya Garcia, who had been the maître d’ at a Mexican border town restaurant near a US Army air base outside of Eagle Pass, Texas. One afternoon in 1943, a group of military wives had crossed the border, out on a day’s adventure, in search of something to eat, maybe a few beers…

The women may have walked into the restaurant between the usual lunch and dinner hours, because in order to serve them, Ignacio went into the kitchen himself and grated a mound of Wisconsin cheddar cheese onto a big platter of crispy tortilla chips. He topped the mountain of chips and cheese with sliced jalapeño peppers and slid his creation under the broiler until the cheese was all melted and bubbly, and then he carefully brought the hot platter out to the group of famished women.

His dish was an instant hit, and soon it began cropping up in other restaurants as well, on both sides of the border. “Nacho” was a common nickname, or an abbreviation, for the name Ignacio, and that’s how one of today's truly great snack foods eventually became known around the world.

Venture out to any number of Provincetown eateries for many different versions of this platter of nachos. For example, Rosie’s Traditional Mexican Cantina, at 331 Commercial Street, as the name implies, offers nachos served in the traditional way: tortilla chips covered with melted cheese and jalapeños. The great thing about these simple nachos is that Rosie’s makes their own fresh tortilla chips, frying them up all day in their own kitchen.

Or, for a different take on this staple of bars and restaurants throughout the land, you can head over to Fanizzi’s, at 539 Commercial Street, for their Ultimate Nachos: “An enormous plate of our tortilla chips, with spicy beef chili, jalapeños, tomatoes, sliced black olives and scallions smothered in cheese and served with house-made chunky salsa and sour cream.” Add grilled chicken or guacamole, if you’d like.
Combine this great plate of food with a frosty cerveza or a favorite cocktail from Fanizzi's popular bar, along with that spectacular view from your table at the edge of Provincetown Harbor, for one of PTown's most sublime waterfront dining experiences, year-round.

So there we have two very different versions of the recipe created by Garcia some 76 years ago, just south of the Texas border. It can be a meal or a snack, and has become one of the most popular “bar foods” ever created. Step out this evening and celebrate Ignacio Anaya Garcia and the impromptu creation of his simple culinary masterpiece by ordering a platter  of nachos, found in several different incarnations in restaurants.throughout the town.
 Buen Provecho!

Rosie's Mexican Cantina Livens Up PTown's Ethnic Food Landscape

I cut Rosie's burrito in half so you can see all the good things that fill it to bursting,

I visited Rosie's Mexican Cantina the other day to try one of their burritos, which I had heard only good things about, and folks were right... This was a really good burrito.

Each one (and there are six choices) starts with a large, fresh, flour tortilla, which will be rolled and wrapped around a mountain of quality ingredients. Mexican rice, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, guacamole and sour cream are all stuffed in, making a wonderful, satisfying, vegetarian choice, selling for $10. You can also add any of five meats to your burrito for just a dollar more.

Most of Rosie's menu items offer a great vegetarian version, and you can add meat if you choose. I ordered my burrito, shown above, with carne asaada.
This proved to be a generous portion of delicious strips of seasoned beef steak for just a buck, and well worth it. Both red and green hot sauces were served on the side.

The Burrito Bowl, also $10, is a little bit larger serving of all those great stuffings, served in a bowl, sans tortilla, in case you're skipping carbs or gluten these days. Again, add meat for $1.

You may never have had truly fresh tortilla chips. They're amazing!

On this trip I also got the chance to taste Rosie's fantastic, light, fresh tortilla chips, right out of the fryer, and without a hint of grease.
They taste so fresh! Now I might be spoiled for any other tortilla chips, and I want to try their nachos.
Of course, they also make their own fresh guacamole, whipped up daily in their tiny kitchen, from scratch.

The menu at Rosie's Cantina brings Mexican favorites like tacos, flautas, and tostados to Commercial Street every day of the summer season, with a rotating daily special that might be a mole, maybe pulled pork, their spicy

Look for Rosie's spicy burritos, sometimes a daily special.

tamale, shown here, or any number of other daily offerings.

You'll find this little walk-up, counter service joint in the former Burger Queen spot, at 331 Commercial Street. There's covered outdoor seating at picnic tables, or you can take your meal to go.
Oddly, there's no phone at Rosie's, so you can't call in your order. You'll have to wait a bit while they cook your food, but they're actually pretty quick.

You may want to carry your to-go order around the corner and head down toward the pier, about a block away, to one of PTown's great little pocket parks.
Right at the edge of the harbor, just beyond the municipal parking lot, you'll find a narrow strip of land, about eight feet wide, full of park benches and trees.
It runs the entire width of the waterfront between MacMillan Pier and Fishermen's Wharf. It's a great place to relax, have a picnic lunch, and to see the whale watch boats and ferries sailing in and out of the harbor.
Rosie's is open daily, currently till 9 PM, and will likely extend their hours as the summer gets into full swing. I'm not sure what time they open, and there's no way to call and check while I'm writing this, but I know breakfast is served all day long. That suggests opening hours earlier than the typical 11:30 AM, when most restaurants begin serving lunch.
The food is good, it's not expensive, and this expansion of ethnic flavors on Commercial Street is most welcome, so stop by and give Rosie's Traditional Mexican Cantina a try.

Liz's Cafe Offers Dinner Bargains in Provincetown's West End

Mr. Brown's Famous Fried Chicken comes with a delicious Jamaican style coleslaw.

I had dinner last night off the beaten path, at Liz's Cafe, where they serve "comfort meals at comfortable prices." Entrées here are all $16 or under.

There are choices ranging from house made meatloaf with mac n' cheese to mussels steamed in white wine, garlic, shallots and butter, served over spaghetti.

Chicken or eggplant Parmesan are each served with spaghetti and house made marinara sauce. Sole Florentine, in a delicate white wine lemon broth, is served over a bed of spinach and cannelloni beans. The traditional spaghetti Bolognese is on my list to try, along with the burger and the fried sole sandwich, each on a toasted brioche roll and served with fries.

Candlelight at our table made this simple, tasty clam chowder look a little golden.

I started out with the clam chowder ($7) which had a rich clam flavor in a smooth, creamy base, not overly thick, with a little potato and tender bits of minced clam. The flavor was quite good.

From there I went on to my entrée, choosing Mr Brown's Famous Fried Chicken. There were three golden pieces, along with a generous serving of a Jamaican style slaw, made with slivered carrot, sweet peppers and other garden veggies joining the shredded cabbage, all in a delicious, light marinade with just a bit of sweetness to it. My dinner also came with a side of baked mac n' cheese, all for the bargain price of $16.

This gorgeous Chocolate Mousse Cake Bomb uses chocolate in four delicious ways.

The star of the meal was the chocolate mousse cake bomb, which was among four dessert choices brought over that evening from Angel Foods, the very well known neighborhood market/deli/bakery in the heart of PTown's Gallery District.

There, Liz Lovato has been serving scores of glorious pastries, decadent desserts, and other assorted treats and goodies for many years now. And, yes, this is the same Liz.

This great finish to my evening, shown above, started with a thin layer of rich, moist, dense chocolate cake, topped with a really good, velvety chocolate mousse, covered in chocolate ganache and then drizzled with a bit of white chocolate. It was garnished with whipped cream and a bit of fresh strawberry, all for $7.

It's worth finding this out-of-the-way spot, in the West End, right at the corner of Bradford and Pleasant Streets. There's even a small parking lot on site. Liz offers a great breakfast menu, and you'll find a couple of specials that are throwbacks to the old Tip for Tops'n restaurant, which occupied this spot for many years.
The lunch menu features soups, salads, wings, burgers and sandwiches, and includes the renowned Italian sandwich from Angel Foods' menu. Mr. Brown's chicken is available at lunch, too, as well as a daily Jamaican special. Mr. Brown is well known among folks seeking the best Jamaican food in Provincetown.
Find Liz's Cafe and Anybody's Bar at 31 Bradford Street. The bar features top shelf cocktails as well as beer and wine. It was named for Anybody's Market, a sort of general store that operated on this spot dating back to at least 1942.
The restaurant is open daily for breakfast and lunch, serving dinner every night except Tuesdays, when the whole staff takes the evening off.

Japanese Snacks at Tanuki are My Favorite New Street Food in PTown

This Spicy Smoky Bluefish Onigiri is the perfect snack to take to the beach or street.

I didn't make my first visit to Tanuki, sort of a Japanese snack bar on Commercial Street, until mid-summer, but I've been a steady customer ever since.
I can't get enough of their Onigiri (say O•neeg•yeer•ee, or just ask for rice balls,) my favorite new food in PTown this summer.

Tanuki's version of the traditional Japanese rice ball is actually a very special rice, imported from Japan since it isn't readily available in the US, pressed into about a three-inch triangle to hold its shape, and stuffed with any number of savory fillings. The Spicy, Smoky Bluefish variety is pictured here, sprinkled with a bit of spice, a few black sesame seeds and sliced scallion, and it's my favorite new Commercial Street snack.

Taniko's rice balls are wrapped and ready to go, slipped into your pocket or beach bag.

Other Onigiri choices on any given day might be the Sansyo Pork, or Spicy Mackerel & Tobiko, the tasty, flying fish roe you may know if you/re a sushi fan.
A vegetarian variety is always available, too, like the Tare Tofu Onigiri, as long as it hasn't already sold out before you get there.

Selection will vary daily depending on which particular ingredients are the finest available that day. If beautiful Atlantic Salmon are swimming nearby, for example, you can bet that they'll become a featured Onigiri that afternoon. These great, triangular Rice Balls are made fresh throughout the day, so there are always several choices.

These excellent, savory snacks are best eaten at room temperature, so choose a couple of flavors from the cooler and take them with you. Let them warm up a bit, then splash on just a few drops of the ultra-premium soy sauce Tanuki provides, and munch down a delicious, healthy treat you may never have had before, all for about $4.

Healthy, vegan truffles are homemade by hand, and good for you.

Last Saturday, on a mad rush to be on time for the final performance of The Whining, I realized I needed to eat something before the show to tide me over, so I grabbed a rice ball from Tanuki, slipped it into my shirt pocket and headed across the street to the Art House.
By the time it was my turn in the box office line, my snack was the perfect temperature to maximize all of its great flavors, both bold and subtle.
I unwrapped it, dripped on a tiny bit of that special soy sauce, and gobbled up the snack I'd been craving all week. These Onigiri are  quick, nutritious, satisfying, very tasty, and inexpensive... You just can't beat a deal like that.
Tanuki makes treats for your sweet tooth as well, like their Bittersweet Red Bean Truffles, made with 70% dark chocolate and Matcha green tea, and chock-full of health and energy benefits for you. There are matcha cream puffs as well as goodies made with lemon and mascarpone, and others.They've been experimenting in the kitchen all summer, coming up with things like a "Japanese cheesecake" and other tasty innovations, each around $3.

I tried the Black Sesame flavor of Mochi Ice Cream.

Mochi Ice Cream (just $2.50 each) are small, unusual desserts made with premium ice cream in uncommon flavors. These are tasty discs of ice cream about two inches wide. Each one of these is encased in a thin, smooth coating of a confection that reminds me of the texture of a marshmallow.
You can eat them with your hands. or spear them on the end of a chopstick. They're the perfect size for when you just want a little ice cream, not a huge, expensive cone.

The full service coffee bar offers a wide variety of hot coffee drinks like espresso, caoouccino and lattes as well as hot tea specialties including Matcha and Genma Cha. Tanuki makes a variety of chilled coffee and tea beverages including a great cold brewed, iced coffee and a "Hangover Helper" that actually does seem to help. It's made with  your choice of iced Sencha or Oolong teas. There are Matcha smoothies, a Matcha Palmer (1/2 lemonade,) as well as bottled, cold drinks from Japan.

Blackboards out front list food and drink specialties, some evolving through the day.

Find Tanuki, named for a creature known in Japanese legend and mythology, at 227 Commercial Street. They're in the bright yellow building known for many years as The Little Store, in the days when it was bright red.

Tanuki made its first PTown appearance as a very popular pop-up restaurant during the annual holiday festival sponsored by The Canteen, right next door. That tremendous response in mid-winter led to launching Tanuki in a brand new space of its own this summer.
Try some of these excellent snacks, treats and beverages, bringing Commercial Street some unique new flavors and expanding the variety of international street foods found in PTown.

Mistralino Earns TheYearRounder's 'Best Bite' Award for Food, Service, Ambiance

Mistralino's Cioppino, topped with striped bass, was simply superb!

With new owners and chefs this year, Mistralino ups the ante on fine Italian dining in PTown, while still maintaining the charm of its relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.

The walls of the main dining room are each decorated with plates of all different sizes and descriptions, like so many sets of mismatched china, each piece inscribed with the compliments and well-wishes of diners expressing thanks for a memorable meal.

My own accolades joined the others on these walls following the remarkable dinner I had there a couple of weeks ago. The Grilled Octopus appetizer, followed by the Striped Bass Cioppino, both nightly specials, earned Mistralino TheYearRounder’s famed Best Bite award, as the best meal I’d had in Provincetown that week. 

The octopus appetizer was full of flavor from the grill, and perfectly cooked.

 My dinner began with a couple of large octopus tentacles charred on the grill, perfectly tender and very flavorful. These were served over broccolini, with sweet red peppers which were echoed in the vibrant sauce that ringed the plate.

My main course was a lovely Striped Bass Cioppino. Local mussels and clams in this seafood stew added their subtle flavors to a splendid broth that let the grilled bass fillet on top be the star of the bowl. It was capped with a little arugula dressed in a light vinaigrette with just a bit of sweetness to it, adding another dimension of flavor atop this wonderful dish, while complimenting the splash of Pernod that had finished this delectable stew.

This wonderful Almond Torte is not too sweet, despite the way it looks.

My dessert was a slice of moist, dense Almond Torte, with a simple drizzle of light caramel sauce, all nestled in a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream.

This was the perfect treat to finish off this very fine meal. Even the cappuccino was memorable.

Reserve a Table Online, or take a chance and drop in. Dinner starts at 5 PM. Call 774•593•5945 for parties larger than 12. They’ll be closed Wednesday, September 5^th and Tuesday, September 11^th, but will otherwise be open nightly. 

 No fooling, this was the best cappuccino I;ve ever had.

Mistralino has been reborn this year. The ambiance invites you to relax and linger over a delightful meal with friends and family, or celebrate that special occasion with a romantic table for two.

Atmosphere, service and food are all top notch, with gracious hosts who could not be more welcoming. In fact, it seems like the entire staff is doing everything right. And they seem a cinch for another Best Bite recognition or two, as I attempt to taste my way around their menu. Try Mistralino soon!