For my last blog I have decided to go local! Jalapenos Mexican restaurant is located in the Metro Centre on University and has been in my family for 15 years.
Right when you walk into Jalapenos you are greeted with warm bright colors, authentic pieces of art from Mexico, and Mexican music. The art of the walls have been brought back from our various trips to Mexico.
Now since this is a food blog... let's talk about some food! I may be biased when I say this but our food is the best Mexican food in the area. Some of my favorite appetizers from Jalapenos are the queso fondido, table side guacamole, and the beef mini chimis. Authentic queso fondido from Mexico is a stretchy cheese with a little bit of chorizo (Mexican sausage) mixed in but at Jalapenos it's chorizo and the famous cheese dip mixed together. It's amazing and will probably clog your arteries if you eat too much of it. The table side guacamole is made fresh at your table and it includes in it: avocado, lime, salt, pepper, onions, cilantro, tomatoes and a secret delicious green sauce. Next, are the beef mini chimis. They're small little fried chimichangas with ground beef and cheese filled inside and a side of cheese dip to dip into.
Now it's time to talk about the good stuff, the main dishes. I love me some authentic Mexican food like albondigas, pozole, tamales but I also like the good ole Americanized Mexican food. Arroz con pollo, the famous 'Mexican dish' of the south. If you were to go eat a Mexican restaurant down south and asked what their most popular dish is they would say, ACP. ACP stands for Arroz con pollo and it's exactly what it says. Rice with chicken topped with cheese dip. Not only is it delicious but it's really filling. At Jalapenos if you want the 'ACP' it's called pollo feliz because our arroz con pollo is grilled chicken over rice topped with cheese dip, salsa fresca, guacamole and sour cream. Another one of my favorite dishes is the burrito fresca. It's a burrito filled with chicken or steak fajitas (I get chicken), fresh pinto beans and rice, covered with cheese dip and salsa fresca. The salsa fresca is just pico de gallo (tomatoes, onions, serrano peppers, cilantro, lime, and salt) blended together. Over the summer I had an obsession with this burrito. I ate it every single time I went for about a month. The last main dish I'm going to be talking about is the pulled pork barbecue nachos. They're nachos topped with pulled pork, cheese dip, barbecue sauce, red cabbage, pico de gallo, and jalapenos. When my dad first made these I thought they were going to taste so gross but then I tried them and they were amazing! I personally don't like pico de gallo because I hate tomatoes and raw onions so I ask for the nachos without them and it's sooo good.
Saved the best for last, dessert. I'm not really a dessert person but these desserts are too good to not have. Of course I have to talk about the most common dessert at a Mexican restaurant, flan. Flan is a caramel custard with a caramel layer on top of it. I would eat flan for every meal if I could. Another common dessert that you can find at Mexican restaurants are churros. I think everyone knows what churros are but if you don't they're fried dough-pastries. Our churros come with a side of cajeta which is a thick caramel sauce. My all time favorite dessert that we have are sopapillas. They're fried pastries as well except we have them in triangles, you can find them in different shapes depending where you go. They're coated in sugar and cinnamon and topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with honey.
Now that you've read all about Jalapenos and are getting hungry, go and eat there!