Friday, June 15, 2012

when he's away...I have churros

When you take Zac out of the picture, my life consists of food network, frozen dinners, looooong naps, unnecessary and frequent trips to the grocery store, and cleaning. I am freakishly obsessed with keeping my kitchen clean and since my husband has been out of town three times in the past month my kitchen has been deep cleaned and reorganized three times in the last month. A little crazy, I know.
This time, I branched out and actually cooked something...
Last night, as I laid in bed utterly bored out of mind I kept on thinking about the creme filled churro we had a couple days ago. While he was in Minneapolis, some coworkers introduced me to El Azteca, a beautiful Mexican restaurant in Provo. I had never been there and I was excited to expand my food experiences...The only authentic tacos I had ever had before were on the petite side so I ordered coconut shrimp tacos, carne asada tacos, al pastor tacos, carnitas, and french fries...I blame my coworkers who had been there before for neglecting to warn me that these tacos were going to be, and this is the only word I can think of to describe them,  massive. If I had 3 children and Zac were home, there would be enough food to feed us all and then some because they were that big. Anyways, as I was eating what seemed to be the largest Mexican meal of my life I caught a glimpse of the dessert menu plastered on the wall. And there it was: the creme filled churro. I am a sucker for deep fried things but nothing surpasses my love for creme filled churros. It't just not the same without the filling. I told him about my need to try to their churros the moment after I picked him up from the airport, and because he knows food is the way to my heart, we went. El Azteca's is quite delectable. You bite into the cinnamon sugar dipped cloud of deep fried donut and you literally feel like you are floating, and the creme! It oozes in your mouth and it's an explosion of silky, velvety, so-bad-for-you-but-so-good-richness. As I was in bed, my mouth was watering as I thought about those churros. So I got up and made some churros minus the creme. It was not nearly as good as what I have had before and i realized half way through making my pate a choux dough that I really should have just waited for the real thing or drove to the grocery store for a mix. But, I kept on, and every 4 inch fritter I ate was so worth the 691 calories allrecipes.com said they were worth.

So here it is my top three churro eateries:

1.Yeah, I talked about El Azteca, but as good as those churros are they are still not as good as the ones at La Churreria. It was originally Nolita's but has recently turned into La Churreria and I am dying to eat at the redone bakery. Having a churro from this place is like being on a getaway to Spain. When I went, I would get the churros for two and force who ever I was with to also get churros also in case I needed more or ran out of dipping sauce. Creme filled and dulce de leche filled were the best.

2.Dougnut Plant, also in New York. This place is dirt cheap, and amazing. Churros are only a buck fifty. A nice upgrade from Sam's or Costco's. They are simple and perfect. Super flaky, and oh my heavens the goat milk caramel sauce is unbelievable. Trust me, take someone on a date here and he or she will be hooked...not necessarily on you, but definitely the churro ;)

3. Malecon Port Churro lady...So while on our honey moon, we spent a couple days by the boardwalk in Malecon. One of those days, we indulged on some vendor food, one of which was the churro. No creme, no caramel sauce just a churro. And it was good.