Family hour at Rosa Mexicano Restaurant

Image by ChrisGoldNY via Flickr

Making guacamole at Rosa Mexicano Restaurant on Union Square in  Manhattan.

If you've never thought of having a family meal during happy hour, you might want to reconsider and go to Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, where some drinks and appetizers are half price from 4 to 7 p.m. on weekdays.

I've attended cooking demonstrations at this shopping center restaurant, and in the early days, enjoyed the free breakfasts that were served first. I soon learned the cooks make just about everything from scratch, resulting in the best Mexican food in North Jersey, if not the entire state, with prices to match. And it's one of the most beautiful restaurants around.


I've eaten lunch there -- try the fish tacos with a couple of sparkling salsas -- but never dinner. Happy hour gives me a chance to sample more of the food at terrific prices, and my 13-year-old son can participate as long as we sit at one of the tables in the bar area.

Friday night, we got there around 5. My son insisted we order the made-to-order guacamole, which is he addicted to, and I relented, despite it not being one of the discounted appetizers. I love it, too, but at $12 for two avocados ..... We asked for it spicy, and they delivered, along with wonderful, small, warm corn tortillas made in the dining room and red and green salsas.


We also ordered a delicious quesadilla oozing with melted cheese and mushroom-like huitlacoche or corn fungus ($4.40) and an order of two pork street tacos ($3.50) -- both bargains. Each of these appetizers came with its own salsa or salsas, different from the two served with the chunky guacamole.


My wife drank a traditional margarita ($4), I had two bottles of dark Negra Modelo beer ($2.75 each) and our son had two Mango Boing soft drinks ($4 each).

So that's how we turned happy hour into a satisfying family meal.

Rosa Mexicano Restaurant, 390 Hackensack Ave.,
Hackensack (The Shops at Riverside); 201-489-9100.
rosamexicano.com

Guacamole, falafel and vegetable souffle

Image via Wikipedia

We've tried two more of the prepared-food items I found at Costco as I widen our choice of non-meat dishes for the five or six meals we have at home every week


Last night, we started off with a 16-ounce container of  Wholly Guacamole, a brand made from Hass avocados and spices. I spooned the thick guacamole into a bowl and, to thin it, added two chopped, herbicide-free Campari tomatoes and fresh lemon juice. We made guacamole tacos with whole-grain tortillas, also from Costco. A terrific appetizer.


A few days ago, we also tried falafel balls from Meal Mart. They're vegan and kosher. You just heat up the falafel balls. They are tasty but dense. I served them with a chopped cucumber, tomato and onion salad dressed with extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and dried mint, along with warm Syrian pocket bread and a tahini sauce (falafel, sauce and salad are stuffed into the bread).

The fully cooked Classic Cooking-brand vegetable souffle looks like a winner. (I plan to serve it tonight with soy burgers or leftover pasta and  Mexican-flavored "sausage" made with wheat gluten and soy I bought at Whole Foods Market.) The ingredients include potato, eggs, carrot, zucchini, broccoli, red pepper and spinach.

New food items at Costco Wholesale

Kirkland Signature Organic Salsa at Costco Wholesale.

After we stopped eating meat at the end of February, I started noticing all the alternatives that are sold at Costco. 

I am not a big fan of prepared food. Most of the stuff I've tried from Trader Joe's, for example, were one-time purchases. But Costco is selling some keepers.


We really love the Boca-brand soy burger (16 patties for $9.49). We usually heat these in the oven, cover them with a slice of cheese and then add onion, ketchup, mustard and so forth. 

Every time we have this meatless burger, we also heat up Dr. Praeger's spinach cake -- small, tasty disks of spinach and potato (20 for $8.99).


Costco also sells two wonderful cheese-and-vegetable quiches that make a great dinner with the addition of a homemade salad. One is made with asparagus, the other with artichoke, and they are packaged together (I don't have the price).


I recently tried the mango juice in aseptic containers from Brazil Gourmet. It's thick, sweet and delicious, despite being a 100% juice blend ($11.69). It's the only mango juice I've found to rival the pure mango juice sold in Cuba.


Pasta Prima's lobster ravioli actually have lobster in them, and the lobster flavor is noticeable. You get two servings for two or three people for $11.99. They don't even need sauce -- just a drizzle of good olive oil and cracked black pepper.


Another recent purchase are 100% whole grain tortillas from the Sante Fe Tortilla Co. You get 20 large, soft tortillas for $3.99, a good buy. 

This tortilla rivals Trader Joe's handmade tortillas, which are pricier. I just popped a Sante Fe tortilla, slice of cheddar cheese and salsa in the microwave for 45 seconds for an instant quesadilla. Yum.


On Tuesday, I bought burgers made from wild Pacific salmon (keta and pink), oil and spices that are sold under the Trident label. You get 12 for $12.99, but I had a $3.75-off coupon. We haven't tried them yet.


Looking for an alternative to Rosa Mexicano Restaurant's $12 guacamole (one avocado), I picked up three, one-pound portions made with Hass avocados for $7.99 on Tuesday. 

They are sold under the Wholly Guacamole label, and are made with jalapeno, onion, garlic and salt. They can be frozen, too.

In Hackensack, the best restaurant outside of Mexico City?

The dining room of Rosa Mexicano Restaurant in Hackensack. Corn tortillas are made by hand at the counter in the rear.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

We celebrated our son's 13th birthday Saturday night with a wonderful meal at Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack, where we love the handmade guacamole and corn tortillas, and sparkling salsas.


If there is better Mexican food in North Jersey, I don't know where it is served. 

I recall visiting the flashy Mama Mexico when it first opened in Englewood Cliffs, and the food was terrific, but I haven't been back. That restaurant eventually closed.

At Rosa Mexicano, just about everything is made from scratch with good ingredients, and you'll pay for it. 

You'd have to go to Mexico City to find food prepared at this level.

Guacamole

The guacamole for two, made at your table with onion, tomato and jalapeno, is $12 -- and that's for one avocado. 

For a second avocado, you'll pay $12 more.

We treated our single order as an appetizer, and kept on asking for the small corn tortillas to fashion tacos with the two small cups of hot sauce.


We ordered two more appetizers -- small crab empanadas with a mango salsa ($10.75), and a quesadilla with huitlacoche ($8.75)  -- the exotic, black corn fungus that my wife and son ate, though they usually avoid mushrooms. The latter was served with a Mexican sour cream and green salsa.


We shared an entree -- a butterflied, whole red snapper (sans the head), with each half covered in a different hot sauce ($26). 

We couldn't get the kitchen to serve us the head, too. 

Tacos

I also ordered roasted vegetable tacos -- wild mushrooms, squash blossoms, zucchini and garlic -- served with flax-seed tortillas, Mexican street or creamed corn and beans with roasted pumpkin seeds ($17).


We would have been satisfied and full without the vegetable tacos, which seem expensive, and I had to eat them myself. My son ordered dessert -- churros (fried dough) with chocolate and two other dipping sauces ($6.95).

This is one of the most beautiful restaurants in North Jersey, with Mexican pottery, sconces and wall hangings. Service is attentive, but I wish the waiters wouldn't push the expensive, exotic drinks or that second avocado for the guacamole.

Details

Rosa Mexicano, One Riverside Square, in The Shops at Riverside, Hackensack; 201-489-9100. Reservations recommended on weekends.

Rosa Mexicano website

A delicious lunch at Rosa Mexicano

Image by Rowan Peter via Flickr
A rice field.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We skipped breakfast this morning to attend a free cooking demonstration at Rosa Mexicano Restaurant in Hackensack, then stayed for a wonderful lunch of freshly made guacamole, fish tacos and jumbo shrimp in a roasted-tomato peanut sauce with green-chili rice.

Coffee and juice were available, but the complimentary breakfast we enjoyed in the past has been eliminated. 

With pottery, textiles, sconces and other decorative touches, Rosa Mexicano remains one of the most beautiful restaurants in North Jersey, and virtually all the food is made from scratch -- paying homage to native, Spanish and French culinary influences.

Two chefs, David Suarez and Dennis Lake, showed their audience of more than 30 how to prepare the labor-intensive roasted-tomato peanut sauce, green chile rice, pork picadillo, homemade marshmallows and other dishes. 

At the end of the "Real Men Cook Mexican" demonstration, we were starving.

Me, my wife and 12-year-old son shared the chunky guacamole ($10) a waiter made at our table, spooning some into thin, warm, homemade corn tortillas, some of the best I have ever tasted, and adding red or green salsa. 

A nice hunk of beautifully roasted Chilean sea bass ($12.75) followed,  served with more tortillas to make tacos, plus salsa and three side dishes -- rice, beans with pumpkin seeds and creamed corn.

We also shared an entree of those jumbo shrimp ($19), stacked in a pool of roasted-tomato peanut sauce and served with a mound of rice, made with mustard greens, scallions, spinach and cilantro. 

Unfortunately, the spicy sauce we tasted during the demo was toned down for the restaurant service.

Rosa Mexicano Restaurant, 390 Hackensack Ave., 
in The Shops at Riverside, Hackensack; 201-489-9100.
www.rosamexicano.com