...Pittsburgh City Paper's "Best Mexican/Latin American Restaurant" (a rant)

I hate popularity contests.

I had seen awhile back that Pittsburgh City Paper had opened voting for their "Best of..." edition, which seemed dangerous because ANYONE could cast their vote.  Of course, it was limited to businesses in the Pittsburgh area (as it should be), but it was scary to me that anyone could vote for anything - and that there were about 3582492 categories in which to vote (ok, maybe not that many, but close).  And THEN there was the option to add your OWN category...

Geez.

Anyway, I admit, I voted - but not in every category.  I didn't think that it would be fair for me to vote in categories such as "Best Local Music Venue" when I don't go to see live, local music, nor would it be fair for me to vote on "Best Bicycle Shop" when I don't even own a bike.  However, I'm sure that there are people who voted in categories that they know nothing about, simply because they know the name of a person or business who promotes himself/herself/itself well.

Today, the results were revealed.  Knowing that people vote because they know names, but have not experienced the actual business themselves, it is difficult for me to take this poll seriously, at least in some categories.  For example, in the category of "Best Car Dealership", guess who won?  Just guess.  Think of a car dealership who has ads on TV, radio, etc. CONSTANTLY. 

Yup.  #1 Cochran.  Shocker.  I mean, how often do people buy cars?  Personally, I'm 31, and I've NEVER gone to a dealership myself to buy a car.  I just bought my grandmother's car from her estate last year, and before that, I drove the same car that my parents purchased (but didn't completely pay for) for me when I was in college and had to have a car to do my pre-student teaching.  There are people who lease cars, so they get a new one every 2 years or so - but let me ask you this: If they're using the same dealership repeatedly when the lease is up, how can they compare it to any others?

That's what I thought.  They can't.

Anyway, my point is that this was not a scientific poll - therefore, it can only be taken with a grain of salt.  So when I saw the winner(s) of "Best Mexican/Latin American Restaurant", I had to remind myself repeatedly that this wasn't that serious.

But some people will take it seriously.  That's scary.

The winner?  Mad Mex.  The one restaurant that I was on the fence about when creating my "Authentic Restaurant List" for my students' extra credit project.  I had been to Mad Mex, and don't get me wrong - their food is really tasty - but I would hardly call it "authentic Mexican".  So for this restaurant to win in this category, to me, is a disgrace.

And that's why I write this blog - awareness.

Coming in second was Mexico City, the restaurant with the Black and Gold Burrito that I wrote about and whose picture I use as my profile pic on Facebook.  I was happy that they were in the top 3, so no argument there.

Black & Gold Burrito, Mexico City Restaurant

The third place winner was El Campesino, the first authentic restaurant that I ever tried here in Pittsburgh, back when I was in college.  This was the time of Chi-Chi's, so I was happy to try some "real" Mexican food at the time.

But wait - all 3 of these restaurants have something in common...

...multiple locations.

Of course.  Visibility.  Mad Mex has SEVEN Pittsburgh locations, PLUS locations in State College, Columbus, and Philadelphia.  The first time I ever had food at Mad Mex was when I was in college, at Penn State - they had just opened adjacent to the Days Inn in downtown State College, and every weekend night especially was PACKED.

You can probably guess why...and which is probably why Mad Mex won in two other categories: "Best Happy Hour" & "Best Late-Night Menu".

In addition, Mexico City has two downtown locations (a prime place for Pittsburgh City Paper readership), plus a location on the South Side (another high-readership area), and El Campesino, like Mad Mex, has 7 locations - one as far away as Altoona.

You're probably wondering who got my vote in this category.  Of course, it wasn't any of the winners.

Click here to find out.

I say to you Pittsburgh - it is time to challenge yourselves.  Discover AUTHENTIC Mexican/Latin American food in this city - it exists.  Next year, I want to see restaurants with one, maybe two locations dominate the top 3 in the "Best Mexican/Latin American Restaurant"category.  On Urbanspoon, Smoke BBQ and Taqueria is in the top 10 for all of restaurants in Pittsburgh - that says something, don't you think?  If you need help figuring out what is "authentic", read this great blog post about that very topic by the owners of Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina (a NEW, AUTHENTIC Mexican restaurant!)

Follow this blog.  You'll learn about many of them.

Pittsburgh City Paper Website: http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/

...my Cupcake Creation, inspired by other bloggers

Today was not a great day.

I won't get into the details of why it wasn't so great, so just accept that my temptation for cupcakes as a result was strong.  Quite strong.  So strong, in fact, that I tweeted it at lunchtime.

To make my temptation even stronger, at the end of the day, I checked Twitter, and there were tweets from @JanePitt, @burghbaby, @iheartpgh, and @cookingformydad, all commenting on...what else?  Dozen Bake Shop and Sugar Cafe, as they were stops on the Sonic Sweets Tour in which they were partaking at the time.  Really?  REALLY?!  Of all days?!

I was going crazy, and I had tests to grade.  Yum Yum was also tempted by the tweets.  I told her that baking may be on my agenda when I got home, and she agreed that that was a good idea.

And so it was.  

What to bake, though?  I did love those vegan cupcakes that I made over the summer from the Dozen Bake Shop recipe that was posted on Boring Pittsburgh.  I should make those again - and I already had the ingredients at home.

The stars were aligning.

Oh, but WAIT!  The Franklin Inn Mexican Restaurant had posted a recipe on Facebook the other day from another blog  for a chocolate frosting with quite the interesting main ingredient...

...I knew what I had to do.  I stopped at Giant Eagle for the ingredient on the way home.

I made the vegan cupcakes as soon as I got home (which wasn't until almost 5:00) - for some reason, I feel that this recipe is so much easier than that of regular cupcakes.  They also come out moist and vanilla-y.  As a side note, I don't use almond milk - I use light vanilla soy milk, which adds to the vanilla-y-ness.

Apple cider vinegar and light vanilla soy milk, curdled

I like the pattern that formed when I added the vanilla extract to the oil

Not quite as pretty with the curdled soy milk

Cupcake batter (no eggs, so ok to lick the bowl!)

Cupcakes baking in my super-old oven

Done - not the prettiest, but don't judge a book by its cover, right?

Once they were cooling, it was time to make the frosting.  I assembled my ingredients and pulled out my food processor...

Agave nectar, cocoa powder, and...wait, what?!

AVOCADO!

Yes, this chocolate icing is made from avocado.  I played around with the ingredients, as I thought it tasted too bland, and I could not seem to get it sweet enough.  I chose to use agave nectar as my sweetener (you can use whatever kind of sweetener you want - honey, sugar, Splenda...), and I felt like I kept adding a ton of it until it was sweet enough.  To take care of the blandness, I added some Pampered Chef Double-strength Bourbon Vanilla (my favorite vanilla of all time) and cinnamon.

I finally got it right.

I iced each cupcake with the creamy, silky icing, and then realized that I had quite the biased opinion on my cupcakes.  I'll eat anything with avocado, but would anyone else?  I needed a critical outside opinion.

I called my aunt and uncle, who live 5 doors down.  They were home, so I took a cupcake to them to try.

The finished product - vegan vanilla cupcake with avocado chocolate frosting

 I didn't tell them what was in the cupcake, because I KNEW that if I did, they wouldn't eat it, or make a face, or think it was gross from the get-go.  My aunt tried it first, and she commented that it smelled like booze (NOTE: there is no booze in it - the smell comes from the vanilla extract, due to the fact that it is made from bourbon initially).  She said that the cupcake was good, so I passed it on to my uncle to try - he is quite the baker, and has strong opinions on baked goods.  He also thought that there was booze in it (AGAIN NOTE: No booze.  Vanilla extract), but said that the cake was moist, and the icing was good.

Then I broke the news - vegan cupcake, avocado icing. 

Shock and awe.

I'm glad that I got their unbiased opinions - believe me, my uncle has no problem telling me if my baked goods aren't good.  I love when people try new things without realizing that they're trying something new.  

So thanks to @JanePitt, @burghbaby, @iheartpgh, and @cookingformydad for making me even hungrier for cupcakes today, as it resulted in an experiment-gone-tasty.  

Now what to do with the other 10 cupcakes?!...

...Dozen Bake Shop (Lawrenceville) [Off-topic]

I'm obsessed with cupcakes.

In fact, for my birthday this year, I did not want cake - I wanted cupcakes from Oakmont Bakery.  I love the individuality of the cupcake, the portion control (not that cupcakes are all that good for you in the first place, but it's a good compromise), the variety - and I didn't want to hear any whining about the cake or frosting flavor that I chose. 

Before James and I visited Tamari, we passed Dozen Bake Shop, which is a few doors down from Tamari.  I have followed Dozen on Twitter since I began blogging, mostly because of all of the attention that they were getting at the time due to the fact that they were closing on July 9th.  As a result, I discovered on Boring Pittsburgh that they had posted two recipes from the store - one for Elvis cupcakes (cupcakes with peanut butter, banana, and bacon), and another for vegan cupcakes.

A few days later, I was bored.  And I happened to have all of the ingredients for vegan cupcakes (minus coconut, which I don't even like, so I replaced it with almonds).  And I baked.  And you know what?  They were delicious, according to me and everyone with whom I shared them in the main office at Kennywood (including one from the corporate office).  *Sigh* What a shame.

Vegan cupcakes I made over the summer from Dozen's recipe

 Despite the disappointment, this is what got me to be ✔ *Burgh Verified*.  

But wait!  About a month later, it was announced that Dozen would be REOPENING under new ownership on September 12th!  HOORAY!  Exciting news!  Maybe I WOULD be able to try more of their cupcakes!

James did not want to stop in Dozen before going to Tamari, as we would be tempted to buy cupcakes, which we really didn't NEED...

...ugh, he was right.  I guess.

Luckily, I convinced my mom to stop in Lawrenceville 3 days later after we visited Handmade Arcade at the convention center.  Not only that, I was hungry and convinced her to eat lunch there.

I love the décor & pastry displays inside...

Chalkboard menu

The chandeliers are AWESOME!

Doggie cupcakes!  My mom bought some for my aunt, uncle, and cousin's dog

*drool*

*double drool*

My mom and I decided to try the Pick Two - we wanted the Fresco & Mozzarella on Ciabatta, but they were out, so I chose the Smoked Turkey & Cheddar with Bacon, while my mom chose the Ham & Cheese on Baguette.  We both chose the Pumpkin Soup.

Smoked Turkey & Cheddar on Sundried Tomato Bread, Pumpkin Soup, chips (didn't eat those at the time)

Wow.  I make pumpkin chili, and I love anything with pumpkin (as you may know from previous posts), but nothing - NOTHING - beats this pumpkin soup.  Creamy, savory, perfectly spiced.  Love love love!

My sandwich was better than anything I could make at home, and the bread was especially fresh and delicious - it was a sundried tomato bread, which was not overpowering of the smoked turkey flavor at all (yay for smoked meats!)  I wasn't too impressed with the cheddar, but it was definitely a better option than my go-to cheese at home - Fat-free Kraft Singles (not even real cheese - it looks like plastic when it melts!)  My mom was also quite impressed with the soup, and she enjoyed her sandwich immensely.

So when James found out where I was - can you guess what he asked?  

[In my best Dora the Explorer voice] Can you?  

 He's lucky I like him...and that I really wanted a good excuse to get cupcakes.

My mom figured we'd just get a 1/2 dozen - 1 for me, 1 for James, and 4 for her to take home to my dad, brother, and grandparents...

Clockwise from top left: Pumpkin Chai, Chocolate Maple & Bacon (mine), Milk Chocolate, Vanilla Vanilla (for James), Vanilla Vanilla (again), Vegan Mostess

 As soon as we got back to my house, James and I tried our cupcakes.  I have heard through various websites, tweets, and word-of-mouth comments that the cupcakes at Dozen are dry, but I beg to differ.  My cupcake wasn't the most moist cupcake that I've ever had, but it definitely wasn't dry.  James didn't seem to think so, either, nor have I heard that complaint from my family members.  

Now I have two excuses to visit Lawrenceville more often - Tamari and Dozen Bake Shop (for cupcakes AND lunch!)

Dozen Bake Shop

3511 Butler St.

Pittsburgh, PA 15201 (Lawrenceville)

417 S. Craig St.

Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (Oakland - Cupcakes only, no cafe)

Website: http://www.dozenbakeshop.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dozen-Bake-Shop-Dozen-Cupcakes/25721167653

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/dozenbakeshop