Mole soup

Mole soup.

I promised you mole soup and here it is.

It was earthy, rich and redolent of chocolate. Not in a sweet way, of course, but in a deep satisfying kind of way.

Oh, yeah, and it had espresso in it.

Yup, espresso.

I know, I am more interested at this point too!

No formal recipe here because I think this soup should be altered to your particular taste.

I will tell you the ingredients (a dish for 1):

- 1/4 cup of canned kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup of black beans, rinsed and drained 
- 1/4 of a yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cup of chopped tomatoes with some of the juice
- 1 clove of garlic, minced


Oh, wait I should stop here and show you the star of the show:

- little less than 1/2 a cup of the mole paste
- 2 cups of chicken broth
- 1/2 a teaspoon of instant espresso

Put that all into a soup pot and let it get all friendly and comfortable (ie. let it simmer for a good 30 minutes). 

Ladle into your favorite bowl, top with some sour cream and cilantro and enjoy!

Music in the air

Last night I had made mole soup. It was delicious but before I could get in more than a couple of tastes I was lured away for a night filled with music.

*warning grainy phone picts. ahead* 


We arrived just before the sun went down and there were vendors of all types lining the street. A band was playing at one end of the avenue and people were packed shoulder to shoulder in some places.


I was excited to spot this vendor:

They make a variety of homemade dog treat all of which looked wonderful.

I didn't pick any up since the dogs are still on a soft food diet but I was tempted.

It was really fun to walk around and check out all the vendors and the entire crowd was in a cheerful mood of celebration. 

The fun was contagious and I ended up getting a tattoo!

A Henna tattoo, that is :-)

We started to get hungry slipped into this restaurant:

It seemed like every table was ordering the Chinese Chicken Salad. My friend said it was one of the dishes the restaurant  was known for.


So we had to order it:-)

I can see why people like it. The salad was light and crisp and had lots of peanuts but for me the taste was a little bland. I tried adding the mustard sauce that came on the side and it had me choking from the spiciness.


By the way, someone writhing in pain from spicy food is apparently a very funny thing to watch.

I have proof of that now...

I ordered the Mongolian Beef which was pretty good. It had just a hint of sweet and a nice amount of spice.

People were still reveling in the street when we left the restaurant at around 9pm.

I guess a lot of people were starting their Labor Day Weekend early?

A celebration that starts on Wednesday night and goes till Tuesday morning? That sounds fun and very tiring.


Check back later. I should have the mole soup recipe posted later today.


And I even may let you see how the henna tattoo is looking today:-)