Brasas: Latin American Street Food

Make no mistake about it, Brasa is one of my favorite restaurants right now.  Too bad I haven’t been writing about it, but it really is.  There’s meat, there’s unique flavor and concept, it’s really good, and it’s priced very reasonably.

Brasas serves Latin American food.  This covers South America — where the Brazils and Argentinas are.  I’ve been there as a kid, but there wasn’t really any recollection of the food and how they spiced it.  What I do remember is that there were hunks of meat — lots of it.

To start, you’d definitely want to get the Patacones, crispy plantain chips with pulled pork, salsa, and cheese sauce.  The chips were definitely not crispy, but the pulled pork had a good smokey flavor to it and was the definite star of the dish.

If you’re a snacker, you’d be wise to get any one of their grilled wraps.  I chose the Regular Beef Grilled Wrap, which came with onions, roasted bell peppers, and salsa in a tortilla wrap.  Awesome flavors really — juicy and seasoned really well.  Really.

There are side condiments if you need more kick to it.  Not that you need to, but you can’t really go wrong with more chipotle sauce.

The Grilled Chicken Breast sandwich was my least favorite, but even that wasn’t bad at all.  Again, with all that’s going on in the sandwich, it was still all about the well-seasoned and spiced meat.

But if you really want a feast, go for their entrees.

You cannot go wrong with their Lomo Saltado (a Peruvian dish) — sauteed Sirloin strips with tomatoes, onions, and fries.

I’d also go for the Beef Rice Platter, which has that smokey charred flavor due to the grill¹.  It’s served with South American slaw, patacones, and yellow rice and Chimichurri sauce.  My god, the rice!

The dish, however, that keeps me coming back is the Puerco Asado.  Yes, I’m choosing pork over beef here because trust me, it’s motherfucking fantastic.  It’s a Cuban dish of slow-roasted pork belly, roasted vegetables, rice and beans.  It’s fall-of-the-bone tender, it’s fatty², it’s juicy³, and it’s so good.  I’m sorry, beef.

They didn’t have the rice and beans when I took this photo but can you really argue with that awesome yellow rice?  I say you can’t go wrong either way⁴, although I still give the nod to the yellow rice.

If there’s one thing I’m disappointed about, it was the drinks.  I had the Guarapo⁵ and the Brasacolada⁶.  Both had one ingredient that overpowered all the others in the drinks.

I did find the Latin Iced Tea⁷ to be OK, but the bar hasn’t exactly been set high for drinks.

I can’t recall the authenticity with actual South American food, but god damn it, it’s still very, very good food.  People try go to healthy and eat all those veggie crap.  It’s what men should be eating — not fucking rabbit food.

Brasas: Latin American Street Food 2013-12-09

ake no mistake about it, Brasa is one of my favorite restaurants right now.  Too bad I haven’t been writing about it, but it really is.  There’s meat, there’s unique flavor and concept, it’s really good, and it’s priced very reasonably. Brasas serves Latin American food.  This covers South America — where the Brazils and …