Eating out Amsterdam: Awesome Tacos @ Coba

As a Mexican I feel a little weird about writing a review of a Taco place in English, it is double weird if that place is in Amsterdam, it is triple weird if the Chef is not Mexican and it is just a whole lot weirder if in the entire establishment there is only one Mexican staff member, all of these are true at Coba, but in the middle of all this weirdness, there are only good things I have to say about this place. And before I continue, let me tell you that this place in Amsterdam Noord is not only worth the trip, but a must. 

Mexican food outside Mexico tends to go two ways; either cheap and other than some use of jalapeños and selling Coronas not authentic at all, or high end often times pretentious. Some adventurous chefs and cooks that attempt to find the middle ground end up with huge menus that try to compile the entirety of Mexican cuisine and present it in a way that a foreigner would enjoy; needless to say that must of those attempts fail miserably.

I am glad to say that the People at Coba are not only successfully walking the middle ground, but killing it!   By offering a small but ever changing menu they can allow themselves to explore different parts of Mexican cuisine without compromising on quality of ingredients and execution.

A Japexican jerky, Beefjerky.

So lately I have been trying to eat a lot healthier than usual and it has been pretty good so far, except for the moments when I'm craving a snack (which luckily is usually salty), man those moments are hard. I was also looking for a good way to pack up some extra protein in my day. Dry meat is amazing, it is light, savory and chewy, and most of all it is mostly protein. I used to have some beef jerky but paying 6 bucks for a tiny bag of jerky is not my idea of a bargain. There's got to be a better way.

I was surfing around Amazon and found this great little gadget, a low power food dehydrator / yoghurt maker for about 50 bucks. And I thought to myself, 'let's give it a try', I can make jerky, dry fruits and veggies and maybe even yoghurt. I first tried the fruits with relative success. The yoghurt making works like a charm, though the little containers are a little troublesome to wash, but it took me a while before I actually forced myself to make the jerky, and boy o boy was I missing out, it turned out to be fucking A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, way better than any store-bought bags, and certainly cheaper.

I did the math and making about 300 grams of jerky will set you down less than 10 bucks, and this is including the meat, spices and electricity to run the dehydrator. That should be  about  6 portions of 50 grams with around 20 grams of protein per portion… not bad at all. So I am now basically making one batch every week and combining the meat with some roasted nuts and dried fruits to make a super awesome little snack.

Alright, enough introductions, here is the Japexican jerky.

PS. You don’t have to use a dehydrator, you can set your oven at the lowest temperature and it will work pretty well, it will just not be that efficient.

Look at that gorgeous and delicious meat. 

All Seed, all crunch and no fuss Crackers.

So I recently reduced the amount of carbs I am eating, this means obviously no sugar, pasta, rice or flour which also means no crackers or tortilla chips or any crunchy goodness (no, carrots don’t count). This posed a particularly bad situation, I occasionally like to sit down and have some crunchy snack with some cheese. Bummer. But what to do what to do, in a moment of desperation I turned into some vegan recipe that looked promising, those of you who know me know the 'beef' I have with vegans (hehehe, get it? Beef?) but me not approving your lifestyle does not mean that I cannot take some good things you do have right?

So the magic of these crackers lies on chia and flax seeds which in the presence of water release a gel like substance that binds everything together, and when you bake or dehydrate this substance will give structure to your crackers. Magic. 

So, I have to say it, they are vegan, they are paleo, but most importantly they are fucking delicious.  If you are looking for an alternative to your crunchy snacking, don’t look any further and try this All Seed, all crunch and no fuss Crackers.

Look at the top right corner ;)