Wednesday Dinner 6/30/10

Good Morning, I wish this summer gloom would be gone already!!! SHEESH!! Well it’s the 1st of the month and the second month of the summer (WOOHOO). I hope you all are going to be doing something fun this 4th of July weekend! Just remember to be safe and don't drink and drive. Now let the "Wednesday Dinner" story begin. Last night I had dinner with my dear friend Erica Flowers and her daughter, Erica and I haven't been since last year I believe (http://wednesdaydinnerwithash.blogspot.com/2009/10/wednesday-dinner-101409.html) at Truxton's. Anyway Erica and I have been friends since I we were 3 and 4 years old, we go way back. It's so funny seeing Erica with her daughter because her daughter looks just like Erica did when she was little. I want to take a minute to shout out Erica because she is doing her THANG! She is a LV at USC Hospital and she recently purchased a condo (GO GIRL)!! I am so proud of you and glad to call you my friend! So last night Erica, her daughter and I met up at "The Gardens of Taxaco" (http://www.gardensoftaxco.com/) "The Gardens of Taxaco" is located in West Hollywood off of Harper Ave. Harper is a side street so if you’re driving to fast you will miss it. I had been to "The Gardens of Taxaco" years ago with my family we were celebrating a birthday. I decided to pick "The Gardens of Taxaco" because on their website they have a coupon where you can get a 5 course meal for $14.95 (http://gardensoftaxco.com/popDiscount.html). So here's the thing with "The Gardens of Taxaco" they don't have any menus online or in the restaurant. So let me set the seen for you. Like I said its located on Harper a side small street, its decorated inside like a classic authentic Mexican restaurant, with about 10-15 male waiters, very clean but the lighting is extremely dim inside a little romantic kind of. Our waiter came over and only explained the dinner selections to us, which were about 5 chicken items, 5 beef items, 2 meat combination items and 3 seafood selections. It was interesting trying to pick our dinner selection because the waiter was so animated and it was hard to make out everything he was saying but Erica and I decided to go with a beef and shrimp combination. Now keep in mind that we were getting 5 courses, now the other 4 courses were not mentioned they were just brought out to us. While we were waiting for our food the usual chips and salsa was brought out along with some veggie medley that consisted of cauliflower, carrots, and celery it was pretty strange looking. The chips and salsa were delish!!! The chips were fresh and salsa wasn't too spicy or bland it was right in the middle. So now it was time to start eating and here is what was brought to us:

1st course- Cheese Quesadilla topped with guacamole
2nd course- Meatball Soup
3rd course- Chicken Enchilada topped with cheese sauce and a black olive
4th course- Dinner -Beef and Shrimp combination
5th course- Dessert - Banana Pudding

The 1st course the cheese quesadilla was so yummy, it was sooooo cheesy and the guacamole was good too! It was just a slice of a quesadilla but it was just the right size.

The 2nd course was the meatball soup, this was my 1st time eating meatball soup and surprisingly I liked it; I don't think its something I could eat all the time. It was piping out served in a beef broth with a lot of veggies like carrots, celery and onions. There was only one meatball in the soup but that was just enough. It was served in a standard size soup cup and it was seasoned very well. I enjoyed it!

The 3rd course was a chicken enchilada topped with cheese sauce and a black olive this was my favorite! The enchilada was small enough for one person and it was a corn tortilla stuffed with chicken and topped with this amazing cheese sauce and a black olive. I totally wish I could've gotten another one of those enchiladas. All the flavors worked together and it melted in my mouth. 2 thumbs up!

The 4th course was DINNER! I am not sure what the name of this dish is but it was beef smothered in a tomato sauce with onions and bell peppers and the shrimp was sautéed in a cilantro cream sauce it was served with rice and beans and flour tortillas. This was a pretty good combination; the beef was good it was pretty tender and well seasoned. The tomato sauce was a great way to serve the beef and cilantro cream sauce was great for the shrimp. I wasn't able to finish all my dinner so I have left over’s for lunch today.

The 5th course was dessert; dessert is my favorite meal of the day! (Hahaha). This dessert was somewhere in between a pudding and a flan. I believe it was a vanilla based cream with bananas at the bottom and topped with a cherry. At first bite this dessert is extremely sweet but its also refreshing it was served in a small dish and I was actually please. Erica thought it was too sweet and her daughter gave this priceless reaction to hers (it was too sweet for her taste also).

Over dinner Erica and I caught up on girl talk, our dating lives! This is always funny because we are so much alike with our dating stories! Erica and her daughter shared the dinner, Erica kept the beef and her daughter got the shirmp. Erica’s daughter is so cute and so well behaved, I would go out to dinner with them anytime. “The Gardens of Taxaco” wasn’t crowded when we first got there but by the time we left it was pretty packed. All in all dinner was GREAT and like I said we got all of that for $14.95 per person which is an extreme deal. The total for dinner without the coupon would have been $53.02 but with the coupon it was $35.02 which saved us about $18.00!!!!!!!!!! I highly recommend "The Gardens of Taxaco" especially if you like Mexican food, it’s a cute place for dates and group outings. They do serve alcohol, wine based margaritas and sangria. If you would like to get on the "Wednesday Dinner" squad drop me a line at wednesdaydinnerwithash@yahoo.com and follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/wednesdaydinner. In closing I would like to leave you with this "Neither success or failure is permanent". Until next week -Ashley