Mediterranean and Mexican Fusion

It's hard to believe that the third Saturday of the month had arrived and another wine club adventure was due. This month, we went to La Chaya Bistro. La Chaya consider their food a Med-Mex fusion, so I was quite intrigued. And let's be transparent here ... I had been studying the menu for a few weeks so that I could be somewhat prepared to order. (Alas, what I've learned is rarely does my preparation really make it any easier when it comes time to order.)

We arrived at 6:15, for 6:30 reservations ... and literally we all arrived at the same time ... it was kind of bizarre (but in a good way). When we entered the bistro, it seemed quiet, there were only two other tables seated, so I have to admit I was a little hesitant. Well, let me just jump ahead for a moment and tell you that apparently 7 is the magic hour, because the place quickly became packed and loud!

But now ... to the food. We all started with salads, as they had four intriguing selection ... and a special. Which is what I opted for ... it was called a Mexican salad:

The salad was composed of fresh greens, radishes, onions, cotjilla cheese and a white balsamic vinaigrette. It was great - and a really good start to the meal - just the perfect size, where I didn't worry that it would fill me up before dinner, but made me satisfied so that if dinner took a while, I wouldn't go all crazy. And frankly, he could have just brought me the two cubes of cheese and I would have been a happy camper, because I love Mexican cheese.

Everyone else enjoyed their salads, so when our main entree arrived, it was not too surprising that we were all once again delighted. I had a roasted sea bass over mashed potatoes topped with pumpkin seed sauce & poblano peppers. If you know me, you know this dish pretty much had me at the pumpkin seed sauce.

The zucchini was an extra special surprise! And now I know that I am going to be grilling up zucchini all summer long. (I also want to give kudos to the waiter, who double-checked that the sauces didn't have gluten in them.) The fish was cooked to perfection and the pumpkin seed sauce was everything I'd hoped for. The peppers didn't add much to the dish (but that is probably because I was so thrilled for the zucchini) but they didn't take anything away from it either. I would say, the dish could have used a little more color, but from a taste perspective ... it was on the mark for sure.

The only true fail of the evening was dessert. They had three desserts, all had gluten - when I asked if I could just get a scoop of ice cream with mangoes (because they had mango salsa on a few items) the waiter told me all the mangoes were in the mango salsas and they didn't have any plain. And I really didn't just want a scoop of ice cream. So I passed on dessert, but the other ladies had some lovely desserts.

So, Med-Mex fusion ... it works!