Andes Cafe - Houston

[brucesw]

I have been wanting to go to David Guerrero's Andes Cafe ever since it opened.  We were exploring Mexican cocteles de camarones, campechanas and vuelve a la vida cocteles last month as a Dish of the Month feature on another board and I had to step outside the lines a couple of times.

 

 

 

This is the Ecuadorian version of a coctel de camarones - poached shrimp marinated in lime juice and sour orange, ketchup and mustard, with pickled red onions, tomatoes, cilantro and olive oil, served chilled.  Sour orange definitely has a place in a shrimp cocktail and this was very good but very, very tart.  A Mexican coctel, like a shrimp cocktail north of the border, is typically served with saltines and that would have been helpful here.

 

 

The accompaniments were popcorn, chifles, the Ecuadorian term for thin plantain chips, and toasted corn.

 

 

I also had the Tamal de mi Abuelita - a steamed rice and potato dough tamal stuffed with shredded chicken, egg, olives and raisins, wrapped in banana leaves.  It was served with Tomate de Arbol - a tomarillo aji sauce.

 

I've had some great tamales in Houston, Tex-Mex, Mexican, Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan, Cuban - this was interesting.  It wasn't bad but wasn't great, either.

 

For dessert I had the Pionono - a Peruvian cake roll with Dulce de Leche.  I had passed on the same dessert at a Peruvian restaurant the previous evening and couldn't resist the temptation again but didn't read the menu carefully enough.  The other restaurant described it as a sponge cake roll; this one was closer in texture to a pound cake and it was very heavy, more than I wanted.  It was also cold, right out of a refrigerated case, and I didn't have time to let it come to a more palatable temperature.  It was a disappointment.  I should have asked them to box it up to go.

 

A few years back I was really into Central and South American cuisines, eating at restaurants representing every nationality I could find here, and there basically isn't anything on the menu here I wouldn't like to try, so I will be returning.  Guerrero himself is from Ecuador but true to it's name, the restaurant's menu features dishes from 7 different South American countries.  But there may be a little bit of a bias in favor of Ecuador...

 

 

Andes Cafe

[Jaymes]

Wonderful report, Bruce.  I'm definitely going to check that out, and sooner rather than later.  Thanks.

[brucesw]

I think you'll like it.  I liked the room, too.

 

Easy to find, just a half-block from Alamo Tamales.

[brucesw]

Chef Guerrero is now serving cuy.  I think I had read he was planning on doing this.  I have to make some reservations.