Monoloco, Palace and Cook & Relax

So this has been a really fun week for food! While we are going through a bit of car trouble (if it's not one thing, it's another!) We have had the opportunity to get some really good eats going on.

On Sunday we joined our good friend Mario Chang who was singing a concert in the prestigious Hotel Casa Santo Domingo (where the awesome chef Mario Campollo works). Unfortunately none of us had the budget to sample those delicacies so we moseyed on over to Monoloco afterwards.

After digging in to the gigantic pile of nachos with cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, tomato and beans we dove into the chicken, mushroom and artichoke pizza which really blew me away. I always hear people talking about the nachos but, I have to say, the pizza is by far the best thing we had. I don't know that I would venture to say it's the BEST pizza I ever had, but I can confidently say that it is certainly up there.

Since we had such a great Sunday, we didn't buy groceries so on Monday I went and got some hamburgers for Del Puente but traffic was much lighter than usual so I got a chance to drop in on Chef Juan Manuel Rossi at Cook & Relax. He was featured in an article from the fine folks at GuateDining back in January.

So as we sat down to chat, he pulled up a couple of plates with some of their latest foods including some delicious cous cous with grilled vegetables, rehydrated polenta with bacon and some camote in a cinnamon syrup which was quite a fun mouthful. We'll be going to a class with him today so next week I'll be sure to have some pictures of what's going on in the kitchen.

So as I mentioned, our lack of groceries has had us eating out quite a bit this week. Yesterday, my friend Charlie Quan joined me to go snatch a bit of the famous Pricemart Pizza. Before trying it, I never would have given it a second thought but it’s interestingly quite justified in its reputation! We decided to go for the Pepperoni Calzone which, despite the dripping of grease, was so good I almost didn’t get a chance to snap this picture. It was pretty much gone in no time at all.

So for those of you who have been a bit shy to try it, I say go for it! My only recommendation is, ask for a fresh batch because they’re best when they’re straight out of the oven and into my mouth.

There is another place that I’ve been dying to go to and was finally met this week. The Palace in Z. 4 is a very clean, well kept, vintage looking restaurant. We had a Volovant with a delicious creamy sauce (I had chicken, Susan had mushroom). It was warm and fluffy and everything nice. I was almost sad to see it gone and was strongly tempted to get another but decided against it for the sake of my waistline.

So that’s what I’ve got so far this week, stay tuned because today we have another cooking class, tomorrow a Father’s Day lunch and on Sunday we’re going to check out a Vineyard outside of Antigua which seems very promising.