Max Sanchez: foodie

One Slurp In… Yep, Instant Fav

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

All aboard!!

Monday, August 09, 2021

I had to make a quick stop at Mexico City and Instagram knew exactly where to send me. Well, it didn’t exactly show me, but it showed my girl and she knows those things that make me easily excited.

By now you should know I love food, and I hope this is the same reason why you read me. But sometimes the place is as exciting as the food served in that place. This time I was more excited for the place than the food, but it was equally delicious.

The place

Located inside “Parque Interlomas” in State of Mexico, we have “Train Bistro”, and as you may imagine from the name, the theme is all about trains!

According to the webpage description, it has the looks of a train station from Europe in the 40s. The whole thing feels as if you were inside a train station, the seats resemble train station benches, some tables made out of luggage. But this isn’t the best part.

What makes this restaurant so cool, and unique in the whole American continent is that it has several computer-controlled trains that go from the kitchen, stretch throughout the whole restaurant, there are five bridges, and the tracks end at each table. Yes, the trains deliver the food.

With that single sentence I was sold and I had the urge to go.

How it works?

There are still waiters in the place, but they will take your order, occasionally ask how everything’s going, and bring those things that a train can’t deliver. Other than that, once you choose what you want to drink and your meal, it’s only a matter of waiting for the train to arrive. It automatically stops at your table, and once everybody takes their dish/drink, it slowly backs up and returns to the kitchen.

What about the food?

The restaurant defines the style as casual gourmet, which basically means: the food you can find in any other regular restaurant, just presented nicely.
For example, for breakfasts, it offers the classics: fruits bowls, pancakes, chilaquiles, enchiladas, bagels, and eggs. For entries, potatoes in different forms, soups and creams, and salads. For the main dish, they have pizzas, sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs.

So, nothing extraordinary or something you may not expect, but still, it’s nicely presented, it has great flavour and feels fresh… and come on, it arrives on a train!

You can check the full menu on their webpage.

What did I have?

This visit we had the “Cubos Mikado” to start, which are a mix of breaded cheeses chipotle mayo and carrots. And as the main dish, I ordered a pulled pork sandwich. And for dessert, a cinnamon roll which comes with red fruits and a chocolate bunny.

Again, nothing too fancy, but it was tasty and fresh. The meat in my sandwich was soft as you might expect from pulled pork.

This place is not really for trying something different, it’s about having a nice experience. I loved the theme and was fascinated by the trains running across the whole place carrying drinks and food, so if you have kids they’ll love this place 100%.

And of course, you can buy train sets before you leave.

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Peanut butter and… beer?

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

You read that right. Peanut butter and beer. Well… more like, peanut butter flavoured beer.

Let me explain.

Before anything else, sorry for being away for months, but the pandemic does not allow going out and explore new places, and there have been a lot of changes around me recently ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

But worry not this blog is not dead, and definitely, ~~thankfully~~ I'm not dead either.

But now that vaccines are rolling out and life seems to slowly get back to "normal", I took a trip to an old favourite BBQ restaurant with my girl.

I like this place because it has the basic BBQ dishes: ribs, pulled pork, BBQ chicken, loaded baked potato…

But today I'm not going to talk about this restaurant or the food.

My girl has built-in like a peanut detector. Saying she loves peanuts is an understatement, and somehow she found the only bottle which read "peanut butter" in a fridge full of different labels and cans, all local and imported beers.

Not gonna lie, the concept looked interesting but we didn't know what to expect.

It does not feel like you're drinking peanut butter. For that matter open a jar of PB and take a spoonful.

That being said, if you like peanuts and PB, you'll love it.

How can I describe it? 🤔🤔

The first thing you taste is the bitterness of beer, a stout dark beer. And then you feel the clear notes of peanut butter.

It is not sweet, obviously, but it leaves a pleasant taste.

I know there are beer purists who do not like combinations like this, and that's ok. I respect you, so pass on this post.

But for the rest who might find this interesting here are the details:

The Brewery: 🍻

Inspecting the label, the company behind this amazing combination is "Belching Beaver" and it is located in Oceanside, CA.

It has 4 locations in San Diego, the main brewery located in Oceanside; a pub called "Pub980" which I'd love to go to; a tasting room in Northpark; and a Tavern&Grill.

All those locations serve Belching Beaver creations.

Beers: 🍺

As of today, I've drunk only the Peanut Butter Milk Stout. And according to the label and their website, this is the beer that put them on the map.

This beer has competed and won in different competitions since 2014.

But this isn't the only option.

They offer a nitro version of the Peanut Butter Milk Stout, which if you don't know what it is, a nitro beer contains 70% nitrogen and 30% carbon dioxide, generating cascading effects and smooth carbonation you can't develop in regular carbon dioxide beer.

Haven't had this one, but should have the same flavour but smoother bubbles.

There is another option, which I'm very much interested in trying. It's called "Viva La Beaver" and its description says it is loaded with notes of creamy peanut butter, cinnamon, Mexican chocolate and coffee.

This one is recommended as a dessert beer (the first time I hear of this term).

There are other more traditional, or should I say, more Californian beer styles like IPAs and Pale Ales, mango or honey wheat flavoured.

And for those looking for lighter drinks, they also have a collection of fruit-flavoured hard seltzers.

The complete list of what they offer, more pictures, and descriptions can be found on their website.

Where to buy?

As long as you are in California, it is not hard to get a pack because they offer delivery straight from their webpage.

If you're outside California or prefer to pick a pack by yourself you can also use the Brew Finder.

This beer is something I did not expect but became one of my favourites.

Definitely, something you can only find in weird Sunny California!

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Round piece of heaven

Sunday, July 19, 2020

chef

Fries? Yeah! Buddha fries

Sunday, May 31, 2020

challenge

Rajitas against boredom!

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Sorry for being away for so long, but as you know, these are strange times.

On the one hand, all restaurants here in San Diego remain with heavy restrictions, and not all offer delivery. Actually, one of my favourite restaurants is entirely closed, no takeout nor delivery. On the other hand, I’m still working at my office; due to the nature of my work, I could not do home-office. Well… the celestial court decided against it, but I’m not going into that discussion. Worry not, I’m taking my precautions, and after work, I head directly to home.

Therefore, I’ve had few chances to continue writing. I haven’t tried new restaurants, or I order my favourites from my regular restaurants, and the point of this blog is to explore new places and dishes, and at this moment it’s kinda tricky.

I also don’t have enough time to cook elaborate stuff. For my lunch, I usually do quick and easy stuff. Sometimes I even cheat a little and buy pre-cooked food ready to just heat.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy cooking. This is why this weekend I set myself the mission to prepare something good.

What you will need

I’ve been craving some rajas con queso for a while, so, why not do them myself? They’re delicious and easy to prepare. And yeah, it's a Mexican dish.

Just a side note before I continue: I’m working with what I currently have. If you search for other recipes or pics, you’ll see them differently. Still, while I know the recipe I used today is not perfect and definitely not the classic one, it distracted me for a while, and it was delicious.

That being said, the essential ingredients are:

Chile Poblano
Onion
Garlic
Cheese
Cream
Corn

Chilito poblano 👌

That’s it! Nothing too hard to find. Unfortunately, I do not have corn or cream, but it’s still a pretty tasty dish.

Hands-on!

The first step is to roast the chiles. Make sure not to overburn them, but the whole surface needs to be well roasted.

The next step is crucial: Once they’re entirely roasted wrap them in a towel and put them inside a closed plastic bag for at least 10 minutes. This is for the chiles to “sweat”, and it will then be easier to peel the outer skin.

Note: Sure, you can make the rajas without peeling them, a coworker of mine does it like this, but trust me, peeling them make them way better.

After roughly 10 minutes, you can take them out of the bag and peel them completely.

Once ready, it’s moment to cut them into rajas! “Rajas” translates to slices (that’s why it’s rajas con queso, it literally means slices [of chile] with cheese). In this step, you should also cut the onion in smaller slices. Again, in my case, I don’t have fresh onions, so I had to use dehydrated chopped onions, not ideal, but better than nothing.

Once it’s all cut, put the rajas, onions, garlic, and corn along with a bit of olive oil, and salt it as desired on a skillet. All vegetables need to be fully cooked before you add the cream and/or cheese.

Once the rajas are tender, lower the heat and add the cream. Stir until it’s well blended, and finally turn off the heat and add the cheese. The recommended cheeses are asadero, Oaxaca, manchego or jack. Your choice. Today, I used jack cheese. Again, stir until it’s blended.

And now the best part… serve and enjoy!

Conclusion

During these times, if you don’t have much to do, take a moment to cook something, it can be relaxing and/or can be a new skill. Like this, there are tons of easy and delicious recipes to try. You can even create something new.
Don’t worry about the result. I have to admit that at first, I thought to skip this entry because I didn’t have all the ingredients and does not look like the traditional rajas con crema y queso. But I really enjoyed the process, it definitely looks tasty, and yeah, it was. And I needed an excuse to write 😉.

Be safe, get creative, and Bon appetite!

Follow @MXBS13