de Cafe

[Bloo Pynt]

A recent restaurant inspection:

DE CAFE INC
4842 BROADWAY, MANHATTAN 10034
Violation points: 34
Inspection Date: 03/19/2008

It's hard to believe they were inspected so soon after opening, but there you have it. (Unless they've been open longer than we thought, and nobody on the board had discovered them yet.)

[indianrd]

Went this morning. So good. Nice big mugs and excellent cappuccinos. My wife thought it was one of the best she has ever had. Great presentation. I also got the Cuban. The roast pork was excellent. Yummy fresh orange juice. I give it an A

[CalBear]

Sadly the "Meatloaf Wrap" seems to have morphed into Meatlovers' Wrap, but the California Wrap was an excellent alternative.  Huge, tasty, with great avocados and grilled chicken - I'm a fan.

Very friendly, and a nice space, but I could see that they might need a little more time to get stuff hammered out - I bet that might be behind some of the violations. 

Go de Cafe!

[chunchmeow]

it was a meatlovers wrap when i went??

[biancamom]

Our family went today and our coffee was excellent.

Staff was super friendly. My kids had  lemonade and a muffin. Love the decor, the couches, etc.

Thumbs up!

[BillLaimbeer]

Wow, I'm glad people are digging this place as much as I did.  For a place that just opened, they are pretty good.

[CalBear]

Apologies to Chunchmeow - clearly it was just my own wishful thinking that someone would develop a "Meatloaf Wrap."

I will continue to wish on falling stars.

[23 yrs in Inwood (aka 18, etc.)]

There's a "Meatloaf" thread on the Our Favorite Recipes board:
http://www.washington-heights.us/yabbse/index.php?topic=2926.0

So maybe you could devise your own meatloaf wrap.

(And somebody please explain to me the appeal of uncooked tortillas!).

[HeightsMike]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_Tf2lQvDz0

[23 yrs in Inwood (aka 18, etc.)]

Mr. Loaf is still dining out on that song.

[23 yrs in Inwood (aka 18, etc.)]

(By the way, the phrase "I'm too hoarse" probably doesn't belong in any song lyric -- unless the singer is named Janis.)

[Bloo Pynt]

Okay, that's a wrap.   

[23 yrs in Inwood (aka 18, etc.)]

There's a "Meatloaf" thread on the Our Favorite Recipes board:
http://www.washington-heights.us/yabbse/index.php?topic=2926.0

So maybe you could devise your own meatloaf wrap.

(And somebody please explain to me the appeal of uncooked tortillas!).

Full disclosure:

I contributed recipes to the Wrap Wrecipes thread myself:
http://www.washington-heights.us/yabbse/index.php?topic=3513.msg39803#msg39803

But I find the tortilla as a wrapper to be far and away the least interesting part of any wrap.  They seem to function much more as a vehicle or delivery device for their contents, rather than as an enjoyable element in their own right.  (Plus, if you check the Nutrition Facts on the tortilla packages, you will see that they are extraordinarily high in sodium.)


***

As for making Meatloaf Wraps, I am thinking that one might make a somewhat loose meatloaf, and use the leftovers to make something like Meatloaf Enchiladas.  I think corn tortillas would definitely be the way to go (not flour tortillas), and maybe a can of Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce could be half-Americanized -- for the sake of the meatloaf -- by the addition of some ketchup.





Additional fillings for the meatloaf wraps might include a strip of cooked bacon, or maybe crumbled bacon, or a tiny amount of a meltable cheese, or refried beans.  After heating in the oven (generously doused with enchilada sauce and sprinkled with some grated cheese and a few cross-sections of fresh jalapenos), they could be served on a bed of shredded iceberg (not ice cold, though) with a drizzling of Mexican crema (a sort of pourable sour cream, available in local supermarkets in the dairy section), with some refried beans and/or (real) saffron rice on the side.


***


SAFFRON RICE

Buy a tiny package of Badia saffron (azafran) from Spain (below, right):



Making saffron rice is very much like making white rice, so start with your normal procedures for that (usually 1 cup of dried rice to two cups of water, or thereabouts, depending on the brand or variety), except start with cold water in your pan, and put the saffron in the cold water before you bring it to a boil so that it has a chance to color and flavor the water before the addition of the rice.  (The saffrony water will be ready as soon as it boils -- there's no need to let the water boil for additional minutes.)  Then just leave the saffron in the water (and in the rice), and cook as usual.

Note:  These little packages of Badia saffron are designed to hang on pegs in the Badia spice sections of supermarkets.  In Inwood, however, the Badia spice sections of both the Fine Fare and C-Town supermarkets have been revamped, eliminating the pegs altogether.  The saffron disappeared at the same time.  However, the C-Town in Marble Hill (on Broadway at 228th Street) still had Badia saffron hanging on pegs the last time I looked.

There are other brands and sources of saffron, of course.  If you happen to see much less expensive Mexican saffron, you should try it.  Its flavor is a little different, though, and -- to make an analogy -- more like a jug wine than a fine vintage wine.

[Bloo Pynt]

Suppose someone just wants plain old meatloaf without all the Mexican touches? I would think pita bread would be a good wrapper for that.

[23 yrs in Inwood (aka 18, etc.)]

Suppose someone just wants plain old meatloaf without all the Mexican touches? I would think pita bread would be a good wrapper for that.

Yes -- unless the meatloaf is of the "dry" variety.  In that case, combining it with a pita (often dry-ish in its own right), could turn the meal into a choke-fest!  Adding some ketchup and a slice of sweet onion might help.

Or take a big leaf of iceberg, and put a slice of meatloaf, some ketchup (or an English style chili sauce, like Heinz's), and a slice of onion on it.  Then wrap the lettuce leaf around it as a sort of damp-proofing measure, and put the whole affair between two slices of your favorite sandwich bread, or into a sliced bread roll, and turn it into a regular sandwich.