Thursday night at Food 4 Less.

New Year’s Breakfast at the Ace Hotel:

I stayed at the Ace Hotel while in Palm Springs. They set it up like a resort with a pool, spa, and restaurant, but in what looks like an old motor lodge. The hotel’s restaurant, King’s Highway, is also responsible for room service, poolside service, and food at the bar.

We had breakfast on New Year’s morning at the packed King’s Highway. Stumptown Roaster’s is the coffee of choice at all Ace Hotels and it is some of the best around. My breakfast beverages were a medium sized french press of Stumptown, a fresh squeezed orange juice, and a bloody mary. I forgot to order the bloody mary spicy, but it still tasted pretty good. I managed to snag the last bite of someone’s coconut bread french toast. I am firm believer that coconut makes everything taste better but the french toast was a little dry. I would never order their french toast as my main breakfast entree. I ordered the chilaquiles with chorizo as my main breakfast entree, but unfortunately they were out of chorizo. I asked our waiter three separate times if he had found any more chorizo but he just didn’t seem up to the task of finding me more. The chilaquiles were good and the chorizo would have made them great. The prices at King’s Highway are very reasonable and if you are staying at the hotel I don’t see any reason to go elsewhere for breakfast. This obviously would please the hotel because they don’t want your money going anywhere else, so to that end the hotel is winning.

I went on a class trip to Spain in eighth grade and the lady who organized the trip decided that our American palettes were not going to be be able to handle the local cuisine so every where we went the hotels cooked “American” food for us. It was a total bummer and really cheated us of the full experience. I would use our free time to roam the city at various tapas bars. I fell in love with tortilla and the cured meats.

I was riding my bike past D’Espana on Thursday and decided I would get some tapas. I had not ate all day, but I needed something small because I was going to be eating dinner in a few hours. Normally, I go to D’Espana when it’s crowded because I can eat all their free samples and walk right out but on this occasion I was the only in the store so my cover was blown.

The first picture is of El Quijote. A few slices of dry cured pork loin, manchego cheese, sweet quince cream, and olive oil on a slice of baguette. Manchego is good with any kind of sweet conidment be it honey or quince cream and the pork added just the right saltiness. Well done D’Espana.

The second photo is the Tortilla D’Espana. They take a normal tortilla of eggs and potatoes and add chorizo and green pepper. The chorizo and green pepper added a nice flavor to the standard tortilla. In Spain I never came across tortilla with anything other than eggs and potatoes and being a fan of anything pork the version I ate at D’Espana was excellent.

I heard that D’Espana will be expanding into the storefront next door which used to be occupied by Calypso Home. They will be adding seats and expanding it into more of a restaurant. Hopefully you will be able to get some sherry when they do this and it will encompass the full tapas bar experience.

As far as breakfast in New York goes things can get pricey. I was alone on Wednesday afternoon and needed to eat something in the Soho/Nolita area. My favorite place to eat in this neighborhood is Mott Corner but I do not allow myself to eat the first meal of the day there.  The Mexican side of me one me over and I had to choose between La Esquina or Pinche. I chose a taco and tamale at Pinche. At least I thought I chose two tacos at Pinche. I ordered an Al Pastor taco and jalapeno and cheese tamale only to change my mind as the clerk was giving my order to the chef. Normally this is a risky move because you might offend the staff but the dudes at Pinche were cool. The breakfast menu on the wall to the right caught my eye. The price for everything was $5.65 which included an entree and a side of rice and beans. I was about to spend over seven dollars on a taco and a tamale. I asked the clerk what the best breakfast was and he said chorizo and eggs so I took his advice and ordered that. From the photo you can see my meal also came with two tortillas. Essentially I beat Pinche because I got two chorizo and eggs tacos plus rice and beans which if ordered as not part of the breakfast special would have cost me over ten dollars. The food was good and truthfully a deal always taste better.