After our trip to Regent Square for the Square Cafe, DB~ and I went to one of our favorite spots in the city, the Strip District. We didn't really have anything in particular that we wanted to shop for; we weren't playing on eating at home that Saturday night. It was just kind of a "wander around and see what strikes us" kind of day.
We got there at 2 pm, way later than we usually arrive, but it still was pretty busy on the streets. I was lucky enough to find a parking spot right on Penn, mid-zone in the heart of all the action. We headed south towards the City and went into Mancini's to pick up some rolls for family dinner on Sunday night and got a loaf of tomato-basil bread for my parents.
Next we went to Wholey's and bought a 2 lb bag of mussels for us to eat on Tuesday night and 1-1/2 pounds of shrimp for Sunday's family dinner (I was making shrimp etoufee for 9 people). After sampling some of the sublime lobster bisque and bought some cinnamon rice cakes, we left Wholey's.
A stop at Penn Mac is a must, but at the cheese counter we only bought some fresh Mozzarella for salads. We got a few other small items here, too. After getting a street egg roll from my favorite Asian trailer, we got some popcorn at Pittsburgh Popcorn (kettle for DB~'s mom, peanut butter and chocolate for mine).
The skies were starting to cry tears upon the denizens of Pittsburgh frequenting the Strip District, so we had to accelerate our shopping experience. We breezed through DB~'s favorite stores, Hot Haute Hot and Roxanne's Dried Flowers, and started to head back to the car.
I had to get a street taco at Reyna's outside their store. Reyna's has 2 ladies operating a flat top griddle to heat the meats and warm the tortillas. The tacos are topped with a mix of onions, lettuce, and fresh cilantro, with each placed in their own individual paper cartons to eat. You have your choice of 4 different salsas -- verde, chipotle, adobo, mild -- to top your own taco.
The women speak little to no English, so a young girl is there to take your order and relay it to the cooks. I had the special lamb taco while DB~ had a chicken taco. Each taco is $3, with two tacos costing $5 (but the lamb wasn't subject to this discount).
What you see above is the remnants of the cartons after we got home. Due to the rain, we hurried back to the car and ate them in the car. However, someone wanted our parking spot, so I had to pull around the block and hurriedly eat mine before traffic got thick again. No time to take a picture pre-eat.
If you go to the Strip, save some room for this delectable little slice of Mexico. It's like you're in Tijuana, minus the drunken college girls from San Diego, prevalent gang violence, and donkey shows.
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