{Wild Donkey Cafe}

Photo from thewilddonkeycafe.com

The Wild Donkey Cafe is another somewhat new restaurant in downtown San Luis Obispo specializing in Mexican and Greek food. Odd combination, right? On the menu, the owner explains that since the two cuisines have similar uses of ingredients and methods of cooking, they thought it would be a natural evolution to start a restaurant serving the two. And since they’re two of my favorite types of food, I was pretty excited when I heard about The Wild Donkey’s unique menu!

The restaurant opened about a year ago, but Jeff and I just had a chance to go check it out a few weeks ago to celebrate the end of our quarter and of my student teaching. Going in, I knew it was going to be a difficult decision: Mexican or Greek? It took be about 25 minutes (over a glass of wine, of course!) to decide but eventually I was tempted by their vegetarian soup special: lentil soup with a tomato broth (don’t judge!). The soup was one of the best I’ve ever had in a restaurant–not too salty and full of flavor. Sorry for the dark photos–they had their mood lighting in full effect!

I also ordered a side of pita bread with Melitzanosalata–an eggplant and tomato pureed dip. This stuff is addicting–now I really want to try to make it next time we get eggplant in our CSA box!

Jeff also ordered a special–their pastistio. Pastistio is a Greek baked pasta/lasagna dish with elbow macaroni, ground lamb, tomato, egg, cheese, and cinnamon. I don’t eat lamb, but Jeff assured me it was delicious!

For dessert, we shared the cinnamon ice cream and a side of baklava and it was seriously the best dessert I’ve had in a long time.

The restaurant itself is pretty tiny, but has a great cozy feel and friendly, quick service.

We will definitely be back soon! You can check out more about The Wild Donkey Cafe here.

{2 Bean Tostadas}

Jeff was out of town all day yesterday and asked, er demanded, that dinner be ready when he got home at 6. So at about 5:30, I looked in our fridge to find some dinner inspiration and ultimately, decided to make tostadas! To those of you who know me, this probably isn’t a huge surprise, since I pretty much always make Mexican food when I have free reign of the kitchen!

I experimented a bit by frying just some refrieds and cheddar cheese in between two corn tortillas before adding more toppings and baking the entire tostada for about 5 minutes. Not gonna lie, this is a pretty filling meal–so come hungry!

PS–I just made a little more of this salsa and it was the perfect addition to the tostadas!

2 Bean Tostadas Recipe
Serves 2

Print recipe!

Ingredients:

4 yellow corn tortillas
3/4 cup cheddar cheese, packed
1/4 can refried beans
1 can black beans
1 ear fresh corn
1/4 red onion, chopped
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
1/2 ripe tomato, chopped
1 jalepeno, seeded and chopped
1 avocado, sliced
Cilantro, for garnish
Olive oil, for frying

Steps:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Add about 1 tablespoon oil to large pan on high heat.

Divide refried beans and half of cheese onto 2 tortillas. Place additional tortilla on top.

Fry each tortilla sandwich for about 2 minutes on each side, until lightly browned, and place on baking sheet.

Divide black beans, remaining cheese, corn, red onion, and jalepeno onto each tortilla.

Place in oven and bake for about 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Add tomato, green onion, cilantro, and avocado to top of each tostado.

Add salsa, if you wish, and serve.

After frying and Before Baking:

Enjoy!

What’s your go to quick meal?