Serg's Mexican Kitchen - Manoa

Inspired by my friend, Fashionably Forward Foodie, I decided to start documenting my eating adventures.  My first stop on this journey was one of her recommendations, Serg's Mexican Kitchen in Manoa.  I pass this hole in a part-of-a-closed-down-gas-station fairly frequently, either on my way to the Manoa Marketplace, Andy's Sandwiches or when I eat right across the street at Asia Manoa...  I've never ever had the inkling to stop and try it out until reading about it in her blog the other night. 

Luckily for us, it happened to be a pretty cool and sunny day with the tradewinds blowing just enough to keep the heat down.  All of the seating at Serg's is out doors where the gas pumps used to be.  F3 had recommended the beef flauta in her blog but I opted for the pork carnitas with beans and rice.  What was set before me was better than I expected although not a perfect plate of food.  The carnitas were flavorful but a little on the drier side for me.  The rice was a little mushy and the beans were lacking a little salt but on the whole, not bad for being hidden 5 minutes from my work. 

Carnitas with rice and black beans...

*** rant mode on ***  One of my biggest peeves about Mexican restaurants is when they only serve pinto beans and no black beans for refried beans.  The other peeve is that some restaurants over process the beans so there is no semblance of a bean anywhere to be found on your plate.  *** rant mode off ***  Happily Serg's served black beans as their side... sadly they were over processed and looked like a slop of black paste tucked in a corner of the plate. 

There was one redeeming quality about Serg's that I found to be very tasty.  Along the counter Serg's has a variety of freshly made salsas which I had to sample.  I don't believe in mild salsas so I hit the three hottest to smother my carnitas in.  The avocado salsa was my favorite, followed by the spicy tomatillo and the chipotle-hot.  The avocado and tomatillo reminded me of my friends from Northern Mexico, heavy on the lime and cilantro.  As salsas they were very tasty but mixed together, they were wonderful.  

Co-Workers Beef Chimichanga

While I was sitting there trying to blog my experience I got a phone call.   Apparently the Blogger App for Droid doesn't save your work when you get phonecalls thus the lack of pictures and details about the food.  Luckily some of the photos were on my phone so I was able to upload them to this blog.  I promise the next blog will be better... I hope...