"I know this awesome little Mexican place in Jumeirah," my friend said.

I was beyond exhausted after spending an entire day at ARTE and needed a place to chill out. She bundled me off to Maria Bonita.

I'd seen this place before, but only when I'd popped in to the café next door (Central Perk, if anyone's interested. Modelled after the awesome TV series FRIENDS, it's missing a Gunther and a Phoebe Buffay belting out Smelly Cat). 

Anyway...Maria Bonita (sorry I do have the habit of rambling).

So the first time I went there, we sat indoors. It's a ramshackle sort of homey place that makes you just want to plop down and never move.

The food helps. They offer nachos and salsa sauce as a starter of sorts. And then you go: munch, munch, munch.

I had cactus for the first time in my life! Cactus? Am i joking? No. Here's a near-faithful recounting of the conversation I had with my friend that night:

Nuts (the friend): "We HAVE to have the cactus salad."
Me: "Eh?"
Nuts: "Yeah it's really good. Healthy too. You'll run to the bathroom afterward."
Me: "Eh?"
Nuts: "It's good for your digestive system?"

Without going into gory details...she was right. It's quite nice (I think) - a cold salad - that does, ahem, clear your digestive system up quickly. Just make sure you eat more than half and you're good to ... errr ... go. It's called Ensalada de Nopales on the menu.

Oh this sounds random (and if you've only just caught on to my randomness...hello, why haven't you read this blog before? It's filled to the brim with awesome randomness; if that's the sort of thing you're into), but I love their menu! It's packaged in the middle of two slabs of wood. Very cute I think.

The chicken jumbo quesadilla was my order both times I've gone till date. Can't go wrong with them one. Cheesy, chicken-y, bread-y goodness. HAPPY DAYS! *cue in Happy Days music*

The second time I went there was at the end of December 2011 with the enigmatic @movie_mafia though this time we sat outside.

While the cactus and quesadilla came back this time, the discovery I made this night was... 

... PASTEL TRES LECHES!

The menu describes it thusly: "Deep moist home-made cake, prepared with three different kinds of cow milk."

Yeah, sorry menu-writer...you did not explain how soft, moist and light this little mound of crustless, sinful cakeyliciousness is. Seriously everyone...this is CAKE. Surprisingly I loved it (can you tell?) despite the lack of chocolate. I'm such a chocolate person but this little plate of heaven wowed me.