State-by-State Redux: III of X - The Pacific West Revisited - A little kimchi with your tacos?

The next several posts deal with different American regions or subcultures, and for my first one we hit the Pacific Rim.  For this, as for the following eight posts, I wanted to capture some of the essence of the region with a classic recipe or else a recipe done in the spirit of this part of the country.  For the Pacific States, I'm going with the latter, and getting all fusion-y.

Snacking State-by-State Redux III of X: The Pacific States

What are the Pacific States?: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington
Important Cities: Anchorage, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle
Regions and Subregions: West, Pacific (Northwest; California; Polynesia); Pacific (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Acorn (coastal California and Baja California), Chile Pepper (southeastern California and the Baja California peninsula), Pinyon Nut (interior California and southeastern Oregon), Salmon (northern California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and British Columbia), Taro (Hawaii),
Foods the Region is Best Known For: fusion foods; Asian American, Mexican and Native American, Alaskan & Hawaiian influences; seafood, especially salmon, halibut, cod, mahi mahi, Dungeness crab, snow crab, Alaskan king crab, scallops; pork and Spam (Hawaii); agribusiness, including grapes for wine; apples, blackberries; hazelnuts (Northwest) and macadamia nuts (Hawaii)

- - - - -

Fusion cuisine is big along much of the West Coast, a place where people of many different cultural backgrounds mesh together.  What I decided to make was a taco (Mexican), but I'm not stopping there: a salmon (Northwest Coast) tempura (Japanese) and kimchi (Korean) fish taco (California and Baja California), all topped with a chipotle (Mexican) and wasabi (Japanese) mayonnaise.  This was my first time making tempura, not counting that one time I used a box mix which did not go so well.  This time it was ridiculously easy.  In fact, every component was easy, even the kimchi.  It's just that this last part took the longest.

Though the idea for this taco is my own, the various recipes are not.  The sources are listed as I go.

The Recipe: Kimchi and Salmon Tempura Fish Tacos with Chipotle-Wasabi Mayonnaise

First, we make the kimchi, and then the salmon tempura and mayo.

The Recipe: Cabbage Kimchi

I have always wanted to make kimchi.  I love the stuff.  But up until now I haven't really given myself a reason to do so.  Since Korean food is becoming more and more popular in the US by the day, we are seeing more and more Korean cookbooks and recipes online, in the bookstores and in the libraries.  I got a few out and settled on a simple recipe by Taekyung Chung, co-author with Debra Samuels of The Korean Table: From Barbecue to Bibimbap [2008].  Chung and Samuels have a simple kimchi paste and an even simpler kimchi - though this one is not a kimchi that will last more than a couple of weeks, as the authors note.  The simple kimchi paste can be found on page XX of the cookbook, and how to use it on a simple head of green cabbage is on page XX.  Or just go to The Splendid Table website [2008], where Chung and Samuels shared both the kimchi paste and cabbage kimchi recipes with Lynn Rosetto-Kasper

For the kimchi paste, assemble the following:

* Korean coarse red pepper flakes (I bought this for about $4 at H Mart, which has an unsurprisingly wide variety of Korean coarse red pepper flakes - many specifically labelled "for kimchi".  Chung notes that this is one of the ingredients that cannot be swapped out if you can't find it.  Just get on the internet and order some if you can't get it locally)
* fine-grain sea salt (oops, when I was at H Mart I got the coarse grained kind, for about $4, so I took a mortar and pestle to it - or just use kosher salt.  That I should have done)
* garlic paste (I bought this at Trader Joe's for about $3)
* ginger (from the previous Hawaiian recipes)
* sugar (had it)
* oyster sauce (I needed a new bottle, which I picked up at H Mart for about $3)
* fish sauce (Korean chefs typically use a Korean anchovy sauce instead, but the authors recommend fish sauce since it's easier to find here)
* water (had that of course)

As for the kimchi, add that paste to:

* green cabbage (I did half a recipe so I used half a head of cabbage.  Picked up the cabbage at Wegman's for about $1)
* more water
* more sea salt
* chives (I had just enough left over from a previous Washington recipe)

Also you will need a few gallon-sized ziplocked bags in which to let the kimchi ferment.  Finally, it is very helpful to have a pair of latex gloves to wear while mixing the kimchi paste into the cabbage.  We will be doing this with our hands.

First, cut up your cabbage into smallish, bite-sized pieces, and place in a very large bowl (in this case, I used a massive stoneware casserole dish.  It was the largest thing I had on hand).

Pour water over the cabbage.

Then the sea salt.

Now, work it all together with your fingers.  Let it sit for a few hours.

In the meantime, make your kimchi paste.  Start with the Korean coarse red pepper flakes.

Add to that your water...

...garlic paste and ginger...

...and the rest of your ingredients, stirring as you go.

Mix everything together.

Keep most of it in the fridge.  It'll keep for a few months, according to Chung and Samuels.

When ready to make your cabbage into kimchi, drain the cabbage in a colander.

Return it to your bowl and mix the kimchi paste into it, this time wearing kitchen gloves.  Unless, of course, you like having burning, throbbing, kimchi paste colored hands.  Just sayin'.

Work that kimchi paste in there.

Next, scoop the kimchi into a large zip locking bag.

Squeeze as much of the air out as possible.  Best to just slowly roll the contents towards the opening to do so.

Zip lock it up and store in the fridge, turning your kimchi flavored cabbage into actual kimchi...

...which will take at least 24 hours.

This delicious, crunchy kimchi - which really does taste like what I've gotten so often in many Korean restaurants - is the most complicated step in these tacos.  And to further note: the more it aged the more complex of a flavor it had (up to that two week threshold when it just started looking slimy).  The rest is relatively easy.  To wit.

The Recipe: Salmon Tempura (for Kimchi and Salmon Tempura Fish Tacos)

I also found more than a few salmon tempura recipes online.  The only problem: most of those involved wrapping the salmon in nori.  I have leftover nori, but I didn't want to use this.  I just wanted to take strips of salmon and fry it, tempura-style.  For this, I turned to Emi Kazuko's gorgeous - and spiral-bound (why aren't more cookbooks made that way?  It's so easy to keep them open) Easy Japanese Cookbook [2008].  Her basic tempura recipe on page 135 of her book is not salmon-specific, but that's okay - I found several sources that said you must cut the salmon into thin strips in order to tempura fry it with the most successful results.  Kazuko's batter worked beautifully for me, in large part because I followed this simple instruction from her:

The key to the success of tempura lies in a golden, crisp batter and timing.  For a light batter, even the flour should be chilled (ideally overnight), and tempura should be eaten immediately after frying [Kazuko 2008: 135]

I never would have thought to chill the flour before this.  And make sure any water you use in making the batter is also freezing cold: dump a bunch of ice cubes into it and let that sit for a little while, until the cubes are melted but the water is still freezing.  Or just put a bowl of water into the fridge for a while, or the freezer for a short amount of time.

Assemble the following for your salmon tempura:

for the tempura:

* flour (had it)
* egg yolks (not the whites, just the yolks)
* ice water (yes I had this too)
* salmon (cut into thin strips - I bought this frozen cheap at Trader Joe's for about $9 per lb, and thawed it out overnight.  I used half of it for this, the other half for some spur of the moment gravlax.  Because I can.)
* oil for deep frying (not pictured - I used rice bran oil in this case, but use any oil with a high smoke point, like peanut oil or, again, the much harder to find rice bran oil - $11 for a 2 L jug of the stuff at H Mart)

for the tacos, you need the above tempura-fried salmon, plus

* your kimchi (freshly made)
* cilantro ($2 per bunch)
* corn tortillas (had those too)

And your chipotle-wasabi mayonnaise, comprised of:

* chipotle peppers (a little over $1 for the can)
* wasabi powder or paste (had powdered on hand)
* sesame oil (had it)
* soy sauce (had it too)
* mayonnaise (I used the Duke's low fat mayo that I had in the fridge)
* lemon juice (had a lemon I zested for an earlier recipe)

Cut your salmon into strips, preferably with the grain.

Plop those egg yolks into your ice water.

Add your flour and stir, making sure it is still lumpy when you're finished.

Dredge your salmon strips in a little more flour...

...and then dip them into your batter.

Gingerly slide them into hot oil for deep-frying (about 350° to 375°F).

Let fry for about two to three minutes.

Drain on paper towels, and try - just try - to avoid eating them all before they're even cool. This recipe was almost ruined because I struggled not to eat half of the tempura while it was still on the towel.

For the wasabi-chipotle mayonnaise, I found a few good recipes online.  The one I ended up using was this one from Hawaii News Now [date unknown].  Their "chipotle-wasabi aioli" is an accompaniment to some ahi tuna flautas, which I did not make.  The flautas, I mean.

Throw all the ingredients into a blender or food processor...

...and blend or process together.

Assembling these tacos is the easy part - even slightly easier than eating them, as I found out.

Take a warm corn tortilla (I love eating warm corn tortillas about as much as I loathe eating cold ones).

Put a generous dollop of kimchi in the center.

Then put a few pieces of tempura on top of that.

Add your mayo and cilantro.

This is a recipe that turned out so well in the end.  The crunchy tempura coating around the soft salmon, cradled on top of that even crunchier kimchi, covered in chipotle and wasabi and a few leaves of cilantro on top, and this is just heavenly.  I don't use that term often, because it's overused and kind of trite.  But in this case, it is fitting.  It's heavenly, dammit!

- - - - -

Next we head further east as we hit the Rockies, the Continental Divide and next time zone on the continent.  Instead of separately tackling the Southwest (Tex Mex and/or New Mexican) and the Mountain West (Big Sky and the Rockies, some of which overlaps with the Southwest), I am looking at them together.  Next week, I show my attempt at reconciling the different foods of the Mountain States.

Sources:

Chung, Taekyung, and Debra Samuels.  The Korean Table: From Barbecue to Bibimbap.  Tuttle Publishing: North Clarendon, Vermont, 2008.

Hawaii News Now (HawaiiNewsNow.com).  "Ahi Flautas with Chipotle Wasabi Aioli".  Date unknown.  Copyright 2000-2012 WorldNow and KHNL, a Raycom Media Station.  All rights reserved.

Kazuko, Emi.  Easy Japanese Cookbook: The Step-by-Step Guide to Deliciously Easy Japanese Food at Home.  Duncan Baird Publishers: London, England, UK, 2008.

Some information also obtained from the Food Timeline State Foods webpage.

Random Bites: December Edition

I haven't had a lot of time (damn, do I type that a lot) to write about places I've been eating at lately.  A few brief notes about what I've been eating outside of my kitchen, apart from the quick rush to the local Wawa, Wegman's or Harris Teeter.

* Heavy Seas Ale House (Little Italy) - I love brewpubs.  It's why I head first thing to the Dogfish one every time I hit up Rehoboth Beach.  Baltimore has a few good ones as well.  The Heavy Seas Ale House in Little Italy was able to seat me relatively quickly (then again, I typically go to these places by myself, so I can come and go as I please).  Most every ARRRRRR'-tinged beer that Heavy Seas currently has is on tap.  I had the very nicely hoppy Loose Cannon American Hop3 IPA (7.5% ABV) with my hamburger: the juicy Heavy Seas Burger & Fries ($13) covered in onion straws (or "peg legs").  Somewhat surprising was the Earl Grey Crème Brûlée ($7) with delicious spice cookies.  Hoppy beers, juicy burgers and crème brûlée are three of the things I like to eat / drink the most.  Even more convenient: Heavy Seas is right across from the Little Italy parking garage - the one that costs $3 to park.

* Birroteca (Hampden, hon) - A new but very atypical Italian restaurant in Hampden, along Clipper Mill Road with ample parking, is Birroteca (City Paper story here).  The place touts its "Craft Beer, Wine and Artisan Pizza" and I'm sure it excels in all of these, but it has much more as I found out this past weekend.  Especially of note: Birroteca is a restaurant that features local foods when they can, something I am planning to do more in my kitchen in the new year.  They have lots of craft brews (no Bud or Miller, or at least that I could tell.  I wasn't looking for that), and I got there Friday evening while Evolution Craft Brews were still offered for happy hour prices (score!).  They also have several other area craft brews, including the aforementioned Heavy Seas.  The beer I enjoyed the most was the one that was not offered at happy hour prices, the Evolution Lot #6 DIPA ($7.50, with the rest of the Evolutions half off at just $3).  Again, I like the hoppy beers. Along with that I got a bevy of finger foods: bread with olive oil and sea salt ($2), a bowl of olives ($3) and my main dish, the salumi and cheese plate (three choices for $11 - I had the chef choose).   The best part was that I got there while there was still seating at the bar, so no waiting for a table for me!  That's another plus to flying solo.

* Nando's Peri-Peri (Pentagon Row, Arlington, VA, and various locations in the DC area) - I've not been to Nando's before, though I see it often when I'm in the DC/NoVA area.  The Johannesburg (yes, South Africa)-based Mozambican-Portuguese hot chicken chain has several stores in the DC area, and apparently one is opening near the UB campus up our way (H/T: MinxEats' Kathy Patterson).  I'm not sure if this is the area's first South African chain (probably is),, but it's definitely the first Mozambican-Portuguese-themed restaurant.  For those of us not in the know: Nando's specializes in chicken, ranging from lime to extra hot.  You can order anything from a quarter breast-wing or leg-thigh to a whole chicken, and various sides.  I got the quarter leg-thigh, hot - one shy of their hottest possible temp - plus two sides (about $9), in this case fries with "Nando" spices and garlic bread made from a thick, soft Portuguese roll.  While the chicken was not unbearably hot for me, it was indeed hot, and people who don't like "hot" food will probably want something a bit less picante.

* R&R Taquería (Elkridge/Jessup) - For the recent turning of the b'ak'tun - the alleged End Of The World (TM) that everyone but the Maya were up in arms about (because, of course, the Maya never said the world was going to end) - I wanted cochinita pibil.  Without the time, the mood or the finances to make my own right now, I sought it locally, and found it at R&R Taquería, in a Shell station at the intersection of US 1 and MD 175 in Jessup/Elkridge.  You will wait a while to get your food, simply because the line is long.  It's some good food (they've even been on the Guy Fieri Happy Time Annoying Show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives), and while it's easier to find good Mexican food in the Baltimore area than it used to be, it's still a relative rarity.  You can order whole platters or simple tacos.  I went for the latter - two of their cochinita pibil and one barbacoa lamb taco (yes, I admit I saw it on the little video clip of R&R from the DDD show).  Each was delicious: the barbacoa lamb was juicy and the cochinita pibil was hot.  Actually, the hottest I've ever had it.  Certainly hotter than that Nando's Peri-Peri hot chicken.  And of course they make no secret about why: it's flavored with habanero peppers.  I've lost many a battle with the habanero.  It burned for a while but actually left a nice feeling in the mouth for a while after I was done with the tacos.

Austin City, Unlimited Part I - Of Barbecue and Barbacoa

Recently I had the opportunity to go to Austin, Texas.  It wasn't a vacation, mind you - this was for work - but the time I did get to explore was pretty much spent eating.  Not a bad way to spend a trip to Austin, which, like our own, is a food city.  And even though it was a solid 90 degrees pretty much the whole time I was there, I did do a lot of walking.  So in the end, despite all the food I ate (all the food I ate), with all the heat, sweating and walking around I actually think I lost a pound by the end of the trip.

There is much to mention about the food in the Live Music Capital of the World, and I'm not sure where to begin.

The cuisine of Texas is varied, in this biggest state in the South and Southwest (note: California is, technically, in the Southwest, but isn't "Southwestern").  Mexican, Tex-Mex (the most common version of Southwestern) and of course barbecue abound.  It's easy to find it all in the capital of the Lone Star State.  I had a chance to eat it all, and what's more I got some use out of my Urbanspoon Android application.  I was able to avoid anything with less than an 80% user rating once I downloaded it.

Not taken with Instagram.  I accidentally used the Puddin' Camera app I downloaded onto my phone.

I started off with Mexican, a few blocks from my hotel.  La Condesa with its blocky modern decor has a 76% rating on Urbanspoon, but the hotel clerk recommended it so I tried it out.

Overall I found the tortilla soup satisfying if a bit creamier than I'm used to.   

For the main part of the meal, I had cochinita pibil tacos with beans and rice.  I've eaten cochinita pibil a few times in my life - in the US, in Mexico, and out of my own slow cooker.  It all tasted different from this cochinita pibil, which I didn't quite recognize.  It wasn't bad, but it seemed to have a more Tex-Mex flavor to it.  Cochinita pibil should be citrusy, and this just wasn't.  Even the pickled onions didn't really jump out.  Again, it wasn't bad, but it didn't seem like cochinita pibil to me.  Truthfully my favorite part of this meal was the rice.  I could eat a plateful of this stuff and be happy.

I had a more satisfying taco at La Casa del Fuego food truck.  For a little over $3 I got a somewhat dry pork taco that worked better than it sounds.  

This was not a taco al pastor but a taco with chunks of (it seemed) dry-rubbed pork, smothered with cilantro and juicy onions, and a slightly spicy sauce (I asked for spicy - either they didn't give it to me or they just don't do "spicy").

Most of my food time was spent eating barbecue.  Yes, Texas is one of the centers of the American barbecue landscape, and Texans boast about it.  The one guy driving me from the airport, for goodness sake, launched into a tirade against Kansas City and North Carolina barbecue in the course of three minutes when I started asking.  It was a good natured tirade, but a tirade none the less.  He recommended a few good barbecue places downtown, and a family friend from the city recommended one more.  Austinites will have their favorite, and I have mine.

The first I visited, Iron Works, was by the massive and flashy convention center.  It was the only one that had a line out the door (for lunch).  As with any Austin barbecue place, they give you a healthy choice of barbecued meats: beef brisket, chopped (not chipped) beef, pork, sausage, chicken, ham and so on.  I ordered the beef brisket, which came with the standard accompaniments: white bread (here just one slice), onions & pickles.  You get to choose sides (in this case potato salad and beans).  The barbecue brisket plate was all of $9, and since I could use a card I added a small bottle of Coke and a small thing of banana pudding - not as good as my mother's, of course, but don't we all think that?

The grand total was a massive $13.  They don't automatically provide sauce, but have various different squeeze bottles of sauce in their seating area.

I liked Iron Works beef brisket, though I found a more flavorful (and just as cheap) one at Rudy's Barbecue on the north side of UT Austin.  This is the barbecue place that our family friend, who is from Austin, recommended to me.  For this beef brisket I got two slices of bread and chose, again, potato salad and beans to go along.  Brisket is not meant to be juicy, and this wasn't at all, but the flavor was just a little more intense than Iron Works'.  The little cup of sauce they gave me along with it was just enough to last me through the three slices of beef.

The kind of barbecue that makes you wanna smack someone it's so good

The last barbecue place I tried was the legendary Stubb's, which I got the impression from travel guides was this big, flashy place that hosts musicians and has lots of tourists come to visit.  Instead, from the outside it looks like a very unassuming, even slightly ramshackle edifice.  Inside it is dark and cozy with the shutters drawn, with an outdoor area that was fully packed when I visited.

This time I ordered the pork barbecue - the nightly special - for $11.  With its streaks of fat (probably not the most normal thing to find in Texas barbecue) it was juicier than the beef I had elsewhere.  The other sides were the same - this time Texas thick cut bread, onions, pickles.  I did have to spit a little of the fat out because it was unchewable.  Overall Stubb's was a lovely barbecue, but out of the three places I visited - and I would readily go back to any of them again - I have to give the nod to Ruby's.

Coming up in the next post: the other stuff I got to sample in Austin.  Oh no, it's not all barbecue, Mexican and Tex-Mex.

Porque es el Día de los Muertos

It's November 1, the Day of the Dead! I really need to attempt this Mexican tradition at some point, especially around this time of year. The the eHow website has a series of videos that shows step-by-step how to make them, from where to find the skull molds through to how to decorate them.  I originally embedded the first video in the series (once the video ends it automatically plays the next one) but the video had the irritating habit of automatically playing every time you load the page.  So if you want to see the video, head to the eHow website for more information.  This more colorful website - MexicanSugarSkulls.com - also gives instructions (the photo above is from that website).

Adams Morgan for Capital Pride

I was in DC last Saturday night for Capital Pride. No I wasn't living it up, but I did eat out and then crashed at a friend's place before our Sunday morning soccer game and then my first ever visit to DC's pride festival. Said dinner was at Casa Oaxaca on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. Casa Oaxaca brings not just Mexican, but specifically Oaxacan dishes to DC diners. I had been meaning to head here for a while but was always flummoxed with the variety of restaurants.

I chose to eat downstairs in their softly-lit, earthy-colored restaurant. The menu does not offer much in the way of cheap eats - average entrée prices are about $15 to $25. Casa Oaxaca notably has a dizzying array of moles, a Oaxacan specialty. It's not just mole poblano.: it's red moles and black moles, yellow, orange and green ones. There was even a fig-based mole that intrigued me enough to seriously consider ordering. Eventually I went ahead with their three mole plate ($19) - red, black and green moles smothering a nice piece of chicken breast, with beans, Oaxacan cheese and small corn tortillas. It's a delicious combo that gives you a nice sample of several moles that would be pricey to order on their own.

Much of my bill came from what I ordered to drink - unusual for me, since I rarely order anything pricier than a small sake when I get sushi. In addition to the obligatory Mexican beer (Dos Equis on draft for $5.50), I considered ordering one shot from their extensive tequila list - I wasn't driving anywhere. Instead, I moved my eyes to their mezcal list. Most mezcales are made in Oaxaca (unlike the more Jalisco-based tequila), and so it seemed appropriate. Since I have no experience ordering mezcal I had no idea what to order. The waiter recommended the Del Maguey Minero ($10 - they were all that much), which goes well with moles. After the obligatory offering to Mayahuel, the Aztec goddess of fertility and of maguey (the source of mezcal)* I very slowly sipped the warm, tangy shot of mezcal while I ate. This may be why it didn't hit me so hard. Mezcal is strong if you drink it all at once, and since I was spending so much for such a small glass of alcohol, I intended to make it last.

To finish off my meal, I ordered a chocolate flan ($6), a silky and rich custard that also went well with this brand of mezcal. This topped off what ended up being, after tax and tip, a $50 bill. That is not chump change for me, and it is the rare time that I will spend so much on one meal. Heck, that's usually two or three meals out for me. But I'm not eating in Adams Morgan often, and I thought I would splurge for once. Yes, for me that is a splurge.

Before meeting up with my friend, I walked over to the 18th & U Duplex Diner for a few Sierra Nevadas on tap, while I navigated around all the much more drunken gays in silly beads from the day's parade, and watching the United States lose their CONCACAF Gold Cup match to a Panamanian team they were roundly expected to defeat.

* Now that I have an Android phone, I decided to look up how to drink mezcal while I was in the restaurant (these devices are pretty handy). Traditionally, among other things that I was in no place to do, one makes an offering to Mayahuel by spilling a little mezcal on the ground. I stuck my fingers in the glass and flicked a little on the floor. Hey, I don't want to take any chances here.

Pupusas as ballpark food?

I went on a date last night to see the DC United play Colorado (it was a draw - gee, thanks, refs). It was my first visit to a DC United game - nay, my first visit to RFK at all. And since my self-imposed boycott of the O's back from a time when they brought suckitude to a whole new level, I have not been to a major league sporting event of any kind for years (NB: now that they're at a level where they deserve my money, maybe my feet will darken the doors of Camden Yards). The Ravens, as great as they are playing, really aren't an option at the current price. And I still need to get my ass down to the Arena to see the Blast at some point.

The last time I visited a stadium to see a sporting event, the tickets were $25 to see the O's play whomever. Those were nosebleed seats. The edible food was almost as much, and the inedible food was still overpriced. I know they serve a different caliber of ballpark food today - pit beef, crab cakes, real Marylandia - but down in RFK the food that I had was just different. In our section, the food was pleasantly Latin in flavor: Mexican and Salvadoran. Since he bought the tickets, I bought the food. I almost went with the carne asada with beans and rice ($10), though my date chose that for himself. Instead, I forewent that for a few pork & cheese pupusas with curtido (Salvadoran slaw) for $9 - or at least, that's what I should have paid for it, when the guy only charged me $6. Mr. Honesty here tried to point this out to him, but it was no use. And I needed the extra money to buy my date and I some Negra Modelos.

A few more beers later we were back on the Metro to his place (ahem) - and not before watching the many inspiring little league soccer teams in attendance, waving their DC, Maryland, Virginia and DC United flags whenever we almost got a goal (or when we got our one goal). There was also much yelling at the refs, who seemed to really like what the Rapids were doing. Just sayin'.

Por que es el cinco de mayo: Guacamole...

For cinco de mayo, a re-post of my favorite guacamole recipe, from last year:

2 avocados
1 Roma tomato - not those big-ass, flavorless beefsteaks - seeds removed, diced

1 small onion or 1 - 2 green onions, chopped
1 jalapeño, chopped, with or without seeds and vein (I prefer to keep all that in)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (for me, the more the better)
juice of 1 lime
a little salt to taste

Mix it up, go to town. Repeat as necessary.

And if you want a good salsa to go with that, try this salsa del norte recipe from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison that I made for my Arizona post from December 2010.

A few random bites: late March edition

In like a lion and out like a cold, wet lamb: that's March for you. Just a few items as we ease slowly into spring.

1) I recently boiled peanuts (you'll read about it in a few weeks). It's hard to find raw peanuts in this area, though you can find them at Giant. I have decided to try growing them myself. I've rented a second garden plot in the city, which I hope to start clearing this weekend. Most of it will be for straightforward vegetable and herb planting, while a section of it will be purely experimental. We are about as far north as one can go and still hope for some success in growing peanuts. Let's see how it goes.

2a) I spent this past weekend in Rehoboth with a large group of friends (Some of you are reading - thank you again for a fun weekend! I'm already looking forward to next year). I ate out at a few places. One place where the cupcake trend hopefully continues is the Cake Break on First Street. For $6 (each for $3) I got two fascinating cupcakes.


My favorite one was their Guinness cupcake: a cupcake with Guinness Stout baked into the batter, and topped with frosting infused with Bailey's Irish Cream. This was evil. Evil, I tell you. And so good. The other cupcake was their Rehoboth Beach cupcake which I must only describe as "adorable" (oh God, I hate myself for saying that). It was made to look like a crab crawling out of the surf onto the sand. The crab tasted good too.

2b) While the best food was that which my friends made (again, kudos on the gumbo, Jim & Ralf), the best restaurant food I had came on my way out of Reho. La Tonalteca (note: their website is less than impressive) is a southern Delaware franchise of Mexican restaurants that had some pretty good Mexican food, some of the best I have had this side of the Mississippi. I got one of many of their lunch specials, an enchiladas poblanas, two enchiladas covered in mole poblano.


Everything about the enchiladas was delicious - these were no warmed over sorry excuses for enchiladas. As for the rice and beans: even in California, it is rare for me to find rice and beans that are worth eating, much less finishing. The rice was fluffy and soft and the beans were smooth, and neither was too salty. This may be a go-to stop on my way out of Rehoboth the next time I head down, especially at $6 for the whole thing.

3) A few weeks ago I saw the cleverly named Naanwich from Sukhi's, at Whole Foods. The one I got was a simple helping of tandoori chicken inside a folded-over piece of naan bread. While I wouldn't buy this all the time, it is convenient and tasty, the chicken soft and flavorful enough to not be a waste of time, and the naan pleasantly soft and chewy.


4) And finally, this from Churchville, Harford County:


And remember: Haste makes Waste Waist... get bigger!