Posted by Anita on 08.09.06 10:47 PM
Tonight, a combination of factors conspired to keep us out of the kitchen. I ended up working late yet again, leaving Cameron to cook solo… and then he realized that the grill had run out of propane. When the universe sends clear signals like this, we’ve learned to listen.
Cameron picked me up at Glen Park BART, and asked: “Mexican, Indian, or Ethiopian?”
To which I replied: “Duh!”
So, we hopped on 280 and pointed the car toward Don Pico’s.
Don Pico’s offers Mexican-food aficionados an interesting juxtaposition. On one hand, it’s an old-school “plate food” restaurante of the SoCal style, serving up combination platos and cold beers. But it also has aspirations to upscale-ness, calling itself a “Mexican bistro,” sporting spruced-up decor straight out of Trading Spaces, and adding daily specials like butternut squash tamales to the usual cheesy fare.
Our friends Andrew & Kathy turned us on to the charms of the Don late last year, and since then we’ve eaten here every couple of weeks. The kitchen always dishes up comida that’s solid, if a bit under-spiced. Service ranges from really great — as it was tonight — to downright spacey; eventually, we always get fed.
I toyed with ordering the chilaquiles (if only for the comedic effect of having the same meal for breakfast and dinner), but settled on my prototypical cheesy combo: A chicken taco, and a cheese enchilada. As always, it was good, in a baaad way. Cameron took the chef’s advice and opted for the amusingly named Mexican Jambalaya, and was rewarded by an interesting riff on the old bayou classic, with chorizo taking the place of andouille, and bell-pepper strips standing in for okra.
My biggest Don Pico’s gripe — other than the fact that they are closed on Sundays and Mondays — is their lack of full bar, so dÃos only knows what foul tequila substitute goes into their margaritas. Luckily, they have plenty of cold Negra Modelo ready for me.
(Oh, and if you’re a fan of karaoke-style lounge acts, you’ll love it here on weeknights. Don’t say you weren’t warned…)
Don Pico’s Original Mexican Bistro
461 El Camino Real
San Bruno, CA 94066
650.589.1163
Mexican, restaurants
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Posted by Anita on 08.09.06 8:27 AM
Steve’s comment on the hash post got me thinking of chilaquiles, one of my favorite foods. I love ’em so much, I’ll eat them in just about any way they’re prepared, from haute to humble, rojos or verdes.
As I nodded off to sleep last night, I remembered that I had some leftover Flor de Junio beans in the fridge, and probably a small handful of good, thick tortilla chips. This morning, with no time to make salsa from scratch, I reached for a small can of the pretty-good stuff: Embasa salsa verde. I like it better than jarred salsas because it actually tastes like tomatillos, not citric acid, and you can see chunks of white onion in it. Alas, no crema on hand, but luckily a new round of queso fresco.
If you love chilaquiles but don’t ever make them at home, you should start. It’s a really simple process: For a single serving, put about a quarter cup of smooth-ish salsa in the bottom of a medium skillet — red or green, as you like it. Let it heat until it’s warmed through and sizzling, then add a handful of chips. Depending on their size and flatness (or lack thereof) you may need to break them up a little, and possibly add some more sauce. You don’t want them dripping, but you do want a good coating on all surfaces. Toss the chips with the salsa until heated through, then top with cheese: Queso fresco is good, as is any Mexican melting cheese, or even Monterey Jack in a pinch. Drizzle with crema, or a little sour cream thinned with milk, and cover for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts and the crema settles. (You can also wait and add the crema when you plate them; Chilaquiles is really an idea more than a recipe, and even in Mexico there are as many ways to make ’em as there are cooks.) Take them to the plate, consider topping with some chopped white onion, a little chopped cilantro, or nothing at all. I like ’em served with soft-scrambled eggs, or a side of homemade refritos.
UPDATE: As if this post wasn’t already enough of a Rancho Gordo advertisement… I sit down to eat my chilaquiles, and who do I find in Chron’s food section? Yup, Steve himself, waxing eloquent about heirloom beans. Talk about your synchronicity…
breakfast, cooking, Mexican, recipes
2 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 08.05.06 9:25 PM
I had a meeting Saturday morning in Los Altos, and — knowing full well what the answer would be — I asked Cameron if he wanted to head south with me and go to Fiesta del Mar.Those of you who’ve known us for a while can probably skip this post; there’s no new information here. What did we have? Same thing we always do: A #15 combination ($12.50) for me — the world’s best chile relleno, and an excellent chicken tostada — and Camarones a la Diabla ($16.95) for Cameron — “jumbo shrimp sautéed in spicy hot chile de árbol sauce” says the menu, which really doesn’t do justice to the tangy, garlicy, spicy love that surrounds the prawns. How was it? Just as fabulous as always, and maybe even a little bit better than usual. In fact, over the years we’ve been going here (heading on 10, now) I can only recall one meal that wasn’t stunning.
We’ve been known to plan our arrival times into SFO based on whether we’ll make it back in time for dinner at FdM. It’s one of the few old standbys that’s actually stood the test of time.
Fiesta del Mar
1005 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
650.965.9354
Mexican, restaurants
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Posted by Anita on 03.20.06 3:22 PM
(links updated 1/2010)
I made a huge batch of posole verde yesterday, with Rancho Gordo hominy, and pig parts from Prather Ranch. I am drooling as I think of eating the leftovers for lunch.
The recipe was from the Williams-Sonoma Mexican book, which I still have checked out from the library, with some reality-checking of quantities from Rick Bayless. Tausend calls for 3 pounds of posole for a single batch, which would have been an amazingly awful mistake. I also used Bayless’s larger ratios of meat (2 pounds) and bones (3+ pounds, and substituting water for the chicken stock accordingly) and his suggestion of adding a pig foot for broth texture. I did use the W-S recipe’s sauce components, although I don’t think I’d bother with the pumpkin seeds again — a lot of effort and expense for very little payoff.
Dessert was a nearly flourless chocolate-almond cake frosted with with ancho whipped cream — from the same cookbook — which I liked very much.
cookbooks, cooking, Mexican
1 Comment »
Posted by Anita on 02.16.06 10:23 AM
We had a lovely dinner at Mamacita for my birthday. The food was great, and the waitstaff was competent and helpful.
We started with an order of very good guacamole, then some chilaquiles. The latter was very spicy and a little odd — creamy chipotle sauce? — but reasonably tasty. I wouldn’t order them again, though. Good carnitas tacos, perfectly prepared Rancho Gordo frijoles de olla, and a surprisingly good bistek. We didn’t have room for dessert, not that they looked terribly interesting.
The server told us off the bat we’d probably only want 3 items for the 2 of us, so we weren’t surprised that we’d ordered too much food. Still, with 2 margaritas and 2 cervezas, the bill was really reasonable… somewhere in the $60-70 range. Considering the location and the level they’re playing at, we were very, very happy with the value.
I think the only downsides were the snotty hostess who kept talking to all the Marina chickies who came in after us before deigning to ask us what the hell we wanted, the clueless Marina clientele (I could almost hear them thinking “Ew, this isn’t like El Torito!”), the parking, and the lackluster margaritas.
We’ll definitely go back…
Mamacita
2317 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
415.346.8494
Mexican, restaurants
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Posted by Anita on 11.16.05 3:49 PM
I had planned last night to make Julia Child’s Garlic Soup with Potatoes (Soupe à l’Ail aux Pommes de Terre from Mastering the Art of French Cooking) but then Cameron got invited to a business dinner, and I had a work projet that was going to keep me busy all evening. So, instead I made… uh, soup from leftovers.
I had a half dozen or so boiled new potatoes left over from Saturday’s corned beef and cabbage, so I put them in a small pot with some chicken stock and a splash of cream. Once they were warm, I buzzed them all together with the immersion blender, added some salt, pepper and a little more stock, and tasted. Yummy, but a little bland. I added a small amount of jack cheese, which helped, but it still needed more.
Then I remembered I had some roasted pepper garnish left over from Sunday night’s salad: roasted red, poblano, and anaheim chiles, thinly sliced red onion, a bit of cotija cheese, all bound together in an olive oil and champagne vinegarette. I garnished the soup with the chile-onion mixture, and — ta dah — Crema de Papas con Chiles Picantes y Dulces
(Sounds a lot better than Soup from Leftovers, doesn’t it?)
cookbooks, cooking, Mexican, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 04.11.05 3:41 PM
Oaxacan Black Bean: it was delicious. Cam just finished the last of it for lunch today. (Well, not quite… there’s another 2 servings in the freezer for one of those “I dunno, what do you feel like eating” nights.)
Next time I would probably add a bit more chorizo, or perhaps sautee another 1/4 pound of it for garnish… most of the long-cooked stuff simmered down and/or got pureed so smoothly that you didn’t know it was there. Garnished with some mexican cheese, crisp tortillas, and a little bit of avocado. Mmm….
There’s a really dumbed-down version of the recipe I used here. The real version calls for avocado leaf instead of fennel, and pasilla oaxaquena instead of chipotles; the shrimp (which I didn’t use) are optional.
cooking, Mexican, recipes, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 03.27.05 10:54 PM
Was sitting here, jonesing for Mexican food — even though I have dinner already prepped to go in the oven in a few hours — and I thought of my friend Jaymes’ quicky chilaquiles. Boy, am I glad I did! They’ve been the subject of some serious “more Mexican than the Mexicanos” backchat on Mouthfuls, as they’re made in the microwave with storebought ingredients.
I just have one word for the naysayers: Yum.
Salsa verde (tomatilla sauce); torn tortilla chips; queso manchego (or asadero, or ranchero, or fresco, or any other Mexican white cheese that you like); and sour cream.
In bottom of microwaveable dish, spread a little tomatilla sauce, then layer of tostadas or Fritos, then more sauce, then sour cream, then “bastante queso.” Repeat, until dish is full or ingredients are all used up, finishing with cheese. Microwave one minute, or till chilaquiles are heated through and cheese is melted. You’ll probably have to experiment a time or two in order to get all of the proportions just right. Use as much salsa verde as you wish in order to get it as ‘wet’ as you like.
I used a small rectangular pyrex dish (I’d say 5 x 7″), half a cup of the salsa, three handfuls of chips, and two or three tablespoons of the faux-crema. It took about 2-1/2 minutes, all together, for the cheese to melt and the chips to soften a bit. These quantities made a nice snack for two.
I wasn’t planning to share, but Cam came in and said “Mmm, that smells good” so I gave him half, and still ended up having plenty. (Of course, he has a batch of shortbread cooling on the counter right now, so I know which side my bread is buttered on!) For a full meal, I might try making about 2/3 this much and eating it with an egg. Hmm, that’s a good idea for breakfast tomorrow. I can only imagine how good it would be with the right cheese and homemade salsa…!
I had a bag of going-stale blue corn tortilla chips in the pantry, along with a small can of Embasa salsa verde. Good cultured sour cream (which I thinned a bit with half-and-half) in the fridge; alas, no Mexican cheese, so I had to make due with mild cheddar for this try.
Muchas gracias, Jaymes. It’d never occured to me to try doing chilaquiles the shortcut way, and now I can see this becoming a house favorite.
cooking, food boards, Mexican
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Posted by Anita on 03.15.05 11:15 PM
So, I did a mini-crawl today (help, I’m eating tacos and I can’t stop!), hitting the two taco trucks in the Bel-Red zone. The first was Tacos San Clemente, on the northeast corner of Bel-Red and 140th in a service station lot, across the street from the Safeway gas station. Tacos are $1 plus tax, as are sodas. Excellent (tied with Asador) carnitas, pretty good pollo, lightly toasted toritillas, nice selection of squirt-bottle salsas, no garnish except 1 lime and 1 radish. The cashier was nice enough. Two tables with plastic chairs, in the shade of the wagon’s awning… probably seating for 10 or 12, all together.
I didn’t see Rancho Bravo Tacos — the PI says it’s on the northwest corner of 140th and Bel-Red Road at Bel-Red 76 Auto Service, but unless I am totally mistaken, that’s where the Safeway is, and the Union 76 is (a) where I was and (b) on the northeast corner of said intersection.
From there, I proceeded to Taqueria Guadalajara — aka the Microsoft Taco Truck — at the northwest corner of 148th Ave and 24th Street (another Union 76). Tacos here came in 2 sizes: $1.25 and $1.50, and all they had was Asada, Pastor (like all the others this weekend, this was pork adobada, not mexican-style pastor), Pollo, and Lengua. I had a pastor and a pollo, both were merely OK. The pork was tiny bits, nicely spiced but needing salt; the pollo also lacked salt, but was nice and juicy. They did toast the tortillas, but they still fell apart. The people weren’t very pleasant here. Only garnish was a lime and a radish, again, plus a not-good red salsa and a passable green one. Seating was at a bar built into the side of the truck itself, maybe 5 or 6 seats.
On the way back to the office, I had to satisfy my curiosity to see if the Bellevue El Rinconsito’s carnitas were really bad, or if it was just a fluke when Jan and I went. Nope, still really bad — the worst of all of ’em over the past 3 days: simmered pulled pork, no spice at all, lots of chunks of fat. Ick. I actually threw out the taco, having eaten enough. The cashier here, like all the previous times I visited, was curt and unsmiling.
Both of the trucks were crawl-worthy, but I’d skip El Rinconsito when we do this for real.
Mexican, Seattle
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Posted by Anita on 03.14.05 6:02 PM
(Excerpted from the MouthfulsFood Taco Truck thread)
Another fabuloso day of taco-ness…
Cam and I had our tamales from Carniceria El Paisano for breakfast this morning… mmmm! Then we headed down Rainier and met up with Lauren and Rocky at the first taco truck on Rainier, Taqueria Dos Hermanos. Once again, I kept things simple and had a carnitas taco at every stop. Lauren stuck mostly with pork adobada / al pastor for the day; Cam was cabeza-boy; Rocky had lengua, substituting buche when available. (I had nibbles of lots of things, but I’ll let the others give you the round-up on their choices.) The carnitas at Dos Hermanos were good, not great. Tacos came in at $1, good mexican soda selection, super-hot (but flavorful) pickled peppers and carrots.
The next stop, the taco bus called El Asadero, was the best of show for me today, probably tied for best carnitas with El Milagro (the market next to Oberto — thanks for remembering, Rocky!). They weren’t quite as crispy or salty, but they were shreds rather than tiny cubes, which makes a difference to me. Asadero wins high marks for its garnish bar (rather than the standard 1 lime, 1 carrot, 1 chile that you get at most places) and for a good assortment of beverages. The imported Mexican coke and pepsi were expensive ($1.50, I think) but at least they had them. The oddball thing about this place was they didn’t include tax in the prices, so a taco comes out to $1.09. 
Our next stop was supposed to be Gorditos II, but they weren’t open (my fault, I see now that the P-I list says “Monday through Saturday”), so we proceeded to Malena’s in Ballard. As Lauren said when we were discussing it later, it feels odd to call something that costs $2.79 ‘expensive’, but there you have it. Malena’s had very limited taco choices (pork, fish, and I think chicken), they were more than twice the price of any others, they were made with standard supermarket corn tortillas, and loaded up with not-good guacamole, pallid pico de gallo, and shredded lettuce. Carnitas were slightly crispy but totally flavorless. The place was empty, not surprisingly. Another Seattle sacred cow bites the dust for me…
Onward to Taqueria Tequila in Greenwood. Nice selection of tacos, various prices from $0.99 to $1.50-ish depending on the filling. Carnitas were good but unremarkable; other items ranged from just OK to very nice. (I think Rocky liked the lengua and Lauren liked the chorizo, which I agree was tasty.)
We met up with Jan (SeaGal) and her husband Gary at Pancho Villa — the menu now says “Mr. Villa”, but otherwise it remains as I remember it. We’d earned our cervezas by this point, so we took a load off and ate there. Even though it’s a sit-down place, you can order just a single taco, if you like; I think they were $1.50 each. Carnitas were flavorful and slightly crisp, still good. Nice handmade tortillas, lightly griddled. I also couldn’t resist trying a chile relleno, which was tasty but needed more sauce.
Our last stop was the taco truck at Northgate and I-5, which we now know is called La Pasadita. A few folks opted for tortas here, which were huge ($4); I stuck with my program and had a carnitas taco (I think they were $1). These were probably the worst of the trip… even Rinconsito’s yesterday were better. The pork was flavorful, but the taco was probably half-filled with unrendered fat blobs and not a hint of golden crispiness was to be found. I believe the lengua was spoken of highly here, by Rocky and Gary.
Thanks to everyone for a great day. We’re definitely going to have to do another crawl to get the rest of the south end under our belts (literally!), and there was talk of a combined Eastside/Northside crawl, too.
food boards, Mexican, Seattle
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Tonight, a combination of factors conspired to keep us out of the kitchen. I ended up working late yet again, leaving Cameron to cook solo… and then he realized that the grill had run out of propane. When the universe sends clear signals like this, we’ve learned to listen.
