With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.
My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.
Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.
A search for the best chocolate pudding leads the author through dozens of cookbooks, calls to pastry chefs, and a multitude of cooking experiments. The pictures nearly led me to the grocery store at midnight to satisfy my suddenly awakened craving for bittersweet chocolate pot de crème. Included recipes look insanely delicious.
Tuscan vintners get in a battle over labeling laws, grape origins, and possible wine contamination - is a brunello di Montalcino by any other name as pleasing?
An Iraqi restaurant in midtown Manhattan is a gathering spot for Iraqi ex-pats, Iraqi-Americans, and journalists home from the Baghdad beat.
The Minimalist does tacos Yucatán-style, with poblano peppers, potatoes and corn.
After losing a lawsuit, Pinkberry is forced to reveal what's in its frozen yogurt, and the truth is less than "all natural."
In last night's episode of Top Chef, teams created dishes to serve at a block party in a Chicago neighborhood. First things first: This was one intense block party. We're talking moon bounce and dunk tanks. In fact, now that I think about it, the food didn't even look like the best thing there.
"I already ate dinner...Oh, BYOT? Did you say BYOT?!?! I'll be there in 10 minutes."
Such was my end of the mobile conversation with my sister last night when she called me over to her place for dinner. Not only had I already eaten a huge meal just before she called, but it was also Mexican food. That all went out the driver side window when she said "BYOT." When anyone in my family does BYOT, everyone and their mothers (literally) shows up.
BYOT in my Delicious family stands for "Build Your Own Taco," which isn't anything earth-shatteringly new or innovative. It just happens that BYOT is perfectly appropriate for a Super Bowl party because 1) the food is not difficult to prepare, and 2) as a "Southwestern-style" food, it matches the Super Bowl XLII's host city, Phoenix, Arizona. It doesn't hurt, either, that BYOT is highly customizable to your and your guests' tastes. It can be comprehensive, vegetarian, or even a little gourmet.
All you have to do is prep the components and set them up as a buffet. Your guests will do all the work of putting their tacos together.
Tortillas - We typically go with hard taco shells made from yellow corn tortillas, but you can also offer soft flour and corn tortillas, flat tostada shells, or if people are picky about carbs, nothing. They can make "salads" in bowls or on plates, and you can make fun of them for being "healthy" at a Super Bowl party. Remember that while people can eat regular tacos with their hands, tostadas and "bowls" mean you have to offer silverware.
Meat - Protein choices for tacos are plenty. My sister likes ground beef with the requisite taco seasoning, but we have done carne asada, carnitas, and grilled chicken. You can do grilled fish or shrimp, and if there are vegetarians on your guest list, you may want to provide black or refried beans.
Cheese - Go with any cheese you like, and shred it. If your cheese squirts out of a can, we can't help you.
Vegetables - The standards are shredded Iceberg lettuce, diced fresh tomatoes, chopped onions, and black olives. Don't get too fancy with vegetables. If you start grilling peppers and onions, you're crossing that fine line into fajita territory.
One of my great food memories is getting together with my best friend and making tacos. We'd get all the fixings - beef, lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes, etc - and really make an event of it. Tacos is one of those meals you probably don't have as much when you become an adult - unless you're rushing around and make a stop at Taco Bell - so today is a good day to start making them again.
New Orleans now offers a soulful culinary phenomenon that's more often seen on the streets of New York City or Los Angeles: taco trucks.
Residents of New Orleans have embraced the mobile taquerias' offerings, including al pastor and pork tacos. Some even go for the more exotic cow's head and tongue varieties, both of which are some of my favorites. Even though the public has warmed up to a type of restaurant little known before an influx of Latinos came to the state seeking reconstruction work, Jefferson Parish officials have recently banned the trucks. The new law gave vendors only 10 days to set up restrooms and washing stations. I've certainly wished for both of these amenities after wolfing down a few tacos de carnitas on the streets of Jackson Heights, Queens. But it's simply not going to happen. It should be pointed out that if my fair city banned the taco trucks, there's a fair chance that I'd soon find myself living in L.A.
But back to the story at hand. Jeff Parish pols raised concerns that the mobile kitchens are unsanitary, even though state health officials found nothing wrong. As the article I read pointed out, the taco trucks are embroiled in a food fight of sorts. To be sure, racisim also plays a role in the ban, but so does a concern that the cuisine of Puebla threatens the historic foodways of the Big Easy. New Orleans City Council President Oliver Thomas recently asked, "How do the tacos help gumbo?"
The burning question for me is something more along the lines of, "How soon can I get me a boudin noir taco?
Before you get turned off by this edition of Midnight Snack allow me to explain the headline. Years ago I used to eat these wonderful tacos at a Mexican deli in Hell's Kitchen. After working my way through all the humdrum varieties (carnitas, bifteck, al pastor, cecina, etc.), I spied pancita de chivo written on the blackboard.
I asked what kind of meat it was before trying a taco. When the lady told me they were goat belly, I gladly ordered one up, after all I'd never met chivo that was anything less than cravable. When I saw that the tortilla contained blood pudding and god knows whatever other bits of goat innards I wasn't entirely turned off. In fact, my interest was piqued since I enjoy a good black pudding every now and then. When I tasted it, everything changed, for this was no mere blood pudding. It was subltly spiced with cinnamon and hot peppers and utterly delicious.
Fast forward to yesterday when I saw pansa negro de chivo on the specials menu at one of my favorite Mexican spots. When I ordered it, I wasn't entirely sure whether it would be the same meat I'd had in tacos. As it turned out it was. About five tacos worth of goat gutty goodness were sided with some of the best Mexican rice I've ever had. Usually this lackluster rice has a technicolor orange hue and remains uneaten, but not this version. It had just enough achiote to color it and was studded through with bits of fresh carrots and peas, and kept company by some great stewed beans. The whole affair was topped with four or five pickled jalapeños that had been sliced lengthwise.
As you might have guessed from the topic of this post the whole platter proved to be too much for me. Of course when you get it packed up, dump in a bowl and then nuke it, the result looks nowhere near as good as it did in the restaurant. But I can assure you, it hits the spot at midnight with an ice cold Tecate. Let's just hope I don't have any nightmares about chupacabras.
A french fry is much easier to eat than a lobster, and for many other foods it is simply a fact that some are easier to eat than others. Some, like the aforementioned lobster, are simply difficult to get into. Others are difficult to maneuver into your mouth gracefully (giant burritos, salads with huge lettuce leaves ) and still others are messy to the point where many diners simply avoid them (ribs) unless they have a very high comfort level with their dining partners.
Chow took on the task of identifying some of these foods are offering readers some tips on how to eat them without the food getting the upper hand. Their suggestions include angling tacos over a plate and pinching the edges of the tortilla together to prevent/direct drips, aiming to eat sushi in two neat bites, spear peas with a fork instead of scooping them and deboning a fish using a banana leaf (or a fork).
I would also suggest a few more food-fighting tips to get your through dinner. First, keep a napkin handy to deal with messes and try to eat sloppy foods either very slowly or very fast to minimize the chances of contact with clothing. When possible, cut your food into bite-sized pieces, even if you think that the piece on your plate will probably fit into your mouth. Finally, try to get you dinner companion to order the same type of food that you did, so that in the event you get messy or eat awkwardly, you won't be the only one.
It's another late night here in the Slashfood virtual offices, and as we surf the web as we usually do in our last moments before collapsing into bed, we have come across what we think might be The Food Trend of the Year. At the beginning of this year, all the food fashion forecasters put in their guesses as to what they believe will be the "It" food for the upcoming year, whether it's exotic spices from South Asia being used more commonly in the home kitchen or specific products that will gain some traction. Maybe it will be: Korexican.
That's the fusion of Korean and Mexican, as we see in kalbi tacos from LA food blogger Eat, Drink n B Merry. Some say that "fusion" cuisine was over all the way back when leggings were in style the first time, but leggings have come back, and apparently, so has fusion. At least, it did at a semi-buzzed barbecue in southern California.
Chopped kimchee with kalbi is always delicious, but not sure how it tastes with guacamole!
If, by chance, you're firing up the grill for game day, this corn salsa is too easy to not be on your menu. If you've made fresh corn on the grill before, you know how simple it is. Grilled corn is great on it's own, with some butter, salt and pepper, or better yet, mayo, Parmesan cheese, lime juice and chili powder (seriously, try it).
The ingredients in this salsa are easy to vary and I generally just eyeball the amounts as I make it. A good place to start is: 8 average-sized ears of corn 1 medium red onion, sliced into 1/2" to 1" thick rounds (A few tooth picks or skewers in each will help to hold them together on the grill.) the juice of 2-3 limes a good handful of cilantro, finely chopped olive oil
Husk the ears of corn, giving them a rinse to get any last bits of silk off and grill them over fairly high, direct heat, turning them until the kernels begin to blister and darken all over. Brush the onion slices with a little olive oil and grill them as well. Once the corn is done and cool enough to handle, cut the kernels from the cobs with a sharp paring knife and put the kernels in a large bowl. When the onions have softened and taken on some color, pull them off the grill and chop them so they're about the same size as the corn kernels.
Why is this important? Well, Panera Bread tried to keep a Qdoba Mexican Grill out of the White City Shopping Center in Shrewsbury because it would violate an agreement the shopping center owner made to keep another sandwich shop out of the mall. They not only got a USDA official to testify, they called Boston chef Chris Schlesinger, who said, "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich...the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."
The idea of a flavored wrap isn't too unusual. Spinach and sun-dried tomato wraps, both of which are little more than colorful flour tortillas, have been popular for quite some time, perhaps even gaining in popularity as people seem to opt for soft tacos over the crunchy variety. But Old El Paso is launching some flavored hard taco shells in an attempt to capture some new interest in the crunchy shells. The shells come in Salsa and Nacho flavors and are designed with a slightly flat bottom that allows them to stand upright on their own, so they're easier to fill and serve.
Plain corn and flour tortillas will still be my favorites, but if you really like crunchy shells, this could be a nice chage from tradition.
Coincidentally related to Nicole's post, The Great Taco Hunt, a blog dedicated to "the Los Angeles Taco Scene" recently pointed out that new fines and regulations are making things a little more difficult for the taco trucks of L.A. Apparently parking fines for catering trucks have increased to up to $310 for repeat offenders. Trucks can now no longer stay in one place for more than an hour in commercial areas or a half hour in residential areas. The new ordinance says that the trucks must move at least a half a mile away and be gone for at least an hour. The Great Taco Hunt also points to an online petition to get the ordinances changed. At the moment the petition has 127 signatures.
Summer is a good time for road trips and, to give a road trip a purpose, more people are looking for good eats while they're out. Alton Brown and Paula Deen's sons have shows about road tripping, last week we saw a Washington burger tour and we already love the pair behindRoadfood. This week, the New York Times shares a California taco hunt with us and with a car, a map and the motto "even a bad taco is better than no taco," the 380-mile trip began.
It started in Los Angeles, which yielded some deliciously authentic tacos (King Taco, El Taurino, El Parián) as well as tasty fish tacos (Tacos Baja Ensenada). Santa Barbara turned up Julia Child's favorite restaurant (La Super Rica Taqueria) and tacos made with cow eyes (Lilly's Taqueria). Further up the coast, stops are made in Morro Bay (Chapala), for oyster tacos at Cayucos Beach (Ruddell's Smokehouse), in Watsonville (Fiesta Tepa-Sahuayo), at a late-night hotspot in Santa Cruz (Taqueria Vallarta) and at a taqueria in a gas station in Pescadero (Taqueria y Mercado de Amigos) that turned out two perfect tacos. After taking in the fantastically beautiful California coast, the trip ended in San Francisco's Mission District, which is well-known for both tacos and burritos, where five restaurants managed to make it onto the tour (La Taqueria, Taqueria San José, El Taco Loco, an El Tonayense taco truck and La Palma Mexicatessen). .
And in the end? 5 days, 49 tacos and one excellent trip for a taco-lover.
Be sure to check out the full article for a detailed account of all the individual tacos.
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
New Orleans now offers a soulful culinary phenomenon that's more often seen on the streets of New York City or Los Angeles: taco trucks.
A french fry is much easier to eat than a lobster, and for many other foods it is simply a fact that some are easier to eat than others. Some, like the aforementioned lobster, are simply difficult to get into. Others are difficult to maneuver into your mouth gracefully (giant burritos, salads with huge lettuce leaves ) and still others are messy to the point where many diners simply avoid them (ribs) unless they have a very high comfort level with their dining partners. 
It's 
A judge in Worcester, Massachusetts has ruled that 
The idea of a flavored wrap isn't too unusual. Spinach and sun-dried tomato wraps, both of which are little more than colorful flour tortillas, have been popular for quite some time, perhaps even gaining in popularity as people seem to opt for soft tacos over the crunchy variety. But Old El Paso is launching some 
Coincidentally related to Nicole's 
Summer is a good time for road trips and, to give a road trip a purpose, more people are looking for good eats while they're out. 
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