Filed under: Places to Eat | Tags: California, food, foodtruck, korean, Los Angeles, Mexican
That’s right. Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. It’s a taco with queso fresco, grilled asparagus, salsa verde and a fried egg. It’s the spring special I ordered at LA’s famous Kogi Korean Mexican Street Truck. It believe @kogibbq was one of the first street food trucks to tweet it’s whereabouts, but I’m too tuckered out to research that further. So basically, I’m way behind the times on this one. However, I consider it a momentous personal food triumph to try out the Kogi BBQ truck out myself.
Also, I heard today (via http://masarevolution.com) that while Chicago fights to join the food truck world, LA is also undergoing new food truck politics as the health department begins to rate food trucks the same way they do for standard restaurants. This legitimizes food trucks in a way that rent-paying, static, brick and mortar restaurants don’t want to see happen.
Since being in LA I’ve also eaten tons of citrus (pomelos! grapefruit! mandarins! blood oranges!), and I’ve discovered KCRW’s Good Food podcast!
Filed under: Cook it, Places to Eat | Tags: chicago, Illinois, Mexican, pilsen, tacos
As soon as we discovered that we could get a stack of steaming hot tortillas for less than a dollar at any time of day or night in our ‘hood, we started eating everything in corn tortillas. I think I may have become addicted. We made dessert tacos with queso fresco and guava paste or honey. We made simple quesadillas with queso fresco and pepper. And we tried as many different savory tacos as we could. We bought carnitas by the pound in Pilsen, we ate fancy vegetarian tacos at Big Star, and we made amazing poblano peppers and portabello tacos at home. (As this is my last month eating meat, I also tried my first lengua/tongue taco, which luckily, did not become a new favorite.) Our fridge was always stocked with queso fresco, avocado, tomato, and cilantro. And when we couldn’t eat all of our fresh tortillas, we turned the stale ones into chilaquiles (see last post). What will I do without fresh tortillas?
Rick Bayless is a Chicago celebrity chef, who recently cooked at the state dinner for the Obamas and The Calderóns of Mexico. He tried to highlight the American and Mexican cuisines, making Orgeon Wagyu Beff in Oaxacan Black Mole. Let me know if you make this. I, however, opted to try his recipe for Chipotle Chilaques, topped with queso añejo, avocado, and fried egg. Before Houston (Dec ’09) I had never tried Chilaquiles. Using this extremely facilisimo recipe, I was able to make the best I’ve ever had. Fabulous.
Filed under: Places to Eat, Travel | Tags: breakfast, Mexican, New Mexico, restaurants, Santa Fe
Having traveled with me on both coasts, Anna knew what to recommend in Santa Fe: a breakfast place with a community table. Pasqual’s presented a difficult (but worthwhile) decision between polenta con chorizo and huevos rancheros, but huevos always win. This one had green chili and bananas. We fueled with coffee and conversation at Aztec Cafe, recommended by a storyteller who thinks the web should be about strengthening the bonds we have, not endlessly creating new ones. I say hooray for community tables.
Filed under: Places to Drink, Places to Eat | Tags: bbq, breakfast, Houston, Mexican, Texas, Vietnamese
As the 4th largest U.S. City, with incredible diversity, Houston provides many choices for the discerning restaurant goer. It is, however, a sprawling mess with highways connecting highways. It was a little too much to tackle in a month, so I generally limited my exploring to downtown and the Montrose/Heights areas. Also, I’m pretty intimidated by BBQ, so I only tried once at Hickory Hollow and probably wouldn’t again. I hear Goode Company is the place to go, although I didn’t get there (or head out of town to the hill country for the real Texas deal).
La Guadalupana Bakery and Cafe has great cinnamon coffee (took me two cups to get used to) and yummy baked goods and breakfast items. They’re super nice and patient with my subpar Spanish. I had a phenomenal croissant and tried chilaquiles for the first time. In was a momentous breakfast moment. Nina and I had the best churros ever at Hugo’s. We had lots of pho at Pho Saigon and Bánh mì at Les Givrals. And we had a great final meal at Broken Spoke Cafe, a Belgian eatery where arriving by bike gets you 10% off. I had mussels in a tarragon sauce, an endive salad, and a Belgian beer I can’t remember.
As for drinks, I lived around the corner from La Carafe, the “oldest bar in Houston”, but only managed to go once. The jukebox had great jazz, but we witnessed the bartender being really weird and awkward, which is probably the reason I didn’t go back. Good food and coffee can be found at Brasil which has a great outdoor space and shows movies nightly.
My biggest regret is not trying the fried avocado at Haute Texan Taco Truck. If you’re in town, find out where they’re parked on twitter and let me know how it is.
Filed under: Places to Drink, Places to Eat, Travel | Tags: austin, breakfast, Mexican, on the road, restaurants, Texas
We pulled into Austin around 7:30, ready for dinner and drink. We followed people’s recommendations (no advance research) which led us to some good eats, a nice Texas Real Ale Coffee Porter, and a great bar, Lustre Pearl. Again, it was Sunday, so it was delightfully chill, the air was warm, and the whiskey was cheap. And I was able to say many many times, “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
We followed more local recommendations for breakfast and coffee, starting with breakfast tacos (new to me) at Juan in a Million. Juan in a Million won the Best Handshake from a Restaurant Owner, and I’d agree. We were taken through a rowdy dining room back into what appeared to be an empty employee cafeteria, but people soon began to trickle in, and the atmosphere improved. I tried the egg and chorizo taco and a migas (scrambled eggs with tortilla mixed in) taco. Both were delicious.
Before hitting the road again, Coffee was necessary.
