Friday, January 19, 2007

Family and Fajitas

Okay, just three more posts about my trip to California. I told you we ate a lot. Oh, and about that posting every day thing? Well, I aimed for "every day," but I landed on "a lot more often." So that's something, right?



On day two, we made our own fajitas. Dave has a huge charcoal grill on his large balcony, and any trip to visit him must include what he calls "smoky meats." Dave and I share a huge love of fajitas, and this dish, with its accompanying massive trip to the grocery store, pretty much happens automatically. And I think we get better at it each time.



With us, cooking usually includes a little bickering, as well. What kind of meat do we remember Dad using in his sauce? Does lettuce wilt in the presence, or absence of liquid? Is is easier to skim the fat off the broth when it is hot, or cold? We are both Alpha Cooks, which means we are equally hard to convince that our way isn't the best way. And we are territorial about our kitchens. See, when you come to our house, it is understood that we are cooking for you. So I think that having me hovering over David telling him "how I would do it" is just about the limit of what he can stand. And what's more, it is his kitchen. His rules. Me and my hours of Food TV and my fancy laws of physics can just about kiss his ass.

But considering that our model for "cooking together" is either A) my father pushing my mother clear out of the kitchen, or B) our father and his sister screaming at one another at the top of their lungs, I think we do pretty well. In the end, he lets me do things my way quite a lot. And what we make together is inevitably tasty. The entertainment for our guests is just a bonus!

In this instance, he allowed me to convince him to pick up some flank steak for the fajitas. All the stuff he'd had was sort of stringy and tough. But I told him that my friend Katherine showed me how to cut it properly -- across the bias, or perpendicular to the direction that the fibers run in. This gives it lots more elasticity and tenderness. And thanks to my friend Pen, I use a very simple and tasty marinade that works for any red meat: olive oil and soy sauce. (If you have a little sesame or chili oil to toss in for flavor, that's great too.) You can add garlic, salt, and pepper. I also added a little of David's Tapatio sauce to it.

It came out really tender, and Dave cooked it and sliced it perfectly. It melted in your mouth. (Even if you don't like your meat quite this pink, I would recommend it. The beef gets tossed into the fajita sauce at the last moment, so it cooks just a bit more at that time. You don't want it well-done when you toss it in.)



On day two of the Guacamole Bender. I made what I think was the best guac we had out there. I was really just imitating what I've seen them do in our favorite Mexican restaurants in the mortar and pestle. I used very finely diced jalepeno, red onion, cilantro, fresh garlic (Dave has the coolest garlic press...), salt and pepper, and plenty of lime juice. We ate 3/4 of it before I remembered to take a picture, shown atop Dave's work-in-progress mosaic table.



Dave likes the combo fajitas, so we cooked chicken, too. The marinade for this was just margarita salt, pepper, olive oil, lime juice and chopped cilantro. We sliced it after grilling and put it atop the peppers and onions that we added butter, chicken stock, and Worcheshire sauce to at the very end. Then we added the sliced beef, and chowed down with all the fajita fixings. Juicy!



I really miss my brother. The ones you bicker with are the ones who understand you best!

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

El Siete Mares

On our third day in Los Angeles (I know, I'm bouncing all over the place), we arrived in a hung-over state (this was already becoming a habit) to a place where Dave likes to grab some fish tacos. And I know, just then, that me saying the phrase "fish tacos" made my husband snicker as he read this. And he's probably not even sorry.

The place is El Siete Mares ("the Seven Seas") on Sunset. We could have eaten outside at the taco stand next door, but we went inside. The place is really small, and there was only one other family there. They were spread across two booths, and we took a table near them, next to two biggish Mexican teenagers wearing basketball jerseys, who were each enjoying their second coctele -- a huge goblet with cold shrimp in a kind of ceviche sauce.

They gave us two salsas, plus chips. Both were very good, and one was very hot -- though we never quite figured out which one was giving us the heat. David and Chris both tried the variety of hot sauces that were available on the table, but I stopped entering this pee-pee contest years ago. I don't really enjoy the extreme heat, so I don't play. One of the basketballer teenagers and I both watched intently as David lifted the hottest of the sauces to his mouth on a chip. He didn't die, but he proclaimed it to be quite hot, indeed. And being the owner of -- at one count by me in 2002 -- 32 different bottles of habanero hot sauce, I assume he isn't kidding.

This was day three of the guacamole bender that I was on (the first day of which was at El Compadre, and the second day of which I have yet to blog about), so we had to order that. It came in the large mortar bowl that fresh guac usually comes in at a restaurant. It was very good! Better than that of El Compadre, I must admit... But I thought it was a bit strange that they stand some chips upright in the dip -- chips which are not as tasty as the ones you get with your salsa. Odd. (I also have a small prejudice against things which stand bolt upright on my plate, however, such as the time I received a leg of lamb that was standing at attention in a bowl before me. Different story.)

Anyway, the fish tacos hit the spot, and didn't have too much sauce on them. Just enough. They had shredded cabbage, and I really liked the batter they were fried in. Chris said they weren't his favorite ones that he'd ever had (meaning he liked the ones at Baja Fresh better), but I was very pleased. Perhaps it should be mentioned that I was also more hung-over.

I gorged myself so much on the guac, that I had to eat the contents of the tacos with a fork and leave the tortillas. Then, I took my leftovers home in the large bags I had under my eyes that day. Convenient.



David took that with his camera phone, which I'm beginning to think may be essential for a food blogger like me...

For more on El Siete Mares, here is another blogger's take, including the opinion that I've read elsewhere that they really should serve real crab instead of the pressed, fake kind. This blogger enjoyed the foods we had and enjoyed that day (the guac and the tacos), but he had some other beefs with the place. I would really recommend the place based on my experience there, however, and especially if you're ordering the things I had. It seems like a great place to eat outside, too.

Sunday, January 7, 2007

El Compadre

If you have really good margaritas and good mexican food, then the great ambience and music just put everything over the top. That's what they have, in my humble opinion, at El Compadre, the "Home of the Flaming Margarita." And if you have good margaritas, you just may forget to take pictures of the food you ate. Guess what happened to me?

Here is the margarita, though. They place what I think is Bacardi 151 rum inside a hollowed-out citrus shell, float it on the ice, and then light it. Only the first one is lit (after that, you are.) Apologies for the dark pic, but without the flash is the only way to capture the flame.



We came here after getting off the plane, because I was craving guacamole. So began day one of my three-day guacamole bender... I just couldn't get enough of the stuff. El Compadre had lettuce in theirs, which I wasn't totally crazy about, but still it was good. I enjoyed my food, but really, after three of those margaritas, who cares?

The great thing about this place was that a) the margaritas were flavorful, b) it was within stumbling distance of Dave's, and c) that the ambience was great. I'm a sucker for a dark restaurant in which you can spread out in a big booth and hear yourselves talk. (And no, that doesn't mean Denny's is a great restaurant.) They also had a trio playing music, so it was a lot of fun.

They also featured the Largest Pen to Pay Your Bill with on Earth.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Matcha, Matcha, Mat-cha

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is one of the best things about California. If you ask me, anyway. Sadly, according to the store locator on their website, there are none within 200 miles of where I live. Franchise opportunity? Or should I say, "franchizoonity?"



They are vaguely similar to a Starbuck's, only they aren't really on every single corner like Starbucks are (in any city, including those in California.) Still, when visiting Dave, I make sure he goes out of his way so that I can git me a matcha, or Green Tea Iced Blended. Made with nonfat milk, and not too many calories -- if you get the small size. Which, of course, I don't. (Hey, I only get one once a year.)



Here is the one I had, lovingly placed atop Dave's car. I am crazy about the flavor of this variety, and while I will enthusiastically sample the purchases of others (Chris had a Pomegranite Blueberry that was nice), I have yet to find one that surpasses this flavor. It tastes like those enriched milk products you used to get as kids, like Tiger's Milk. Anybody remember that? It was a powder you added to your milk. I did an internet search for it, but all I turned up was set of results for the protein bars. Dad used to get ours at Kroger.

Anyway, I digress (or should I say "tigress?" Ehh.) I've tried the Starbuck's version, but this one, in my opinion, is far superior.

Monday, January 1, 2007

Because Jesus Eats Better Than All the Saints

Halloween is great for a harvest of junkfood. But, if you're like me, you're not so into Smarties and Abba Zabba. I usually mine out the Kit-Kat and the mini candy bars and shun the rest.

The Christmas holiday, however, seems to offer up a whole different class of goodies. Our haul this year includes truffles, brownies, chocolate mints, pears, baklava, fudge, and chocolate cherries from Harry and David. I also have the company of my old friends, the Three Torrone Characters -- whose names and origins I know not, but whose corresponding flavors I know so well. We also got biscotti, amaretti cookies, and some of those chocolate-covered spoons to stir your coffee with. Woo-hoo!