Tag: food

SAVE THE CHOCOLATE

via la_lisa, an appeal to save the integrity of chocolate from adulterous chocobusiness scheming.

I’m not a huge fan of cocoa butter myself (hurf white chocolate bleah) but it’s PART OF CHOCOLATE. You can’t replace it with partially hydrogenated neat’s foot oil or something and call it chocolate. It Would Be Wrong.

I BOLGED about it over at buzznet: http://ignatz.buzznet.com/user/journal/191271/ to get the TEENS involved.

Yes, this is weak stupid bourgeois activism. I’m a suburban white kid who likes to cook. Go stuff it.

saturday night, 0125, perfect beans

As a kid I didn’t like beans, mostly. Green beans were okay, but the others were, ugh. Probably this was because of bad textures (my parents had a weird affection for blackeyed peas or red beans with mushy rice), bad flavors (often beans were served with… beans), and some genuinely bad beans. Particularly, overcooked lima beans and sad limp pinto beans contributed to this.

The lesson of my adult bean adventures is: over-season. Beans are great, but you have to treat them right. In this case I cooked 1 cup (dry volume) Great Northern Beans with: black pepper, green peppercorns, a bay leaf, saffron, two tomatoes, a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a bit of epazote. They are fucking fantastic. What would be an overkill flavoring in most dishes is just enough with a cup of beans.

And that’s your saturday night bean update.

Mi Casa es su Queso

casa de los gabachos gorditorifficos

This restaurant is part of my childhood. There’s no longer a cigarette machine, but not much else has changed. It’s “Mexican Food” as it was understood by Anglos in 1972 Costa Mesa. Hard shell tacos, refried beans with rice with every entrée, no surprises, and literally deadly quantities of cheese.

For adults there is a great emphasis on margaritas.

Mi Casa is not Mexican food. Most people who are aficionados of good food would not consider it to be worth considering at all. I like it. It’s my childhood, and there is nothing modern about it. No authentic cochinito en pibil, but no Chili’s waitresses with flair upselling me on the Chi-Chi-Tastic Balsamic Nacho Wrap, either.

They never lost the red leather booths or the hanging baskets at Mi Casa, or the sixty year old women in miniskirts and tights serving food, or even the original tables, which as you can see were from a Roy Rogers steakhouse circa 197… 1971, I bet.

Why yes, I would like another margarita, ma’am.

this space intentionally left honk

Thank you burntcurtis for taking me out on an impromptu and very romantic man-date. We walked about at UCI, had a coffee at one of the last remaining Diedrich (!), bothered titmongler there, ate a good round-eye chinese meal, and finally went to the CVS so I could get opiates and milk.

And yeah, tight jeans are dumb, John.

And yeah, Michael McDonald does suck.

Stop now and put down your pencil. Do not get up or raise your hand. Wait until the proctor announces the end of the examination.

sweet home tendinitis

Got a call from Trout. He’s going to be here visiting soon, probably, because a mutual friend is ill. Bad news but it will be good to see him.

I wish to entirely blame the visiting eyeteeth for the fact that John Parr’s horrible “St. Elmo’s Fire/Man in Motion” is stuck in my head. Won’t you just strap a mullet on me and shoot me.

lasagnese always wins

folks i haven’t read my lj friends list in more than a week because every time i get loose of work my shoulder goes out on me but frankly it’s not that bad and will probably be fixed unlike many of mine or my friends’ problems but anyway i thought i should let you know that i am preparing spaghettic rigate with tomato sauce and a romaine lettuce salad with parmesan both of which look pretty good despite the fact that I am under the influence of POWERFUL PRESCRIPTION MUSCLE RELAXANTS. Hi!