Experimenting on foods.

[belfastboy]

We travel (well prior to Covid) a great deal in the US west. In WA state, especially in the eastern sector/fruit growing belt there is a huge Hispanic population. We have visited small towns that could pass for a dusty Mexican village...all Spanish speaking residents, Spanish signs. Other towns, still very small, that have a dividing line separating the Anglo from the Hispanic sides of town. Many years ago we came across an elderly woman making tortillas in the way you outline in your post. They were small, 5" across but the stack was 6" high and I think we paid $1.25. We ate tortillas for days.....pan heated for breakfast with a scrambled egg....pan heated and rolled up with jam. Lunch was a tortilla rolled up with a slice of ham inside.....no end of ways to eat them.

 

[Zombie_61]

We travel (well prior to Covid) a great deal in the US west...

If you ever find yourselves in the "Old Town" section of San Diego, I recommend eating at Café Coyote. My wife and I haven't been there for quite some time, but they've been there since 1989 and we've never had a bad meal or bad service there. And, the thing that brought this restaurant to mind, is the lady on the sidewalk out front selling freshly made tortillas. Hell, I'd make the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego just to eat there.

 

[belfastboy]

If you ever find yourselves in the "Old Town" section of San Diego, I recommend eating at Café Coyote. My wife and I haven't been there for quite some time, but they've been there since 1989 and we've never had a bad meal or bad service there. And, the thing that brought this restaurant to mind, is the lady on the sidewalk out front selling freshly made tortillas. Hell, I'd make the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego just to eat there.

Thank you. We are due for a return to San Diego. Last time we were there we did a fly & drive and took my elderly Mom so we were somewhat restricted. We loved San Diego and would like to go back and do more wandering about.

 

[Fifty150]

Ginger and garlic. I use a stick blender with olive oil. In the old days, it would have been done with a pestle and mortar. Add chopped green onion, plus salt & pepper. If you blend it more you get a Chinese pesto. It's a dipping sauce, marinade rub, or the secret flavor of the stir fry.

 

[Fifty150]

Tonight's dinner. The secret sauce went into steamed chicken and stir fry eggplant.

 

[Fifty150]

Many years ago we came across an elderly woman making tortillas

.....pan heated for breakfast with a scrambled egg....

Tonight's dinner was corn tortilla, cheese, and eggs. Is that vegetarian?

 

[belfastboy]

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Tonight's dinner was corn tortilla, cheese, and eggs. Is that vegetarian?

Yes, vegetarian....lacto/ovo branch of the family...but def not vegan.

 

[Fifty150]

Not today. No vegetarian meal for dinner. Take the pork belly that's usually made into bacon. Roll it. Roast it. A pork belly roll.

 

[Fifty150]

Beans are on the menu.

 

[Fifty150]

1/2 of a 1 lb bag is 8 ounce. I'll call that a cup. The yield after soaking and simmering is about 3 cups. So now I've got a lot of beans. Ready for whatever recipe.

The American Frugal Housewife, published in 1832, has a chapter about beans.

 

[Fifty150]

Kept the beans simple. Onion, garlic, and beer. Nothing to look at though. Beans break down as you stir. Nobody wants to see brown sludge. The flavor, with beer, is good. As Judge Kavanaugh said, "I liked beer. I still like beer."

 

[Fifty150]

Finished off the rest of the beans today. Beer, tomato, onion, garlic. A hand blender saves hours of cooking.

 

[Fifty150]

The bean saga continues. Hopefully, it ends today. I know some people who work at a nonprofit. Part of the program is food distribution. In their area, the bags of beans are not being taken. It's cultural. Not everyone knows how to cook beans. Not everyone eats beans. It turns out that these friends of mine all admitted that the only beans that they eat are when they get a burrito. Otherwise, none of them have ever cooked a bean. At the nonprofit, they have a little kitchen where they do demos and cooking classes. So my job was to show them how to make the beans, so that they could teach it to other people.

I did it without the beer. Kept it simple. Cooked tomato, onion, garlic, until the tomato became like a sauce. Add beans. At that point, you can add anything and everything to the pot. Chicken stock. Meat. Vegetables. Hot peppers. BBQ sauce. Tomato paste.

Is it beans & rice? Or rice & beans?

 

[Trenchfriend]

Have you ever mixed Stracciatella yogurt and Semolina pudding??

I swear, you will never stop eating!

 

[Fifty150]

Mid-October, the first rain of the season came, and tomato are finally ripening for me.

Eggplant with fresh tomato from the backyard. Egg fried rice. Experimental Chinese food. I'm Chinese. I cooked it. It's Chinese food.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Buddy, put that in a Burrito and send it to me!!

 

[Zombie_61]

Hmmm...I still prefer carne asada. Or carnitas. Or pastrami. Con frijoles y queso. Or chorizo con huevo with or without frijoles. Maybe empanadas? Or...

 

[Haversack]

Tonight another bread salad. This time with rye bread, fennel, smoked sablefish, and capers. As well as the surfeit of fresh tomatoes.

 

[Fifty150]

In some big cities, they have a criminal justice building. Police, Sheriff, District Attorney, City Marshall, 911 Call Center, Criminal Courts, Traffic Courts, Parking Violations, Tow Desk, Jails. A 24 hour building, as crime doesn't sleep. There's usually a cafeteria. And often, that kitchen is staffed by jail inmates. So 24 hours a day, you can pay to eat jail food.

In modern facilities, they incorporate staffing the cafeteria into the jail's vocational program. A brand name coffee chain will install all of their equipment, then provide training to the inmates. You can get a mocha frappuccino and caramel macchiato at 5:30 AM; if you were arrested the night before and they are releasing you from jail just before they have to feed you breakfast. Starbucks gets all sorts of tax credits, write-offs, free publicity for helping rehabilitate criminals, and baristas ready to work for them as soon as they are released.

On the midnight shift, The Hall of Justice is like a high school cafeteria. There are cliques, and never do they mix or mingle. The brass at their table. Non-sworn civilian employees have their own table. Coroners people off in the corner. People in street clothes are usually there because they don't want to be. Their car got towed. Their daughter's in jail and needs to be bailed out. Some other unpleasant business where you get called to the police station in the middle of the night.

A lot of the staff either bring their own lunch, or get food delivered. Eating the jail kitchen food, and paying money to eat it, is not that appealing. There are also vending machines selling candy bars, chips, instant noodles......same stuff they sell to the inmates.

I'm combing through a stack of newspapers that other people have left behind. Fighting off sleep. I won't get to go to bed until after the sun comes up. I'm not really hungry. So I got a couple of Cup o'Noodles from the machine. I take one of the cups, and offer it to the inmate behind the cafeteria counter. That buys me a raw egg. The inmate is a 6'5" transexual prostitute serving 300 days for a probation violation. It's probably his 10th probation violation. They caught him selling himself on the streets-again. It's a revolving door. Put a hooker on probation. Of course they violate. They're hookers.

I crack the raw egg into the cup of instant noodles, and pour in some hot water from the valve next to the coffee machine.

Street hooker food. In those neighborhoods where hookers ply their trade, the 24 hour donut shops will sell instant noodles. A real treat if you have to be in a see through outfit and high heels, freezing on the corner for hours on end. If you're ever in a bad neighborhood, with a 24 hour donut shop, that sells instant noodles - chances are good that hookers work that area at night.

"What do we have here? A hooker's midnight snack. Did your ex move back in, and now she's packing your lunch?"

Pale Amy. I call her that because she has worked in the morgue for the past 12 years. Ever since graduating from med school, she's been a medical examiner. All on the night shift. Her skin only sees fluorescent light. She has the same pallor as her patients. Most of her time is spent around naked, dead people. Her behavior and mannerisms reflect that.

We have coitus when she desires. It happens just like this. She finds me on my lunch break, and asks if I can give her a ride home after work. We're not "dating". We don't go out on "dates". We're not even really "friends". I'm pretty sure that she just dreads the thought of how I would present in her social circle. Much the same way I don't know how my friends would react to "Dr. Death".

 

[Hercule]

In some big cities, they have a criminal justice building. Police, Sheriff, District Attorney, City Marshall, 911 Call Center, Criminal Courts, Traffic Courts, Parking Violations, Tow Desk, Jails. A 24 hour building, as crime doesn't sleep. There's usually a cafeteria. And often, that kitchen is staffed by jail inmates. So 24 hours a day, you can pay to eat jail food.

. . . .

Somehow when I read this the voice in my head sounded like Jack Webb. Go figure.