This is the most cogent, well-written encapsulation of Leap Year I have ever had the pleasure to read.

Friday, February 29th | No comments

This is a standard soup broth, primarily used as a base for Asian soup meals, that I like to keep on hand. It is multi-purpose.

• A bunch of pork neck bones (i.e over a pound)
• A whole chicken, or bunch of chicken bones (equivalent to a whole chicken)

You can find pork bones for soup at any Vietnamese store.

Chicken suggestion: If you’re using a whole chicken, I suggest you “poach” the bird under a low flame for 45 minutes, then remove, allow to cool. Then, strip the meat from the carcass, setting it aside, and return the bones and skin and backbone and wing tips etc. to the pot with the pork bones and bring the liquid back to a boil over high heat then lower to low simmer.

Chicken suggestion #2: There’s a Vietnamese store on 65th/Sandy called Thanh Thao market. They come highly recommended. In the meat freezer, you’ll find small, bony birds labeled as “stewing chickens”. They will look like emaciated carcasses. I’m not sure if these unfortunate chickens were way into themselves and hard drugs and eating disorders, but they look the part. In fact, these stewing chickens do not look unlike Nicole Richie. You can use this things for stock.

Add to the stock pot (already filled with your carcass components) the following in any combination/entirety:

• Large knob of rinsed ginger
• 3-4 large carrots (i’m a lazy ass who always has peeled baby carrots on hand–1/2 package)
• 1 large onion
• 3-4 stalks celery
• 3-4 bay leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon white peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• the stems of an entire bunch of cilantro

Bring to a boil. Reduce to the lowest possible heat setting and simmer for 12 hours.

Strain. Maybe even twice (especially if you’re OCD). Store, freeze, and use as needed.

Friday, February 29th | 1 comment

A long time ago I posted to http://portlandfood.org inquiring into where I could get xiao long bao in Portland.

For anybody who is unsure what xiao long bao is I encourage you to read Jaden’s extemely superlative XLB post.

Most responses came up short. However, I recently received an email from Cuisine Bon Femme that said to keep an eye out for a certain food cart downtown that had just opened. God bless her heart.

Sure enough, Asian Station food cart on SW Pine and 10th downtown serves up these elusive elixirs. I stopped by a recent Saturday morning (note: they are not open on Saturdays. This was a winter anomoly).

You get 8 dumplings to an order.

My camera ran out of batteries, but this photo is cribbed from their their website. But I can assure you, they look exactly just like these. Except they are served in a plastic container sans napa cabbage pillow.

Served with a plastic ramekin of Chinese vinegar, with a bottle of Siracha within reach, you’re reminded of why Portland’s downtown food cart scene really is a special thing.

Friday, February 29th | No comments

The lovely and talented holybasil at Hot.Sour.Salty.Sweet. And Umami has tagged me for the Five Things meme. I have been tagged before, but I’m a good sport so I’ll take my marching orders in stride. However, I am going to respectfully decline to disseminate the meme—for now—as I feel I’ve already spread the love once.

Here we go, Five Things, redux:

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1. There was an occasion, in the nineties, whereupon I woke up one morning and decided to wear jean shorts—aka “jorts”—that day. For this I am very, very ashamed, and would like to use this opportunity to apologize as profusely as possible.

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2. I graduated from the University of Arizona, yet I don’t call myself an “alumni” as I never received my degree. The bursar’s office demanded that I pay $60+ for a book that I know for certain I returned to the library. They withheld my diploma, and soon began to send me menacing collection notices for a period of time, which I dutifully waited out. Now that I’ve completely paid off the thousands of dollars in outstanding student loans + interest, I feel I’ve completely stuck it to them and have emerged victorious from this scrum. Advantage: me.

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3. Some of my earliest food memories are from the first and second grade, living up in Westminster, Orange County (Southern California). I remember eating smashed bird chilies and salt with mango, chicken soup made from a freshly killed pet, and, strangely enough, still-born duck fetuses. I kid you not. I remember distinctly that we kept duck eggs in our garage, and I would tap to break off the top portion of the egg. This severed portion of the shell would be lifted to reveal a half-developed duck—head, beak, body and all. I would pour an insane amount of salt into the egg and dig into the muck with a spoon. Jesus fucking christ that’s depraved.

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4. I once worked at a purportedly “fine-dining” continental restaurant during my college years. We wore tuxes, and my job ostensibly was to wheel around a cart stocked with various spirits, ingredients, and assorted tools. We’d construct table-side caesar salads, steak tartares, as well as flambé entrees and desserts such as steak diane, ouzo prawns, cherries jubilee and bananas foster.

It was probably the worst-run restaurant in America. The owner was in his eighties and also owned all KFC’s in the area, and kept the restaurant as some weird vanity money pit. The maître d/general manager dealt cocaine AND steroids out of the office, and hired all his friends from high school on which he had man crushes on (many of whom were jocko roid-heads who allowed him to inject steroids in their butts). The rest of the staff were stoners and ex-cons. In the wine room, where the lone bottle of Château Margaux used to be (one drunken night, after shift, we drank it) was ready-to-serve pot paraphernalia. The head chef brought on his buddy as grill cook. One day the first week he was on shift, I walked back into the kitchen, and this 6′8″ guy—tatted to the gills, looking like a Motörhead roadie, trimming the silverskin off an entire beef tenderloin and slicing of little pieces of raw chunks and popping them in his mouth like they were M&Ms—asked me if I wanted to buy methamphetamine.

After a long run, the owner decided he had had enough and was going to close the place once and for all, and the entire staff used the last week of existence as a trial run towards depravity. Everybody left closing night with a bittersweet, empty feeling in the pit of their stomachs. What would we do with our lives, unemployed, over the course of a hot, listless Arizona summer? Then three weeks later we got a call informing us the owner ran into some snag with his lease, and they would be opening for dinner that night and we could all have our jobs back—an offer some of us accepted. When we arrived at work we realized half of our glassware, dishware, serving and kitchen equipment had been carted off in the dead of night by the former staff on closing night, three weeks earlier.

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5. I love MSG. I think it is God’s cocaine.

Friday, February 29th | 2 comments

CBF@Portlandfoodanddrink.com is optimistic that Uwajimaya has a fighting chance to open a flagship location in Portland’s Chinatown.

Thursday, February 28th | 1 comment

bacon cups.

Never underestimate the strength of the human spirit.

Thursday, February 28th | No comments

Here’s a secret.

I use the packet.

Yep.

The ingredients list of a representative packet, which you can pick up at any Asian store for anywhere from $.69 to $1.19. Reputable brands include Noh and Mama Sita. What’s not to like? Anti-caking agent…yum.

Here’s the deal. This marinade is pretty standard, and you can forego the packet, but I eat with my eyes. I need the red. I get off on the red. Eating something red really indulges a fetish I can’t fully explain.

And if that means I eat a bit of food coloring, I’m ok with that. Isn’t this molecular gastronomy? And it is “natural”. It’s a derivation of anatto/achiote. And probably cochineal beetle.

Char Sui Pork

• 2 pounds pork of various sort, preferably a fatty cut like country style ribs (if I’m using something like a pork shoulder, I like to trim fat and tie it back up with butcher twine )
• 1/2 packet commercial char sui seasoning. I prefer Noh brand, which is plenty RED
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons rice wine
• Couple squirts chili oil (more RED!) or sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder

Combine all ingredients except for the meat, and mix well to create a nice slurry, sludgey liquid. Pour over meat and use your hands to really get the marinade in there. The meat should be red. If it’s not sufficiently red enough, I would add more of the char sui seasoning or perhaps slit your jugular and allow the contents to spill all over the pork.

Allow to marinade for at leat 4 hours, more if you are like me and like flavor.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pork on a sheet pan or wire rack, reserving marinade, and roast for 20-25 minutes. “Lacquer” marinade with a brush every 10 minutes, three times (an additional 30 minutes or so).

Remove, allow to cool, and slice up.

This marinade is equally delicious with spare ribs. The marinade is equivalent to the brining that I usually do when I cook ribs, though I would tent the ribs with foil in a 250 degree oven and steam/roast/bake for 90 minutes before finishing off/lacquering on an open flame grill.

Often, at Asian markets you can find individually sliced ribs for the purpose of making individual, cha sui ribs. Here’s those ribs marinating with a loin or two. Acknowledge the red.

And the pork all cooked up.

Now that you have a lot of char sui pork on hand, you can use it in stir fries, banh mi sandwiches, salad rolls, and, my favorite…

…as a topping for noodle soups.

Thursday, February 28th | 1 comment

Why Does Popcorn Cost So Much at the Movies? (Physorg.com)

New research from Stanford and the University of California, Santa Cruz suggests that there is a method to theaters’ madness–and one that in fact benefits the viewing public. By charging high prices on concessions, exhibition houses are able to keep ticket prices lower, which allows more people to enjoy the silver-screen experience.

The findings empirically answer the age-old question of whether it’s better to charge more for a primary product (in this case, the movie ticket) or a secondary product (the popcorn). Putting the premium on the “frill” items, it turns out, indeed opens up the possibility for price-sensitive people to see films. That means more customers coming to theaters in general, and a nice profit from those who are willing to fork it over for the Gummy Bears.

I’ll have to take their word for it. I’ve seen exactly one movie in the theaters in the last four years. The popcorn and hot dogs cost too much.

Tuesday, February 26th | 3 comments

“Impossible” Chef Caught in Very Possible Lies (TMZ.com – h/t Joisey@PortlandFood.org)

The hard-ass British chef who stars in Food Network’s “Dinner: Impossible” is finding that spinning tall tales about one’s background is no cakewalk — and now the network says it’s investigating his alleged misrepresentations. Oh, deah.

Robert Irvine has claimed all over the place that he’d helped design Prince Charles and Princess Di’s wedding cake, among other things. But after an oddly thorough investigation by the St. Petersburg Times, Irvine admits he didn’t really bake it — or have anything to do with it … and that’s just the icing.

“It’s unfortunate if Robert embellished the extent of his culinary experiences,” said a Food Network rep. “We are investigating the matter and taking the necessary steps to ensure the accuracy of all representations of Robert on Food Network and foodnetwork.com.”

The Food Network also had an incident during the very last Search for the Next Food Network Douchebag™ where that guy (who was probably going to actually win the thing) was discovered to have lied about being an Iraq War vet.

You think a major league outfit like the Food Network would vet their talent a little more efficiently. They seem to have the pre-screening acumen displayed by the Bush Administration when it came time to staff FEMA.

What next? Might we find out that Guy Fieri’s hair color is—gasp—unnatural?

Monday, February 25th | No comments

Michelin Gives Stars, but Tokyo Turns Up Nose. (NY Times)

Many prominent figures of the Tokyo food world, however, are saying to Michelin, in effect, thanks for all the attention (which we deserve), but you still do not know us or our cuisine.

Food critics, magazines and even the governor of Tokyo have questioned the guide’s choice of restaurants and ratings. A handful of chefs proudly proclaimed that they had turned down chances to be listed. One, Toshiya Kadowaki, said his nouveau Japonais dishes, including a French-inspired rice with truffles, did not need a Gallic seal of approval.

…

“Anybody who knows restaurants in Tokyo knows that these stars are ridiculous,” said Toru Kenjo, president of Gentosha publishing house, whose men’s fashion magazine, Goethe, published a lengthy critique of the Tokyo guide last month. “Michelin has debased its brand. It won’t sell as well here in the future.”

Sunday, February 24th | 1 comment

Up here in Oregon, the winters are bleak and stark, with weeks upon consecutive weeks of rain and grey. There’s a phenomenon called “Seasonal Affective Disorder” that can be used to explain the winter doldrums we experience in the Pacific Northwest (although we tend to call it by its less-pedantic moniker, “alcoholism”). While I wait for the return of the sun and the dissipation of the thick cloud cover, I can’t help but focus on how old I’ve become.

I turned 35 a half year ago, and for me it was a watershed milestone. I’m now officially middle-aged. (I base this assumption upon the fact that 67 is the retirement age that the Social Security Administration deems you’ve slaved long enough to collect full benefits. I then add over two years to this number for that realization to actually sink in).

At the time of my birthday, I had no time to reflect or dwell, as my wife was in the hospital undergoing the second of two major surgeries to remove cancerous tumors from her mid-section, and my best friend was in another hospital barely cheating death with a nasty bout of lymphoblastic leukemia. Also, it was Venezuelan Flag Day, which for socialist Hugo-philes like myself is equivalent of Christmas and Bastille Day rolled into one.

Now that things have slowed down a bit, I’m now awash in the morass of listlessness and depression that accompanies the gradual march towards death. Also, my Arizona Wildcats are in danger of missing the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time in 24 years, and Mike Huckabee is no longer a viable candidate for the Republican presidential nominee, which means that we will not have a candidate this year that believed Man and Dinosaur both existed at the same time. Calgon, take me away.

You know you’re old if:

• You reach for salt in your kitchen and realize—in addition to kosher and iodized salt—you have 9 types of sea salt
• After your daughter knocks your beer chalice off the table and breaks the glass, spilling witbier all over the carpet and sofa, causing your wife to yell at you for playing ball in the house, you realize at this point in your life there’s pretty much nothing she can say or do to ever make you stop
• Dinner and a movie becomes just dinner or just a movie and then becomes sitting on the couch with a laptop and yelling at the Internet
• If in previous decades you used to look in the mirror and see promise and potential, you now remark to yourself, “Wow, time to tame those nose hairs”
• You remember when rap music didn’t suck
• You’re thinking about rehab because the first one didn’t “take”
• Your anger and resentment transgresses from players and the coach and shoots up the vitriol hierarchy to the actual baseball GMs themselves
• You have a food blog
• You stop and consider the full implications of amortization
• You get replacement earphones for your iPod because you feel self-conscious with white earbuds in public
• You are resentful that another one of your friends is getting married, not because you’re losing a friend to marriage or that it reminds you that everybody’s getting older, but because you’re compelled to go to Las Vegas and suffer through a punishing weekend
• You foment a fondness for a certain brand of toilet paper
• You take the bus downtown on New Year’s Eve and realize everybody on the bus is younger than you and has spent more money on their clothes
• Flipping through the channels, you come across Suze Orman and don’t immediately change the channel
• You call up your mobile phone provider and yell at them for the 3rd time to remove incoming text capabilities from your device
• You need a vacation to recover from your vacation
• You have a difficult time keeping track of which celebrities are dead or alive
• You reflexively spew invectives at anybody who tells you to visit their MySpace page
• While paging through the recorded episodes on your DVR, you realize that it’s 50% PBS shows—including Ruff Ruffman,  Frontline, and Clifford the Big Red Dog
• You develop curmudgeonly insane rationalizations, such as “I’ll reduce my carbon footprint the moment somebody perfects microwave pizza”
• You’ve rearranged your garage for the third time in as many months
• One of your favorite bands is playing, and you say “I’ll just catch them next time they come to town on the back leg of the current tour” and the band either breaks up or dies before you can do so
• Your skepticism is no longer reserved for standard, questionable precepts such as Religion and Government, and instead trades in  theories related to the systemic suppression of Monosodium Glutamate

Friday, February 22nd | 3 comments

Lawmaker: USDA shouldn’t cover food safety. (MSNBC)

A lawmaker called Tuesday for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be stripped of its responsibility for food safety in the wake of the nation’s largest-ever meat recall.

The agency’s twin mandates of promoting the nation’s agriculture and monitoring it for safety have become blurred, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro said.

“Food safety ought to be of a high enough priority in this nation that we have a single agency that deals with it and not an agency that is responsible for promoting a product, selling a product and then as an afterthought dealing with how our food supply is safe,” said DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the House subcommittee responsible for the USDA’s funding.

Hard to say if a new bureaucratic arm of the federal government is the answer, but it’s clear the present system is broken. The market has decided: we don’t care if you die.

Wednesday, February 20th | No comments

Smells like shit. Hillary’s campaign is an utter train wreck.

“But you know in the end, don’t vote your fears. I’m stealing this line from my buddy (Massachusetts Gov.) Deval Patrick who stole a whole bunch of lines from me when he ran for the governorship, but it’s the right one, don’t vote your fears, vote your aspirations. Vote what you believe.”

—Barack Obama, December 21, 2007

Does anybody at ABC read their own blog?

Tuesday, February 19th | 1 comment

Your tacos or your life! (Yahoo! News)

A hunger for carnitas nearly led to some carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. Police Sergeant Jeff Decker said the 35-year-old victim had just bought about $20 in tacos from a street-corner stand Sunday night and was bicycling home when the suspect confronted him and said “Give me your tacos.”

Decker said the suspect grabbed the bag of food, punched the victim in the face and began to flee.

When the victim demanded his tacos back, the suspect pointed what appeared to be a handgun at the man and threatened to kill him before running away.

This was categorized under “Odd News”. I did not find it odd at all.

In fact, I’m 35-years old, own a bicycle, AND enjoy carnitas, especially in street taco form. This is very, very scary and really hits home. We have lost a bit of our collective innocence.

There must be some extra laws we can pass or some shared sacrifice we can endure in order to make sure this never happens again. Join your local vigilante street justice group, mentor a young person, or distribute radishes and limes to the underprivileged. Do something.

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernard Shaw

Tuesday, February 19th | No comments

Cadbury thinks out of the box with ‘eco-egg’. (Guardian UK)

Cadbury Schweppes, which makes half of Britain’s Easter eggs, is trialling an unboxed “eco-egg” as part of its efforts to reduce 30% of its carbon emissions by 2020.

The foil-wrapped, hollowed out eggs are being sold under the Mini Eggs, Dairy Milk and Dairy Milk Caramel labels from moulded plastic casing preventing the eggs from rolling around on the shelf.

Cadbury said it was confident there was significant demand for such an offering despite the fact that many eggs are bought as gifts.

The global warming canard is so pervasive it now threatens how we enjoy Easter. I promise that for every Cadbury eco-terrorist chocolate confection sold, I will personally operate my lawn mower for 30 seconds.

We must alternately eat PEEPS® in order to save America, properly acknowledge the resurrection of Jesus, and heal the wounds of humanity.

Luckily, before then there’s St. Patrick’s Day and we can get totally trashed.

Monday, February 18th | 1 comment

USDA Makes Nation’s Largest Beef Recall. (AP)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a California slaughterhouse, the subject of an animal-abuse investigation, that provided meat to school lunch programs.

Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats. No illnesses have been linked to the newly recalled meat, and officials said the health threat was likely small.

The recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., the federal agency said.

Hallmark Meat Co.?

Sunday, February 17th | No comments

I may not approve of her Bill-n-Chelsea pimpin’ strategy or the asshat consultants she surrounds herself with, but I could get behind this policy.

Thursday, February 14th | No comments

Cocoa bean harvest puts kids at risk despite chocolate makers’ efforts. (Canadian Press via Topix)

Instead of rich and creamy sweetness, chocolate’s aftertaste may be stomach-turning bitterness once consumers learn that poor farmers are forced to use child labour to harvest cocoa beans.

Even as the chocolate industry is trying to curb unsavoury cocoa-farming practices in Ivory Coast and Ghana, Canadian aid workers, among others, are disappointed in the industry’s snail’s pace at dealing with the issue.

Thursday, February 14th | No comments

The Westminster Kennel Club gave a long-awaited Best in Show this year to a beagle.

As my own beagle would say, “It’s about fucking time, bitch.”

Wednesday, February 13th | 1 comment

US store chain cuts sales of food from China. (Yahoo! News)

US grocery chain Trader Joe’s said Monday it would stop selling food imported from China due to customers’ concerns about the products’ safety.

“Our customers have voiced concerns about products from this region and we have listened,” Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said in a statement.

“All single ingredient food items sourced from mainland China sre scheduled to be out of our stores by April 1,” she said.

“We will continue to source products from other regions until our customers feel as confident as we do about the quality and safety of Chinese products.”

Wednesday, February 13th | No comments

I watched Obama speak tonight in Wisconsin. That is, until the disgustingly craven 24-hour news network¹ I was tuned into switched over to McCain speak in front of some old guy in a $4k suit.

The contrast couldn’t be more stark. Like the difference between well-marbled Waygu and cube steak.

¹Amy Holmes and John King are really some of the worst people on network news. At least the cretins on Fox News don’t try to pretend.

Tuesday, February 12th | 1 comment

The 20 Worst Foods in America. (Men’s Health).

What’s the worst?

Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing

• 2,900 calories
• 182 g fat
• 240 g carbs

Who would have thought fried potatoes covered in cheese and dipped in pure fat would be so bad for you? I may have to re-examine the bacon-gizzard protein shakes I usually have for breakfast.

Monday, February 11th | 1 comment

I’ve always harbored a bit of doubt about the handmade corn tortillas I’ve seen over the years on the shelves at Trader Joe’s. They seemed too thick, too…stone ground to be a good foil for the taco meats I prepare in my home. I feared that — as fat and earthy as they appeared to be — the tortillas themselves would be too toothsome and dry, like eating whole kernals of raw corn.

Boy, was I wrong.

These are suprisingly great tortillas. They need to be heated on a dry, flat pan, over high heat, for at least 30 seconds per side. Flip and back and forth to get good reheat coverage.

Here they are enveloping some recent carne seca tacos (recipe to come soon). With many taqueria-style tortillas, it’s essential to double up the flats in order to have them hold up throughout the meal to the fillings and garnishes.

These TJ tortillas hold their own as a singular entity.

Even on the last taco, at the mid-taco event, the tortillas still are doing the job. I believe they would perform the heavy lifting for a good huevos rancheros.

Trader Joe’s Handmade Corn Tortillas

Available at a Trader Joes near you

Saturday, February 9th | No comments

The world’s rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan (Independent UK).

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world’s largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex”, believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: “The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States.”

Saturday, February 9th | No comments

Friday, February 8th | 1 comment

“We’re in so deep that it doesn’t seem like anything will help,” said Rebekah Ao, 33, a pregnant homemaker who lives in a new four-bedroom home in Avondale with her husband, Otto, a truck driver. The Aos, with $50,000 in income, owe a total of $607,000 on mortgages for two houses they bought since they moved to the Phoenix area about two years ago.

Christ almighty, there’s so many things wrong with the above quote.

Wednesday, February 6th | 2 comments

Poison Dumplings Kill Japanese Merger (Business Week)

The overnight slump in U.S. stocks was the overwhelming reason for Japan’s Nikkei 225 index plunging 4.7% on Feb. 6. But for Nissin Food Products, the company that brought the world instant noodles, it was the continuing fallout from a scandal over contaminated dumplings that sent shares into free fall, tumbling 8.5%.

Nissin’s stock is the latest innocent victim of a batch of tainted, Chinese-made gyoza dumplings, imported by Japan Tobacco’s food arm, which led to more than 10 cases of food poisoning. News of the poisonings broke last week (BusinessWeek.com, 1/31/08) and triggered a slew of recalls of products produced by Tianyang Food, the Chinese producer of the dumplings. A huge news story in Japan, the scandal also renewed fears among consumers over the safety of Chinese products.

Wednesday, February 6th | No comments

Talking.

Damn, he’s good.

UPDATE: On another note, Huckabee’s wife owns a bedazzler.

Tuesday, February 5th | 2 comments

Food Politics, Half-Baked. (NY Times)

A call-to-arms to…put down your arms.

One need look no further than the battle over genetically modified crops starting in the 1990s to understand how this language undermines the qualified benefits of biotech innovation. Without a hint of doubt, pro-biotech forces insisted that genetically modified crops would end hunger and eliminate the need for pesticides. Genetic modification was supposedly a harmless panacea that would save the planet. Industry not only promoted this fiction, but it scoffed at the prospects of product labeling, insisting that it was the product, not the process, that mattered.

This arrogant attitude spurred the anti-biotech forces to promote their own distortions. “Frankenfoods” became the term of choice for genetically modified crops. Chemical companies engaged in “biopiracy”; they were killers of monarch butterflies, engineers of future “superweeds,” and according to Jeremy Rifkin, the prominent biotech opponent, monopolizers of an insidious technology that posed “as serious a threat to the existence of life on the planet as the bomb itself.”

Tuesday, February 5th | No comments

Taqueria Pico de Gallo sits squarely in the epicenter of South Tucson, on South 6th Avenue, a mile south of 22nd Avenue. South Tucson is an anomoly; it’s an enclave that covers roughly a square mile, and it’s surrounded entirely by the city of Tucson proper. South Tucson has its own municipal services and zoning regulations, and its own mayor and city council. Why they would want to do this is anybody’s guess. All I can say is that — despite having a crime rate higher than Camden, New Jersey (aka America’s most dangerous city and all-around fun zone) — the citizens of South Tucson obviously choose to live here because of the proximity to some good-ass tacos¹.

Contrary to what some normally consider to be “pico de gallo”, namely, a salsa fresca made with chopped fresh tomatoes, the namesake in this instance refers to the deliciously fresh fruit cups served up by the taqueria (and sprinkled with chili salt).

They also serve these fruity, frozen raspados, which are coincidentally crafted…

…right next door.

Enough with food that is not tacos.

The breakfast menu.

The menu board.

The full menu luckily is available in the early AM (and from which I order breakfast when I’m in town).

This is the only table sauce they have on hand, a thick, incendiary concoction made from chile de arbol.

The taco plates are garnished with excellent pickled onions. The tortillas at Pico De Gallo are wonderful, thick, substantial discs of stoney masa goodness, freshly prepared on the premises. They are unlike any other Mexican restaurant in the Tucson area (which for the most part tilts towards flour as does Sonoran cuisine).

The tortillas here work together with a crispy, fried pillows of mild flesh to form one of the best fish tacos I’ve had, especially considering the nearest port is Puerto Penasco some 4 hours away in Mexico. The white sauce — normally a conceit I’ll even leave off my fish taco — here is a perfect foil for the fiery table salsa.

A decent asada.

Birria.

Barbacoa. These shredded meat tacos are a bit juicy/saucy, and tend to saturate the tortillas to the point where they have difficulty standing up. (This does not apply to the cabeza, which is shredded beef cheek and holds up well). However, the shredded meats are well prepared and are worth ordering — I would perhaps eat these first.

Here’s the proof that I paid for my meal.

Taqueria Pico de Gallo

2618 South 6th Avenue (Google Map)
85713 (
520)623-8775

Links

• RoadFood.com

Footnotes

¹ I lived just a mile-and-a-half north of South Tucson for a few years. I walked and biked all over the place, even late at night. It’s not that bad. I did get three bikes stolen.

In fact, I stayed just over a mile north of this place during my time in Tucson, at my wife’s godmother’s guest house.

The most dangerous thing I encountered was this cactus. This fucking evil plant ruined many an afternoon growing up, as while trying to catch an errant outlet pass you might end up in a patch, and hundreds of these miniscule, orange hair-like spines would attach to your lower calf with ferocity. Only a long soak in an oatmeal bath would temper the pain and suffering.

Monday, February 4th | 5 comments