La Tapatia recently opened with a full meat counter, deli, & bakery. The chain also has stores in PDX & Gresham. It’s on the west side of Lancaster in the old Book Bin. Across the way, on the east side of Lancaster, El Torito has taken over the Panaderia Oaxaquena (a bakery) and has moved its tortilla machines and its taqueria over there and opened as EL TORO. They have great tacos with handmade tortillas de maiz. El Torito has been there since at least 2006 and I like the people there..
EL TORO has tacos de sesos (brains) & tacos de tripas (tripe) for the adventurous. We got al pastor, carnitas, & carne asada for a take home lunch one day this week. Generous servings for the fillings, unlike some places.
EL TORITO SUPERMARKET is now open on Lancaster, just south of Center on the east side in the old PET SMART.
A version from a Martha Rose Schulman recipe. Clam juice, clams, Alaskan cod-pieces, white wine, saffron, mild Rotel Tomatoes & green chiles.. Feb 23, 2013..
I’m not that impressed with Trader Joe’s frozen fish.
Their MEAT ISSUE mentions the Big Apple Market on Jeff Davis. Who let them off their West End tether? Next they’ll be reviewing the Guate bars in that neck of the woods.
Barbacoa con Big Red! (Randy Garibay 1939 - 2002)
It should be noted that Big Apple’s fish market can be rather aromatic in the summer. And they usually have the widest selection of dried beans in the area. Flor de mayo, Mayacoba, Canario, y mucho mas! And they often have tins of Caldo de Garrobo (iguana soup) which is said to be an aid in combatting hangovers and an aid for impotence.
OK, folks, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one can get a go-cup of menudo at panaderias (Mexican bakeries) in Kansas City. And the panaderias don’t use that foul tasting excuse for shortening that the folks at Sabrosita use. (Was it aviation lubricant from the days of the Contra incursion? It really tastes synthetic. Ikk.)
Here’s a photo from Bonito Michoacan, a Mexican grocery, meat market, & eatery in Kansas City, KS. buena comida aqui!
You guys crack me up. Arguing about big-boxing the Fan. I’m sure very few of you have cruised down Jeff Davis and gone to Big Apple Market (a ‘hispanic” market run by Koreans). I’ve suggested this but some of you think you need to hire Blackwater operatives to go to the non-bolillo (non-whitebread) parts of this burg.
I can’t wait until ASK A MEXICAN shows up in STYLE WEAKLY. But I’ll have crossed the Mississippi by then.
Since Oona has taken work in Kansas City, I’ve been batching it. Soups are great for that. Especially this one, CALDO VERDE, a Portuguese kale & potato soup.
CALDO VERDE
3/4 of a pound of potatoes, diced (you can peel them if you are fastidious)
1 onion, peeled & thinly sliced
2 shallots, peeled & thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & crushed
1 tbs of olive oil
Heat oil in a heavy soup kettle, saute onion/shallot/garlic until translucent; add potatoes, adding
1.5 quarts of chicken or turkey stock
some chopped parsley
2 bay leaves
Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender. Remove bay leaves; mash potatoes or liquify in a blendor.
Cut 1/3 of a pound of kale in a fine chiffonade and add this to the soup. Simmer for a bit and add salt & pepper to taste. Slices of fried chorizo may be added for a garnish.
I’ve had a hankering for menudo for a couple of weeks.
(from wikipedia)
The soup menudo is a traditional Mexican dish, made with hominy and tripe in a clear broth or occasionally with a red chile base (this variation is called menudo colorado). It is traditionally served on special occasions or with family. Usually, lime, chopped onions, and chopped cilantro are added, as well as crushed oregano and crushed red chili peppers. Boiled tripe has a tough chewy texture very similar to calamari, but with a completely unique flavor and smell.
Menudo is usually eaten with tortillas or other breads, such as bolillo. It is often chilled and reheated, which causes a more concentrated flavor. The popularity of menudo in Mexico is such that Mexico is a major export market for stomach tripe from US and Canadian beef producers. Large frozen blocks of imported menudo meat can frequently be seen in Mexican meat markets.
Menudo is essentially a poor people’s food. One of the two prime ingredients is hominy, or nixtamalized corn, an ingredient that has provided nourishment to Mesoamerican peoples for millennia; the other is tripe, an offal meat usually eaten by the poor. Menudo is also a familial food, in the preparation of which the entire family participates, and even serves as an occasion for social interaction with others, since oftentimes throngs of people with pots in hand will wait at the butcher’s shop to buy their menudo, if their families no longer make it themselves.
Given that menudo is time and labor intensive to prepare–the tripe takes hours to cook (or else it is extremely tough), and many ingredients and side dishes (such as salsa) need to be cut and cooked–the dish is often prepared communally and eaten at a feast; documents from the Works Progress Administration indicate that in the 1930s, among (migrant) workers in Arizona, menudo parties were held regularly to celebrate births, Christmas, and other occasions.
It’s also said to be a cure for hangovers.. it’s a bit like Vietnamese phò, in that regard.
“Pa’ un crudo, come menudo” (for a hangover, eat menudo, Breakfast of Champions)
Menudo, que rico!
I had a nice bowl of it for breakfast today at El Vaquero after my usual 2-mile walk. I was not hungover, either.
Oona got back from Oregon and we went to El Vaquero tonight. She had the chicken quesadilla plate (with rice, beans & salad) and I had carne asada gorditas. And we each had a glass of horchata.
The owner brought us out a complementary bowl of their Friday special, caldo de res. Which is a restorative pho-like beef soup with potato, carrot, & cabbage in it. This place is one of the best non-gringoized Mexican restaurants in this burg. We may go there for breakfast tomorrow.
Carta de negocios
Heard in El Matamoros in Austin in the 1970s from a vegetarian:
Chickenfoot Soup 