EatNopales

La Ruta del Sabor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJQPf5YhtUE&feature=related

El Nuevo Rincon de los Sabores http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVdzSBx9ym8

Sabores de Mexico

For those who do understand Spanish.. some of the best food show clips on the interwebs are those from Once TV IPN (Public TV) their You Tube channel is: http://www.youtube.com/user/CanalOnceIPN They organize videos into playlists for each show. The following are the food related ones: El Comal Que Marca Las Horas En Materia de Pescado

The garnishes for the soup? Counter clock wise... Avocado, crumbled Queso Fresco / Panela, shreds of dried Ancho chile, Tortilla Chips, Crema Michoacana (a very thick yellowish, nutty & slightly sweet type of Creme Fraiche)...

Quick summer dinner last night.... a little Cabreria Asada (Ribeye), Heirloom Tomatoes, Guacamole Verde & fresh Elote.

Here we go with some actual English language clips.. these are from Facebook friend Patricia Jinich (who now has her own syndicated show & has pulled her You Tube channel but you can still find the videos if you are bit crafty): http://patismexicantable.com/06-press-clips/02-clips/

Alright Darienne here we go... Nick Zukin is the force behind extramsg.com a Portland, OR centric website focusing on street foods which has brought Nick on a couple of trips to Mexico... you can find his YouTube videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/portlandfoodDOTorg His footage of Super Tacos Chupacabras in Coyoacan (South Mexico City). They are trying to differentiate themselves with the name Super Tacos but really what they are Tacos Placeros (Plaza Tacos).. these are a bit different than classic Street Tacos.. in that they are larger and have extensive, often strange toppings. For example, in Xochimilco (further south & east of Coyoacan) one of the specialty Placeros is Pit Roasted Beef Barbacoa tacos with whole fried Charales (a smelt like fish) & Nopalitos as toppings. At Super Tacos Chupacabras their available toppings are Nopales, Whole Beans, Carmelized Onions, Pickled Onions & Pan Fried Potatoes (all self serve) and of course salsas.. always. You can get those toppings over Biztec (Top Round Steak), Chorizo, Cecina (salted, partly sun dried paper thin beef leg).

Thanks Andie... smoked Tamales sounds interesting! Baking the tamal (after nuking it a bit) made a big positive difference... I sliced up so you can see the thigh rolled up in a thin layer of masa... on the side is sauteed Brocoli Slaw tossed with Cabbage Escabeche.

Hello we actually just moved back from Kailua this summer where we lived almost 3 years. Not a lot of real farmers are at the farmer's markets on Oahu it is really produce wholesalers with some exceptions. The Kailua market is very small.. the big draw are actually the prepared foods with the fried green tomato lady being the most popular. Some of the things I enjoyed cooking with: Salicornias Young Jicamas (grown on the North Shore) Various Japanese greens particularly wing beans Kamuela Tomatoes Manoa Lettuce Neighboring Kailua on one side is Waimanalu where there are some interesting farms.. a visit to Nalo farms or Waimanalo Country Farms would be advisable. Going the other direction there are some worthwhile road side stands on the way to Northshore at the junction of Kamehameha & Kahekili highways: http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=21.457602,-157.83857&hl=en&sll=21.457337,-157.836419&sspn=0.00349,0.006539&vpsrc=0&gl=us&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=18&t=h&z=18 Restaurants in Kailua generally suck... avoid most local recommendations they will send you to craptitudinal places like Formaggio's, Kapalawai Market, Baci Bistro, Buzz's Steakhouse etc., If you are planning a trip to Alan Wong's please allow me to convince you to go to Chef Mavro instead. Wong's I think is mostly popular on fumes now, but the dining room sucks the food is meh & the service is downright incompetent... its only advantage is that it is cheaper than Mavro. But Mavro is no French Laundry either... if you have one splurge meal, I would point you to the island's "Sushi Nazi" at Sushi Sasabune where you will be instructed on how to eat each particular fish & type of sushi. For $100 a person you will have a Sushi experience for which Manhattanites & Angelenos pay $500 to parallel. Back to ingredients... I would highly advise a visit to Tamashiro's Fish Market.... and for the island's best deal on raw fish, get down to Ahi & Vegetable.. a weekday only corporate crowd lunch joint... the owner, a highly touted angler, is the only bargain sushi restaurateur who shows up to the Fish Market to buy whole fish & break them down himself. For $10 you can anjoy a Spicy Ahi Salad with Ahi Sashimi & Salmon Roe that has fish that puts most highly touted Sushi houses in California to utter shame.

Carlos Hernandez, a self described admirer of Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods is a very popular show in Mexico), is based out of Mexico City and has posted well over 100 videos of Street Food vendors on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/user/teknoshopmex Here is his video on Tacos de Mixiotes estilo Hidalgo (in this occassion Lamb & Pork are tossed with a secret recipe dried chile paste, put inside a pouch made up "paper" pulled from Agave leaves & steamed to perfection) Unlike the Taquerias that are typical in the States... Mexican taco stands are highly specialized and have small menus, everybody tries to differentiate themselves as much as possible while delivering the highest quality at competitive prices. All this particular stand does are Mixiotes... either by the Taco or by weight for family style dining.

Mrs. Nopales made this bird for dinner last night: It was roasted over fennel, carrots & onions... a little seeded baguette to soak up the juices from the pan, some vino & lemon bar with blackberries from the back yard.

Honestly I am neither a huge fan of Robert Rodriguez (I think he peaked on the original El Mariachi) or that Pibil recipe... although I do think that if you can't get Banana leaves or any other type of green leafy that has some kind of anisey, burnt aroma it can be challenging. As others have mentioned.. Pibil in the Yucatan style (sounds funny but Pibil is now so widespread throughout the Mexican mainland that there really are diverging styles)... in the Yucatan they like a very subtle, but tasty approach... and of course the destination worthy versions are cooked in a pit... I am not 100% sure what kind of wood they use there but I would venture to say it is Almond. The one thing I do like about Rodriguez is the inclusion of Tequila to provide that green, slightly burnt element in absence of banana leaves... although I would probably include a little anise seed as well.

Interesting... so is that for the initial cooking or just rewarming?

Oooh.. great suggestion to use guinea fowl... I am going to have to give that a try. And I think your point is spot on. A few years the local food writing hack in Wine Country wrote an article on why even the best tacos around town are easily overshadowed as soon as you step across the international foot bridge... early on he discounted the meat component saying something to the extent of... well we can assume American beef is at least as good as Mexican beef... well its not even about arguing which style is better... the fact is that most Mexican dishes were developed to be prepared with well pastured beef, pig, chicken etc., The flavors fine tuned to stand up to "really beefy tasting" beef, and the techniques designed to deliver tender results... apply U.S. beef to the equation & the beef is easily overwhelmed.... the rest of his article was pretty clueless as well. BTW, I didn't take a pic, but the Mrs & I split a tamal today, topped with Cabbage Escabeche & a garnish of home grown tomatoes. The meal was very delicious however still too moist... I think I will try warming in the oven rather than steaming or maybe a combination of both. Some of these saucy tamales like the Tlapiques of Xochimilco are often finished right on the coals so maybe even rewarming on the griddle might be the way to go. Will report back tomorrow.

Since we have some brave souls passionately cooking Mexican dishes, sometimes without having ever seen a particular dish, and I keep running across interesting stuff that might be valuable... I thought why not put links to Cooking & Travelogue videos for the comrades? First up Yessica Perez aka La Receta de la Abuelita (Grandmother's Recipe)... she is a prolific contributor on You Tube. (How Make Stuffed Calabacitas aka Mexican Zucchini aka Courgettes):

I was watching La Ruta del Sabor on Once TV Mexico visit to Aguacatitla a Nahua (Aztec) town in San Luis Potosi and one of the dishes presented was Patlaxtle (not to be confused with the varietals of Cacao or Dried Bean with those names)... the lady took a whole chicken, butterflied it, put a deep gash between the thighs & dunked it in a Chile Chinito paste (similar to an Ancho). Then she spread 5 whole banana leaves with a thin layer of masa, circumference a bit bigger than the chicken, wrapped to the whole thing into a giant tamal & steamed it for 3 hours.... I had some leftover roasted Tomatillo-Ancho-Arbol salsa & saw fresh (unfrozen) banana leaves at Lola's market, and thought... I am going to have to try this. Well, not being particular skilled at wrapping tamales I decided to ease into by doing chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken. As you can see I had no real uniform plan for wrapping the packages, I think each one is different from the rest: I steamed them for about an hour, and although these are going to be the basis for lunch this week, I opened the smallest one to verify if the chicken was cooked through etc., my gawd the fabulous aroma... It was a bit too moist for my liking (probably because my paste was a bit thinner than hers), and the chicken was just past the perfect point (her chicken was truly free range, I was using "supermarket free range" which of course is still on the bland & mushy side... do this with heritage, 6 month old, bugeaters if you can). Now I must admit that those who decry Mexican food as fattening are spot on.... not because of the nutritive properties.. because its hard to stop yourself from eating more & more... after having a nice dinner & being too satisfied for dessert I still found a way to polish off the damn tamal.

Great looking dishes Sapidus! For lunch today Huevos Hilados. Some background.. in the Jalisco Highlands there is a fairly common rhythm to bean consumption..... first meal after making a pot of Frijoles.... you have them whole in their broth, with some Nopalitos or something else a la Mexicana, Wedge of Queso Fresco, tortillas etc., Next meal are usually Refritos or Chinitos. Chinitos in this context does not mean little Chinese people, it means "Goosebumps" or "Chicken Skin" because you pan fry the whole, drained beans until they get crispy & their skin looks like they have goosebumps. By the third meal / round you are left with a bunch of broth & not much beans. There are a couple of ways to go, one way is to add some leftover salsa to the broth as well as some greens from the Milpa... garnish with cilantro & onion.... orrrr.... you can make Huevos Hilados... bring the broth to a boil, add a beaten egg & stir.. serve with whatever leftovers you have. Not the most beautiful Mexican dish ever but very tasty, nutritious & a good use of leftovers. Other common alternatives are to poach or hardboil the egg in the broth, or to make a little omelette or fritata that gets served in the broth.

Definitely that's the way I want it to be great ingredients, but cheap! I do definitely wan a taco of some sort, maybe I change the taco every week, I like the idea of fried chicken and soul food. I don't know when this truck thing is going to happen. I'm just getting ideas of what kind of food I'll sell and just starting up. Thanks Hmmm.. how about Fried Chicken thigh Tacos topped with Cabbage Escabeche, Pickled Jalapenos & thick, soured Buttermilk (are there any tortillerias in Nashville that make thick "home made" style corn tortillas? Catfish tacos Ensenada Style beer batter Smoked Sparerib Tacos with Salsa de Cacahuate (Peanut, Tomato, Arbol Chile, Roasted Garlic Salsa)

I think the most credible etymology is that it comes from Aceituna (a particularly popular word for Olive in the Spanish world at the time).. its own etymology comes Aceite de Tunez.. Tunisian Oil.. Spaniards who first encountered the fruit in the Zacatecas area thought they somehow resemebled Olives.. but they were of course not oily.. hence Tuna. It remains to be explored why the native name Nochtli did not stick.. particularly when one of the most important towns in Zacatecas is Nochistlan... place of the prickly pear cactus.

Great to hear you replicate the amaranth pancakes... hopefully there will be another blog someday.

Thanks! My wife is absolutely tickled that you like the meatloaf.

Hi Heidi.. it is a slide hinge. The Mole & Pipian both come from the Larousse book (fantastic resource for experienced cooks focused) includes about 50 Mole recipes in its Ingredient, Technique, Grid centric format (rather than dish recipe)... can I post some pics from its pages?

Hi Ruth... I am happy to report that Javier Plascencia actually purchased the old Ceasar's Place & remodeled it back to its Roaring 20's swank... he of course is offering the true Caesar in all its glory (with the coddled egg etc.,) Like Kalypso mentioned the food scene is phenomenal in North Baja... people in New York, Chicago & San Francisco would wish to be able to boast of those restaurants in their inventory.