mmm-yoso – Page 329

COMC: Hakata Ramen from Izakaya Masa

August 19, 2010 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Ramen

I know, I know, a ramen post on the hottest day of the year…. have I lost it or what? But this post is from all the way back in May…… there are so many COMC (Clearing out the memory card) posts, and I'm trying to catch up.

I hadn't been to Izakaya Masa in quite a while. In fact, the last time I visited, Masa was still serving lunch. For some reason, I always appreciated the place when it was still Teriyaki Cowboy. I always knew what to expect, decent, reasonable, semi fast food Japanese. When they became Masa, I found the lunches to be reasonable, but for some reason, I've never thought the place to be worth the special trip for dinner.

So when I read Dennis's post after returning from China regarding Izakaya Masa's weekend lunch, and the Hakata Ramen in particular, I made sure to drop by. I had heard about Masa's Hakata Ramen from several acquaintances, as well as "sammusubi" in a comment on my Ramen Comparison post. Not much had changed at Izakaya Masa, things look basically the same.

A bowl here is priced reasonably at $6.95, and you can get various combinations (with gyoza or fried rice, or both) from $8.50 to $10.50.

I decided to kinda go my own way, and started with something I think Masa does well. Chuka Kurage (Jellyfish Salad – $3.95).

Normally a great dish to have with drinks, I enjoy the refreshing vinegar-soy flavor, and the nice crunch.

Of course I went for the Hakata Ramen ($6.95):

The Tonkotsu style broth, usually the product of rapidly boiled pork bones, resulting in a rich, milky looking broth, was on thin side, missing the tongue coating richness I enjoy. I love regular straight up shio or shoyu ramen; but this is tonkotsu broth so my expectations are different. There was a strange, almost metallic tinged aftertaste that made me think that perhaps a "base" was being used to perhaps help things out? The chashu tasted a bit on the mild side, but were sufficiently tender and moist.

From my experience, one of the signatures of Hakata Ramen are the thin and straight noodles, these noodles had a decent "crunch", but were thicker than what I would consider Hakata style noodles to be.

Overall, this was a decent bowl, priced right, but not outstanding. Still, it's nice to have options in the Mission Hills area. Funny thing, just like Dennis, most of the folks who recommended the ramen from Masa to me personally, usually consumed it while, ummmm…. how should I say it? Well perhaps the lyrics to this song say it best:

"I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me….."

And heck, it's probably better than a greasy California Burrito from Santana's up the street right? Right?

Izakaya Masa
928 Fort Stockton Dr
San Diego, CA 92103

Weeknight Grilling times two – Cumin and Sichuan Peppercorn Skirt Steak and Grilled Vegetables

August 17, 2010 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

We grilled the last two evenings, so I figured I'd do one last weeknight grilling post. We've been enjoying weeknight grilling…. it's all about timing, and objective is to get everything to the table in less than an hour. I've already done a post on skirt steak, so I hope you don't mind another. On Monday, I picked up some skirt steak and a ciabatta on the way home…….. I thought I'd do the simple grilled skirt steak, but when I got home I decided something else.

I was inspired by something I had in Xi'an……

They call it Rou Jia Mo…… you can call it a sandwich if you want to…….

Basically heavily seasoned meat stuffed in bread. And Xi'an being the end of the Silk Road, you can bet this was wonderfully cumin, salt, and chili heavy.

I was also itching to use the very potent five spice from QingDao that Fifth Aunt sent home with us. It's the same five spice that she uses in her own home made sausage. First I got the hardwood charcoal going in my chimney starter. This was basically a retread of my Cumin Lamb and Grilled Cumin and Sichuan Peppercorn Lamb Chop recipes. And you all know how much I love cumin lamb.

I marinated the skirt steak in shaosing, premium soy sauce, premium dark soy sauce, five spice (just a pinch, a little of this goes a long way) and cumin. I was out of sweet bean paste, so I used some sambal olek to add some zip.

I sliced three cloves of garlic lengthwise and sauteed them over medium-low heat until soft. I added sliced green bell pepper and sliced onion. I was going for a bit of color, and wanted the natural sugars to develop. I didn't want it too sweet, but I added some shaosing, sea salt, cumin(of course), and a dash of premium soy sauce.I'd use this as the veg for my sandwich. Figuring that this was going to be pretty strong flavorwise, and perhaps teetering on the salty side, I decided to grill some tomatoes along with the meat to add a bit of "acid" to the dish. Once everything was ready to go I seasoned the skirt steak with more ground cumin, ground Sichuan Peppercorns, sea salt, and ground chili.

Grilled medium rare, stacked on the bread toasted on the grill, all finished off with scallions and cilantro.

Maybe if this was a weekend I could talk the Missus into making Dan Bing…. but heck this was a weeknight.

This evening I thought I'd want something a bit lighter. I stopped by Seisel's with nothing in mind, and ended up leaving with just a couple of Veal Bratwursts……. and weeknight grilling on my mind. I picked up some local asparagus from the fruit stand, went home, got my charcoal started…. and came up with this.

I tried to use stuff we had on hand. While prepping the vegetables, I simmered the Brats in Killian's Red…. because there was a bottle in the fridge. The eggplant was coated in olive oil, oregano, and salted. The tomatoes in oil I had leftover from making garlic confit and oregano. Same oil for the asparagus, along with sea salt, and finely ground black pepper.

I grilled the vegetables…. the asparagus were thin so I didn't have to peel them. We still had ciabatta left so I sliced it, grilled it slightly with the garlic oil, and spread a little Boursin I had in the fridge.

I got my vegetable peeler and shaved some leftover imported parmigiano reggiano, and I had dinner. Funny thing the brats was my least favorite part of the meal. And it was done pretty quickly…..

I realize that these really aren't recipes per se, so thanks for hanging in there and reading. But it was fun grilling over charcoal and getting the table in less then an hour. I'm going to continue doing stuff like this over the summer and fall, but I'll get back to writing out regular recipes in the future.

Chicken Wing Thing: 777 Noodle House, Olde City Grill, The Original Sab E Lee, and Que Huong

August 16, 2010 mmm-yoso Chicken Wings, Chinese Restaurants, Vietnamese Restaurants

Here's a post to add to my Chicken Wing category, an additional Chicken Wing Thing post. As regular readers know, I love my chicken wings……..

777 Noodle House:

I've already done a couple of posts on this bargain of a Chiu Chow Noodle House. And since they also own the "Louisiana" Fried Chicken shop next door, it was only right that I try their chicken wings.

On the good side, this was very juicy and lip melting hot! On the not-so-good, the batter was pretty crumbly, and it was a pretty bland wing overall. I enjoy a few dishes here, but this is not one of them.

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

Olde City Grill:

*** Old City Grille has closed

Of all the Cheesesteaks I posted on, Olde City Grill in Pacific Beach was the best I had hands down. A week or so later, I visited again to confirm my findings. I also decided to have some wings….which are sold "by the pound". I decided to go with some pretty straightforward "Buffalo" wings.

I was surprised to find that a "pound" here consisted of 6 wings. I've often mentioned the "Kyochon line" when it comes to pricing. Anything over, say a dollar a wing should be darn good. From the sauce point of view, it was pretty routine… fairly tangy, decent heat, but nothing special. From the size point of view, these were some fairly hefty size wings. I am however, a fan of smaller wings, since the skin/crust to meat ratio is much better. If I wanted plain meaty…. I could get drumsticks, right? There was one other item I didn't care for…. the Bluecheese dressing was more like mildly flavored Bluecheese Mayonnaise (or if you really want to be fancy aioli).

Personally, I'll stick with the cheesesteaks…..

Olde City Grill
967 Garnet Ave
San Diego, CA 92109

The Original Sab E Lee:

**** This location of Sab E Lee has closed

Actually, I've had the wings at TOSEL a couple of times, but have never thought of it as something the place does well.

I recently returned just to have the wings……. and it confirmed that even though there is much to like at TOSEL, and I do mean a lot, I don't think chicken wings are on that list. The wings just don't have that spicy-sweet-savory flavor or crisp, yet sticky texture of the good wings in Thailand.

The bitter burnt garlic did not do the dish any favors…….

Don't even ask me about the neon orange sweet-sour sauce…..

The Original Sab-E-Lee Restaurant
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Que Huong Restaurant:

**** Que Huong has closed

I recently had a wonderful lunch with one of my favorite FOYs (Friends of Yoso), Dennis. As always I enjoyed the company, and you can read about our meal here. I'd first eaten at Que Huong back in 2005, and have been going back off and on since then. I never did try the Fish Sauce Chicken Wings until FOY "Yummy Yummy" mentioned it to me in 2008. I gotta say, it was love at first bite…. and yet, there are several different version of wings on the menu, and I wanted to try the Tamarind Wings……. and Dennis was nice enough to help me through a meal. I ordered a half and half… a half order of Fish Sauce Wings, and a half order of Tamarind Wings.

No these aren't gigantic wings….. they are "small but mighty"… you know folks like that. They may be diminutive, but are full of attitude and flavor. The Fish Sauce wings delivered that sweet-salty punch that they always do for me.

The Tamarind Wings……

Were like the Fish Sauce Wings' weaker cousin……. I wanted something with a tangy "punch", but these were fairly mild. I still gotta try the butter wings…… and other stuff……

Thanks for putting up with me Dennis!

Que Huong Restaurant
4134 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92105

So there you go, a few more wings for my collection.

QingDao: Beer in a Bag

August 15, 2010 mmm-yoso China, QingDao, Travel

After a wonderful dinner on our last evening in Qingdao, we caught the bus back to our hotel room. Entering the bus, both the Missus and I took a whiff while walking past the bus driver. Our driver on our last ride on this route smelled strangely of Qingdao's most famous export, if you know what I mean. He was also driving in flip-flops, which made the entire ride surreal. Heading back to our room, the Missus wanted me to get my "beer in a bag", but we really didn't know where to start. There are literally hundreds of tiny restaurants with stacks of kegs upfront, perhaps they are all pretty much the same; but which one to choose?

The Missus decided to ask a gentleman walking past us down the street. The Missus quickly picked up his QingDao accent, thus making him local, and with that comes some "cred". He told the Missus to follow him, he'd show us where he gets his Tsingtao in a bag every night on the way home from work. He was on his way there anyway……

Which is how Iwe finally got Tsingtao in a bag. The Missus asked for just enough for two cups.

If I recall this was about 50 cents US, and it wasn't like Bia Hoi, but really Tsingtao. This tasted much lighter, more effervescent, and I guess the word would be "fresher" than the bottled stuff. There was almost a faint sweetness to it. Finally, beer in a bag……. now things felt complete.

On our way back to our room, we spied the gentleman who guided us to our Vacation 2010 01 1485 beer in a bag. He was sitting at a table, beer bag hanging from a nail pounded into its side. He was also waving us to him…… Curious we walked toward him. As we approached, he started clearing his table….. it turns out he wanted us to join him for dinner! Qingdao sure had grown on me…… I was really going to miss this city.

I do have one more QingDao post, I hope to have it done this week. Thanks for reading!

Spicy House a first look

August 12, 2010 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants

*** Another post on Spicy House can be found here.

I mentioned that Shanghai City was gone in this post. A few days later the sign went up announcing "Spicy House". Of course being the good Chinese Restaurant they were schedule to open on 08/08. I was told by several sources that this place was run by the group that owns Spicy City. For some reason, I've never been enamored with Spicy City, but thought we should give this place a try.

The interior has been freshened up slightly…….

And like most of these types of restaurants, there's a selection of cold dishes on display. The interesting thing, was there was one item that gave signal that there was something more then the signature Sichuan-Yunnan Spicy City thing going on here.

And one look at the menu verified what we thought.

We had spied what looked like Hunan Suan Dou (pickled green beans) as one of the cold dishes.

After a brief discussion with the Server, the Missus found out that they have three chefs working here. They've retained the original Shanghainese Chef, which is why I saw several of the old Shanghai City menus, and have brought on a Sichuan Chef, and a Hunan Chef. Now this sounded interesting, but I was still not sold……. and especially after having a selection of the cold dishes.

The Fuqi Feipian was too tough, and lacked Sichuan Peppercorn. The pig's ear was also lacking in flavor. The Kaufu, wheat gluten was too chewy, not melt in the mouth soft as, say what they serve at Tianjin Bistro.

The pickled long beans were also disappointing; salty, but lacking that true pickled flavor. Earlier in the week, I tried to explain the difference between salty and briney to someone…. and these were a pretty good example.

We were ready to be underwhelmed when our Dried String Beans with Duck($10.99) arrived.

Man, this smelled good! It was a sort of hybrid Sichuan/Hunan dish. The dried green beans, sliced into tiny pieces, almost like a brunoise, were nice savory surprises. Three different types of chilies were used, and the orange/red peppers we enjoy with many Hunan dishes added a nice, fruity sweetness. The addition of minced ginger, slices of garlic, and peanuts, meant that every bite would have a different flavor. The duck was typical of Hunan/Sichuan dishes; it was less meaty, more chewy, with a mild gamey flavor. Not too many seeds as is typical with Hunan dishes, but there were a few there. Not quite Hunan Chilli King, but not bad.

There were a couple of things that surprised us about the Crisp Fish with Pepper ($10.99):

First was the portion size, it was huge. This was all fish, there wasn't anything in the middle or bottom to "prop up" the food. Second, we noticed this was eel! We found out later that it was supposed to be Crispy Fried Eel with Chilies on the menu, but there was some mix-up. Third was the distinct smell of one of my favorite seasonings hitting me when the dish arrived….. the smell of cumin. And yet, the flavor of cumin was in the background…. I think it was added to the batter. Though the middle pieces were on the greasier side, the pieces of fish on the outside were nice and crisp. I'd say this was a pseudo-Sichuan dish, as there were Sichuan Peppercorns present, though not in large quantities. An interesting note was, even though this dish looks aggressively flavored, you could still make out the taste of the sesame seeds that topped the dish. The Missus, who loves Chinese Eel dishes, thought this was good. Strangely, I thought the dish could have used more salt!

The dishes we had shows enough promise…. i think we'll be back to try more in the future. The service was adequate…. though on a very hot day, they seemed to not want to turn on the A/C which made me do a "double sweat"…. one from the chilies, the other from the heat! The portion sizes were generous, and the prices pretty good. We were sad to see Shanghai City go, but this place shows some promise.

Spicy House
3860 Convoy Street #105
San Diego, CA 92111

Dinner with Friends – Sushi Yaro

August 11, 2010 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants, Sushi and Sashimi, What Howie Eats - Where the Foodie from Foodieview Eats

**** Sushi Yaro has closed

Since Sushi Yaro officially opened on July 1st, I've been visiting at least once a week. I kinda hesitated in doing a post, since I've now known Sam for almost ten years. I really didn't want to seem to be "shill"…. but Sam has served up some great meals over the years, not only to me, but to other FOYs as well. But much like your favorite watering hole, the relationship between a regular customer, and his Itamae is a very close one. Sam seems to have settled into Sushi Yaro, and the place is starting to have that neighborhood feel Sammy Sushi had. It does seem like the customers are focused on the "world of rolls", but Sam always seems to have something for me……

And once he got his kitchen guy back from a stint at Sakura, the kitchen food started getting better as well.

No, it isn't Ota or Kaito….. but I can't really afford to eat there three times a week. At Yaro, on a weeknight I can relax, have some sushi or sashimi, and maybe some Kubota Manju or Otokoyama, and the world becomes a better place.

This is one of my favorite cooked dishes at Sushi Yaro:

Shishamo is really great stuff grilled…. but it is the female smelt, especially those laden with eggs that we're after. So what to do with the guys??? I guess Sam decided to batter them, and serve them tempura style. I was a bit surprised at the flavor, there's almost a savory sweetness to this. I had thought that Shishamo was a bit too high in oil to be used for tempura.

And sometimes Sam will have something that surprise me, like the night he broke out some Razor Clams. The kitchen hadn't done a particularly great job with these…. but it was very thoughtful.

So obviously, it was just a matter of time before our "eating club" descended upon Sushi Yaro for dinner. What follows is mostly photos… many of which "my favorite Librarian", Jenne took.

I can't remember the last time I had oyster jun…..

As always, I had a wonderful time with Candice, Howie, and Jenne…. I can't wait until next month!

Sushi Yaro
7905 Engineer Road
San Diego, CA 92111

Geez you can even find them on Twitter.

I hope everyone is having a great week!

Weeknight Grilling: Chao Shao Kao Ji – the Ugly Barbecue (Grilled) Chicken experiment

August 9, 2010 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

On our visit to Beijing, we encountered a dish that we loved. It was called "ugly fish"……. a day later we went to a restaurant that served something very similar, the specialty was called "Wushan Fish"….. it is the stuff of later posts, but I'll give you a preview of the "Ugly Fish":

It is kinda ugly, eh??? But this was among the five best dishes we had during our visit to China, which we'll cover in a future post. My thing was to make this on a weeknight…. and I chose boneless chicken legs as my subject. So this is my first attempt at "Ugly Chicken".

I'll admit that I didn't reach the pinnacle of ugliness….. but even grilling with charcoal, I finished everything within an hour which is what I think weeknight grilling is all about.

So in sequence, this is the blow by blow……I marinated some boneless (but still with skin) chicken legs with a tablespoon of sweet bean paste, some shaosing wine, and two tablespoons of premium soy sauce. I went and got some hardwood charcoal started in my chimney starter…..

And when things got hot enough, I mixed a blend of sea salt, a tablespoon of white sugar, cumin powder, I ground some Sichuan Peppercorn from Sichuan (roasted from from my "stash"), and ground chili, and set out to make the ugliest chicken I could find…….

What came out was some major "Ma – La" (numbing hot) stuff……

Those toasted Sichuan Peppercorns from Chengdu numbed me from my nasion to my chin! Man those peppercorns are really top-notch!

It tasted fantastic with rice……

It was pretty darn good……. which reinforces my belief that you can grill up some pretty good stuff on weeknights…….

Eating on the Hood of Your Car: La Princesita returns to Linda Vista

August 8, 2010 mmm-yoso Food Trucks, Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops

Last time I checked, the La Princestia Taco truck, a long time staple in the parking lot of Joe's 99 Cent store had lost his "lease" as it were, and had moved on to greener pastures. I read Dennis's post from back in March letting us know that La Princesita was now found out on ECB, in front of one of the Panaderias, and had spotted it myself a couple of days after. That's why I was kinda surprised to see what looked like said taco truck (or perhaps trailer is more appropriate) in the parking lot of 96¢ (ever wonder how to create the "cents" symbol on a keyboard - hold the ALT key, and type in 0162, then release the ALT key) & Up Store on Linda Vista. Fairly excited, I drove by the next evening, and nada…… the following Thursday, it was back…. the next evening, "zip". After that, I just put finding the truck on the back-burner, moving on to other things. Until…. a Friday two weeks ago. I received an email from FOY (Friend of Yoso) "Gustavo", who wrote letting me know the truck was back for good……

I wrote Gustavo back letting him know that I'd check it out the following weekend…… and last night seemed the perfect time. It was kinda strange, the store was closed, so the parking lot looked completely empty except for two vehicles, and of course, true to Gustavo's word, La Princesita!

Being pretty hungry, I went for four tacos ($1.50 each).

From left to right, carne asada, cabeza, lengua, and pescado.

I'd never had the fish taco from La Princesita, and my better judgment told me stick with the "carnes", but I decided to just try it out.

And in all honesty, I've had worse fish tacos…. it was a bit "crema" heavy, and the piece of fish was fairly small, and lost in all the shredded cabbage. But what fish there was tasted decent, but nothing I'd have again.

In my original post on La Princesita I mentioned that the Lengua was my favorite. And it was true on this occasion as well.

Well portioned, the lengua was very tender with a mild gamey beefiness unique to tongue. The texture is fairly slippery, and almost slightly creamy-gelatinous, without creeping into the waxiness of poorly prepared lengua. To be honest, the salsa roja is not really needed, I'm fine with just a touch of cilantro and onions.

The cabeza was just ok.

I like the texture, though I think it could use a bit more "ooomph", in the form of the condensed beefiness of good cabeza. Also, a bit more gelatinous bits are always welcomed. Still, this was not bad.

Of course I had to try the Carne Asada.

There was a time when the carne asada from La Princesita was highly thought of. Somehow, it seems to have fallen on hard times. The meat was tougher than I recalled, and lacked the salty-citrus flavor that I enjoyed in my first couple carne asada tacos from La Princesita. Perhaps this was just a fluke.

I hope it is……

As a whole, the tacos from La Princesita are served on moist double corn tortillas, and the portions are quite generous. It was kinda like seeing an old friend. Both Gustavo, and the gentleman running the trailer told me there were here to stay…. but as Paul McCartney said so well, "in this ever changing world in which we live in….." who knows. I hope they do stick it out at this location.

One thing though….. the sign on the sidewalk says 99¢ Tacos…… all of my tacos cost a $1.50, which in my opinion is a pretty reasonable price. So maybe they should saw off the 99¢ part unless they actually have 99 cent tacos???

La Princesita Taco Truck/Trailer

In the parking lot of the 96¢ and Up Store on Linda Vista Road.

QingDao: Dinner at the Original Family Home

August 3, 2010 mmm-yoso China, Memorable Meals, QingDao, Travel

After picking up our chicken, we headed up the street to the original family home for dinner. This was to be our last evening in QingDao, so having dinner here felt right. This last dinner was to be bittersweet for the Missus…. the home is scheduled to be razed in the near future. It would be the last time She'd be walking up these well worn stairs, up to the flat where She was raised.

Entering the unit, we could hear laughter coming from one of the rooms…. the Missus's Aunts were making Jiaozi.

From the left, it's the Missus's Fifth Aunt, Second Aunt, Sixth Aunt, and Third Aunt.

Meanwhile, Fourth Aunt was busy at work in the kitchen.

Making Jiaozi is a family tradition. When the Missus's Grandmother was alive, every Saturday would be Jiaozi day. The Missus has some wonderful memories of those Saturdays; there was only a half day of school, and in the afternoon, whatever family was in town would get together and make Jiaozi. The Missus told me that Fifth Uncle would always bring a book to these gatherings, but he would never open nor read it…. She could never figure out why. Things changed after Her Grandmother passed on, so this dinner was a special one.

And of course there are snacks……..

The Missus told me that Her job on those Saturdays was to peel and pound garlic in the mortar, a job She hated with a passion. So I thought it was really funny when I slipped out of the room to see what was going on in the kitchen, and I found the Missus doing this.

Old habits die hard, don't they?

I managed a peek at some of the items that were being prepared for dinner.

And I got a preview sample of the Jiaozi……..

When I had heard we'd be having Fish Dumplings, I had a some reservations. I'm not a big fan of fish dumplings… whenever I'd had them here in the states they were mushy, and most times, had an off taste. The fillings in these however were moist, smooth, and tender. I was told that Fifth Aunt had mixed pork into the filling. The wrappers were tender and pillowy, the Missus told me that Fifth Aunt had procured some special flour from friends who plant, harvest, and mill their own wheat.

Here's dinner…..

And I had two whole bowls of Jiaozi…. sooooo good!

My MIL brought over some plates that her mother and father got when they got married all those years ago…..

There a lot of history in this home……..

I sat in the room where the Jiaozi had been made after things had been cleared and cleaned…..

And a feeling of warmth wrapped around me, I could catch a whisper of laughter…. it was as if the room had absorbed so much over the years it had attained a life of its own…….

Weeknight Grilling: Charcoal Grilled Skirt Steak

August 2, 2010 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of celebrating a wonderful housewarming party given by two of my favorite folks! Congrats MrC and TammyC, we had a great time. While doing some serious munching TammyC asked me, "how come it seems like you don't cook much anymore?" I had to laugh, and I explained that I've just been doing a lot of the same stir fry, and have made a few dishes that we had in China, but am waiting until after I do my post on China before publishing them. Anyway, I thought I'd do a post on what we had for dinner tonight. The Missus wanted skirt steak, AKA "harami" or "arrachera". You'd be hard pressed to beat the wonderful flavor of grilled skirt steak. You really don't need to do much to it……. and it's pretty quick. Even grilling on charcoal (a combo of hardwood & mesquite), along with a couple of ears of corn, some eggplant, zucchini,sliced onions and green bell peppers, and making a chipotle-tomatillo salsa took only a shade more than an hour total.

This is not a recipe…. I mean, can I call meat plus four ingredients a recipe????

Anyhow, I used Rick Bayless's recipe from his book Authentic Mexican as my source, only adding some Mexican Oregano.

There are just a couple of key points. After grilling, remember to let the meat rest a few minutes to let the juices redistribute. Shirt steak will be a tough cut, unless you slice it across the grain in 1/4" to 1/3" slices. Don't do that, and you might as well eat shoe leather. Skirt steaks are pretty thin so it's over direct heat all the way…..

So what's the recipe???

Not much really. 1 1/2 lb shirt steak, seasoned with sea salt, pepper, and a pinch of crumbled Mexican Oregano. Grilled 'til medium rare.

Really…… that's it!

I'm figuring this'll be good in tortillas, maybe as fajitas, in a sandwich perhaps….. or on top of rice.

And now it gives me no excuse for not grilling on a weeknight. Heck, if I had a gas grill, it would be even quicker…..