What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed! – Page 16

Tamales: A Feastival & a Symbol

November 30, 2008 ed fromyuma Festivals & Events, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

The blog is mmm-yoso. Along with some other folks, Cathy, ed (from Yuma), and, of course, Kirk are the writers. You are a reader. Today, ed has an important announcement – followed by some pics and thoughts about tamales.

It is getting to be the season for tamales. While people can eat tamales year around, this rich and wonderful food is a centerpiece of the Mexican Christmas season. Right on time, mmm-yoso has learned that the small town of Somerton AZ (just a few minutes south of Yuma on Hwy 95) will be hosting its second annual tamale festival. Here's a link to the festival's website.

Regular readers of this blog will recognize a few things at the website. Not only is there a link to mmm-yoso's report on the first edition of this wonderful festival, but many of the pics at the site come from this blog. We are flattered.

Anyway, mark your calendars right now for Saturday, December 13, 2008. The festival begins at 11 am and will continue until 10 pm. OMG, 11 hours of tamales! You be there because mmm-yoso will be there too. Is the festival worth a three hour drive from San Diego or Phoenix? Heck yes – this is probably the greatest collection of various tamales available anywhere anytime in the United States. And they are all home-made. No restaurants represented. Christmas shopping can wait; this feastival (pun intended) is just for one day, December 13. Directions and more info can be found at the website.

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The vital part of this blogpost is over, but ed (from Yuma) has been ruminating about tamales for a while, and wants to share with you regular readers of mmm-yoso his thoughts about the symbolism of this dish along with some pictures taken at last year's feastival. (And yeh, ed was an English major).

We know that most holiday foods have symbolic as well as culinary significance. Think about our Thanksgiving turkeys. We roast and serve this new world bird to commemorate the generosity of Native Americans and the wonderful harvests of our country and to remind us about the tribulations and rewards of the early European settlers. Tamales, too, are deeply symbolic (as well as tasty). Since I moved to Yuma, I have thought about the meaning of tamales during the Christmas season. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I think this favorite food carries many messages.

On the most basic level, a tamal is like an edible doll – a food nearly human, a small body wrapped in a cornhusk skin. The flesh is the dense and rich corn meal masa. The central filling can be seen, from a biological perspective, as like an alimentary canal, a digestive system. But seen from a different, less physical viewpoint, the center, the part that provides the uniquity of each particular tamal, is like each individual spirit, the distinct humanity possessed by every one of us.

To traditional Christian believers, each tamale can be considered a metaphor or symbol for the Holy Virgin. After all, every real Mexican tamale must have an olive in it. On one level, that olive represents the Christ child waiting to be born — as he is every year at Christmas. And from a more new age viewpoint, the tamal can also represent any mother who carries seeds for the future within herself – as well as the fertility of the fields and the bounty of the harvest. So we can see this food as both the mother of God and the mother of us all. On still another level, the olive represents the promise of the new year which will be reborn with the passing of the winter solstice, as days start growing longer (right around the time of Christmas).

The tamale, however, is also symbolic of Mexican culture. Just as the Virgin Mary has been transfigured into the Virgin of Guadalupe, so a tamal wonderfully blends and shapes new world and old world and transforms European traditions into something different and more complex. The key ingredient of tamales is, of course, maize. In the United States, we call it corn (the English term for all grains), because at first this Indian corn, this native ingredient, kept all the peoples in the New World, natives and invaders both, alive. Combined with this wonderful product of pre-Mexican agriculture is another New World addition, chilies. And most tamales add to those some bits of native tomato and another new world staple, potato:

On the other hand, except for tamales made with turkey, the animal products in the dish are European. The olive, as well, is a product of Mediterranean civilizations. Whenever I think about this Spanish olive in the body of native corn masa, I am reminded about the Mexican legends of Cortez and his indigenous American girlfriends. In some very real and specific ways, the Mexican people and the Mexican culture are a combination of the Spanish and the native, just as is the tamale.
In a way, tamales are a sacrificial dish as well. A friend learned how to make tamales. "So, I will get tamales every year?" I asked.

"Heck no, they're really hard to make." So every tamal represents the sacrifice of hours of the cooks' time. Not to mention that pigs and cattle have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Tamales then are truly a primal and deeply significant dish for the holidays. Holiday heritage and symbolism make it doubly important that you mosey on over to the Somerton Tamale Festival on December 13. It'll taste pretty good too!

Second Annual Somerton Tamale Festival, December 13, 2008, Downtown Somerton AZ

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Mr Choby’s, San Luis R.C., Sonora

November 12, 2008 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Mexico, Seafood, Sonora, Mexico, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Well folks, since Kirk has been sharing stories about his international travel, it is only fair that ed (from Yuma) should share his latest foreign adventure with mmm-yoso readers.

What with the sick economy and the exchange rate at 12 pesos to the dollar, it seemed like a good time for Tina and I to cross the border for a night of, we hoped, reasonably priced fine dining.

Our taxi driver actually had to stop and ask directions (and he was a man) because Mr Choby's is fairly far from the border on Calle Obregon and not a common tourist destination. Since we were driven directly into the parking lot, I have no exterior picture, but it is on the north side of the street and its logo features a lighthouse and a Mariner's wheel. The inside is modestly and tastefully decorated, though you will find no white tablecloths:

Using our best Spanglish (a pretty feeble excuse for communication) and a lot of pointing at the menu, we were able to order. We started with margaritas on the rocks:

Along with the drinks, arrived some rather ordinary yellow cheese spread thing and some rather good crackers:
Both Tina and I preferred dipping the crackers into the complex and spicy table salsa:

For our first course, we decided on steamed clams. They arrived dripping in butter on top of some grains of rice on a large plate. This was a generous portion and the clams were fresh and balanced between tender and chewy: While not the best rendition of steamed clams that I have ever had (I would've liked a little garlic), they were quite serviceable and their flavor was enhanced by squeezes of lime juice:
Along with the clams came our bottle of L.A. Cetto chenin blanc. This dry and fruity white wine from the Guadalupe Valley, which we chose from the modest list of about a dozen Mexican wines, paired nicely with our meal:

We then each had a marlin taco. While not much resembling the smoked marlin tacos at Mariscos German, these were things of culinary craftsmanship in their own way. The lightly smoked marlin had been cooked with green chilies and a bit of onion and was balanced in the soft grilled flour tortilla by typical Sonoran white melty cheese. This picture shows the taco opened up just before I spooned in the flavorful salsa:

This taco was very good, but not "in your face" powerful. What I mean is that the flavor was complex, multilayered, and subtle, adjectives that I do not often use when describing Mexican food. The next time I have this, and I sure hope there is a next time, I will simply spoon salsa all over the taco and eat it as if it were a mini marlin quesadilla.

For her main course, Tina chose the camarones chipocludos, which turned out to be eight large shrimp in a wondrous rich and creamy sauce with just a hint of smoky chipotle flavor in the background:
The shrimp were of excellent size and quality and perfectly cooked, and the sauce was a wonderful complement to them. The main courses were accompanied by okay coleslaw and a tasty truncated cone of buttery rice. We also received a basket of toasty bread, which was great dipped into the that great creamy chipotle sauce:

Since Tina and I habitually pass plates back and forth, I wanted a dish that would balance hers. When I saw combinacion jarocha on the menu, I thought that would be a good choice. In addition, it would let me see how the restaurant approached the traditional Veracruz presentation:
I was very impressed by both the look and the taste of this dish. Sometimes Veracruz sauces can be much like an Italian pasta sauce, with green peppers, olives, and capers in a thick tomato sauce. At Mr. Choby's, the chef had decided to present the mariscos integrated with an assortment of vegetables. The fish fillet pieces were fresh and tender as was the octopus, and the shrimp, while smaller than Tina's, were also very good. Fresh tomatoes, seafood juices, and olive oil were the basis of the brothy sauce. Even with the frozen peas and carrots, the collection of vegetables (in particular the seeded and deveined jalapeno slices) was excellent and provided color balance and textual variation as well as a variety of tastes. The jalapeno flavor, in particular, added a nice touch of picante spice and capsicum flavor without overwhelming the other ingredients:

We were happy. Our mouths were happy. And when we got the check, our pocketbooks were not too unhappy:

Even adding a generous tip for the friendly service and $3 each way for the cab rides to and from the border, and we'd had a pretty economical night out.

Tacos at Taqueria San Pedro

October 22, 2008 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Well Kirk is off in Thailand – eating and taking pics so we can enjoy his trip also – and Cathy is scampering about sharing her meals and ideas with us too. But today, ed (from Yuma) wants to talk tacos.

If you remember my post about a taco reconnaissance, we ended that night with hot dogs at Taqueria San Pedro. Everything about that place called for a return visit, but this time we wanted to focus on the tacos.

The menu is easy to find as there is one on each table:

The only items missing from this list are the wonderful aguas frescas and the hot dogs, which are only prepared on weekends. We each ordered up three tacos – a volcanes, a San Pedro, and a pastor.

While we were waiting a complete cafeteria tray covered with condiments arrived with our aguas frescas:

Although the cucumber slices are pretty ordinary, the three salsas (one smoky, probably chipotle, one arbol that's thick with chile chunks, and one pico de gallo) are each good, if not outstanding. The grilled onions and jalapenos are fiery enough to bring tears to one's eyes. The pickled carrots and jalapenos, on the other hand, were relatively mild. The highlight of the tray was the real guacamole, nearly pure avocado purée:

We also tried an order of the frijoles, and they were served whole bean style, not refritos. Good but nothing special:

The tacos, when they arrived, were things of beauty. The taco San Pedro, at the upper right, is a soft corn tortilla topped with a split whole roasted chile covered with cheese and carne asada. As you eat this, the greenness of the chile permeates every bite, without making the flavors too picante. Many of the same pleasures as green chile cheeseburgers:

Even though I saw no trompo, the al pastor was very good. The spice rub/marinade added sweet and picant red chili notes to the sliced pork steak. The onions and cilantro provided complexity and contrast. This close-up shows the porky freshness of the meat:

The highlights of the tacos, nonetheless, were the volcanes. Based on the few words of Spanish I recognized in my conversation with Pedro, the owner, I thought that these might be vampiros hiding under an alias. And indeed, that's what they were. This close-up shows all of the usual suspects. The moist and flavorful carne asada, covered with a blanket of melty white cheese, lay on a bed provided by a thick, desiccated, charred, crunchy corn tortilla:

On another visit, I discovered that Pedro will make volcanes with al pastor. This is how that looks:

Add salsa and guacamole and you have a tasty thing of beauty decorated with enough red and green to make one think about Christmas:

Taqueria San Pedro seems to be open every evening around five o'clock. They close long after I've gone to bed. The folks are friendly and the ambience is as sophisticated and elegant as is possible at a taco stand.

Taqueria San Pedro, 3445 8th St, Yuma AZ

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A Taco Reconnaissance

October 5, 2008 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, Taco Shops, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Mmm-yoso is the blog. Kirk has done most of the posts here, but sometimes he lets Cathy and a few others help him out. Today ed (from Yuma) is here to share a recent taco exploration with you.

As a result of my love affair/obsession with Pupuseria Cabañas, I have been driving at night on 8th St in Yuma more often than was my habit in the past – particularly back when the street was torn up for years. These days, an amazing number of taco stands, taco trucks, and even old houses, most of which I had never noticed before, are open serving food at nights. That meant it was time for a taco recon.

So recently one evening, Tina and I decided to try some of these places. First, we chose one of four trucks parked in a large lot just west of Avenue C on the south side of 8th St.It reminded me of what Kirk had called a taco food court on his visit to Yuma several years ago, but this is a new congregation of trucks in a new location.

We were fairly early, so the only truck doing business was Asadero Los Compadres:

We ordered three tacos apiece, two cabezas, two pastors, and two asadas. We also decided to split a jamaica.

First to arrive was the jamaica, accompanied by two squeeze bottles, one containing guacamole sauce and the other salsa, and a small wheel of condiments, including sliced radishes and cucumbers, cabbage, lime wedges, and pico de gallo:

The jamaica was as good as I have had in Yuma, clearly homemade, deeply flavored, and nicely tart:

The tacos showed up quickly as well. We were somewhat disappointed in the pastor. While it had a nice flavor, it was a bit dry and tasted like it had been grilled once before:

Still, with a nice squeeze of guacamole sauce and a topping of condiments, the pastor tasted pretty good.

The other meat choices were better. The Asada had a nice light citrus marinade that brought out the beefy flavor. The meat had enough fat and had not been overcooked so that it was slightly chewy with a complex beefy flavor.

The Cabeza was even better, tender and very juicy and full of the richness of the stewed beef cheeks.

The next place we checked out was Corona. Probably the king of 8th St taco stands, this has been in business since I moved to town. Years ago, I stopped here one evening, but on that night I preferred Lucy's tacos (another long time 8th Street purveyor) — though at this distance I have no memory of why. Located across Date St from Pupuseria Cabañas, Corona, from the outside, almost looks like a building, but instead it is walls and screens surrounding tables, chairs, and grills:

I was pleased that they offered pollo, and the chicken tacos here were outstanding. The meat was moist and flavorful, and the light marinade was a perfect complement, not dominating the meat:

Also outstanding was the wheel of condiments, the guacamole sauce was flavorful, the cucumbers were more evenly and thinly sliced, and the pico de gallo was outstanding, distinctly spiced with many chunks of fresh jalapenos:

On another evening, I would have been delighted by the limonade, which was clearly homemade and tasted of fresh lemon. However, on this evening, it was the least good of the agua frescas we tried. Also a bit disappointing was the Cabeza here. It was less moist than the version at los Compadres, though it still had a decent flavor:

We decided to end our evening at Taqueria San Pedro. While I had driven by its location on numerous occasions, I had never noticed it until I drove by at night:

Far beyond a fence adorned with the name of the establishment, sits a very nice Ramada with ceiling fans, leather chairs, and restaurant quality tables.

Maybe it was because we had already eaten five tacos apiece or maybe it was because the large sign on the Ramada proclaimed "HOT DOGS" and offered a full buffet of condiments, we couldn't resist a doggy change of pace. Soon we each had our own bacon wrapped hot dog covered with a range of various toppings — amazingly, they even had sautéed mushrooms as an option. Mine looked like this:

"Dos Perros" (yes, that was what our waitperson called out to the grillmaster) don't get much better than these. The dogs were freshly cooked and cooked fully through. The bacon flavor, the snap of the dog, and the wonderful condiments — why aren't all hot dogs served with pickled jalapenos? — made these real winners. Only the unheated bun was a bummer.

Adding to our extreme culinary pleasure were the agua frescas, an horchata and a piña. The horchata was rich, thick, and cinamony. As good a Mexican horchata as I've had in Yuma, ever. Unbelievably, the piña was better. A fresh pineapple doesn't taste as much like pineapple as this beverage.

All in all, the evening was a great experience. While there were a few clunkers, we ate well. Oh, and the bill for everything (not counting tips, of course) was $22.50. What with the economy, I think we'll be going back — soon.

One note, the last time I was on 8th St (about a week after this recon), Los Compadres had vanished. Who knows if (and where and when) it will return. Because these places can literally be "fly-by-night" operations, one of the reasons for a taco recon is to find out what is new and what's gone. Sad to say, Deliciosos del Mar disappeared last year, so no more stingray soup (that I can find) on 8th St. Also currently missing in action is Mariscos Nayarita. The place is still there, but they haven't been open since late last spring (or early last summer). I already have a shrimp empanado jones. (Late breaking news: Sign at Mariscos Nayarita "Abierto Oct 10.").
In any case, more evening visits to Calle Ocho are needed just to figure out what all is there now. Stay tuned.

Mustard’s Italian Food

August 17, 2008 ed fromyuma Italian Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Kirk, Cathy, other yosoers, and many FOYs are eating, thinking, and searching for ultimate tastes. ed (from Yuma), however, is just blogging about a new place in Yuma.

Sad to say, Mustard's is no longer in business as of August 2009. According to the local paper, the location will be taken by Das Bratwurst House.

The opening of a new restaurant in Yuma is a big deal — particularly if the restaurant is neither a chain nor a Mexican eatery. So when the Munch Lunch Bunch (a group of us who eat Friday lunch together most weeks) descended upon Mustard's Italian restaurant at the corner of Madison and Second, we were excited and hopeful:

The meal started off well, as we were all given a small bowl of marinara and slices of Italian bread (most likely from La Brea):

The warm marinara was tasty and tomatoey, but very mildly flavored, somewhat lacking in herbs and spice.

I ordered one of the lunch specials that day, crab raviolis (8.95?). In a fairly short period of time, the plate of raviolis arrived looking very pretty:

I liked that the raviolis were not overcooked, and the pasta still had some chew. Although not especially rich, the light cream sauce was smooth and complemented the raviolis and the diced vegetables. At first taste, I thought that the light green bits on top of the pasta were pieces of pickled artichoke hearts for they contributed a slight sour note to the dish. Further tastes and a closer look made me aware that these were slices of pepperoncini. They added complexity and contrast to the textures and flavors of the dish. The only shortcoming of the raviolis was the lack of much crab flavor in their fillings. Well, okay, maybe the lack of any crab flavor.

The raviolis came with a nice little side salad, mixed baby greens and romaine tossed with a light Italian dressing containing little dots of grated cheese. The tomato slice and red onion slices added a bit of color and variety:

Friends had a couple of different sandwiches (meatball and grilled beef and mushroom), neither of which looked exceptional. Both came with an underdressed tricolored rotini salad with chunks of mozzarella. Others selected the spaghetti with shrimp, mushroom, and spinach cream sauce:

I didn't get a bite of this, but it disappeared quickly and those who ordered it were very pleased. Service throughout lunch was a bit harried – with one server working several tables – but was friendly and competent.

This seemed like a restaurant worth returning to, so Tina and I soon arrived to try a dinner at Mustard's. This meal was a bit more problematical, although it started off well with the bread and marinara. In addition, we had brought a bottle of wine, which was opened by our helpful server, who also provided excellent full sized stemware. We felt the $10 corkage was perfectly appropriate for the service and the glasses.

Wanting to try a variety of items, we ordered a minestrone soup (3.95) and the zucchini and chickpea salad (6.95). We were not sure what to expect with the salad, as neither of us had heard of such a thing before, but we certainly weren't expecting what showed up on the table:

The same mixture of greens as in the lunch salad were topped with pepperoncini slices, sizable chunks of raw zucchini, and (no, I am not making this up) kernels of canned hominy. Say what? Someone can't tell the difference between hominy and chickpeas? The salad also had no dressing; I guess we should've said something, but maybe zucchini and hominy salads never have dressings. 😉

The soup was also rather unusual, as it had little in common with any minestrone (or for that matter most any other soup) I have ever eaten before:

First, while the broth (if that's the right term for the liquid here) was appropriately reddish, it was largely flavored by the same marinara sauce that came with the bread. No deep savory stock whatsoever. The ingredients also seemed a little out of the ordinary. Not only were there no chickpeas (no surprise considering), but there were no beans of any sort. Instead, slices of nearly raw mushroom, chunks of undercooked zucchini, bits of diced tomato, and fresh frozen peas swam in the diluted marinara. To be truthful, the soup wasn't horrible – it just wasn't minestrone.

At the bottom of the bowl, lay another surprise, multicolored tortellini:

As I fished one of these out of the soup, I realized that the minestrone soup listed on the menu was the same as the tortellini soup. Well, I suppose that's one way to keep inventory modest.

Tina had opted for the penne with tomato, fresh basil, and garlic sauce (10.95):

This dish was okay, I guess, but certainly far from spectacular. Part of the problem was with the fresh tomatoes; typical supermarket slicers simply didn't bring enough flavor to the dish. Similarly, the few fresh basil leaves added little, and I can't recall much garlic either. While the dish was not terrible, it was not terribly good either.

I opted for the dinner special, which was some pork dish called carnaval (sp?)(18.95, if memory serves). It arrived looking like this:

Two thin boneless slices of pork loin were topped with undercooked spinach leaves, ricotta cheese, melted mozzarella cheese, shrimp, and some kind of grated cheese. The rest of the large platter was filled with penne pasta topped with what seemed to be a blend of the marinara sauce with the cream sauce that had been on the lunchtime raviolis.

Though the pasta was not overcooked, it was generally flavorless. The pork with all of its toppings, on the other hand, was bizarre — the sort of melange one might expect of a faux Italian restaurant like Olive Garden:

The combination of ingredients never came together, and I left nearly half of the pork uneaten. To be fair, the waitperson's description of the dish should have warned me about what was coming – but sometimes imagination just falls short of reality.

As I was finishing the meal (or more accurately, as the meal was finishing me), I overheard the chef/owner explaining to another table that lunches at the restaurant had been going well, but that there were still some glitches with the dinners. I couldn't have said it better. Maybe next time.

Postscript:

Since I wrote the first draft of this post, there has been a next time. I had been wine tasting with some friends at Old Town Wine Cellar (which is just 2 blocks away from Mustard's) and we decided to bring a few bottles with us and have a meal. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera, but here's a brief summary anyway:

We shared the sausage and spinach appetizer, and it was excellent. Full flavored and well thought out with a lot of garlic and some olive oil, each slice of the spicy sausage sitting on a few leaves of the lightly sauteed greens.

This night the carnaval was made with veal (23.95), but it was better prepared (the spinach wasn't raw, for example), and the veal went much better with the shrimp and cheeses. I finally got a taste of the shrimp and spaghetti dish, and the shrimp were perfectly cooked, and the whole dish was good. I had the chicken marsala (15.95), which I liked. The unbreaded chicken was completely covered with a very generous serving of mushrooms, and the wine sauce (while not tasting strongly of marsala) complemented both the chicken and the 'shrooms and was not sweet (I hate cloyingly sweet marsala sauces).

Only negative notes: the side of penne pasta that comes with the chicken dishes was topped with an underflavored, but homemade tomato sauce. It cried out for some good grated cheese, but none was there. I was also unhappy with the side salad, which had been good on my first visit. This night it lacked any baby lettuces and was severely underdressed. When I say severely underdressed, think burlesque dancer. It also tasted like it had been sitting in a refrigerator for hours (days?) .

I know that this post is somewhat snarky, and I hate dwelling on a restaurant's shortcomings. Also I would like this place to succeed. We need more independent and interesting dining choices here. Still, if this modest eatery is going to become a success, it needs to get better and more consistent.

Mustard's Italian Food. Madison & Second, Yuma AZ. (928) 345-9013:

Mutant Green Chilies

August 3, 2008 ed fromyuma Mexican Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Today it’s ed (from Yuma) posting at mmm-yoso. Just a note, if you are researching genetic variations in pepper cultivars and you Googled some search terms and ended up here, you probably want to search again – unless you like eating chile verde.

When I moved to Yuma after having lived for most of the previous 15 years in California, I was sure I knew what green chile was – chunks of pork stewed in a mildly spicy green colored sauce consisting of tomatillos, green chilies, onions, garlic, and fresh cilantro.

My sense of green chile was challenged, however, soon after I arrived in Yuma and began eating at some of the "old school" long-time Yuma Mexican restaurants. I realized then that not all green chile was the same. Although it took me a while to get used to these mutant forms, nowadays I appreciate their unique flavors and their place in the traditional cuisine of this border community.

One of the best and most unusual examples of this old style of green chile is the version found at Yuma’s oldest Mexican restaurant, one that has roots back into the 1930s, Chretin’s. Recently relocating from a rather shabby building in the middle of an older residential section of town (see the first picture), Chretin’s now occupies a large and fancy location at the intersection of Arizona Avenue and 16th St (second picture):

For $7.60 (or less as a lunch special), you can get Chretin’s green chili burrito enchilada style (also known as saddle style or as a wet burrito):

This style of burrito is fairly simple but also very traditional in Yuma. One fills a flour tortilla with the green chile and then ladles more green chile on top of the burrito along with cheese. Of course, some of you must be saying, "Green? Green? There’s nothing green about that chile." And you’re right. Do not try adjusting the color balance on your screen, because Chretin’s green chile is indeed brown in color. As near as I can tell, this style arose back in the day when fresh or frozen green chilies were not available year around. Therefore, the main source of chile flavor (rather minimal in actual fact) had to be dried green chile powder. One of my friends says that Chretin’s green chile is just odd flavored brown gravy with meat, since the sauce is clearly thickened with flour and the main source of picante heat is black pepper:

A careful look at this close-up shows that the meat in the green chile is a very tender, coarsely ground beef, reflecting the Sonoran background of most of Yuma’s citizens before World War II. The ~~gravy~~ sauce also contains flecks of tomato and bits of onion. While this is very far away from anything I would’ve considered green chile when I moved to Yuma, I have grown to like this unusual dish at Chretin’s.

Another old-school Mexican restaurant in town is El Charro, a restaurant that has been managed by one branch of the Gutierrez family since 1949. For many native Yumans and numerous winter visitors, this restaurant on 8th St is the essence of Mexican food in Yuma. Personally, I have always found their large portions to be generally bland and low in flavor. One example of this blandness is their salsa, which tastes like a can of chopped tomatoes mixed with a can of diced mild green chilies:

Nevertheless, I have always been intrigued by their "El Green Saddle," as they call their version of a green chili burrito enchilada style. In fact, this dish is so much a part of the tradition here that it is only dish mentioned in the history of the restaurant painted on the wall:
When served,"El Green Saddle" looks like this:

Again, you would be right to say "this isn’t green!" And yeh, the predominant color of this "green" chile is red. Even when one cuts into the burrito and looks at it up close, there is as much tomato red here as there is chile green:

So what is the secret to this dish? Having eaten it several times, I am convinced that El Charro’s green chile is simply coarsely ground beef and onions cooked with left over table salsa. That would explain both how it tastes and how it looks. It would also explain why El Charro features this dish. You have to do something, I guess, with all that leftover salsa.

Another branch of the Gutierrez family (92 year old Bessie and her descendents) also began in the restaurant business back in the 1940s, although their oldest restaurant currently in operation is La Casa Gutierrez, which has been located in an old house on Orange Avenue since 1960:

Although their fast food outlets, Mr. G’s and Chile Pepper, serve credible versions of their green chili recipe, its best incarnation is in a green chile dinner (Tuesday lunch special pictured) at La Casa Gutierrez:

Although this green chile is the most watery of any in town, I still love the fresh green chile flavor that arises from all these large pieces of green chile. Nonetheless, the use of ground beef and presence of chunks of tomato, instead of tomatillo, marks this as another Yuma mutant green chile:

While I have had the green chile burrito enchilada style at the restaurant (and it’s good), the green chile lunch special on Tuesdays is one of the best meal deals in Yuma. For $5.25 (including tax), you get chips (store-bought, unfortunately), salsa, a good-sized portion of green chile, your choice of a beverage (the lemonade is killer), rice, beans, and a soft and flavorful flour tortilla almost the size of a bedsheet:

The newest of the restaurants serving atypical green chile in Yuma is Eduardo’s, which dates back to 1964, meaning that it is less than 45 years old. Currently located in a strip mall on Avenue B between 16th and 17th, this small restaurant has its own unique take on green chile. The Chile Verde burrito, enchilada style, currently costs $5.50 and looks like this:

From the outside, this burrito looks a lot like the others, with almost as much red tomato color as green chile color. When you cut into the tortilla, you find beef, tomato, fresh green chile, cheeses, and sauce all mixed together:

It is only when you focus on the meat itself, that you can see one of the main differences between this green chile and the others in this post. Eduardo’s does not use ground beef. Instead, numerous sizable chunks of stewing beef have been slowly cooked to utter tenderness:

These chunks of beef give this dish a wonderful deep beefiness. The other difference, one that you cannot see, is in the spiciness of the finished product. All of the other mutant green chilies are very mild in flavor and have virtually no picante heat. Eduardo’s, on the other hand, sets your mouth afire with chili spice. While not a standard California-style green chile, I have to admit that this is one of the tastiest green chilies I have ever eaten.

I hope you folks have enjoyed reading about these unusual and weird green chilies in Yuma because I have enjoyed eating them.

Swiss Noodles

July 27, 2008 ed fromyuma Cooking, Recipes, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

All regular readers of mmm-yoso know that both Kirk and Cathy can cook. ed (from Yuma)? Well, today will prove that (with some help) he is not completely lost in a kitchen.

I still remember getting to know Tina at a party last spring, and as often happens with me, we began discussing food. When she not only told me that she loves spaetzle, but that she also could prepare those tasty egg noodles, I realized we could make wonderful food together – in particular a flavorful Swiss dish that cried out for homemade spaetzle. Now we’d like to share (at least virtually) this traditional meal that is one of our favorites. Here’s how it is done.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion
4-5 slices (or 1/4-1/3 lb) bacon
2 bunches Swiss chard

1/3 lb Swiss cheese (preferably real Gruyere)

2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch nutmeg

black pepper to taste.

Start by chopping the medium onion:

Then dice the four or five slices of bacon (I got some applewood smoked bacon from my local butcher, but bacon ends and pieces work well too):

After discarding the large rib ends, chop up two bunches of Swiss chard (green ribbed if possible). By the way, this is a huge bowl:

Then shred approximately a third of a pound of Swiss Gruyere cheese (pictured is a little over half a pound of aged Gruyere in wedges and then grated):

At the same time, you will need to prepare the dough for the noodles. After you mix together two eggs and half a cup of milk, add a cup and a half of flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, a half a teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of nutmeg, and beat with a wooden spoon or with the dough stirrer on an electric mixer until the ingredients are fully combined, thick, somewhat stiff, and stretchy. The dough should look like this:
At this point, you should have a large pot of lightly salted water being brought to a boil on the stove. On another burner, begin to fry the bacon at medium heat. Cook until much of the bacon fat has been rendered, but do not cook the bacon fully. Then add the chopped onion and mix together and continue frying:
When the bacon and onion mixture is ready, add the chard handful by handful and stir. If you wish the resulting dish to have some crunchy parts, add leaves and rib pieces at the same time. For a more uniform texture, separate the ribs and cook them for a minute or two before adding the leafy parts. Reduce heat, if necessary, to prevent overcooking.

The other half of the dish, the noodles, take less time. Back in the day, my grandmother would have spread the dough out on a small hand-held cutting board and sliced strips of the dough into the boiling water. Lacking my grandmother’s talent, patience, and wrists, most people today will use a spaetzle press to extrude the noodles. One can also extrude the noodles through a colander, but notice that the perforations at the bottom of the well of this press are not round and are irregular in shape; this flatness and lack of uniformity is key to top quality spaetzle:

When the water is boiling, fill up the utensil’s well about halfway, place over the pot, slowly push down, and send the fresh noodles into the boiling water:

Unlike Italian pasta, these egg noodles do not easily overcook, so that one can refill the well and drop more noodles into the boiling water. Using a wooden spoon, stir the noodles and let the water come back to a full boil. At this point the spaetzles are done.

After draining in a colander, the noodles should be added to the frying pan with the other cooked ingredients and quickly stirred together. Place the contents of the frying pan into a bowl and add the shredded cheese to taste. At this point, you may also add fresh grated black pepper (unless, like me, you forget). You will notice that the spaetzle noodles are not smooth and uniform, but rather pitted, bumpy, and irregular. This texture gives these homemade noodles plenty of surface areas so that they interface wonderfully with gravies or sauces. After the ingredients are all stirred together and the cheese has become wonderfully melty and gooey, the dish should look like this:
For our meal, Tina and I had previously chopped up a couple of heirloom tomatoes and added a few leaves of fresh basil:
After we tossed the tomatoes with the basil, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil, we plated this salad next to our main course:
This was more food than two hearty eaters could devour, and probably could serve up to 4 normal people. The heirloom tomato salad was good, but the noodles were supreme. The combination of textures and the creamy smoky flavors made this dish (even though I was at the stove) a success. I have no idea what this dish is called, but with the spaetzle, the Swiss cheese, and the Swiss chard, I guess calling it Swiss Noodles will have to do. Before I got to know Tina, I made the dish with regular packaged egg noodles. It was okay back then, but she just makes things better. Yum!

Pupuseria Cabañas 3: Odd Bits and Bites in Yuma

July 13, 2008 ed fromyuma Latin American Cuisine, Salvadoran Restaurants, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, Yuma

Kirk and the rest of the mmm-yoso crew are no doubt out scouring San Diego and the rest of the world looking for good food to share with you. Today, it's just ed (from Yuma) with more food and photos from his favorite dining destination.

*** I am saddened to write that Pupuseria Cabanas is no more. One of the few cases of a restaurant doomed by its success. At least as I have heard it, the landlord was getting complaints from the towing/repair shop next door that there was no place to park during the day because the pupuseria had too many customers. Lucia was not allowed to be open weekdays, and then on Nov. 1, the restaurant was empty with no sign about another location etc. I will update if (I hope, when) she has relocated *** :-(

While San Diego has a much richer dining scene than poor old Yuma stuck out in the middle of the desert, Yuma does have one benefit for me. With such limited options, I can fully explore the range of dishes offered by my favorite places. Case in point, I have probably eaten at Pupuseria Cabañas every week since my first visit. In the over two months since my last post on this place, I have tasted many different things and learned more about this tiny and wonderful restaurant. Certainly enough stuff for another post.

Soups

My favorite soup is still probably sopa de pata, whether the hoof is hiding under the tripe:

Or completely visible:

I have even found out what cow toes taste like (the covering skin is very beefy – almost gamey – in flavor):

No matter what cut of hoof or type of tripe, there is always a lot of tasty tendon to chew on:

For something completely different, they offered albondigas one day:

I have no idea if this is authentic Salvadoran or just a Mexican soup that they felt like cooking, but in either case it was very tasty – as good an albondigas as I've had in town.

And the meatballs were especially rich:

One weekday night, my friend Dave suggested having dinner at Pupuseria Cabañas – since he had already been there and tried one of their outstanding soups. That night, the available soup was bean:

The beans were tender and flavorful as were the pieces of soft pork scattered throughout the incredibly rich thick broth. Then, almost simultaneously, Dave and I discovered something weird in our soups. They looked like this:

Oh my god! What were these? What do you think these skin covered, bony, finger-length things were? Hint: a pig has only one of them.

No, not that! These were pigtails. Yeh, I thought they'd be curly also. Clearly, the skin, bones, and richness of these appendages contributed to the wonderful succulence of the dish. It may be the best single bowl of bean soup I've ever eaten.

Other Dishes

In addition to always having pupusas and a soup, I have found that other tasty items are sometimes available at the restaurant. For example, one day they had a Salvadoran version of a torta, the flavorful chicken touched with Salvadoran coleslaw and something like a barbecue sauce:

For breakfast, one can get fried bananas served with black beans,queso blanco, and crema:

The pureed black beans were flavorful, and the tangy sour dairy items complemented the slightly sweet bananas.

On another occasion, the special was fried yuca and what they call chicharrones (here pork, not skin):

The pork was the essence of deep fried piginess, and the yuca (note – this is not yucca) was a revelation. I have had fried yuca elsewhere and had always been disappointed with the limp greasy results. Here it was absolutely perfect; the outside of the vegetable was crunchy with no hint of grease and the inside was light, fluffy, and starchy.

Over time, I have grown more fond of the rich chicken tamales (even though I have learned that no banana leaves are killed in their preparation):

Mystery Veggie

In a previous post on this restaurant, I mentioned that my favorite type of pupusa had cheese and some sort of green veggie in it. I have since learned that this vegetable is called loroco, and basically, it is a flower bulb. A bunch of them look like this:

Loroco gives pupusas a distinct herby almost flowery aroma that I find very pleasant. Mixed with cheese inside a pupusa, this is how they look:

Other Notes

The variety and quality of the aguas frescas at Pupuseria Cabañas continues to be remarkable. I have had various fruit drinks ensalada – topped with fresh chopped fruits – often apple and mango:

Other fruits are also served regular agua fresca style, and at times, I have had melon, strawberry, watermelon, and at least one slightly sour Salvadoran fruit whose name I've forgotten.

At least on their business cards, the restaurant is now officially known as Pupuseria Cabañas – no mention of tacos. The name derives from the inland state of Cabañas in El Salvador (where the family is from). Before coming to the desert, they lived in Hawthorne, California.

I know many of you are eager to jump in your car or hop on an airplane just to come to Yuma and eat at this restaurant. Therefore, it is my duty to let you know that our current temperatures are usually over 110°. Also, the restaurant will be closed from July 21-August 8. But do come visit in the fall; the wonderful food at this restaurant is worth the cost of gas (at least from San Diego or Phoenix. From London or Tokyo, your results might differ.)

One last note: I have learned that the restaurant actually has a phone number, (928) 782-1874, so visitors may call ahead to find out what dishes are available.

Pupuseria Cabañas, 3405 8th St, Yuma AZ, (928) 782-1874

Cathy and Ed’s Eating Adventure: Balboa Tofu House

July 7, 2008 ed fromyuma Korean Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!, What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!

This is a Very Special Episode of mmm-yoso!!!, documenting a very special meal. Cathy is "talking" in green. Ed will talk in blue

While Cathy and Ed both post here at mmm-yoso, before Ed’s last visit to town, they had only met once. So they were looking forward to sharing a lunch.

After exchanging some e-mails, we realized that we both liked the Balboa Tofu House on Convoy. What’s more, nobody had ever written about this place at the blog. That settled it. We were surprised neither of us had blogged Tofu House, since we both ate here kind of a lot. Apparently it was some secret neither of us wanted you to know about.

If you were paying attention to what ed just wrote, yes, it’s true. ed and I have only met for a total of four meals at this point in time, two of those with Kirk. (for you Sudoku/applied logic wizards out there, that means the three of us have met for exactly two meals together). (Sure, we post here, helping each other out and keeping this blog going when one of us is overwhelmed with life or work or is out of the country on a vacation or just doesn’t feel like it, but the three of us having an actual meeting and eating together… Twice).

Blogging. It’s magic. (sorry for rambling…on with the post!).

Because we arrived at 11:30, we each could find a parking place in the usually hellishly crowded strip mall parking lot. An auspicious omen. Note: Cathy’s picture here must have been taken some morning at 7 AM. I’ve never seen the lot so empty: (9:30 a.m.) (on a Sunday.) (Just before meeting Mr. C for dim sum across the street)

The interior of the restaurant with a lot of nice wood surfaces seemed much like it was 10 years ago when I first started coming there. One thing that has changed are the prices (not that we were expecting . . . ). The soft tofu soups now range from $7-$9. And my mouth was set or one of those soups. The menu lists numerous combinations of ingredients that one can have with the broth and soft tofu. The range of add-ins includes things like pork, pollock roe, kimchi, shrimp, mushrooms, oysters, clams, fresh peppers, and more. If my memory serves — and at my age that is always problematic — more different combinations were listed than before, and the list of possibilities ends with the challenge to put together your own combination. In addition, customers are given the choice of spice level and of regular or vegetarian broth.

I must confess that I didn’t look at the rest of the menu, but Cathy did.

ed and I had lunch the day before, at Asia Cafe, and the Nem Khao was still on my mind…

I wanted crispy -not fried- rice. OK, I *needed* some more crispy rice. So anyhow, we ordered. (I am inserting this photo of Nem Khao from Asia Cafe, so everyone will know what I am talking about).

The first food to hit the table was the pan chan. I thought the selection and quantity were little disappointing. On previous visits, seaweed covered with a rich deep chili sauce had been the highlight of the side dishes. It was woefully missing:

The kimchi, however, was quite good with a slight touch of sweetness to offset the pickled crunch of the cabbage:

Then my soup (a seafood combination with mushroom and bell peppers) arrived bubbling hot and steaming:

After taking a few pictures, I grabbed one of the eggs that sit on every table top and broke it into the soup:

Soon I broke up the egg with my chopsticks and whisked it throughout the bowl, adding touches of eggy richness throughout and cooling the soup enough so that I could begin eating.

For me, this was perfect soup. The spiciness of the broth flavored up all the ingredients. And the textures — from the creaminess of the tofu to the chewiness of the mushrooms and the crunch of the peppers — were wonderful. This is one of those dishes that tastes so much better than it looks:

Along with the soup came what they call brown rice:

Obviously, brown means different things to different folks. Actually, the color in the rice comes from the few dark grains that stain the rest of the white rice purple. It tastes slightly sweet and is chewy and hearty…Sometimes I describe foods so chewy and fiber-y as "tasting healthy" (which means no flavor) and in this case, it is just really good rice. A rice I have a craving for, and I don’t usually crave rice.

Cathy ordered Hot Stone mixed rice with mushrooms ($10)

It arrived looking like:

and it sizzled.

(here’s a detail view):

Nice close up,ed.

After mixing:

Thanks for taking the photos, ed. I was so busy waiting for the rice to get cool enough to eat after scraping the hot stone pot that I didn’t take any photos…oh, we were talking, too…

My bowl of goodness was topped with sliced enoki and shitake mushrooms, as well as cabbage, carrots, corn and some onion. It satisfied my cravings for flavor as well as texture of crispiness of the rice formed on the hot sides of the pot. The veggies were very fresh and just enough fresh in flavor which contrasted with the crispy rice I was scraping. Although, I did add kimchee for more flavor once I got to the non-crispy rice part of the meal…

and between the two of us, we ate up our pan chan…

and everything else!

The food and company were excellent. Let’s do it again. I agree!

Balboa Tofu House 4646 Convoy San Diego 92123 Website

10 New Pictures

June 21, 2008 ed fromyuma What Ed Eats -You too can be like Ed!, yoso-silly

This is ed (from Yuma). I thoroughly enjoyed looking at Kirk’s 10 favorite pictures from this blog. I see Cathy is also working on a 10 picture post. I thought it would be fun to do something similar – except with one change – here are 10 pictures that have never before been posted at mmm-yoso!!!

Don’t despair, I will refrain from posting pictures of trees:

And pictures of flowers:

Well, except for those pictures. What follows are 10 of my favorite or most interesting food pictures that you have never seen before.

First, this photo that looks like some sort of abstract modernist painting is actually a close-up of a chile relleno. This was my first experiment using the close-up feature on my Canon:

This next picture is a mystery. It is clearly a bowl of spicy seafood noodle soup somewhere in San Diego, but I have no memory of how it tasted or where I bought it. It had transparent noodles and was served with a sprig of basil, bean sprouts, and jalapeno slices. Any ideas?

For several years, one of my very favorite restaurants in the Monterey area was owned by chef Robert Kincaid and was called the White House. Contrary to what some of you are probably thinking, it was not called that because it served up a lot of baloney and made a hash out of everything. Rather, instead, the restaurant occupied a beautiful old Victorian mansion with a white exterior near downtown Pacific Grove . As well as serving tasty food, most of the dishes there were also beautiful to look at. Here, if memory serves, are two East/West fusion potstickers, stuffed with minced pork and served with an Asian sauce:

On my last visit before the restaurant’s untimely demise, I had a roast pork loin dinner that was almost too beautiful to eat. The operative word, however, is almost:

This next picture makes it into this post not because it is exceptionally beautiful food, but because Tico’s in Marina (a few miles north of Monterey) has served me the best breakfasts that I have had since . . . since? Well, some of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had:

Although I have tasted fluffier omelettes, Tico’s hollandaise sauce is to die for (and no, that is not just what my cardiologist says). The home fries are also the best – perfectly seasoned all over, crunchy on the outside, and moist and tender within. If Leff is right (is that a paradox or an oxymoron?) maybe these good home fries are a trend.

At home, I rarely take pictures of my cooking – and there is probably a reason (many reasons?) for that – but one evening the beautiful colors of an heirloom tomato that I had cut up sent me searching for my camera:
I should add that I love heirloom tomatoes. Now that I can get them April-November (these were photoed in November!), I am nearly in heaven. I just wish I had taken more pictures of all the varieties because I have easily eaten enough that I could have done a post purely of tomato portraits.

Of course, my favorite unpublished pics would have to include at least one featuring raw seafood. Here is a photo with some of the items served in a recent chirashi bowl at Sakura:

Since we’re on the subject of seafood (any segue in a storm), I thought you might enjoy this picture of a shrimp ceviche tostada from TJ’s Marisquero in Yuma:

Right after I moved to Yuma, I read about the basics of Sonoran cuisine in some Chowhound posts by Canon Fowler (no relation to my camera) who grew up in Tucson in the 20s and 30s. Among many other matters, he wrote about Sonoran enchiladas (also called patty enchiladas), but such simple fare is hard to find these days. The best incarnation of them currently in Yuma are the enchiladas del Piso at Viejo Loco, a dish composed of two thick handmade corn tortillas – so thick they are almost corn cakes – set side by side and covered with sauce, cheese, and topping. This day, I ordered it with green sauce and espinaca (spinach). While not a traditional sauce or topping, it tasted very good:

There is only one fitting way to finish this post. As a way of thanking Kirk for sharing his blog with all of us and letting me occasionally post here, I offer up a photo of an actual loco-moco from Yuma: