unsolicited tip #1: stay away from the processed/jarred premixed mole sauces. If you have a rich base stock, they're ok on a plate of huevos, but otherwise they give year-old stale espresso pods a good name. Any relation to real mole is purely coincidental.
unsolicited tip #1: by every means possible, track down some chile Pasilla de Oaxaca. Think of it as a CoE chipotle.
unsolicited tip #3: perhaps because they grow wild around my house and I just cooked up some amazingly good batch of Chancho Adobado with them last night... but I wonder if there's a place for bitter/sour orange in a sig drink. Zest and a few drops of juice could work like bittters in a good cocktail. Sour oranges are from original spanish orange rootstock and can be found wild anywhere the conquistadors went. Track down a recipe for the Mayan pork dish Poc-chuk for an example of how it is used to build a smokey-sweet-sour dish.
Thanks true! "Unsolicited" tips are always welcome.
Spike just mentioned to me on Friday night about the pasilla de Oaxaca. Also said they're the best. Unfortunately, there isn't a source for them in Baltimore. But I will be travelling to Mexico City on Monday and plan to source some while there.
Jay- I've all but given up on getting a coffeed account, but I had a few thoughts about your vegan thread over there. I lived by the vegan diet for about three years to see if it would impact cholesterol (it did, but not significantly-- and not enough for me to warrant keeping on with it). If you avoid-at-all-costs anyplace that cooks "meat-analog" vegan, there are good vegan restaurants. Next time you are in San Francisco, go to Millennium. I had a blast while I was eating vegan because it forced me to learn all sorts of cooking techniques from across Asia and India that really widened my awareness of cooking with veggie products.
Then I spent a month on location in the Aegean with some hard-core vegans from the US, and it was there that I realized veganism was more of a quasi-political choice than a dietary choice. There we were, on this speck of an island where the local population had reached a cultural/ecologocial equilibrium with its environment, and it was painfully obvious that the vegan diet could only come from a privileged western mind-set. The locals were eating amazing meals of fresh goat, seafood, cheeses from the goats, butter from the few cows, honey, greens, olives, and pastas. The limited produce available was cooked with animal proteins. Given the choice of living like a cultural imperialist and trying to force my hosts to accommodate my vegan diet or eating local, I learned to really love goat cheese and freshly caught sardines grilled on open coals.
Dude. Are you assuming a new life? We'll we see you again after this trip? Hee hee.
ReplyDeletep.s. Don't forget the Sombrero.
unsolicited tip #1: stay away from the processed/jarred premixed mole sauces. If you have a rich base stock, they're ok on a plate of huevos, but otherwise they give year-old stale espresso pods a good name. Any relation to real mole is purely coincidental.
ReplyDeleteunsolicited tip #1: by every means possible, track down some chile Pasilla de Oaxaca. Think of it as a CoE chipotle.
unsolicited tip #3: perhaps because they grow wild around my house and I just cooked up some amazingly good batch of Chancho Adobado with them last night... but I wonder if there's a place for bitter/sour orange in a sig drink. Zest and a few drops of juice could work like bittters in a good cocktail. Sour oranges are from original spanish orange rootstock and can be found wild anywhere the conquistadors went. Track down a recipe for the Mayan pork dish Poc-chuk for an example of how it is used to build a smokey-sweet-sour dish.
Thanks true! "Unsolicited" tips are always welcome.
ReplyDeleteSpike just mentioned to me on Friday night about the pasilla de Oaxaca. Also said they're the best. Unfortunately, there isn't a source for them in Baltimore. But I will be travelling to Mexico City on Monday and plan to source some while there.
Jay- I've all but given up on getting a coffeed account, but I had a few thoughts about your vegan thread over there. I lived by the vegan diet for about three years to see if it would impact cholesterol (it did, but not significantly-- and not enough for me to warrant keeping on with it). If you avoid-at-all-costs anyplace that cooks "meat-analog" vegan, there are good vegan restaurants. Next time you are in San Francisco, go to Millennium. I had a blast while I was eating vegan because it forced me to learn all sorts of cooking techniques from across Asia and India that really widened my awareness of cooking with veggie products.
ReplyDeleteThen I spent a month on location in the Aegean with some hard-core vegans from the US, and it was there that I realized veganism was more of a quasi-political choice than a dietary choice. There we were, on this speck of an island where the local population had reached a cultural/ecologocial equilibrium with its environment, and it was painfully obvious that the vegan diet could only come from a privileged western mind-set. The locals were eating amazing meals of fresh goat, seafood, cheeses from the goats, butter from the few cows, honey, greens, olives, and pastas. The limited produce available was cooked with animal proteins. Given the choice of living like a cultural imperialist and trying to force my hosts to accommodate my vegan diet or eating local, I learned to really love goat cheese and freshly caught sardines grilled on open coals.