season opener.

Tonight's first fish tacos of the summer confirmed that, yes: prepared correctly, these are one of the absolute best things you can be assembling on/in your plate/mouth on a warm sunny day. The lineup for this evening was two regulars (chipotle slaw, pico de gallo) and two variations of familiar themes (papaya/pineapple-madame jeanette salsa and a sweet cucumber relish with a touch of Indian lime pickle). And Bridgetown black beans.

At a certain point we realized that, if I've ever written down the very boring but critically important "fish taco" spice, I can't find it. So here it is.

+++

fish tacos.

fish
cornmeal

salt
black pepper (lots)
onion powder
garlic powder
ground cumin
oregano (a little)
cayenne pepper (a little)

oil fer fryn

+++

life, lemons, etc.

Combine some of this homemade lemonade with an equal amount of ice-cold seltzer water/club soda/fizzy water of choice and you might even forget you're not drinking alcohol. It's that good!!! (INSERT INFINITE LOOP OF SMILEY EMOTICONS HERE).

OK but it really is really good. Especially on a mthrfkin hot-ass day in the middle of September. We went to see the Henry Moore shit at the Rijksmuseum b/c it's free and we've been meaning to see it and we almost forgot about it. We were going to go to Boca's after but then lemonade started sounding really really good, and we kind of became fixated on it, like nothing was going to satisfy us except lemonade. And there was no way we could afford to pay anyone else in this city to make us the amount of real-lemon, real-sugar, ice-cold lemonade we would need.

So we rode back home to Ali Baba (formerly Interfood) and bought a bunch of cheap lemons and other bargain vegetables, and rendered those vegetable bitches into slight variations on the ol' Fish Taco Condiment Array, including a real slaw with mayo. Plus yes we made lemonade, and it was goooooooooooood.

+++

lemonade.

1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup raw sugar

2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (5 or 6 lemons? maybe more)
3 or 4 cups water

+++

habanero guacamole.

3 ripe avocados
1/2 large red onion, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
0.5 to 1 entire habanero pepper, seeded, deveined and minced
3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 tomato, cut into chunks

salt to taste!!!

+++

napa slaw.

2 cups shredded Napa cabbage (or spitskool)
2 tbsp good European mayonnaise, sorry it's elitist but it's totally true
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
2 scallions, minced fine
2 tbsp cilantro, minced
salt and pepper to taste

+++

taco tymez.

Since it's The Hottest Day Of The Year So Far, it's fish taco night. All the usual condiments will probably show up (chipotle slaw, pineapple-scallion salsa, guac, pico, etc) plus these two new experiments.

+++

radish and cucumber salsa.

5 radishes
1/2 a cucumber
1/3 cup cilantro
1-2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp raw sugar
salt to taste

+++

peach + blood orange salsa.

2 small peaches
1 ripe tomato
1/4 red onion
juice of a lime
juice of one small blood orange
1/4 madame jeanette chile, seeded, or 1/2 tsp madame jeanette sauce
1 tbsp fresh mint
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
salt to taste

+++

strawberry.black.

After basketball at the Y yesterday, dad and I went into downtown Phoenix for some shopping and to drop in on La Condesa's salsa bar.

I expected counter service only, but there were tables and waitresses and yes all the normal restaurant things, plus one non-normal restaurant thing: at the back of the room to the right of the serious-looking woman there's a salad bar-looking thing that contains 12 or 14 salsas.

Our first trip to the salsa bar yielded (from left): seven chile; salsa roja; pink radish; jicama/scallion; strawberry; chipotle; peanut; pecan. I thought they were all fresh and well-executed, though a couple of them probably stretched the definition of "salsa", notably the very crema-like pecan salsa (far right). Dad was totally smitten by the strawberry salsa, he tried to get some to take home but they don't do that.



If I say that the tacos themselves were my least favorite since I've been here, that's not really a negative review at all, I've just been eating very well. I had the black mole chicken (front) and a beer-battered whitefish with slaw, temporarily vegan dad had a poblano/mushroom thing. Like I said, these were fine by themselves, but they were elevated into the "good" bracket by the salsa overload...but I mean for me eight good salsas could turn a dusty pebble into a satisfying lunch.

killer joe, barrio queen.

Saw Killer Joe at 11am, let's call it "bracing"? Not perfect, but the 2nd half just spirals furiously into an awfully dark and awfully funny endgame, super well-written, and yes I had to peek through my fingers twice towards the very end out of actual, visceral fear. I'm not even going to talk about the chicken leg. We left the theater a bit giddy and weirdly satisfied, like after a real-life rollercoaster ride.

+++

Then: it was $2 Taco Tuesday at Barrio Queen, so, yes, all tacos $2. We had, uh, 10 of them between the two of us. If memory serves, they would be:

1. chicken/chorizo/poblano/pine nut cream
2. steak/huitlacoche 
3. nopales/fried egg 
4. fried fish/slaw
5. fried shrimp
6. cochinita pibil
7. al pastor (pork + pineapple)
8. another fried fish
9. another fried shrimp
10. rajas (roasted peppers)

My first taco (chicken/chorizo) was the reason we had ten of them, it was perfect. There were some disappointments (huitlacoche, boring; rajas, unpleasantly bitter), but the eight good ones were really good. 

the dread moray eel.

Projected day off from drinking failed, but in a good way. Above: colazione dei campioni, consisting of sauteed shrimp, pineapple and scallion salsa, adobo, egg over easy, pinto beans, and a little creme fraiche.



Above: Brouwerij 't IJ has a new IPA! And it's really good. And: at only 7%, you can drink 3 of them and not be in trouble.

Below: which means that afterwards you can go to China Si-chuan Kitchen and have a couple Tsingtao to go with your Sichuan duck, Mongolian chicken, Yangtze beef, and Peking duck. I like this place: they're not shy about chilies, and the prices are reasonable (as long as you stay away from the sizzling dishes). I think the best things we had were the spicy dumpling app (hiding in the rear middle of the photo) and Mara's Yangtze beef (to the right), but it was all good. Next time we try vegetables.

+++

pineapple and scallion salsa.

juice of one lime, possibly two...this is the important flavor
1 cup diced pineapple
1 pointy green chile from the Maroc, chopped fine
most of 1 scallion, chopped fine
1/4 cup coriander leaves, chopped
a good bit of salt to taste

+++

euphemistically.

It's fish taco season again. This, however, isn't one: there's an over-easy egg inside this one, alongside guac, homemade pickled jalapenos, two salsas, chipotle slaw, black beans, and fresh cilantro..with a little feta on top. Chomp.

+++

um...

This looks and sounds like a mess, but this was really fkn good. This is a "mini" hotdog, in the interest of being able to eat more than one. I pretty much left her recipe alone, although I didn't add any oil to the salsa because, well...in this house, anything called "salsa" in the Mexican sense just doesn't have oil in it. And I cheated on the mayo by just adding pureed chipotle to store-bought mayo. But other than that, dingety-bam: right on.

I'm pretty sure that the combo of the salsa and the mayo would be great on anything: fish tacos and pork tenderloin spring to mind.

+++

smörgåsbord.

The cooking-as-therapy train went off the rails tonight: lentilburgers and fried catfish tacos. Frozen catfish (good clean stuff, too) is on sale for €1.99 for 600 grams, that's--what, $2.00 a pound? And we're still only three-quarters of the way through our €1.50 bag of lentils, after having made at least four meals from it...

Hey! I know what! I'll take this opportunity to document some of the thus-far-undocumented components of these Thoroughly Repeatable (and pretty darn cheap) breath destroyers. Yeah!

+++

catfish tacos = fried catfish + chipotle slaw + pico de gallo + guacamole or salsa verde + fresh mint or cilantro + green or red fresh Holland or Spanish chile

lentilburgers = lentil patties + tahini-pomegranate sauce + saffron-yoghurt-mint sauce + cucumber salad a la maoz + lettuce + sriracha

+++

tahini-pomegranate sauce.

1/2 cup tahini (well-stirred)
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
juice of one lemon
1 tbsp water

1 clove garlic, pressed
salt to taste (very important)

Directions to follow.

Serves 2 or 3 or 4.

+++

cucumber salad a la maoz.

1 cucumber, thinly sliced in rounds

the juice of 2 lemons

2 to 3 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

salt to taste

Combine well and let sit for an hour or so. Serves 2 or 3.

+++

saffron, yoghurt, and mint sauce.

10-15 threads saffron

1-2 tbsp boiling water

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup mayonnaise

3 cloves garlic, pressed

2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Serves 4.

el taco del fish.

We, the last people in the civilized world to do so, finally have our very own wireless at home so we can stop trying to steal the neighbors'. Welcome to Scimmieland.

+++

It's a fish taco repeat tonight (in combination with The Wire Season 5). This slaw we're making is really aces.

+++

chipotle slaw.

+++

1/2 head red cabbage (2 cups or so?)

1 onion, quartered

1 plump chipotle in adobo

3/4 cup mayonnaise, possibly less

juice of 2 limes

salt to taste

We've been shzooming up the cabbage and onion together until they're chopped fine. Take them out of the processor and put them in a mixing bowl. Add the chipotle, the mayo, and the lime juice to the processor, and blend until chipotle is integrated completely. Add this to the bowl with the cabbage and onion, stir to combine.

watch your breath.

Oversaturate much motherfucker?

+++

Fish tacos are not like regular tacos. For one thing, their name sounds like a euphemism. For another, they are way easier to fuck up than most other tacos. Fortunately for us, we did no such thing this evening. This is mostly thanks to the lovely and talented Mara.

Instructions: Take a way-huger-than-necessary flour tortilla (because that's all we could find on a Sunday), put it on a griddle so it gets some dark spots on it. Put a layer of crisp and crunchy red cabbage slaw down (made with lime juice, mayonnaise and onions). Do NOT EVER use any kind of lettuce or wiltable green instead of cabbage, or you will be sorry.

Add your seasoned and broiled fish (we used cod spiced with chili powder, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, and cumin). Top with some pico de gallo. Add a slather of guacamole. Add a drizzle of chipotle mayonnaise. Finally, add a sprinkle of cilantro, and close the damn thing up. Eat carefully: it drips.

+++

wholly mackerel.

Does All-Bran really need high fructose corn syrup in it? Jesus. I'm just trying to sort out how quickly I need to find a new bran dealer. 31 grams of All-Bran has 10 grams of fiber, but there's a ton of other typical Kellogg's pusherman bullshit in there too.

OK, today's entry was supposed to be about the lowly (or, alternatively, humble) mackerel. I chose "lowly" b/c before this whole Omega-3 hullabaloo, our man was always referred to by food writers euphemistically as "strong", or "oily", or sometimes even "pungent". Please, people. Just come right on out and say it: my man can be downright "fishy" in that way you don't want. Maybe dass why he so humble I guess.

In lieu of (or in light of as some Georgians and Floridians like to say, wrongly) actual, useful, detailed information about the mackerel, let me just offer that they're at the top of many people's Healthy Fat List. In my quest for mackerel info, I found this interesting page about mucus accumulation, of which I am currently a victim, sorry. It's driving me MAD, I tell you. And one of the things you're not supposed to eat? Wheat, which is where, yes, of course bran comes from. Just have to drink death-defying amounts of water I guess.

I think that's it. Not much snacking going on. Or snaking, which I typed first. My mom said studies have shown that eating 14 walnut halves per day increases HDL and lowers LDL. I should get on that.
+++

Here's a typically complicated David Bouley recipe, simplified by me.

mackerel with field greens.
6 ounces (about 2) skinless mackerel filets, cut how you like
1 very small garlic clove, crushed
Fine sea salt
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
1/2 teaspoon prepared horseradish
1/4 teaspoon Champagne vinegar
Pinch of ground toasted caraway seeds
1/4 cup finely diced cucumber
1/4 cup finely diced cooked beet
1/4 cup finely diced apple
Freshly ground black pepper

1 head Bibb lettuce
3/4 cup seeded, diced cucumber
1/2 cup packed parsley leaves
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Champagne vinegar
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 1/2 ounces (about 3 1/2 cups) mixed baby greens (mesclun)

Apparently the secret to getting this to not turn totally pink is to not mix it too much. And, the vinaigrette is complicated: In a food processor, juice the lettuce, cucumber, and parsley. You should have 3/4 cup juice...if not add a little water. Whisk in the lemon juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisking constantly, drizzle in the oils and whisk until combined. Then just serve the barely mixed salad on the dressed mesclun. And dress the salad a little too.

Serves 4-6.

+++

Finally, here's a recipe I can't wait to try with my Singing Fish canned mackerel, or whatever it's called. Hard to make an appetizing-sounding mackerel recipe title in English, though. How bout Espanol?:

+++

tacos de carite.
1 mackerel, cut into 2- by 4- by 1-inch strips, or 1 small whole mackerel
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for oiling grill
2 tablespoons chipotle rub
2 tablespoons diced radish
2 tablespoons very thinly sliced scallion, white and green parts
charred tomato mint salsa
8 small tortillas, heated

Light the grill. In a medium-sized, nonreactive bowl, toss the fish with lime juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, and Chipotle Rub. Cover, refrigerate, and let marinate about 1 hour. Oil grill and cook fish over a hot fire until lightly charred and medium-rare (it should still be pink in the middle), about 3 minutes.

In a warm bowl (so fish does not cool too much), shred fish. Taste for seasoning and sprinkle with a little more Chipotle Rub and lime juice, if needed. Top with radish and scallion and serve warm with salsa and tortillas.

Serves 4.

+++