Tacos

Tacos seemed to have changed over the last few years.  Now, we sometimes hear about "authentic" tacos, but I am not even sure what that means. 

 

When I was a kid, my mom made tacos.  Now, you need to understand that my mother was born and raised in Utah.  Only many years later, not too long before I was born did she move to California, where she may actually have encountered  tacos.  The late 1940s in Chicago does not seem a likely place to encounter tacos, though I could be wrong.  So, what she did was fry corn tortillas in a pan, and then fold them part way through cooking.  There was ground beef, grated cheese, cheddar, and shredded lettuce.  No taco sauce, picante sauce, salsa or hot sauce, just catsup.  I loved them, because she would prepare everything and then we would bring it downstairs and eat in front of the TV.  Just about the only time that ever happened.

 

From that introduction, I moved on to Taco Bell, which was very big in California when I was High School.  Back then, it was a cheap and fun place for my friends and I to eat.  Usually before heading off to a movie, or just an evening of cruising 4th Street in San Rafael.  By the way, that is where the cruising scenes in American Graffitti were filmed.  Now, on occasion, when we had a bit more money, my friends and I would hit a real Mexican restaurant, and I suppose I might have eaten tacos there, but I do not remember it, as I usually preferred the Enchilada plate.  There was also Jack in the Box, where the tacos were deep fried and the seasoned meat was already in the shell when they went in to the frier.  I ate my share of those, and also cooked my share of those, as Jack in the Box was my first job.

 

Now, I often fix my own tacos, as I did the other night.  Now, we start with both corn and flour tortillas, which are warmed, but not cooked...again.  Now, funny thing, but we have a very nice ceramic tortilla warmer, but we do not use it.  At least, we have never figured out a good way to warm the tortillas IN the tortilla warmer.  Even Google could not help me there.  All Google wanted to do was sell me a tortilla warmer.  Now, we just wrap the tortillas in foil and toss them in the toaster oven.

 

So, to fill the tortilla warmers, we have the usual, at least to me, ground beef, cheese and lettuce.  Now, the "authentic" tacos do not seem to have the same ingredients, but I do not really care.  These are my tacos, and I like them.  For years I would fix tacos without seasoning the meat, beyond salt, pepper and a little garlic.  My wife thought they were bland, so I started adding a bit more spice, usually cayenne, chili powder, or cajun seasoning, but it still started off as plain old ground beef.  My wife even tried making her own taco mix, but I never really liked it, or any of the package mixes.  I prefer the beef relatively unspiced, and I add the spice in the form of taco sauce or Pace Picante.  We buy Colby Longhorn at HEB and sometimes add Sour Cream and refried beans.  Another addition suggested by my wife.

 

Simple, and relatively cheap.

Meatballs and Franken-sauce

I've been experimenting again.  Actually, it is one of my favorite things to do in cooking.  Sometimes, I like to actually use a recipe and sometimes I like to use a recipe as inspiration.  Usually what I create ends up edible, occasionally tasty.

I bought some Hot Italian Sausage and my first use was in a pot of chili.  It came out good.  So, I had the second half of the rough ground chili beef and some additional sausages.  I added some spices, an egg and some bread crumbs.  This recipe was my inspiration

Swedish Meatballs

Now, I admit that I did not follow this recipe exactly.  Well, okay if you must know, I did not really follow it at all, but I did use it for inspiration.  I added garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cilantro...yes, I was going for a slightly Mexican flavor... and then I added a bit of paprika and some nutmeg, because that was in Alton's recipe.  I fried them off and then put them in a glass dish in my toaster oven to stay warm and finishing cooking.

So, then I started on my sauce, the Franken-sauce.  I drained off as much of the fat from the pan as I could, after frying the meatballs and deglazed with a cup of water.  I transferred that to a sauce pan and added a beef bouillon cube.  After that started to dissolve I decided I needed a little more water, and I also added a tablespoon of brown gravy mix.  Yes, there are a number of odd things in my pantry, why do you ask?  Then, I added some milk, and then a bit more milk, and then a bit more.  Finally, I simmered that until my rice was done, trying to reduce it and hoping it would thicken a bit.  The sauce never really did thicken very well.  I tasted it and I was not sure if I thought it was a real success, so I added a bit more onion powder to it.

So, finally it was ready to serve, rice, with meatballs and a somewhat thin sauce.  It was in conjunction with the meatballs that the sauce really came to life.  The meatballs were okay by themselves.  The sauce was okay, alone, but together they were great.  I won't say that it was better than the sum of its parts, but at least the two added up to more than either alone.

So, there is the story of a successful dinner experiment.

Shu Shu's Asian Cuisine

Shu-Shu's

8303 Burnet Rd. Suite 1
Austin, TX 78757
512.291.3002

I was actually heading to a different Chinese restaurant on Burnet Road, but I think that one has closed and about a block up the street I saw Shu-Shu's, which did not snow up on any of my searches. That is not really a good sign for a restaurant that appeared to be quite new. But, it looked very clean if a little plain on the inside, so I grabbed a menu.

 

Now, the first thing to know that Shu-Shu's is a new style oriental restaurant, which from what I can tell means one run by Americans, and probably big business Americans rather than good cook Americans. Now, how can I tell? Because you do order dishes, you order in stages.

 

Stage One-

• Beef
• Chicken
• Veg/Tofu (that is how it is listed on their menu)
• Shrimp

Stage Two-

• Noodles and Rice (four choices)
• Shu Shu's Specialties (13 choices, but wait, there is more)

The point here is that for most things, you choose your protein (again, their word) and then choose the sauce you want with it. So, I was able to find my usual Sesame Chicken, but I had to order it as Chicken Sesame.

 

The more is that there a few items under Shu-Shu's Specialties that specify the protein, like Chicken Teriyaki and Ahi Tuna. I guess they wouldn't want anyone ordering Sesame Ahi Tuna or Teriyaki Beef, that would just be crazy.

 

Now, before going on, I should note that I was looking at the Lunch Menu on the back of the menu, and one thing stood out. It did not actually say what comes with the lunch, except to say that it come with eggroll OR soup. Please note that OR, because it is important. Getting both eggroll and soup requires an extra $1.00. Now, that would not be too bad, except that the Chicken lunch is $6.75, which is at least 50 cents more than most, and almost a dollar more than some, and this is the first place where I had to pay extra to get both egg roll and soup. Not really a good plan to charge extra for what others include.

 

But wait, there's more. I was offered the choice of rice, white, brown or fried and I chose fried, which added another dollar to the total. I have never been charged more for fried rice. Either it is offered at no extra cost, or it isn't offered as part of the meal.

 

So, let me make sure you understand.

 

Chicken Lunch $6.75 (which is on the high side)

Egg Roll $1.00

Fried Rice $1.00

_________________________

Total $8.75

 

Make that $9.47 with tax for something that usually costs two dollars less.

 

Okay, so they are proud of their food. I can deal with that. I was expecting $7.75 plus tax, so when it came out at another dollar higher I questioned it and the only answer I was given was that fried rice was extra. When I pointed out that the menu does not say that, the girl at the counter rather rudely reached into the tip jar and handed me a dollar. I was rather shocked. Now, it turned out that the extra charge for fried rice is on the inside of the menu with the dinner prices, and if she had shown me that, I would merely have suggested that it should be added to the lunch menu on the back to avoid confusion.

 

So, Shu-Shu's is not doing well on my count. Strike One - high prices. Strike Two - rude counter staff (there are no waiters). But, possibly the third, the food itself, will make up for everything else. It isn't overpriced, if it is better than the others, right?

 

So, I have my usual order, Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Roll, and Hot and Sour Soup. Now, as often happens when I am getting Chinese for lunch, I started eating while driving back to work, so the Sesame Chicken and Egg Roll got tasted first, and the Soup brings up the rear.

 

The Chicken was tender and well cooked, and the sauce was sweet, but also the tiniest bit bland. There was no real zing to it. It was hot and clearly fresh, so not bad. Unfortunately, the Fried Rice was largely the same. When the first bite I took had several large onion bits in it, I was prepared to say it had too much onion, and as you can imagine on the blog Hold the Onions that does not go over well. However, it seems like I got about half the big onion bits in that first bite, so I have to give them a pass on that. But, remember I started with unfortunately? The fried rice was bland.

 

Both the rice and the chicken were better with liberal splashings of Soy Sauce, but "Soy Sauce made it better" is not exactly a ringing endorsement.

 

The Egg Roll was made with the lighter type wrapper and it was very crispy. It was very nice and crunchy, but the blandness persisted. Soy Sauce would have made it better.

 

Last, I come to the Hot and Sour Soup, which, unlike some of those I have tried recently, was actually Hot, and I do not mean the temperature (which was fine). By the bottom of the bowl, my sinuses had cleared and my lips were burning. I was impressed.

Now, when I pay more for food, I expect one of two things, big portions, or better food. Now, from what I have written above, you will see that I did not get better food. It was okay, but certainly nothing to justify $2 more. So, what about the portions? They were small. There was only about half the chicken I would expect with just about the same amount of rice. There was a healthy serving of Broccoli, but I do not buy Sesame Chicken for broccoli. The Egg Roll was small, though I have noticed lately that egg rolls are getting smaller everywhere. The Hot and Sour Soup was exactly the same amount I get at other places, and is probably one of the top three that I have tried.

 

So, I can give a resounding thumbs up to the Hot and Sour Soup, but that puts Shu-Shu's on the same level as Panda Express. For everything else that I want from Chinese Food, I can get much better for less money from at least three other places in town.

Give Shu-Shu's a miss and try somewhere else.