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.

Random Food Thoughts

It has been a while.  Things have not been going great and I just haven't felt inspired, though most of the problem has been actually getting out here and posting.  So, I thought that to get things back in gear I would start with a few random thoughts in the general area of food.

I've posted before about making deviled eggs, and there was a potluck at work, so I tried it again.  A while back I read a suggestion to use a large ziplock bag for mixing up the filling, and then cut off a corner and pipe it right into the egg halves.  Well, it worked okay, with a short list of caveats.

First, it is hard to see if the yolks are getting properly and evenly mooshed in the ziplock bag.  Of course, you can open it and look in, but it is not as easy as turning everything over a couple of times in a bowl.  Now, this feeds into the second problem, which occurs if you do not get the yolks mushed into a consistent mixture.

Second, bits of egg yolk get stuck in the opening.  When this happens and the mixture stops flowing, the instinctive reactive is to squeeze harder and....blap....egg yolk mixture all over the place.  Kind of a mess, as you might guess.

Third, my piping skills suck.  The cookie press gave me a lot more control, and made the result very pretty.  I did not take pictures, but the result this time was not pretty.  Of course, a bit more practice with a piping bag might solve this problem.

However, the deviled eggs were still a bit hit and I got several compliments, again.

The Hairy Bikers Minced Beef Pinwheels

I saw these on one of the their shows and wanted to try them.  The first try was pretty good.  I tried it with a rather cheap cut of hamburger, so I cooked it first so that I could drain off some of the fat.  As should be obvious, I do not do onions, but I did use a healthy dose of onion powder.  Also, I used Pepperidge Farms Puff Pastry, and then also tried it using Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough.  It was basically a success, though mine did not look as nice as theirs.

But, I had an idea for a variation, and another thing at work gave me a chance to test it. 

Sausage and Cheese Pinwheels

I used Light Breakfast Sausage, Colby Cheese, and Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough.  I spread the sausage, uncooked, across the dough (it is a very messy job, use gloves if you have them) and then grated cheese on top of that.  Roll up the crust, cut into slices, top with egg wash and then bake for 15 minutes.  Nothing fancy about it, but those too were a big hit.

So, there are a few random thoughts and hopefully this will be the start of getting back into things and enjoying food again.

Comfort Food - Salami, Cheese and Bread

As a young man growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Marin County and Corte Madera to be specific, I remember going on camping trips and hikes as a Boy Scout and having to pack a lunch/dinner, either to eat while hiking, or while driving to where ever we were camping.  I remember buying a Gallo Dry Salami or Salame, as they say on their website.  The Salamis we bought back then weren't very big, only about six to eight inches long and maybe two across.  Sometimes, a couple of us would split a salami, a chunk of cheese and a French Bread. 

Now, there are two mistakes that you should not make as you imagine this lunch.  First, do not think of Cotto Salami when I mention Dry Salami.  They are utterly and completely different.  Cotto Salami is more like coarse ground bologna with more spice and whole pepper corns.  It is nothing like the heaven that is dry salami.  Nor, should you think of hard salami, which is dry salami's poor cousin.  Hard Salami is close, but not quite there.  Also, you should not compare San Francisco French Bread with the weak stuff they call French Bread in most of the US.  If you have a good bakery in your home town, you may compare it to that, but it will still be missing one key element, sourdough.  There is something about the San Francisco that produces a unique, and delicious sourdough that is used to make the signature French Bread.  San Francisco French Bread is crusty and delicious, and can even give a true French Bread...yes, I mean one from France, a run for its money...and yes, I do know that, as I have tasted both.  I grew up in the Bay Area and then spent two years in France. 

Now, with a true understanding of Salami and Bread, you may finally understand this nostalgic lunch of my childhood.  I have spent years trying to find Salami similar to the Salami of my childhood and the closest I have come is Boar's Head Bianco D'Oro Dry Salami.  It takes me back to my childhood.  I sometimes buy it for my lunch,  along with some of the Boar's Head Black Wax Sharp Cheddar Cheese, which is very good cheese, even better than what I remember buying all those years ago. 

Unfortunately, I have had to give up on good French Bread.  I can buy the Salami and Cheese at a local supermarket, but I have to go to a bakery to get the right French Bread, and it often isn't worth the trouble.  Here in Texas, HEB sells Pan Frances.  I am glad they use the spanish name, because it doesn't really deserve even that.  It is nothing like true French Bread. 

To me, this is an example of comfort food. Not only do I love it, but I get to relive pleasant moments from my childhood when I eat it.

Lays Tangy Carolina BBQ Chips

 If you don't know, there are two kinds of BBQ sauce in North Carolina.  In the East, they have a vinegar based sauce, and in the West, they have a more tomato based sauce, which is closer to other BBQ sauces, from Kansas City to Texas. 

 

Vinegar is the thing that truly sets these chips apart from your average BBQ chip.  It's a little like someone crossed BBQ chips with Salt and Vinegar chips, but the BBQ won.  They have what I can only describe as a pucker factor similar to, but less intense than most Salt and Vinegar chips.  These chips are spicy and a little sweet, but with a tang that can only come from vinegar.  They start off mild, but then build on you as you try to polish off more than just a few.  That lasting effect also separates them from most other BBQ chips. 

 

They are not my favorite chips...then again, I am not sure that I have a favorite chip.  I don't like them enough to buy them every time, but when the average BBQ chip starts to get a little boring, then these are a really nice change of pace.

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant 

6718 Middle Fiskville Rd 

Austin, TX  78752 

(512) 458-8088 

Watch out, they are closed on Monday.  It was my bad luck to look for them a month or two back on a Monday and I ended up finding China Palace.  That day, I couldn't find the sign, but it turns out that they are closed on Monday.  Well, I finally gave them a second chance. 

I ordered my usual, Sesame Chicken, to go.  The lunch came with an egg roll, fried rice and soup.  Of course, I choose Hot and Sour.  Unfortunately, when I opened the bag, and then the box, I found the egg roll was in with the hot steamy foods, so that is one point against.  If you put the egg roll in with the steamy foods, then you end up with a soggy egg roll.  Fortunately, I have learned to look for this and so my egg roll did not get soggy. 

The chicken is battered and does not really seem to have spent any time in the sauce.  There's not a lot sauce, and the sauce is not overly sweet.  In fact the first piece of chicken has a decidedly sour taste.  It looks like the chicken was not prepared specifically for Sesame chicken and was just covered with some sauce at the last minute.  The sweetness of the sauce was not a problem, as Sesame Chicken can slide way too far into sweetness.  This didn't, and the chicken was quite tasty, if a bit tough, at least some pieces.  The only major problem was the amount of sauce. 

There was a good serving of broccoli, and it was still mostly crispy, but I don't buy Sesame Chicken for the broccoli, and I'd have rather had a little more chicken and a lot more sauce rather than any broccoli. 

The eggroll was very crunchy.  It was made with the thinner pastry that comes out very flaky and crunchy and has the disadvantage of flaking all over the place.  But, that is not really a negative, just a way of differentiating them from the thicker won-ton style pastry that is sometimes used for egg rolls. 

The fried rice was a little tasteless, needed more sauce.  In fact, it was surprisingly tasteless.  It certainly didn't have enough salt.  In fact, it didn't have enough anything and was barely edible after mixing with the sauce.  I didn't finish it. 

Which brings me to the Hot and Sour soup.  The soup was long on hot and short on flavor.  It wasn't terrible, and I like a nice hot Hot and Sour soup, but it wasn't all that tasty, and it was hot.  Half an hour after eating it, my lips were still burning and I didn't finish all the soup, because it wasn't all that tasty. 

So, in conclusion, there was only one thing in this lunch that really rates a good review and that was the egg roll.  The chicken was subpar, but not terrible.  There was too much broccoli and not enough sauce.  The fried rice was tasteless, and the Hot and Sour soup was overly hot and not tasty enough.  I enjoyed this lunch, and it wasn't over priced, but it just wasn't good enough, you can do much better at this price.