Tag Archives: mexican food

KISS

November 5, 2008

Some people subscribe to the idea that keeping it simple (seriously???) is the best method of cooking.  Some people go way over the top and add too many ingredients to a recipe.

I do think that simple food can be fantastic, but is it the best?  I don’t think so.  I think that keeping it simple works well, but only goes so far.  Fusion food is the progressive…it’s evolution.  Combining styles, and influences…ingredients from all over the world…techniques from everywhere: this is the way to truly create.

I’ll write up my meatball recipe soon and put it in the “Recipes” page section along with a picture of the cross-section.  It fuses Italian, Chinese, and American influences to truly create a meatball.

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Mexican Restaurant Reigns Supreme

November 5, 2008

 

It’s new to me, and I’m glad to have received the recommendation for it.  I’m talking about El Compadre at 7408 W. Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, CA.  This is the second best Mexican restaurant I’ve been to in Los Angeles at any time, however it is the current reigning champion with the best Mexican food I’ve had being at the Cactus Taqueria on Vine St. If you’ve read my other article Restaurant, No More!, you’ll understand why it’s no longer rated numero uno with me.

 

There are a few things that must be tested at a Mexican restaurant before it can be truly judged.  For dinner tonight I enjoyed four of the seven.  El Compadre understands that salt is muy necessario para sabor (very necessary for flavor) and adds the perfect amount to their carne asada.  Most people speak too generally and say, “Fat is flavor.”  This is not true.  If you think this is true, buy pure lard, grab a giant spoon, scoop a heaping pile of lard into your mouth and enjoy.  What?  Not good?  How about taking pure olive oil and drinking it?  Some people taste olive oil like others taste wine.  Believe me, if you’re not ready for it, you may just regurgitate whatever is in your stomach at the time.  Fat brings flavors out for a series of reasons, but it is not flavor itself.

 

To really utilize fat in carne asada you have to leave only a tiny amount on the meat when you cook it.  And you have to make the fat crispy.  Read about the Maillard reaction and you’ll understand this more clearly.  Someone at El Compadre understands this.  The bit of fat left on the carne asada is crispy, like the fat in bacon after it’s been cooked perfectly.

 

El Compadre’s rice and refried beans are also good.  Both are cooked perfectly, and as fresh as they can be.  The refried beans are obviously not saved to become stale and re-refried.  The rice is not left sitting for too long and does not get hard because of it.  Both are seasoned well.

 

The carne asada plate with refried beans and rice were great.  The tacos themselves were topped with guacamole, salsa, onions and lettuce.  The refried beans are topped with melted cheese.  All of which go very well with each other.  The final accompaniment which is a necessary test of a Mexican restaurant is the salsa.

 

The spicy, red, thick, tomato based salsa is not hot for the sake of being hot.  It is blended very well with flavor and heat.  The salsa does not stand alone, but it works very well when pairing with the beans, rice, and tacos.

 

My final three tests will come soon.  I need to try the chicken, the chile verde, and the flower tortilla.  All of which are crucial for the sustainability of good Mexican food.  For those of you asking about the corn tortilla chips, they are perfectly crispy, but could use a little more salt.  For some, corn tortilla chips can make or break a Mexican restaurant, but for me, they are trivial.

 

Until next time El Compadre.

 

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Restaurant, No More!

November 5, 2008

It’s hard to determine how many opportunities to give a restaurant to be good, especially when it was oh-so-good at one point.  There is a line, but the line is different for each restaurant.

 

The best carne asada I have had in Los Angeles was at Cactus Taqueria, on Vine, just below Hollywood Blvd.  I must have eaten there a dozen times and recommended it to a lot of people.  At some point I saw new faces in the kitchen, and the carne asada became sub-par.  After the integrity of the carne asada had been lost, I still ate there about four times – each time I hoped for the original, but it appeared I was chasing the white dragon. 

 

It’s hard to let go of those restaurants that once made you oh-so-happy, but going back time and time again just allows them to continuously let you down, and encourages their bad behavior.  You have to take a stand – but at what point? 

 

Making the decision not to go back is difficult because you have so many good memories of the place, and there’s always the question of whether or not it’ll go back to the way you remember it.  What if it does go back to the way you remember it and you’re not there to enjoy it?  That’s a scary possibility but that’s the risk you have to take.

 

There is no set limit on when to let go, but you can put a restaurant on your backburner for a couple of months to limit your disappointments and obvious desperation – and maybe, just maybe, if enough people boycott a restaurant long enough they’ll figure it out and you’ll get lucky when you decide to revisit it.

 

Now, there’s the question of what to do when there’s a restaurant that you constantly hear good recommendations for.  Try it out, and if it’s not that good, and not worth the price then say goodbye for the time being.  This one is not quite so difficult to let go of because you haven’t had a good experience.  The problem comes from people excusing your bad experience and calling you a quitter for not trying the food again.

 

I realize people begin to question their tastes when they hear so many good things about a place that didn’t offer a good experience when they tried it.  “What do you mean you had the Fettuccini Alfredo?  You’re supposed to have the Lasagna.”  That’s a good point.  Perhaps you should go back and have the Lasagna before you decidedly never go back; unless of course the Fettuccini Alfredo was really that terrible.

 

How many bad experiences do we have to have at a place before we have the right to a negative opinion about it?  Unfortunately, for each friend with an opposing opinion, you’ll always be wrong.  My absolute final straw for this is the lucky number three.  After three times you can forget what anybody has to say about a restaurant.  If it has failed you three times in a row, you are entitled to your decision to never return again.

 

 

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