[Sca-cooks] Gorditas was New snack treat OT OP

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

On Sep 7, 2009, at 1:31 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>  So these supposedly "hot" sauces tasted to me like *very* slightly
>  chili flavored syrup. Patooey! Once was one time too many!

And Adamantius replied:
>  Hey, sriracha's not bad on a burger or a spring roll, although the
>  founders of the most common brand in the US admitted they were not
>  really trying to recreate Southeast Asian chili sauces.

But Sriracha really is chili sauce. I've got a 
bottle with the rooster in the fridge. (and, 
yeah, i was recently reading about its... history)

That stuff from Taco Hell, well, mix it with 
water and it would be a rather sweet and only 
slightly piquant beverage. Of course, maybe 
they've changed - it was probably about 15 years 
ago that i had that experience and there is 
absolutely no reason for me to go there again to 
see if they've changed.

There's a gourmet California Mexican restaurant 
nearby, Doña Tomas (there's a tilde over the n if 
it doesn't come through)
http://donatomas.com/
It's not cheap, but not insanely expensive. All 
the ingredients are very fresh and high quality.

Then there's El Huarache Azteca, a Mexico City 
style restaurant on a commercial street in the 
Fruitvale district, a strongly Latino 
neighborhood. It serves some things i can't find 
anywhere else (huitlacoche on a huarache made of 
masa and stuffed with your choice of meats or 
veggies) - and a memorable mole (around here they 
all tend to taste the same, this one was 
different and good) - and it's pretty cheap.
(no website, but it's on Yelp and Chowhound)
The diners there usually are Hispanic when i've 
gone. I don't use that as criteria for judging a 
restaurant - i've been in some full of the 
appropriate ethnic group and the food was 
dreadful - but it was local to the diners and 
cheap. But this place is good - not gourmet, but 
who cares!

And on Saturday i trekked to San Francisco, first 
to see Balinese and Sundanese gamelans giving a 
free concert in a park. Then a 23-block bus ride 
to Semiramis, a long established Middle Eastern 
market (they've got stuff the Pakistani and East 
African halal markets near me don't carry). Then 
an 11-block bus ride and short walk at a "nuevo" 
Mayan restaurant (Yucatan Mexican food), called 
Poc Chuc.
http://www.pocchuc.com/
I had an early dinner of a very tasty pork pibil 
(with freshly made tortillas) and i didn't have 
to kill the cook (reference to the Johnny Depp 
character in Robert Rodriguez's "Once Upon a Time 
in Mexico")

There are plenty of the usual Norteño style 
restaurants around here. It's affordable and 
edible, and sometimes even good, but kinda 
tiresome. It's what's usual in California, and, i 
assume most points east. So i'm always on the 
look out for something actually Mexican (even if 
"nuevo") and regionally specific.
-- 
Someone sometimes called Urtatim