Text 6299, 111 rader
Skriven 2013-11-01 18:52:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: 3 meals 400
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With my brother at Crisp and Juicy, which was my sister's favorite
chicken place; my brother's is Guapo's, where I find the food salty
and overcooked (not bad for that). We got the family dinner, $17,
which is a whole roast chicken and three large sides, and apparently
a large bottled drink. I got a root beer, which turned out to be the
distinctive A&W, my favorite fountain variety. I didn't notice what
Jonathan got in the way of a bottled drink, some energy or health
thing I imagine.

The chicken came in quarters, which made it easy to split, though
I ate only the leg quarter and picked on the bones of my breast
quarter, giving the breast meat and the wing to Jonathan, whose
appetite is still prodigious, the chemo apparently not having
adversely affect him. What I ate of the white meat was the juiciest
and tenderest I've ever had from a chain, and the slowly rotating
chickens in the background showed why. Jonathan claimed that the
stuff at Guapo's was better, but what does he know. The leg quarter
gave me probably 12 oz of very tender and tasty meat, seasoned
mostly with lemon and salt, a few herbs. I was reasonably pleased.

Black beans and rice - somewhat watery, the rice being Converted
(not my favorite); pretty tasty though.

Fried yuca - nice.

Jonathan also requested a large fries, which he polished off with
impressive speed. He's a couple points of BMI bigger than me,
bordering on obese, he claims (I border on overweight). Whatever.
As with Billy, I shouldn't worry unless he starts to shrink.

==

At the Shipps' - we found a frozen package that said Filet 11 oz
and 4 oz, and I undertook to make curry out of it. Also pressed
into service some apparently quite old red curry paste, a green
pepper, an onion, two carrots nicely sprouted (the fronds are
beautiful), three jalapenos homegrown by Bryan (one was squishy
and was starting to get a white beard, so it went down the tube),
a clove of garlic, half Gail's entire basil crop (about 1/4 oz,
it not having been a good year for basil). Also some dehydrated
coconut milk, of which I reconstituted 200 Calories' worth, about
a can equivalent, and it worked pretty darn well.

The meat didn't look or cut like filet and had some unexpected
gristle, which I cut out and fried for chef's snack. I tossed
this with a little soy sauce to keep it while we chatted through
the afternoon. Once I had a discussion with Pad Gajajiva and
brought up the moo pah recipe I'd recently made (this being 15
years ago or more), and I'd done this same marinade, and Pad had
said that it was a good enough recipe, but the Thai never use soy
sauce in these dishes (true), just fish sauce. Anyhow, all the
above things were wok-cooked in batches and combined at the end
with the coconut milk to simmer a few minutes, and the result,
served over Roland brand lo mein, was pretty good. I could have
used a little more heat and was grateful when Gail and Dale gave
me all their jalapeno pieces.

There were some leftover noodles, which I stir-fried with Lee Kum
Kee chili black bean sauce for a morning snack next day. I recommend
this sauce.

=

Dale asked if I wanted to try the nearby Mexican place that had been
featured by Guy Fieri in his Triple D show. Gail said, probably not,
because of the cheese issue. I said, if we go get pills at Costco,
I'll be happy to eat there; and so it was. It's called R & R, and
the notable thing is that it's housed in half of a Kwik Mart in a
gas station. Food turned out to be tasty with no surprises except
that (as Dale pointed out) it's different from the standard around
here. It was, however, what's standard in Texas (where you get real
Mexican food; Tex-Mex is sort of made up and may have had Texas
origins, but only gringos ate it then, and only gringos eat it now),
Arizona, New Mexico, and indeed Washington proper and New York City.
Handmade little tortillas (in these other places doubled, here
single) with your choice of meat, topped with onions, cheese, and
cilantro. I asked for mine sin queso, and all of them came sin queso
but with little cups of a mild hot salsa verde. We got three specials,
which are two tacos (your choice) and something called Pacifico lamb
soup, $7. The soup tasted sort of like the old Campbell's scotch
broth of which we spake, only spicier. Tacos were all pretty good,
nicely filled, without cheese. Gail had two al pastor, pork spiced
with chiles, vinegar, and garlic almost like a chorizo; Dale had a
carnitas and a carne asada, pretty much what you'd expect; I got
a lengua and a buche - the former tongue as expected, the latter
translated on the menu as "pork belly," but what came was actually
pig stomach sliced thin. Further reading indicates that I could just
as easily gotten esophagus, which although crunchier tastes about
the same, and I wouldn't have been displeased by that.

Here's what the Phoenix New Times says about buche:

  Buche may be the ultimate mystery meat. Depending on the region
  from which you hail, it can be used to describe anything from
  hog maw to pig guts. The general consensus is that it has
  something to do with the piggy's digestive tract, be that neck
  meat, esophagus, stomach, intestines, or an entire porky grab
  bag of offal bits. The menu at La Salsita isn't much help on
  this front either with the vague definition "pig gut" all there
  is to describe this enigmatic offering.

phoenixnewtimes.com

All in all enjoyable, but when Dale asked if if I lived nearby,
would I frequent the place, and the surprising answer was no, and
the explanation was that I can cook all this stuff better, even
though most restaurants can't.

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