26 Nov 2016
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, Recipes
Tags: Anthony Bourdain, chapulines, Del Maguey, grasshoppers, Mexican cuisine, mole, Nicolas Cage, Oaxaca, Thanksgiving
I had just finished my last post about my pal Mike and his wife Bridget harassing me from Oaxaca with their photos and videos of delicious meals, when they returned — bearing gifts!
There was a lovely and colorful dishtowel, a jar of black mole paste which to this cook is as good as its weight in gold, and there was a small jar of chapulines — roasted grasshoppers.
Chapulines
On the adventurous eater scale of 1 to 10, I consider myself about a 7. I’m no Anthony Bourdain. But I’ve recently been venturing more deeply into the euphemistically named world of “variety” meats, have sampled the slimiest offerings the world’s oceans put forth, and am a fan of such culinary curiosities as Japanese fermented natto and the stinking durian. There’s not a lot I won’t try, at least once. But one taxonomic class I have steadfastly resisted ingesting is that of the insect. More
18 Nov 2016
by scolgin
in Recipes, Video
Tags: Del Maguey, Enrique Olvera, Mexican cuisine, Mexico, mezcal, mole, Oaxaca, Rick Bayless, Zapotec indians
My pal Mike likes to taunt me with photos and videos of his business trips to Mexico, which are frequent. See, if you haven’t been paying attention to previous posts, his business is Mexico — mezcal, that is: Del Maguey, the best in the world.
Mike in Mexico
His provocations are most often in the form of eyewitness video accounts of parades in Oaxaca, where there seems to always be a parade in progress, or photos of voluptuous window mannequins with whom he is certain I am a perfect romantic match. More
11 Nov 2016
by scolgin
in Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories)
Tags: Belcampo Meat Co., chili, chili cook off, Ernie Demontreux, pies, Soup Sorceress, tequila, Topanga Swap Meet
If it’s early fall in Topanga, it must be chili time.
My ingredient list
Every year, around the first weekend in November, the Topanga Swap Meet & Chili Cook Off rolls around. For a couple years, I was a judge. And then two autumns back, I was convinced by my friend Nonie who helps run the local community house to enter the contest, along with her husband Dan who was also entering. More
04 Nov 2016
by scolgin
in Food, Humor, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories)
Tags: Halloween, Santa Maria grilling, short ribs, tequila, Topanga, tri-tip
They asked me to do it again. Despite the lines — oh! the lines… — they asked me to do it again.
“Is there anything we can do about the lines?” they gingerly put forth.
Last Halloween, our children’s annual grade school Halloween carnival got an upgrade. It moved from school to the ballfield at the local community center, a live band would play, there would be a bar… And they asked me to do the food.
The chef/fairy/cow boogying at sunset
I was to cook for somewhere between 450 and 600 people. I was a week in preparation and was all set — except that the chimneys I needed for my coal were 90 minutes late. The carnival had opened at 3:30, people began queuing up for food at 4-ish. And I didn’t have anything to serve until close to 5 p.m., at which point the line had stretched from our home-plate set up well into left field. We would never catch up.
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22 Oct 2016
by scolgin
in Recipes
Tags: Italian cooking, Italy, menudo, Roman cuisine, Rome, tripe, trippa alla Romana, Vallarta Market
When in Rome, eat as the Romans do.
So I was in Rome, and wanted to eat as the Romans do. We had settled into a friendly and popular trattoria around the corner from our apartment, and scanning the menu, I landed on one of the most traditional Roman dishes of them all — trippa alla Romana.
Tripe — architectural shot
I’ve always wanted to like tripe. Many a regrettable weekend morning I tried to gag down a bowl of menudo, the supposed cure-all for the hangover. And each time was reminded why I swore the last time I was never going to order it again.
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