Fish Tacos and Take-Out
Or Random Snapshot #4 from the Love and Gastronomy Digital Girl Album
Hello and happy summer, ladies and g's. After five days in Orlando, I'm running on low juice, but it's quite okay because I have a bottle of Panilonco's 2008 malbec/merlot to provide sustenance while I type. ($3.99 at Trader Joe's and highly drinkable. The cutie at the register told me to let it breathe for 25 minutes though or only the malbec comes through.)
I am currently starting glass number three. My excess reminds me of Nice Eyes and his die hard commitment to prudence in the drinking of alcohol on any given evening.
Y'all might remember Nice Eyes (the Mover) from back in the early Digital Girl days. That was Digital Girl relationship #1. He really did have such nice eyes, not to mention... other things. We had quite a bit of fun, we did, before matters of the heart made things a little messy.
I never mentioned, but Nice Eyes did not like to go out often, though occasionally he would indulge my need to sit at a bar and enjoy a few drinks or seek out a new place to eat. More often we would order takeout, open a bottle of something and watch a DVD. Imagine Thai (pad see ew for him, tofu and vegetables for me), a glass of red and the Simpsons (any random selection of episodes from the ten seasons he had on DVD). Or, it might be Mexican (a chicken burrito for him, steak taco and a side of broccoli for me), a beer and a Werner Herzog film (his choice).
Nice Eyes habitual necessity to enjoy a beer or 1.5 glasses of wine (no more) with dinner every night reinvigorated my own inclination toward enjoying a drink (1.5 or more) with dinner. I was just coming out of my restricted diet days when we met (woohoo!). Now, here I am a complete lush who also, after five days of catering, now has reclaimed a daily sugar habit that was kicked so many years ago.
It's hard to remember the Nice Eyes days without also thinking about the spectacular mole in Valladolid, Mexico. We argued through a large portion of the trip, but we there was no debate about the mole.
And, there were the fish tacos, not in Mexico, but prepared for me by Nice Eyes in my own kitchen. We weren't so compatible in the kitchen... one of us inevitably would become the back-seat chef, but we did enjoy ourselves nonetheless.
While I made guacamole, Nice Eyes would toast cumin seeds on a skillet and coarsely grind them. As that lovely, earthy aroma filled the kitchen, the cumin and a bit of olive oil was added to a bowl of chopped fish. My choice was Tilapia but it tends not to hold together so well. Cod was solid but too fishy. If I recall correctly, red snapper was a happy medium.
The fish was allowed to sit while Nice Eyes made homemade salsa and prepped the taco condiments... onion, cheese, tomato, cilantro. As he was cooking up the fish, I would warm the corn tortillas, pour the blue chips into a bowl and open the beer.
Subsequently, I am now obsessed with tacos. This obsession was actually born out of a much earlier childhood dinner when the next door neighbor made hard-shell tacos for us kids. I was overwhelmed, tiny taste buds exploding over what was most likely a packet of McCormick taco seasoning on ground beef. It's still a very happy memory, until I recall that one of the other kids made me laugh just as I took a sip of 7-Up to wash down a large bite of taco.
Anyway, I digress yet again and the snapshot is turning into an album. Nice Eyes is a good soul, but he was very particular. A Digital Girl with a gastronomic obsession needs a little freedom to enjoy more than 1.5 glasses of wine and to be able to sit at a bar and imbibe a few with friends and strangers.
This culinary walk down the wily path of relationships does, however, remind me just how nice it is to be with someone who likes to cook for you.
And that my friends, is what it is. If I had the energy I would tell you about my adventure at I-Hop in the great mouse-eared land of branded commercialism, but I don't! So stay tuned!
Or Random Snapshot #4 from the Love and Gastronomy Digital Girl Album
Hello and happy summer, ladies and g's. After five days in Orlando, I'm running on low juice, but it's quite okay because I have a bottle of Panilonco's 2008 malbec/merlot to provide sustenance while I type. ($3.99 at Trader Joe's and highly drinkable. The cutie at the register told me to let it breathe for 25 minutes though or only the malbec comes through.)
I am currently starting glass number three. My excess reminds me of Nice Eyes and his die hard commitment to prudence in the drinking of alcohol on any given evening.
Y'all might remember Nice Eyes (the Mover) from back in the early Digital Girl days. That was Digital Girl relationship #1. He really did have such nice eyes, not to mention... other things. We had quite a bit of fun, we did, before matters of the heart made things a little messy.
I never mentioned, but Nice Eyes did not like to go out often, though occasionally he would indulge my need to sit at a bar and enjoy a few drinks or seek out a new place to eat. More often we would order takeout, open a bottle of something and watch a DVD. Imagine Thai (pad see ew for him, tofu and vegetables for me), a glass of red and the Simpsons (any random selection of episodes from the ten seasons he had on DVD). Or, it might be Mexican (a chicken burrito for him, steak taco and a side of broccoli for me), a beer and a Werner Herzog film (his choice).
Nice Eyes habitual necessity to enjoy a beer or 1.5 glasses of wine (no more) with dinner every night reinvigorated my own inclination toward enjoying a drink (1.5 or more) with dinner. I was just coming out of my restricted diet days when we met (woohoo!). Now, here I am a complete lush who also, after five days of catering, now has reclaimed a daily sugar habit that was kicked so many years ago.
It's hard to remember the Nice Eyes days without also thinking about the spectacular mole in Valladolid, Mexico. We argued through a large portion of the trip, but we there was no debate about the mole.
And, there were the fish tacos, not in Mexico, but prepared for me by Nice Eyes in my own kitchen. We weren't so compatible in the kitchen... one of us inevitably would become the back-seat chef, but we did enjoy ourselves nonetheless.
While I made guacamole, Nice Eyes would toast cumin seeds on a skillet and coarsely grind them. As that lovely, earthy aroma filled the kitchen, the cumin and a bit of olive oil was added to a bowl of chopped fish. My choice was Tilapia but it tends not to hold together so well. Cod was solid but too fishy. If I recall correctly, red snapper was a happy medium.
The fish was allowed to sit while Nice Eyes made homemade salsa and prepped the taco condiments... onion, cheese, tomato, cilantro. As he was cooking up the fish, I would warm the corn tortillas, pour the blue chips into a bowl and open the beer.
Subsequently, I am now obsessed with tacos. This obsession was actually born out of a much earlier childhood dinner when the next door neighbor made hard-shell tacos for us kids. I was overwhelmed, tiny taste buds exploding over what was most likely a packet of McCormick taco seasoning on ground beef. It's still a very happy memory, until I recall that one of the other kids made me laugh just as I took a sip of 7-Up to wash down a large bite of taco.
Anyway, I digress yet again and the snapshot is turning into an album. Nice Eyes is a good soul, but he was very particular. A Digital Girl with a gastronomic obsession needs a little freedom to enjoy more than 1.5 glasses of wine and to be able to sit at a bar and imbibe a few with friends and strangers.
This culinary walk down the wily path of relationships does, however, remind me just how nice it is to be with someone who likes to cook for you.
And that my friends, is what it is. If I had the energy I would tell you about my adventure at I-Hop in the great mouse-eared land of branded commercialism, but I don't! So stay tuned!
Yum. I also highly recommend the taco truck at 96th Street & Broadway. Open until way late.
ReplyDeleteooooh, i live in the land of yummy taco trucks...and they are open late night- after a few choice cocktails at any local bar. And then there are the infinite taco stands. best part of southern cal. we'll have to tour them whenever you visit.
ReplyDelete