Tacos El Gordo de Tijuana B.C. - Chula Vista

The Banh Pa Te So Nhan Banh Mi (Vietnamese Pate Chaud (French Hot Pastry Pie) with Sandwich Fillings) and other pastries I brought from Au Coeur de Paris Patisserie & Boulangerie - Westminster (Little Saigon) were great, but by dinner time, we were all hungry. So lil' sis, oldest and second-youngest nephews, their friends, and I all piled into our cars and drove nearly to the Mexican border in Chula Vista.

When we pulled up, the parking lot of Tacos El Gordo de Tijuana B.C. was packed; always a good sign. I was also amused by the signage that said, "Now in California." Tijuana-style tacos for which I don't have to wait hours to pass through border inspection? Score!

The taco selection was pretty awesome too - cabeza (beef cheeks), lengua (tongue), sesos (brains), Asada (steak), tripas (tripe), suadero (brisket), and adobada (spicy pork) and buche (stomach) for about $2 each. The mulas, sopes, and quesadillas were $3.75. The mula was new to me. It's basically another tortilla on top.

AltaMed's 8th Annual East LA Meets Napa & Beyond (Union Station) - Los Angeles

It's that time of year again for my favorite food and wine event, AltaMed's 8th Annual East LA Meets Napa & Beyond. The "Beyond" is a new addition to the title since the event now encompasses more than just East LA and Napa, but the focus has always been on Latino food and wineries. I wasn't able to make the previous year's event, but did attend the media preview for AltaMed's 7th Annual East LA Meets Napa. The highlight for me was when Chef John Sedlar took small groups of people on the roof of Playa Restaurant to check out his garden.

You can see previous posts of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Annual East LA Meets Napa events since offerings vary each year. With 60+ restaurants and wineries, all included in the ticket price, there is always so much to try. I noticed a lot more wineries this year too.

Dessert first! I couldn't resist the gorgeous display and had to check out Flantastic. I can't remember all the flavors I tried, but they truly were "flantastic"!

Cielo Verde - Playa Restaurant Rooftop Garden - Los Angeles

While dining at Playa Restaurant for the media preview for AltaMed's 7th Annual East LA Meets Napa food and wine event, when Chef John Rivera Sedlar mentioned that all the greens and flowers used in his dishes were grown on his restaurant's rooftop garden, I was amazed.



Even better was when I found out he was allowing small groups of visitors on the roof to check it out. After climbing the ladder, which you saw in the previous post, I saw this. The view is from the next level up, looking down. The ladder I climbed is just to the right of the green rooftop.

It's not the fancy terrace-like rooftop garden depicted in many a home magazine. What it is, is a functional garden with towers and towers of plants grown in a soil substitute shoved into what space was available on an industrial rooftop in the center of Los Angeles. This was just the herb and starter plant area, the next level up was simply incredible!

Media Preview: AltaMed's 7th Annual East LA Meets Napa - Playa Restaurant - Los Angeles

I was invited to a media preview luncheon at Playa Restaurant in Los Angeles for AltaMed's East LA Meets Napa 7th annual food and wine event. It's my favorite food and wine event, not only does it benefit underserved communities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, but East LA Meets Napa brings together mostly Mexican, and other Latino restaurants, and wineries. It's a great way to explore regional Mexican cuisine, and even sample pre-Hispanic dishes.

Check out my previous posts of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Annual East LA Meets Napa food and wine events.

Playa Restaurant is owned by John Rivera Sedlar, of Top Chef Masters Season 3 fame who also owns Rivera Restaurant, known for its flower-pressed tortillas. While waiting for the others to arrive, I checked out how the flower tortillas were being made.

Cook's Tortas - Monterey Park

On my way to meet my cousin's new baby, I decided to grab some sandwiches from Cook's Tortas - Monterey Park to bring to the new parents. I had first visited the restaurant last summer with oldest nephew and lil' sis before we went to see Casablanca at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I don't know what possessed us to order the sandwich we did because it was so spicy that the three of us couldn't finish it, nor did we enjoy it very much. So Cook's Tortas stayed on the periphery as a place I should revisit at least one more time before I could blog it, but not as a restaurant that I had to eat at again right away.

So a year went by and I decided to try their food booth at AltaMed's 6th Annual East LA Meets Napa event. I liked my sandwich bite and agua fresca (Mexican fresh beverages) so much that I figured it was worth revisiting.

AltaMed's 6th Annual East LA Meets Napa (Union Station) - Los Angeles (Downtown)

After the fun I had during the 4th and the 5th Annual AltaMed East LA Meets Napa event, I was excited to be invited back again by Nerissa of NRS Public Relations. No +1 this time though so I was on my own. Not that that mattered too much since I ran into a dozen LA food bloggers. I told ya, it's a popular event!

And not just with food bloggers as you can tell by the crowd.

AltaMed's 5th Annual East LA Meets Napa (Union Station) - Los Angeles (Downtown)

I had such a great time at AltaMed's 4th Annual East LA Meets Napa celebration at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles that I was overjoyed to receive my own invite the following year from Alexia at Double A Public Relations & Marketing. I got a +1 too and invited my friend Don since his birthday was coming up, but he couldn't make it. So I asked my childhood friend since she works downtown. She had a sore throat, a result of a too tight neck hold during Brazilian jiu jitsu class, and couldn't comfortably eat, but she didn't want to miss the opportunity after I raved about it so much.

East LA Meets Napa is seriously one of the best food and wine events I've attended. I love almost every food stall and it introduces me to so many great new Mexican dishes and restaurants in SoCal. All proceeds from the event also benefit AltaMed's programs to provide care for underserved areas of Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

After seeing Gourmet Pigs' pictures of the gorgeous Attilla the Flan's floral creations, I was determined to hunt some down for myself this year.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos

OK, I'm going back to August 2008 for this one. Super quick and easy recipe for chipotle shrimp tacos. For times when you're hungry and want to eat now, or for when you're busy and want to blog now. :P

Las Cunadas Rosticeria and Mexican Food Restaurant - Alhambra (Closed)

Sometimes my forays into cheap eats aren't always so successful. In August 2009, I was craving rotisserie chicken, but felt too lazy to drive all the way to El Monte for Pollo Mania. So I decided to try Las Cunadas Rosticeria and Mexican Food Restaurant in Alhambra.

Located in a small strip mall next to an auto parts store and what used to a photo booth, but is now the psychic Mrs. Lin's fortunetelling booth, Las Cunadas was easily overlooked. But the sign did say rotisserie after all.

El Ranchero Restaurant - Alhambra

So what can beat 55-cent taco Tuesdays?


Why 50-cent taco Mondays, of course. Gotta go 5 cents less and a day ahead of the competition!

Tacos Mexico - (East) Los Angeles

In April 2009, after dining at One Sunset - West Hollywood, I still wasn't quite satisfied. I wasn't hungry, but dinner didn't quite hit the mark for me. After dropping off The Glutster, Danny of Kung Food Panda and I saw the "open 24 hours" and "Especial Martes Tacos .55" signs at Tacos Mexico and decided to make a pit stop. It wasn't a Tuesday so the tacos were actually $1.05, but that seemed just right for a late night snack.

Guelaguetza Restaurante - Los Angeles

Shortly after the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, Gourmet Pigs organized an online auction of gift certificates to Los Angeles-area restaurants with all the proceeds going to charity. I scored a gift certificate from Guelaguetza Restaurante of dinner for two that included two appetizers, two entrees, two desserts, and two drinks. She bought the other gift certificate.

So in March, we decided to try Oaxacan Mexican cuisine and invited L.A. and O.C. Foodventures and WeezerMonkey to join us.

While we were looking over the menu, the waiter brought us tortilla chips topped with mole and queso fresco.

Mexican Nutella Hot Chocolate with Chilies

It's been an incredibly busy week with stuff going on all over the place. I haven't had a moment to think about what to make for this year's World Nutella Day.

Then, while writing up the Weekend Wokking round-up #21 (Chili Pepper), I was saved by Sweatha of Tasty Curry Leaf's recipe for Mayan hot cocoa. I could do something similar, but swap out the cocoa in her recipe with Nutella.

Read the Wikipedia entry on hot chocolate for background information on how the drink evolved from what the Mayans and Aztecs drank hundreds of years ago. Chile was definitely an ingredient.

If I had time, I would have simmered whole ingredients, but perhaps there's something to be said for super simple as well?

On a cold, rainy night, an individually-made mug of hot chocolate with a few pinches of cinnamon, chili pepper, and nutmeg, along with a generous dollop of Nutella, was just what I needed.

Caesar Salad with Chicken and Croutons

Caesar salad was something that I never thought much about until one day long ago, back when I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I met up with a friend at a pub in the Piedmont area of Oakland. A bit of Googling turned up Cato's Ale House, which claims to be the only pub in Piedmont, so that must've been it. I haven't been back since, and the salad may well have been spectacular only in memory, but I can still recall that it was served with whole leaves with a knife for me to cut into. The dressing was made in-house, garlicky and salty and just right.

Years later, I adapted a recipe from Allrecipes that reminded me of that salad. At 588+ reviews, Karen Weir's Caesar Salad Supreme had to be good. Now, I know some people insist on anchovies (I'm one of them.), but did you know that according to Wikipedia, the original Caesar salad didn't have anchovies? The slight anchovy flavor came from the use of Worcestershire sauce. The other flavor that comes through Worcestershire sauce is tamarind so when MomGateway, host of the apple roundup of Weekend Wokking, chose TAMARIND as the secret ingredient, it was time for me to dust off my old recipe. The other must, raw or coddled egg yolks, I prefer to replace with mayonnaise for the creaminess without the salmonella scares.

I had thought Caesar salad was an American invention. Later, I found out its creator, Caesar Cardini was an Italian-Mexican, who made up the salad in Tijuana, Mexico. I bookmarked the location for a future visit, but the poor economy forced the restaurant's closure last year. :(

I guess my version will just have to do.

Sadie's of New Mexico - Albuquerque - New Mexico

I have long wanted to explore the Four Corners region of the United States so when Gourmet Pigs was in New Mexico for several weeks, I decided to join her at the end of her trip and we'd drive back to L.A. together, stopping at places I've always wanted to see. Gotta love a friend who, when I linked to photos of an extinct volcano and cliff houses, immediately agreed to go exploring with me.



After picking me up from the airport, she chose a Mexican restaurant that came recommended for us to try. Except it was closed on weekends. What kind of restaurant closes on weekends?!

So I flipped through my guidebooks and settled on Sadie's of New Mexico, known for its stuffed sopaipillas.

Breed Street Food Fair - Los Angeles (Boyle Heights) (Closed)

I first heard about the Breed Street Food Fair, a collection of Mexican street stands in Boyle Heights, back in 2007 when Abby of Pleasure Palate uploaded pictures of her visit on Biggest Menu. She was introduced to it by Street Gourmet LA, who stumbled upon the lively scene while scouting out new places.

Gorditas made by splitting a handmade tortilla topped with a pumpkin and sesame seed mixture, I had never seen the like before and definitely wanted to try. I didn't get a chance to do so though until June 2009, and then I returned a couple of days later, and the week after that, and the week after that.

Squash blossoms, corn fungus, and fried chicken necks. Sure I've made Squash Blossom Quesadillas, and I've heard of huitlacoche (Mexican corn smut) before, but didn't know of where I could get some. And not only could I get both here, but deep-fried chicken necks and freshly fried churros too. Yum!

Cochinita / Puerco Pibil (Mexican Slow-Roasted Pork)

It took a few years after my visit to Chichen Itza Restaurant - Los Angeles, but I finally got around to making my own Cochinita/Puerco Pibil (Mexican Slow-Roasted Pork) in May 2009. The above photo though was from a Crock Pot Cochinita Pibil that I made a year later.

Cochinita means baby pig, so if you're using regular pork, like I did, it's really puerco pibil. The pork is seasoned with ground annatto seeds and all-spice berries, slightly tart from sour orange juice, and cooked in banana leaves. I adapted Director Robert Rodriguez's Ten Minute Cooking School recipe, (which if you haven't seen the video yet, you totally should) because I figured that if Johnny Depp's character in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" shoots any cook who makes it too well, then has to be good. Rodriguez's recipe is one of the bonus features on the DVD, but you can find it all over YouTube. Who knew the guy who left his wife and five kids for Rose McGowan could cook? What? Like you don't read gossip?

Anyway, I scaled down the recipe, substituted ground spices, used a combination of fresh orange and Meyer lemon juice to replicate sour orange juice, and omitted the tequila. The result was one of the most succulent and flavorful pork dishes ever. Hmm. Just writing this up makes me want to cook it again.

Chichen Itza Restaurant - Los Angeles

Back in September 2007, I dined at Chichen Itza Restaurant with my brother and his wife. They had been several times and especially liked the Cochinita Pibil (Mexican Slow-Cooked Pork). I was curious to try Yucatan-style Mexican cuisine, known for its freshness and seafood.

Cabo Taco Baja Grill - La Mirada

Not much brings me out to La Mirada, but when Kenny, the owner of Cabo Taco Baja Grill, invited me to a taco and beer pairing event, I was all for it. Although the variety of beers sounded interesting, I was really there for the tacos. Aside from the usual Ensenada fish and Baja shrimp tacos, there were also gorgonzola steak, Asian pulled pork, roast chipotle duck, chile colorado, Jamaican jerk chicken, and crispy ceviche tacos.

AltaMed's 4th Annual East LA Meets Napa (Union Station) - Los Angeles

At the last minute, Gourmet Pigs invited me to be her +1 at AltaMed's 4th Annual East LA Meets Napa celebration at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Luckily, I was completely free because East LA Meets Napa turned out to be one of the best food and wine events I've been to so far.

The event brings together a variety of mainly Mexican, and other Latino restaurants, in Southern California with Latino-owned wineries. All proceeds benefit AltaMed's programs to provide care for underserved communities in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Near the entrance of Union Station's courtyard, I immediately zeroed in on La Parrilla Restaurant because the servers wore these lovely outfits.