S.A.T.C 2010

No, this isn't a post about Carrie or one of her whiny friends. I'm here to talk to you about LIFE and what's real: Santa.Ana.Taco.Crawl, HOLLA-day inn (i love that line paestry!)! I hadn't done one of these in a while, and I made sure to do quick run beforehand to work up the appetite and rockin my gym shorts with the expandable waistline. Some quick shoutouts:

-Gratitude to Elmo and Gustavo, and everyone else from stickaforkinit who provided the necessary info from their blogs.

-Much love to my adventurous friends who braved the heat with me and persevered to five spots + dessert. Special thanks to the young and up and coming Jomo (who can bake bread in your rice cooker, biatch!) who took all the pictures, drove, and made it to the bonus round.

This year's taco crawl is brought to you in part by:

And now, with the formalities out of the way, I introduce to you Harry Potter and the Santa Ana Taco Crawl.

The secret list.

Marauder's Map.

Amuse bouche.

A. Alebrije's Grill. The owner (?) was quite a friendly guy who enthusiastically described his product and some of his favorite items. We ordered a Taco Acorazado to share and sat down on some plastic crates outside the pink truck.

This thing was bananas. A freshly made tortilla(so good), beans, rice, thin pounded breaded beef steak, tomatoes, onions, avocados, and a sprinkle of cotija cheese with some cactus on the side. We liberally added some hot carrots and some of the tasty salsas, and this was quite a delicious meal. I was tempted to order another for myself, but we had places to go and tacos to see!

B. El Gallo Giro.

Dayammmm!!!! A perfect remedy for the heat.

Sandia, tamarindo, horchata. I enjoyed my watermelon very much.

We ordered the Torta Cubana to share. Ham, spicy pork, beef steak, and headcheese all stuffed with veggies on their own freshly baked mexican bun, which was a bit airy although my piece had significantly less bread than the other two. A monster.

They also make baked goods and were giving out free samples of their tres leches cake. Amiga made the comparison of this place to Lee's Sandwiches.

C. Taqueria Tapatia

Here we each ordered an al pastor taco. Overall, it wasn't great, but it was above average imo although the others didn't seem to like it too much. No picture, but they make a pretty damn good melon aqua fresca.

D. I'm still not sure if this place is called Torta Ahogada or Chiva Torta. I had visited this place on the last run I did.

We ordered their specialty, the torta ahogada and split it three ways. This looked a lot more naked than the last time I had it although I suppose I could have added the pico and what not myself. The bread was like an crunchy baguette and I think the filling was pork though honestly, I have trouble telling the difference sometimes. Also inside was some beans and onions. Being a pansy, I requested it to be "media" so that slow burning sauce didn't drown the sandwich completely. Definitely a different kind of torta and one worth trying.

To aid digestion, we walked around the adjacent Northgate Market and picked up some mexican candy.

Also D. El Rincon de Sabor. We went on a bit of a wild goose chase for this one. We saw a truck a few feet away but didn't see a name. After some turkey jivin and some wild turkey shots though, we headed back and saw the name on the other side. I laughed so hard at my dumb mistake that I walked into a pole. I cried for a bit, then I laughed some more.

We saw that this place offered the acorazado too, so we had to try it out to compare. While overall, this was a pretty decent taco, it fell short of Alebrije's Grill. The tortilla didn't seem hand made and more oily (seemed lightly fried). There were also no beans and other veggie goodies.

We didn't get to go to E, so we went straight for dessert to Natural in Anaheim.

I ordered the chamoyada. Basically apricot+chile+salt+mango shake. Read the full description here. This was a really intense drink.

Comes with a special straw!

The young eligible bachelor got a cantaloupe smoothee. Two white gloved thumbs up he sang. We then headed back home. The end. Or was it?

A few hours later after some gentle coaxing (like the guy is trying to do on the right), we met up at Bootlegger's for a beer and some more tacos for the bonus round. I thought the Dos Chinos Truck was gonna be there, but instead it was Calbi. No pics of the beer, but it seems they raised their prices a little bit and a lot of their selection is gone although I did get to try a delicious hopped up hef.

I've had this truck before once after a tipsy night in L.A. The cute worker took my order of a spicy pork and chicken taco. The chicken wasn't very good...cubed pieces that reminded me of sandwich meat. The spicy pork was better though. It had this sweet taste to it that kinda reminded me of apple juice and later on, a slow burn. I wasn't a big fan of the lettuce or cheese on it. But my friends both said they thought it was better than Kogi.

All in all, a pretty fun and successful crawl, and I didn't get sick either. +1 star. This will be my last socal post, and I think it's fitting that I go out with a bang as I'm moving up to Davis tomorrow to spend my next four years. So to end, lemme hear you say, "hotel, motel, HOLLA-day inn!" Peace love and tacos everybody!

korea: nam dae moon & myung dong

It seems so long ago since I went to Korea, but I still have a post or two to finish up the trip. Namdaemoon Sheejang is a market/shopping area, one of the largest/oldest in Seoul.

This spot was selling some delicious wang mandoo (king dumplings), 5 for 2000 won (less than 2 bucks).

This was about a week or two before the World Cup, so national pride was running strong.

We then headed over to a nearby mall for lunch. I got the jjol myun (chewy noodles with vegetables), a refreshing antidote to the warm weather outside.

For dessert, we stopped by the nearby Red Mango and got some Pat Bing Soo (red bean shaved ice). I was a bit disappointed by this and have had better in the states.

Afterwards, we headed over to Myung Dong, a similar outside shopping center, where the old and modern coincide.

Wtf? This place was a clothing store.

At night, this place totally transformed with a lot more of the younger generation taking over the streets.

A street food bonanza.

It seemed overwhelming, but was nowhere on the level of the next place we were to go to...

road trippin 3: a farm house & a farm house beer

I drove up and through the Jackson Forest to reach caspar, a small little town. I stayed at the nonprofit hostel style Jug Handle Creek Farm for a few days. It was an old place (built before 1900), but beautifully maintained.

And for $28/night for my own room, queen sized bed, lemme hear you say HOLLA-day inn (as a friend would say). After an uncomfortable night at the hostel and the driving, I felt like I was sleeping on a poofy cloud.

They had a wonderful organic garden, where you were free to pick the produce and use it in the ktichen.

It was my first time seeing a rhubarb plant.

Strawberries were slowly starting to grow.

Peas!

One thing I enjoy about the outdoors is seeing all the different plants and their many wondrous colors. This bright flower was no exception.

Just a few miles away was Fort Bragg and the North Coast Brewery. They make Old Rasputin & Pranqster Ale to name a few.

Across the street is their brewpub, which was a little more upscale than your average bear. To drink, I had Le Merle, a saison/farmhouse style ale. I've only tried a saison one other time at The Bruery, but I really enjoyed this beer, particularly the smell, which reminded me of a fallow field, whatever that is. That's a horrible description, but hey, I tried.

So after reading all about it in Dennis' blog, I was delighted to see cioppino($24.95) on the menu (Sorry for the bad picture). It was filled with red snapper, shrimp, small scallops, and a clam or two and served with several slices of garlic bread. Upon my first sip, I was surprised to find it have quite a kick! Overall, an enjoyable stew, one I would like to try again somewhere else to compare or give it a shot myself.

I usually don't get dessert, but I decided to splurge for one night and ordered the mud cake made with their stout and topped with some vanilla ice cream along with a glass of Brother Thelonius, a Belgian style strong dark ale. I believe this was my first time having a beer inspired dessert, and this fell short. While I could appreciably taste the stout, the cake was way too dry, and the ice cream was the only thing making it work.

I came back to the farm house, feeling tipsy, and swapped tall tales with the other inhabitants over the warm inviting fire. It was COLD there (and we're talking about august folks...)