RIP to a real one, Phil Isenberg. He died unexpectedly last week after a short illness. He and his wife Marilyn were and are my absolute role models for dynamic aging. In addition to his accomplished political career, he was a strong supporter of the arts, including Midtown Monthly. I met them through MidMo, and through my food writing. He was an early champion of Vampire Penguin and once gave me a gift certificate for it. Looking back through old emails and can see him sending me encouraging notes (like a "Good for you!" when I first wrote something for the Bee).
Until I just saw the emails I had totally forgotten that I once met them to attend a UCB production of the play The Old Woman starring Baryshnikov and Willem Defoe.
We dined out together, shared many amusing emails and would always chat at art openings, etc. We lost touch during the pandemic and never fully reestablished our hangouts, although I last saw him at Verge a few months ago.
I remember one time, I think at the opening of Terminal B, which has an artwork that depicts cranes (you never see it because it's in international arrivals, which are rare in Sac, right?) and I mentioned I had never seen a sandhill crane. He responded with his typical bemused reaction, eyes sparkling, and recommended I make sure to slate in a viewing. Only later did I discover that the viewing area/reserve in Lodi is called the "Phil and Marilyn Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve". D'oh!
I absolutely loved running into them, just a wonderful, wonderful man. My thoughts are with Marilyn in her loss.
The new Sactown mag has a fun cover story on where chefs eat. By the way, did you catch that Sactown bought Sacramento mag and then Sacramento went under? That's insane. I guess in the current publishing climate we can hardly expect to have 2 print publications on our dinky town but it was nice while it lasted. Quibble about quality, but I'm a fan of more writing (except sometimes in the case of fascist rag Inside East Sac, well and even then).
The chefs' top pick is Nixtaco (coincidentally to the last post) and after that Binchoyaki and Kru are neck and neck. Ravin Patel picks OBO lol.
It's interesting that Kelly McCown (who I interviewed in 2010 when he was chef of Ella before I learned the trick of ending pieces with a quote rather than a pat statement) picks Mother and also picks Bangkok Thai on 65th and Stockton saying he's almost reluctant to share it. I haven't really eaten any good Thai food since my Thailand trip; this looks like it might be another Thai/Lao place but hey, I love Lao food so I will try it.
Did you see my silly thing I wrote for Comstock's about all the businesses with "good" in the name? I still need to eat at Good Things To Eat Sacramento. I don't think Good Bottle is open in my hood yet. I think they are having some problems.
I hadn't changed my header image in forever, but that pic is from a recent trip to Seoul, to the top of the Seoul Tower, which unexpectedly had a toilet in the sky.
If you can believe it, I had never been to Nixtaco. I had had Nixtaco's food at events such as Baconfest, but I really make it a life policy to avoid Roseville if at all possible. I just associate it with some bittersweet (mostly bitter) memories of growing up. Such as working at #1 Gelato in Roseville in a rather dreary time of life. The only way to soothe the pain was pumpkin gelato mikshakes (which probably had about 3000 calories) and sweet, sweet whip-its in the walkin.
Anyway, so it finally felt like time and Smiller and I decided to go. We got there about 10 minutes after opening and it was already maybe 1/3 full. Right away you could tell it is an efficient operation which means, sigh, QR code menus. They do offer paper menus and we should have done it because theirs is voluminous.
I saw tacos gobernador, which I had to get. This is a style near and dear to my hears from spending a lot of time in Mazatlan. The origin story from the 80s is that some chefs in Maz invented these shrimp and cheese tacos to impress the Gobernador of Sinoloa, hence the name. These usually have gooey melting cheese, such as Oaxaca or Chihuahua. This version had a kinda grainy, runny white cheese sauce, like you would make for a mac and cheese. And bacon. The menu says Oaxaca cheese, but this is def a sauce. I was not a fan of this taco. Why mess with simple perfection and who needs bacon? But to each his own, I was looking for something traditional and nostalgic here.
Short rib barbacoa. This taco was SALTY. I am a salt lover so a taco has to be really salty for me to remark on it. This is guisado-style, messy and soupy. Good taco but slop-dawg and had to eat some with a fork.
I'm pretty sure the QR menu said smoked chicken (online menu doesn't echo this) and anything smoked and I'm like: Schwing. Chile verde, queso fresco. This was my favorite one.
The tortillas are obviously high-quality masa from look and texture but the corn flavor was not strong. All of these were good, Smiller liked his. I would come back when I am in the area and really want to try the octopus taco but so far this is not a destination taco for me.
Then we were on to Denios. If the below song never gets stuck in your head did you really grow up in Sacramento?
I had not been to Denios in FOREVER. Was it still fun? Does it suck now?
Answer: Still fun, still has weird stuff. Aliens everywhere.
The farmer's market area was really exciting mostly because of the breadth of Mexican produce, herbs, fruit, etc. that is more than any local market you will find. I love these coconut-stuffed limes, I know I've gotten them in Mexico, maybe in Mexico City. The key is that the lime peel is shaved really thin, no bitter pith, no pulp, and then it seems like it's lightly candied. And the coconut is sweetened. They are 2 bucks a pop I ate 2 so fast and wish I had bought more.
A dude there had a fun trippy booth with lots of alien stuff.
I made this extra large so you can see the ominous slogan. I mean, I feel like MAGAs tell you what they are going to do before they do it so this pretty much says it all. We are in for a shitstorm. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the crazy Trump crap was concentrated in one insane booth.
