I'm rather busy this morning so just a quick post. Man, the weather is sublime. I had to check the varmints this morning and I record the temperature when I'm there and it's about 10 degrees warmer than it has been and there's that nice crisp wind. I'm taking a walk today, for sure! What if I had said fo shizzle, wouldn't that have been funny? I guess I just did. Not funny.
Had the burger at 33rd st Bistro this weekend and it was very tasty but as I try burgers at many other places I'm always happy to note that I like Nationwide best. When I first made that declaration I hadn't eaten many burgers around town so I could have been wrong but I wasn't. The meatloaf was crazy good, too. And it's open until ten on weeknights and eleven on weekends. That place is pretty great.
I also ate at Alonzo's (5649 Stockton Blvd, near Fruitridge) which all Mexican breakfast lovers should try sometime. This place is packed with a loyal clientele, including folks who bring in pots for the staff to fill with pozole that they take home. The pozole here at six bucks a bowl was far superior to the 13 bowl at Zocalo. No surprise there. I also love their chilaquiles.
The Feeling was on fire at the Fox and Goose this weekend. Everything I keep trying to write sounds like music critic crap and I keep erasing it, but let's just say it was an intense performance. A lot of people turned out for the Harvester reunion so it was a good crowd. We tried and failed to get into Catfight. Sad. I heard it was fun and that the dancefloor was packed during Lisa D's set.
I watched a Belle and Sebastian video comp thing yesterday and was reminded again how rad they are. Their videos are all grainy and homemade and starring the band and their cute friends. And that's all I have to say about that. Should that be my new catchphrase? I could end every post with it. Or maybe it should be fo shizzle.
Anna and I just got back from Mexico, although we didn't have any pozole (which, apparently, is customarily consumed on Thursday afternoons ... not sure why). We did, however, have the most amazing grilled red snapper ever in a tiny little fishing village called Barra Vieja, about 20 km east of Acapulco. If you ever see it on the menu in Mexico or in a good Mexican restaurant, order "huachinango a la talla".
ReplyDelete-Erik
I stumbled into La Fiesta yesterday morning (close to lunch time) and much to my surprise they had a custom breakfast menu written up on a big white board that included chilaquiles.
ReplyDeleteChilaquiles washed down with a ginormous glass of mixto is like heaven on earth!
You guys are lucky the weather is so nice. For the past 15 hours it's been madness here. Insane wind with gusts up to 75 MPH!!!!! Seriously! Plus a ginormous wildfire and a crappy apartment fire down the street. The bbq blew away, pots overturned, plants snapped off, trees torn up! Tujunga is TRASHED! Here in Pasadena, all is calm. No wonder Tujunga is the low rent district!
ReplyDeleteElla
fyi:belle & sebastian are playing in sf on the 21st of march with the new pornographers. johnny & i are going to see them here. i like seeing them live, though when i went with
ReplyDeletemargaux we almost got into a fight with these asses in front of us that were talking loudly through the whole show about what chody things they did in jersey that weekend....
you're seeing them in sf? did you mean to write ny or are you guys flying out to the show like high rollers?
ReplyDeletei second ella's comment on the weather in sacto. it's like 28 degrees in brooklyn. no wonder new york is such a low-rent dis... oh wait.
ReplyDeletejust had chilaquiles the other day at a new place on grand in williamsburg, taco chulo. i had never seen it on a US menu before. pretty great taste, but they were working so hard to make it a HUGE serving that they forgot to include enough tomatillo salsa liquid to soak into all the tortilla layers. kinda dry.
It may be because it's the first place I had them, but my favorite chilaquiles in Sac are at good ol' Vallejo's
ReplyDeletemiller
correction:
ReplyDeletejohnny & i are seeming them here in NY on the 2nd of March, i thought you might want to know when they were playing near u. i wish i was high roller enough to see them bi-coastally, but i didn't win that big in vegas.
-alicia
Becks --
ReplyDeleteNext time you get the day off, you should go down to The Waterboy and try the burger they have for lunch. Then you'll see!
Had it. Quite good, but if you notice, it seems to be modelled on the nationwide burger. It's pretty similar but not quite as good. And their fries are definitely not as good. I still need to try Jim Denny's. Do any Jim Denny lovers have an opinion on whether it's changed since the change in owners?
ReplyDeleteThat Belle & Sebastian vid sounds cool, Becky. Has anyone read the book about them? I've wondered if it might be worth checking out. Sometimes reading books about music is boring, although I did enjoy "Shakey" about Neil Young, and the bits of "Please Kill Me" that I've read. I've seen a couple of hip kids amidst the M.A.R.R.S.(yes! I finally got to use that ridiculous acronym that I keep seeing around) reading the B&S book, and they seemed quite engaged in it ... granted, they were dressed exactly like a B&S band member, so they probably would be. Eh, maybe I'll just pick up that AC/DC bio instead.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I recently got a "Squeeze Inn" gift certificate. As they bill themselves with the seemingly unique and inspired motto, "Best Burger In Town," I'm feeling pretteh-pretteh-pretteh good about it! We shall see. I agree, though, I don't know how you can beat Nationwide Freezer Meats (that sounds nasty). I hope they still have the "Freezer Meats" part of their name ... refreshing in this age of gourmet-izing everything.
- Dave
I'm never happy to be 300 miles from Nationwide, or other of the city's fine burgers (and some have likely since been bulldozed away; that is to say, the establishments that served them, not the ground beef itself), and in that vein tonight on Sundance was that hourlong look of theirs at some various establishments, including a place in the South than puts peanut butter on their burgers and has for decades to the delight of the townsfolk, a joint in Wisconsin that tries to get huge chunks of butter into every one (Dairyland "Butter Burgers," known for miles around) and the esteemed Dyers in Memphis, which deep, deep-fries their beef patties in vats of 90-year-old grease and serves 'em up with cheese and onions to create a regional legend. It was all disgusting and watchable and mesmerizing and made me want to go out and purchase my own pasture of cows, along with some jack cheese and mustard.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Vietnam at my wife's house and this dude just rolled in with a live king cobra in a bag. They took it out back, put a clamp on its head and snipped off it's tail, draining the blood into a beer mug with a bit of water in it. My brother-in-law stirred it up and chugged it.They took it's still-beating heart and plopped it in a glass with some rice liquor.Then they cut up the snake and fried it with some lemongrass and garlic, pretty good. It cost about $40 US. I didn't try any of the blood type stuff. There's also a big jug in the kitchen with about 10 cobras in it covered with rice liquor. I plan to try that as soon as I summon the courage. Next door this restaurant serves dog in eight styles. This has nothing to do with the topic, but I thought it was interesting.
ReplyDeleteJason D
Remember at Poinsettia, Scott, when you chugged that cobra/rice wine stuff and barfed?
ReplyDeleteJason, if you see scales floating in that shit, and it smells like rotten cobra mixed with not-strong-enough-to-kill-germs-alcohol, I think you shouldn't drink it.
Hope you are having fun!
Ella
Ack, I had some of that snake wine too. It was Mark Miller who finished the bottle, I think.
ReplyDeleteI'm making "The Luther" on Thursday. Luckily, I'm already fat enough. I think I'll quit eating for a week after this one. I saw it mentioned on Adult Swim on Sunday and thought it was made up, but I still had to google it.
http://www.byroncrawford.com/2005/06/luther_vandross.html
Jason-that's so insane. Are you going to eat dog? Do it!
ReplyDeleteStephen G.-Hamburger Marys has a burger with peanut butter on it. I saw John P. eat one.
Smitty-that's gross yet I bet delicious.
Dave-now I think I've figured out which Dave you are. What's up? You should have come by that Christmas party. It was pretty fun. I think smiller has read the B&S book, or at least he has it. Also, Squeeze Inn made me really ill. I should try it again sometime but the cheese skirt thing was just too much.
have you tried the squeeze in for burgers?
ReplyDeleteI might eat dog. On the one hand, I'm thinking, why not? on the other, I think, why? The place next door seems a bit scuzzy, though, so I might hold out for a better place. In Hanoi there's a whole dog restaurant row (huge places), but interestingly, they only eat dog in the second half of the lunar month, so these places are closed half the month and then are packed the rest. Up north I also saw cat restaurants, but not down here in Saigon. But these things aren't generally found at restaurants, you have to go specifically to a place that specializes in it. I had some frog congee this morning that kicked ass, and teh other day I had 'dry' pho, which I've never seen in the states. Basically they toss the noodles in oyster sauce and put all the ingredients in teh bowl with the broth seperate on the side. Sounds kinda pointless I guess but it was the best pho I've had by so far! Even the hoisin and chili sauces are way better; I wonder why. Oh, I also saw a place that had porcupine. hmmm.
ReplyDeleteJason D