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I’m going to the Jeff Beck concert at the Warfield theater (yea!!!) in San Francisco. I need some recommendations for a good Mexican restaurant in the SOMA area near the theater. Walking distance would be great, but isn’t critical. Essvee,scratchie, alla youse locals, your ideas please.
We now return you to your normal thread topic.
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hey, wow, jeff beck!! i just bought blow by blow and wired, for a kick. they still smoke, and they bring me all the way back. zenster, my favorite restaurant in sf is right across the street from the warfield, in (smirk) wine country. its not mexican, tho. it’s tulan, amazing vietnamese food. the imperial rolls there are possibly the finest known to man. the shrimp fried rice (way better than fried rice has a right to be) has brought many a strong man to his knees, weeping in unmitigated joy. but, i digress. if you must have mexican, the taqueria right next to tulan should be ok, its a cancun, like the famous taqueria cancun at mission and 19th. if you get in early enough, consider going to chava’s at 18th between s. van ness and folsom. amazing, my latino pals say its like stepping into mexico. they have super authentic stuff like the dried shrimp patties with nopales, and stuff like that. plus their refritos are so divinely porky with lard. yowsah! or el pollo supremo at 16th between mission and valencia. all they sell are perfect charbroiled chickens, buy some beans and a chicken, and just tear into that sucker!! um, can y’all tell i like to eat? (insert sheepishly-grinning emoticon here) have a ball, zenster, and drop me a line telling me where you ended up.
essvee
Great thread, Zenster. I agree with all of the above points about authentic Mexican food, having been born and raised in southern California (San Gabriel Valley, to be exact).
I only recently taught myself the secret of good chile rellenos, that being that you MUST beat up the egg whites separately, and you must alternately dip the stuffed poblano chiles into the egg mixture and then the flour. It wasn’t hard at all, and the end results were better than what I had eaten out at good Mexican restaurants.
What still defeats me is good refried pinto beans. They seem so simple: boil the beans, and mash 'em up in a hot skillet with fat. But they never taste half as good as the frijoles refritos at your simplest taco house! However, I’ve been using oil, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m going to have to sacrifice my arteries and buy some real manteca. Is this the secret? Anyone out there know how to make refried pintos the way they do in restaurants?
Again, this is adapted from Rick Bayless. Use a nice flavorful fat. Bayless recommends flavorful pork lard. I typically use grease poured off of chorizo. I also fry in some onions that have been diced extremely fine (and sometimes garlic, too) in the oil before adding the beans. I’ve made this even with canned beans and it still came out great.
Just my thoughts.
Please try the recipe for beans that I posted above. I just converted some of them into refritos the other night and am working on another batch right now.
What I do is heat up some of the beans with a little liquid and then use a hand blender to puree them. I also tend to add some more spices so the extra flavor will peek out from under the beans’ heavier texture.
Admittedly, some fat does help to get that silky consistency. What I do is blend up the beans with a little additional liquid. I then allow them to cook down for a while until they are not quite so runny. Sometimes, for a change-up I leave in some nearly whole beans to vary things a little. Try making some carnitas and add a little of the fat from them. As mentioned above, the extra flavor will carry through into the finished product.
[sup]PS: THANKS FOR THE RESTAURANT RECOMMENDATIONS PUG![/SUP]
Well, that does it. I just made my first beef enchiladas. They were the very best I’ve ever had in my life bar none. Thank goodness my next door neighbor thought so as well.
The secret? Yellow Corn Tortillas! That’s it. Yes, my super-duper Carne de Res played an important part, but the darker flavor of the yellow corn was superb. Previously, I have always used white corn tortillas because I thought that they were flexible and could be rolled more easily. Their flavor was all right but I recently noticed that when I made larger enchiladas the flavor of the corn tortilla was lost entirely. This is what made me consider using the yellow corn ones instead.
I’m sure there are probably more than a few of your out there ready to give me a well deserved dope slap and a resounding shout of, “Duh!”, but I really wanted to share this with all of you. To keep the calories down to a dull roar, I did not soft fry the tortillas in oil prior to use. I merely heated them as you would for a soft taco and continued with the assembly process.
And now for my oath;
“I shall never again, upon pain of inauthentic cooking penalties, ever use anything but yellow corn tortillas for my enchiladas, be they beef, chicken or cheese. So shall I swear and will dutifully adhere to this method for the rest of my life.”
You guys are killing me. I recently moved from southern Colorado to Kentucky, and there is nothing I miss more than the food (well, OK, maybe the mountains). Pueblo is at least 50% Hispanic - in many ways more like NM than CO - and the small mom and pop places dish up Mexican food to die for.
In late August, east of Pueblo, there are roadside produce stands which roast the local green chiles in revolving wire basket/drums, bushel at a time. The aroma is indescribable.
I really miss the fiery pork green chili that is a staple in that part of the country - either by the bowl, or poured over damn near anything. Here everything’s covered in cheese.
Techchick68, PLEASE post your recipe!
I agree…the soft taco recipes in MEXICAN KITCHEN are great! His chicken-and-spinach tacos, topped with a few dabs of farmer’s cheese, will change the minds of any of the no-chicken-or-fish taco folks out there.
I use an old-fashioned potato masher to puree my refried pintos. Takes a little elbow grease, but makes for a much easier cleanup than dumping the pot of cooked beans into a blender or food processor.
One word… Torta!!! 
I ate cactus today at work.
I was ogling the fried food display at the cafeteria, when I saw Londa looking at Francisco’s Tupperware container and asking “what’s that?” And he answers “cactus.” It was sliced thin and sauteed with onions and tomatoes. It was really good – like a mild jalapeno.
Francisco’s lunch was the cactus stuff, beans, flour tortillas (wrapped in a towel, bet they were homemade), and a slice of something that looked suspiciously like Spam.
Here’s a smashing torta recipe that a prep-chef I cooked with taught me:[ul][li]Hammer flat a 3-4 ounce nugget of tri-tip[/li]
[li]Sprinkle with lemon juice[/li]
[li]Dust the beef palliard with;[list][]garlic powder[/li][li]onion powder[/li][li]white pepper[/li][li]salt[/li][li]powdered oregano[/li][li]mild chile powder (lighty)[/ul][/li][li]Pan fry or broil the beef with high heat and melt some Jack cheese over it while finishing[/li]
[li]Make into sandwich with:[ul][]Torta French roll[/li][li]Lettuce[/li][li]Tomato[/li][li]Avocado[/li][li]Onion (lightly)[/li][li]Jalapeño rajas (optional)[/ul][/list][/li]Mayo is optional but this is a sandwich that has no reliance upon it. Absolutely no mustard or pickles allowed.
PS: That cactus dish is known as nopales.
Okay, Zenster, this thread and the upcoming long weekend inspired me to do an entire meal: rice, beans, tortillas and chile rellenos, all from scratch. Your bean recipe sounds great, but I’m aiming for success with a very basic dish first. Look out arteries, here comes the manteca. I’m also going to try putting a pork neck bone or two in with the boiling beans to add a depth of flavor which has been lacking up to now in my laughable attempts at frijoles refritos. I’ll let you know if it was a bust or not.
i thought i’d throw this out for anyone who wanted to try this technique-heavy but really super recipe.
chiles en nogada
10 large fresh poblanos
2 lbs. boneless pork loin
1\2 onion, studded with cloves
2 garlic cloves
2 t salt
oil
1 onion, minced
2 garlic cloves
1 # tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground cloves
1 1\2 t salt
pepper
1\2 cup raisins plumped in 1\4 cup hot sherry
1 pear, peeled and chopped
1 peach, same
1\2 cup almonds, toasted and chopped
walnut sauce
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup sour cream (use mexican/salvadorian crema if you can)
1 1\2 cups finely minced walnuts
roast, peel and deseed poblanos. put pork in sauce pan with next 3 ingred. cover with water and simmer 1 1\2 hrs. let cool in broth. mince and set aside. heat oil. saute onions and garlic till soft. add meat. saute till browned. add tomatoes, seasonings and raisins. cook till juice reduces. remove from heat. stir in chopped fruit and almonds. fill chiles with mixture. cover with foil and bake at 350 for 15 min. process ingred. for walnut sauce together and pour over chiles. garnish with pomegranate seeds. tip: cleaning pomegranates is easy if you do it in a big bowl of cold water. all the pith and juice falls to the bottom, and you don’t make a mess.
Welcome to success pug!
Neck bones will contribute an even better flavor to the beans than I might have normally suggested. You have included an even richer source of “smoothness” than I usually recommend. The marrow of the neck bones should provide the exact degree of silken texture that you seek.
I use the very same trick when I make my bortsch soup. Marrow bones are a great way to achieve richness without all of the meat related calories.
Dunno how authentically Mexican it is, but I just love them fajitas.
Soft flour tortillas filled with fahita chicken or beef, shredded cheese, fried onions and green peppers. Served with margaritas…good stuff.
Homemade tamales are truly wonderful. I usually don’t order them at resturants, because they get screwed up so often.
Zenster: there’s at least one place I know of in Houston that serves that ground beef/chopped potato combo you liked. It’s really good.
My all time favorite tacos came from a little place in South Texas called El Pato (the duck. Go figure). You could get a variety of tacos, but the best were these carne guisada (Mexican beef stew) and avacados. Oh, good lord, these were good!
Lately, I’ve found a real appreciation for the Tex Mex (I’m assuming) concoction chicken and sour cream enchiladas.
The hell with it. I can cook French, Italian and even Japanese, so I don’t know why Mexican cooking defeats me. The rellenos were good, I made my first good “Spanish” rice, but I’ve tried and tried, and I’ll be jiggered if I can make frijoles refritos taste like they do in your average Mexican restaurant. This method made them taste better than I’ve ever made them, but they’re still way short of the mark. Waaaaah!
::tears off toque in a tantrum, throws it in a rain puddle and stomps on it::
Jamais encore! Jamais encore!
pug, if you are using supermarket lard, try finding a butcher who makes lard. extremely superior in taste. this might be the truc yer lookin for.
I drool just thinking about good mexican food. In the Midwest, however, there isn’t a whole lot of decent Mexican food anywhere. It’s very sad. The closest I have been able to find is Tex-Mex, which isn’t nearly close enough.
Taquitos (similar to Flautas) - I can consume a good dozen of these, shredded beef preferred but chicken is also good, in one sitting with some fresh guacamole.
Enchiladas - Lotsa red sauce with lotsa types of cheeses…mmmm…
Tacos - a classic quickie, not a big fan of the soft kind
Tostadas - Another foreign food item I was practically raised on. I loved piling beens & beef & cheese & lettuce & salsa on top of one of these fried tortillas. salivate
Even plain old chips & guac & salsa makes me happy. The salsa I buy in stores is Mrs. Renfro’s, which you can’t normally find at a chain grocery store. The red salsas come in various levels of spicy, and the green salsa is to die for.
My step-mom is from Venezuela and when I would visit my dad, she & I would whip up fresh guacamole - slicing the avocados, cilantro, adding every dash of seasoning - and that was heaven. I can’t recall going to any restaurant anywhere that could top that homemade stuff. Her salsa, too, was absoultely delicious, but nowhere near as good as that guac.
A dear friend of mine in high school, born to immigrated mexican parents, would have me over for dinner a lot. His mother would shower me with food - rice and beans and enchiladas and chile rellenos - she would stuff me and coo over me until I left. I felt so loved 
and so spoiled to have such good mexican food at my beck and call!
After all this, I think I will be going to find me some ‘mexican’ food at lunchtime.
pug,
What set of seasonings did you use? Did you soak the beans or cook them through in one bout? Did you give the water a lot of salt during the cooking cycle? Did you add the spices less than thirty minutes before serving (as is desirable)? Did you add any tomato product at all?
I’m glad that they came out better for you this time. I’m sure the marrow from the neck bones was a winner. Another trick that you may need to try is to cook the mashed beans in a well seasoned skillet for an extended period of time. Using a sharp spatula, you will want to periodically scrape the desiccated layer (before it burns) of beans from the bottom of the pan. This must be repeated dozens of times over the course of a few hours. This will convert some of the sugars in the beans and give them a richer flavor.
As essvee mentioned above, the lard you use is important too. My favorite fat comes from the skin cracklings that I fry off after dressing a leg of pork for carnitas. “Feather fat” has a different flavor than commercial lards. Go to the mercado and ask the carnicadore for some pig skin. Render it off and work that fat into your beans. Lately, I’ve gotten trite and added a dash of chili powder (mixed spice type) to mine. Then again, I prefer whole beans most of the time (except tonight when I make tostadas).
Melpomene, please try some of the recipes I’ve posted here. Most are quite simple and very authentic. A search of the recipe thread will yield many more excellent suggestions as well.
wow, zenster, you make yer own carnitas?
man, you serious. (insert respectful non-smirking emoticon here)
that’s really cool. you must have a lot of friends. thatsa lotta food!