ok i'm a purist. i wouldn't eat chinese food in italy or italian in hong kong. i never quite got into the fusion thing and as you know there will be no asparagus in november for me.
here's an interesting conundrum for you, when eating asian, i like being the only round eye; if it's mexican i should be hearing spanish. however, i crave the knowledge that allows ME to be able to cook those things with the same skills as a native. secretly, i want a native cooking it...... does that make sense?
i think back on my cooking lessons in life. my first teacher of italian food was a italian woman named yolanda who spoke broken english and taught me that cooking is about feeling the spoon in the pot. i first made sushi 25 years ago with a japanese lady named junko. her technique also involved a spoon. we would run outside with the rice in a bowl and stir it very methodically until it started to cool. and then when i hungered to learn more about thai food, i studied with kasma, a very very talented thai woman living in oakland.
but i stray from the reason for this post...............the best taco ever. sitting on a stool at a counter joint in fells point. two hand made corn tortillas filled with your choice of meat..in my case beef tongue, topped with some diced onion and parsley . an unexpectedly attractive tray with 2 sauces, one green and one red as well as some lime wedges appeared from nowhere to accompany the best taco ever. for good measure there was a souffle of guacamole. icing on the cake. this is the stuff dreams are made of. i ate this last sunday and have thought of little else ever since. this is perfection. simple ingredients prepared traditionally and surrounded by the sound of spanish.
tortilleria sinaloa
1716 eastern ave
baltimore
