Pata de Res and the Notch Rating System

Today was another adventure back to Tacos Y Cemitas, the wonderful Mexican restaurant in Canoga Park. My friend Kevin went along today.

Kevin opted for the Huevos Rancheros and said they were “Top Notch”. In fact he rated them “2 notches”. We’ll discuss The Food Dude’s new rating system a little bit later.

Ofcourse I wanted to try another wonderful Cemitas. This time I was intrigued by the Cemitas de Pata. Pata or Pata de Res is the Foot of a Cow. It is normally pickled.

All I can say, I tried it once and I won’t be trying it again. Pata had a slight vinegar flavor, from the pickling, otherwise it was pretty bland. The texture was like eating the knuckle of a chicken bone. You know? When your eating a chicken leg and you get that little piece of grizzly knuckle in your mouth? The texture really turned me off.

I have ate some pretty adventurous food in my life, but somehow I just couldn’t get over the texture of Pata. I ate my whole cemitas, except for the few bites of Pata that spilled out, those I left on my plate.

I would normally rate a Cemitas a “1 Notch” meal, but today I had to rate it “0 Notches”.

So, what is with this “Notch” rating system? Well my friend Kevin suggested this to me and I love it. Many times, after a great meal, one feels like they need to let a notch out of their belt, just to breathe. Sometimes if the meal is really great, we may need to let out 2 or 3 notches. Thus the concept of the “Notch Rating System”.

1 Notch – Good Meal
2 Notches – Darn Good Meal
3 Notches – A Feast for a King

What about 0 Notches? Well a Zero Notch Meal is one that we only “rent” we didn’t “buy”. (I’ll let you figure this one out).

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

New Twitter Name

My twitter account has changed. It is now www.twitter.com/TheFoodDude instead of The_Food_Dude.

TheFoodDude was taken when I originally signed up, but the account has been inactive for over 6 months, so I emailed Twitter Support and they took it away from the other person and gave it to me.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Chicken Adobo

When I first started blogging 3 years ago, I had a different site. Here is a post from that site. I no longer use that site, but wanted this here....Enjoy.
















Today at work my co-worker/friend Johnny and I were talking about a delicious Filipino dish called Chicken Adobo. For those of you not familiar with this dish it is a preparation style used to marinate and cook Chicken, Beef, Pork, Seafood, really any type of meat you choose.

The sauce or marinade if you will is basically a garlic-soy-vinegar style marinade. I Googled the word “Chicken Adobo” and found several sites that had recipes. The one I chose was http://www.virtualcities.com/ons/hi/gov/higov80.htm The reason I chose those site mainly was because the Governor of Hawaii, The Honorable Benjamin J. Cayetano endorses this recipe. Additionally, the other recipes I saw seemed to call for only a tablespoon or two of Soy Sauce and from talking to my buddy Johnny and from my readings online Adobo sauce is a Vinegar/Soy combination, and this recipe seemed to do ½ and ½ of each.

For those of you that don’t want to click on the link, the recipe follows (with some modifications that I obtained from Johnny): I will indicate the modifications I made afterwards.

3 pounds chicken thighs, cut into serving pieces
½ cup white vinegar
½ cup soy sauce
¼ teaspoon peppercorns, crushed
1 teaspoon brown sugar
5 garlic cloves, crushed
3 bay leaves
Salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in a pan, cover, and allow to marinate one to three hours. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan and allow to simmer for an additional 15 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the chicken is lightly brown. Serve with white rice.
Serves: 4 to 6

I made the following modifications to the recipe:

First, I didn’t marinate for one to three hours. Although this is highly suggested, I didn’t have the time when I got home tonight and the dish seemed to turn out just fine. Next time I may try this step.

Johnny suggested onion is delicious in Adobo, so I added 1 brown onion; ¼ of the onion was diced for a frying step I will describe later and the other ¾ was sliced into thin pieces to add to the cooking chicken. Basically cut the ¾ onion in half and make half moon slices.

I purchased Leg/Thigh quarters and separated the legs from the thighs. I ended up with 8 pieces (4 legs, 4 thighs) From my experience of eating Adobo in the past, I enjoyed the drum legs, so I thought why not use them also. As for cutting the pieces into serving pieces I omitted this step. The first thigh I tried cutting in half with my cleaver resulted in the chicken bone shattering and I spent the next several minutes picking shattered chicken bone from the thigh. I realized that hey, there is a reason you don’t give chicken bones to dogs, so if it’s not good enough for my dog, it’s not good enough for me to try. I left the rest of the pieces intact.

I used 1 cup each of white vinegar and soy sauce. Knowing the recipe needs enough moisture to not only cook the chicken but boil down afterwards for a sauce, I decided that 1 cup total liquid wasn’t going to cut it, so I doubled the liquid. This actually worked out nicely and left me plenty of sauce to enjoy.

I added a step of frying the chicken first before adding the marinade. This gave the chicken brownness to it. Many of the recipes I found online said to brown the chicken after cooking in the liquid, but I thought this would not only be messy but might dry out the chicken, so I chose to do the step first. In a deep sauté pan add 2 tablespoons Olive Oil, 3 cloves crushed garlic and the ¼ chopped onion. Sauté the chicken on both sites approx 3 minutes per side to brown. You can then set aside on a plate, empty out oil and chicken fat juices from the pan, return chicken and add marinade/sauce and remaining ¾ sliced onion strips.

So, how did this dish come out? DELICIOUS!!!!! My entire family enjoyed this dish, even my 3 year old daughter. I enjoyed this recipe because I was able to cook it all in one pan and it was easy to prepare.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Fab Hot Dog's

If you’ve read a few of my blog entries, you will know I’m a big fan of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (DDD) on the Food Network.

This past Monday’s episode Guy featured a hot dog joint in Reseda, on Tampa/Vanowen called Fab Hot Dog’s.

What caught my eye was the segment started out mentioning that if we are Pink’s Hot Dog fans, then Fab is the place for us.

I love Pink’s, however since I’m not a tourist, I don’t love having to wait 1-2 hours everytime I go to order. Therefore, I just don’t go to Pink’s.

On Wednesday evening, I decided to stop by Fab to see if it was worth the “hype”. BOY WAS IT!!! I wasn’t that hungry so I just ordered their Carolina Slaw Dog, which is a steamed dog, that “snaps” in your mouth topped with Chili, Onion and Cole Slaw. The dog also comes with Mustard, but I’m a firm believe that any hotdog worth it’s weight in chili should ever have mustard on it.

This hotdog was a true delight, and the chili was execeptionally tasty. I had a side of tater tots, and loved their crispy texture. I knew right then, Fab is the place and no more will I have to venture to Hollywood, if I need my hot dog fix.

Today I went back with a buddy from work and had their Cheesy Bacon Dog with Chili Fries. The dog was wrapped with bacon and covered with horseradish mustard and a cheese sauce, all topped with grilled onions.

The dog sat for the 15 minute ride back to work, and when I opened it, tasted as fresh as if I had ate it at the restaurant.





The chili fries were a sufficient amount, covered in chili and the same cheese sauce as my hot dog.

Fortunately for the owners, the coverage on DDD has increased their customers, unfortunately for me the customer, the coverage has made for a bit of a wait. From the time I stood in line, until I had my order was a good 30-35 minutes. Next time, I’ll be sure to arrive at 11:00 a.m. when they open or 1:00 p.m., after the lunch crowd has come and gone.

Fab is 2 for 2 in my book, and I look forward to many more trips to enjoy their delicious dogs.

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude

Tacos Y Cemitas

On a recent episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (DDD) Guy showcased the only restaurant in Chicago which serves a torta style Mexican sandwich known as a cemitas, Cemitas Puebla.

For those not familiar with a cemitas, it’s basically a Mexican style torta sandwich. However this particular style, known as cemitas poblana originated in the City of Puebla, Mexico.

The sandwich, looked soo good, I had to find a place in Los Angeles which sold cemitas. I did a Google search and found 2 restaurants in Los Angeles. However about a week ago, I was driving around Canoga Park, near the intersection of Desoto and Sherman Way and saw a sign, “Tacos y Cemitas”. What? A cemitas joint 1 mile from my house? I have to stop, and so I did and had one of the most unusual but satisfying sandwiches in my life.



What makes a cemitas different from other types of tortas are 4 ingredients.

1. Type of cheese
2. Type of sauce
3. Type of leafy green
4. Type of bun

Generally a torta will use queso fresco which is a firm, yet creamy cheese, sliced into 1/8th inch thick slices and layered on the sandwich. The cemitas uses quesillo which is a Mexican style string cheese. The texture actually reminded me of a piece of packing twine, cut into little pieces. When I first saw the sandwich, I actually thought there was a piece of string in my food. It wasn’t until I picked it up and touched it, did I realize it was the cheese.

Most tortas are served with a salsa roja or salsa verde. Although these options are available for a cemitas, the most popular is the chipotle chile in adobo sauce. The uniqueness of this chile really sets the cemitas apart from other torta style sandwiches.

Lettuce is commonly found on tortas, but the cemitas uses papalo. This is a fresh Mexican herb, bitter in flavor. The leaves are about the size of a quarter. Papalo is often compared to cilantro, but after tasting it, I would say more like watercress. Funny though, when I received my cemitas it was missing the papalo. I went up to the counter and asked about it, and the chef, smirked and laughed, and then took my sandwich away, and delivered it back to my table with the papalo now on it. I suspect papalo is “optional”, so must be requested when ordering.

Lastly a torta is generally served on a plain bun. Cemitas are served on a sesame seed bun.

This day, I opted for the cemitas milanesa. The sandwich presented to me was very appealing. A sesame seed bun stuffed with a large thin beef milanesa, perfectly fried, with quesillo cheese, avocado, thinly sliced red onion, chipotle chiles and papalo. Some might not like the bitterness of the papalo, but I found it a perfect accompaniment to the cemitas.

Besides offering milanesa style, other cemitas offerings were queso de puerco or “head-cheese” and pata or “foot” sandwich. This is made with boiled cow feet. Next time I venture over to Tacos Y Cemitas in Canoga Park, I definitely will be ordering a cemitas again. The question becomes will it be queso de puerco or pata?

Until Next Time.....Cook On!!!

The Food Dude