Mezcal, Mezcal, Mezcal

Thanks to L.A.’s own Oaxacan princess who has recently doubled as the culinary curator for this year’s HOLA MEXICO Film Festival, Bricia Lopez. The Glutster is giving away a pair of tickets to tomorrow’s screening of Viva Mezcal at Guelaguetza. Yes, this is the same event that I wrote about for LA Weekly with free-flowing Mezcal and food cooked by Oaxacan chef Rodolfo Castellano.

To enter, all you gotta do is leave a comment telling me the name of a type of agave that is used to make any type of mezcal in Mexico. To keep with the theme, Blue Agave doesn’t count!

One winner will be randomly chosen tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Cheers, suerte!

Revolution XPA and Botanas in Bell

As if the city of Bell needed another Mexican powerhouse, they got one. Though, this one isn’t your traditional Mexican cenaduria and has craft beer on draft too. I first caught wind of Corazón y Miel when I covered it for Grub Street last month. Besides that it was a spinoff from a former Salvadoran American chef at Animal named Eduardo Ruiz, I didn’t really know what to expect, because well, let’s just say that, that part of L.A. isn’t exactly known for their thriving food scene. But after my meal there, it is my civic duty as a born and bred Eastside resident to report.

It is made clear that the meal will be something different when you are served a bowl of chile-lime fried peanuts, peas and chickpeas instead of the usual totopos and salsa. Whenever I visit Mexico, snacks or botanas such as these are the things I look forward to the most, they are usually complimentary and can range from things like sliced jicama fruit to shrimp broth, as long as you keep drinking. And that’s exactly what these salty, addictive treats do: pique your appetite and make you want to order a lot more food and drinks. The menu filled with almost too-good-to-be-true underpriced innovative takes on Latin classics will confirm that yup, this will pretty much be one of the most memorable Latin restaurant meals that you will have in Los Angeles.

Ambiance at Corazón y Miel

We visited on one of their opening days, so most of the eating customers that night were close friends and family. Including a worried mom of one of the crew members who saw us snapping photos. “I’m sure everything will be successful,” my girlfriend Paola assured her.

The bar

Entrees Menu

Antojitos Menu

Cocktail Menu

We started off with some of their cocktails, okay, a lot of their cocktails.

An Experimental Smooth Cocktail with Habanero and Carrot

Mientras Me Caso (While I get married): Their Take on The Classic

Fear the Pineapple: Mezcal

Homemade Sangrita

I’m proud to announce that each and every one of them was extremely nice, rivaling the complexity and easy drinkability of other popular Mexican themed bars, maybe even better.

Along side these drinks, we were served a bunch of their appetizers.

Carnitas

Patatas Fritas with “Scallion Ash” Dip

Jalapeño y Tocino: Their Ode to the Mexican American Street Food

Ensalada de Cueritos, served with a taster of Coronado Brewing’s Wit

Fried Avocado

Who would have thought that the city of Bell would be responsible for a deconstructed Carnitas plate? A good one at that, crispy with a thick layer of browned bread crumbs and a tender inside. It’s what a traditional french forcemeat would look like if it took a vacation in Mexico and ended up falling in love with a Milanesa Poblana. Then there are the little things, like the “scallion ash” dip that accompanies their potato chip like Patatas Bravas. It’s nothing too crazy, but the smokey, powdery, intensely oniony charcoal-colored dip is cool enough to keep you slightly excited about their food in general.

Atlantic Burger on homemade Cemita Buns: Lamb Burger, Yup

Vegetarian Mole with Fried Hominy

Pan con Chompipe: Chef Eduardo’s Tribute to his Grandma

Main courses are on another level as well. For $10, you will get a whopping fistful of a burger with Mexican, Salvadoran and American roots. The patty is thick, medium rare and it’s lamb. The bright Serrano curtido topping will remind you of the stuff that you pile on top of your favorite greasy pupusa, and the sturdy, slightly sweet sesame seeded cemita bun will not fall apart. The main star of the menu–that also happens to be the most expensive at $16–is the Salvadoran classic known as Pan con Champipe. A turkey leg that is braised until it falls apart, topped with a gravy boat full of tart, tomato salsa, pickled stuff and then disproportionally placed atop a fluffy bolillo roll smothered with mayo. It can feed two, easily.

By this point, we were stuffed beyond belief but realized that we still hadn’t sampled the Ceviche, and when you have a significant other that was raised in Puerto Vallarta, this is unacceptable.

Ceviche de Corazon with Soy, Ginger and Fried Peanuts

Their Ceviche is $9 and comes packed with fork-tender octopus and satisfying large shrimps, despite that they add the flavors of soy, ginger and fried peanuts, it still stays relatively true to ceviche and doesn’t lose the battle with sashimi. I’ve always loved the toasted Peruvian corn element on ceviches too.

When it comes time for dessert, you will probably be stuffed beyond belief. But alas, do not skip and just go for a run later in the week.

Niños y Buñuelos

Pastel de Leche

Specifically, the Niños y Buñuelos dessert, fried puff pastry stuffed with perfectly ripe bananas and served with caramel and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It sounds like a lazy afterthought and tacky as hell but actually awesome, flaky, almost like phyllo and barely sweet. The Pastel de Leche is cool too, but not as unforgettable as the former.

I’m really happy for these dudes and wish them all the best on their first brick and mortar endeavor. I know it’s quite a leap from their past catering career, especially in the area. A lot of people probably told them it was a bad idea but I’m glad they didn’t give a fuck and decided to open up.

Corazón y Miel
6626 Atlantic Ave
Bell, CA
90201

(323) 560-1776

Like every good gentrifying hipster, I try my best to shop locally and demonize big chain supermarkets as much as I can afford to. Which is ironic because I’m broke as hell these days (fyi, for any lurking eyes that reads this post and can hook it up with any type of work). But amidst my neighborhood browsing, I found a place that sells the elusive Tamales Michoacanos known as Uchepos.

Pan Calientito [y Tamales!] Todos Los Dias

I think it was the window painting of the iconic mustached Mexican Panadero pulling out tray full of burnished bolillos that lured me in.

Uchepos: Perhaps The best tamal ever created

It turns out they sell a couple of regional Mexican specialty foods, the most special being Michoacan’s notorious all-corn tender tamales on weekends made by an old Michoacana lady. These corn pouches of love are exclusively made with a little butter, a pinch of sugar and whole lot of freshly ground corn kernels – no nixtamal! Which results in a sweet, soft polenta-like tamal resembling a savory corn pudding that is on the edge of being dessert.

On their own they are fine but served with the traditional Michoacano accoutrements of thick, tart salsa verde, a mountain of salty, sharp Cotija cheese and a fat ass dollop of Crema Mexicana, they ain’t nothing to fuck with. Sweet and salty, and so delicately tender, bursting with fresh corn flavor. I usually buy two pairs of them with its toppings there too then head back home to pig out. They pair beautifully with a brimming mug of strong Clever Coffee dripped coffee.

To reiterate, these are only available on weekends (Friday-Sunday) and they are known to sell out by early afternoon so if you really want to experience them, you gotta bust that early ass breakfast mission. Ask for them at the front counter, they have a basket of tamales there with other fillings that aren’t bad if they are out already. The Uchepos are something like a buck and change a pop.

To this day, I haven’t seen these type of Tamales anywhere else in LA. Though, Las Brisas De Apatzingan in Orange County makes them daily and they are a little better there. I almost kept this little gem to myself, but whatever man, YOLO.

Uchepos, the money shot

Feli-Mex Market
Corner of Figueroa Boulevard and Avenue 55

Though I am thankful for his inconsiderate actions, as I found my dream quarters in the hills of Highland Park, just a few blocks away from places like El Faisan y El Venado.

The place caught my eye as soon as we drove by looking for a now-defunct, birria truck that was once favorited by J. Gold. Though, we waited until we were more settled in the neighborhood to check it out.

Ambiance at El Faisan y El Venado

I love me some Yucatan food but haven’t really found a solid place that came close to the stuff I had when I was down there a few years ago. Except for that one time that Gustavo Arellano took me to an awesome Yucatán bakery somewhere in his hood that I forgot the name of. I know I’m supposed to love Chichen-Itza here in L.A., but as much as I respect it and the family behind it, I haven’t really ever been crazy wowed by their dishes (though their house-rendered manteca is the best in L.A.).

So, when I saw El Faisan is El Venado sporting a sign that claimed Yucatán food, I got excited. The place is tiny, with about 20 seats in total. It used to be a Mexican restaurant specializing in the food from Puebla but a Yucatán man by the name of Angel acquired it a few years ago and revamped it. It’s now a bona fide, too-cool-for-credit-cards Yucatan restaurant, widescreen television bumping heavy cumbia and everything.

Breakfast and lunch menu at El Faisan y El Venado

Dinner menu at El Faisan y El Venado

The only employees I’ve seen working there is Angel, his wife and another line cook in the kitchen. So, one of them will probably serve you. It is apparent that this will at least be a decent Mexican restaurant as soon as you taste one of their totopo chips from the welcome basket. Thick-cut, crunchy triangles that are on the ultra browned side, with a deep corn flavor. You’ll notice the chips are flaky, flecked with shards of salt and puffed up like puff pastry, a product of a deft hand in frying no doubt but more importantly, the tortillas they use for chips are probably on the thinner, better-quality side.

As we are every time we sit at a  new restaurant, we were famished beyond belief so we got a little crazy with the ordering, we sampled a few things: a taco de Cochinita Pibil, a Panucho, Escabeche Oriental, a tamal colado and a Brazo de Reina tamal. The last two being only available on the weekends. The menu is pretty small, which is usually a good sign for specialized regional places like this one.

Cochinita Pibil at El Faisan y El Venado

A Panucho

The basics were decent, the cochinita pibil was oozing with its notorious citrusy, porky juices. Though, the usual LA taco paradox of crappy Guerrero-esque tortillas weighed it down. They used shredded chicken instead of the usual turkey for their Panucho, but the core puffy tortilla was light, puffy and spot-on.

Brazo de Reina at El Faisan y el Venado: Not as dense with a soft-cooked egg

But the joint’s true standouts are the Tamal Colado and Escabeche Oriental. Tamal Colados had their comeback last year when they were picked up and adapted by Alex Stupak at Empellón Cocina in New York. Though, many people still don’t know about them. It’s yet another Southern Mexican treat, basically a banana leaf tamal where the masa has been strained and then boiled, which then creates this pillowy, gelatine-like cloud of earthy corn. It’s airy, fluffy and unlike any other tamal you’ve had before, here they have a pork and chicken version.

At first, I just glimpsed past the unique sounding “Escabeche Oriental” on the menu, and had actually ordered something else. A rookie move, but that’s what happens when you forget your blogging roots! Fortunately though, I have a relentless mind that rarely ceases to be be satisfied and asked about the dish a few minutes after ordering it. “Oh, es una delicia, bien rica!” Angel said, going on to describe it as turkey leg that is cooked with a bunch of charred chiles, spieces, pickled onions and seasoned vinegar. I immediately and annoyingly, asked if it too late to change my order. It probably was, but Angel didn’t care and still switched my order without a a single quibble.

Tamal Colado at El Faisan y El Venado: Turkey leg, roasted with Yucatan pickled onions

His enthusiastic response was not exaggerating it, in the least. To think, that I almost missed out on this! The hulking traditional drumstick was served with a pile of onions, charred chiles guerros, half a ripe avocado and a bunch of tangy turkey juices enhanced with cracked black pepper and vinegar. The flavors were similar to Jamaican Jerk Chicken, but enhanced with the big ol’, bad, bold tropical flavors of El Yucatán. With a big steaming pile of tortillas, this Yucatán plate was among the best I’ve had in this city yet.

I remember I went to a Mexican food panel a long time ago and hearing someone from El Yucatán say: Someone that is from El Yucatán will always say that are Yucateco, not Mexican, because of the way different techniques and ingredients that only exists in that state of Mexico. After eating here, I understood their prideful solidarity in Mexican gastronomy.

El Faisan y El Venado
231 N Ave 50
Los Angeles, CA 90042
(323) 257-1770

Your salsa dreams come true

Feeling lucky? While procrastinating my Friday away on Facebook, I spotted a particularly awesome contest that ya’ll might like, “ya’ll” being the few of you Glutster.com readers that are still out there after I lagged it so much!

Anyways, so Homeboy Industries turned 25 this week and they are in a giving mood. To celebrate, they are giving away a whole year’s supply of their popular salsa. According to the contest’s website, “one container of Homeboy Salsa per month, no more than twelve containers in one calendar year.”

I don’t remember how their salsas taste like exactly but they are not bad at all, no purchase is necessary or anything so why not?

Leave it to my favorite food event in Los Angeles to get me to blog for myself again!

Anyways, yup, it’s about that time of year again. This is one of the few food events that I actually endorse. Why? Because well, there are A LOT of people that depend on Planned Parenthood for their free or low-cost birth control. At least, in the part of town that I grew up in where that kinda was the only option. Though, even though their services help so many, they are still demonized somehow and need all the support they can get.

As always, this lineup of restaurant and chefs that are participating is bad ass, including AOC, Craft, Rivera and the rising star, Superba Snack Bar.

I’ll be there covering the event. They’re having two sessions, an afternoon session and an evening one, so no excuses!

For ticket information, check out their website.

Photo Credit: Todd Coleman

Between taking Stat 50. and English 1C classes, moving out for the first time, getting involved in a stupid amount of multiple new (paid!) projects and my blog getting viciously infected with Malware, my blogging has suffered severely – almost beyond repair.

But, I refuse to give up! After all, if it wasn’t for this little blog, I wouldn’t be where I’m at now. Thus, I will now reveal that after many hours of lost sleep, this blog is finally getting a revamp! A whole new makeover. Estimated to be unveiled January 1st 2013! Of course, more regular writing is will come with that!

For now, I will leave you with this. It is the story of my mom and my family’s Thanksgiving Zacatecano-American turkey tradition – on this month’s Thanksgiving issue of Saveur!

It’s pretty crazy, growing up I always knew her turkey was something special, rubbed with a spiced chile rojo paste and then served with chile’d turkey drippings. I always felt the pressure of recording her recipe for future generations, leave it to a national food magazine to get me to stop procrastinating and finally do it.

This time, I write about Mexican snack food culture and how each and every candy, chip and caramel “is rooted in the spicy, sour, salty, and sweet flavors of the country’s cuisine.” Whether it’s in interbred history of those crunchy Cacahuates Japoneses or the ultra-tary flavor of a Limon 7 powder candy packet — they’re all here. Obleas, Cocadas, tamarind-paste-baed Pulparindos, all that glorious stuff.

So, go to your local newsstand now, whatever that means. Or just click on this link and read the whole thing online. But no matter what, make sure you have a corner liquor store or Mexican grocery market nearby!

Thanks to my girlfriend that was born and raised in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (who also has an awesome foodblog linking food with ethnography) for being my insider source.

*Header photo by Todd Coleman of Saveur

On the second-to-last shelf from the floor, in front of the cashier at Pueblo Liquor in East Los Angeles, lay a dozen greenish bananas. They were sandwiched between a shelf of Hostess Dunkin’ Stix and a shelf with four varieties of ready-to-eat Pop Tarts. All were within equal grabbing distance of a child hungry for an after-school snack. At 50 cents each, the bananas were cheaper than the items around them, and Lily, who was at the cash register, told me she sells three or four a day.

Pueblo Liquor is located at 4600 Whittier Boulevard, right at the base of the Whittier Arch, or “El Arco,” a five-story landmark that stretches across the street. It is open 16 hours a day, 112 hours a week, and its only employees are its two owners: Lily, 46, and her husband Peter, 47. (Lily told me all this but never told me her last name, no matter how many times I asked or how many 99-cent glass bottles of Tehucán mineral water I bought.) They emigrated from the People’s Republic of China in 1992, and they commute to East Los Angeles from their home in Rosemead daily, sometimes twice daily, if their children have a shorter school day.

Lily and Peter bought Pueblo in 1992, when its former owner died of a stroke. They kept its name. For the past 20 years, they have been selling not only liquor but also a small selection of groceries: bananas, milk, dried chiles, and ground spices, among other things. To be exact, Lily sells 60 to 72 gallons of milk a week. At $3.50, a gallon of milk from Pueblo Liquor is about a quarter cheaper than a gallon at the surrounding supermarkets. What allows Lily to keep paying $2,200 a month in rent is sales of malt liquor, soft drinks, energy drinks, lottery tickets, Nyquil, single servings of over-the-counter Tylenol, and rolling papers.

Three years ago, a study by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found that 25 percent of residents of Boyle Heights and unincorporated East Los Angeles have high cholesterol, and 30 percent have hypertension. There are about 50 percent more liquor stores per square mile in Boyle Heights than in other similar-sized neighborhoods or cities in the county. That’s why several organizations and activists have designated the area a “food desert” where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain. The UCLA-USC Center for Population Health and Health Disparities has even begun a program in which corner stores get $25,000 makeovers to make them healthier. In Boyle Heights, a market called Yash La Casa now sells fresh fruits from the local farmers market and has a juice bar with free Wi-Fi.

I like these makeovers. It’s always good when more stores sell healthy food. But is Boyle Heights or East L.A. really a “food desert”—and are stores like Pueblo Liquor really the problem? I grew up in the area. I still live there. Everyone I know in East L.A. goes shopping once every week or two at a real supermarket. Healthy foodis available to us.

I think a lot of the attention focused on liquor stores arises from confusing the symptom with the ailment and from failing to understand the cultural context.

During one of my visits to Pueblo Liquor, I stayed by the counter from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on a Monday afternoon and recorded each transaction that took place. Every customer except for one (an African American) was Latino—and probably Mexican. This is what I saw:

1. A man in his 40s came in to cash $10 he’d won from a lottery scratcher.
2. A lady in her 50s walked in and said “just one.” Lily knew what she meant and handed her a single Marlboro Light cigarette for 50 cents.
3. A lady in her 40s quietly asked for a pack of Zig-Zag rolling papers.
4. My neighbor, a woman in early 30s, came with her two children and bought her son a Yoo-Hoo and her daughter a Sunny Delight.
5. A balding man bought a six-pack of chilled Bud Light.
6. A black man bought a Carmex lip balm.
7. A woman bought a hefty notebook and a packet of dividers.
8. Two young girls with backpacks bought two prepackaged ice cream cones. The price had recently gone up to $2.20, but the girls only had $2 and exchanged awkward glances. Lily smiled and said, in Spanish, “Next time bring the rest of the change.”

No one seemed to be looking for radicchio or wheat germ. People go to liquor stores because they need something small and simple, and they need it fast. In Mexico, the equivalent institution is the tiendita, the little corner store that sells things like milk, soda, and snack foods. It’s a way of life. Sure, people buy liquor at a liquor store in East L.A. but it’s just as often where you go when you forgot that can of jalapeños, or you need sliced white bread for a sandwich, or you need that gallon of milk. If you’re an undocumented construction worker or custodian or scrap metal collector, it’s where you go to get a quick snack—like a bag of Doritos and a soda—to tide you over until your real meal that evening.

Liquor stores can be targets of robberies or centers of problems in neighborhoods, but a store like Pueblo Liquor is just there to sell people in the area the things they want to buy. Lily and Peter aren’t trying to force anyone to eat Cheetos instead of kasha or Budweiser instead of papaya juice. They get along well with their customers. They speak better Spanish than English, and when prices go up Lily knocks off a dime or a quarter if her customers are short. When customers return the next time, they pay it back. Lily doesn’t know her customers by name, nor do they know her by name, but they pretty much know each other anyway.

A lot of reporters writing about East L.A. seem to consider the residents there to be both more ignorant than they really are and more knowledgeable than they really are. On the one hand, you hear people talk as if the residents of East L.A. fail to grasp that a homemade stewed beef taco is healthier and cheaper than a burger and fries. Well, East Angelenos get it—they don’t have a choice but to get it. They have to make food at home simply in order to save money. On the other hand, you hear people talk as if the only thing stopping residents of East L.A. from eating tofu and steamed kale for dinner is an overabundance of Yoo-Hoo chocolate drinks. That’s of course not the case either. While most people in the area know home-cooked food is healthier than McDonald’s, they don’t spend a lot of time considering the finer points of nutrition.

I know from experience. When I was growing up in East Los Angeles, I ate a lot of junk. Like a lot of my friends, I was raised on stuff like Capri Sun and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Only later, as I got older and more curious, did I start reading about food and nutrition on my own and change my habits. And I educated my parents, too—slowly. After six years of food writing and constantly defending why I spend $2.39 per pound on a skinny free-range chicken instead of 99 cents on a pound of plump drumsticks, I’ve finally gotten them to change their habits. Today, my parents eat meat sparingly, stick to whole grains, and use agave syrup instead of table sugar.

That’s the sort of change that comes slowly, as a product of education and improved economic circumstances. It costs more to eat healthier, and it takes more knowledge, too. So either healthy food needs to be cheaper, or people need to be better educated—or, ideally, both. Instead of just bringing healthier, more expensive food to the corner store, policymakers would be better off ensuring that nutrition gets more attention in schools and that health food is subsidized so that it’s not an economic burden for people to make the change.

And if I want a six-pack of beer or a dozen eggs in a hurry, I’m still going to pay a visit to Lily.

]]> http://theglutster.com/2012/07/in-defense-of-the-liquor-store-my-latest-piece-for-zocalo-public-square/feed/ 0 http://theglutster.com/2012/07/get-full-and-faded-at-east-l-a-meets-napa-2012-union-station-july-20-2012-600-pm/ http://theglutster.com/2012/07/get-full-and-faded-at-east-l-a-meets-napa-2012-union-station-july-20-2012-600-pm/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:57:22 +0000 The Glutster http://theglutster.com/?p=2197 It’s about that time of year! Yup, East L.A. Meets Napa is this Friday and the tickets are going fast, well, I’m guessing they are, the event always runs out of food early every year.

It’s definitely among the most unique food events in Los Angeles, it sounds exactly as the title implies: East L.A. (the Chicano elite and the restaurants in the Eastern Los Angeles where they like to eat at) meets Napa (Latino-owned vineyards in North California).

It takes place in the pretty cool, low-pro courtyard outside of Union Station and there is usually a “Latin” band to accompany, complete with a waxed dance floor. If anything, just go to witness the spectacle of buzzed veteranos in guayaberas at a food event.

I’ve been covering the event for the last few years, here are some past links on Teenage Glutster so you can know what to expect.

East L.A. Meets Napa 2011

East L.A. Meets Napa 2010

East L.A. Meets Napa 2009

Ahí nos vemos!