Tales of Home

My schedule this semester has me going batshit crazy for tuesday-thursday, then I'm free.  So I take thursday as a superior happy hour because it's not crazy packed like friday.  Normally I wouldn't do happy hour every week but when going batshit crazy you need it.

this mexican place right around the corner from me took advantage of the pandemic to open up outside seating at their bar, and I'm head over heels in love.



I live in an ethnic neighborhood that's been gentrifying, and many of the gentrified places end up full of young white people.  But this place has been a neighborhood standby, and it captures the neighborhood.  I go there and feel privileged to be the only white person there.  And the food with their current chef is great (and cheap).




Unfortunately the cool weather is coming and that will be the end of this outside bar arrangement.  It will be a dark corridor until late spring.  But sitting at the end of the bar and just watching people be who they are has brought me such joy.  Why did it take me so long to discover this transformation of a place I sort of considered neighborhood furniture?

That food looks fabulous, do they do chicken and chocolate?

You mean mole poblano? Their menu lists a mole madre, which seems to be a sauce pot that just keeps going as new stuff is mixed in. I haven't tried it, but will. I'm often disappointed by restaurant versions of mole poblano, which I feel lack the complexity I think the sauce should have.

But I fear the next time I'm there the window bar will not be open, won't be the same at all. About to hit cool temperatures.

yep its rapidly cooling here too. 2 weeks ago I was in T-shirt and now its two jumpers and woolly hat. Its not actually cold, being 20 degrees, but it sure feels it because its a dramatic change from 35-40 over the Summer, you need to acclimatise slowly.

So you got me interested in what they call "mole madre" - a sauce they keep going, feeding it with new spices and stuff each day. So we had a warm day and I went back, and OMG.



Ventured to the kitchen to complement the chef and discovered the secret: they've got a mexican mama running things.  Should have guessed.

This has become my happy place after each weekly rush that ends on thursdays, don't know if it will be the same if I can't sit in the window.

wowzer! explain what it is, the one on the left is the chicken and chocolate?

On the left is chicken, not sure if there's chocolate in this sauce or not.  Definitely dried chilies and sweet spices, perhaps a hint of chocolate.  Mole Poblano is more chocolate forward, but this one evolves with whatever the chef is feeling each day.  I was quite happy with it. They call anything you add to each day a "mother" this or that: sourdough they call "masa madre". And "mole" means sauce, so this was a "mother sauce" or mole madre.

On the right is beans of course.

{{ I am sure it tastes lovely. But it does resemble an organised version of what I leave behind in Daves Fields on a stagger home from the pub }}

There's a tip for you! Get your sh%t organized! Never know what impression you may leave.

What's the point of spicing the rim and having a straw?

If you like being the only white person you'd love Watsonville...
(my nearest town)

I never look for mole though at the mexican restaurants. Tried it once and it did not take.

I normally don't go for salting the rim, but this mix of salt, sugar and spice was nice. The straw lets you choose if you want a hit or not.

I've found most restaurant mole to be unimpressive, which is why I started making my own. But this one was good.

I like having the choice between a place full of young yuppies or not. Enhances the feeling of a sudden vacation just by walking down the street to the next place. Towns with different character do the same. I'm all for partial assimilation.

{{That awkward moment when you come home to catch your cat watching porn!



Honestly that cats become addicted to TV, never away from the bloody screen! }}

your cat is very intelligent, mine don't even register there is stuff on the telly.

{{ Weathers wild here, gale wnds and feeezing wih it, and apparently is even worse on the east coast with a red warning do not travel order in place. But reason I mention it here is the Met Office seem to have gone Tolkien in their naming scheme, as we are being battered by Storm Arwen! (I always thought she'd be more gentle) }}

If you take PJ's version of Arwen she can raise a gale in a river. Sounds about right.

Too many Rivendell beans.

This was from the town along the road from me, Brighton. They often "say" things on the front of their buses, this has been the best so far

{{ How very true. }}

 thats brilliant

Currently at a conference in New Orleans (everyone must suffer now and again).  Cool bar in the hotel of my friend:



The hotel is right across the street from this:



And you'll find a brassy style among the locals I just love:

{{ Looks like a great place for a buckie or ten Halfy. Seems to have an excellent atmosphere. But I did wonder looking behind the bar where are all the optics! }}

Optics?

halfwise wrote:Optics?

Upended Bottles of Booze.

That's not done here.

{{ If you don't have optics how do you know your getting your full measure?! I can see if I ever travel to the US I shall need to bring my own ruler }}