Zack's Website
My Egotistic and Esoteric Website
Food
When I was a kid, I pretty much ate anything. I wasn't picky, but my standards have always been high. I'd rather pay the extra money and get a filet mignon steak vs a strip steak. You get a better cut of meat, aren't paying for fat, bone, etc. I'm always looking for quality, not quantity!
Sure I might be a little overweight...but you gotta eat, right?
So let's start with my favorite food....Mexican!
In my early teens, I worked for a mexican restaurant as a busboy, and this wasn't your typical mexican restaurant. It was family owned, had illegal mexicans working for them and nobody in the kitchen spoke english, but the food was excellent. The restaurant owner sold off the business and moved to Southwest Florida so unfortunately it no longer exists. I wish I had the recipie books! You could actually flip through them in the kitchen. The only thing I have left is an old matchbook from back then.
Since I've moved to the Toledo, Ohio area - finding good mexican food is near impossible. People rave over places like Loma Linda's on Airport Highway or Ventura's on Bancroft Street. Those are places are for "old white people" that have no idea what real mexican food should taste like. All the chips come from a bag, sauces from a jar and the beef, chicken, etc have absolutely no flavor what-so-ever! They are horrible restaurants.
So you want to try "upscale mexican"? Well those aren't any better! Places like Tekela in Perrysburg, Ohio just charge a pile of money for food with a little flavor, but it's still not that great. It's just another trendy restaurant that yuppies (does that term still exist?) think is the place to be.
The closest I've come to real mexican restaurants in the area are El Vaquero (the one off of Secor Road - no other locations are the same!) and the La Fiesta off of Reynolds Road in Maumee. At these locations, you're getting authentic mexican food with some great flavor. The only problem with these and other restaurants in the area is the hot sauce. They are pretty much ground up jalepanos in a green oily sauce. I've been trying to replicate a hot sauce from Don Pablos, and I'm getting close...unfortunatly the are out of business so I can't ask any ex-employees for the recipie.
Here's what I've come up with.
- Zack's Hot Salsa
- 2 Cups of Fresh Rough-Chopped Tomatoes
- 1/4 Cup of White Spanish Onions
- 5 Ounces of Tomato Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons of Garlic Powder
- 1/2 Cup of Fresh Cilantro
- 1 Tablespoon of Ground Cumin
- 1 Tablespoon of Salt
- 1 Large Jalapeno Stick all this in a manual chopper/blender and churn it until you get a nice consistency.
I like my salsa HOT - not just heat to have heat, but HOT with flavor. You can usually find me dumping my favorite hot sause into salsa to give it a kick. BTW: it used to be Cholula, but now it's been El Yucateca.
In 2023, Sydney was in a bowling tournament in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After the tournament, I had my eye on a Mexican restaurant down the street from the bowling alley. It was called Arcos Mexican restaurant. The food was acceptable, but the salsa was great. As you can see the red "regular" salsa is made with actual parts of plants! Hah! When I ask for hot salsa, they still like to give you those little three types of hot salsas. Which I never really care for. If they would have just taken the regular salsa, and kicked up the heat a bit, that's what you really want!
While in Peurto Rico recently, I was excited to try some authentic food, but again was dissapointed in the flavors. Just didn't have much spice or flavor. Mojito's, sure, those were great, but the food wasn't flavorful at all.
More to Come!