{ 2009 03 08 }

Tacos and reading (although not at once)

The desire to cook is just not there. Instead, with my dashing husband out of town, Ernest and I headed over to El Metate, one of my two favorite taquerias in San Francisco.* El Metate is a favorite because the food is super fresh, the tacos are nice and small (in a good, Mexican-street-food way), the owner (Francisco) could not be nicer, it’s pretty and bright, and it’s walking distance from our house. It’s a taqueria where they put a fresh yellow tulip on each table (the tables are, themselves, painted royal blue with big, swirling sunflowers on them – how cheery!). Plus, I like how they put grilled veggies in their veggie offerings. The carnitas is great, as is the chile verde. Ernest is obsessed with their chicken tacos, and they have a filling called “chile colorado” that is stewed chunks of beef with potatoes in a red chile sauce that can really fit the bill on cold nights. Since yesterday was a Saturday, they were also serving up menudo (not my favorite – a bit too earthy, if you know what I mean) and posole (yum yum yum – stewed pork and chile and dried, hulled, reconstituted corn!).

While I wasn’t cooking I instead made my way through a review copy of I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci, which comes out next month. First things first: how adorable is that cover? Why is a spaghetti noodle in the shape of a heart so winning? Perhaps a design-type can explain it to me. I got to meet the author last week who summed up the desire to write it – that she’d been telling these stories for years and friends finally convinced her to write them down. And it reads just like that. Like a good friend giving you the latest skinny on her love life and what she’s been cooking. It’s a chick-lit-style page-turner, perfect for beach or airplane or when you don’t feel like cooking or writing or working and just want to be entertained on a Saturday afternoon. The recipes sprinkled throughout the stories aren’t revolutionary, but they do sound tasty and are refreshingly geared towards the home cook not looking to make a fuss.  The hilarious recipe for “Kit’s Drunken Soup” is worth the price of admission alone.

* My other favorite is La Taqueria (or, as so many call it, “La Tac”) on Mission, just south of 24th. Those tacos are big and juicy and have a flavor so addictive it can haunt your dreams. A friend who visits from the East Coast likes to be taken there directly from the airport, no matter the time of day or night.

Please note: I am talking about tacos here, not burritos. I have no idea what the burritos are like at either of these places because when given a choice, I always go for tacos. I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a burrito because, in California, it seems like you always have a choice.

Posted by Molly Watson on Sunday, March 8th, 2009, at 1:11 pm, and filed under ordered it, tacos.

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