Conquering Good Eats in NoCal, Part I

July 21, 2009

I’m back! It feels so good to be back at my usual blogging spot, typing away like a mad lady after being so blog-deprived for more than a week. Call me crazy, but the tap-click-tapping sound of my fingers dancing across the keyboard is such a reassuring, soothing melody to my ears!

And congratulations all you smart foodies who guessed where my next challenge was!
In-N-Out!!! Hark, can you hear the angels singing?

I’ve heard about this famous burger chain a long time ago, but I had never even dreamed of even wanting to try it out for myself. I guess at that time, I couldn’t even imagine the picture of my lips touching greasy fast-food.

But those who have been reading my blog for quite sometime already know that I’ve got a personal list of fear foods. One of them was pasta which, as you can see, I’ve already conquered it once and for all. In fact, I seem to have become a human advertisement for gnocchi. Haha!

Anyway, next on my list was fast food. Specifically, deep-fried stuff like french fries. But the way I challenge myself is that I promise myself that if I’m gonna challenge myself with a fear food, I will go all out and make sure it’s good so that I will actually enjoy the experience. I’ve heard so many good stuff about In-N-Out that I knew I just had to start my first challenge in there.
And it certainly helps how freaking cheap the food here is! I could hear birds fluttering around my head chirping, “Cheap, cheap, cheap!”
The best thing about In-N-Out is that they use quality ingredients, and they make their burgers and fries fresh right before their very eyes. When a restaurant (even a fast food one) has an open kitchen like this, that’s a very good thing.

With that super-simple menu, it took no longer than 10 seconds to decide on what I want. I ordered the cheeseburger:
Holy crap, it was good! Sure, it tastes just as a burger should…which is why I really liked it. It had this pure meaty taste, free of any unpronounceable and suspicious ingredients.
The vegetables were fresh, not limp and stale like the ones in McDonald’s. And the bun was plump and and crusty on the outside after being grilled with the burger, not flat and soggy like the ones in Burger King.
Now, on to the fries:
Truthfully, after hearing so many raves about it, I was a bit disappointed. It definitely tasted much fresher than the ones in other fast food restaurants, but it just wasn’t that…great. Just something about the fried-taste turned me off. This surprised me because I used to love fries to the point of devouring two Super-size McDonald’s fries a day. I wonder if my taste preferences have changed? I’ll have to give fries another go sometime to make sure.

In the evening, Victoria, my host and one of my dad’s most faithful disciples, invited me out for dinner. We went for a short walk by the San Leandro beach (beautiful!), then hopped off to a Mexican restaurant nearby called El Torito.

As soon as we sat down the waiter served us some chips with salsa:
This was definitely not packaged crap like Tostitos! It was fresh-cooked in oil, and came hot and crispy to our table.

Victoria ordered the Shrimp Fajitas:
Succulent shrimp sautéed in jalapeño-garlic butter with guajillo chile sauce

It came with a plate of rice, guacamole, and sweet corn cake:
And of course some warm and soft corn tortillas.
I ordered a summer special, the Camarones Yucatan:
Tender shrimp, fresh vegetables, and chile-citrus sauce cooked together in a banana leaf for a uni
que flavor. Served with esquite de maiz and rice.

Looks good, covered in the banana leaf…But oh so disappointing when I revealed the contents!
Tender shrimp? No way! They were dry, tough, and chewy. I wondered if it was really squid in disguise! But Victoria was kind enough to share 70% of her shrimp with me. I felt kind of bad, but she ladled them into my plate before I could protest.
Though the shrimp was practically inedible, everything else was delicious, even the rice, which was cooked with tomatoes and spices.
The esquite de maiz was basically cooked sweet corn drenched in butter with some queso. It was good at first bite, but then the richness of the butter and cream got rather cloying.
The best thing about this dish though was the sweet corn cake! Freaking amazing! Think of the most luscious, moist, and flavorful corn cake, and there you have it! I could have had a whole loaf of this stuff!

Good food aside, I had such a fabulous time with Victoria. I know some of you may think it may be awkward to hang out with someone older than me by twenty-more years, but I feel so blessed that I am able to connect with people of all ages through our common faith in Christ. Cultural and racial differences aside, we are similar in so many areas, and I felt so comfortable and free to converse with her about anything from God to traveling.

So that was Sunday. I’ve still got some more great eats to share, but in the interest of keeping this post less painful and short, I’ll drag this vacation out to another post. Yay or nay?

Oh, and guess what? I might be having a blogger meet-up tomorrow! YAAAAY!!

'cuz burping and slurping is mandatory and polite when it comes to good eats

Conquering Good Eats in NoCal, Part I

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