Saturday Dinner: Carne Asada Tacos (or Tacos Con Carne Asada)

NOTE: Six years of Spanish in middle and high school plus college and tacos con carne asada is all I can give you.

Everyone complains that Taco Bell is terrible. The food is terrible. The meat is low quality. The restaurants are dirty. Me? Taco Bell was great when I was in high school. My biggest problem was how they marketed their food.

Way back in the day, Taco Bell introduced a taco or burrito with grilled carne asada. As a consumer and educated person, this insulted me because carne asada means grilled meat. Thus, you were getting a taco with grilled grilled meat.

(NOTE: That this bothered me may be a reason that I had a rough time making friends and meeting girls when I was younger.)

Al Dente On The Side: Mexican Beans and Rice

I made this as a side dish for Saturday’s boozy pork dish, but this is really a solid main dish perfect for Meatless Mondays. I would probably make this a couple of days in advance and reheat. I had it left over for lunch on the following Monday and found that the flavors had really developed into something special.

Saturday Dinner: Shot-And-A-Beer Pork

“I want comfort food.”

The Wife makes this pronouncement frequently during the winter, a statement that typically results in my braising something. Short ribs. Pot roast. Chicken. Short ribs.

“I think I want Mexican.”

She took an interesting turn. Mexican comfort food usually results in Chipotle or a trip to The Mission. I wasn’t really interested making a messy enchilada or cooking all day to make a burrito. I thought maybe posole, a rich stew made with hominy, might work but time was going to be an issue and, from what I can tell, a good posole needs a solid six hours to simmer. I would have half that.

I came across this recipe at one of those aggregators that pop up at the top of the Google results when you search for something. Booze works for me, as does pork shoulder. I mean, you can never go wrong with pork shoulder.

Wednesday Dinner: Potato, Chorizo and Spinach Tacos

I am, for all intents and purposes, sick.

I have been sick, unofficially, since September 9 or 10. The basic thrust of this cold is a cough that originates in my chest. I considered that I had bronchitis or pneumonia, however I have not achieved a fever and the always accurate spit test (you know, when your doctor asks about your sputum) has shown no trace of color.

While the cough is better and my congestion is not so bad, I’ve developed a raging sinus headache/pressure combo that has rendered my tastebuds null and void.

Tuesday Dinner: Mexican Chicken and Lime Soup (Sopa de pollo y lima, or something like that)

If I were to guess, I think The Wife would like it if I used the grill a few more times before the chill of autumn settles in. We have a detached garage that sits towards the end of our property. It seems like the din of fall makes the walk to and from the garage more like an arduous expedition rather than the same 40-step walk (from door to door) that I’ve done since assembling the grill in the spring.

(I would ask The Wife about all of this, but that would require us having a conversation about something other than The Kid or work. This is a seeming impossibility these days. And besides, we’re married. I don’t have to talk to her anymore.)

What I do know is that there are flavors that The Wife likes and those she loves. Cilantro falls into the later category. If she approved of such things, you would see her walking around with a wad of the pungent little leaves tucked into her lower lip like a hunk of Skoal.

Meso Maya, Dallas, Tex.

Dallas, Tex.

I look at a few different things when searching for a restaurant on the road. Proximity and price are first and foremost, but I want to see what people in town say. Eater Dallas, OpenTable and Dallas Morning News all speak highly of Meso Maya, calling it among the hottest restaurants in the Dallas area.

Meso Maya is located adjacent to the previous evening’s haunt, Stampede 66, on McKinney Street. Located on the rear side of another Mexican restaurant, our cab driver told us we were the first fares he ever delivered there. A rather small dining room had a number of large tables, including our nine-seater.

The menu is modern Mexican. Enchiladas and tacos highlight the menu with traditional proteins — seafood, chicken, pork, beef — married with creams and citrus marinades. Perched at the top of the menu is the house specialty, the Budin Azteca, or Aztec pie. Tortillas are layered with traditional Mexican cheeses — Chihuahua and queso fresco, namely — and served with a protein and a tomatillo salsa. We would skip apps, staying to the drink list (Tecate!), and ordered entrees.

Huapango’s, San Diego, CA (or Hash House A No No)

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

Yelpers Yelped for this queso.

The intention was to leave the world famous San Diego Zoo and take a cab to Hash House A Go Go for dinner. It seemed the raucous type of place fitting for a birthday celebration for one of my travel companions. Naturally, we were denied. Our arrival at 4 p.m. (we had a 7:30 shuttle pickup) was met with a closed sign. The Hash House didn’t open until 5:30. Sonsabitches.

We meandered down Fifth Street passing Italian places and a questionable looking bar as I groped my iPhone Yelp app for suggestions. About 200 yards away was a highly Yelped Mexican place called Huapango’s. Hungry and ready to get off our feet, we settled.

I can’t say that dinner exceeded expectations, because we had none. It presented us with the pleasant surprise of quality food, an entertaining waiter and a taste of authentic Mexican cuisine.

Salsa Salsa

PORT JEFFERSON, N.Y.

The recovery room nurse at the John T. Mather Memorial Hospital was insistent about me leaving and going to get some food. My sister was out of surgery and had been in the PACU for about an hour when I got called back. They estimated another couple of hours until her release to a tonsil-free world.

I wandered back into Port Jefferson, a village my sister inhabited during her two years at Stony Brook, and found a restaurant she had raved about on multiple occasions. Salsa Salsa is a local chain with locations in Smithtown, Bay Port and Port Jeff, and has earned praise from both the local press and Zagat for its menu. Nestled between a bar and mini-mall on Main Street, Salsa Salsa features bar seating for about 15 people. On Thursday, the lunch crowd was surprisingly strong for 1:45 p.m.