Look at me.
I’m never one to be outshmancied.
In fact, when Big Brown Fam was in London last fall, I walked into 3 upscale coffee shops in pursuit of a decent cup of coffee.
“Uhum, pardon, do you serve a proper pour over, lad?”
Shop 1:
‘A pull-over?’
Shop 2:
‘A pure over?’
(barista turns around)
‘He wants a pure over.’
Shop 3:
From Topeka to Tallahassee, Denver to Danvers, America suffers the scourge of inauthentic Mexican food.
Twitter has outed the worst offenders, sure, but equally troubling is the oft-neglected emergence of Mexican restaurants that are TOO authentic.
How will you know when you’ve entered the danger zone? You’re about to find out.
Here are the Pocho Ocho top signs your Mexican restaurant is too pinche authentic:
8. There’s a drunk man standing outside the restroom charging you for toilet paper.
7. The horchata is room temperature.
6. They don’t have change for your $20 bill.
5. There’s a soccer game on TV, a corrido on the sound system, and a guy with a machine gun guarding the bottles of Coke.
4. There’s no menu in sight…because it’s painted on the wall.
3. Abuela is in the kitchen, Mom at the register and the Dad outside in the back smoking weed.
2. You’re pretty sure the waiter just said something about your mother in Spanish.
And the Numero Uno Top Sign Your Mexican Restaurant Is Too Authentic is…
The restaurant smells like Caldo de Fabuloso.
This article first appeared in pocho.com
Eating out with the kids can be a hassle. I know because I’ve watched from my table as your family struggles through the ordering process.
Maya and Joaquin, though, are arguably too skilled at ordering their food. They typically know what they want before we get to the establishment; no luck in having them try something new.
But they’d never been to MiMi’s before, so this was a chance for them to experiment. But not before a little basketball. In this house, you have to score to eat.
(That or just be around when the food is served).
When we got to MiMi’s, we were greeted by the General Manager, Brandon Byran, who was eager to show us the new kids’ menu.
I have fond memories of MiMi’s, my MaMa used to love going there. I think it had a lot to do with their delicious muffins…and the fact they offer them up as you wait to be seated.
The Monrovia location is holding up, shaded most days by the San Gabriel Mountains to its north. The place was humming by 9:00 am, a sign that MiMi’s has a faithful lot.
True to form, the muffins were an early hit with Maya…and Big Brown Mom.
Joaquin (5) was eager to dive into the new menu.
The new choose your own adventure menu covered lunch items.
The server did a great job explaining how it worked. Joaquin still had questions, though.
We left with our bellies full and our spirits high. What more can you ask?
This article originally appeared on funbelly.com
Every Sunday morning, Brian Gomez of The Roasted Bean in San Dimas, California spends 5 hours in front of his Toper 5kg Roaster, turning out flavorful coffee from all over the world.
What started as a hobby in 2011 developed into a full fledged business in 2015. And it’s been growing ever since.
Fun Belly caught up with Brian to discuss the origins of The Roasted Bean LLC, the company’s values and how he views the emerging 3rd wave coffee culture in Los Angeles.
What prompted you to start The Roasted Bean?
I had a spinal cord injury in 2011. Before my injury, I was into motocross and bike riding. After my injury, I wanted to keep my competitive fire burning. Coffee roasting allowed that and I dove right in. I bought a table top roaster, smoked out my house a few times and entered some competitions. It turns out, I was pretty damn good. After sharing beans with my friends and family, they encouraged me to go deeper, so I did. After about two years of tabletop roasting and 6 months of window shopping , I decided to buy a Toper 5k, which allows me to roast 10 lbs of coffee at a time. After that, my business really started developing.
Tell me more about your business.
It’s definitely a family affair. My Dad, Angel, is a successful businessman in his own right. When he’s not running his business, he’s my hands, legs and voice. He helps coordinate purchases and sales, lends a hand with the roasting and knows how to fix everything. My mom and girlfriend help with the packing, shipping and handling while my cousin is regular at the Farmer’s Markets. If you see him at Victoria Gardens, tell’em what’s up?!
What do you think about the issue of diversity in the 3rd Wave coffee movement?
I’ve found it to be a super-inclusive, judgement-free zone. The industry attracts a bunch of personalities–from artisans to activists to marketers. It’s important to us to run a fair business which is why we only work with coffee brokers who set price standards that allow for a livable wage for the growers. We pride ourselves on these values.
What are some of your most popular coffees and where can Fun Belly readers find it?
Our top sellers are our coffees from Guatemala and Ethiopia. Currently, the Claremont Club, 4th St Mill in La Verne and the Village Eatery in Glendora carry TRB Coffee. We sell our coffee online at theroastedbeanllc.com. We’re grateful to have loyal customers in Nevada, Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
What’s the future hold?
More coffee. More relationships. More fun. And our new Nitro Cold Brew! Follow me on Instagram and I’ll tell you all about it! I’ll hook up your Fun Belly readers with a 5% on any pound of coffee.
They should use the code: funbelly.
Behold the ingredients.
Behold the panqueque.
Last night, Vato Loco 13 cut in front of me at the McDonald’s drive-thru …and then gave pounds to the occupants of his car, on some “See what I did?” type tip.
I was irked.
Flummoxed, even.
But thinking…always thinking.
Aight, bet.
So when it was my turn to order, I bellowed, “Yeah, the dude in the car in front of me is going to pay for my order.”
She offered a quizzical, ‘Huh?’
Even louder this time, so dude could hear me…maybe.
“The DUDE in front of me is PAYING for MY order.”
‘OKAAAAAAY, I’ll tell him.’
When I pulled to the window she gave me the bad news.
‘He said he’s not paying.’
Yeah, but I showed him.
Not sure what I showed him but he definitely saw it.
“I started Fun Belly Food Tours because I wanted to give everybody the chance to eat like a food critic,” says Carlos Aguilar, the Founder and Executive Producer of Fun Belly Food Tours, a company that provides walking, historical tours through some of Los Angeles’ most delicious neighborhoods.
Aguilar, a Los Angeles native from the San Gabriel Valley, graduated from Bassett High School and then Occidental College, where he wrote about food for the student paper. “The Occidental Weekly gave me a chance to explore the food and culture of Northeast Los Angeles, and I’ve been witness to the dynamic changes taking place. I realized that the story of a neighborhood can be uniquely understood through its food.”
While a graduate student in Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Aguilar received a Durfee Foundation grant to study the intersection of food and friendship in Beijing and Shanghai. “There’s so much more to discuss about food than its taste; as important as that is, preparation and presentation are equally important. I learned to appreciate this fact in China”
After seminary, Aguilar spent a few years teaching literature, history and philosophy before landing his first TV writing job. “I wrote and produced award shows, reality shows, talk shows, documentaries and travel shows. Whenever I’d produce a story about an incredible chef or restaurant, I’d select the signature dish for our hosts to sample and we were always treated like VIPs. I believe that experience should available to everyone.”
On each Fun Belly tour, guests visit 6 establishments in order to enjoy signature and off-menu treats. Fun Belly offers tours in Eagle Rock and The Claremont Village and each tour is seasoned with stories from local history.
Fun Belly offers public tours every weekend and anybody can join them. They take place every weekend. They also offer private tours that can be scheduled at any date and time. A private tour is a great way to celebrate a graduation, engagement or birthday amongst friends and family. Funbelly.com has tour schedules posted.
Aguilar is upbeat about Fun Belly’s prospects because he knows nothing beats eating, learning laughing. “Come hungry and you’ll leave happy. That’s my promise.
I eat like my life depends on it.
I put the angry in hungry.
Tacos > Talkos.
What else do you need to know?
Oh yeah, I provide walking, historical food tours in Claremont and Eagle Rock via Fun Belly Food Tours.
I talk about it here:
I’m up for a challenge.
Sunday is Dad’s grill day and I’ve had one too may T-bones, so I decided to surf the net and landed on the Food Network’s Grilled Thai Curry Roll.
This was going to pose a challenge because I’d never cut a flank in half and I’d never used barbers twine.
The flank slice was a fail–my dull knife was likely the problem– while I resorted to the trusted shoelace tie with barber’s twine.
This pic is from the Food Network site;
Here’s mine:
This is how it came out tho:
View this post on Instagram
8.2/10
No one said it would be easy…or fair…or just…but a decision must be made.
Precedent must be established.
The law of the land must be settled.
Who better to lay it down than children, unsullied by prejudice and experience and common sense?
Remember that Latinx Trump supporter who told us to be scared, because if Hillary were elected there would be taco trucks on every corner?
Dude was right.
Here are 8 reasons why taco trucks on every corner remains a terrible idea:
8. I’ll be forced into a perpetual cycle of “How many tacos can I eat in one sitting?”
7. Increased likelihood I’m ordering after a white guy who speaks better Spanish than me (shot-out Mormon missionaries, I see tu’).
6. In the first week, I’ll lose three fingers from frostbite after digging out my Mexican Coke from under the avalanche of shaved ice.
5. I’ll have to tattoo BOTH on my forehead, so as to expedite the “Rojo Or Verde” inquiry and then, PARA LLEVAR, on the back of my head.
4. My ATM withdrawal fees will skyrocket 47,000% because CASH ONLY?! Really? In 2018?!
3. More trucks means more tacos means less tortillas means more expensive tortillas. Supply and demand, bruh. We learned this in Holmes Economics.
2. If taco trucks are on every corner, where will I buy my Slurpee, cash my check or pawn my watch?
1.
Mexicans
A version of this article originally appeared on Pocho.com
I’d rather eat canned menudo than whatever is cooking in your kitchen.
I said it and don’t regret it.
The reasons are simple and clear, here are four:
Convenience: Forget waiting for Christmas, New Years or someone to die. With canned menudo, you can get your ‘cow intestine and corn’ fix 24 hours, 7 days a week.
Uniformity: The problem with menudo is that every abuela makes it differently. You never know what you’re going to get. By letting robots sort and can our menudo, we know what we’re getting with each delectable bite.
Cost: It takes 12 hours to prep, 12 hour to cook and 36 hours to digest a properly fashioned cauldron of homemade menudo. Who has that time? Ingredients for 3 gallons of menudo will set you back $75. Who has that money? Not you.
Taste: Menudo is an acquired taste; nobody comes out of the womb craving spicy, calf innards. If you can acquire the taste for your Abuela’s menudo, then rest easy because the hint of aluminum in each can of menudo can be stomached, too.
Listen, I’m not trying to cause a fight. If I wanted to do that, we’d talk about your mom’s nasty salsa.
Till then.