Taking it Home

There's something fitting about me teaching a home economics class. I'm not totally sure what it is, but it's cool how it lets me tie in work with my outside world. The class created nachos last week during a short food prep unit. Not 8 lbs' worth, but enough for a whole classroom and more.

The spirit of creation encouraged me to put together an original mega meal at home. And why not? There's usually enough food sitting around. No need to find a buffet or a far-off restaurant with a shady challenge. Plus, this stuff was already paid for. The idea was convincing enough.

So what did I come up with last Friday?


Plate 1: Wheat tortilla folded into a huge taco, stuffed with 6 oz of tuna, one roma tomato, 1000 island dressing, black olives, and garden vegetable salsa. It was impossible to eat without utensils. This reminded me of those oversized challenge burritos, but the ingredients here were a bit more original.


Plate (Bowl?) 2: Cut green beans with chunks of red & green jalapeno peppers. This was the perfect blend of fresh and hot. My mouth wouldn't forgive me for quite awhile afterward.


Plate 3: 1 lb cranberry sauce with 1/2 cup of oats and 1/2 pint of milk. Sometimes I come up with strange concoctions, mostly because of what I happen to have on hand. Cranberry sauce reminds me of jello anyway, so eating it alone has never posed an issue. Mixing it with oats reminded me of a really bland trail mix.


Hmmm.... how do I explain this one? There's really no good story here. I rarely eat pancakes at home, and the eyes grew weary of seeing this half-empty bottle in my refrigerator. It added some rich flavor to the oats, though honestly maple-flavored syrup really only goes with pancakes or waffles. Let's move on.


Plate 4: I suspected a sugar deficiency, something that could not pass by without resolution. So for my final plate, I took 10 white chocolate-coconut candy bars and drizzled honey over them. These are organic candies, so they've actually been fortified with calcium, iron, and fiber. This is not the gratuitous sugar pile it first appears to be... right.

The candy bars weigh 1.3 oz and provide me 230 calories each. That's 2300 calories at just under a total pound (the honey adds something of course). While some of us do have a weakness for sugary things, this was probably too much. The urge to sleep right after this plate was overwhelming. And so I did.

In conclusion, you can find a lot of good food lying around the house.

Just don't eat it all at one time.

An Appointment with the Doctor

Every once in a while, I like to eat some spicy food. I'm not a masochist or anything, but I enjoy it a little bit when the food's so hot I can barely eat it. There must be some kind of sick thrill there.... but I know I'm not alone. Lots of people like their food hot. Otherwise, restaurants and sauce companies wouldn't waste their resources marketing their hot products. You don't produce what don't sells.

Luigi Ortega's is a small restaurant in Downtown Pasadena. It's right there on Colorado Boulevard. This place has a good location, amidst a number of other dining options and shopping facilities, but street construction can make getting to it a bit difficult. I hope you have an easier time on the streets of Pasadena than I did.

 
The ambiance of the eatery is friendly and peaceful. There's an aura of early 20th century Chicago, thanks to newspaper clippings and memorabilia scattered all over the walls and tables. It's not bad at all. I was reminded of Portillo's in a good way.

Luigi Ortega is basically a fusion restaurant that mixes Italian and Mexican cuisine in a semi-fast food format. I was intrigued by some of the irregular menu items: kangaroo burrito, alligator taco, turtle taco.... I was definitely intrigued, but they would need to wait for another visit.

Instead, I was there to sample Dr. Death's Suicide Pie: a 8" inch thin-crust pizza accompanied with jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, hot tomato sauce, pepperjack cheese, and a specialty sauce that was supposedly as concentrated as an entire bottle of Tabasco. I was hungry and nervous all at one moment.

I've eaten spicy things before, and on a 10-point scale this interesting concoction probably deserves an 8.5 or 9. Ghost chili is still the king of heat. I only needed 8 minutes to finish this pizza, and only because I needed a good dose of water and napkins to keep me going. My lips were scorching. The different peppers and sauces complemented each other well. Anyone who loves spicy food would do well to visit Luigi Ortega's and pay the doctor a visit.