Haines His Way

The couple of times I got really sick after a meal somewhere, it took me YEARS to go back, either to the restaurant where it happened or to the dish itself if it wasn't at a restaurant.

First time was from a cherry pie. I'm sure it wasn't the pie, which a neighbor had baked, but just whatever was going on with my 7- or 8-year-old digestive system that evening. But I couldn't stand the thought of cherry pie till a decade later when I took the plunge and had a great one, and I wondered how I could ever have lived without it.

Another time was after eating some kind of barbecue dish at a restaurant in Cleveland. In the middle of the night I more or less exploded - from both ends, to be sure, in case you were wondering - and I couldn't go near that place OR a barbecue dish after that. (Fortunately, I did get over the barbecue issue, and whatever the weird dish was, it wasn't what we know to be real barbecue anyway.)

Our local Mexican restaurant, very traditional, when I was growing up was great - Casa Cienega. I can still taste their fresh corn tortillas.

El Carmen was a favorite of cousin Dee Dee but unfortunately I had a bum meal there and have never been back.

Gardens of Taxco was a favorite of my father.

I'm up, I'm up - four hours of sleep - got up at five-thirty.

Wordle:  No luck today!

Good morning!

Tuesday morning greetings!

Quote from: ChasSmith on Today at 06:19:22 AM

Quote from: elmore3003 on Today at 06:18:10 AM

Quote from: vixmom on Today at 05:21:13 AM

I had enchiladas once, at a HHW gathering. They were good, as I recall, but I never had the urge to revisit the experience.

That was after we saw Desperate Measures! It was quite a crowd.

Yes! And whatever I had was great. Which place was that, DR Elmore?

I’m not DR Elmore and I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I can tell you it was July of 2018 - the last time Richard and I were in New York 

Damn. It's been that long??

I remember running into Robin de Jesus on Eighth Ave. on the way to meet y'all at the theeders, and him telling me I'd better get my ASS to Boys in the Band before it closed. (Which I did.)

Tuesday morning greetings!

Quote from: elmore3003 on Today at 06:18:10 AM

Quote from: vixmom on Today at 05:21:13 AM

I had enchiladas once, at a HHW gathering. They were good, as I recall, but I never had the urge to revisit the experience.

That was after we saw Desperate Measures! It was quite a crowd.

Yes! And whatever I had was great. Which place was that, DR Elmore?

I’m not DR Elmore and I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I can tell you it was July of 2018 - the last time Richard and I were in New York 

Too many Mexican food memories to try to dredge up, but here are a few random ones:

One of the first "good" sit-down Mexican meals I ever had was at a restaurant called Villa Taxco, on Sunset - I think it was between Highland and La Brea, near the IHOP. Not to be confused with Gardens of Taxco just off Santa Monica in West Hollywood, a more eccentric but extremely popular independent place.

Some of the best I had was off a food truck in the industrial section of L.A. when I'd visit a plant we represented. This was way before food trucks became the THING they are now, when they existed to serve workers where there weren't a lot of food places around. This was akin to some of the great street tacos and the like in Mexico itself.

Likewise, other places with the best food were invariably the mom-and-pop joints that were literally everywhere in L.A.

I always think of quesadillas at Oblath's (across from Paramount) which I discovered while walking around when seeing films at the Encore Theater on Melrose. It was the first place I had quesadillas with corn tortillas instead of flour. (Quesadillas and good nachos - real ones, not what people nowadays have been trained to think are nachos - were always favorites, and I'd often make a meal of either or both.)

Another favorite was El Carmen on W. 3rd St. in L.A. I believe it's still there, at least in name. For us in the 1970s and 1980s it was a plain but familiar and affordable Mexican food paradise. Just one in a million hole-in-the-wall jernts, always bustling, always immensely satisfying.