UCSB ON CINCO DE MAYO & MY MEXICAN LAMB SOUP

Happy Cinco de Mayo! And just so you don't get too giddy today, both The Bottom Line and the Daily Nexus have published pieces in the last few years about what we Santa Barbarans should and should not do on Cinco de Mayo. Here's an example from the Daily Nexus:

Could these UCSB Social Justice Warriors lighten up a bit? I can't imagine more of a wet blanket date than going to a Mexican restaurant with either of these writers. "Don't pay the band to play La Bamba! That's racist!" "Don't say 'gracias' to the waitress! That's racist!" "Don't even think of putting on a sombrero! That's racist!"

You know what's more important than adhering to these guidelines? Supporting local Mexican restaurants, who depend on holidays like this for business, especially now since many restaurants had low business during the fire and mudslide and the aftermath, I think it's more important for them to make money than please some UCSB student's misguided sense of social morality. And if you see someone wearing a sombrero, don't scold them, especially if they leave a really good tip. No, I don't enjoy being around drunks barfing on the street after too many margaritas, but that's not cultural appropriation, that's just oafishness.

Personally, I'm going to be making Lamb Albondigas soup at home today -- Ray and I eat out a lot at Mexican restaurants here (one of my favorites being Altamirano's Grill at 5838 Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta):

I was inspired to cook Albondigas Soup while at the Farmers Market in Carp on Thursday. I saw that Jimenez Family Farm had lamb bones. Not easy to find at regular markets. A couple of pounds of their lamb bones mixed with two quarts of my homemade chicken stock (to make really gelatinous stock, I use chicken feet from either Gelson's in Loreto Plaza or Foodland on San Andres) and I had the startings of a robust and deeply flavored lamb soup.

I didn't buy ground lamb from Jimenez Farm to make the meatballs. Ray'd already picked up two of their "sheep sirloin steaks" which he wanted to sous vide for us for dinner. We'd spent enough -- the prices at Jimenez Farms are not always cheap. While the bags of their mixed bones were just $4 per lb (2 lbs was enough to make stock), the steaks were $18 per lb and their ground lamb is $16 per lb. I don't find their ground lamb that much better than supermarket ground lamb to warrant that amount. Their prices are understandable given they're a small, sustainable and humane operation. And I love supporting local places like theirs, but I don't like going broke over something like lamb meatballs which should be a casual dish.

We ate the sheep steaks with mango curry and lime pickles (which my friend Bill Stern, founder of MOCAD and knowledgeable about all things design and food, introduced me to and which he swears he puts on everything including ice cream). I bought these condiments and parathas from Pennywise, the Indian market at 1121 E. Montecito Street just below APS. It's a terrific little market and resource for Indian cooking. More cultural appropriation on my part! Nonetheless, the lovely family who own and run Pennywise (and can be seen walking their pet tortoise on the sidewalk) seemed pleased that I was cooking Indian food and buying their frozen parathas.

Btw, we were told by the people who sold us the steaks to sear them in a pan. I don't think that's the best way to cook a piece of lamb like this. As with all of Jimenez' lamb it tasted great, but it was tough. I believe it would have been better if it was the same cut but thicker that you braised until it fell off the bone, like beef oxtails or like the lamb osso buco I recently made with this recipe and lamb from D'Artagnan. I do like Jimenez Farm, if just because they're the only local place I know of where I can get lamb belly, which if you haven't cooked, is fabulous spiced with Harissa or Vadouvan, rolled up and tied and dry roasted at 250 degrees for several hours or until it reaches an internal temperature of 220 degrees. Here's a plate of my lamb belly:

Of course today I'll also be making guacamole and chips -- and in honor of the late La Paloma, the Santa Barbara Mexican restaurant I ate lunch at nearly every day when I went to SBCC and UCSB, I'm going to fry my own chips and use flour tortillas the way they did. So much better than corn, unless you are a gluten-free kind of person. La Paloma also made the absolute best bean and guac tostadas I've ever had. I've worked on recreating them, which might be seen by some as cultural appropriation on my part and those people would be wrong -- it's just nostalgic hunger.

But I've never been able to recreate the addictive taste of La Paloma's tostadas. Perhaps the secret remains with Fidel Flores, who worked at La Paloma, and often made the guacamole. I'd see him with a lit cigarette in his mouth while making it, and perhaps it was those ashes he flicked that made it so good. (The former La Paloma is now Paradise Cafe and thankfully they've kept the mural of the Aztec warrior. But the array of photos of Jackie and JFK that decorated La Paloma are long gone.)

And who knows? I may wear one of the shirts I've made out of Mexican themed fabric designed (culturally appropriated!) by Alexander Henry.

As my Mexican-American friend, Bryan Castañeda, said, "Go ahead, wear a sombrero while you drink margaritas -- I may be doing the same."

And here's a photo of my Cinco de Mayo Lamb Albondigas Soup that I made for my mom, step-dad and Ray:

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Tri-County Produce

We live in Montecito where, judging from the food selections at our Von's on Coast Village Road, it seems as though few who live here do their own cooking. However, judging from the extensive, large liquor department at that Von's, they do know how to open a liquor or wine bottle, especially one with a screw cap.

The truth is, I've never liked shopping at supermarkets or big bulk stores like Costco. They're organized to confuse you so you'll do a lot of impulse buying while you try to find what you really want, which might be something as simple as real maple syrup and you ask three staff members, none of whom know what "real" maple syrup is, and finally you stumble on it by mistake in the "ethnic" section, because, after all, it is from Vermont. A supermarket exception is Gelson's which I always find quite pleasant -- even if I have nearly been mowed down more than once in the parking lot by drivers who've had a little too much of Harry's famous pour.

But there are Santa Barbara food stores I do enjoy shopping at. Tri-County Produce Co. on Milpas Street near Cabrillo is one of them.

What makes Tri-County so pleasant? First, it's the openness. Then there's the sense of it genuinely being a community place. I often strike up a pleasant and informative conversation with an interesting local there. This week I had a nice chat with John Dixon, son of the late founder, James Dixon. By contrast, at Von's I was waiting in the checkout line and tried to pick up a copy of The National Enquirer, managed to send several other copies flying, and got sternly scolded by the skinny blonde in back of me in yoga pants holding her mat and a Kombucha. I wasn't sure if it was my spilling the magazines or that I was trying to read The Enquirer with its unflattering photo of Hillary on the cover. So much for that woman saying "namaste" in her yoga class.

Mostly what I love about Tri-County is it doesn't try to be everything, the way that supermarkets do. I genuinely like to explore the store without a fixed sense of what I want. There are always surprises, too. The other day I saw they carry the Japanese mayonnaise, Kewpie, a favorite condiment in an ultra-cute bottle. The Kewpie inspired me to get hot dogs from their meat section, a bag of greens and for a salad dressing, Mellow White Miso (Tri-County carries an excellent selection of organic miso) and make Japanese-style hot dogs. I spotted a perfectly ripe avocado and decided to make a Mexican hot dog as well.

Obsessive baker that I am, I'd also been wanting to try out a new pan I'd bought to make New England style hot dog buns, so I headed to their well-stocked baking section for King Arthur Flour. Tri-County also carries Bob's Red Mill and they're both terrific organic brands, but King Arthur has captured my heart with its free, friendly and knowledgeable Baker Hot Line that you can call with any cookie or breadmaking problem and they never, ever make you feel as though your lust for making the perfect crust is anything other than a deeply profound quest.

And here are my Tri-County dogs on my freshly baked New England Hot Dog Bun with Kewpie Mayo and a salad straight from the market's shelves. (King Arthur's recipe for the New England Hot Dog Buns here.) A bottle of sake, also bought at Tri-County completed the meal I made for Ray and me. (I believe sake goes with everything and have never understood why it isn't served at every restaurant and available at every liquor store in SB.)

In the end, I spend more time at Tri-County and do more impulse shopping. Pro tip: John Dixon told me the parking lot will be finished soon which will make it much easier to shop there!

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