Chavez Taqueria - Sunnyvale, California

If you're not familiar with Fair Oaks Avenue, or if you've never been to this taqueria, you probably won't find it. Why? Because it's located inside Chavez Supermarket. As you enter the market you smell baked goods to your left, while the smell of fresh raw meat mixed with a taqueria smell lingers throughout the market. When I step into the market I make a beeline past the registers, through the fruit and vegetable section, finding myself staring at the refrigerated section while waiting to make my order. I apologize for not taking pictures of the menu, I rarely look at the menu since I already know what I want.

From fresh carne asada to chivo (goat) to caramones (shrimp) they also offer menudo on the weekends.
I haven't found a taqueria where I could watch the artistic burrito assemblers assemble my burrito, kind of like subway, but for burritos.

They chop your meat in front of you, if any chopping is neccessary.
I request for extras and omit what I don't like (which is pretty much nothing)
I always order the carne asada super burrito, super because guacamole and cheese is necessary when consuming a cow while my other orders a chile verde (stewed pork) regular burrito (minus the guacamole and cheese). Since I'm on a "diet" I asked my Lambchops to share half the carne asada super burrito with me (plus it wouldn't be lady-like for me to eat a whole burrito on my own). Actually, at one point of my relationship with Mr. G, we couldn't share a burrito, because it is that good. Those burritos have caught up with me throughout the years, it's time I went back to sharing.


I think the guy knew I was a food paparazzi, who else would recieve their burrito in this special bag?
I had the burrito artist cut my burrito in half. Could you share something this disgustingly good?
I couldn't, but I had to.

A giant steamed flour tortilla filled with rice, lots of meat, pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, guacamole, onions and cilantro.

his chile verde burrito
Chavez Supermarket

666 N Fairoaks Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

(408) 736-3793
www.chavezsuper.com

Happy Easter!

I didn't realize how quick Easter Sunday arrived, though I'm not religious I don't have a reason to recognize the bunny holiday. I worked in retail for seven years of my teenage life and I always looked forward to Easter Sunday just because I didn't have to work. Fast forward to today (we only fast forwarded about three years, I'm not that old) and now Easter Sunday sucks for me because most retail stores are closed. On the other hand, I get to spend the bunny day with my cousins. I love getting together with my family, because they don't play around when it comes to eating.

Silly me, arriving late to a food event... this bowl held what used to be garlic noodles... luckily my oldest cousin's wife made a whole new batch of them... which I was a little too hungry to take a picture of.
Goi Du Du, also known as papaya salad.
I don't know how these mussels were made, I'm assuming broiled? baked? grilled? (ignorance occurs when you're late for a food festivity)
Fruit Salad. So simple, so fresh, so perfect for a sunny hot day in San Jose. When I arrived, there were two bags of these sweet and spicy bad boys, gobbled up, sauce left as evidence. My older cousin busted out with two more bags, which also contained spicy sausage and corn..
I don't feel too bad for being late, these lambchops were just hitting the grill.
tender and juicy grilled lambchops.

What is left from the first round of grilling.
I don't think I've ever attended a family party without drinking involved.
mental note: don't ever show up late to a food fest, and don't ever leave early.

Breakfast Biscuit

Who's kitchen is THAT?? Ok, you got me, it's mine.

There's no way I could maintain a kitchen this clean and continue to cook in this kitchen. If I were to keep my kitchen this clean, I wouldn't cook for several days just so I could admire the cleanliness. In this case, I'm going out of town, and since my neighbors are cat-sitting for me, I didn't want to scare her with bottles of fish sauce and/or clutter. Plus the boy and the girl like to jump on the counters, so keeping a knife out wouldn't be such a great idea.

I had a bad experience with using chemicals around the house, it effected my past pet (we miss you oscar the hamster). So being the hippie that I am, I started mixing lemon juice, vinegar and water (1/4c: 2tbspn : 1c) as my cleaning products. I find it to be effective, and safer for the cats as well as the humans. I don't have to fear inhaling the fumes (once I inhaled by accident and my nose hairs started to burn. No seriously, it was really an accident!) My kitchen felt squeaky clean with a lemony, soury (or whatever vinegar smells like) smell. I'd rather smell that than nose-hair-burning smells. Just thought I'd share that with you.

So in this squeaky clean kitchen, I didn't want to dirty it up since it took some time to clean it, plus I had food I needed to eat before I went out of town. I was also craving the breakfast sandwich from an unnamed fast food restaurant (yeah I admit it, I like fast food from time to time) but money is low, I can't even afford fast food, so I have to make my own fast food.

Ingredients:
1 biscuit
1 egg
1 slice deli cheese ( I had pepper jack on hand)
1/2 c frozen spinach
1 tsp cream/milk/half&half/water or whatever you want
salt & pepper to taste

1.) throw your biscuit in the toaster oven to revive it from the cold. (unless you enjoy cold biscuits, then power to ya)
2.) microwave your frozen spinach. I defrosted it at first, but got tired so I microwaved it on HIGH for 45 seconds.

3.) in the meantime, crack your egg in a microwave safe cup. I used my plastic measuring up since the diameter fits perfectly for the biscuit. Add your liquid and whisk with a fork.

4.) remove spinach from microwave, pop your egg in and microwave on HIGH for 1 minute, more or less.

5.) take a few paper towels, add spinach and ring out as much of the water as you can. set aside.

heres my assembly line
6.) I'm not into cold cheese, so I slice my biscuit in half and broiled the cheese on the top half of the biscuit. I ended up folding my cheese in half because it overlapped the biscuit by a lot.
7.) assemble as you like. for me i like spinach on the bottom, egg in the middle and cheese on top, just because it seems to make sense to me

All you need is a side of ketchup and tapatio hot sauce and breakfast is ready!

sausage gravy over biscuits

Anytime a recipe calls for making a roux, or some kind of thickening agent, I'm so there. I love pouring liquid into a hot pan, swirling it around and waiting for it to thicken. This recipe is fun yet so simple, even I could make it. So I do.

Another reason why I enjoy making it at home rather than ordering it at a restaurant is because I haven't had b&g that ever really blew my mind. The first bite of my home-prepared b&g I taste salty buttery soft and moist with a slight crunch from the biscuit, and a thick sweet, creamy, slightly spicy meaty gravy. For all the times I've ordered biscuits, it's either dry hockey pucks, or really soggy and gooey. Not at mi casa!

Ingedients:
1 pkg Jimmy Dean Sausage Bold Flavors! or your favorite breakfast sausage (i don't know how much it weighs, sorry)
1 pkg Pillsbury Homestyle Buttermilk biscuits, or your favorite can of biscuits, if you think your fancy, make your own.
~1 1/2 cups milk (don't use fat free. What's the point of making this if your on a diet?)
~1 cup heavy cream (ok so I substituted the milk for the cream, you got me, I'm on a diet)
1 -2 tbsp flour (depends on how thick you like your gravy)
salt and pepper to taste

1.) Preheat you oven to desired temperature. Prepare your biscuits in the mean time and set aside. I lined my baking pan with foil because I don't like baked on grease, it drives my OCD nuts. Can you imagine how much foil I go through?

2.) Brown your sausage. This picture looks like a small amount, because I used half the package. I'm on a diet remember?3.) For some reason after I browned my meat, I wasn't happy with the drippings so I removed the sausage and added butter to the pan for fat and flour. I should've floured the sausage without removing from the pan since there's so much fat on the sausage. I get smart after I cook. While in the moment, I do crazy things. P.S. Did you remember to put the biscuits in the oven?
I think I wanted an excuse to stare at my roux. That pasty white stuff does miracles. Oh yeah, let it cook for a minute or two on medium heat... because Rachael Ray told me so.

The fun part began, and I had no camera man. Pour in the milk and cream while whisking. If you've never made gravy before, you're missing out on the fun. If you can't tell, the gravy is very very thin. I should've coated the back of a spoon and taken a picture. Anyway, let everything get acquainted slowly, on medium heat and it starts to slightly bubble. You're still whisking right? I never said stop whisking. whisk until it thickens.

Look at these beauties. Thank you Pillsbury for making my life easier. Hey! don't for get the gravy! Look at that. Thick enough for you? No? leave it on the stove for another minute or two, then let cool down. I find a lot of things I make gets thicker as it cools. Sometimes it hardens like cement.

Slice biscuits in half and pour on the gravy! Make sure it drips down and all over your biscuits. because it looks pretty.
Mr. G wanted to top it off with bacon... which is probably not a bad idea!

My love for carbs

March zoomed by so quick, I didn't realize it's already mid-March. Besides the time change throwing me off, and having out-of-state guests for several days, I'm also a mama... ok I don't sound that busy, but I'm sure I had a lot more going on than I realized.

When my babies take one of four naps during the day, I'm either napping with them, or running errands. On one particular day I couldn't find my babies anywhere. Normally I could hear their bells (they both have the same bell, but I could tell who is who by their rhythm, now how's that for a mom). However on this strange day I searched their usual territory, calling out their names, but nothing. Until I found them in their new favorite spot.

In the closet on top of the extra mattress, taking a nap.

And little brother decided to join the fun.
Just thought I'd share that with you. Ok anyway, I could go on forever about my babies, but let's talk about food.

So today's post is quite simple. While I was snacking on carbs and fats and sodium, I thought a time where a friend asked, "If you could eat one thing forever, what would it be?" I almost thought this question was impossible, since I love food from different cultures and I'm spoiled enough to say that I normally eat what I crave. I've put the question aside, for many many years. (My friend asked me this question back in 2000, and I still had no answer!)

But today is a new day. It's official, I realized how much I absolutely love this.


Quite simple, no? Give me a good loaf of French Bread (I prefer the Vietnamese kind), good quality butter, laughing cow cheese, brie, or any other spreadable cheese, or a bottle of Maggi (Vietnamese crack, or soy sauce for the unknown). Ok, so it's not really one thing, but bread is my #1.




I know I inherited this love for carbs, fats and sodium from my parents (on the downside, my siblings don't share this love with me). When my mom and I went to the mall, we always stopped by Grain D'or (now know as Anderson Bakery) to buy cheese bread, pesto bread, herb-butter bread, 5-grain bread, you name it, we got it. When I was a small child, my mom toasted sliced Wonder bread, spread a bit of butter, let the warm toast melt the butter and sprinkled some sugar on top. It doesn't sound right, but the elements fit so well together, try it for breakfast with your cup of coffee! It's fabulous!

When I walk into Costco, the smell of baked goods really tickles my fancy. At 4pm Safeway has committed to having warm, fresh bread or it's free. My favorite non-Asian hippie market makes their breads so perfect, so right for me (organic, that is). I just love the warmth and the squishy soft yet crustiness of bread. Ok, I'm having a big drool-fest just thinking about it.

Even though I love many breads, my #1 is Vietnamese French Bread. Because it doesn't give me heartburn, it doesn't make me feel heavy and guilty, and I don't gain six pounds from it, like I do from other breads.

When I lived in the Bay Area, I had more access to French Bread, fresh daily. But now that I live 700 miles away, the closest Vietnamese bakery is about thirty minutes away, or I can buy the stuff that has been sitting on the shelves at my local Asian market and revive the bread in the oven at home. And it's still delicious.
Isn't it so cute and small? A bag of these petite rolls cost a little more than a bag of the regular sized rolls, but I figured the small rolls would benefit me through portion control... so wrong. I had three rolls, and still wanted another one. On the upside, eating three small rolls gave me guilt, so I had to stop, while if I have one large roll I would've gone for another... since it's just one more large roll. I have the mentality to believe two large loaves is acceptable, while three petite rolls is pure fat-ass, even though two-and-a-half smalls is probably equivalent to one large roll.

I didn't eat the whole stick of butter, but I probably could! And I know I mentioned that I like high quality butter, but I also forgot to mention that I'm unemployed, so I settle for the next best thing, Tillamook. I also use unsalted to cut down on the sodium, so I could have more Maggi =)


Can you see how soft and fluffy and flaky it is? Imagine this crunchy yet airy piece of bread topped with sweet cold butter all melting in your mouth. Ok, this is too food-porn for me.



I really thought this post would be short and to the point, but I guess I could go on forever about bread and butter. So I end this post with the question, If there was one thing you could eat everyday for the rest of your life, what would it be? I'd really like to know!

Have a nice weekend!

Lanvin French Bakery
8211 NE Brazee St
Portland, OR 97220
(503) 252-0155