Yes, I'm serious.
There were so many things I wanted to take a picture of, for instance the Atlantic Ocean from the public beach at Delray Beach at the end of Altantic Avenue. It turns out Delray Beach has a very nice public beach.
I guess the name of the town gave it away, but I was still surprised.
Before the adults take over (driving your car this close to the beach after 3 p.m. is a challenge), the day time is the right time for the kiddies. All the boutique shops that line Atlantic Avenue - leading to and away from the Halloween festival at Veteran's Park - give out candy. And the kids get more candy at the festival.
My one other indelible encounter with Halloween day mommies was the oriental mom I passed on the sidewalk who with daughter in tow - inquiring as to when she could eat candy and which candy - and mom in full zombie-robot monotone voice said:
E A T O N E
E A T
L O L L I P O P
You had to be there, but it was scary. I am a wuss around frazzled Halloween mothers.
As the day wears on, the boutique shops run out of candy, or the hired help tires of giving candy, and little white paper signs get taped to the entrance with phrases like: "We are out of candy," or "No more candy," or "Get your own damn candy!"
Made up the last one.
I would like to say I found something great to eat. There are so many cafés near the beach. But like every place else down here the food is overpriced. The nicer places were asking in the neighborhood of $20 to $30 for a meal with drink and tip. I ended up at Doc's All American, a locally famous burger/hot dog/gyro/fish sandwich place.
I went for a patty melt combo that involved a hamburger patty with cheese and grilled onion, mushrooms on Texas toast, with fries and a small soda for $8.18. Maybe it was the phrase 'Texas toast' that swayed me, but that sounded like an appetizing deal meal!
But there is a little sign by the cashier window that explains meat is cooked well-done because they don't want to risk giving you an e-coli infection.
Turns out that means they are going to char-black burn your frickin patty. Yeah! And the Texas toast is literally put in a toaster. It's not grilled on butter.
And that small soda. This ain't Texas. When they say small here, they really mean it!
There is no indoor seating at Doc's All American. The burger joint has a big blue cabana cover and plastic tables and chairs and people are fine with it. In fact, everywhere you go on this touristy section of Atlantic Avenue, there is outdoor seating.
Enough about that. The meal I did enjoy today was this morning in my kitchen. Since I started this blog, I haven't really got into spicy hot dishes. Some of the previous meals had poblano pepper ingredients, but poblano is usually mild (sometimes you'll get a really hot one - not often).
I'm laying out a serrano pepper here with onion and tomato; these three get chopped fine on the cutting board. There is some Herdez Salsa Verde, a Mexican chorizo (that Los Cerritos brand of unknown origin), and two eggs.
Should you have occasion to see a taco menu board, the most items you're likely to find with Mexican chorizo ingredients is three. This would be chorizo with eggs, chorizo with potato, and chorizo with beans.
I'm making chorizo with eggs. But my mama taught me to eat my veggies and I never cared for the plain chorizo with eggs. It is customary to get a small plastic cup condiment size serving of hot green sauce with your tacos and I usually used it on the chorizo and eggs.
And since I'm in the kitchen and I'm not limited to that, I'm adding onion, serrano and tomato. These three ingredients go in the hot skillet with butter. I want to stir them until the onion starts to brown just at the edges. This length of time also helps bring out and spread the heat from the serrano.
Then I add the chorizo and mash and stir it in to mix with the garden goods. I poured the salsa verde over this mess and started cracking open eggs. Once the egg cooks through, swish it all over to your plate.
Hot peppers are a little unpredictable. The serranos I have today are mild. Sometimes, they're really hot. If you're not into a lot of heat, you might want to chop half of a pepper and leave the rest for another day. Mine was enough to add some heat to the meal, but I didn't really notice it until I started into the second taco. It can take awhile for the effect to kick in, which is a good sign it's not going to be too strong.
A word about chorizo, salsa and salt. Chorizo has salt and so does salsa. Don't add salt. In fact, go light on the salsa. And you may notice I usually use chorizo as an ingredient. To me, it's a meat and a seasoning. Like I said before, a little goes a long ways.
A tip on heating tortillas. I put a small sliver of butter on the hot spot where they'll get warmed. I take the three or four tortillas I'm going to heat and lightly, quickly swipe each side of each tortilla over the melted butter.
Otherwise, you put the first tortilla on your heat and it soaks up all the butter. If they all get swiped first before you go back and heat them, none stick to the surface and they all heat evenly.
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| A hot, hearty, Halloween breakfast |
Buen provecho!
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