Eaiting Out Originality

Thanks to Joan Obra from the Fresno Beehive for bringing something awesomely unique to our attention.  Apparently Fresno has just gotten it's very own Casa de Tamales!  A strictly tamale-centric restaurant.  It's everything tamales!

No longer do we have to wait for our wonderful friends and neighbors to begin the Christmas orgy of small business and family tamale construction.  Or suffer through the poor little frozen tamales microwaved and drenched in sauce that you get at Biff's Authentic Taco Shack and Surfboard Waxeria.  At least thats what we're hoping for.  Fresh steamed masa goodness.

And beyond the usual and obvious fillings (shredded beef, chicken mole, chorizo and potatoes) they're also doing a selection of sweet tamales that look rather interesting.  I'm insanely curious as to how a chocolate cake tamale will work out, or a blueberry and cream cheese.  Theres even soyrizo(an invention of the Devil) and potatoes for them veggie eating folks....still can't understand how y'all can survive without vitamin Beef in your diet...

Anyway!  The prices look reasonable at around $2.50 per tamale, so assuming 2 makes a decent meal, you're looking at a $5 lunch.  Sounds better than a Micky D's combo any day.  And if you're feeding an army, they sell by the dozen anywhere from $22 to $35 depending on the filling.

I love the premise and I love tamales.  We've still yet to find out if they can make GOOD tamales, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.  It's a pretty bold business move in my opinion.  Fresno does love South o' the Border cuisine for sure.  But many also know the burnout of having tamale stew for the 20th time in February, cursing your cousins for not taking more of Mom's tamales home during Christmas.  But then again, Mom didn't make spinach and artichoke tamales either.

Here's hoping that they're good and they succeed.  If you'd like to beat us out to try them first you can find them here.

-Pook

Eating Out My Hoppity Hop

So, Easter has come and went. I have sacrificed the sacred chocolate bunny to my confectionary lust. But after crashing into a sugar k-hole, I need nutrition of goodness to feed my hunger to make bad religious allegory. An herbal hiccup wound up keeping the whole rib roast in the freezer. So, it’s a pick up game dinner. To the cupboards we go!

The Sam’s run has us awash in good sausage, so we’ve got to make the cervelatta the centerpiece. It’s good enough to stand on it’s own. And we’ve got tons of tomato product, so we might as well dive into our newfound bounty of pasta and put together something there. Top it with some garlic bread and we’re golden! So here we go!

The sausage portion of the show is pretty self explanatory if you’ve cooked sausages before. It being a coiled sausage, you can’t cook it at too high of a heat, or you’ll burn the outside and leave it raw in the middle. I like to give it a good sear on one side, maybe 3-5 minutes depending on your stove. Give it a flip, turn down the heat to med-low and slap a lid on your cast iron. Did I mention the cast iron? It’s my favorite. You should have one, but it’s not a law. Cook until done, I give around another 8 minutes. If grilling, I recommend uncoiling the sausage so that it’ll cook quicker and evenly. Grills be HOT y’all! You can slice and portion out the sausage for plating, but we’s hungry up in this mug! So we serve a full coil per plate. And love it!


Another tomater sauce for tagliatelle
(No basil because it ain’t in season yet)

½ lb dry tagliatelle
1 can diced tomatoes
½ cup water
1 can tomato paste
2 tablespoons dry oregano
2 tablespoons fresh torn sage
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 pinch sugar
1 dash red wine vinegar

Pretty quick and dirty. Take all this mess except the bay leaf and tomato paste, and toss it into the food processor. Spin until smooth. Add your olive oil to a small sauce pot and heat on medium. Before fully heated, add your tomato puree and the bay leaf. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Slowly add in the tomato paste until sauce comes to the desired consistency and simmer on low for another 5 minutes. Have the water for your pasta ready and cook to the directions on the package. About 7-10 minutes. Drain and pour into a bowl, then add sauce and toss together carefully. The tagliatelle is a delicate pasta. Grate some of your favorite hard cheese over the top and serve!


Cheese ridden garlic bread

5 slices of sourdough French bread
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
4 tablespoons of minced garlic
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup grated fontina cheese

Again, easy peasy. Take garlic and butter and salt and mash together. Spread over bread. Top with cheese and place on a cookie sheet. Toss in a pre-heated oven set on broil for about 3-5 minutes or until toasty bubbling and golden. Not on fire and burny and stinky and call the fire departmenty.

Quick, simple, yummers and…holy crap? Did we accidentally throw down another vegetarian recipe of yummyness? I think we did! I hope I don’t tear a rotator cuff patting myself on the back. Really though, the prince of the plate for me is the non-veg sausage of pants-wetting goodness. Some achievements of culinary excellence are still far beyond me and I thank the reclusive god of fat guys that blesses these folks with their meat tube expertise. And big shout out to Mrs. Eating Out Fresno for throwing down on the bread and taking over pasta making duties. She’s the gritty drill seargent to my fruity aristocratic general who believes he’s the reincarnation of Auguste Escoffier and uses pearl handled boning knives. How she can resist throwing a pot of lava-hot tomato sauce in my face while I’m elbowing around to take pictures is beyond me. Truly, I are a lucky protein jockey.


-Pook

Eating Out My Buddy Sam

No, not friend of EOF and our buddy’s wife Samantha. Ewww! She’s pregnant! That’d be like Turducken or something, right? No, no. Sick, dirty, people. We’re talking about Fresno’s own, Sam’s Italian Deli and Market! Where they actually do stuff things into other things. But, with a much more pleasant and delicious surprise.

A family owned and operated Fresno landmark for roughly 3 decades, Sam’s is your go-to spot in Fresno for all things involving lovingly preserved meats. Oh yeah, they sell a lot of Italian foodly goods as well. Not to mention fresh bread, wines, cheeses, frozen homemade pastas, fresh made sauces, olive oils, fine vinegars. Pretty much anything you can think of to make a delicious Italian meal. Easy way, hard way, Sam’s offerings and service just give you a warm sense that they want you to eat well, no matter how much effort you want to put into the meal.


Want to make life easy? Pick up a bag of their frozen handmade raviolis, a pint of their marinara sauce, a half loaf of their pre-prepped garlic bread and a little parmesan and you’re golden. Boil the pasta, heat up the sauce, toss the bread in the oven. Mix, slice, serve. Done! Or, you can pick up some fine canned San Marzano tomatoes (4 different styles, 13 different brands), fresh or dried herbs, your choice of several different romano or parmesan cheeses, 3 different styles of Italian sausage, a mind blowing selections of pasta or everything you need to make your own, and a robust selection of different olive oils…see what I mean?

So let’s split it up a bit and tackle the grocery area first. The first thing you notice on your way in the door is their wine section. Not being much of a vino fiend, I can’t really speak with great authority about their selection. I can however say that their selection includes a large rack of Under $10 wines. Which always works for cheap ass, wine-ignorant me. But I also noticed that they had a few vintages that were climbing well over $75. I assume that makes it really great, bad grape juice.

Moving on! They have a nice, compact area for pickles, preserves and canned fish. Great selection of capers and anchovies. Plus, numerous toppings and spreads involving red bell peppers, eggplant and the like. Then we scoot around to the wall of tomaters. I’m pretty sure they stock enough to arm an entire Jr. High for a Spanish style tomato street war. Pretty much all San Marzano plum tomatoes, concasee’d whole or puree’d. And some of the nifty toothpaste tube Euro style tomato paste, so you don’t waste a whole can if you don’t need a whole can. I wonder if those will ever take off here.

Then we come to their frozen section of mass awesomeness. Here you can buy just about any delicacy that their kitchen can turn out. Soups, pastas, sauces, desserts and even 1 serving meals. Onto the cookie rack! If you like amaretto, you will lose your freaking mind over these little amaretti cookies by Lazzaroni. And shuffle next, to the wall of olive oils and vinegars. Pretty impressive! Much like the wine selection, there are decent olive oils priced just a low as anywhere else and there are very fine olive oils that one would use when you’re not just frying some veg and chicken. Some good looking basalmics and even some reasonably priced truffle products. I might have to hit these up to ease my morel withdrawls soon.

We’re ever so tempted to peek at the meat counter…BAD! No! Bad monkey, no sock for you. Next is produce! Got it? Ok, produce…kinda sad. But it’s understandable, with folks either shopping at farmers markets and organic hippy joints or just buying the cheapest stuff they can find, with little middle ground, a small grocery store’s fresh produce section just isn’t going to make them money. Sad little packets of sliced mushrooms were testament to this fact. But hidden in sadness is joy! For, a safe distance from the ‘shrooms, there were dirt cheap end-pieces of prosciutto!! Happy dance! Don’t get me wrong, I like fancy as much as the next guy, but this stuff was like 1/3rd the price of the full sized shank pieces. And, if one were INSANE, just the right size for a pot of beans…hmm maybe cassoulet? Cheese island is nice as well. Small hunks of parm and romano, a few other sliced bits and some odd looking little salamis.

Along this wall also, is the cold beverage case. Chilled wines, champagnes and beers. Strange as hell to watch a guy pull a 6 pack a Corona out of the same area there is Peroni and Moretti and other interesting Italian brews RIGHT THERE! No accounting for taste I guess. Once, I knew a full blood Irishman who loved the asshole right out of Budweiser. Still makes me weep on rainy Sundays. A Pelligrino Orange soda will make me happier. And so does the pasta section. We’ll just call it robust as hell and point out that they’ve got 3 different choices for risotto rice too!

Deli Counter!!!! I’ve been yearning for this for an hour of power shopping. The little indulgence (ok, huge, expensive indulgence) that’s gonna make me titter every time I open my meat drawer. Well, after I’m done tittering at yanking open a “meat drawer”…sounds like a rude title for an extendable vagina. Excuse me miss, could I put my prosciutto di parma in your meat drawer? It’s sliced very thin.

Oh yeah, they got prosciutto, and Spanish Serrano ham, and pancetta. Tip o’ the iceberg. So many kinds of salami’s that you mystically find yourself rubbing your bum bum on the glass like an pants wearing baboon in heat (they frown on this by the way). Next door is the cheese zoo. Many kinds, several countries, all tasty. Sitting above them are more traditional luncheon meats like turkey, a few different hams and fabulous baloneys like their mortadellas and a new, nifty, smoky, Weaver's Lebanon bologna that tastes, hands down, just like a Slim Jim. Just without all the grease, bone and skin. Must try it! Just don’t think about my description when you do.


Onto the salad portion! They’ve got a really nice selection of olives. All kinds, various preparations. Nifty little deli type dishes like bruscetta topping, tortellini salad, marinated mushrooms (fuggin GOOD!) and a nice selection of single/dual serving fresh entrees that you can whisk off to home or office and reheat. And bless ‘em, they’re truthful about their seafood salad being made with surimi. I still think it’s more elegant and truthful than calling it krab.

And at last, my favorite punctuation to every trip here and the only spot that wars with my undying love of the salami/prosciutto section…fresh meat! As wide as the salami section is, the fresh area is much more focused. Check my earlier rant about produce, so they’re not slinging every cut from cow or pig. In truth, it’s chops, good lookin’ chops I might add. Chuck steak and ground chuck. But I’m not here for a barbeque. I’m pre-moistening my undies over their amazing sausages! Each of their Italians are awesome. Sweet, med-hot and Red-Hot-Italian-Stallion sausage. Good on their own, with some sautee’d peppers or as a foundation flavor for your favorite sauce. And then we come to the Prince of Sausage. He’s thin, long and coiled…ready to strike…your taste buds. Cervellata sausage is a thin, fairly long coiled sausage with a handy skewer for turning. I’m told it’s just a little salt and pepper in the meat. But it is addictively delicious. I could grill and eat these babies all day.


The final note on Sam’s should be the most definitive. And that’s certainly their sandwich service at the deli counter. Wonder what that weird sausage tastes like? Ask the guy for a taste! Like it? They’ll make it into a sandwich! Oh, and they do actually have a menu too. Great meat combos, hot sandwiches, sauced and not. Even braggable pastrami and steak sandwiches.

I’m sure that I’m preaching to the choir here for a lot of you. But if even one person who lives around the ‘No and hasn’t heard of or tried the wonderous wares of Sam’s…because of living in a religious cult deep in the wilds of Clovis, led by a one eye’d buck toothed prophet named Pepper… Anyway! If you haven’t tried them and then you do, you’ll like, thank me or something. Or try to kill me because I blew yer shot on The Biggest Loser. Whichever it is, prosciutto is more delicious than fame any day.


-Pook