Downtown, tortas and sunsets

Our adventure continues!

Day 3

On Sunday Luke and I buckled up our shoes and headed to Downtown LA. Downtown is certainly an odd place. Lots of beautiful but run down buildings, barbed wine and a so called fashion district.

However, this is not what we were here to see.

We were here to indulge my love of all things Mexican at the Pueblo de Los Angeles. This part of town is where the city of Los Angeles first began in 1781. I found myself some lovely Mexican treasures, and a lovely big torta de carnitas (pulled pork sandwich). My vegetarianism wanes around Mexican food …

We then took the metro to Hollywood, where Luke was immediately underwhelmed. This is a mandatory reaction I believe. Hollywood is dirty, touristy and generally not very pleasant. So we hustled ourselves down the walk of stars, took some obligatory photos and saw the Hollywood sign.

We then treated Luke to a visit to Amoeba Music, where he indulged his love of records. We passed this bar on the way. We didn’t go in.

After an iced coffee break, we took the bus for an hour and a half from Hollywood to Santa Monica. The long drive was  fun, we saw the city change from grotty Hollywood to lovely Beverly Hills in a street. The city just changes in a moment.

Once at the beach, we found a food truck and shared a half litre of Mexican Coca-Cola (which has real sugar and is delicious) and some veggie, shrimp and chicken tacos.

We then took our little bodies down the Santa Monica Pier to watch the sunset. Very pleasant.

All in all a very successful day.

Comida Mexicana

I love Mexican food. Love it. While it can be hard to find authentic Mexican ingredients in Australia, you have more options than an Old El Paso boxed taco kit! Here’s a couple of easy ideas, while they aren’t authentically Mexican, they have delicious Mexican flavour.

Scrambled eggs with beans and corn
Serves two

4 corn tortillas
4 eggs
knob of butter
a dash of milk
half a tin of corn
half a tin of kidney beans (or black beans would be delish)
a handful of grated cheese
1 spring onion
salsa or hot sauce of your liking
sour cream

While still in your nighty, pop the kettle on for tea, and warm the corn tortillas. You can do this in the microwave, or on the stove-top in a pan. Don’t crisp the tortillas, just warm them until they are soft and smell nice and corny. Place on plates and sprinkle half the cheese on the warm tortillas to melt a little. Yum.

Pop the eggs, beans, spring onion, corn, milk and the rest of the cheese in a bowl and combine a little. Melt the butter and add the egg mixture. Fold the eggs until cooked, but still soft.

Place your eggs onto your cheesy tortillas, serve with a touch of sour cream and as much salsa as you please. I buy a lovely salsa verde from Casa Iberica in Fitzroy.

Taco salad
Adapted from Yummy Mummy Kitchen, serves four

1 tin of corn
1 tin of chickpeas
1 cup of cooked black beans or a tin of kidney beans
1 onion
1 or 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning (make your own!)
1 cos lettuce
2 tomatoes
1 avocado
coriander
grated cheese
salsa or hot sauce of your liking
lime or lemon
sour cream
bag of corn chips

Fry the onion until translucent, add the beans and corn and warm though. Add as much taco seasoning to make it as spicy as you like, and a couple of tablespoons of water to make it a bit saucy.

Shred your  lettuce, top with the warm beans, then cheese, tomatoes, avocados, salsa, coriander, a squeeze of citrus and a dollop of sour cream. Serve with the corn chips, they are perfect for scooping!

Enjoy!

What’s cooking good looking?

Here are some happenings from my kitchen …

Corn fritters. Corn, flour, eggs, s+p.

Laksa with zucchini, peas, tomatoes and boiled eggs.

Blue corn tostadas with cheese, black refried beans, lettuce, tomato and green salsa.

Brown fried rice with tofu, purple carrots, egg, snowpeas, mushrooms, broccoli and sesame oil.