Foraging & Hunting Experiences

Here is a link to a web page project we did for school where we talk about our Foraging and Hunting experiences related to the Forest chapter of the omnivore's dilemma. There are also nice pictures of our adventures.

Omnivore's Dilema Project

Pistolera's Food - So proud of it!

I wrote this for Pistolera's website. It describes my inspiration and background and how they got translated into the food at Pistolera's menu.

Pistolera's Food

Pistolera was put together with the idea of bringing real authentic Mexican Food to Shanghai. There are a lot of other "Mexican" restaurants in Shanghai that offer modified and simplified versions of Mexican food. We wanted to bring the real thing with the real Mexican flavors based on authentic Mexican ingredients.

Pistolera's Head Chef, Leonardo "Tabasco" Guerrero, is a native of the state of Sonora in Northwest Mexico. He grew up in a city called Hermosillo in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. This area of Mexico together with the southwest part of the USA was the heart of what we know as the Old West. This was were cowboys fought against the native Apaches for survival. The name Pistolera was chosen to represent this cowboy culture from the Mexican side of the border with a sexy twist.

We bring the best of Mexican food from different parts of Mexico, but we put a special emphasis on food from Tabasco's native land. Many people think that Flour Tortillas, Burritos, and Chimichangas aren't real Mexican food, but this is incorrect.

All of these originated in northern Mexico and there's a reason behind it. While in southern Mexico corn grew naturally, in northern Mexico it was hard to grow because of the dry land and weather. They found out that wheat was easier to grow in the north and with the Tortilla tradition they ventured to make wheat flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas. However, wheat flour is a lot more elastic, which helped to create those big tortillas that we now use to roll up Burritos and Chimichangas.

The cowboy culture also means great grilled meat. That's why some of the staple dishes are the grilled meat tacos and burritos. In these desert like territories there are some base ingredients of Mexican cuisine that grow wildly. Some of these are the oregano, a variety of hot peppers, and Mesquite wood that gives a very good smoky scent to those bbq dishes.

Sonora also has very good seafood because it has 1208km of coastline along the Gulf of California which is also known as the Sea of Cortez. The Sea of Cortez is so rich on marine life that when the legendary French diver, Jacques Cousteau, visited it, he called it "The Aquarium of the World". Mexicans put a special touch on the preparation of seafood by mixing it with a variety of spices and peppers to come up with delicious dishes like our Ceviche Tosatadas and Tequila Sautéed Shrimp Quesadillas.

In a few words, Pistolera was born when you put all of the above together with some of the traditional and ancient cooking techniques and ingredients from southern and northern Mexico. Techniques dating from the time of the Mayans and Aztecs that have been transferred from generation to generation and served with the same homey feeling as you would get them in any mom and pop restaurant in Mexico.

Tacografia

How accurate do you guys think this is?

*You can click on it to make it bigger

A Fishing Experience

My most successful fishing experience was back in 2012 in the beautiful waters of the Andaman Sea in Thailand. We rented a big boat to spend the day fishing and relaxing. We caught a few tunas and dorados through the morning. In the early afternoon, when one of the lines started running it was my turn to take it.



I start pulling and to my surprise it was a really heavy one. For the first 5 minutes I would gain a bit of line for a moment versus loosing a lot right after. After about 20 minutes, the fish started getting tired and I finally started getting it close to the boat. My arms were exhausted! We saw him jumping out of the water and it was a beautiful sail fish. It was so big! We took pictures and put it back in the water.




We were able to keep a couple of tunas and the dorado. On the way back to my friend's condo, we stopped at s small store and bought local products to make a couple different ceviches. I made a Tuna Ceviche in a Cilantro, Orange-Lime and Coconut milk marinade and a Dorado ceviche with tropical fruits served in freshly opened coconuts. Fresh fish like that is just priceless!



The boat owner asked me for my details after I took out the sail fish. He said it was part of the protocol. They also tagged the animal before they put it back in the water to keep a record. Weeks later, I received a package in the mail with a letter asking me to join a club. You can pay some money to receive a plaque with the certificate and to help keep the protection of the species. I found that pretty interesting and I think programs like this are a great way to keep a healthy fishing industry.

The Hunting Experience

My Korean friend Sung and I happened to go out deer hunting together down in Michigan last December. My father-in-law has a farm in eastern Michigan. He's been hunting all his life and he introduced me to it in the winter of 2013 where I got my first deer. I had been deer hunting down in Mexico before, but I was too young and didn't get to shoot a deer. I have successfully hunted ducks and doves a few times before, but never a big mammal. Reading the hunting section of the Omnivore's dilemma book, I found out that we shared mostly the same feelings. The anticipation before the hunt, the high on sensory awareness, the feeling of failure after coming back empty handed, and the satisfaction of the kill shadowing the guilt. There was one thing that differed, I didn't feel disgust from cleaning the carcass. I did feel a bit like a savage with all the blood running through my hands and yeah there was a stench but nothing too bad. If the organs and stomach are taken out carefully without ripping the stomach or tripes, it ensures a cleaner job and keeps the stench to a minimum. I was so excited about butchering the meat and learning more about breaking down a whole animal. Do I feel any guilt? Well, there is always a weird feeling of guilt after killing an animal. Nowadays though, deer hunting is very well balanced in North America. Deer have no real natural predator, except for a few wolves left here in and there. Also, the extensive farming land provides them with pretty much an infinite source of food, like grains and vegetables. The population of deer has thrived in the last few decades. Hunting keeps the population of deer under control to keep that balance. That puts my mind at peace about killing them. You would be surprised about the amount of meat you can get out of a deer. Once you have a good grilled venison medallion from the back strap served on jus made out from the trimmings, or venison stew or venison jerky, that definitely keeps me motivated to keep doing it. In fact, I can't wait until next hunting season.

Best Latin American Restaurant Prize 2013

There is a video that City Weekend released about last year's awards and I make a short appearance on minute 1:13. It's also my proof that Pistolera actually won Best Latin American Editor's Choice last year.

Check it out: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTY0MDQ3ODQ4.html

Oh Yeah Babeee!!

AAA Bar (Review)

It was a nice, sunny afternoon walking on Adelaide St down to the metro station after work when I got that smoked BBQ aroma that pulled me into a restaurant. From the outside, their name and their signing are not very obvious to what they offer, but once inside I was welcomed by one of the managers, a very friendly young man named Jeremy. I asked for a menu and he directed me to a hand written piece of paper from a notepad. On it, I found just the right kind of items that you would look for on a BBQ place. The staff also didn’t wait too long to tell me about their specials of the day. They mentioned “Barbacoa Tacos”, a very traditional dish in southwestern USA and northwestern Mexican cuisine. I thought to my self, “BBQ, friendly people, at a laid back place… right on!” I had dinner plans for that day so I told Jeremy, “I can’t stay for dinner today, but I’ll be back!”

I went back 2 weeks later on a Tuesday evening with my girlfriend. At night, the restaurant looks dark on the outside with the white, illuminated letters of its name standing out of the black, wood façade. However, from the outside you could also see the relaxed and cozy interior with warm dimmed lights inviting you to come in.  There was nobody at the door to receive us, but after I looked at the hand written menu the other day I didn’t expect a very fancy protocol. We found ourselves a nice table and a waitress came and greeted us right away. She gave us a food menu just like the one I saw on my first visit. The design inside was minimalistic with a touch of old-west and modern decor. There were some old pictures of farms and country related things as well as old Toronto pictures. I thought the décor gave a cool twist on the traditional Texas style Ranch house. They had some country music playing in the background at very low volume to the point where it was hard to distinguish that it was country music behind the noise of the environment. The waitress came back a couple of minutes later and asked if we wanted something to drink. I glanced the table looking for some thing that will have some information about their drinks. I didn’t see anything, so I asked for a drink menu. She said they didn’t have one. Then I asked her to tell me more about their beers on draught. She threw out like 8 different names of beers very quickly. It was impressive that they had so many beers on draught for a small place like that, but not having any further information and being new to Canada, I opted for the only name I knew, a Steam Whistle. Unless you are an expert on the beers of the region it’s quite useless to have so many options. The waitress seemed in some kind of rush so I didn’t feel comfortable asking for recommendations or more information.

The menu was very simple, as I remembered. At first, having a simplistic, hand written menu seemed like a cool thing, but now that I was sitting there trying to decide what to order I felt like it lacked description of the dishes and of the way things were served. They had a list of main dishes ranging from $11 to $18: Brisket, Ribs, Pulled Pork Sandwich, Chopped Beef Sandwich. Below the mains, they had a list of sides ranging from $4 to $6: Corn on the Cobb, Beans, Mac and Cheese, French Fries, Sweet Potato Fries and Coleslaw. I was wondering what was included with the mains, so I asked the waitress and she said that the sides were separate and not included with the mains. I’m a lover of a good smoked, tender, juicy, and well cooked brisket, but I didn’t want to have just a few slices of brisket on a plate. I figured the chopped beef sandwich would have brisket in it, so I ordered that as my main. I convinced my girlfriend to order the pork ribs and we ordered beans, sweet potato fries and coleslaw as sides to share.

I have to mention that I am a big BBQ aficionado. I grew up in Northwest Mexico, land of cowboys and grilled meats. The word BBQ itself is a derivation of the Spanish word “Barbacoa”. Barbacoa is a cooking technique involving a pit dug in the ground where you slowly cook a meat, normally goat, lamb or beef, over Mesquite coals, covered and sealed. It would cook underground traditionally all night. The next morning you would have a smoked tender and juicy meat. Texas style BBQ has its roots in the Barbacoa technique. All of this, to let you know that I grew up side by side with BBQ. I have competed in very serious BBQ cook offs and have won prizes doing it, including a best BBQ Ribs award. To sum things up, I know my BBQ!

We didn’t have to wait too long to get our food. Everything looked very good! I ended up getting a pickle with my sandwich, which was a plus. I took a bite of my sandwich and I got a mouthful of flavors, but there was something missing, the smoky flavor! The meat seemed to have been smothered in an overpowering sweet bbq sauce. It was tasty, but not exactly what I was looking for. I stole a rib from my girlfriend’s plate even though she gives me a look. I bit into it, and there it was, the smokiness that I love. They had a nice bark crust, but a bit over cooked, thus a bit dry. You could see by the very thick smoke ring that they had been smoked for a long period of time, maybe a bit too long. That didn’t stop my girlfriend from devouring them. On the other hand, the Sweet Potato fries were deliciously crispy on the outside and soft inside. They were served with a creamy garlic dip that balanced very nicely with the saltiness of the fries. The coleslaw was very good, but didn’t seem like a respectively sized portion. Finally we come to the beans. Oh the beans! I expected a lot more from the beans. They tasted just like any can of sweet, breakfast beans. Being at a Texas Style BBQ restaurant I was expecting them to have some of the meat drippings, maybe some jalapenos, maybe the crispy tips of the brisket…something! I have to say, I was pretty disappointed.

I talked to the Chef and he is a graduated student from GBC. I congratulated him on doing a good job and he pointed me to the owner. He was a friendly, easy going guy who had lived in Austin, Texas where he had gotten his inspiration for the place.

The bill came with a total of $74. The portions were good enough to fill us up and we had 2 beers each.  I would consider the price on the high side considering the laid-back style of service and the overall experience. I give it three stars out of five and I think people can have decent BBQ and drinks at AAA if their budget is not an issue.

Toronto: A new adventure!

Well, it's been a while, again! Here I am though, still alive and back in Canada. I am done with China. I sold my restaurant in China and now I am going to culinary school here in Toronto. I am living with my girlfriend, I mean my fiancee! Yes, I got engaged a couple months back! :D and Tito! He is our cat the we picked up from the streets in Shanghai. Now he's living the North American dream! (Little gato cabron!)

Toronto, has a been a very sobering experience. From being the Exec. Chef and owner of a restaurant in Shanghai to a student. I've learned that I still have long ways to become a top Chef. There are loads of talented hard working chefs out there that would be willing to sacrifice everything to become the best!

Toronto is also a very inspiring culinary city. It has all kinds of food in all styles and forms.  There are also very trendy restaurants, concerned about good source sustainable ingredients. I thought I was ahead of the game with thoughts of opening a new restaurant focused on that at some point. Over here though, that's almost a must, not a new thing.

At the same time, going through school has taught me so much about cooking and I am becoming a way better cook. I am refining a lot of my cooking knowledge and techniqies and want to keep learning until I feel confident to open my own place again.

A new beginning! (View from my apartment)