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Hot and Not So Hot

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What Purports To Be Mexican Food at Tito’s Tacos

I’ve come a long way since my teen years when I was afraid of tasting my Mom’s home-made lecsó, which was made with rice and Hungarian banana peppers, some of which were fiercely hot. Now, most of what I eat is seasoned with chiles. Today I finished up my Spanish Rice, made with fire-roasted hatch chiles and dry Chiles Japoneses. This morning, I had home=made quesadillas with Mexican jalapeños en escabeche.

Yesterday I dropped in for lunch at a popular Culver City restaurant called Tito’s Tacos in Culver City. I suddenly realized that I had come a long way from my early days. The two hard shell tacos tasted like unseasoned hamburger with a bit of shredded lettuce. Where were the chiles? Nowhere, to be exact. There weren’t even any bowls of pickled jalapeños to spice things up.

In the space of half a century I have morphed into a chile-head. Interestingly, my brother Dan is one as well. I remember going with him to a farmers’ market in Templeton, California and being offered a sample of olives stuffed with habañero chiles, which, as you may know, are probably the hottest chiles in common use, except for special purpose lethal items like the Carolina Reaper.The man offering the stuffed olives expected us to crumple with flames coming out our orifices. When Dan and I looked at each other and expressed approval, we asked for another sample—to the consternation of the seller.

Few of the people I know are able to match me on the Scoville Scale, where I am quite comfortable at tyhe 100,000 Scoville heat units level. For a look at the Scoville scale, check out Wikipedia.

Easy Breakfast Quesadillas

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Rajas de Jalapeño

This is perhaps my most common breakfast, which I have with my morning tea. It contains only three ingredients: (1) Good quality flour tortillas; (2) Monterey Jack cheese; and (3) Pickled jalapeño peppers.

If you can’t tolerate chile peppers, I suppose you could try something mild like Ortega chiles, but I can’t imagine that would taste good. I use either canned Mexican rajas de jalapeño, which may also include pickled carrots, onion, and even pieces of cauliflower or else any pickled jalapeños.

For the cheese, I always prefer Monterey Jack. A particularly good brand on the West Coast comes from Joseph Farms and is available at Ralphs supermarkets (owned by Kroger).

Of primary importance are the flour tortillas. My brand of choice is El Comal or La Banderita. Avoid cheap flour torts that tear easily along the edges or that taste like cardboard. Unfortunately, most of the popular supermarket brands fall into this category.

To prepare the quesadillas, I preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit ( 175° Celsius). I take a quarter cup of jalapeños and chop them up fine. Then with a cheese slicer, I cut four slices of Monterey Jack cheese. I take two flour tortillas and on the upper half of each place two slices of cheese and half the chopped jalapeños, Then I fold the torts in two, being careful that they not tear in the process. (This is one way of learning whether you’ve bought the right flour tortillas.) Place them in the oven and cook them until the edges of the tortillas begin to turn dark brown.

It is very likely that some of the cheese will drip, so I always place a sheet of foil underneath.

The result is a bit spicy, but a very pleasant way to start your day.