Tongue and Head Tacos

Anyone for tongue and head tacos?

As I've gotten older, I've become more prone to trying out a lot of types of food that most would tend to steer clear of.  In the past couple of years, I've come to acquire a taste for octopus, shrimp heads, urchin and other tasty treats found at some of my favorite sushi places.  One thing I've never tried but have been very curious about is some of the more bizarre meats served at some mexican restaurants.

Lengua (tongue), Cabeza (head) and Seso (brain) have been tasting goals of mine for a while now, but I haven't had the opportunity to find any of these alternate meats since most of the Mexican places I frequent don't have these on the menu.  Well, that changed when we visited Taqueria la Mexicana in Long Beach last night.

Taqueria la Mexicana is a small taco stand tucked away in a Long Beach neighborhood, where I bet the neighbors are constantly hungry due to the delicious smell of fresh Mexican food wafting from the joint.  Alison wasn't too courageous and went with an Asada Tostada, I on the other hand, hooked myself up with a Lengua Taco, a Cabeza Taco and an Asada Burrito with the works.  When I received the Lengua and Cabeza tacos, I couldn't tell which was which since I've never seen either of the meats before, but I figured that the tongue was the lickable little meat cube with, well, the tongue like texture.  Taqueria la Mexicana uses a really potent green sauce on their tacos that packs a hell of a spice-filled punch, so within the taco itself, there was not a clear taste to the tongue or head meat.  The texture, however, was much different than I was accustomed to.  Both were very tender and buttery, not tough at all.  I think I liked the lengua a little more since it was less fatty and had a bit of a more familiar, firmer consistency.  I found both of the new meats to be very interesting, but I'm glad I opted to have them as tacos.  I don't think I liked them enough, or are accustomed to them enough, to commit to a whole burrito full of tongue or head meat.  I did however back up my tacos with an Asada Burrito, which was a damn fine burrito that was packed with flavor from the spices, onions rice and company.  Definitely worth going back for.

Sopes

Alison had finished her tostada and saw that they had Sopes on the menu, so she headed back to grab one.  I think that may have been the most delicious $2.50 investment of the night.  I've never had Sopes before, but I'm glad Alison got one because I was treated to a small mountain of asada, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce and sauce on a base of what seemed like a fried tortilla.  Damn good.

Mouth's view of an Asada Burrito

Taqueria La Mexicana

3270 E. 4th St

Long Beach, CA

Tunesday: Tim Barry

We here at The Tasty Morsel have a pretty good weekend to look forward to.  This weekend one of our favorite musicians to see live is performing a couple of shows in our area, and that means we get to travel around a little bit, chow some food in a bit of a different area and have some drinks.

We have a handful of musicians that we try to see every time they are in town.  These artists are all from out of state, so we usually only get the chance to see them once or twice a year if we're lucky.

This weekend, Tim Barry will be in town.  Tim Barry is from Richmond, Virginia and is also the singer for the now-on-hiatus Avail.  We first heard about Tim's music a handful of years ago when he was opening for Drag the River.  I think at that point he was performing with Josh Small on guitar and banjo and his sister, Caitlin on fiddle.  There were a handful of songs that caught our ear and turned us into fans that night, but I think the one that really got me fired up was 'One Quick Minute'.  Really Awesome song writing.

So, this year, we'll be down in San Diego then to Long Beach to enjoy two Tim Barry shows.  It looks like he'll be playing with Austin Lucas and Josh Small, and from what I've heard is that the show will not be in sets, but will be all three artists sharing the stage on each other's songs.

Since we are going down to San Diego, this gives us the opportunity to write about a few drinking and eating establishments that we run into along the way.  So in tow with seeing Tim Barry (Alison's 'boyfriend' as she likes to call him) we also get to find a few new places to eat and drink at, then write about said eating and drinking.  How Productive.

Here's Tim Barry Performing one of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rMCGoALAds

Good Morning Vietnam!

There is a Vietnamese restaurant in San Pedro (Nam's Red Door) that we like to frequent and we have sampled a number of dishes there: imperial rolls, curry, some beef with veggies, etc.  This small Vietnamese eatery, however, does not have pho on the menu.  Knowing that Bob has only had Vietnamese food from this restaurant, I knew that he had never experienced this most common and loved dish.  I mean pho is to Vietnam what the hamburger is to America (at least in my mind).

We set out to Pho Hong Phat in Long Beach for a nice Vietnamese breakfast (at noon).  You may think pho is not the most common breakfast fare, but hell Anthony Bourdain does it so we were game.  The restaurant was packed and we found a table in the corner.  Before our butts hit the chairs, a waiter was there to take our order.  Feeling a little rushed I ordered the #2, pho with well-done flank and Bob ordered the pho with flank and tripe.  For our pho-play we ordered Vietnamese donuts.

Vietnamese Donuts

We also ordered two iced teas but ended up with two iced teas plus a coke (the waiter must have known that Bob would be in need of that extra beverage later on in the meal).

Our pho arrived along with a plate of lime, jalapeño, bean sprouts and mint.  I immediately doctored up my pho with everything, but the jalapeño.  Bob really kicked up his pho a notch with Sriracha (the hot sauce with a cock on it) and jalapeños.

Pho (#2)

The fixins'

Cock sauce... I mean hot sauce

In Bob's Words...

I liked my pho the way it was; directly from the kitchen.  It tasted great.  It tasted even better when I added the mint, lime, bean sprouts and jalapeño.  I decided that the more goodies I added to my pho, the better it would taste.  That was when I noticed a cock staring me dead in the eyes.  A cock that lives on a bottle of hot sauce.  A cock that dared me to get hot.  He was a dangerous looking cock, but I tend to like danger when dining.  I laughed at the cock and his stupid sauce.  I was going to show that cock that I'm not afraid of him, or his stupid sauce.

I added a pretty hearty amount of the cock sauce and mixed it in with the already delicious bowl of pho.  After my first bite of noodles and sip of broth my mouth was on fire, my lips were burning and my nose began to run as the sauce unleashed it's wrath upon my senses.  Through watery eyes I could see the cock laughing at me and my pain.  Damn you, cock, damn you.

The wrath of the cock sauce in effect

Pho Hong Phat

3243 E. Anaheim St

Long Beach, CA 90804