gritty musings...Bright Shiny Pennies

so you get mexico in stages...if you stay in large resort towns, you get a very milktoast version of mexican food...the farther you get from other white folks...the more mexican it gets...i love tacos...and real tacos are artistic simplicity...three to an order...unless you are buying them from a cart outside a bar...the hand made tortilla...always corn...and about three inches around...is heated slightly on a flattop or griddle...a little protein...my favorite...arrachera..marinated flank steak cut into little ribbons...or my second choice chorizo...spicy dried sausage...in mexico alot like peperonni...only mucho caliente..add a little lettuce...some onion...possibly cilantro...squeeze of lime...and salsa picante...now this sauce varies like an italian mothers red gravy...each place a little different...from brown made with maggi to red with tomatoes...and then there is por hombres...a crushed habanero...dusted with sea salt and the juice of one lime...simple lightning...we were on ...

when you travel with the beautiful girl...you tend to make some friends...as you all know or would guess i am kinda an introvert...okay so not really...but together we are ambassadors for the crazy ass american touristas... lets see there were the "too young to be actual, but dreamed of actually being" deadheads...lost in a little town west of austin... these two were a hoot...chasing down the alleys of isla ...tryin to score some weed...and she didn't even smoke...or the angry school teacher and his retail manager wife...they helped cindy guard over the sea turtle nest until the preservationists arrived...there was fletus, the only real name i'll use...just because his name was fletus..."you can't get away with anything when your name is fletus...its not like ohh it wasn't that fletus it was the tall one"... he was a trombone player from a memphis funk band ...the newlyweds...from sanfran...he was a sysco rep...there is just no escaping that damn c...

" vacations are like orgasms...once you have one, you just can't wait to have another!!!! and once you have been to isla you are a orgasm addict... estoy enamorado de esta isla mujeres!!! it was smaller than i thought...it had way fewer non mayans than i ever could have expected...it was bigger...taller ...rockier...longer and sweeter than i ever could have imagined...we needed our limited spanish...and it got a lot better cause we had to speak it...our hotels were exceptional...the food was simple to a degree that delighted the chef in me...the fisherman came in at three pm...pick your dinner out of the cooler...fried, served with frioles negro...tortillas, ensalada and a shrimp soup...the soup had one giant prawn surrendering to a fish fume spiked with cilantro, carrots and habanero...the sauce picante...mucho caliente, just doesn't cover it...basically a hab...smashed seeds and all, sea salt, lime and water...por hombres...the waiter laughed...checking to see if i had ...

i love livin in the south...wearing shorts and flip flops roughly 350 days a year...being able to ride my bike to the beach...yeah like i do that...but when the forth comes around...we southerners get into blowin shit up...you get to sign a paper down here saying ...yep i'm a farmer..an i am buyin all these pyrotechnic deeeevices to scare off critters...then we buy 1/4 sticks of dynamite or laws rockets and head to the backyard...the sky colored by every neighbors saved collection of explosives...i was reminded of those pictures of bagdad during the war...and hey if you didn't have time to run up to the fireworks tent on the corner...or you are just old-fashioned...then grab your automatic weapon and THE KIDS AND GO SHOOT SOME HOLES IN THE SKY...it seems every year some poor bastard gets a bullet in the head from returning fire...i swear i felt like i was in the war zone last night...and its funny...well that kinda...hair on the back of your neck funny...when you can different...

i saw a political ad today for some putz here in florida that basically said with little elaboration "vote for me cause I am a conservative".. don't vote for him he's liberal.... suddenly everyone wants to be a small minded self centered pin head??? i mean we aren't talking w.f. buckley conservatives...we are talking people who are afraid that the white american status quo needs to be brought back to order with the white guys in charge... seriously what is a conservative these days?...i know what a liberal is...or at least what i am...i stand for personal liberty...that differs greatly from corporate liberty...i believe we all have a stake in our government...even though we may disagree...i believe that you don't have to be a white male to get all the benefits of our constitution...i believe if rich people can pay paper taxes...then every single american gets health care...i believe just because you are Hispanic you are not a second class american...no one has...

the blue water calls...the sand beckons...desayuno under a palapa...skin crackling with salt and sun...we head back to mexico...the dangerous, scary, drug adalpated..no-one speaks the english ...at least not until its time to pay...little tacaritas...pescado de isla...tequilla mas fina...this year a chance to swim with whale sharks...sleeping in a hammock on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean...i can't tell you why i can't get this place outta my mind...i loved cancun...too touristy??? yeah okay... my resorts were phenomenal...massive pools...beautiful restaurants...all the booze you could swallow...i don't tend to drink that much there...i get up early...me, the beautiful girl and a grreat book...playa del carmen... gorgeous...cut out of the jungle...our hotel was like stepping back in time...walking the deserted beaches north of town...jungle to the left of me...ohh so blue sea to the right...and now isla...a little island...we have been told it is the heaven on earth...so...

It has been brought to my limited attention that I...rarely if ever talk about cooking on this blog...I guess the title is a little misleading...but i am a chef...or at least work at that capacity...and i don't know why i would rather bitch politic than share whimsical stories about the biz...or share recipes...maybe cause i do it every day...cook that is...don't get me wrong it is quite a pleasurable pre-occupation...if you like heat...my line runs between 110 and 140 these days...and cramped quarters...i work in a galley kitchen...basically a cooking and plating area of about 8x8...i basically spin from the stove to the line and back...rarely moving more than a foot at a time...the management of this particular posting is about waste and profit...i have no labor to speak of...so i watch numbers...right now we are sitting on pins waiting for the food purveyors to figure out how to drive prices of fish and seafood up due to the gulf disaster...the problem is less than 5 % of...