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Another weekend of not going out. After all this time I should be eager to go out... but honestly I’m very happy at home. Not working, not dealing with anybody... just me, my bed, and Silicon Valley’s last season.

With this plans, obviously I’m not cooking today. In the morning I barely had enough strength to make a quesadilla for breakfast. Dinner? Nope, that’s too much.

By now, I know almost all the restaurants near home, and the fact that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to have did not make the search easier. I just needed sustenance.

After browsing Uber Eats for a while, I found a dish that caught my eye, from a place I hadn’t notice before.

The Place 

Remember the “torta” entry where I mentioned how Uber Eats showed one thing, but Maps showed another? (if not, you can read that entry here).
Well, something similar happened with this place.

According to Uber Eats the place is called “MJ’s Fusion Deli”, but according to their receipt it’s 805 South Burrito 🤔.
But I’m going with the first one because this time it does appear in the map as “MJ’s Fusion Deli”.


Again, can’t talk about the place because it’s closed for dine-in. I can say that, from what I see in the pictures it’s not fancy. You order, and sit (or take-out because pandemic).
And as you can see from the map above, it’s practically in front of a Collage, so it’s gotta be popular among students.

The Dish

I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but this caught my eye.
It’s called “Buddha Fries”. By now you should now I love fries and potatoes. I may even have a serious problem with potatoes. So, the word fries got my curiosity. What got my attention were the rest of the ingredients:

It comes with fries, of course, two eggs, two meats to choose, cheese, Asian salad, house sauces, and seaweed sesame seeds. For an extra bucks you can add shrimp and make you fries Cajun style.
For my order I went with regular fries, spicy red chilli pork, and MJ’s special chicken. Eggs, scrambled of course.
This seemed to be no ordinary “carne asada fries”. This is what I got:


I have to admit the portion is generous indeed. Also, I find awesome that there’s more meat than fries.
You know I love fries, but usually these kind of dishes have fries and some meat. With this one, it’s meat and some fries. That’s great value for my money.

As you can see, there’s salad at the very top, both meats are evenly distributed, the eggs are in the back corner, and the fries are at the bottom, which improve their flavour because of the juice the meats drip.


Now, final verdict: it’s ok. It was something different and I appreciate that. I might even order again, but with different meats to mix up things. I also think it’s a nice mix between American food and Asian cuisine. But at the end it’s fast easy food. Its location is perfect, because it’s great for busy students. A quick, not expensive, well-served meal. And for lazy weekends, it was great.

I know these are hard times, but it’s cool to order from your local restaurants every once in a while. We are all in this together, and if we don’t spend locally, our communities will have a much harder time than it is right now.
Plus, it’s always cool to try new dishes. You could find a hidden gem ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.


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Have you ever experienced a moment when the dessert was better than a meal?
Oh yeah, it happens! And it's delicious! (probably not healthy… but delicious indeed!).

This week I was back in Mexico City, and while I had heard about this place, I didn't have the pleasure to try its sweet offerings. In fact, it's so popular I had once tried to go, but the line was impossible, forcing me to pass on that time... until now!

The Place

If you've ever gone as a tourist to Mexico City, the probability of ever hearing about this place is high, as it is often recommended to tourists.
It's called "El Moro", and it's a churrería. Don't know what a churrería is? It's a place which sells churros.

This restaurant/churrería first opened back in 1935 by Francisco Iriarte, a Spanish immigrant who after arriving in Mexico and realising nobody was selling churros started to sell them in a street cart at Mexico City's Zocalo in 1933. With the money he made with the street cart, he opened the first restaurant.
Nowadays "El Moro" has 13 locations across Mexico City; this time I went to the one located in Zona Rosa, but you can check all of them on their webpage.


The menu is not extensive, but what's in it is enough for a good time.
Obviously, the main dish and specialty are churros which you can order in orders of four or singles. Right now, they are offering red velvet churros for a limited time.
For your churros, you can add a sweet dip of cajeta, chocolate, or condensed milk.

They also have what is called Consuelo and Consuelitos, and are like ice cream sandwiches, but instead of a cookie, the ice cream is between rolled churros. The difference is that a Consuelo is a big sandwich with one ice cream flavour, and the Consuelitos are three little ones with three ice cream flavours. You can choose among chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla ice cream, you know, the classics.

Of course, they also have hot, cold, and sweet beverages to accompany your desserts such as coffee, hot chocolate, milk, almond milk, frappes, tea, and sodas.
Oh, if you get hot chocolate, you can add little marshmallows! 👌

Looking for something not sweet? You can order a torta for dinner! Although not available in all locations, you can have pastor and pierna con mole (adobada pork and pork leg with mole) tortas. This time I had neither, but I've heard they are pretty good and tasty. I should go back and confirm this premise.

The Dish

You know what I ordered. Churros!
And yes, they are pretty good making me understand why they are so popular.


Verdict: Delicious. They're crunchy and feels like taking a bite from sweet heaven.
The order of 4 churros, the one I had, is perfect to share between two people as they're big enough, but if you're brave or hungry enough, it's not hard to finish one order all by yourself.

They are so great because they are made at the moment so you can be sure they are always fresh, and that provides a great flavour. Because the place is popular and often there are big queues, they are continually preparing churros, so nothing is more than 20-30 minutes old, at least from what I was able to see. Once they are ready and out of the oil, the cook passes the tray to the front bar. Before handing your order they ask if you want your churros with sugar or cinnamon (team cinnamon here!), and they add it right there.

Definitely, a great option to enjoy a classic, timeless dessert 👌.


Cover photo taken from El Moro's webpage

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Challenge complete! 10 days of strict diet and an eating schedule, and after losing 3.65kg, I'd say it was a success. To not undo what I've accomplished, I just need to maintain certain habits. But that doesn't mean I am not allowed to indulge myself every now and then, and of course, that's something I need to do so I can keep writing.

If you remember the asada fries entry, you know I love potatoes, especially fries. How can I reward myself after a well-done challenge? Fries, of course. But this time, not any kind of fries.

Before starting this food-writing side project, I embarked on the mission to find the best buffalo fries out there, and while I haven't written about my favourite buffalo wings and fries place yet, it's a hard contender. Soon I'll write about it... but for now, I went and try contender number one.

The place

It must be promising if the place is called "The Buffalo Spot".
It has several locations across California, Texas, and Arizona. Luckily in San Diego, there are 2 locations, one in the Bonita area, and the other one in Lemon Grove.
The one I went to this weekend was the one in Bonita. It's actually in the Westfield Plaza Bonita's food court.


Just like any mall food court, it is a counter in the middle of many other food counters. You get in line, order, and wait on the side for your order to be ready.
There's the option to order take-out or eat there in the mall's eating area.

I haven't been to the Lemon Grove location, and I can't get into too much detail on how it looks and the environment, but that one is an independent local. Meaning it's not in a food court, but still, it's not a big restaurant.


As you may guess from the name of this place, their main dishes are wings and fries.
You can choose between class bone-in and boneless wings. Chicken tenders. A variety of sauces from the classic Buffalo sauce, to BBQ,  sweet-spicy, garlic, lemon pepper, or teriyaki.
You can add seasoning to your fries to increase the flavour.

Not what you looking for or not enough? They also have Buffalo Cali Burrito.
The class California burrito is made of fries and carne in a burrito. the twist with this burrito is, well, buffalo fries made a burrito. (I have to add this to my to-eat list 🤔).
They even have salads if you're looking for healthy option... at least a less fattening, as you can choose to put buffalo in them. 

But what I got was even better...

The chosen dish

The slogan claims to be the home of the best buffalo fries, which by itself already sounds inviting, but how can they make them better? Hot Cheetos Buffalo Fries!

I reckon it doesn't take much to put Cheetos on top of a dish... but doing so increases the dish's likeability by a huge percentage. And if it's Flaming Hot Cheetos, it's doubled.
C'mon, just look at it:

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A post shared by Max Sanchez (@mxbs13) on Jan 24, 2020 at 3:22pm PST

I had my fries seasoned with lemon pepper and medium buffalo sauce, and all I can say is that it's terrific.
I know it's not the healthiest dish, but it's great for a weekend, to have it with friends, or to watch sports (especially right now with the SuperBowl so close).
There are different sizes, so it's up to you if you want to share... or have a big stomach.

Something important to mention is that it is a limited-time dish. There's no word on how long it will last but don't take chances and go try them.
Although, on Instagram, they told me that if they're popular enough, it may return to the menu.



And well, the final verdict?
I really liked them, and I'm going back before they disappear from the menu, but I'd put these in 2nd place in my scale of "Best Buffalo Fries".
The fries are perfect, the sauce is excellent and classic, but the chicken portion is not enough. Missed opportunity there.
But still, they hold a sweet spot.

Max's Score: 8/10 (9/10 with Cheetos 🤤)


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You read the title right. At first, I didn't believe it either, but then again I remembered what poutine really is. Plus, today the Mexican poutine was not the only thing I ordered.

After the December parties, it's moment to pause for a while with so much eating. It is actually proven that in December, people tend to gain from 2 to 4 kilograms, and that is not cool. Sadly, I'm not the exception to the rule, and, I'm not going to diet, but instead, I'm doing a 10-day challenge to cleanse myself and put in order what I eat and the portions.
But of course, before I do this, I indulged myself to one last not so healthy meal.

At noon I didn't really know what I wanted, I only knew I was hungry, so I took my phone and searched for something good in San Diego. That's when I came across…

The place

It's called The Crack Shack. It has 6 locations, 5 of them in California near the San Diego and Los Angeles areas, and one more in Las Vegas.
The one I went to is located in Little Italy, near Downtown San Diego.


This place's specialty is chicken and eggs. Everything on the menu has either chicken or eggs.
You can check the full menu on their website.

It's all outdoor. You arrive, order, and if you're eating there, you get a number. Sitting is open, so you choose the table or bar that's available.
In the back of the place, there is a bar which offers wines, beers, and cocktails. And even though it's outdoor, there are some TV's, something much appreciated to watch the playoffs.

The chosen dishes

Yep, I order a sandwich and something more than fries.

I chose the Firebird, which is made up of a spicy fried thigh, ranch dressing, crispy onions, pickles, potato roll.
I just read spicy and went with it… but the thigh is not my favourite part of the chicken, I prefer the breast because it has more meat, is firmer, and has less fat. And because of this, I honestly did not love it.
But that doesn't mean it was bad. The chicken was actually pretty good, it was tender and juicy. The bread was firm, but fresh.
What I didn't like much was that it wasn't spicy enough, I was expecting more, but I guess if you're not into spicy food, you'll probably enjoy it.
Again, even though I did not love it, I see myself going back, but now ordering the sandwich with chicken breast.



For the side, I ordered, as the title says, Mexican poutine.
Backstory: last year, my fianceé and I went to Canada for the first time, and we ate authentic Canadian poutine, I fell in love with it immediately. During that week I didn't eat enough poutine to fill my heart, and since then I've been looking for a place here in San Diego that serves poutine, I mean, how hard can it be to find one? (spoiler alert: it is, I haven't found one!).  So when I saw Mexican poutine in the menu, even though I knew it wasn't the real thing, I had to try it.

This dish, of poutine it only has the fries and the name in common. It is made of schmaltz fries, pollo asado and jalapeño cheese wiz.
It is simple, but it looks appetising, and oh boy, it's tasty. I actually liked it more than the sandwich.
But still, it is NOT poutine ☝. 

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New post in my blog! Today I present you Mexican poutine and a Firebird, from #SanDiego’s The Crack Shack. Link is in my bio! . . . . . . . ——————————————— #california #foodie #writing #food #poutine #chicken

A post shared by Max Sanchez (@mxbs13) on Jan 11, 2020 at 5:27pm PST

One more thing I liked about the location is that it is practically next to the airport, so you can see the planes no more than 100 feet above you just before they land. If you, like me, love planespotting and aviation in general, it's a nice place to see aeroplanes going by.



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These past days have been somewhat stressful at work, and while I try to not think about it after I clock out, sometimes it's complicated.

I work as the IT Manager at an accounting corporation, and we're rapidly approaching end of year operations, and what's scarier... tax season is almost one month away! The problem is that the system is not behaving well.
I could go on explaining how it is slow, those unnecessary Windows processes I monitor and close, tips on how to optimise the system... but come on, you don't want to read that, we are here because of the food!


Something I haven't mentioned in previous posts is that besides eating, I also enjoy a lot preparing food. There is some magic on it which I just can't describe with words, but it relaxes me.
Maybe it's that feeling of creating something, just as I wish, and the expectation of how is it going to look and taste once I finish. I don't know, I just enjoy it.
I also love cooking for people, I genuinely put a great effort into it, but even when I cook for just myself, I find it fulfilling.

So in these moments of stress and hunger, I decided to prepare lunch while I was waiting for some processes to finish in my laptop, so I took my utensils and ingredients.

Today's meal:

First of all, I have to admit it wasn't something hard or laborious; after all, I was tired from work.
I prepared spaghetti with Alfredo sauce, mushrooms and shredded chicken.

Preparation:

I usually don't give out my recipes, but this one is way too easy it would be ridiculous not to share.

One of the two steps that take the most time is the shredded chicken, which is also an easy step. You just have to cover the chicken with water, (I used breast because it's the part I like the most, and the one with most meat, although not everyone like it stating it's dry; you can use thighs instead), and season it as you wish. In my case, I just put some salt, a little olive oil, and put an onion in the water while cooking it. Boil the water, and once it's completely cooked, just shred it; you can use your fingers, two forks (my method), or apparently, you can also use a mixer at the lowest level.
I did this step 2 days ago, so I already had my shredded chicken ready and standing by.

Next, it's moment to prepare the pasta! Here the tricky part is to know how much to use. I let my hand go loose and ended making pasta for at least 3 days 😕.
To make pasta, you just need to boil some water, add salt and again, a few olive oil (sometimes I use garlic oil, it gives it a different but excellent flavour) and wait for the pasta to be soft.
Once ready, I put it aside to drain and continue to prepare the rest of the sauce.

Using the same pot, I first put the mushrooms to sautée them until they look fried-brownish. I added the chicken to the mushrooms, and not long after I pour the Alfredo sauce.
This time I don't have the full recipe for the sauce, I cheated a little and bought it ready to use. I used Walmart's brand, "Great Value", and honestly, it's not bad at all. On the contrary, it was flavourful, thick, and creamy.
All I had to do by now was stir so that anything got overcooked or stuck at the bottom of the pot.



When ready, the last step is to put the pasta with the sauce and mix some more so that all pasta gets soaked. 
Bam… ready to serve, and it all took me no more than an hour. My lunch for 3 days was ready!


Something as easy as this can help me be calm again. And since I do like cooking I might be sharing experiences and recipes like this in the future, probably some other more elaborate.

I'm enjoying writing these series, but it would also be awesome to read you.
What do you think? Do you enjoy cooking too? And, what do you like to prepare to de-stress?
Feel free to leave your comments.


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