Archive for September, 2008

At last! Tamales!

Saturday, September 13th, 2008

Tamales at last! Tamales at LAST! Thank goddess almighty, I’ve tamales at last!

Okay, okay, I know, that’s abusing the quote – and my apologies to Rev. King; I mean no disrespect, but I truly am excited—I HAVE TAMALES!

I finally thought to poke my head in a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican market to see what they had – and sure enough, they have… well… it’s not even a restaurant, it’s a counter. They sell a couple of platters and tacos… and sure enough, they do tamales every Saturday.

I also got some ancho jalapenos (smoky and not too hot) to play with. And they had bottled Mexican Coke and Senoral—if you ever find Senoral, GET SOME. It’s sangria-flavoured (no alcohol) soda, and it’s awesome. Sugar, no corn syrup…

When I stopped by on Thursday, I got three tacos while I was there – fantastic! Real street-vendor style tortillas with pork, onion (which I had to pick off – can’t eat raw onion), and cilantro, with some HOT HOT salsa. yummy!

So I just picked up the tamales, and I’ve had a few – and I’m about to have a few more – oh, I’m overeating today, but it’s okay every so often…

What’s odd, to me—these are chicken tamales. I mean, I guess you can do whatever you want with the basic recipe—I was worried when I opened the first one and saw that (When I ordered, I didn’t even ask what kind – even BAD tamales, I wanted two dozen!)... and the first one was a little mushy, so I thought “meh, decent tamales…”—but the others have all been quite good, and I have upgraded my opinion. These aren’t the BEST tamales I’ve ever had, but they are quite good. Definitely above average. Worth every penny.

Hurricane Ike - Panama City, FL

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

It says something about the power of Ike that we’re this far away from the storm and seeing effects. Winds have been gusty off and on, and we’ve seen a few storms move through in the outer bands and inflow… but also some coastal flooding: