Wednesday, October 23, 2013

on a roll


Food seems to be the topic of the week here on Mexpatriate.

I would attribute that to the fact that I have taken my periodic dose of worm medicine, and I am subsequently feeling a bit peckish these days.

OK.  That may have been a bit more than you wanted to know.  But food is on my mind.

For those of you who know me, whenever I meet with friends, I like to have a plate of something tasty in front of me.  Witty companions and good food are a hard combinatin to beat.  And it is even better if I can eat someplace where I can have the same conversations with the staff as I can have with my fellow diners.

People who sit near me in restaurants need to beware.  If they are within earshot, they could easily get sucked into the maw of a Mexpatriate conversation.

Rooster's is that type of place. 

I have had a Steve table since they opened in their current location.  And best of all, the waiters are very good at guessing what I will order each day.  Not because I eat the same dish, but because they seem to know my moods.

To add a bit of mystery to the mix, I had fun this summer making up dishes with Gary.  Gary and Joyce are Canadian.  But they are full-time expatriates in Mexico.  They are also the proprietors of Rooster's.

I am not certain how it started.  And I know Gary and I will have diametrically opposed memories.  But one day we were talking about what would be a good addition to the breakfast menu.

I am not very fond of pancakes.  But it occurred to me that the pancake itself is nothing but a binder for other ingredients.  The trick is in finding the correct ingredients.

After several false starts, I found my perfect breakfast.  Well, perfect for a week or two until I moved on to something else.

Pancake batter infused with onion, bacon, and lots of jalapeño peppers.  And, because it is breakfast, it needed a very-lightly-cooked egg on top.

Gary's version featured the same ingredients, with the addition of cheese cooked inside and sour cream on the top.  I preferred my version.  I am not a big fan of cheese cooked in food.  And the less said about sour cream and pancakes, the better.  (I am certain I will soon get a protest note from the Ukrainian delegation.)

I will save the story of the chimichanga stuffed with the chili sauce that goes on the chili cheese dog, onion, bacon, and
lots of jalapeño peppers because I think you can catch the drift of what I think needs to be on my breakfast plate.  No girly fruit and granola for me.

For reasons that are beyond my reckoning, neither the chimichanga de stiv nor the pancake de stiv managed to make the menu cut for this season.  But Gary and Joyce are not food Stalinists.  As long as my creative mind (and lust for
jalapeño peppers) is not sated, I will be spinning out creative breakfast orders.

Of course, if the restaurant world was filled with Steves there would be chaos.  But, as we know from the classic philosophical example: chaos does not ensue if everyone went to the same restaurant at the same time and ordered chicken.


Because they don't.

And just as long as no one cooks up the chicken that is destined to lay my pancake-topping very-lightly-cooked breakfast egg, I will be happy to keep playing my Alexander Fleming role at Rooster's.


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