Taco Week 2023

Back in 2016, I read the book "Julie and Julia". For one whole year, Julie Powell had this themed undercurrent that was the star of every day for 365 days in a row. The book was riveting and stark, and the movie was cutesy and profitable. I wanted a quest. Her adventure was so unique. I could copycat that and choose Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking, or the Vietnam Memories cookbook. But to cook through one of those books in a year would be a significant challenge, and one I feel that I am not up to at this point with everything else that I have to do during my busy weeks. That said, Julie Powell, you were a superhero.  Sadly we lost Julie last November at the young age of 49.

In February 2021, I found a theme that I thought I could handle. I had this idea about having a taco week, its goal is to create a completely different taco every night that week. It was intense, educational, fun, delicious, and memorable. February for me can feel like I am on the International Space Station, counting the days till my return to earth, with 18 months to go. Taco week adds a festive distraction to the long short month.

For 2023, I wanted to take it a step further.  I loved the raw learning of pulling a farmer's market or cooking for 165 people I have previously experienced. What could I do to increase the challenge? It was not hard to come up with.  Food is better when shared, so this year, I would adopt someone's family.  The family, known affectionately as the Ryba's would pick up their evening meal from my kitchen each night, and hopefully, it would be great. The meals fed five to seven people a night and produced leftovers throughout the week.

Overall taco week was a success. If I had to sum it up in one word, that would be “control“. With some brief moments of an off-target taste or outcome, there really was never a doubt about whether I could save it or not. Well, that’s not exactly true.  I did have one moment in which I almost threw away a sauce. I also had a batter that showed a pepperiness that never happened before. Obviously, a different brand of spice or ingredient can change the game.

The first two nights begin with using charcoal and wood chips to cook the proteins. Sunday was taco-night 1. Carne Asada tacos. These are char-cooked marinated beef and they were cooked perfectly. What I find amazing about that is the logistics part of this. My desire to use charcoal made me have to deal with an unwelcome reality. Lately, it’s been pretty mild, and one might actually start to believe that spring was coming. But this is Vermont and it’s February, let’s not kid ourselves. So on Sunday a cold wind kicked up and made me very nervous about the idea of using a charcoal grill on my deck even if I put a fireproof mat under it. So I moved the charcoal grill to the backyard. This put the meat cooking station on a completely different floor from the rest of the preparation which is upstairs in my kitchen. 

It’s kind of funny but I was looking at my Garmin data for day one and day two Sunday and Monday and I have 28 stair events on Sunday and 25 stair events on Monday. It is also very surprising that I could have cooked beef, actually, a lot of beef, so perfectly while having to run back and forth like I was attending 2 parties at the same time. 

Monday, taco-day 2 perplexes me. The Pollo Asado chicken is made with boneless skinless chicken thighs after a 48-hour marinade, which of course is far more forgiving than chicken breast. While this meal was a success, I am my own worst critic. Making absolutely sure I was hitting the prized 165° Fahrenheit on the poultry, I went over the temperature. I usually pull sooner and allow residual cooking to take place. It wasn’t what you could call dry in a white meat sort of way. But it could have been dialed back for sure to allow the natural juices to prevail. The flavors were right where I wanted them.

Wednesday night taco-night 3, my copycat recipe of an Applebee’s appetizer from 12 years ago was this night star. It was also the Ryba family's favorite taco of the week. I have refined and sharpened the flavors in this recipe which maybe only visually does it resemble its inspiration. Everything about those crispy chicken Asian slider tacos I have given new life to. And they came out perfectly. The wontons were fried at the precise temperature to have every single one come out perfectly golden and crunchy. The chicken was tasty and velvety. The Asian slaw was savory. The peppers and onions popped with brightness. If there was not a party going on at the Ryba's before this dish was served there certainly was afterward.

Taco-night 4 was good, although looking back on it I could actually begin to see some interesting fatigue showing. This fatigue was only in my perception of things.  Chipotle shrimp tacos with bacon lime-cilantro slaw and lime Crema. Also did roasted pork butt tacos with a creamy soy-based sauce, bacon slaw, and pickled jalapeños. The flavors were excellent. My one critique of this taco was that I was mocking pork belly with the pork butt. So I slowly roasted it at a high temperature for 30 minutes then drop back to 275 for over an hour. You can do this with pork belly with no problem and it comes out beautiful, but you cannot do this with pork butt. The pork was overcooked, yes. No one really seems to care though, evidently because it tasted so great that flavor overshadowed a tremendous amount of cooking it endured. Talk about distraction. This would have certainly taken me out at the Judges' Table.   In hindsight, were I to cook this like I was cooking Chinese Char Siu, it would have been the bomb!

Friday taco night 5. I really thought this would be my auto-pilot meal. I have made a variation of Baja fish tacos for about 18 years now. I can do it in my sleep. I made the avocado lime cilantro sauce and to my surprise, it did not taste as it should’ve. I use yogurt to substitute sour cream as sour cream can bother some people's stomachs. This time I used a different brand of yogurt and got a different outcome. For a moment I thought about starting over, then I got my head back into the right space and asked myself "how do I pull this back together"? After all, one time I accidentally used Banilla flavored yogurt and it was STILL good!

This is where you really know that you’re instincts are adapted. Add, taste, add, taste, taste, add, taste and OK, we’re back! I was so pleased with the 3.7 pounds of cod that I found in West Lebanon, it was beautiful, fresh, and firm. Seasoned, then dipped in a beer batter and deep fried. One plate in, I decided to taste, and much to my surprise, this also did not taste like I expect it to. It seemed peppery. So I added another cup of flour and started adding seasonings. This had to be completely intuitive because raw fish was in this batter, you cannot just taste and season here! 1 piece dropped into the fryer then back out, taste test, all good now! Now I have enough batter to fry 20 pounds of fish!

The Ryba’s went on their way with their dinner and I with mine. The only thing left to do for taco week is clean up this greasy mess. I am happy it turned out the way it did. It was fun to share. It was very educational to have deadlines, and it was amazing to see how much I have grown in ability, technique, and purpose! I love the control I had over everything and I was very surprised that my awareness of that control began fading in the final two days. Thursday I began second-guessing myself, and Friday I almost tossed 2 key ingredients and started over before I realized that I can do better, right from where I was. Don’t ask at this juncture "what did I do wrong"? Ask instead "where do I go from here"?

Cooking for the Ryba's was a great experience.  I am grateful for them to do this adventure and to be starkly honest about everything. The connection you can have with the people you are sharing your cooking with is fantastic.  In Korea, there is great respect and honor that goes into sharing a meal together.  When a Korean host has invited you to a meal, upon arrival, it is customary to tell the host, "잘 먹겠습니다 – Jal meok-ge-sseum-ni-da – I will eat well".  It is a respectful statement that says, "I appreciate the effort you have put into preparing this meal, I will have a wonderful meal because of you."  It is times like this, that you can really understand that connection.

What will there be for future challenges?  Who knows.  But, there are many other months in the year that could use a little something extra.