Stay classy, Daly City
Recipe for Ghetto DC Carne Asada Fries:
1. Complain that San Diego (or even the Mission) is too far.
2. Drive to Westlake.
3. Buy a steak burrito bowl from Chipotle (steak, beans, guac, sour cream, cheese, tomato salsa).
4. Buy a bag (or two) of fries from the Nation's next door.
5. Carefully place contents of burrito bowl atop the fries.
6. Mix.
7. Think about how much you miss your San Diego (and Santa Barbara) friends.
For the uninitiated, carne asada fries are probably San Diego's biggest and best contribution to the culinary world. A beautiful combination of all-American fries and the contents of that Mexican-American stalwart, the burrito, it is a delicious representation of California in a beefy, cheesy and supremely unhealthy package of flavour-packed goodness.
When I went to college in Santa Barbara - and this is why I say a representation of California, rather than just San Diego; also, the style of burrito used in creating carne asada fries is San Franciscan - my favourite Mexican joint was a small taqueria a block off campus called Super Cuca's. Super Cuca's was just like all the other taquerias in IV, with one very important distinction - only they served carne asada fries.. Cuca's was the more personable of the burrito places in IV; while Freebirds took all the glory - having been founded by UCSB graduate Mark Orfalea, being situated at an important street corner in IV and staying open for twenty-four hours - Cuca's felt more homey due to less crowds, lower prices but not by much and a lower profile. It was almost like a campus secret, although not a well-kept one. lol. But in comparison to Freebirds, which even out-of-towners knew by name, only the upperclassmen truly appreciated Cuca's. Especially me, as it was closer to where I lived.
Save for my first year on the other side of campus, I lived in the cluster of dorms next to IV called "the Farside" (due to the dorms being farther from the class buildings than the original "Channel Five," i.e. the five dormitories named after the Channel Islands), and Cuca's was only a block away from the bike path separating the dorms from IV. Thus, it was a favourite of mine from the beginning. It got really bad junior year of college, as I lived in an apartment in the quarter before I went to Paris: the apartment was on Sabado Tarde, on the same block as Cuca's. Between my ineptitude at cooking, my lack of a dorm meal plan, and the proximity of Cuca's, the result is obvious. In October, that heady first month of living the off-campus life, I practically lived on Cuca's. October being my birthday month, midterm month and the month of Halloween (the craziest party in Santa Barbara), I had Cuca's carne asada fries every weekend, after partying, and a few times during the week, while studying. (Plus, each serving was enough to keep me fed for like two days, so I had them for leftovers.) I think I gained ten to fifteen pounds during the month of October. And yet, I was still relatively light when I think of it... I was at least one or two dress sizes smaller than I am now. I'd lost twenty pounds afterwards, during my five months in Paris, but gained about thirty back in the last two years. T_______T
Now sociologique, being the resident San Diegan on my flist, would probably turn up her nose at my poor facsimile of her hometown favourite, but I bet that based on where she lives now she probably misses carne asada fries more than I do.
1. Complain that San Diego (or even the Mission) is too far.
2. Drive to Westlake.
3. Buy a steak burrito bowl from Chipotle (steak, beans, guac, sour cream, cheese, tomato salsa).
4. Buy a bag (or two) of fries from the Nation's next door.
5. Carefully place contents of burrito bowl atop the fries.
6. Mix.
7. Think about how much you miss your San Diego (and Santa Barbara) friends.
For the uninitiated, carne asada fries are probably San Diego's biggest and best contribution to the culinary world. A beautiful combination of all-American fries and the contents of that Mexican-American stalwart, the burrito, it is a delicious representation of California in a beefy, cheesy and supremely unhealthy package of flavour-packed goodness.
When I went to college in Santa Barbara - and this is why I say a representation of California, rather than just San Diego; also, the style of burrito used in creating carne asada fries is San Franciscan - my favourite Mexican joint was a small taqueria a block off campus called Super Cuca's. Super Cuca's was just like all the other taquerias in IV, with one very important distinction - only they served carne asada fries.. Cuca's was the more personable of the burrito places in IV; while Freebirds took all the glory - having been founded by UCSB graduate Mark Orfalea, being situated at an important street corner in IV and staying open for twenty-four hours - Cuca's felt more homey due to less crowds, lower prices but not by much and a lower profile. It was almost like a campus secret, although not a well-kept one. lol. But in comparison to Freebirds, which even out-of-towners knew by name, only the upperclassmen truly appreciated Cuca's. Especially me, as it was closer to where I lived.
Save for my first year on the other side of campus, I lived in the cluster of dorms next to IV called "the Farside" (due to the dorms being farther from the class buildings than the original "Channel Five," i.e. the five dormitories named after the Channel Islands), and Cuca's was only a block away from the bike path separating the dorms from IV. Thus, it was a favourite of mine from the beginning. It got really bad junior year of college, as I lived in an apartment in the quarter before I went to Paris: the apartment was on Sabado Tarde, on the same block as Cuca's. Between my ineptitude at cooking, my lack of a dorm meal plan, and the proximity of Cuca's, the result is obvious. In October, that heady first month of living the off-campus life, I practically lived on Cuca's. October being my birthday month, midterm month and the month of Halloween (the craziest party in Santa Barbara), I had Cuca's carne asada fries every weekend, after partying, and a few times during the week, while studying. (Plus, each serving was enough to keep me fed for like two days, so I had them for leftovers.) I think I gained ten to fifteen pounds during the month of October. And yet, I was still relatively light when I think of it... I was at least one or two dress sizes smaller than I am now. I'd lost twenty pounds afterwards, during my five months in Paris, but gained about thirty back in the last two years. T_______T
Now sociologique, being the resident San Diegan on my flist, would probably turn up her nose at my poor facsimile of her hometown favourite, but I bet that based on where she lives now she probably misses carne asada fries more than I do.