This is kind of strange, but thinking about egg-salad got me thinking about some of my other childhood comfort foods. People who know me are well aware that I’ve had a long and complicated history with fatty deli meats, namely hard salami (NOT Genoa salami), bologna, and – my personal favorite – hot dogs. While I may tackle these obsessions individually in future posts, it’s the obsession with tube-steak that is most relevant to the subject of this post. Basically, it was my unreasonable obsession with hot dogs (seriously, they were LITERALLY all that I would agree to eat for YEARS of my life) that led to an unreasonable obsession with ketchup as a universal condiment. Essentially, when my parents tried to get me to expand my horizons, and consider ingesting something other than tubes of rendered and processed animal parts, their “move” was to let me slather whatever it was – turkey, salami, pizza, steak, etc. – with ketchup.
Which is what brings us to tacos.
While I’ve expanded the horizons of my taco-making somewhat, every so often it’s comforting to make up an easy batch of ground -meat tacos using a packet of mix and ground beef, turkey, or (if I’m lucky) venison.
Once it’s all cooked and dressed up with grated cheese, shreds of lettuce, salsa, hot sauce, and whatever else will fit in the tortilla, the final touch is a single bead ketchup.
It sounds weird. Hell, it is weird. But there’s something about that sweet and tangy zing that accentuates and unifies all of the other flavors that are squished together inside that tortilla. Try it, I bet you’ll like it.
Or maybe I’m full of shit; maybe it’s just that it reminds me of my childhood.
But hey, that’s not a bad thing.
Cheers
Love, Food & Beer 