This coke bottle was painted on a pop-out panel under the driver's side window on El Ultimo taco truck which parks in front of the carwash at Long Point and Antoine.
Using a mechanical element of the truck's body in the painting is one of my favorite taco truck art witticisms. The rivets around the bottle kind of remind me of an array of water droplets. -- Robb Walsh
We're certainly not trying to get all Good Housekeeping on you. Hell, we all love the venerable day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich. But if you're looking for something more than white meat on mayo, try a few of these recipes that some local foodies have offered up.
Mickey Kapoor, who owns Khyber North Indian Grill, has been a little busy with his restaurant's marquee, which currently says "These Indians have nothing to do with turkeys." "It's a public service announcement, really," he says. "People have been calling all day, confused." But he doesn't mind spending a few minutes Kapoor suggests going tikka with your turkey.
Mickey Kapoor's Turkey Tikka Marsala
You'll need:Turkey breast, sliced thick
1 can of Heinz tomato sauce
Cilantro, cumin, coriander and if possible, garam marsala (try Fiesta)
Then:
"Heat the tomato sauce, add the spices — the garam marsala will make it really Indian," says Kapoor. "Dump the sauce over the turkey breast and serve. This is actually one of the great secrets in Indian restaurants. You could put me out of business with this recipe nonsense."
Jay Francis, "Houston's ethnic explorer," as Robb Walsh calls him, has an easy recipe for a Mexican-themed leftover turkey with mole recipe for bachelors or busy folks who eat over the sink. Try this:
Jay Francis's Mexican Turkey for Bachelors
You'll need:1.5 pounds of shredded turkey skinless, preferably white meat
1 jar Do�a Maria mole sauce
2 cups chicken stock.
Then:
In a saucepan, heat chicken stock with Do�a Maria mole sauce. Heat/stir until blended and thickened. Add turkey; blend until warm. Serve on heated tortillas. Enjoy.
Finally, Sylvia Copeland, owner of Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen, shares her recipes for some quick turkey mole enchiladas. This recipe is much more involved than Francis's and Kapoor's, but it'll show your crowd that you're a real jefe in the kitchen.
After the jump: Sylvia's Quick Turkey-Mole Enchiladas
Injecting a turkey with a great big hypodermic needle full of pepper sauce and spices had to be the weirdest Thanksgiving activity at my house this year. "Gather round children, we're going to shoot up the turkey now!" Only the Cajuns could come up with something this deliciously perverse. I made up my own injector sauce on the fly, but there are zillions of recipes out there.
Our Cajun fried turkey came out great. Shot up with spices and sprinkled liberally inside and out with Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning, it tasted like a 12-pound chunk of Frenchy's fried chicken.
Farmers in East Texas once grew cane and brought it to the local syrup mills, but the tradition has all but disappeared. The syrup mill at the festival is used only once a year, and it's one of the last places in Texas you can see cane syrup being made.
You can get Steen's cane syrup from Louisiana in the grocery store. There's also a couple of good cane syrups on sale at Canino's in the Farmer's Market on Airline.
The syrup festival is held every year on the grounds of the Depot Museum in Henderson, which is about an hour north of Nacogdoches on Highway 59. -- Robb Walsh
The "Tacos El Amigo" truck is parked at the northwest corner of Renwick and Dashwood in front of the Renwick Washateria. Do�a Maria is the head chef and her food is "todo estilo Mexico" according to her card. The torta is the thing to eat here.
Do�a Maria's special genius shines in the creation she calls the "torta Cubana." A regular Cuban sandwich is slices of roast pork, ham and cheese on a sandwich roll, heated in a sandwich press until the cheese is gooey and the sandwich is quite flat. But the torta Cubana "estilo Mexico" served at the Tacos El Amigo truck transcends the standard version. It is made with fajita meat, ham, a hot dog cut into lengthwise sections, cheese, lettuce tomato, and lots of guacamole with hot sauce on the side. Don't miss it!
The rest of the menu is iffy. The tacos are plain. The gordita is a bad joke. A gordita is a supposed to be a round of masa fried until a pocket forms in the middle. One end of the fried corn dough pillow is then cut off and the interior is stuffed with your choice of delicacies and dressed with lettuce and tomato. At the Tacos El Amigo truck, a gordita is two flat corn tortillas with some filling in between and the lettuce and tomato piled on top. Ridiculous!
Thank goodness for the Mexican Cuban sandwich. As long as you're there, you might as well buy three or four. -- Robb Walsh
Sabor Venezolano is the name of a taco truck at Westheimer and Fondren that specializes in arepas, meat pies and plantain dishes from Venezuela. A Venezuelan family who had gathered there to eat lunch highly recommended that I try the patacon, which looks like a sandwich.
But instead of two slices of bread there's some green plantains that have been fried together into crispy rounds. A pile of shredded beef, a layer of ham, some cheese, and lettuce, tomato and mayo are layered between two of the plantain crusts.
It tastes spectacular and its also very filling. A sauce made of cream with a little feta and basil, is served on the side. Chileheads might consider taking their patacons home and doctoring them up with a little hot sauce.
The corn cakes called arepas are split, gordita-style, and stuffed with your choice of meats. I tried the shredded chicken and loved it--after the addition of a little chile sauce.
The truck opens for business at 7 a.m. with 99 cent breakfast tacos. There's also a Mexican taco menu if you aren't interested in trying la sabor Venezolano. -- Robb Walsh
