Susan Feniger, celebrity chef stands near a meat cart eating pickled spicy pig hocks at midnight in the middle of one of Oaxaca city’s unlit side streets. The rest of the party is confused.
What do we do now?
I’m not eatin that stuff.
This area is like death, Susan….
Mary Sue just sneers at her. The shops have rolled their metal grates down. Dangerous part of some little Mexican city.
Look at the temperature of that stuff…who wants some poison?
Susan’s like O come on. Please you guys, be real…Chris…eat this…
Seriously? Chef. Chris. Don’t, says the photographer…there’s a writer with us too…I can’t remember her name.
I really don’t care. I’m already sick from food, but whatever, I don’t mind what happens.
Mary Sue as usual says nothing. I never know what’s her trip…she can put on the smile of sarcasm…O she’s a hater. Definitely didn’t have no holes in her shoes when she was a kid…certainly thinks she’s something special.
Alright….ah, tastes good. Yeah that’s Ok, it’s kind of tepid…it’s in the bacteria ‘danger zone’ if you will…the danger zone…crap well, if there’s enough jalapenos in this it should kill everything anyway
Susan says, O lighten up. She’s sticking the 80 degree greasy pork meat in her mouth. In my mouth, tries to get some in Liz’s mouth…Liz is like O nope. That’s sick.
The dangerous neighborhood is crawling with zombies. Susan’s wrists are jangling with silver jewelry. Always with the silver bracelets w/fobs and bells and little iconic doodads…Nose ring, earrings like I don’t know 12 of em or more…

Downtown Ogden’s only Community Garden, The Oasis is located between 24th and 25th and between Monroe and Madison…it’s not super well known yet…it’s by that 7-11 where all the Ogden PD are always hanging out…the neighborhood has fallen into disrepair, to say the least, and those of us who live in the community want to be part of bringing that area back to life. The Sonora Grill and Rickenbacker’s employees went to the Oasis Saturday morning and did some maintenance …shoveled some mulch, picked up some trash, pulled weeds…left no garbage behind…If you want to do something to satisfy your soul, hit the Oasis, bring a friend and a Frisbee…volunteer a little time to checking in on the place. Bring the kids…It’s fun, free and easy.

So whats the deal with Monte Alban? Where was that outer space thing going…well, it’s a collection of giant rudimentary pyramids and there’s something in there that we know as a ‘Ball Court’ where the native Zapotecs used to play a dangerous and difficult game of like one-on-one soccer and but the ball was a human skull, or a rounded rock like the size of a human skull and you could only use your shoulders, knees, body, face, whatever, but you couldn’t use your hands and you had to get the ‘ball’ in the Ball Court’s goal, which was quite small and the winner of the game got to live and the loser was killed. Sounds pretty wacko…but at the same time, exciting. But what else were they doing? Not like they had to go to jobs or shovel snow…all these cats were in the business of building these Pyramid structures using technology they learned from The Aliens. And the real big clue to the Zapotecs from Monte Alban/Aliens from Rigel 12 connection is right in your face. Very obviously situated in the middle of the place…one of the stone structures is not in the shape of a pyramid. It is an aberration. It seems like it doesn’t belong there, right in the giant Monte Alban compound. This stone structure, some experts believe looks like a ship. Possibly, it’s supposed to be a rocket or some kind of spaceship from out in the physical universe.
I don’t really know. I mean scientists will tell you that we seem to know all this history about these like ancient ‘rituals’ and stuff and ball courts and things. So why can’t there be space aliens too, right? I figure it’s a 50/50 chance there are aliens. Either there are or there are not…so since you can’t rule out Aliens 100%…you really can’t say for sure they don’t exist…and so anyway, my traveling companion, K and I are discussing this while we watch the sunset and we’re looking down from the pyramid’s stairs at this structure which is even called ‘The Ship’ and I’m saying to K,
Are you hungry? We should go back down into that town we passed and eat some mole.
Zaachila?
Yeah, Zaachila…get some mole, yeah?

K and I were just watching the late afternoon sun go down in the west. We were sitting on a row of stairs going up a pyramid…One of the several pyramids of Monte Alban just outside of the city of Oaxcaca…while were there in the area we had seen so much, done so much, eaten so much…Grasshopper pizza AKA tlayudas con chapulines…seriously…and we had a driver, Constantine. We paid him about 100 bucks and he was glued to us for days. You gotta do that in Oaxaca; get a driver!
Monte Alban is a vast compound on top of a mountain that once, a couple thousand years ago was filled with people who probably thought it was a very spiritual location…it’s a pretty good place to watch a sunset, I can tell you. There is also some speculation about whether or not this is one of the locations where the space ships landed…but it was inevitably colonized by European aliens, not little green men from outer space.

Well, snow is upon us. I can feel it in the air. It hailed like mad last night downtown. I just live several blocks from the restaurant (which is quite convenient for when you need a fix of some awesome Mexican food). They opened a new coffee place down by the Sonora Grill. It’s nice. The cold rain and the coffee, ahhh…it all reminds me of a time when I was a younger Executive Chef in Portland, Oregon. I had a good time in the Pacific NW… Making Northwest style food, like salmon and berries and hazelnuts and spring greens and whole lambs and all that sort of thing…hitting Grateful Dead hippy comunes type organic farms on Sauvie Island on the weekends…kind of had that green culture vibe in Portland. I think it exists here in Ogden too.

The company I worked for, McCormick and Schmick’s had sent me to Seattle to be the Executive Chef at this Seafood joint downtown. It was an awesome job, for sure. I loved every cold and wet, coffee-drinking minute of it. I can handle rain. Snow, that’s a little tougher…

Anyhow, the company loved me, respected me, and sent me to the big city to basically be the Hatchet Man and fire everyone in the restaurant, one at a time… It’s a hardcore business for sure…I recall standing there in the Seattle drizzling mist, across the street from the restaurant with a paper cup of Starbucks coffee in my hand and a cigarette in my mouth, thinking…who am I gonna fire today? Which one of these poor guys is going home without a job today? and then I’d walk in and cut someone’s head off…after several years of that, I was ready to quit smoking for sure…I did too!

Did anyone see the travel channel’s show No Reservation with Anthony Bourdain in Mexico City? Man they were eating tacos like there was no tomorrow! They were eatin eyeball tacos! But then the bullfight in Puebla. I don’t know if I’m for the bull or the matador…I’ve been to Mexico, but I’ve never been to Puebla. If anyone’s going down there and wants to sport for my ticket and put me up for a few days or something…I could be quite entertaining! We can eat mass amounts a tacos! My favorite are the tongue tacos. Unfortunately, I recently had some at a particular taco truck in the vicinity that were…disappointing, let’s say… I’m a bit of a Bourdain acolyte. It’s true. But who doesn’t love to go places? Seriously, hook a chef up with a weekend in Mexico! I got my passport and my Spanish is still pretty good…

Courtney Larsen and I gave a Mexican BBQ/Carne Asada class last night at Sonora Grill. Thanks to all who attended. We had fun. Copies of the class recipes are always included, FYI, but for those who couldn’t get there last night I wanted to kick this recipe to you because this smoky, spicy, garlicky salsa was very delicious.

Courtney’s Carne Asada Salsa
5 large ripe tomatoes
4 tomatillos
1 great big white onion, peeled
2 Anaheim chiles
2 serrano chile
Kosher salt , black pepper and lime juice to taste
Put the ingredients on a skewer and grill them till charred, with tasty bits, not too too burnt, and then pulse all ingredients in a blender.

MARGARITA SPECIAL – ECLIPSE MARGARITA, IN HONOR OF THAT  TWILIGHT MOVIE COMING OUT. YAY! JOSE CUERVO, BLUE CURACAO ORANGE LIQUOR, FRESH LIME, CRANBERRY JUICE, CHATEAU MONET RASPBERRY LIQUEUR. ONCE YOU STIR IT, IT TURNS BLACK LIKE A VAMPIRE`S HEART! WE STILL HAVE HEINKEN LIGHT FOR THREE DOLLARS. GO TEAM EDWARD!

Last week, Steve and I went to Abravanel Hall down in SLC to see Anthony Bourdain talking about food and travel, celebrity chefs and about being a dad and eating strange foods in third world countries. He is a great writer, a knowledgeable chef, and a very funny and insightful speaker. He spoke for a certain period of time and then he opened up the floor, took some questions and then when he was done speaking he just walked off stage and split. A very cool guy…if he was still speaking, I would still be sitting there.

Every Friday the Sonora Grill flies in fresh fish from Hawaii. Fish so fresh that when you come down to get your ceviche, it’s really going to blow you away. Chef Courtney is creating exciting new dishes utilizing this seafood that has been out of the pacific literally about 20 hours. You’ll be able to taste the freshness. This latest and greatest of his creations, the fresh mahi mahi with burnt orange vinaigrette, pico de gallo, pepita-poblano salsa…it’s off the hook!