Musings by the Hairslave

Well, it’s been a little over 5 weeks, and the house is still on the market.

I was getting discouraged for a while, but we actually have a couple who may make an offer.  We think it’s going to be way too low, but at least we know what type of buyer we appeal to now!

Honestly, I’m loving the house being ready to show at a moments notice.  I’m such a neat freak I’m enjoying my house more while we are selling it than the last 16 years we’ve been here!  Don’t get me wrong, I love the house, and the memories.  Great Christmases,

the garden in spring,

weddings,

and many happy times

but the truth of the matter is…

I don’t have to nag!  It’s awesome!  I know I’m using a lot of exclamation points, but I really mean it!  For the first time in the the 26 years I’ve lived with someone (other than my parents, talk about neat freaks), I have a constantly clean house!

You have to understand, my ex-wife, whom I love like a sister, is a slob.  There is no other way to put it.  A slob.  Great cook, wonderful mother, lover of all things nature, but a slob.  We got along great for 10 years.  The only thing we ever fought about was slobby-ness.  Pete is not a slob, but he’s only human (which he probably wouldn’t say about me).  He has a couple of gifts though.  The first one is his absolute absence of ego.  He will make a complete fool of himself quite comfortably.  It’s truly awe inspiring.  It is his greatest gift, because it makes him the most gifted of teachers, and, I believe, the gifted conductor he is.  His other gift is the rather useless gift of disappearing objects.  I don’t say losing things, because his gift goes way beyond that.  He can actually cause an object to transport to a completely different part of the house.  I’ve seen it.  One of his lesser gifts, however, is the ability to explode upon entrance of the house.  The house can be immaculate, and within exactly two seconds the front room is a disaster.  It follows him through the house.  Luckily I love him, and he will clean when I ask, and spontaneously, and well!

Now, however, it is wonderfully tidy, and even chic!  I was worried at first that the house wasn’t selling, and maybe we needed to change it to get people interested.  Not so much any longer.  I love my house!  I love hanging out in the rooms out of a magazine.

I know eventually reality will win out.  The house will sell, and we will move, and then we won’t have a house on the market, nor out of a magazine.  I’ll still love my home though.  In the end it really matters more who’s in it, not what’s in it…

This is the second in a series of reprints of my food articles. All are reprinted from my original writings with permission from Davis Life Magazine.  I think this may be an early draft, I haven’t had a chance to check it yet, sooo there’s that…

Taqueria Guadalajara

Well, we’ve all heard of the best-laid plans, I’m sure.  Tonight was one of those nights.  Cary Arnold, her husband John Sanchez, photographer Ara Arbabzadeh, Davis Life writer Kaylin Adamski, and I, were planning a nice night of dining on the patio of Taqueria Guadalajara. Instead, due to an unexpected, and quite fierce, spring storm, we dined inside.  But luckily Taqueria Guadalajara’s food makes it just as pleasant to dine in out, or even at home with take-out!

I’ve had the pleasure of working next to Taqueria Guadalajara since the day they opened.  And though I now work near downtown Davis, I still love the trek to south Davis for this excellent (and well run) taqueria.

Back when Taqueria Guadalajara opened, I owned the salon right next door.  We often joked about putting in our own take-out window (as well as asking them to get a liquor license).  At least we half joked!  Between the unique style of guacamole, the fabulous Crispy Tacos, and the free pico de gallo and chips, I, and my staff and clients ate there many days.

When we arrived, we were pleased that it wasn’t too crowded yet.  On a Friday night there can often be quite a line.  But I think the weather was keeping the crowds away, lucky us!

We started with an order of Crispy Carnitas Tacos, Shrimp Ceviche Tostada, an order of Veggie Nachos, and Guacamole.  First let me say that though I very much like the guacamole at Taqueria Guadalajara, be warned it’s not the usual sort.  The guac here is really more of a pico de gallo with a very generous amount of avocado included.  It’s delicious, but not what you might expect.  As with the other pico de gallo, it’s on the spicy side.  Not too spicy, but just enough heat to get you in the mood for a cold beer, soda, or in my case well chilled iced tea!

The pico de gallo at Taqueria Guadalajara is made fresh, with nice chunks of tomato, onion, and spicy peppers.  Why is it called pico de gallo (beak of the rooster)?  I have no idea, neither does anyone I know, but it’s yummy and free.  The nachos are pretty standard fare, but the Taqueria Guadalajara pico de gallo, and guacamole make it a little different, with generous amounts of refried beans, sour cream, and cheese.  Both the nachos and guac make very nice appetizers for the table.

The Ceviche Tostada was very good, very light, and with an extremely generous amount of shrimp.  I recommend eating it quickly; it’s very “moist”.  Overall it’s a pretty simple and tasty dish.  Tortilla and ceviche, not piled high with wasted lettuce.  But, by far, our favorite among these dishes was the Carnitas Crispy Tacos.  Wow, with a bit of lime the carnitas (deep fried pork roast) are awesome.  The crispy tacos are fried to perfection (no low fat diets here, I’m afraid), and the carnitas are among the best I’ve had, and carnitas are my standard fare at Mexican restaurants.

After a short break came the next round: Chile Verde, Camaron al Mojo de Ajo (shrimp in garlic sauce), Chile Relleno, and a special of the day, Garlic and Shrimp Fried Rice. The Chile Verde was wonderfully flavorful, and nicely tender.  The verde sauce was lightly spicy and a little sour, just like it should be. It was accompanied by rice, beans, pico, and tortillas, and made an excellent self-made burrito. The dinners include your choice of corn or flour tortillas, beans (either whole or refried), and rice.  Just in case you care, the beans are vegetarian.  We ordered both corn and flour tortillas, and though I’m not sure if they’re home made or not, they were fresh and hot.

The Camaron al Mojo de Ajo is a favorite of my friend Tenaya Freitas, and she insisted we try it.  I love anything with garlic, so this was a sure bet for me.  The garlic is actually somewhat sweet, and the prawns were a very good size.  Be sure to share it with someone you love.  I thought the Chile Relleno was a little bit of a disappointment.  It arrived a little cold, but that may be because everything had to be photographed before it got to us!  Anyway, my companions all liked it.  It had a very light batter, fresh chilies, and plenty of cheese.  So maybe I was the problem and not the dish .

The special Shrimp and Garlic Fried Rice was not something I’ve seen in a Mexican restaurant before.  It’s more what you’d expect from a Chinese restaurant, with plenty of rice, shrimp, garlic, and various veggies and spices.  I’m not sure it’s something I’d order again, but if you like shrimp and garlic, it’s another good way to go.

Taqueria Guadalajara is run café style, so you can help yourself to all the fountain drinks you want with your meal; and they of course have a good selection of salsa and chips (all you can help yourself to).  They have an assortment of red and green salsas, as well as jalapenos, pickled carrots, and limes.  Several of the salsas were very good, and several were so-so.  The restaurant itself is very small, so the patio really is a very welcome addition. Complete with a fountain, beautiful custom made metal tables and chairs, and lovely shade trees, it’s a very relaxing place to hang out.

I remember when the patio was built.  We were very pleased with the addition of the custom tiles and railing.  If you’re looking for a place to walk the dog (and kids if you like) and hang for a few hours, you couldn’t do much better!  Located in the El Macero shopping center, the patio is available even if you don’t order food at Taqueria Guadalajara.  Good food, good drink, and very pleasant outdoor dining.  What more could you want on a warm summer evening?

I feel bad, but that’s how we usually refer to Homer our (somewhat…odd) other dog. Buddha is the “special” one. We know he’s spoiled, but he just seems to be able to out stubborn us. Not when it counts though, he’s only a little spoiled.

But this is supposed to be about Homer! I was looking through my picture files tonight, and came upon some espiacially cute photos. So, in the hopes that I don’t overwhelm you with cuteness…

Though it’s too true that Homer and I often don’t see eye to eye on certain aspects of the dog’s place in life. He does have a certain charm, and though it is in actual fact the charm of Eor, it’s still charm, and he certainly does clean up well!

Homer does have quite the talent for brightening holiday pictures,

and he manages to compete (and usually win) with certain others in the “lets see who can sleep taking up the most room” contest that seems to happen as a nightly ritual!

But I don’t think he can manage to steal our hearts away from the favorite (we’re so bad).

This is the first in a series of reprints of my food articles. All are reprinted from my original writings with permission from Davis Life Magazine…

I love Indian food. When my son was growing up, the food we could always count on him eating was Indian food. Especially at 8, and if you have children, you know what that can be like. Even on a trip to Italy we managed to find fabulous Indian food. So hubby Pete Nowlen and I were very excited to try out Kathmandu Kitchen with Cary Arnold (our lovely editor), John Sanchez (her handsome husband), and Ara Arbabzadeh our photographer, for this month’s edition of Davis Life Magazine. Kathmandu Kitchen is actually Nepalese, which I’m sure is important, but truthfully I can barely tell the difference, I love both.

The most amazing thing about the evening to me was the fact that Cary and John had never tried Indian or Nepalese! Pete and I (and Ara) got the honor of teaching them the ways of the vindaloo.

We met for drinks beforehand to get everyone in a good mood (liquor is the social lubricant after all). By the time we hit Kathmandu Kitchen we were starving! When we arrived at a little after 7, on a Thursday, the place was packed. I noticed it was mostly college students, but that’s not a bad thing. A busy restaurant is usually a sign of good food! The decor is a little odd. It used to be a pizza parlor, and that’s kind of hard to hide. But the colors are bright, and it reminded me of most Indian restaurants I’ve been too.

We dove right in with two appetizer platters, the Himalayan platter, which includes vegetable pakora, samosa, momos, naan and achar ($6.50), and the Kathmandu special jumbo platter, with 4 chicken pakora, 4 meat momos, 4 shrimp pakora, and 4 chicken tikka with naan and achar ($9.95). What a great deal! Two platters were plenty for the 5 of us. The platters are served with four sauces. One is tamarind chutney, one is mint chutney, and two we didn’t recognize (good, but one was VERY spicy).

One thing I learned doing research on the Davis Wiki was about the momos. Momos are steamed dumplings filled with a savory mixture of meat or vegetables and spices. I’d never had them before (they’re not on a lot of menus). I started with a meat momo, and I can happily say it was fantastic! Great flavor, moist, and perfect size, they’re similar to pot stickers, and I like them just as much. The pakoras and samosas were very good; a pakora is a fried fritter consisting of a batter with vegetables, or vegetables and meat. A samosa is a pastry stuffed with chickpeas, potatoes and sometimes chicken or paneer, the homemade Indian cheese. I would have said samosas were my favorite Indian appetizer before I tried the momos, but they’re still a very strong second, maybe still first? We’ll see.

The chicken tikka on the appetizer platter was somewhat dry. If you like chicken tikka, don’t judge it by this. The chicken on the mixed grill platter that we had later was much better.

One thing about the platters that I really liked was the size of each appetizer. Pete and I often have to cut the pakoras and samosas to share, but on the platter everything was single serving.

Cary and John fell in love with the naan, which I have to admit is my favorite part of Indian, or Nepalese food. There’s something magical about dipping hot fresh naan in the various sauces and chutneys. Naan is a type of flat bread cooked in a clay pot in the Tandoori oven and served hot and fresh. They have 9 different types of bread, but we stuck with the plain naan. Pete and I usually order garlic naan as well, but we were doing well to cut down on the number of different dishes to choose from. The menu is very large, and tempting with plenty of choices for anyone, meat eater or vegetarian!

At the time the appetizers came we got the lassis we requested. Lassi is a yogurt drink that comes in a few different flavors. None of us had ever tried them, so we didn’t really know what to expect. We got mango and salt, and yes, I mean salt flavor! The mango was not overly sweet and did go well with the chutneys and spices, but we didn’t really appreciate them the way others might. I might be able to get used to them, however. The salt lassi was totally undrinkable to us. One of our company said if you froze it, it would make a good salt lick. Though I’m sure someone must like them, it wasn’t us. Be warned.

We also ordered two of the soups. We all tasted the multani, and the dal soup ($3.50 each). They were very flavorful and delicate. Multani is a type of chicken soup, and dal is a light, sometimes almost bland, lentil soup. Neither of these soups was bland, I didn’t even feel the need to salt, which is often the case with bean or lentil soups. I could easily make a meal of a salad and bowl of one of these soups, especially with an order of naan.

Next up were the lamb vindaloo ($10.95), and the baigan bharta ($8.95). I don’t normally like lamb, but the vindaloo was excellent. We got it medium (after this everything was ordered mild!), and though most at the table thought it was too spicy, I think it was perfect. The spice was just enough to get the endorphins pumping, but not so much that you were sorry you started. With a little raita, a type of flavored yogurt sauce which I love, and the very light basmati rice, the spice is easily managed. The lamb was very tender and flavorful.

The baigan bharta is eggplant roasted in a clay pot with green onion, garlic, bell pepper, herbs, and spices. I don’t like eggplant, never have, but it was good. It was rich and flavorful. Everyone enjoyed it with the naan. We ordered this dish as a thali, a traditional Nepalese dinner that is served with rice, dal, naan, chutney, and several vegetable curry dishes. I always order the thali; it’s the best deal other than the lunch buffet. The a la Carte comes with rice only.

Next we were served the chicken tikka masala ($10.95), the palak paneer ($8.95), and the mixed grill platter ($14.95). The masala was good, but it was a little sour for my taste, not bad, but different than I expected. The fact that it’s not as red as I’ve seen leads me to believe they use less food coloring in their recipe, which I for one am glad of. When I go back I’ll probably order it again, I can be a terrible creature of habit.

The palak paneer was exactly as I like, house made cheese (paneer) in a creamy spinach and herb sauce. I like this dish because it’s easy to eat along with the other spicy dishes. The creaminess of the sauce is very mild and soothing.

Cary especially enjoyed the rack of lamb on the mixed grill platter, which she thought was the best of the lamb. The mixed grill is a selection of marinated red snapper, prawns, chicken, lamb, and rack of lamb, which is roasted and served on a sizzling platter. Pete enjoyed the prawns (but he thought shrimp was a better description, they were on the small side), and I think John enjoyed most everything from what I remember.

We decided at this point we had had plenty to eat, and though some of the desserts seemed worth trying, none of us was hungry enough to be tempted. The kulfi, a creamy and rich ice cream made predominantly with saffron and pistachio ($3.25) sounds like a possibility the next time.

Overall I have to say I enjoyed the evening. The service, while not overly friendly was good, but the lighting was kind of harsh. Not necessarily a date night sort of place. As a businessperson I feel compelled to complain about the bathrooms. Everyone agreed that they were some-what scary, think frat house. But it was a very busy evening. Maybe they’re better most of the time. The prices were very reasonable for the amount of food we consumed. The beers were large (they say the Taj Mahal is the most popular) and food delicious enough that I’m sure Pete and I will be back. I think we even managed to snag the newbies.

Kathmandu Kitchen is located at 234 G St., in Davis, (530) 756-3507, www.kathmandukitchen.com.