Spelt Almond Waffles With Fresh Picked Berries

I love this time of the year because the blackberries are plump and ripe in the back of my courtyard.  I always pluck one off when passing through, blow on the berry, hope that there aren't any bugs, and pop it into my mouth for a warm, sweet, juicy, burst of berry.  Mmmm!

They are so good that every year people from the neighborhood like to steal a few from the other side  of the fence.  I don't mind sharing, but I had to draw the line when someone was trimming the branches  and pulling them through the fence gaps.  Geez, you give someone and inch and he takes a mile.  He left a mess of dirt on the pavement after I shooed him away with a very stern scolding.  Many of the red berries that had not yet ripened into black had been trimmed away.  I couldn't understand what he'd want with the red unripe berries and then it made sense when someone told me that people make hooch from them.  I've been keeping a close eye on the bushes now but I don't think the blackberry-bush-decimator will be coming back.

The day I chased the berry stealer away, I picked a couple handfuls of the sweet morsels for myself.  Then I made up a waffle recipe using spelt flour and almond meal and baked them in my waffle iron.   I have a HUGE Waring Pro Belgian waffle maker that my mom gave to me as a Christmas present a few years ago.  I was actually quite disappointed when I received the gift.  I never made waffles or had much of a desire to.  The contraption takes up a lot of space which is not desirable when living in a small apartment.  Because it was a gift from my mother, I didn't have the heart to get rid of it.  Eventually I decided to try it out after it sat around collecting dust for months on end.  I now LOVE my waffle maker.  It makes for fun weekend brunch times.  It makes breakfast / brunch feel so homey and celebratory.

These waffles turned out a bit dry so I will not be posting the recipe.  I also make a spelt-buckwheat waffle and I'm still trying to perfect the technique on that one.  Maybe it's my waffle iron but the waffles can't get crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  It can be set on a higher setting but then it just gets browner, not necessarily crisper.

I topped these almond spelt waffles with the fresh picked berries, maple syrup, and plain Greek yogurt sweetened with honey.  Even though the waffles were dry, the toppings made them moist and tasty.  I will try tweaking the recipe a little more in the future but all in all, the waffles were a delicious success. 

Duro Con Cueritos

I love chicharrones.  Otherwise known as pork skins or pork rinds.  That sinfully crispy crunchy fried pork snack that most people shy away from.  I like buying a bag of plain chicharrones and eating them with a squeeze of lime and a dab of hot sauce.  So when my neighborhood ice cream truck had something listed on the front as “ chicharrones cueritos”, I knew that I had to try it sometime.  Especially when I saw a guy walking away with what looked like a plate full of fun toppings. 

Today, when I heard the ice cream truck’s song, I jumped up and ran out the door and ordered the very last plate of chicharrones cueritos.  It took the lady in the truck five minutes to assemble the whole thing.  As I watched her pull out a large jar of what looked like sliced onions in water, I realized that there weren’t any crispy fried pork skins involved in the concoction.  Those weren’t onions at all but “cueritos” which are pickled pork skins. Well, I thought to myself, I guess I will just have to try it at least.  I can’t chicken out of this now!

For some reason, typically unappetizing food items can seem appetizing when they are fried.  When some such food is served in another way, I don’t really want to eat it it.  For example, I would much rather eat a crispy fried bug than the same in a stew. Yick.

This pork skin dish that I had is really called “duro con cueritos”. The duro is a deep fried square curved flour thing, which resembles a giant slab of fried pork skin.  This holds everything else inside of it.  The ice cream truck lady first slathered on some Miracle Whip.  (I never eat that stuff.  It is much too processed and tastes too weird to tempt me.)  On top of that she layered shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced onions, fresh sliced jalapeños, tomatoes, and the cueritos.  She then topped it all off with a crumbly Mexican cheese that tasted like Cotija cheese,  Tapatio hot sauce, and Mexican crema, which is a runny version of sour cream. 

I took this strange concoction home, quickly photographed it with my new macro lens and proceeded to eat three quarters of it. The cueritos had a gelatinous texture. The crema and Miracle Whip drenched everything and the duro was a soggy by the time I was done photographing it (which didn’t take long).  Only the duro's edges remained crispy.   I found myself wishing for more iceberg lettuce and the other veggies.  But I always wish for more lettuce.  I can remember savoring the lettuce more than a fast food burger I had when I was fifteen.  Anyways…the duro con cueritos wasn’t bad but it isn’t what I will find myself craving in the future.  Am I glad I tried it?  Of course I am because I will now stop obsessing about it every time I hear the ice cream truck. But all in all, I don’t think I will order it again.

Burma Super Star

Mohinga fish soup

Tan Poi

Chili Lamb

We recently went on a road trip where we visited Death Valley, Mono Lake, Oakland, and San Francisco.  A few snapshots of our trip can be found on my Flickr page.  We ate all sort of food on our trip.  Sometimes it wasn't so exciting like when we had cereal for dinner.  My favorite camp food was the pre-seasoned meat bought at our corner Mexican market that was charcoal-grilled to perfection. Then the most fun eating was at the restaurants we visited in the Bay Area.  Oh how I miss eating in San Francisco and its environs!


This post is about one of the ultra yummy restaurants that we went to called Burma Super Star.  I was fixated on going to this place when I was informed that there was a Burmese restaurant near my friends' house in Oakland.  When I used to live in San Francisco, I'd sometimes eat at a little hole-in-the-wall downtown dive that served Burmese food.  This type of cuisine was and still is very unique to me because I rarely eat it.  The dish that I always got at the divey place was a fish soup topped with a hard boiled egg and little crispy crackly treats on the top.  I never forgot that soup.  Every once in a while, I'd think of that special soup and wonder if I'd ever taste it again.


 As luck would have it, Burma Superstar had moh hinga, the legend-in-my-heart-and-stomach-soup.  We also had mimosas, tan poi (spiced basmatti rice topped with fried onions), and chili lamb.  The moh hinga was the star of the meal hands down.  It was delicious and savored it for all it was worth.  It was just like I remembered. Sigh.


Oh, and another place that I recommend is Barlata Tapas Bar.  It is just a few doors down from  Burma Superstar on Telegraph.  It was so super tasty but I have no photos or notes and my memory is fuzzy except for the certainty that it was delicious.  Take my word for it.