Dog Haus - Pasadena

My aunt Betty and cousin Celia were visiting from San Francisco this weekend to take care of some things. My aunt recently moved to San Francisco a year ago for her retirement, and to be closer to her daughters as well as her new born granddaughter.

To save this story for my next post, we were in queue as to when we were going to have dinner, so my dad told us to eat a snack first and dinner will be later around 7 - 8pm. This was around 3 close to 4 when he told me. John and I were done with the gym, and yea we were pretty hungry.

And that's where our post workout meal landed us at Dog Haus in Pasadena.

It was my first time here. John used to come with Brad, his best friend, that left us to Arizona (what a jerk right?). So now, John took me. I realized they used Hawaiin Kings roll instead of your American white logs, and they also have tater tots as an option for a side. Without getting too excited, I just wanted to stick with the classic downtown dog. John got a little leaguer, and we shared an order of tater tots and soda pop.

View fullsize

That looks pretty fantastic doesn't it? And a total failure to what a snack should be. Just imagine how full we felt afterwards.

This was my Downtown Dog. It consisted of a smoked bacon wrapped dog, caramelized onions, roasted bell peppers, mayo, mustard and ketchup. There was a few things I wished. One, was I couldn't unfortunately taste the bacon and wished the roasted peppers weren't so wilted that the only texture came from the dog. Other than that, I did enjoy the crispy toasty Hawaiin roll and the perfect combination of everything else.

View fullsize

Little Leaguer

Ok. I only looked passed this because there was "Little" in the name, and I was not looking for something little as a snack considering how hungry I was. If I actually read the description of " haus chili, fritos, shredded cheddar, diced onions" I would've ordered this in a HEARTBEAT. This was a pretty good dog. I wished the fritos had a stronger corn chip flavor due to it being slightly stale, but I still liked this better than the Downtown dog. I would order this again. I am the hugest sucker for Chili cheese. HUGE.

View fullsize

Tater Tots

Fried-to-perfect. Each one very extremely crispy with a piping hot center. Next time, I'm going to order these with Chili cheese.. because everything should have chili cheese... everything...

So there you go, a quick post workout meal after LA Fitness in Hastings Ranch. We always tend to find something to eat or going towards Pasadena because that's where the food is closest. Dinner ended up being at 7:30pm... so we were pretty screwed..

But in my genes, our family will eat no matter if we are hungry or full. Just wait and see later what we ate.

Enjoy a fantastic Sunday! I'm off to the Race tracks to celebrate a dear friend of mine's birthday today, Patrick Yorba. If I come home still standing from the champagne and endless shrimp cocktails, be ready to see my Chinese meal with my family.

Cheers!

Daiisies

Elote "Mexican Corn"

Elote is also known as Mexican corn. I grew eating this as a little kid. My brother and I would be playing PlayStation or Counter Strike 1.5 when we hear the bell. Sorry, it's the bell. If you grew up in this era, you would know there is that one moment of silence, to hear that bell ring again to make sure it's the corn man. Now hurry and find a dollar! One dollar can get you a corn on a stick, brushed with some mayonnaise, lime juice, cheese, cayenne and some yellow gooey cheddar cheese which we are skipping today. Though, I'm not sure how much it runs for nowadays... $1.50?! Blasphemy!

For this recipe, I got frozen corn instead, but feel free to use the cob. AND I also made this in a dish, because it's easier to eat and I don't want spicy cayenne pepper spreading around my face. You know how that is...

View fullsize

Elote "Mexican Corn"

Recipe:

• 3 cups of frozen corn, microwaved till edible.
• 1/2 lime
• 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
• 1/4 cup of good mayonnaise (or 1/3), it really depends on how creamy you like it.
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne to mix
  • Cotija cheese crumbled on top (I used Cacique)

The recipe is pretty straight forward. I got a plastic zip bag to microwave the corn kernels. Afterwards, by opening the zip a little bit, you are able to dumb out any excess water. I then squeezed in the lime and sprinkled with salt and cayenne. Now, you mix it all together. It might be hard with your hands because the corn is still hot, so I used a spoon.

Next is the mayonnaise. Don't get that olive oil base mayo. I get it. But you want to keep it classic. After it's done mixing, just pour it out onto a dish of your choice. It may be a little watery because of the heat melting the mayonnaise. If you want, you can always pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes to make the mayonnaise clump up again, but I think its better hot. Crumble your cheese and top off with a dash of cayenne. If you don't use cayenne, and you know you are sensitive to spicy foods, then I would leave it out and just dash a little bit as you are eating this. Just adjust along the way. This is how it is if you get it on the streets. They ask you want on your corn so there isn't really a wrong way to do this if you stick to the right ingredients. Don't blame me for any butt fire incidents though...

I like to eat this with chicken, tortilla chips, tostadas, or just as it. By the way, cotija cheese is a little robust so if you are not a big fan of cheese, I recommend getting the Cacique queso fresco it's like my favorite for all my mexican dishes!

QUICK TIP: If you are using fresh corn on the cob, remove the silks but leave the husk. In the same bag that you loaded your corns in (clear plastic that is in the produce aisle), put your corns back in and just microwave it to cook! No need to boil water. If your husks are a little dry, just moist them a little with water. I normally microwave my corn for 3 minutes (one corn). Now thank me if I changed your life.

You can always serve it for parties like I did below:

View fullsize

party size

enjoy the butt fires!

daiisies