Nanciful’s Blog

When I first moved to the US, my family lived neared Dallas,Texas. This is also where my love affair of fairs began. My first fair was to the mother of all fairs, THE State Fair of Texas. That was where I had my first jumbo turkey leg and candied apple. I remember feeling my heart bursting with the love for America.

I found another love when we moved to Los Angeles some years later.The LA County Fair has a special place in my heart. It reminds me of my childhood and also good times with family and friends. It’s now become a tradition with my family and friends that we attend the LA County Fair every single year. Hubs and I even took our engagement photos at the fair. Yes, we are hardcore like that. (we are not carnies by the way.)

The main reason for my going to the fair is not to see who won the best banana bread or see the fattest chicken. I go for the FOOD. I’ve done so much “research” that I have a eating strategy planned out.

I always start off with a giant turkey leg size of my arm to pad my stomach with some protein.

This place has the juiciest turkey legs at LA County Fair. The meat just falls off the bone.

Next is always roasted corn. On my way to the roasted corn stand, I saw a blue gorilla.

Another great thing about the fair is the abundance of condiments. This was the corn dressing table with lemon juice, salt, garlic salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and lemon pepper.

While the group was chomping away on corn, Hubs and I snuck away and went to get some Tasti Chips. The stand has only been around for the past 2 years but it’s becoming one of my faves at the fair. Tasty Chips are basically very fresh potato chips. One would think that it’s pretty greasy and one would say it is but oh so delicious.

Again, a plethora of condiments and vinegar in a spray bottle too!

Hubs and I are traditionalists so we only put lemon juice, sprinkle of salt and a side of tapatio to go with our Tasti Chips.

After years of meticulous research, I discovered that pacing is key to getting your bellies full of fair food so it was time to take a walk around the fair and just simply enjoy and sights and smells of this lovely place.

The 2004 Nanciful was all over this stand with the fried twinkies and oreos. The fried sweets were just so so tasting but the friend olives and pickles were quite interesting. I like battered sourness. But the new and improved 2009 Nanciful knows it’s time to give her old arteries a break.Yes, that is a Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. Yours truly has love for donuts and chicken sandwiches but even this crazy eater would keep those 2 foods separate.

I have to say this sight made me sad because pork chop on a stick several years ago were all the rage at the fair. It had a prime location and throngs of people lining up. But now it’s just a depressing little stand with no love.

It was not long before our stomachs were demanding some more fair goodies. My sister had a hankering for some cheese fries and we started to make our way towards the fries cart. On the way there, A from our group could no longer ignore his calling of a jumbo corn dog.

As we reach our fries destination, Sis orders the regular cheese fries. However, the menu boasts several other goodies including yam fries with cinnamon sugar and marshmallows.

As the fried foods start to settle in me, I knew it was time to get something light and refreshing. I wanted a mixta, a Mexican seafood salad. It was on the other side of the fairgrounds but we valiantly braved our walk and finally reach my next foodestination.

The mixta consisted of fresh shrimp, crab, squid, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, black beans over a bed of tostada.I then squeeze half a lime onto the mixta and sprinkled it with hot sauce. This really hit the spot after all the greasiness.

By this time, it was dark and our savory glands where satiated for the moment. We walked around the carnival side of the fair as our stomach settles.

Every year as a tradition, we will also go down the big ass slide, called the Euroslide. It looks unintimidating here but it’s like a 3 minute hike up to the top and a quick 8 seconds down.

And of course as tradition, we would always finish the night off with some sweet treats at my favorite ice cream and I always get the ice cream sandwich half dipped in chocolate and nuts. The ice cream is actually soft serve so it doesn’t seem so heavy.

With this sweet treat downed in my system, I am finally happy and ready to go home. Until next year, LA County Fair.

**Fair ends on Oct 4**

I realize that posting funky animal parts on my food blog was probably not a good idea. That’s okay though because I like it spice things up a bit sometimes.

But let’s cleanse our mental palate with a nice fruit tart from Whole Foods:

Since I had a lot of positive response from my last post about smoked salted duck, I thought this would be an opportune time to blog about my other not so positive experience with duck. I was in Shanghai for work a couple years ago and my coworker, a Shanghai local, took me to one of her favorite restaurants. The restaurant specializes in duck heads and spicy sour fish pot. This is not Shanghainese cuisine as they typically do not like spicy anything. This is probably more Sichuan (Schezwan) style food.

We start out our dinner with a yogurt drink. My coworker insists that I coat my stomach to prepare for the fire that will be in my stomach after eating the spicy and sour fish stew. It makes sense right? But I think she just likes yogurt drink because we went for garlic crab earlier in the week and she ordered the same drink and the garlic carb was nowhere near spicy.

After serveral weeks in China, I oftentimes crave raw things like salad and sushi because everything Chinese is usually cooked. So coworker orders some sort of raw veggie side dish for me lightly coated with salt and vinegar. I really don’t remember what vegetable it was but it had a like scent like a cross between shiso and basil. All I know that it was very refreshing.

We ordered a variety of other traditional Chinese side dishes. Chinese pickled vegetables, cucumbers topped with roasted peanuts

Boiled napa

Sauteed bean curd strips

And one of the main attraction, spicy sour fish pot. From the picture, the pot looks mighty spicy with all the chili peppers but it was not an in-your-face hot but more of a slow burn. Very savory, very sour, very delicious. The pot was also twice the size of our torsos and we could not finish it.

Then came the next attraction of the night.duck heads. I did a double take when the plate was set down in front of us. For some reason, I imagined the heads to be half that size but it was the size of my palm. I’ve funky duck parts before such as the tongue with the connectors attached and etc but I was a little wary of eating the heads. The restaurant graciously pre-chopped the heads in half for easier access.I regret not taking a picture of all the glory of the insides.  I ate half of a head and just couldn’t go on anymore. From what I remember, there wasn’t much meat. There was something that had the consistency of egg yolk, maybe the brains? There wasn’t that much taste to it. For those of you wandering, I left the beak alone and just didn’t go there. When I started having gag reflexes, I knew it was my body telling me no more.

Later that night, I felt really nauseated and felt like throwing up the entire night. This lasted until the next morning. I’m not sure what caused that bout of slight food poisoning. Could have been my lunch, could have been the salad or the spicy & sour fish stew but I blame it on the duck heads. To this day, I still gag when I look at this picture. So yeah, gotta go.

Wow, has it really been that long since I last blogged?! Must have been the beer floats huh? No really, my life has just been jam packed with adventure and drama. Adventure is starting my yoga teacher training at Yoga Poser and the drama was having my 3 year old nephew undergo surgery. So see, those were very good reason for my blogging hiatus. But fret no more, I am back with lots of good eats, starting with a sheet of duck.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that is a sheet of deboned smoked duck, vacuum packed with a lovely twine handle, courtesy of my co-worker’s girlfriend who just came back from the Motherland (Taiwan for those of you not familiar with where I was made). Look it’s even won an award which is made obvious by the picture of the trophy printed on the vacuum pack.

My co-worker does the honors of preparing above mentioned smoked duck sheet with a pair of scissors.

However, a knife later proved to be much more efficient.

Look at all that fatty goodness! I couldn’t help myself any longer and helped myself to a couple or eighteen pieces of the smoked duck and it is what heaven is made of, it’s simply delicious. Surprisingly, it’s not as oily or greasy as I have imagined and it definitely had a very intense smoked flavor. it is however, a little bit on the saltier side. Therefore, I imagine this would go well plain over beer or a nice merlot but also would be great paired with a nice cheese or on pizza or thinly sliced and wrapped around dates.my word, the possibilities are endless!

For regular readers of my blog (all 3 of you), you know that I’m a lover of breakfast/brunch. So one of my favorite places to grab breakfast/brunch is Jinky’s in Santa Monica. No, Jinky’s do not have lemon ricotta pancakes or maple bacon donuts or parfait made with organic goat’s milk flown in from Switzerland but they do have a menu full of good ole American scrambles, chili and sandwiches.

Last weekend before hiking in the Malibu mountains, Hubs and I decided to fuel up at Jinky’s. I couldn’t decide if I wanted savory or sweet for brunch but luckily the menu offered something that could satiate my wavering appetite. I ordered the Sierra Mountain breakfast which contains 2 eggs, 2 french toast (or buttermilk pancakes)+ choice of gourmet sausage or ham steak. I got the french toast and asked the server to make it flaky (their specialty which adds a nice crunch to the toast) with fresh strawberries and walnuts sprinkled on top. I am not a fan of french toast but at Jinky’s I make an exception for the flaky version because it is delicious and I can’t even taste any egg on the batter which is how I liked it.

Hubs had a had to kill the breakfast burrito craving he’s had for the past couple of days so he ordered the Desperado which is  quoting from Jinky’s awesome menu “a hardy blend of scrambled eggs, red onions, diced tomatoes and ortega chilies, cheddar cheese, chopped potatoes and Jody Maroni’s Turkey-Chicken Chorizo *(or vegetarian chorizo) – served with pea guacamole, salsa fresca & sour cream (substitute chorizo with choice of gourmet chili)

Just a short FYI: I use to keep a copy of Jinky’s menu (the paper kind, not the actual menu, I’m no klepto!) by my bed and peruse it before I fall asleep. It’s a great read.

Hubs and I usually also get a side of gourmet chili (selection changes everyday) but didn’t want the extra weight to hold us down as we conquered the Mishe Mokwa Trail in Malibu where I almost got attacked by a snake and survived it like good ole Indiana Jones.

Jinky’s Santa Monica

1447 Second Street

Santa Monica, CA 90401

Tel: (310) 971-3311