Food post.

When I was a kid, my adopted parents hired a Mexican woman who was the sister of a friend of theirs to be a live-in housekeeper and cook. Consequently, I like enjoy love Mexican food.

It should be noted that in most cases, my default is "Mexican." If you ask me what kind of food I want, I'm most likely to say "Mexican." If you're trying to take me to dinner and I won't say what I want because either I'm too conflicted with choices or I'm just feeling blah and don't really know what I want (or I'm so hypoglycemic I can't make any choices), Mexican food is always a good choice.

My favorite mexican food place in town (other than fake-Mexican food like Taco Bell (which I love even though I know it's not real Mexican food) or Chipotle) is Luis'. Luis' has been a Sacramento hallmark for decades -- the walls are lined with pictures of Luis Leyva and many entertainers and politicians from both sides of the border. The man's an institution, and even though he doesn't personally run the place anymore, he's often found there, holding court as his family runs around taking care of business.

The problem with Luis' is that I can't share it with Elli. Even the stuff without meat is cooked in lard. AUGH! (This also means *I* eat there far less frequently than I once did; Lard is bad!)

So last night Elli and I decided to try my SECOND favorite place, Mexico 70, which I hadn't actually been to in a long time (they moved locations, and I hadn't tried the new place even though it's only a few blocks from the old site) because Mike didn't like it (I'd always intended to go there with Matt and then later with Aaron, but always seemed to forget).

Elli asked as soon as we sat down if they used lard for their chips. "No," says the guy, "we use oil. In fact the only thing we use lard for is the carnitas."

Turns out they also use lard for the flour tortillas, but not the corn. But we had a nice meal, the service was EXCELLENT, and they clearly have regulars -- they knew several people by name when they came in. I believe Elli and I intend on becoming regulars, as well.

And their chile colorado is actually better than Luis'. Sorry, Luis.

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I still intend to go to Luis' from time to time, but it's nice to have another option that is Vegetarian-safe.

Edit: Actually placed the name of the place where it belongs this time. Oops.

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I just had lunch with my aunt, preceded by a lightning-fast "quick-clean" of my apartment.

She proclaimed it "cute."

You know, I've bitched about my family in the past, and I will do so again, I'm sure. But let me point out here and now that that's 99% bluster and momentary anger (as I'm sure you all understand). My family is awesome, and I cannot stress how much my aunt has done for me since taking me in 17 years ago, both monetarily and emotionally.

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It occurs to me that I repeat myself an awful lot on this thing. Perhaps I'd best post less often.

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A group of friends over to watch Angel and I saw an ad for the new movie "Man on Fire."

We all made fun of it. However, through britgeekgrrl I found this review of the movie, and now I really, really, really want to see it. The review has spoilers, but you can avoid them by not reading past the second paragraph. By the end of the first, I wanted to see the movie.

I know I'll likely end up seeing it alone, but if anyone else wants to go, let me know.