The Simple Revolution

This past week I spent spring break in Sacramento working with an organization that is trying to ignite a revolution. It is a revolution that affects politics, culture, and our sense of community, and it takes us back to our roots. I’m talking about the local food revolution, which is picking up in cities across the nation, but particularly on the Pacific coast. Their ideas are radical, but far from new, and challenge the core values of what America has become, while speaking to our innermost humanity.

Ubuntu Green was founded last year, and has already received funding to carry out their mission of localizing food production. Working in low-income areas, they provide the service of building free home gardens for anyone who is willing to accept. Their plan is simple: target specific neighborhoods, teaching the skills needed to grow food, encourage inter-community dialogue to spread the knowledge, and finally to create a sustainable source of fruits, vegetables, and herbs that bypass the corporate food structure. They’re bringing it back home in the most basic sense, and they’re having fun doing it too.

The staff of Ubuntu is filled with energy, probably because they understand the importance of what they are hoping to accomplish. There is an easy charm in them that comes from working with the growing process that is hard to describe. I guess you could say they’re down to earth, literally. This is still a young organization, but already they have made an impact on their community. This revolution can only happen at local levels, and can be fueled by increased social communication technology and word of mouth. Ubuntu is hopefully the first of many like it, paving the way to deconstruct the food production mess we have gotten ourselves in over the last 60 years.

This highlights something seriously wrong with our culture. With more money than any other country (well, not anymore) and the best self-proclaimed inventiveness of any people, we still have to be encouraged to take care of our land and get to know our neighbors. Our culture promotes chasing high-end salaries and vacationing in third-world countries, but for how long can that really sustain happiness? Ubuntu showed me that taking care of the simple things is the quickest way to boost self-esteem and find meaning in life. Instead of chasing fantasy narratives of corporate escalation, take care of the land you live on and meet the people who live around you. There is nothing more important that being a good human being. Everything else is secondary.

-Sean McEvoy

The Journey Behind The Best Fish Taco

When growing up in Italy, it's safe to assume that the daily food you eat isn't shabby at all. Residing along a narrow yet vast lake, the town of Como offered a number of traditional and unique cuisines. Though it is a hidden gem, it was a destination for many tourists around the globe. Our town also bordered Switzerland, a country renowned for their utmost precision in all fields, including food. After my mother suspended her fashion career, we spent many days traveling to Switzerland in search for organic vegetables and fruits, variety of cheeses and other dairy products, and my personal favorite, meats. Within the narrow alleys of Lugano lay all the stores you would ever need in your life. Each of the small stores emitted such intense odors from their products that you could almost taste the individual flavors they held. As weird or sad as it may seem, I truly loved grocery shopping there because you had an infinite amount of ingredients to choose from.
Though we left Italy for New York, and then eventually moved Los Angeles, my delight in finding new recipes has not ceased in any way whatsoever. In fact, with my experiences in all these places I've lived or visited, I've begun to judge similar recipes from different locations. When we moved to Los Angeles, I was finally introduced to the notorious Mexican cuisine. It's the simplicity and imprecision, not to mention its abundance in LA, that attracted my attention. If I had to choose one recipe from their amazing variety of dishes, it would definitely be the fish taco. Coming from a region were food is heavily criticized and growing up with a mother who knows almost everything there is to know about cooking, I can't just settle for any ordinary fish taco. For the past six years I have tasted the fish taco in at least seventy different locations in Los Angeles. I've used the internet to help guide me with choices, but I also encountered restaurants alone or with friends that served fish tacos in many occasions.
In its most traditional form, the fish taco consists of: a corn or flour tortilla with pieces of grilled or fried fish (types vary but the difference is miniscule if its fried), shaved cabbage to add a cool crisp flavor, tomatillo sauce and/or tartar sauce, and lastly, lime juice. Simple right? Well, heres the problem, even food in it's most simple form, so much could go wrong if preparation isn't taken seriously. Fresh ingredients obviously matter, but its the way you use it that makes the true difference. Anyone could make a tomato sauce if they tried but not everyone could make it the same way twice, or they fail by adding or using rubbish ingredients.
When I scouted all the restaurants in Los Angeles, I have come across many fish tacos that tasted similar, but never once was it the same. Each place tweaks it in some way and it's usually either in how they prepare the fish, or the sauce that covers it. Though all ingredients have a crucial role into creating that mouthwatering masterpiece, the sauce holds dominion to all. If you have a good sauce, and more specifically, if you have a good fish taco sauce, you can lure anyone. LA holds a plentiful batch of locales with great fish tacos but if you are looking for the best, and only the best, Tacos Baja Ensenada takes the cake hands down. It is quite the drive to get there, but if your goal is to find the best damn thing in the city, boundaries are meaningless. Whenever you plan your next trip to Vegas or Palm Springs, or just happen to be in East LA, make sure you remember this name and go there. The lightly battered fish laying beneath zesty pico de gallo and crisp cabbage followed by the oozing sauce that defies pleasure, is a thing of beauty. For those of you who would never stand a chance to make that drive in that direction, and believe me, I understand, try Neptune's Net fish tacos. The ocean breeze and epic journey alongside the crashing waves makes their tacos ever so savory.