Friday, April 04, 2003

So, I've been thinking, for the past few months, that if the right opportunity presented itself I would eat some chicken.  I've been eating a vegetarian + occasional sushi diet for a very long time.  I really, really like eating certain kinds of meat (like barbeque, and Vietnamese beef larb salad), but I decided, over a decade ago, that I didn't want to eat cows or pigs.  I know I'm worst kind of vegetarian, practicing as I do the dubious ethics of "don't eat cute fluffy animals with soulful eyes," but it made sense to a certain extent, and felt good physically.  Anyway, about six months ago I happened across this documentary about chickens, and people who keep chickens as pets.  It's called The Natural History of the Chicken, and it is very good and funny.  It had a segment about "Miracle Mike," a chicken who lived for quite a long time after it was beheaded.  It was pretty grotesque, really - its owners took it on the sideshow circuit, and kept it alive by pouring feed down the hole in its neck.  Miracle Mike continued to exhibit all sorts of typical chicken behavior long after his beheading.  I decided right then that I was okay with eating any animal that could survive some protracted length of time without a head.  My logic in doing so is perhaps so obtuse and tortuous that it is best to discard the notion of 'logic' when describing this decision, and instead draw it down into the realm of desire: I wanted to eat some chicken. I didn't have any chicken, though.  Until yesterday.  Yesterday, I stopped at a locally-owned gas station in my new neighborhood, and as I was walking out of the store, I noticed a little trailer in the parking lot, with a sign above it that read "El Norteno."  There was so much smoke emanating from the roof of the trailer that it appeared to be on fire!  So, I wandered over there for a look.  Inside this tiny space were rows and rows of chickens, sizzling on a grill.  Above the chickens on a smaller series of grills were rows and rows of halved white onions.  It smelled so good that I decided right there that this was the chicken I wanted to eat.  I ordered the "Pollo Medio," which turned out to be a half chicken - breast, wing, thigh, leg - wrapped up in white butcher paper, with a halved, roasted white onion, a halved lime, a foil package of corn tortillas, and a red and green salsa.  Five bucks.   Man, it was so good.  The chicken was perfectly done - charred on the outside, tender within, with a smoky, chili-infused flavor.  The corn tortillas were soft, fresh, and clearly homemade, and the salsas were a drop-to-your-knees-and-weep revelation.  The red salsa consisted of pulped tomatoes, chiles and garlic, and was so newly made that when I removed the cap from the container, my senses were overwhelmed with the aroma of fresh tomato, just off the knife. It smelled like summer.  There was none of that oily, bitter taste you get with jarred or bulk-prepared salsa.  The green salsa was a blend of avocado and raw jalapeno, spicy as hell, and just perfectly fresh and flavorful.  I ate it outside on my back patio, with a Rio Blanco Pale Ale that I had put in the ice tray of the freezer for a few minutes, and it was easily one of the best meals I have had in my life.  If you live in Austin, Texas, you simply must check this place out.  If you are heading north on Cameron Road from 51st St, it is on the east side of the road, just north of the drainage ditch, in a no-name gas/convenience store parking lot.  The proprietors are very nice, and the place is clean.  7:43:54 PM