Irenia Part 2 - The Food

As promised...

this post will feature the food we had for my pre-bday dinner at Irenia in Santa Ana...

Hui An Garden

A couple of months ago, I met up with Kirbie for early lunch...

Hui An Garden used to be Fu An Garden (which Kirk had posted on earlier this year before they closed)...

Return to Cafe 21

Sometime last week, TC and I had a night out for dinner...

Bert wasn't able to join us due to a previous commitment but we headed out nonetheless to a place I'd been meaning to revisit...

Carnitas Snack Shack - Our Lunch part 2

Last week, KDB and I tried going here...every Urban Hipster's wet and soggy dream...

(some random guy in front of us)
but alas, it was closed the day before July 4th, so we went somewhere else for lunch instead (that post will be forthcoming). At the end of the same week, we three (CC/Bert/TC) gave this place a go...

More food made by child labor...

There's nothing better than having your own personal, uh, "helper"...

When I asked TC if she wanted to do this recipe, she eagerly said "Yes!"...

Pork Tacos & Bacon SPAM

Man we're going to be eating this for days...not that I'm complaining!

A few days ago I threw a pork butt into the crock pot, threw in a couple of chopped onions, a few peeled and chopped carrots, and dumped a couple of cans of diced green chilies, two small cans of chipotle peppers with adobo sauce, as well as lemon juice, black pepper and chili powder. A lot of chili powder. I just eyeballed the ingredients. Ten hours later the meat was falling off the bone. The house smelled good too.

I was inspired by our secretary's pozole that she shared with us the day after Halloween. That soup tasted so good with the sliced radish, chopped onions and shredded cabbage. I figured these fixings would also taste good with tacos (along with sour cream and cilantro). We had no corn tortillas at the time, just flour. It was still just as good. Bert used tostada shells instead of flour tortillas. The sour cream also helped cool down the heat. Too bad we were missing lime slices.

Do you like our placemats? Mine has the flags of the world. TC's had the United States map and their capitals. Bert's placement is the world map.  They are laminated and easy to clean. Fk cloth placemats where the food gets all stuck and ground in and then you have to wash it. These placemats (and a few other edumacational ones) were bought for TC's benefit but we still like to use them and rotate them. U.S. Presidents anyone? Musical instruments?

TC didn't want the pork tacos. Instead, she had another pork "entree". I diced up some bacon Spam and sauteed it with onions and cabbage along with a few sprinkles of soy sauce. Mmm, quick and easy dinner.

This was bought at Marukai Market. I got this can along with the "Hot and Spicy" variety. They also had Turkey flavor but I've tried it before and it's pretty gross. The bacon Spam on the other hand was pretty damn good.

I'd get this again! I'd put this in a taco! Ha ha, I just realized that the Spam photo was taken while it lay on top of my jeans in the car on our way home from Marukai!

It's now a few days later after I made this pork...even after having it for lunch (with rice) and giving a full plasticware container to my neighbor, we still have a lot of meat! I may just end up freezing it. And the spiciness of the chipotle peppers was pretty strong. I think I'll just use one can next time, but I liked how nice and red the sauce was when I opened the crock pot lid. Let's put it this way...Ring of Fire.  (cue the song, "Hurt So Good" or "Master and Servant")

Here is the post that inspired me to do this crock pot pork dish:
Chili Sauced Pulled Pork Tacos by Vicki from the blog A Work in Progress!

I also liked this other post she did:
BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches.

Here's a few more pork recipe posts. These are courtesy my foodblogger friend Joelen in Chicago whom we had the pleasure to visit last year:

Pork Barbacoa. I like how this one involves a crockpot! And a can of Coke!
Shredded BBQ Pork Sandwiches (ooh, another sandiwich recipe and here comes the crockpot again!)
and lastly, Mexican Pulled Pork Carnitas

Sorry Wilbur and Babe, but we loves eatin' ya!