Part Two: SoCal

Okay .. I’m going to be honest here: I completely and utterly failed at my first appetizer attempt for Southern California. I wanted to make a California roll, but sushi making is clearly not in my cooking repertoire. I eventually threw in the towel and decided I was just going to do avocado toast. Although it was invented in Australia, it’s the most quintessential California food I could think of. I also already had a bunch of avocados from the failed California roll attempt – so it just made sense. Groceries aren’t cheap! As I was figuring out which toppings to do for the avocado toast, I realized I could just use the imitation crab and cucumbers that I already had on hand. Thus, the California roll avocado toast was born!

This little experiment is also very California in the way that it’s a fusion dish. California cuisine is fusion cuisine at its core – combining different ingredients typically used for different cultural dishes to create a new, unique recipe. I’m pretty proud at how this came out. I toasted up some sourdough, made a wasabi Mayo and spread that over the toast, added avocado, sea salt, shredded imitation crab, cucumber ribbons, yum yum sauce, and some sesame seeds. I will definitely be making this again! Especially because I still have all of the ingredients (haha).

For the main course, I wanted to nod to the Baja region of California, so I made fish tacos. The fish taco as we know it today has often been credited to Baja, California.

This version is filled with battered and deep-fried fish, drizzled with spicy Mayo and topped with shredded lettuce, salsa, and a squeeze of fresh lime. You can use any sort of flaky white fish in a Baja fish taco – I used cod. I made a beer batter with some good ol’ Bud Light, flour, a beaten egg, and some seasoned salt and then dunked the pieces of cod into the batter before adding it to the hot oil. Instead of shredded lettuce I did a classic cole slaw because I personally love crunchy cabbage on a taco.

I topped the tacos with the slaw, avocado, cilantro, chipotle mayo, and a fresh squeeze of lime and served them on some steamed corn tortillas. I’ve always liked fish tacos, but now that I know how easy they are to make at home, I LOVE fish tacos.

My favorite part about this meal – the hot fudge sundae! I can’t even describe how happy I was to see that hot fudge sundaes were invented in Los Angeles and I could incorporate them into this meal. One, because they are truly a perfect dessert. The coldness of the ice cream with the heat of the fudge creates the most delightful bite. But also, after the California roll fiasco, I was relieved to have something simple to make.

The creation of the hot fudge sundae was in 1906 at an ice cream shop called C.C. Brown’s Ice Cream Shop in Los Angeles. They have stood the test of time and have remained a staple on dessert menus everywhere. There’s even a National Hot Fudge Sundae day! (It’s July 25th, by the way.)

The classic way to prepare a hot fudge sundae is: vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, sprinkles, nuts, and a cherry. I decided against the nuts because I’m not really a fan of them in desserts, but I can see why they would be on there. A good crunch is always welcomed by me – but in this case the sprinkles take care of that. Now that I’m the proud owner of these ice cream flutes, you better believe I’ll be making hot fudge sundaes all summer – especially on July 25th!