The Hollow Leg Diner: Spring recap

Friday, April 15, 2011

Spring recap

I have no excuse for not posting anything in two months. It's not like I've been too busy to post. And I've definitely been cooking a lot. Oh well; I guess I'm just a slug. How the heck do real bloggers write new stuff every day? I feel like Ernest Hemingway when I do two posts in a week. Enough belly achin', let's get to the belly pleasin' food porn.

This is from a while back. Before we moved up to Long Beach, I had to travel up here every week for work. The last week before the move, I stayed at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro (ooooohhhh swanky). Since I was exiled in San Pedro, I had the perfect excuse to eat at the fish market at Ports O' Call. I wasn't really in the mood for a whole deep fried rock cod........

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

.....so I opted for the next best thing; the shrimp plate (camerones y papas).

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

This is the best thing you'll ever get served on a plastic cafeteria tray. And I do mean on a plastic cafeteria tray. No plates needed for this giant helping of shrimpy goodness. The dish consists of potato, onion, tomato and peppers sauteed on a flat-iron grill. When the veggies are cooked, a pound of shrimp (or however much you want to buy) are thrown on the grill. Everything is seasoned with what seems to be a Cajun-style seasoning powder. I think they splash a little water onto everything to make a nice, sloppy sauce. This big mess is dumped straight onto a cafeteria tray. I do mean a big mess. The shrimp aren't peeled, so you're going to have to wade in and get a little messy. Actually, you're going to get a lot messy. That's part of the fun of it all. Along with the shrimp and veg, you get these big pieces of awesome garlic bread.

The only thing that can make this anymore awesome is to eat there on a Sunday afternoon. Fully half the Mexican population of Los Angeles comes to Ports O' Call after church on Sunday. It is an absolute zoo. You have to send somebody out to find a table while you're waiting in line to get the shrimp, or waiting in line to get the shrimp cooked, or waiting in line to get drinks. There's a lot of waiting in line goin' on. That's just as well, because it's going to take at least a half hour for your scout to find a table. Most of the seating is out on the patio, overlooking the harbor. The patio is as crowded as a feed lot in a cattle yard. Along with everybody getting their grub on, you've got strolling mariachi bands and all sorts of unlicensed vendors hawking various and sundry trinkets and crap. It's pretty much like eating at a place in Mexico.