Our last assignment for our Eating San Francisco class was to create a dish using only local ingredients. Local ingredients are foods that are grown locally, for this project within a 150 mile radius.
When I first received the assignment, I thought it would be easy. But then I got to thinking, and boy was it hard. At first I wanted to do something with meat, but my wallet didn’t allow me to buy a $40 organic chicken. Ok, something vegetarian then. I remember once trying a salsa with bits of mango mixed into it. The combination of salty, spicy, and sweet was amazing. This, is what I wanted to bring to class. The mango, however, proved to be a challenging ingredient. It turns out that mangos are not grown in California, but usually imported from Mexico or the Philippines. So I had to eliminate the sweet factor from my dish.
But what would I use for chips? Those cute little Tostitos Scoops aren’t made from anywhere near here. So last Sunday, I headed out to the Alum Rock Village Farmer’s Market in San Jose, CA for my local ingredients. It was my first time there, and I loved it. There’s something about being outside on a crisp Sunday morning that makes everyone happy.
There were many fruits and vegetables at the farmer’s market, but that’s not all they had. I stumbled upon a Mediterranean tent that sold fried pita chips, which were made and bagged in San Bruno, just 12 miles south of San Francisco. I figured I could substitute these instead of tortilla chips.
So here is the recipe for my salsa
Ingredients:
- 6 tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 2 avocados
- 2 lemons
- 1 jalapeno
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1/2 bunch green onion
- salt
Directions:
- Dice tomatoes, onions, avocados, cilantro, and green onion.
- Put everything in a large bowl and mix together, squeezing in lemon juice.
- Salt to taste
And here’s the final product
We ended the 2009 Eating San Francisco class with a celebration feast. Thank you Eating San Francisco for a great semester!
Photo from David Silver’s flickr
3 Comments so far
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Gastronomical Adventures 
Hi Marco,
Thanks for sharing your recipe. The salsa was amazing! I’m really obsessed with it and had about 4 helpings. Now comes the hard part, seeing if I can ever reproduce its amazingness on my own…
Comment by Jessie May 15, 2009 @ 9:26 AMI love the photographs of the farmer’s market, it makes me want to go there! Delicious salsa, can’t wait to reproduce it this summer.
Comment by Samantha May 15, 2009 @ 12:23 PMI. Love. Chips and Dip. I was so happy to see that salsa on the table, and it was amazing. I’m going to be making this all summer…I like the idea of mixing avocado with the salsa, I always keep them separate.
Comment by Ali W. May 16, 2009 @ 6:54 PM