TORTILLAS!!!!

tacos.
i can't get enough.
homemade seitan?
i wouldn't be who i am without it.
homemade seitan on a soft flour tortilla??
jeez louise,
that's the power and the light and the truth for my face!
mmmmmmm.
look what happened at dinnertime:

TACOOOOOOOOOOOOS!
muy mucho mas for my mouth, man.
yeah!
here's that seitan recipe,
for you ambitious b!tches out there in the world:
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* 
SEITAN FROM SCRATCH!
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in a big ol' pot,
combine 8 cups (or more) of water;
with 1 big ol' tablespoon of better than bouillon veggie broth blops;
four shakes of liquid smoke;
3 T of soy sauce-
and bring to a boil.
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while that's heating up, get yourself a medium mixing bowl, and stir together:
1 cup + 3 T vital wheat gluten;
3 T tapioca flour;
4 T garbanzo (chickpea) flour;
1 T each Garlic Powder, Onion Powder;
18 turns of your pepper grinder;
1 tsp smoked paprika.
once thoroughly blended, add:
3/4 cup broth (i'm steady using that better than bouillon, because it's great);
1 T soy sauce;
liquid smoke.
knead the mixture into a stretchy dough, roll it into a log, and let it rest for fifteen minutes.
slice it into 1/4" slabs, press flat, and rest another five minutes-
add all of the to your boiling stock,
and reduce the heat to a simmer, covered, for at least 30 minutes.
i let mine cool in the broth.
remove them, and store them in an airtight container, in broth, for use as needed,
not to exceed about a week, depending on how good a fridge you've got.
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so, now you've got seitan.
what are you gonna do with it?
me?
i actually cut some chunks out of the main log before i boiled it,
and used those to make some agave-glazed spicy tips.
mmmm.
oil, onion, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika, chipotle pepper, black pepper, jalapeno pepper,
GPOP, coriander, cayenne, and lime juice sauteed together,
and sweetened up at the last minute with agave.
SO DOPE.
...
i had a whole bunch of sweet and hot peppers, which i cut up into strips,
with onions, and made some ho'sauce activated fajita-style magic,
with steamy broccoli to turn it up a little,
and  made tacos with THAT too.
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dudes,
tacos are just so customizable, i can't help but add little bits and bobs to 'em.
homemade salsa fresca?
you bet!
roma tomatoes, red orange and yellow sweet baby bell peppers, jalapeno, onion,
cilantro and garlic, with lime, pink salt, black pepper, and GPOP!
no proportion is wrong. just fire it up, and chill it out, and eat it with your whole face.
expert.
i had oil-toasted pepitas, with black pepper and agave as sprankles.
i had cucumber, too.
plus lettuces, and heirloom tomatoes, and cilantro.
red onion spranks?
F* yes.
little purple carrot discs and jalapeno rings completed the look.
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and then there was that rice!
coconut lime cilantro red beans and jasmine jauns.
fresh AF.
and delicious.
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taco time is a good time.
i'm glad i get to eat good food.
i hope you're eating something rad as well.
***********
so,
here's the thing-
AMPERSAND TATTOO is basically built.
the skeleton is there, and the important parts are in place.
now, all the really serious fleshing out needs to take place,
while the town takes it's time finalizing approvals and such
for all the occupancy and advertisements and so on....
which is where i really may have the opportunity to flex on y'all.
y'see,
i F* with aesthetics pretty heavy in these streets,
and my design sense has purpose and a long history of luxurious references
at it's disposal.
yep.
my design styles is it's own thing, and it has it's own things,
and that's a no joke real thing.
word.
when i was a kid,
my dad, the guru, was into some next-level anti-establishment fashions-
i'm talking ghetto hustler and 1% biker meets stormtrooper pimp.
i'm serious.
meanwhile,
the only other real male influence in my life, my late uncle eddie-man,
was on some new york top floor penthouse apartment
publishing-house elitist upper-crust old money ivy league art history sh!t.
fortunately, and unfortunately, my impressionable young mind was warped
by the extremes of the top and bottom-most rungs of the social ladder,
and while i have no interest in any sort of middle ground,
i seem to exist at the overlap of a moebius strip of infinite high-society hoodrat hybrids.
guys,
combining things is wizard science.
and that's what i DO.
overlapping circles and spheres of influence, converging in the path of totality?
the core of what i'm on about is this concentrated congregation of stacks
and layers and heaps and piles of spirit and memory,
history and prognostication,
predisposition and conscious variance,
with all the nature and nurture and choice and chance that i can summon and direct
into the atmosphere around myself.
that's a huge undertaking, believe it or not.
and that means that i'm really finding my way along the woodsly goodsly landscape
of upscale luxury with a crash-test juggernaut of judiciously-considered purchases,
punching through the hard-styled lowest commons and savage stormswept sidestreets
of my own personal raging gypsy gentrifications!
talk about a juxtaposition of ups and downs
(i also just realized the names of several adult magazines exist in the preceding sentences)
so, it's a manly tattoo spot,
AND a sophisticated luxury social club,
AND a burly big action heavy-duty overboard exxxplosion of my personal flavor.
it's as much an extension of what i'm about as anything has ever been,
and i aim to fill it up with all the superfancy expressions of that as will fit.
it's all really happening,
and i'll be the first to admit that i'm incredibly picky
about each and every one of the accoutrements that i'm adding to the mix.
if you think the food is something,
wait until you come and get a custom, one-of-a-kind experience,
and a custom one-of-a-kind tattoo,
and a little bit of the world-weary wizened wisdom of the warrior poetry in motion
that are promised in every inch of the new hottness.
it's all really happening,
slowly, but surely,
and i hope you guys will like it even half as much as i do;
never quiet, never soft.....