Sometimes I get bizarre cravings for food I’ve never eaten. Like fermented soy beans, those weird Japanese Pringles flavors (braised pork, mayonnaise, Grand Canyon french fries), or a bottle of menthol cigarette-flavored vodka.
The harder to find, the more my obsession grows until I can’t think about anything else. Must. Eat. Now.
Which is how my quest for Sonoma County Tostilocos began. I recently read about the popular Tijuana street food consisting of a small bag of salsa verde-flavored Tostitos split open and topped with pickled pig skin, jicama, Japanese peanuts, cucumber, lime, hot sauce and a chile and fruit sauce called chamoy. It seemed like an easy find in, say, Santa Rosa’s Roseland, where tasty Mesoamerican street food abounds.
Not so easy, it turns out. After a day of fruitless phone calls, a restaurateur friend broke the bad news, “They just aren’t that popular here”.
Undaunted, the search continued through the evening and onto Facebook. False lead after false lead led to near meltdown until my buddy Emily K. struck gold at Colores! (433 Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa). Her excited texts started flying onto my phone with pictures of the full bag. Half eaten bag. Empty bag.
And so I got my Tostilocos, which were every bite as wonderful as one could hope. Crunchy, spicy, chewy, nutty and altogether addictive. Not to mention having a plastic-wrapped prize at the bottom of the bag (a temporary tatoo in my case). Mission accomplished. $5.50, Colores! ice Cream, Cakes and Food, 433 Dutton Ave., Santa Rosa.