Hey. My name is Heath Saraceno. I play guitar in Senses Fail. I go on tour. I eat food. This is the food that I eat while on tour.

Email suggestions to heathlovesfood@gmail.com if you know of a sweet spot I should try.
April 7
APRIL 1, 2009 Portland, OR BAJA FRESH - FISH TACO & BAJA BURRITO ENCHILADA STYLE I have a long and sordid history with Baja Fresh.  In 2001 I was in California for about 4 months straight.  A friend of mine recommended Baja Fresh to me then, and I remember going there with him at least twice a week.  That was while I was a vegetarian and because of that I used to order and enjoy the bean burrito.  About a year after my first encounter with Baja Fresh, they started offering their burritos “enchilado style”, which meant that they were covered in cheese and a completely inoffensive red sauce.  I felt that this was a vast improvement over their regular burrito, so I ordered it often. Then they started offering a kick ass fish taco.  Even though the fish is fried, the taco is still small enough that I would consider it a light, fresh choice.  I owe much of my love for the fish taco to the slightly horseradish-y, wholly delicious sauce they put on it - if they sold that by itself I would probably put it on everything.  This raised my view of Baja Fresh from a mid-level, slightly above acceptable place to the kind of place I craved about twice a week. It was at said level until about two years ago when I started noticing that everything was getting smaller and more expensive.  Case in point - I ordered 2 fish tacos (which at that time still came with tortilla chips, they do not anymore), and on one plate there was a reasonable amount of chips, but on the other there were four (oh I counted, 4) chips.  Thinking there must have been some huge mistake, I brought my plate back up to the counter and asked for a few more chips.  I pointed out to the girl behind the counter that I thought that there should at least be enough chips that I could not count them immediately, I mean, I can’t count falling toothpicks as accurately and quickly as Rain Main.  But, she refused to give me anymore. Now, it wasn’t so much that I wanted more chips because I was so hungry, I just had an honest objection to her carelessness and inattention to service and I wanted to point out to her that it was unacceptable.  She did not see it my way.  As a result of this interaction, I stayed away from Baja Fresh entirely until the other day in Portland. It was mostly the sauce on the fish taco that pulled me back in.  I figured out a way that I could go to Baja Fresh once in a day and have enough food to last me past dinner.  I ordered a fish taco and a burrito enchilado style and while I was at the restaurant I ate the taco and the chips that come with the burrito, and then I saved the actual burrito for later.  A bonus about ordering enchilado style is that they give your chips (luckily this item still comes with chips) the cheese and innocuous red sauce treatment as well. And really, look at how big that burrito is?  I ate half of it after soundcheck and the other half after our set and I had no further need for food that day.  I have a huge appetite and this was more than enough for me.  Maybe I got a little too emotional about their stinginess and I just have to learn to order differently from here.  The food itself is still really good.

APRIL 1, 2009

Portland, OR

BAJA FRESH - FISH TACO & BAJA BURRITO ENCHILADA STYLE

I have a long and sordid history with Baja Fresh.  In 2001 I was in California for about 4 months straight.  A friend of mine recommended Baja Fresh to me then, and I remember going there with him at least twice a week.  That was while I was a vegetarian and because of that I used to order and enjoy the bean burrito.  About a year after my first encounter with Baja Fresh, they started offering their burritos “enchilado style”, which meant that they were covered in cheese and a completely inoffensive red sauce.  I felt that this was a vast improvement over their regular burrito, so I ordered it often.

Then they started offering a kick ass fish taco.  Even though the fish is fried, the taco is still small enough that I would consider it a light, fresh choice.  I owe much of my love for the fish taco to the slightly horseradish-y, wholly delicious sauce they put on it - if they sold that by itself I would probably put it on everything.  This raised my view of Baja Fresh from a mid-level, slightly above acceptable place to the kind of place I craved about twice a week.

It was at said level until about two years ago when I started noticing that everything was getting smaller and more expensive.  Case in point - I ordered 2 fish tacos (which at that time still came with tortilla chips, they do not anymore), and on one plate there was a reasonable amount of chips, but on the other there were four (oh I counted, 4) chips.  Thinking there must have been some huge mistake, I brought my plate back up to the counter and asked for a few more chips.  I pointed out to the girl behind the counter that I thought that there should at least be enough chips that I could not count them immediately, I mean, I can’t count falling toothpicks as accurately and quickly as Rain Main.  But, she refused to give me anymore.

Now, it wasn’t so much that I wanted more chips because I was so hungry, I just had an honest objection to her carelessness and inattention to service and I wanted to point out to her that it was unacceptable.  She did not see it my way.  As a result of this interaction, I stayed away from Baja Fresh entirely until the other day in Portland.

It was mostly the sauce on the fish taco that pulled me back in.  I figured out a way that I could go to Baja Fresh once in a day and have enough food to last me past dinner.  I ordered a fish taco and a burrito enchilado style and while I was at the restaurant I ate the taco and the chips that come with the burrito, and then I saved the actual burrito for later.  A bonus about ordering enchilado style is that they give your chips (luckily this item still comes with chips) the cheese and innocuous red sauce treatment as well.

And really, look at how big that burrito is?  I ate half of it after soundcheck and the other half after our set and I had no further need for food that day.  I have a huge appetite and this was more than enough for me.  Maybe I got a little too emotional about their stinginess and I just have to learn to order differently from here.  The food itself is still really good.