Chimi’s owner Brandon Fischer shares his devotion to tasting and creating great food.

Chimi’s is typically known as a “Tex-Mex” restaurant, but as a food lover, it was important to me to include authentic Mexican dishes.

As I worked on revamping the menu, adding and/or changing some staple Mexican recipes was a fun and tasty process.

The end result is something I would be proud to defend in front of any Mexican grandmother!

I encourage you to stop by this 5 de Mayo, to try Chimi’s top 5 choices of authentic Mexican dishes:

Carne Asada Tacos

Carnitas

Street Tacos

Chile Verde

Shrimp Cocktail

By the way, I cannot help but take this opportunity to truly celebrate 5 de Mayo, by sharing the true history about this fun festival.

Cinco de Mayo is not just a good excuse to drink margaritas and eat Mexican food; it has a historical significance.  It is a common misconception that the 5^th of May is Mexican Independence day.   That is simply not true, Cinco de Mayo celebrates The Day of the Battle of Puebla, and it commemorates the Mexican’s army’s unlikely victory over French forces on May 5, 1862.   This victory came to symbolize unity and pride and helped establish a much- needed sense of national unity and patriotism. This is something any American can identify with!

Mexicans in California during the American Civil War were the first to celebrate in the United States, and I am certainly glad that they did.  Cinco de Mayo is a great way to help celebrate unity and pride, in ANY country; it is also a fantastic reason to drink Margaritas and eat at Chimi’s Mexican Food!

Since we are in the mood to CELEBRATE!, Chimi’s has another celebration coming up. Our 30 year anniversary is this year and we are planning a HUGE party!!

June 15, we will start with a 5k run called the “Diablo Dash”, participants are strongly encouraged to wear their Devil gear.

We will continue all day with dunk tanks, eating contests, face painting, DJ’s, and many other family-friendly activities.  There are not a lot of restaurants in town that have been around for this long, and I truly hope that each and every one of you will come out to Chimi’s on 15^th and Peoria and help us celebrate. Proceeds will be donated to a local non-profit organization yet to be determined, in honor of my younger sister, Miracle Zoe Fischer.

CELEBRATE TRADITION!

Brandon Fischer

Chimi’s owner Brandon Fischer shares his devotion to tasting and creating great food.

When you think of owning a restaurant the thoughts that usually come to mind involve numbers, recipes, food cost, and profit.  However, probably the most important thing to running a successful restaurant is the people.  I am very proud to have not just one or two, but many employees that have worked for Chimi’s Mexican Food for 15+ years.  I would like to tell you about one of these employees today.

The Cherry Street location has a specific employee that has worked for Chimi’s for 23 years and never missed a day. If you are around Cherry Street, then you probably know him, you might see him waiting for the bus, taking out the trash, or sweeping the parking lot. Michael is absolutely one of the kindest, most hard working people that I know.

I asked Michael today how he came to work at Chimi’s and here is the story that I got. He and a friend were driving around one day looking for a job, they had gone to about ten other places when they passed Chimi’s and noticed a help wanted sign, so they decided to apply.  The manager hired them both on the spot and the rest is history.  Michael has worked at three different locations for this company and always shows up with a positive attitude and a “yay” for anyone that will listen.  He gets here at nine every morning to sweep and mop the floors before the restaurant opens; then, he takes chips and salsa to the customers and busses tables.

I wondered what instills the kind of loyalty to a company that you can work for 23 years and never miss a day.   Michael says it very simply, “I love my Chimi’s, they gave me a chance when no one else would and I appreciate the opportunity to prove that I can be a good and loyal employee.”…  I love it.

There are a lot of people is this world, some of them good and some of them not so good.  I hope each and every one of you is lucky enough to know someone like Michael Harper. His simple kindness and generosity knows no bounds. His ability to come in every single day with a positive attitude is humbling. I only wish that we could all do the same.

I did not own Chimi’s when he was hired, so I can not take credit on being the person that gave him that well deserved chance, but I am certainly glad that it happened.

People that work in the restaurants are the ones that make or break it.  They are the ones that are talking to the customers and selling your product.  They are the ones telling their friends to come eat and the ones promoting special events.  I appreciate everyone that makes a difference in the stores and I am happy to have them represent me and my product.

With that being said, you all come into Cherry street  Chimi’s and say “Hi” to Michael.  You can’t miss him; he will be the tall guy that greets you with chips and salsa.

Chimi’s owner Brandon Fischer shares his devotion to tasting and creating great food.

This is the question that I like to ask my guests when they come and dine with us at Chimi’s Mexican Restaurant.  The answers usually vary from “No spice at all, thanks,” to “The spicier the better!”  It is to the people in the latter category that I direct this edition of the blog.

I like it spicy, (although my heartburn does not) and my taste buds truly believe that some spice with Mexican food enhances the flavor and makes it unique.  Chimi’s has several different degrees of spicy or not so spicy salsa.  Our signature salsa is the Fresca. It is a mixture of diced tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, and it’s kind of like a saucier pico de gallo.  We serve this with the chips on the table alongside our Picante salsa.  I like to refer to the Picante as a medium spice level; you throw some jalapeños and it adds just enough heat to make you notice.  At the highest level of our regular salsas we have “Dad’s” – spicier than the Picante, but not enough to need a fire extinguisher!  OK – bear with me, I do have a point.  IF you like it really spicy I recommend requesting your food “Diablo” style!

“Diablo” (which means devil in Español) is a mixture of our extra spicy Dad’s salsa and the sauce we use with our shredded beef.  The mixture contains jalapenos, habaneros, Chile de arbols, and even a little crushed red pepper. You can prepare any of our items with Diablo sauce and if you like some heat to your food you will LOVE this addition.  It has that perfect combination of spice and flavor.  Sometimes when you make a spicy salsa all you can taste is HOT, but by mixing these two salsas together, you really get the spice alongside the great taste.

This year we are celebrating our 30^th anniversary.   Many festivities are in the works to celebrate this momentous occasion, but the one I am looking most forward to is our 1^st annual 5k Diablo Dash and Outdoor Fiesta, June 15.

Like the Diablo sauce, the Dash and Fiesta will be celebrating the past, present, and future, and is a mixture of old flavors combined with new ideas.

Brandon Fischer

Chimi’s owner Brandon Fischer shares his devotion to tasting and creating great food.

You all may know that I once lived in Orange County, California.  What a great place to live!  While living in California I went to many Sushi restaurants and had the opportunity to try many, many different items.  One of my favorite sushi restaurants that I came across is called Nanasan; Chef Goro there is truly a genius with sushi and I enjoyed everything that he made.  He made a menu item called a Shrimp Boat and this week I made my own version of it at my house.  I thought I would share this with you and maybe some of you would like to try and make it.

I started with sushi rice. Now sometimes I make this myself but in the essence of time I simply bought some from a local restaurant.  My brother is the manager there, so he doesn’t mind if I purchase only rice from him.  I then cook shrimp, ice it and split it open.  Place the rice underneath the shrimp and place a raw quail yolk on top of the shrimp.   Take some smelt row (fish eggs) place those carefully on top, add a little bit of ponzu chili sauce, green onions, and several dashes of Tabasco sauce.  The ponzu sauce is simply a rice wine vinegar with squeezed lemons, soy sauce, and a chili sauce that I got from the Japanese market.

I know this isn’t Mexican food but I thought you all might enjoy an insight into what I cook at home on any given Wednesday night.  I truly have a passion for all foods and had a great time preparing this for my sister last night.  Feel free to comment with any questions you may have about the dish and I will try and answer them.

Chimi’s owner Brandon Fischer shares his devotion to tasting and creating great food.

I recently traveled to Argentina to visit one of my sisters, who has been working there for the last 11 months.  She will be moving back to the states soon, so my brother, my Dad, and I took this opportunity to visit her and enjoy all that Argentina has to offer.  I could go on and on about the beautiful landscapes and the incredible things we did but, since this is a food blog I will keep it to food.

The food in Argentina is very different then the Mexican Cuisine that I work with on a daily basis.  I was able to experience new foods and flavors that were truly extraordinary.   The ceviche there is incredible.  Ceviche is a fresh raw fish marinated in citrus juices such as lime and seasoned with onion, salt, and coriander.  The Ceviche that I make in the restaurant is made with shrimp and wonderful, however the ceviche in Argentina is out of this world.  It was made with different types of fresh fish, lime juice, cucumber and a side of lemon vinaigrette, which is poured on right before consumption.

I had my first taste of Sweetbread while I was there.  I am a very adventurous eater and will pretty much try anything once but, the idea of sweetbread pushes the limits even for me.  Sweetbread is the culinary name the thymus, or pancreas of a calf or lamb.  The most common method of preparation involves soaking in salt water, poaching in milk, and then removing the membrane, drying and chilling.  After it is chilled you can bread and fry it or simply grill it, the ones I had were pan fried and out of this world.

I don’t know if you have heard of Mate but it is the National drink of Argentina.  It is a naturally infused tea that is drank in a social setting, everyone in the group drinks out of the same metal straw and gourd.  I had this many times in the twelve days we were there and if quickly became my drink of choice.

It is said that the Goddesses of the Moon and the Clouds came to visit the Earth, while they were here they came across a Jaguar that tried to attack them, an old man came to their rescue and to compensate him the Goddesses gave him a new kind of plant from which he could prepare the drink Mate.

We had an incredible trip; to be able to share this time with part of my family made the trip an experience of a lifetime, I wouldn’t change that for anything.  My advice when traveling and trying foreign cuisines would be: Remember to be adventurous when trying new foods, it’s like your mama always said-“How do you know if you don’t like it, if you never tried it?”

Chimi’s owner Brandon Fischer shares his devotion to tasting and creating great food.

Owning a restaurant that is 30 years old has many ups and downs.  When purchasing Chimi’s Mexican Food 5 years ago I felt it was very important to uphold the integrity of a celebrated institution, such as Chimi’s.

One of my great joys in life is creating food that people love to eat. In making the necessary improvements to keep up with changes in guest expectations, I devoted the first couple of years as Chimi’s owner to integrating new, fresh and exciting original recipes to keep our customers interested.

Chorizo, a spicy, red, Mexican sausage, is a staple for Mexican Food, so one of my proudest moments was creating our unique Chimi’s original beef chorizo.

At first I simply ordered several samples of pre-made chorizo from our supplier and set about the task of finding the one that tasted and cooked the best.  However, after several sub-standard chorizo samples I decided that the best course of action would be to stick with what Chimi’s now does best: creating fresh food from scratch.

Fresh foods made daily insure the highest quality of product and taste.  So when it came to chorizo, the task was easy: nail down a recipe that could be consistently made in each location on a regular basis.

After months of spice packets and countless recipes me and my manager at the 81st & Sheridan location, Salvador Chávez, finally found one that worked.

Chimi’s original chorizo recipe involves 13 different spices such as onion, garlic, red pepper, cumin, and oregano that I now mix at my house and then distribute to each location.  The Cumin with its peppery flavor and aroma adds a nice nutty flavor, while the complex flavor of the earthy oregano compliments the combination perfectly.

Each location finely double grinds the meat and adds the spice mixture, after that we simply cook it fresh with every order.   The longer it sits the better it gets.

This spicy concoction adds diversity and a layer of flavor that the Tex-Mex ground beef cannot quite attain. We now use it in several menu items, Chorizo con queso, Pollo con Chorizo, and last but not least Chorizo Tacos.
So, if you haven’t tried Chimi’s signature chorizo recipe, order yourself a Chorizo con queso.  I guarantee that you will not be disappointed!

Brandon Fischer