09/12/2026
When old becomes new, and returning to my first salsa recipe. Today I am making the debut of our new “tornado salsa” at The Farmers Market at The Hangout. Why is it called tornado salsa? Years before El Pato Loco, I was a young man who had a love for tortilla chips and salsa. There was a local restaurant where the chips and salsa were and still are very popular. That salsa inspired my very first attempts at capturing the great flavor. Eventually I got the ingredients dialed in to make a salsa very similar to that restaurant. I used to make a batch of salsa 2 or 3 times a year for my fix and paired it with substandard store bought tortilla chips as the thought of making chips had not yet crossed my mind. Anyhoo the last batch of this particular salsa I made was May 2, 2007. I made my usual large batch and had it in a large sauce pan in my refrigerator. May 4, 2007 was a Friday, and a day that would forever change my life. That night over 90% of my community was destroyed by an EF5 tornado. There was literally nothing standing of my home taller than my knees. While digging through debris looking for anything of my life I could salvage I found my washing machine completely crushed and destroyed. Most everything was covered in dirt, insulation, and small debris of all sorts. In this filthy pile I found my salsa pan. I never saw any part of my refrigerator and never knew where it ultimately wound up. But my salsa pan was in perfect condition and perfectly clean. It was absolutely spotless. The first thing that came to my mind was the tornado must have really liked my salsa… I forgot about that old recipe until a couple of weeks ago when one of my high school classmates posted a photo of chips and salsa at that restaurant. After a short debate in my mind I decided to try and make that old recipe from 19 years ago. It goes great with our chips and well here we are. I hope y’all enjoy it as I havent had any quite like it around Houston and it is different from my salsa line up so it provides a nice alternative, and a long story.
