Yesterday, after an adventure back in time at San Juan Bautista's Living History Days, we wandered into a mom and pop Mexican restaurant. I ordered a small bowl of albóndigas and was thoroughly confused by what I received... ...two huge meatballs, one carrot, one zucchini, a wedge of cabbage, a plate of rice, a quarter of a lime, two tortillas, and no instructions about how to eat this. Was I supposed to chop it up into bite-sized pieces and mix it all together? Was I supposed to eat the components separately? I muddled my way through, enjoyed the flavors, but probably offended some of the other patrons with my complete ignorance about this tasty dish. I did, as I always do when faced with a culinary mystery: I came home and googled it. The number of variations is astounding. Some had a tomato base, some a plain broth. Some had cabbage, some had green beans. But all had a rice-meatball simmered in broth with fresh mint and a squeeze of lime. I started with that knowledge and ...