One of my all-time essential movies is The Three Amigos. I have most of it committed to memory, and need to watch it at least three times a year. At least. One of my proudest moments was when Curly Eckton could pick out Steve Martin by sight, and referred to him as "Migo." It meant that I could pass the torch on to her, someday.
One of my favorite parts is when the Amigos are eating dinner in Santa Poco and Lucky Day asks "Do you have anything besides Mexican food?"
(For those of you who are challenged, it is a funny joke because they are in Mexico. Get it? Get it?)
Now, I know that I have been prone to rag on the EP, but there are some great things about my new home. Food is a big great thing. (Comida Buena) I LOVE TO EAT HERE. Love it. When people ask us what our hobbies are, W responds "We like to go out to eat." (Today I had a Taco Pirata. Steak, beans, and cheese. That is the way the pirates ate them, you know. )
As one would expect, the primary cuisine available in North Mexico is, well, Mexican. So I am amazed when I hear people tell me that they don't like Mexican food. How can you not like an entire country's food? There is something delicious about every dish from every country. I can't imagine eliminating an entire country from my palate. --Although I have only had Ethiopian food once, and was not a huge fan. (Abejo malo.) Also, what do you eat out here? Applebee's all day? Cold cereal? There is NOTHING out here that is not touched by the Mexican brush. (Cepillo Mexicano.) Case in point: The Mexican aisle of the grocery store has things on it that I can find on every other aisle. Also, the ice cream guy (Muchacho Helado) also sells chicharrones. Even McDonald's is spicier here. No me digas.
Let me give you a culinary tour of just my immediate neighborhood. (Barrio local). Up the street is Valentine's Bakery. Every Saturday and Sunday the parking lot is filled with cars at 7 am. People file in, carrying their own stew pots and tupperware (toper-guere), which they fill with fresh menudo, AKA gut stew, (sopa de guts) and take it home to cure last night's hangover.
Maybe people don't like soup made from intestines. OK. I can see that. (I, myself, have been known to bash menudo, but only because I was served it at the Boy Scout 4th of July Breakfast. Come on. I didn't serve pancakes on 16 de Septiembre, amigos! But I would have happily eaten it on el 5 de Julio.)
Don't like guts, go next door and have a torta. In the EP, a torta is not a cake, but a delicious, delicious sandwich (sandwich) made with meats, cheeses, avocado, tomato, and served in the most delicious bread you have ever had--a bolillo. (Azucar and I split a chorizo one and a bistec one in Juarez. Because she likes Mexican food.) The bolillo is round and big and warm and pillowy and slightly sweet, with a soft crust. I have a suspicion that it is very close to manna. You could probably eat it with quail. The other day I had a torta combo with an enchilda, and they smothered both in salsa and stinky cheese (Queso odoroso). It was amazing.
So, you are not happy with guts or bread and avocado. Alright, how about cocteles camarones? Big out here--except by cocktail, they mean shrimp in ceviche sauce. They complain about how Vegas gets it wrong. (Because apparently Mexico invented the shrimp cocktail.) Let's move on a few blocks away and have some mole. Oh my mole. Or how about tamales? I don't even have to leave my block for tamales, because starting November 1 I can buy them out of the back of some guy's trunk (tronque.) Everyone's abuelita makes them, and they sell them door to door from their cars. Delish.
Still too foreign? Don't forget the queso! At every party someone brings the queso. Basically, they take a block of velveeta, some Rotel, some cream, and some chiles and crock pot them until they are gooey and good with chips. How can you not like that, when it so obviously originated in Mormon country?
Let us say, for the sake of argument, that you really do not like ANYTHING from Mexico. What about it do you not like? The rice? The beans? The meat? The tomatoes? The salad? The stinky cheese? Because not everything has to be super spicy. I bet you will eat Nachos. And Taco Bell. I bet you will. Because you are a LIAR. (Mentiroso.)
Friday, November 03, 2006
Sons of Motherless Goats!
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13 comments:
This post totally made me homesick. I am from South Texas (follow the EP border to the Gulf, and there you have it). However, I am now stuck in the Mexican food wasteland that is Idaho. People want to go to Taco Bell here when they are craving Mexican food. It makes me want to cry. You cannot beat a sweet, hunched over abuelita making home made tamales. We had them for every holiday, especially Christmas Eve. Eat on, post about, and I will live vicariously through you.
If nothing else you must like the vanilla, no?
I am drooling! New England has the WORST Mexican food EVER!!! That's one of the few things I'm missing about the west.....yummy Mexican--my favorite!
You can you just pack up a little bolillo with you on the plane?
My mom, growing up in NYC, always said that she never even tasted Mexican food 'til she came out to Utah. Then she moved to Southern California and realized that she hadn't really tasted Mexican until then.
Growing up here in SoCal I was raised on 'proper' Mexican food, so when I lived out of state for almost 8 years I suffered seriously from what constituted Mexican food in other places. Fortunately, there was ususally one place within driving distance that was passable.
There was one good mom & pop Mexican place about 30 miles from where I lived in WV that kept us alive in the wilderness ;)
I went in one day and absent-mindedly placed my order with correctly pronounced Spanish names (por ejemplo: pollo con crema), this prompted the guy taking my order to begin to converse with me, at length, in Spanish (asking me where I was from, and what brought me to WV). I had to tell him - in my atrocious Spanish - that I was from Cali and could not survive on Taco Bell "Mexican" food. He made a face, said something dismissive about gringos and their idea of Mexican food (I didn't feel the time was right to cop to the fact that I am actually a gringa myself), and sent me home with tons of extra hot sauce that could have eaten a hole through a coffee table ;)
I am so glad to be back in CA now. A five minute drive in any direction takes me to a plethora of Carnecerias/Panaderias/Mercados.
It is true. I love the Mexican food, even the beef cheeks.
I almost broke up with J because he "didn't like Mexican." I went home and told Mama that I was going to break up with him. Then she asked me where he was from, Florida, I said. They don't HAVE mexican food in florida, she wisely answered. True dat, he thought Mexican meant Taco Bell.
We had a reeducation and it worked out. Now I make tamales and he hangs around the kitchen waiting on tenterhooks for the first to emerge from the steam. Are they done yet?
Oh, great. You killed the invisible swordsman!
I love The Three Amigos. And this post made me want to eat a plethora of Mexican food.
Can I have your watch when you are dead?
Emmie--We all shot UP! It's like living with a six year old.
There is truly something celestial about Mexican food. One thing we struggle with is that two of our kids are not big Mexican food eaters, which complicates things when we want to go out as a family.
For the record. I have never been to keen with English food (with the exception of fish and chips...which can also be found in a lot of other places close to the sea)
We had a neighbor from Mexico when we lived in Provo that taught my wife how to make tortillas..Yum Yum. The only problem is that my wife can spend 3 hours making five dozen, burn her fingers and they are mostly gone before the week is over. It has been forever since she has made any. sniff.
I want a torta for breakfast.
Me Dos. But I will have an Almond Joy instead, because I can't leave the house because the kid hid my bra.
Saturday night (noche de sabado): me, bunsies, tio; at my table (mesa), eating Beto's. So I says (diga): "Mmm...Cafe Rio is good...but this is Mexican Food."
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