the finale...

This is my official signing off blog, because Lord knows I can’t leave my throngs of fans just wafting alone in the breeze with no explanation of my disappearance.
I’m graduating from college in two weeks. Just two little bitty weeks and my higher education is complete.

One of the most valuable skills I’ve picked up through this education came through having this blog. For a struggling journalist who’s trying to make it in an industry that is ever-changing thanks to rapidly growing technology, knowing as much as possible about new media is key. At this point, though I’m not sure if I would want to tout my work here, I could at least say I’ve done it. It needs some finessing, sure, but blogging has been done. And best of all, things have been learned. I know the simplest (at least it’s a start) HTML tags, which is huge. I know what embedding something means. I have made an online poll. Wow.

It’s not that impressive or astonishing by any means to a normal person, but for me, it’s both. I’m so glad I know how to do the limited things I now know how to do. Zing!

Time to actually learn something!

Since I have been little more than informative over the course of this blog, I decided this time around I would give you the necessary tools to discover more information about Mexico, its food, culture and what to expect if you ever travel there.

At the same time though, I'd like to hope the little I have provided will maybe serve as inspiration. I had never tried horchata or making my own guacamole before this experience, and I'll tell ya, there's something about going through the motions and making something yourself that you can’t pay for in a store or at a restaurant. So instead of only perusing the websites I’ve listed below, get out there and get your hands dirty. You might be surprised at what you learn about yourself.

But, for knowledge’s sake, some websites:

If your looking for info about food, down to specific breakfast choices, you’ll want to check out the Mexican food page at differentworld.com . You getting started on that page learning about how to avoid being a tourist (sort of) and finish up with “safe” choices for any occasion.

The next site, though a tad biased, has a lot of good info. At sallys-place.com’s Ethinc Cuisine: Mexico page, you can find a serious history lesson, a breakdown of regional cuisines, recipes and specifics about commonly eaten foods.

This could potentially be the most useful of all the sites; it will help you get the Mexican ingredients needed for all the recipes you’re inspired to try ... right? It’s called MexGrocer.com and you can get anything from special spices to chipotle chiles to a tamale making kit, as well as other utensils like a molcajete (mortar and pestal).

I hope you enjoy learning about our neighbors to the south.

p.s. - I know the avocados don't specifically relate to this blog, but I just like the image, so I decided to leave it up.

Guac it to me

Guacamole. Two years ago, I would have told you it looks like baby poo on a bad day, in other words, no thanks. But because I have a new-found appreciation for the oddly colored dip/condiment, I felt I should try my hand at a home-made version and report the results. Aside from providing myself with a tasty snack for the next week, I figure avocado, tomatoes, onions and fresh herbs (main ingredients in most guacamole recipes) are mostly good for you, so I can pretend I’m doing my part to help curb the obesity epidemic happening in America right?

In any case, my results were pretty amazing and buying the materials at the store and making your own concoction is bound to be cheaper than buy the pre-bought stuff and it'll have less preservatives. What’s important to know about guacamole… well I’m drawing a blank. It was a creation of the Aztecs , that’s kind of interesting, if you like history. If not, then just be happy knowing it tastes good and is fun to make (you get to mash up the avocado)and not only can you use it as a dip, but you can spread it on burgers, sandwiches or salads. What's better than versitility?

Just a pit stop

OK, so this a quickie, but I think it's fitting.

I just want to rave for a minute and encourage all of those who have turned their noses up at roadside taco stands to actually give them a try.

Why, you ask? Because they're awesome! They are about eight times cheaper than a restaurant, and just as delicious. (granted, it's not what you're looking for when you're taking the in-laws out...) And the staff, though usually a one-man show, are always friendly. A couple years ago I met this great guy named Manuel who told me about how he bought his mobile cooking cart and had been making a go of it ever since (and he was only 19).

Manuel's line of several containers full of toppings and different salsa covered in tinfoil made for an excellent picture. Unfortunately, the computer I had it saved on has recently died. (sometimes I really hate technology)

Another reason why the roadside stands are so great other than the staff and the price, is the convenience. You're just driving down the road, maybe in a rush, and boom! A quick pit stop gets you food on a plate without leaving your wallet empty.

And while all of those reasons are great, I think I truly like them for the nostalgia.

When vacationing in Mexico, my diet consisted of little burritos and tamales that the same women would bring down the beach everyday. Maybe a taco here and there from a nearby stand. I think I got the most pleasure out of the sheer simplicity. The food is so cheap and easy and yet, so fresh and delicious. I couldn't ask for more.

A little change of pace ...

So… I’m finally full. (and digressing for one blog, I hope you’ll forgive me). But I have other interests in items that cross borders and change cultures, the current topic on hand – clothes. Or fashion, as some would like to say. More or less these days, fashion designers use their own backgrounds and histories, muddled with the influence of worldly travels to create beautiful piece of wearable art (as I like to think of it).

But the ‘art’ can be duplicated, or washed and worn and in some sad cases, even start off as less than extraordinary. But one common thread is the magnificence of the artists (even if they may have made a questionable call using that gold chiffon). And there are plenty of designers who have crossed borders to brighten their own future as well as the world of fashion.

Oscar de la Renta is one name that jumps to mind right away. Originally from the Dominican Republic, he went to an art institute in Madrid at the age of 18 for painting, but his fashion illustrations for a Spanish magazine got him quickly noticed by Cristobal Balenciaga. Balenciaga is one of the fashion powerhouses today, and De la Renta got his foot in the door as a design assistant. From there his career flourished, as he worked at Lanvin and Elizabeth Arden before going out on his own. One might wonder why all of this matters, and what effect does it really have in our culture, but the answer is plenty. De la Renta now owns a fashion house that sells products ranging from perfume, to bags, to haute couture, and rakes in an estimated $500 million annually. More than his personal success, De la Renta has been given numerous accolades in the fashion world, as well as contributed to social organizations like the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall . He has also funded two schools for children living in poverty in the Dominican Republic.

There are so many designers who have had to leave the borders of their home countries to achieve success elsewhere that I couldn’t even begin to do then all justice. De la Renta happened to get my spotlight, because he is one of my personal favorites. You can see the life in his designs, and that is something I can appreciate. Not just me though, powerful women across the world have asked him to dress them. Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walter and Hillary Clinton are women who enjoy his work, just to name a few.

Though they might be just clothes, they have the potential to be so much more than that. De la Renta gives us (the world) a little taste of the Dominican Republic, whether he knows it or not, when he puts his heart and soul into his designs. Just like Emilio Pucci infused his designs with the Italian fervor for life with his boisterous prints. If we would only stop to look at the peole who create the clothes, we might just be able to decipher a little bit about the world they came from and how that fits in with the world we know ourselves.

Pan de Muerto

It’s baking while I’m writing this. My own Pan de Muerto smells great and I’m glad I don’t have to wait to eat it. See, when it is being made to celebrate the holiday, Dia de los Muertos, it is meant to be enjoyed by departed souls who have come back for a celebration. Only after it has been appropriately offered can it be eaten.

Luckily for me, this was just an experiment in taste and culture, and the results have been great so far (hopefully to get better later, when I get to taste the bread). But I already like the idea that Mexicans celebrate death in this way. It’s not a time of mourning the lost, it is a time to celebrate their return visits. It is even common to find a person’s favorite food or drink on the ofrenda (altar), even though it may not be considered a traditional food for the holiday. Family and friends want to make it as welcoming as possible, and don’t limit themselves to only making traditional items.

The Pan de Muerto is usually found either in round or skull-shaped loaves and decorated with bones (just dough that has been separated out and formed into little bone shapes) and colored sugar or sugar glaze, if not both. Other popular food items are sugared skulls, other candies, mole dishes and Calabaza en Tacha (candied pumpkin), which I’ll be making next week. The ofrendas have more than just cuisine on them, though. They are commonly found adorned with candles, to help light the way for the returning souls, photos, flowers, and other personal or symbolic touches.

Home for the Holidays?

Food and holidays always seem to correlate, and it is no different in Mexico. There are Christmas punches and Day of the Dead breads and on and on and on.

And something tells me food and holidays, even the non-religious type, are linked and always have been, and for reasons other than spicing up annual obligations.

It seems that when celebrating holidays, we eat and talk and imbibe, and while we eat and talk and imbibe we create friendships and rekindle relationships and share moments. Is good food required in such circumstances or is it just there to bribe our participation all day? Or, am I being to cynical about holidays?

And if it truly is about people reveling in the company of loved ones and milking it for all it’s worth on every given occasion, which includes elaborate menus full of items requiring painstaking preparation, should it be for better reasons than bribery or culinary punctuation?

How about tradition? Most holidays have traditional foods that are only enjoyed at that time of year. Eggnog, green beer, cranberry sauce. Is it simply done because your mother before your mother before your mother did it? I’m leaning toward this theory, but it’s driving me to a sad realization. The realization is that most people probably don’t even know the history behind the traditional foods they painstakingly cook for their in-laws. What’s the point of making specific foods if you don’t know why you’re doing it?

In an unwarranted response to that semi-rhetorical question, it will be my humble pleasure to enlighten wired audiences about the histories of a few Mexican holiday foods. Over the next two weeks, in preparation for Dia de Los Muertos , on Nov. 1-2, I am going to try and discover the histories of traditional foods associated with the day, and even attempt to cook a few!

Chile me this

Now that it’s fall, the time has come to dry your chiles. Literally.

I was inspired by this patio I saw while cruising an unfamiliar neighborhood, and it struck me as so unusual, I had to take a picture (photo above). Come to find out, silly me, that drying chiles outdoors is not so unusual after all.

Used mostly for food, drying chiles for the winter season has been in style for centuries. They are handy in countless culinary uses, even as ground spices or sauces. What might be surprising to learn is that they are also used for industrial purposes like coloring (natural dyes) and home furnishings.

Ristras, are the decorative strings of dried chiles one might see adorning Southwestern homes (those are not so unusual to me). Because of their bright red color, the chiles can stand out as bold, organic statements on a boring adobe wall.

Other than décor and food, chiles (also known as peppers, by the way) are vegetables that are cause for celebration! There are annual festivals like the Hatch Chile Festival in Hatch, N.M., which occurs over Labor Day weekend, or the Chile Pepper Food Festival in Bowers, Penn.

Lastly, one of the best uses, admittedly, is to make embarrassing videos of your siblings eating hot chiles to post on YouTube.

On the rocks

OK, so I realize I may come across as a lush, but sue me, I’ve had a tough couple of weeks.

Recently, as I was enjoying one of my favorite types of cocktails, a margarita, I realized this is yet another one of life’s joys I have my neighbors to the South to thank for (well, tequila is the specific joy, the drink itself ... I explain that below).

Tequila, the main alcoholic component in margaritas is made from blue agave, a plant found in the desert regions of Mexico. The exact origins of a margarita, the drink, are still debated. Various sources report that in 1936, Danny Negrete invented this drink for his girlfriend, Margarita, while working at a hotel. His lady happened to like salt, hence the rimmed glass. Other sources claim Margaret Sames, a woman of wealth who threw lots of parties, created the drink at her bar and said being "close with a lot of famous hotel and restaurant people" was her reason for introducing the margarita (whatever that means).

My personal favorite out of all the sorted histories of the drink is the tale of a confused bartender. His story says that in 1942, a customer asked for a "Magnolia", but he (Francisco "Pancho" Morales) couldn't remember exactly how to make it, so he made something up, and named it "Daisy" instead, which translates to ‘Margarita’ in Spanish.

A classic recipe for margaritas is simply two parts tequila, one part cointreau (or triple sec/an orange liquor), two parts fresh lime juice and one part simple syrup (sugar water basically) In many restaurants and bars today, sweet and sour mix is substituted for lime juice and the simple syrup. They also usually offer numerous types of flavored margaritas for variety. One I’ve recently had the pleasure of tasting is called “The White House,” and served at a relatively new Tucson eatery, Blanco Tacos & Tequila. It is flavored with a vanilla liquor called Navan, and might I just say … delicioso.

Some other variations that might be worth a try are Cadillac , strawberry, prickly pear or even gummi bear if you're feeling adventurous.

Cerveza por favor

It's the end of a hot summer day and you just want to cool down. We've all been there and most of us (at one point or another) have reached for a cold beer. If you're in the Southwest, chances are good that the beer has been a Mexican import of some kind. As a matter of fact, in a random survey, 9 out of 10 people said they would opt for a Mexican import of the likes of Corona or Pacifico Clara before choosing their American counterparts.

And who do all of these thirsty Americans have to thank for importing these beverages? If you're a Corona or Pacifico drinker, that would be Grupo Modelo, the second largest collection of breweries in Mexico. The group has eight breweries throughout the country as well as its own barley fields, maltings, factories that make the bottles and packaging and they even own the mines that provide the raw materials for manufacturing, according to a book by Berry Verhoef, "The Complete Encyclopedia of Beer."

Now, if you're a DosXX or Tecate fan, Jose Calderon and Isaac Garza are to thank for opening Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc, which is the oldest brewery in Mexico, all the way back in 1894. Cuauhtemoc is also responsible for the production of Sol and Bohemia, two other popular choices of Mexican imports.

An interesting sidenote, if you'll permit me (and you have to, ahh the beauty of the internet) is that the lime that so gracefully crowns our favorite Mexican beers, wasn't orignally supposed to be there. And to make matters worse, it wasn't even lime, nor was it the stroke of brilliance of a Mexican citizen. It was a sneaky American who wanted a little something different, that started the days of fruit in Corona ("The Complete Encyclopdeia of Beer" mentioned Corona specifically). And what fruit held the honor originally, you wonder? A lemon. I don't know if I'll be trying new citrus in my imports, but it's something to chew on.

Some links for the two brewing groups mentioned above are down below. I also added a link to a site that belongs to BrewYour Own Beer Magazine (it's a growing market).

Top 'Dogs

The first bite was the most intimidating. After that, they got only more delicious. The bite was of a Sonoran-style hot dog, a type I only recently acquainted myself with. Also recently, I had the pleasure of trying a Chicago-style hot dog, and I'm pleased to report it was delicious as well.

Both styles have their fair share of toppings, some the same, some different. I'd have to say I rate the Chicago-style a little higher, if only for the crisp, pickle spear that gently tops each dog. But, that doesn't discount the lavish, bacon-wrapped version you get with the Sonoran. My guess is that Hispanic people are much too fiery and are filled with such a zest for life that it just carried over, and is spilling out of, their hot dogs (why not?). I believe mine came adorned with beans, sour cream, mustard, onions and tomatoes. Wow. The Chicago-style is a little less dressed, but not by much. The version I had came from a classic Chicago eatery called Portillo's, and included tomatoes, onions, relish and a pickle spear.

Now, I've always been a mustard-only gal. Not only was it mustard-only, it was also only on a Hebrew National (real hot dogs eaters know this is the way to go, although, I do succumb to the street vendors in NYC). However, I think I'll be a little more adventurous with my dog toppings from now on. I've added the link below for the restaurant where I got my Sonoran-style hot dog; It's a famous Tucson spot called El Guero Canelo.

A horchata experiment

So as it turns out, horchata is not something I enjoy alotta. It is liquid cinnamon and too much for my mild sweet-tooth. To the drink’s credit, it was cool and refreshing and I can see its appeal on a hot summer day. Growing up in the Southwest, horchata was no further than two miles away at anytime. It could be the 22 years I’ve waited for my first sample that killed the appetite.

To be sure I was getting the real deal (the first one I tried, I bought from a Mexican food restaurant) and not getting cheated out of a tasty, traditional beverage, I made three recipes at home, and now I’m sure. However, three guests that also sampled my home-made horchata enjoyed it, responding with “Mmmmms.” (I guess it’s me) For those lovers of the old-world drink, the Moors who occupied Spain all those years ago are to thank. They brought the tiger nut plant (it grows in the ground like peanuts) to Spain, where it grew healthily and was utilized for a drink called horchata, according to an article in The Sydney Sun Herald.

If you may have already guessed, when the Spaniards starting colonizing The Americas they brought the horchata techniques (grounding the nuts and soaking in water) with them and just changed the ingredients. The new ingredient was rice, and it is still found in the popular recipes of Mexican horchata today. The drink is usually made with a combination of rice, water, vanilla and sugar, but also can include milk, almonds or other flavorings. I’ve posted the links to the recipes I used at the bottom of the page. Enjoy (or if you're like me, don't!)

Beginnings

As three pitchers of homemade horchata sit in my fridge, I realize I'm about to start quite an experience with this blog. My goal is to inform myself, and that guy who stumbled across my page at 3 a.m. in an effort to find nibblinnipples.com, about the influence of this stuff we call "Mexican food." Why? Simply because food is a necessity in our daily lives. Less simply, because food in itself is diverse, and I believe that diversity shows up in our culture(s). In the Southwest, there is 24-7 access to Mexican food, making it a reliable dietary stand-by. Because I'm starting to realize the connections between life, food and culture, I now want to further understand the Mexican culture I embrace when I inhale five rolled tacos with guac. and cheese every other night.
In essence, this blog is one part a culture study and one part a celebration of diversity in food.

Study item one: Horchata (installment soon to follow)