Richard Jernigan -> RE: Cultural appropriation (Jul. 19 2020 23:41:46)
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ORIGINAL: RobF quote:
Have you ever had a chalupa at, for example, Mi Ranchito in far South Austin—topped off with one or two home made salsas from the seven on the salsa table, maybe some pico de gallo, washed down with an agua fresca de Jamaica, made on the premises from hibiscus flowers? I haven’t, but man, do I ever want to. That sounds so good! Is this the place? https://www.austinchronicle.com/food/2011-02-04/mi-ranchito-taqueria/ That's it. Been eating there since I retired and moved back to Austin in January 2010. It's a long drive from where I live, but it's worth it. My favorite is puerco en salsa verde. I usually order a half-dozen tamales to go (3 kinds of salsa free), for a couple of breakfasts later on. Another good spot is Taqueria Guadalajara Arandas on Burnet road. There is a Taqueria Arandas chain headquartered in Houston, but this is not part of it. Tacos are great, so is horchata. Other plates like bistec ranchero can be a bit on the economical side. I make my own at home from thinly sliced USDA Choice New York strip, chopped red onions and tomatoes, jalapeño, pasilla, chopped garlic, herbs and spices. Is this cultural appropriation? In my defense I will mention that I was born in San Antonio, and spent every summer from ages 4 to 17 in far South Texas, where 90% of the people speak Spanish at home. The caldo de res at La Mexicana on South First Street is great, and they are open 24/7. Until I moved away from Austin in 1987 all you could get was poor quality fake Tex-Mex, which was hard on a San Antonio boy, but some time in the mid to late 1990s on a trip back to Texas from Kwajalein I got some actual Mexican food. Of course, the Fonda San Miguel, an Austin institution for decades, has been one of the best restaurants on the planet for old style Mexican grand cuisine. When the owners decided to start out they contacted Diana Kennedy, hired a Mexican chef, and spent a year touring Mexico with them collecting recipes and paying to be trained to cook them. Dishes at San Miguel like pechuga de pavo en mole poblano are every bit as good as at Restaurant El Cardenal in Mexico City. Of course San Miguel can't come up with things like escamoles al epazote. Plenty of epazote in Austin, but I don't know where you would find a reliable source of ant eggs. As far as I know, you still have to go as far south as Nuevo Laredo to get good cabrito, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn there may be some in San Antonio. I haven't been to Nuevo Laredo in 25 years, and may never go back, considering the narcotraficantes. But i picture the big plate glass window of the Restaurant Principal on the Avenida Guerrero as it was all my life. The iron grill floor is pretty much covered with smoldering coals of mesquite wood. Vertical spits impale the whole skinned and gutted carcasses of kid goats, slowly roasting, basted at intervals with a proprietary sauce. The 40-gallon iron pot in the corner is still replenished every night after closing time with beans, water, bacon, herbs and spices, as it has been since the presidency of Porfirio Diaz in the last quarter of the 19th century. There may be a 150-year old bean still in there.[;)] There's nothing wrong with good Tex-Mex. It is an authentic regional cuisine, a variant of cocina norteña. When I go to San Antonio I usually eat at Tito's on South Alamo. The enchiladas verdes make me feel right at home. RNJ
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