On Food & Culture
“Nacho’s” is an original Texas Mexican (not Tex-Mex) dish that was created by culinarian, Ignacio Anaya (nickname Nacho) in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, across the river from Eagle Pass, Texas. It is a thoughtful, beautifully balanced combination of just three ingredients, corn chips, longhorn cheese and …
Potato and egg breakfast tacos were my lunch staple all through grade school. My mom would make them for all us kids, and send us off to school with these wonderful tacos wrapped inside a brown paper bag. By lunch time they were cold, but …
“Chorizo Country” and egg is a hearty and traditional Texas Mexican breakfast taco. Just ask anyone in central or south Texas. Add some freshly made tomato and Serrano chile salsa and you’ll be ready to save the world! The best breakfast tacos are made with …
These Chile Meatballs are perfect for large parties. Serve them in a crock-pot to keep them warm, and have plenty of toothpicks on hand. Meatballs or Albóndigas, illustrate the dynamism of food pathways, the routes by which foods travel via bird flights, human wars, marriages, …
Let’s start this new year with an innovative use of the wonderfully aromatic herb, Hoja Santa. It’s traditionally always served cooked, but here I make it into a salad, paired with equally aromatic fennel seeds and cold-weather greens. I think that Hoja Santa will become …
“Fricasé” is a Boricua dish and also a Plato Cubano. I first learned to make fricasé from a Chicano friend in college who learned it from a Puerto Rican classmate. There are various Cubano and Puertorriqueño versions, but they all have green olives, and the …
This morning I thought about the thousands of acres of prime farmland dedicated to growing corn that will not feed anyone at all! It will go to make fuel, as in this picture of trucks emptying corn into an ethanol plant in Iowa. Corn for …
When you want an aromatic salsa on the table, use this Chile De Arbol. Native Mexican, of course, its flavor is similar to that of the Serrano. But unlike the Serrano, chile de arbol is used mainly in its dried form. The name “chile of …
Albóndigas illustrate the dynamism of food pathways, the routes by which foods travel via bird flights, human wars, marriages, etc. As it travels, food changes, adapts into new cultural types. This Texas Mexican meatball, albóndiga, originally comes to us from the Spaniards who arrived in …
I first tasted Crab Louie as a teenager just a few (ahem) years ago. Every time I see it on a menu I order it ’cause I love it. It first appeared on hotel menus around 1915 in Washington State and San Francisco. I use …