CHAKA!!!

Did you ever ride in a car on or near a freeway in Los Angeles? It could be the 101, 605, 60, 405… You name it. Did you ever glance over at an overpass or an on-ramp? If you have been near a wall of concrete within the limits of Los Angeles County over the last 30 years you have probably seen his name. More than likely you’ve seen his name so many times it has blended in with the landscape like Golden Arches or yellow shells that reach high above the highway down every stretch. His art is not quite the street inspired art of Basquiat. He isn’t a “clever” one-liner like Banksy. His art is what it is. In most cases it’s simply his name in various stylized fonts and representations. His name is his expression. His name is his reaction. His name is Chaka.

It’s impossible to say exactly when graffiti art goes from vandalism to collectible. When it comes to something as subjective as art, coming from a place like the streets of Los Angeles, it usually takes a nod from the likes of Ashton Kutcher or Christina Aguilara. On one hand it truly is a form expression by an impoverished or frustrated segment of society that is reacting to a number of factors from lack of opportunity to racism and prejudice or maybe even out of boredom and lack of supervision or the presence of one or both parental figures. Graffiti by definition is an act of vandalism where one person deliberately places their own message over an intended message. A person has to have the belief that their own personal message, be it their tagger name or an elaborate painting or simply a coded message for someone else to see, is more important that the intentions of the person who had that particular wall built or that particular set of concrete erected. Outside of the legality of tagging or graffiti there is the moral and ethical standpoint: if a community is composed almost entirely of one particular group of people and an outsider, an interloper, an invader (as they might be seen) from another group and another place decides to build something at the expense of the native group, who has the greater right to the visual representation of said location? It can be seen as petulant and juvenile, clinging to a sense of angst that one generally outgrows. You never hear of someone in their 40s getting caught for tagging.

There are varying degrees of graffiti. There is much that is associated with gang culture and that type of graffiti requires little explanation. It is usually ugly and very simple in style with little to offer and is usually intended as a means of communication indicating a territorial marking or used to pass a message. On the other side there is a sense that the artist behind it is looking to create rather than destroy. In all honesty most graffiti art is not what I would call art at all. It is often very boring and predicated upon nothing. It has no style or sense of history, rather it is stylized but fails to really build on anything that has been done before. It becomes a cycle of different people doing the same thing over and over again. This is not an unfamiliar concept to the art world. Andy Warhol took familiar images and silk screened them over and over and over until they became art. This is not unlike what Chaka did but rather than using an established image he made his own and put it everywhere until it became meaningless and meaningful at the same time. It became more than a senseless and isolated act of vandalism and became something of a brand not entirely unlike the swoosh on your shoes, the horse on the hood of a fast car, the bunny profile on your dad’s magazine, or those four little window panes on the bottom left corner of your screen for 90% of you.

Chaka is thought to have committed over 20,000 acts of vandalism with everything from a Sharpie to a can of paint. In 90s he was finally caught and Daniel “Chaka” Ramos was tried and convicted and did some jail time. When he emerged he was the new cause célèbre of the art world as were so many graffiti artists of the time. As an interesting side note it is rumored he tagged the courthouse elevator during the course of his trial. Now people pay him to paint their walls or, short of that, canvases to hang on their walls. He’s had gallery shows and I’m sure he’s got something up in a museum somewhere. His art still doesn’t do much for me but I think it’s a splendid example of self publicity of an anonymous persona.

Keep an eye out next time you’re headed down that stretch of the 605 freeway, just south of the 60 as you’re heading through Pico Rivera. Next time you watch the video for Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, take a gander at Dave Grohl's bass drum. I think you might spot a familiar name.

Do They Celebrate That Over There Too?

Throughout my life I have often been unable to answer the question, “Do they celebrate that in Mexico”? With so many holidays throughout the year I’ve had that very same quandary myself. Of course certain American National holidays like 4th of July and Presidents Day are exclusive to these here United States while Mexico celebrates the anniversary of their own independence and has their own set of national holidays. Others that are founded in the Christian tradition are also pretty obvious as those who colonized the Americas from one end to the other were all Christian. Of course, as demonstrated with Christmas, the extent to which these events are celebrated may vary. There are some holidays that one might think are great big festivals in Mexico (like Cinco de Mayo), but they are not. And then there are those that fall in to a gray area. Canada celebrates Boxing Day but we don’t. We celebrate Labor Day and Valentine’s Day, one a secular holiday and the other a semi-Christian holiday, but what about other places?

The simple and boring thing to do would be to make a list of all the holidays that are celebrated both here and south of the border but no one wants that. Instead how about we just look at a couple of the ones that come to me off the top of my head?

Valentine’s Day happens to be one of those special occasions that comes into question and, as a matter of fact, it is celebrated in Mexico though the emphasis is a little different. Dia del Amor y la Amistad has it right there in the name: Day of Love and Friendship. While there is the romantic aspect of the holiday, where couples make the extra effort to be that much more amorous with one another, the day is also a celebration of platonic relationships where friends may simply do a few extra nice things for each other.

Mexico has a version of Labor Day recognized on the first of May. They also celebrate Columbus Day on October 12th. Is Flag Day a real holiday? I don’t have an answer for you guys on that one but it is on the calendar both here and in the United Mexican States. Because America has exerted such cultural influence worldwide many of our celebrations have been adopted or emulated across the globe. Unfortunately it doesn’t go the other way quite so much and that’s a shame because I think we’re missing out on so many potential days off. Mexico has so many more days dedicated to saints than we do; we really only get Saints Valentine and Patrick while they get Antonio de Abad (where you can bring in your animals to the church to be blessed- how has this not caught on in San Francisco or the Upper East side?), Saints Joseph, John the Baptist, and of course All Saints Day.

One on which I get questions every year is Cinco de Mayo. The assumption is that this is a huge, nation-wide celebration that unites all of Mexico. This is not really the case. When this day approaches I will tell you why this is the case and explain why Americans partying on Cinco de Mayo is sort of like if Canadians suddenly started drinking every January 8th to commemorate the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. Until then, just sit tight in knowing that it is not Mexican Independence Day (September 16th).

In the mean time, I encourage you all so find any justifiable occasion to raise a glass and say "Salud!"

Futbol (Not Football)

In nearly every country in the world the most popular sport with the greatest and most popular star athletes is soccer. Every country, that is, except for these here United States. For whatever reason it has never taken on the same fervor here that is so prevalent across the globe. I don’t know what the exact reason is for this. I was never that in to soccer coming up because no one was really all that in to soccer. Sure I played on teams as a child but professional soccer matches were not televised nor did they get any mention during the sports segment of the news. Time I’ve spent abroad has at times coincided with some pretty big tournaments like the World Cup and the Euro Cup and sitting in the pubs and cafes watching these games was as exciting and enthralling as any Super Bowl or Championship series I’ve seen here in America. It is certainly a hell of a lot more engaging than watching baseball or golf on TV. For the life of me I do not understand why soccer has failed to take hold in America but I have a few theories. It could be that because soccer matches only have one break with no “time-outs” it does present a challenge for selling advertising spots. Halftime is the only opportunity to run commercials and although this is a much more cynical explanation it is a possibility. Another reason might simply be the American mode of thinking. In country founded by people looking to separate from European models and built by those looking for the next big thing, the newest frontier, the greatest opportunity matched only by the risk… Well, I guess what I’m getting at is that American audiences are rarely satisfied with a tie score and have little patience for low scoring games. At least hockey games come with fights.

You say football anywhere besides here and people think soccer. I’m not even sure how we got the name soccer though I understand the word originated in England to distinguish the sport from American football which was gaining popularity here. Even in Mexico where it might make more sense to call it pelota de pye, they call it futbol.

The game we know as soccer does come from Europe though there have been sports associated with kicking or carrying a ball in the Americas going back to the Aztecs. They did have courts or fields with circular goals at either end but it would be presumptuous to say this game influenced soccer because the sport as we know it is generally thought to have been brought over from Europe. The first recorded organized games with an agreed upon set of rules comes from England. It is widely believed that soccer was brought to Mexico by Cornish miners in the late 19th century. It was not much later that a league came about.

Futbol became a professional sport in 1943 and its most successful team with has been Guadalajara with 11 championship titles. Before that there had been professional teams but the league that is in place now has began in 1943. Internationally Mexico has hosted the World Cup twice but has never won but they do have a very respectable team.

Here in the United States soccer has been around for just as long but did not really start gaining popularity until we hosted the 1994 World Cup. The US soccer team did surprisingly well, advancing to the quarter finals but losing to Germany who would eventually take second place. A couple of years later Major League Soccer got its start and many of the members of the US national team took spots in the ten inaugural teams. The US Women’s soccer team has been a powerhouse in recent years and has garnered much international recognition by winning two Women’s World Cup championships in the past ten years. Popularity of the new league went up and down with the national team’s success (or lack thereof at various times) but overall has gone way up from where it was. In California in particular a couple of recent events have greatly increased the exposure of the sport. There was the addition of the expansion team Chivas USA (the Chivas is a very popular team in Mexico), and the recruitment of international star David Beckham. Some would argue that bringing Beckham on board is sort of like the equivalent of taking Brett Favre over to play in Europe’s NFL- he’s kind of past his prime but still has some skill and definitely will draw a crowd. Even still, despite its recent rise in attendance and viewership, the American soccer program is still in its infancy compared to the rest of the world.

This year’s World Cup is going to be held in South Africa while the usual suspects like Brazil and Portugal are expected to do well there are still high hopes for the teams here in North America. Mexico and America are the second highest ranked teams in their respective groups but neither team is favored to win it all by any means. Still, it should be fun to watch.

On a personal note, every Mexican kid has played soccer growing up. I may have gone to school in Orange County but I knew the basics of soccer far before I understood football or basketball. This could also be due to my near complete lack of physical prowess but to my credit I did score the winning goal of the only game my junior high school team won. It wasn’t the highlight of my entire athletic career but it’s up there.

I'm Supposed to Appear Mexican

I’ve been told I don’t look Mexican.

I suppose I don’t carry many of the characteristics that come to mind when one thinks of the physical attributes of our cousins south of the border. Usually when one thinks “Mexican” one thinks of any of the following traits: tan skin, dark eyes and hair, probably on the shorter side, Mexicans are not known for being particularly thin or large when it comes to body types, and I could go on. As for myself, I have the dark eyes and hair but definitely not the tan skin. I’m not tall but not all that short. On the occasion we’d stop by the Calimax in Tijuana I felt like I could be on the Olympic basketball team. When people do take a stab at guess where my forefathers come from I typically get guess from the Mediterranean like Italian or Turkish or Israeli. I’ve gotten many countries from South America, the Caribbean and even the generic “white”.

Perhaps I don’t carry many of the stereotypical traits, I’m no Eric Estrada or Don Francisco, but then neither is Linda Carter (and Wonder Woman just happens to be half Mexican). I’ve touched on the many influences on Mexican people plenty of times before when it comes to food and celebration but not the physical traits of the people. What is a Mexican supposed to look like?

My closest friends, like me, are the children of Mexican immigrants. One of them has skin that, while not as light as mine, is still pretty fair. He’s 6’3”. The other is about my height but has reddish brown hair almost as red as his mother’s who also happens to have green eyes. Anyone remember that show Gilmore Girls? The girl who plays the daughter, Alexis Bledel, is a very fair skinned young woman has very very blue eyes. These are just a few examples of different Mexicans can appear. We could be that blond haired dude with the green eyes. We could be that guy with the dreadlocks who might be black (that’s actually my cousin Eddie). We could be in your kitchen right now!

So where do all these different looks come from? All over! Obviously there were the indigenous people who already lived what we call Mexico and the western United States all the way down through South America. These were different cultures with their own varied physical traits and aspects and are the reason I can barely grow facial hair today. Without getting in a big demographic and anthropological analysis I can say that these indigenous peoples greatly influenced the idea of what a prototypical Mexican is supposed to look like. Since it is Spanish that is mostly spoken in Mexico (each of the specific native groups still thriving in Mexico has their own language) we tend to only think of people from Spain who colonized the land. When they decided to go native, akin to John Rolfe and Pocahontas, we called their progeny “mestizos”. The word is derived from the Latin word for “mixed” but its use was synonymous with calling someone a bastard. The connotation of the word has changed since then and now simply refers to one who is of both European and native ancestry.

Even when we look at the Spanish we can clearly see that they do not look Mexican. For all intents and purposes they are white, Europeans. That just leads to more and more lines of ancestry as Spain was at various times dominated by Jews, Moors, Romans etc… A not uncommon Mexican last name is Delao (or De La O) which comes from the Irish who came to Mexico. There were Germans, Portuguese, and even Chinese who travelled south from San Francisco once the railroads were built. If America is a melting pot then Mexico is a thick soup. I like to think of it as a nice fondue set filled with nacho cheese.

Anyway, Mexicans clearly come in all shapes and sizes, shades and colors. We’re not just tan and exotic looking like Selma Hayek, we’re also svelte and fair like Alexis Bledel. But we can also be exactly what you think. Like Paul Rodriguez.

Felize Navidad

Mexican Christmas is definitely more fun that American Christmas. This is not a subjective statement but one that is made on purely objective observations. Holiday shopping, taking your picture with Santa, getting a Christmas tree and decorating the house; these are all the staples of a typical Christmas in an American household. There is no disputing the value and enjoyment of caroling and making hot cocoa and sipping a bit too much eggnog at the office party or ugly sweater party. But when it comes to your typical “White Christmas” it’s really just one day of celebrating. You either have a Christmas dinner on the eve of the holiday and spend the 25th relaxing and perhaps heading out to a movie, or you do it all on the 25th. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s a lovely way to spend a day with family and friends. You might even make it out to Church for midnight service. It’s lovely, but it’s just one day. Not so with the Mexicans. Just like any other celebration, if it only lasts for one day (this is anything from a wedding to a baptism) it is a pretty small celebration.

Keeping in step with the commitment to a party, Christmas in Mexico has at least a solid nine days of celebration. There are more if you want to commit to them but it can get exhausting. One word that everyone who is supposed to be Mexican must know: Posadas. This bumps up one day of Christmas to nine days of going door to door looking for a place to party- it’s supposed to symbolize Mary and Joseph’s arrival in Bethlehem and looking for a place to stay; luckily we never had to spend the night in the stables. I don’t have a lot of experience with the Posadas. I remember as a kid, a couple of times we went up to the California Mission of San Juan Bautista to catch a Christmas play about a miracle, the appearance of the Lady of Guadalupe on the cloak of Juan Diego. Sometimes we’d get there a few days early to see the town, grab a bite to eat, and of course join in some of the singing and walking from place to place in the nights leading up to the performance. It was cold and sometimes wet but the town was decorated from top to bottom as we’d march along with a Styrofoam cup of champurrado in my hands. My brother and I, as well as the two children of the family friends that would often accompany us, would more often than not complain but the truth is it was fun we all have fond memories of looking down the valley from the mission over the San Andreas fault, piling in to the chapel at night to catch the show which we caught sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish.

But I digress… One think I want to mention before I forget is that piñatas are not just for birthdays. Piñatas are great for any occasion! Sometimes I’d like to bring one home and tie it up in my apartment just because it’s a sunny Tuesday. Sadly I don’t have a bat to swing at it. Christmas piñatas are not out of the ordinary and if you see one as a party, be nice and let the little kids go first. Their tiny, ineffectual little swings are no threat to you. Once it starts getting to the bigger kids, the ten year olds, if there are more than a couple of them then you may as well have a seat because there is no way you’re getting a swing.

The issue of Santa Claus is an interesting one. Traditionally it is Nino Dios, baby Jesus, who brings gifts to all of the good boys and girls but Santa Claus has Hollywood backing him so his presence is felt more and more throughout the globe. Also, while a Nativity Scene is standard at any Mexican home, the baby Jesus is placed in the manger on Christmas Eve to commemorate the completion of the celebration.

As far as food goes I can’t think of any that are Christmas specific. Certainly there are decorated treats like cookies and cakes but nothing like the Yule Log in France or eggnog here in America. By the way, why is eggnog only available around the holidays? Is it something specific to the recipe? And why are there no other types of nog? I’m sure vanilla nog or orange nog or chocolate nog would be quite delicious. Anyway, as far as Mexican Christmas goes one of the foods that remains a constant is tamales. These require plenty of preparation and it is something in which everyone can get involved. The night before Christmas one can find all the women of the family making the tamales in the kitchen whilst the men are outside squeezing limes and dashing salt on to their Tecate.

I know what you’re thinking, nine days of singing and drinking culminating in a day of tamales and piñatas; it’s more than the human body can take! But wait, there’s more! Once you’ve got the hang of Beginning Mexican Christmas and intermediate Mexican Christmas, next comes Advanced Mexican Christmas. The first day of celebration actually comes on December 12th, a full four days before the Posadas begin. This is the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe who I mentioned above. From there are the Posadas, then Christmas Eve. At midnight you see if anyone is sober enough to drive and whoever is closest gets to drive everyone to midnight mass. Christmas Day comes with tamales and piñatas but it isn’t finished yet. Dec 28th is the Day of the Holy Innocents where we commemorate the deaths of the children ordered by King Herod upon hearing that the King of the Jews had been born (are we remembering Sunday school, everybody?). For some reason this day is celebrated in the same vein as April Fools Day where people play practical jokes on one another. Maybe not the most appropriate way to recognize the deaths of thousands of children but what do you expect? Everyone has been drinking for nearly two weeks. New Years comes and goes but it’s still not over yet. The final day of Christmas celebrations comes on January 6th, the Day of the Three Kings. This is the day we recognize the Three Wise Men and the gifts they presented to the baby Jesus. It is not uncommon for this to be the day when children receive gifts as opposed to Christmas Day.

So there it is, nearly a solid month of parties and drinking and gifts. 8 days of Chanukah has got nothing on this. You can keep your Miracles on 34th Street and your Wonderful Life, I’ll take a brown Christmas over a white Christmas any year.

Mexican Cuisine

Describing Mexican cuisine, like describing the cuisine of any country, is no simple task. The varied geography and influences from all over the world have influenced the flavors of Mexican food giving it a panoply of dishes to suit even the most discriminating of tastes. There are a few staples that everyone associates with Mexican food and these are things like beans, rice, corn, and tortillas. Mexican dishes without tortillas is like Japanese food without rice- it’s going to be there no matter what. You may not automatically think “corn” when it comes to Mexican food, but those sneaky Mexicans, they slip it in there without you even noticing. Corn is there in the tortillas, in the masa (the dough) used to make tamales and gorditas, and plenty of other places you might not think to look. It may be inside of you right now! And of course, Mexican food does not have a reputation for being bland which is why various chili peppers, herbs, and spices play a major role on the preparation.

When the Spanish arrived they found that the Aztecs were eating foods made from corn and often complimented with chilies and herbs and eaten along with beans and tomatoes or nopales which are a prickly pear- a type of cactus looking plant. Though it may not have had a Pace Picante label on it, the Aztecs also had salsa by this time. Other foods they ate, foods which are still associated with exotic or tropical climates even though they are widely available around the world, include chocolate and vanilla, avocado, guava, papaya, squash, sweet potato, tomatillos, and some other not so exotic foods like turkey and, having large coastal regions, fish and other seafood. The invading Spanish introduced a variety of animals like cattle, sheep, chicken, goats and pigs. They also brought rice, barley, olive oil, almonds, wine, parsley and spices that were not native to the land. Call it bioterrorism if you like, but I think it makes for some tasty eating. The conquistadors brought Spanish cuisine with them and perhaps it added a new layer of skill to the preparation and perception of Pre-Columbian food, but I really believe the Spanish got the better end of the deal. For those of you who have not been to Spain, I can tell you that it certainly lacks the flavor and creativity of Mexican food.

As stated above, Mexico has a very diverse geography and as such the six regions of Mexico vary greatly in what you can expect from their food. Of course either coast is going to have plenty of seafood. I personally associate the northwest coast with lobster because my family has been visiting Puerto Nuevo in Rosarito since well before I was born. Visiting Cancun I remember seeing plenty of shrimp on the menu.

My father, being from Sonora in the north, remembers having flour tortillas at the table while my mother, hailing from an area closer to Mexico City, rarely had flour tortillas and saw them as a treat and a break from the usual corn tortillas. Regions in the north are going to have dishes with more meat in them as these areas produce a great deal of beef, ostrich, and goat. As you head further south you may find more sauces and sweeter mole on your chicken. Mole is a sauce that is not terribly unlike a savory chocolate sauce; so if you like chicken and you like chocolate then you are in luck. As you head south the cuisine might be more sweet than spicy as they can take advantage of the widely grown produce. Head to Jalisco, the mountainous region in the west, and get ready to have amazing birria, a dish of goat in a spicy, tomato-based sauce. The southeast will get you more chicken dishes that are a bit spicier and that is due to the Caribbean influence. Dish of spicy chicken and rice with perhaps a touch of cocoanut from this area would not be unlike a dish you could find in Haiti. In the Yucatan they have been bee-keeping for thousands of years and so honey makes its way into the food. Find your way into some of the pueblos or villages and that’s where you find cuisine that truly has its roots in the idea of making do with what you’ve got. This is where you can get some of the flavors that you are not going to find at El Torrito like rattlesnake, spider monkey, iguana, grasshoppers and other insects. I haven’t had anything that exotic but I’m rarely disappointed with the taste of any animals I’ve eaten. I’ve got two personal philosophies when it comes to food: 1) If God didn’t want us to eat animals He wouldn’t have made them all out of meat. And 2) If it walks on God’s green earth then I’ll probably eat it someday.

Lastly we get to Central Mexico. This region’s cuisine is heavily influenced by all of Mexico and that makes sense as it has been the cultural and political center of Central America for millennia. They get a little bit of everything but they also have a few dishes that are credited to the region like carnitas, pozole, and menudo( the food, not the boy band), which any Mexican will tell you is THE cure for a hangover.

It’s important to recognize how many different influences have come into Mexican cooking. Aside from the Spanish, other would-be conquerors and immigrants include the French, Irish, Germans, and Portuguese. Each of those nations was once in whole or in part dominated by the Romans who trace their roots to the Macedons or were conquered by the Moors… It’s all in there. We wouldn’t have chorizo without sausage and it didn’t look like the Aztecs were making sausages before the Europeans made their way over. Likewise it’s great to see how much influence Mexican cuisine has exerted across the globe. Ever had salmon with a mango salsa? Or a steak with chipotle? Hell, ever had chocolate anything?

You’ll notice I did not say anything about burritos, or nachos. The reason for this is because that’s not exactly Mexican food. I’ll get to the difference between Mexican food and Tex-Mex soon enough but you should be able to make the distinction between the two by the time I’m done with you. In the mean time, go out and find yourself some real Mexican food if you can. Don’t be afraid of the spicy! Salsa should not taste like ketchup with onions in it, it should give your tongue a tingle. Also, someone please correct me if I’m wrong but I never hear of Mexicans who get heartburn yet I hear of people getting heartburn whenever they eat something spicy. This requires more research.

Mexican Food in America

It used to be very rare that I would get a craving for Mexican food. Nights out at the bars and clubs, when others wanted to hit up King Taco (On Cypress in East LA- or the one in Pasadena), I was more partial to grabbing a burger or one of those hot dogs wrapped in bacon from the street vendor at the corner. When meeting with a group of friends and trying to decide what to do for dinner I rarely supported the option of going out for Mexican. That’s not to say I didn’t like Mexican food; I frequently got a delicious burrito from Boca Del Rio or tacos from Mexico Taco in La Habra. The whole family would get together for certain birthdays or holidays at the El Cholo or El Torrito Grill. I was never disappointed. Enchiladas, tamales at Christmas, carne asada… it’s all good. I think the reason I never wanted to go out of my way to get is because it was always around growing up.

My dad used to make bean burritos for me to take to lunch when I was a kid. (Just a little side note- I know that burritos aren’t exactly Mexican food but more like tex-mex, but that’s a topic for another post). Staying with grandma in the evenings she was always making chile rellenos or albondigas or chilaquiles (which remarkably has no chile) or something to that effect. So it was all readily available and, if not that, there were plenty of wonderful Mexican restaurants all over the place.

Then I left Los Angeles.

San Francisco, for all its wonderful cuisine and gastronomic tantalization really has second rate Mexican food. You can find some a palatable burrito here and there but they truly are few and far between. This was confusing to me as San Francisco has the Mission District which is a hub of Latin-Americans. In my naiveté I presumed that would mean there are lots of Mexicans. There are many but what I came to find out is that there is an even greater concentration of peoples from El Salvador. This really puts a damper on the Mexican food for me because it never tastes quite right. Don’t get me wrong, if you want a good pupusa this is the place to go but as for their Mexican food… Well, it’s like kissing your stepsister. It’s better than nothing but it certainly is not ideal.

Then I left San Francisco.

New York also has a wealth of restaurants of every possible cuisine from Ethiopian to Thai to Scottish to Argentine… unfortunately their Mexican food is absolutely bland and tired. Every place I’ve gone has been a disappointment. I’ve only been here a year and tried just a handful of places but each one has given me less of a reason to try another. There is supposed to be a wonderful street vendor in SoHo called Calexico but I’ve yet to get to it. I’ve been told that there are a couple of great places out in the Bronx or in Brooklyn but that’s a trek and I don’t see myself heading out that way for what may just amount to be a Taco Bell is disguise. When it comes to my food, absence does make the heart grow fonder. Now, every time I get back to LA I hit up my favorite Mexican food places. If I’m headed through downtown I may even make a stop at Olvera Street to the place at the end where you can still find the ladies making the tortillas by hand. Standing in line as a child, my brother and I would always head up the steps that looked over the kitchen where we could peer over and watch their hands clap-clap-clap as they formed the tortillas.

My experience with Mexican food in America is limited to California and New York. I’ve been through Arizona and New Mexico (that’s right, there’s a New Mexico!) but I don’t remember my reaction to their Mexican food well enough to comment on it. I’m sure it’s great though. It seems to me the closer you get to the border the more likely you are to find something delicioso y sabroso. Next week I’ll get into some specifics about how crazy Mexican food can get, like eating tongue and brains, roasting up a goat head or the process of making carnitas from scratch. Good times.