I'm not Mexican, nor am I particularly good at Spanish, even though I spent 4 years studying the language in high school. What I absolutely adore, however, is Mexican food.
After graduate school, I went to live in Tibet. Prior to that time, I had Mexican food perhaps twice a year. Practically the minute I got there, I started craving Mexican food, perhaps because there was nothing further from the food I had every day to eat. I missed it so much I constantly dreamed about tacos and salsa and refried beans.
I remember, at the end of April in 2007, my friends and I planned a spectacular Mexican feast. We had burritos, guacamole, salsa, patatas bravas, sopapillas and tres leches cake. It was amazing that we were able to find the ingredients to make everything, and even more amazing to our Tibetan friends who had never tasted Mexican food before. Surprisingly, the were wary of the dinner foods, but adored the desserts and could not seem to eat enough of them.
Nowadays, living in Kansas, with a large Mexican population, I eat Mexican food on a regular basis. Tamales are heaven, as are chile rellenos, fresh pico. I love everything about it, the freshness of the food, the savoriness of the meats. The flavors of lime and onion and jalapenos dance across your tongue, perking up the taste buds, making them awake to everything that follows.
Tonight, I brought home dinner from probably my favorite Mexican restaurant. It is a small, family owned establishment, around for nearly 20 years, with simple, delicious food. Soft tacos, stuffed with shredded beef and chorizo. Chorizo is the food of the gods; spicy and spice, flavorful, potentially greasy, always close to my heart. Eating chorizo makes me happy on many, many levels. I wouldn't hesitate at all to say that chorizo holds a special place in my kitchen. A world without it would be a poorer world, indeed.
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