Mexican food

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August 29, 2011 | 10:19 AM | By

Want to cook your favorite ethnic cuisine? Have an immigrant teach you

Photo by syvwlch/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The makings of flan, September 2010

Here’s a novel idea: With foodie interest in ethnic cuisines at an all-time high, why not bring together said foodies who want to learn how to cook with the people who know how to make these dishes best?

Jennifer Lopez (not the celebrity) and Abby Sturges, a pair of Stanford University design students, have launched a Bay Area cooking school called Culture Kitchen in which the teachers are immigrants trained in their own family kitchens, rather than professionally-trained chefs.

The idea came from the two women’s study trips to Myanmar and Kenya, where they spent time in the kitchens of local women as they prepared meals, Fast Company reports. Lopez, who is Mexican American, also counts time around the dinner table with her immigrant parents as “some of her fondest memories of childhood,” she writes on the Culture Kitchen SF website.

The intent of the cooking classes is to pass along more than a recipe. An upcoming class advertised is billed simply as a “Mexican cooking class with Patty,” in which the instructor will teach participants to make a meal of chicken and potato flautas, green and red salsas, rice and agua de tamarindo. From the startup’s website:

We at Culture Kitchen are cooking the way families have for generations, at “home” in the kitchen. Be one of the first people to experience this new kind of cooking experience for those who not only want to learn how to make authentic ethnic cuisine, but who also want to learn the personal story and culture behind the food.  In this special class, Patty will be sharing her family’s heritage and culture through the food that defines her family.

Other “chefs” who teach the classes come from places like Thailand, Vietnam, the Ukraine, Nicaragua and Colombia according to the website. Some of their recipes are posted on the site, including this one for a great-looking flan.

In a foodie world where some of the most famous chefs connected to ethnic cuisines hail from elsewhere, it’s an interesting no-brainer of an approach. After all, someone taught Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless how to cook Mexican food.

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Economy, Culture Kitchen, Ethnic cuisine, Mexican food
July 25, 2011 | 5:43 PM | By

American snapshot: Echo Park

Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

The Costa Alegre restaurant, a long established fixture on Sunset Boulevard, advertises its new vegetarian menu – yet another sign of changing times in Echo Park.

The neighborhood bucked the national trend in the 2010 Census, with its Latino population shrinking over the last decade, and its non-Latino white population growing.

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Economy, 2010 Census, Echo Park, Gentrification, Mexican food
July 22, 2011 | 2:55 PM | By

‘What makes a restaurant authentic?’

Photo by cattoo/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Should it matter if Cajun food is prepared by a chef from Iran, sushi by a chef from Mexico?

In a land where your sushi chef might be from Mexico, they guy who makes your pizza might be from El Salvador, and the owner of your favorite Cajun joint might be from Iran, how relevant is “authenticity” to a restaurant if the food is good? And what constitutes authenticity, anyway?

Elahe Izadi of WAMU’s DCentric blog in Washington, D.C. poses these questions in an interesting post today, talking to the chefs and patrons of eateries operated by people whose ethnicity is different from that of the cuisine served.

Among those she interviews is Bardia Ferdowski, an Iranian immigrant who moved to Louisiana, working in Cajun restaurants and eventually opening his own Cajun kitchen in D.C. She also talks to Jose De Velasquez, an immigrant from El Salvador whose pizzeria, the Italian-sounding Moroni & Brothers, also serves Salvadoran and Mexican food. From the piece:

A wood-fire oven blazes in the back of the restaurant. Above it, a picture of De Velasquez making a pizza hangs on the wall, next to an ornament with “El Salvador” emblazoned on the front.

“The most important thing is to know how to combine the ingredients, and the dough recipe,” Jose says in Spanish. “But we’re Salvadoran and we wanted something traditional. This is a good combination.”

At one table, a couple eats pupusas. At another, Jeff Lindeblad and his two daughters eat their usual meal: quesadillas and pizza. The menu “didn’t seem odd at all” on his first visit, Lindeblad says.

“Is it important to have someone from Italy make the pizza? No,” Lindeblad says. “And the pizza here is fantastic.”

I’ll admit that I’ve been an authenticity snob in the past, especially in the post-“Buena Vista Social Club” era of a decade ago, when the humble, filling Cuban food of my youth – not to mention mojitos – became trendy and bad interpretations were popping up like weeds.

Similarly, I’ve turned up my nose at some American-style Mexican food, but I’ve since been schooled. In a recent Multi-American Q&A, the OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano presented a good argument in defense of Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex, even something he’s dubbed Bro-Mex as authentic in their own right.

In her post, Elahe asks: ”How important is authenticity in a restaurant? How do you judge a restaurant’s authenticity?” Feel free to share your thoughts below.

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Economy, Cajun food, Cuban food, DCentric, Italian food, Mexican food, Salvadoran food, WAMU
July 21, 2011 | 5:11 PM | By

Southern California must-trys: Filipino tacos and ‘flan icing’

KPCC intern Ariel Edwards-Levy is on a mission to find some of the more intriguing tastes to come out of Southern California’s cultural stew. We could call it fusion, but we won’t. Let’s just call it what comes naturally in a place like this.

Ariel’s first entry involves a combination as Californian as the Beach Boys, the blending of Filipino and Mexican cuisines. Immigrants from both countries and their descendants have a long and intertwined history in the West that dates back generations. So the offerings of White Rabbit, a gourmet Filipino-Mexican food truck (and its newish brick-and-mortar Canoga Park cafe, housed in what looks like a former Taco Bell), are a naturally-occuring So Cal phenomenon. Hit it, Ariel:

Photo by Ariel Edwards-Levy for KPCC

White Rabbit's red velvet flan: Filipino-style flan on top, the world's trendiest cake on the bottom

The concept: Filipino-style meats and flavors fused with Mexican-style influences

The inspiration: Melvin Chua, one of the three co-owners, says the combination comes from the tradiitional Filipino dishes he grew up eating at home, and the tacos and burritos endemic to L.A. street food. The result is something that tastes familiar to almost everyone.

“That was one of our main goals – to get the cuisine out to everyone, not just Filipinos,” Chua says. “You can’t just hit people with all traditional ethnic dishes, but when you reduce it to the simplest building blocks of beef, chicken, pork – how can you go wrong with that?”

The must-trys: The truck’s tacos are no-frills, small corn tortillas garnished with a little slaw, the better to serve as vehicles for Filipino-style meats like shreds of garlicky, tender chicken adobo. Chua also recommends the signature pork sisig, which is fried with onions and jalapenos.

For dessert, the red velvet flan fuses the traditional dessert with the super-trendy cake. The Filipino-style leche flan is a slightly richer, heavier cousin to Mexican-style flan, with an intense caramel flavor and a smooth custardy texture that pairs perfectly with the dense, spongy layer of cake beneath. A spoonful combining the two has the effect of a cake with flan icing.

Editor’s note: Red velvet cake might be last year’s model, but how can anyone not love flan icing?

Ariel is busy scouting for more must-try experiments from Southern California’s cultural petri dish, so stay tuned. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Economy, Filipino food, Mexican food, White Rabbit
July 1, 2011 | 4:29 PM | By

The new American barbecue: Carne asada, galbi, lula kebab y más

A helping of carne asada. Photo by Sifu Renka/Flickr (Creative Commons)

In Los Angeles, the aroma that wafts from backyard barbecues on the Fourth of July varies slightly depending on the neighborhood one finds oneself in.

In large swaths of the city, from the Eastside to South L.A. to the southeastern suburbs, the smell of cumin and garlic from Mexican carne asada beckons. Drive north toward Glendale and you’ll catch a whiff of the distinctive smell of grilled lamb from Armenian kebab. Head east into Downey and you’ll find more garlic in the air, rising from the Cuban mojo smothered on pork chops.

Smelling one’s way through neighborhoods is one thing, but eating the offerings is better. If you haven’t been invited to one of these backyard feasts, the solution is simple – make one yourself.

A few recipes:

Carne Asada

There are few better backyard meals than tacos made with a good carne asada, grilled flank or skirt steak that has been marinated in a blend of spices that includes chiles, garlic, cumin, lime and orange juice. This comprehensive recipe lists not only the marinate and prep details for this grilled Mexican staple, but the necessary fixings to accompany it.

Galbi

Also referred as kalbi, these are Korean braised short ribs, usually beef. That Korean barbecue madness that has gripped the nation? It’s because Korean barbecue is really, really good. Like the best grilling marinades, the one for galbi employs garlic, along with with soy sauce, sugar and other ingredients. Skip the urge to buy those frozen Korean barbecue “street” tacos and grill some galbi at home instead.

Chuletas de puerco

My own Fourth of July barbecue meal will likely consist of these Cuban-style pork chops, drenched in the garlicky marinade referred to as mojo crillo and lovingly tended to on the grill by my father. Chuletas are your basic supermarket pork chop – what makes them wonderful is the mojo. It’s best to make your own, as my dad does, but novices can get a taste with the bottled mojo sold in many Latin American grocery stores.

Lula kebab

While commercial outdoor grilling is banned in the city of Glendale, fortunately backyard grilling is not, allowing the city’s Armenian American residents to grill fragrant delicacies like lula kebab. Typically made with seasoned ground lamb, lula kebab is shaped around a skewer then thrown on the grill. In some recipes, an egg helps hold the shape. It goes nicely with a traditional pilaf.

Picanha

This Brazilian grilled favorite is served off a large skewer in churrascarias, but it’s relatively easy to grill at home. It’s typically made with a large cut of tri-tip or rump steak, rubbed with garlic and often served with a tomato-based relish. There are some helpful links on how to find the right cuts of meat, along with this entertaining how-to video.

Not that there’s anything wrong with burgers and chicken. Whatever your holiday meal is, enjoy.

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Armenian food, Brazilian food, Cuban food, Fourth of July barbecues, Korean food, Mexican food
June 29, 2011 | 4:13 PM | By

Q&A: OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano on Mexican food, yellow cheese and ‘Bro-Mex’

 

Photo by katieharbath/Flickr (Creative Commons)

The OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano knows a thing or two about Mexican food, and not just the traditional stuff that is actually found in Mexico. In his by now legendary “¡Ask a Mexican!” column, Arellano routinely fielded inquiries like “I always wondered why Mexican restaurants en los Estados Unidos use queso amarillo (yellow cheese) on their food.”

Lately, as he’s been researching a book on the history of Mexican food in the United States and its many variations, Arellano has given us a taste of a “Spanish” feast in the Orange County of the 1890s (served with a sauce that a newspaper reporter at the time called “sarsa”) and brought us the food-genre term “Bro-Mex.”

Along the way, he has encountered plenty of gooey yellow cheese. But American-style Mexican food is about much more than that, a point that Arellano makes in his forthcoming “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,” set to be published in April of next year by Scribner.

And while he can’t reveal all he’s learned while researching the book, he is clear about one thing: There’s no shame in ordering that chimichanga combo plate.

M-A: So you’re writing a book about Mexican food in the United States. Is this the type of food that comes smothered in yellow cheese? Is it really Mexican food?

Arellano: It absolutely is Mexican food, with no qualifiers. The great Chicano scholar Américo Paredes coined the term “Greater Mexico” to refer to how, even though Mexican migrants might’ve gone into the United States, that somehow didn’t negate their mexicanidad on virtue of geographic movement; they were still Mexican.

Similarly, the Mexican combo platter smothered in yellow cheese is as Mexican as the chilango tlacoyo, as the Taco Bell taco, as whatever comes out of Rick Bayless’ kitchen. They’re all different regional manifestations of the mother tortilla. The cheese touch, by the way? Came from Texas’ version of Mexican food, which we all know and ridicule as Tex-Mex, even though we stole their combo plate idea.

M-A: What are the signature dishes and/or touches, and who serves it?

Arellano: Depends on what you’re talking about. The classic Tex-Mex meal is a combo plate-beans, rice, and an entree that can range from chile con carne (what the rest of the country now calls chili) to enchiladas and even cheese tacos, which is really nothing more than a corn tortilla stuffed with processed cheese – and then comes the cheese.

Cal-Mex cuisine has more guacamole, burritos, and tacos, and is really the pocho child of Sonoran cooking (where beef reigns, along with the flour tortilla) and central Mexico, specifically Jalisco (home to menudo, birria, pozole, and flautas, which we know better as taquitos). Then there’s New Mexican food, Colorado Mexican, Fresh Mex…just wait for the book!

M-A: Where did this cuisine originate, and how did it evolve into, say, the chimichanga combination plate?

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Economy, Ask a Mexican, Bro-Mex, Gustavo Arellano, Mexican food, OC Weekly
May 22, 2011 | 3:51 PM | By

More ethnic food tastes worth acquiring: Cabrit

Cabrit fricassee at TiGeorge's with all the Caribbean fixings, May 2011

Goats are cute. And unfortunately for them, they are also tasty.

The beloved, beady-eyed petting zoo favorites are considered delectable in many parts of the world. This includes in much of Southern California, where Mexican bírria – a spicy and much-eaten goat stew– is hardly a rarity.

But there are less common goat delicacies in these parts that merit a try. Notably is a savory Hatian dish of marinated, slow-roasted goat, referred to there as cabrit or kabrit.

Hatian-style cabrit is very different from bírria, in which the goat meat is served with a spicy broth. But done right, no broth is needed, as the meat is delectably tender. Those who grew up with it sing its praises, although there are the inevitable goat-related childhood stories.

Gary Dauphin, a Los Angeles writer and director of new media for KCET, remembers his first goat dinner while visiting his grandmother:

My first taste of kabrit was instructive on numerous levels.

During my first trip to Haiti at about 6, I spent most the summer befriending a goat my grandmother kept behind her house. As you would likely expect, they ended up serving her to me on my last night in Port-au-Prince. The odd mix of horror – that was a good goat! :( – and pleasure – that was a good goat! :) – I felt as I realized exactly what/who I was eating remains with me to this day.

I had my first taste of of the dish the other day at TiGeorge’s Chicken, a Haitian restaurant just south of Echo Park. And I concur – that was a good goat. The meat in the “cabrit fricassee” was fall-off-the-bone tender. It was also surprisingly not gamy, gaminess being goat’s bad reputation.

Proprietor and chef George Laguerre explained the preparation: A marinade of spices and fruit juices like key lime and sour orange followed by several hours’ worth of cooking, along with a rendering process that involves adding cold water while the meat is cooking to remove fat, which tones down the gaminess. Most important is to have patience.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Birria, Cabrit, Haitian food, Mexican food, TiGeorge's
May 6, 2011 | 3:00 PM | By

‘Hispanic-flavored dishes’ and other ethnic-inspired, um, treats

Chilaquiles by any other name? The “chilaquiles-inspired” Tortilla Scrambles breakfast at IHOP, with pancakes. Photo by Leslie Berestein Rojas/KPCC

Cinco de Mayo has come and gone, but its effect on that peculiar cuisine known as “ethnic-inspired” continues. For a limited time only, at least.

This morning I ventured into an International House of Pancakes to try one of a few Cinco de Mayo-related items promoted in a recent news release as “Hispanic-flavored dishes.” I didn’t think that flavor had been popular since the Spanish conquistadors stumbled upon the Caribs, but what do I know? The flavor in question didn’t involve humans, fortunately, but chilaquiles.

From the news release:

With ethnic-inspired entrees predicted to be the top breakfast food trend of the year, IHOP, one of America’s favorite restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner, is turning up the heat with Hispanic-flavored dishes headlining its new Double Cheese Scrambles limited time offer.

Inspired by the traditional Mexican dish chilaquiles, IHOP’s new Tortilla Scrambles feature fluffy scrambled eggs with crispy yet soft tortilla chips, enchilada sauce with melted jack and cheddar cheeses topped with sour cream and chopped green onions.

Ay, the ethnic-inspired entree. There is the perennial variety of ethnic-inspired cuisine, i.e. Taco Bell. Then there is the limited-time-only variety, which can spell trouble.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Economy, Cinco de Mayo, Ethnic food, Ethnic-inspired, IHOP, Mexican food