Comida de la Bandera

As many of you know, I am starting a bamboo park in the hills of south Baja.
I spent about a month down there clearing land and getting started with just a shovel, a hand saw, a broken rake and machete.
I then decided to send for my friend (Flaco) to bring down my power tools from Rosarito and lend me a hand.
Flaco is an Indian of Yaqui and Seri descent. He is what we would consider poor although he is considered an extremely hard worker and always has enough to feed his family and pay the bills.
When I picked Flaco up at the bus station in La Paz, he had no idea of what I had in store for him. He planned on being down about a week or two at the most and had never seen south Baja.
When he saw what I had done and the location itself, he decided that if I could do that, I could learn to live like an Indian and save money for the project.
First step, he took charge of the shopping list and cooking. Probably not to fond of Dinty Moore I would imagine.
This is when I learned about comida de la bandera. And it is what we ate every meal, every day. Comida de la Bandera consists of chilis, tomates, cebollas and papas mixed with everything. EVERYTHING !
And it is served with tortillas and or bread. Indians use these as a staple because of cost and they are pretty good to scoop up the comida.
We went through a learning period where Flaco found out I can't eat 9 pieces of bread with my meal or 27 tortillas let alone both. But he can.
It is really good and tasted great for about a month. I would buy steaks, fish, chicken, and gringo type foods for a little break but, it would all get chopped up in the comida de la bandera. And it would all taste the same.
Now I know Flaco knows how to make enchiladas, tamales, etc. and he's very good at it. But, when I brought it up one evening, it was a diasaster.
Indians are apparently very sensitive when it comes to their cooking. My making a suggestion of trying something different for dinner put me right back on Dinty and the cans. Immediately.
Flaco went to his tent! And I ate Dinty Moore. Sooo, because Flaco and I are friends, I apologized the next morning for my rudeness and we carried on but with no comida de la bandera for breakfast.
But lunchtime came around and low and behold, comida de la bandera. For the next 1 1/2 months. Every meal, every day.
The funny thing is, I didn't mind it and I am not tired of it. It's easy, cheap and I can be doing something construction related while he is cooking.
Comida de la bandera. The food of the gods. And the Indians. And J.R.

We are going back down pretty soon and I used this as an excercise to get prepared. Can't wait !!!