Across the border, a brave new world of snacks
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/food/10911296.ht...
BY ENRIQUE FERNANDEZ
Feb. 17, 2005
``In his Considerations on Cuisine, Pierre de Pressac augurs a renaissance, but the truth is that all around there are signs of stagnation. The new
form of civilization, in this as in other things, carries its own dangers. All one needs to do is to cross the R?o Bravo to become convinced.''
Alfonso Reyes, who, if he had not been Mexico's greatest poet, would have been its greatest gastronome, meant crossing what we call the Rio Grande,
and the new form and civilization he saw endangering gastronomy was our own. He was considering American food in 1953.
Half a century later, the new form of civilization is everywhere. Certainly in Mexico. And there is no turning back, so we might as well enjoy it.
Mexicans do.
Because he has joined a Mexican family through marriage, my son Alex, who shares my enthusiasm for both food and extravagant forms of vulgarity, has
been introducing me to Mexican junk food. One delightful morsel, tostiloco, which he tells me is sold as you wait in your car to cross the border into
Tijuana, is actually quite complex.
His mother-in-law came over recently with the works and made it for me. She began by slitting an individual bag of Tostitos (spicy Mexican Tostitos).
Then she added a handful of cueritos, one of those acquired tastes that borders on the disgusting: julienned pig skin boiled soft. Handfuls of spiced
peanuts, diced cucumber and tamarind candy. Two kinds of sauce from big, gaudily labeled bottles. Close it up, shake it up, open it, eat it.
Taco Bell, eat your Chihuahua heart out. This is junk food con zafo -- down. Not for a poet-gastronome perhaps, but just right for a hungry
journalist. And if you're concerned about trans fats, carbs, food coloring, preservatives -- olv?dalo, fuggedaboutit.
When I was traveling to Mexico with the Latin Grammy folks, I would follow a Miami-based Mexican friend into the supermarket on his junk food safaris
and buy exactly what he did. (Another great thing about Mexican supermarkets is that the liquor aisle has open bottles of tequila and little paper
cups so you can do your own tastings: righteous!)
These days my son, his bride and his new in-laws bring home the stuff and share it with me (they also bring home and share the tequila). Having lived
all my life in junk-food-infused modernity, I feel entitled to pronounce the Mexican variety superior to what is found north of the R?o Bravo. Alfonso
Reyes was right, but not for his reasons. I doubt such a cultivated palate would approve of Tostitos, with or without cueritos.
Thanks to South Florida's burgeoning Latin American population, junk food from countries south of the river is out there for the adventurous to try. I
see Colombian, Brazilian and Argentine snacks everywhere. Central American, too. Mexican? Plenty of tortillas, chorizos, cheeses for crumbling on
tacos and melting on quesadillas (that cheese is called, duh, quesadilla).
But botanas -- salty, spicy snacks to accompany beer or tequila -- are harder to find. Too bad, for Mexico's pop culture, including food and drink, is
getting hipper on this side of the river.
This summer, look for a Mexican drink to dethrone the Cuban mojito: the michelada, already as familiar to West Coast dudes as their beloved fish
tacos. It's mostly beer, though a cut above a longneck Corona with a lime wedge. (If that's your brewski, try the brands Mexicans favor, Tecate and
Pac?fico Clara.)
And a michelada calls for a Tostito/pigskin/peanut combo, or at least one of the flavorful picante versions of Tostitos, Cheetos or Doritos sold on
the south side of the Rio Grande/Bravo, the grand and brave river that divides us from the land of grand and brave junk treats.
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