Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

Individual Mexican recipes are fine... but for a full afternoon of joy,
happiness and well-being, you need a Mexican meal!

My son and wife will be at San Diego Lindbergh field picking up my daughter,
hubby and my two grand-kids in a few hours. I'm staying home to prepare the
feast of feasts!

From experience, I know they all love my Enchiladas Verdes (Green
Enchiladas). And... they would enjoy them as is, as a single dish, and as a
complete meal. But...

Not so in Lundy's Joint where only authentic... yes AUTHENTIC Mexican food
will be prepared and served. By authentic, I mean, Pueblaprotocol.

Puebla is that beautiful city halfway between the port of Veracruz (where
the conquerors landed) and Mexico City (where Moctezuma once ruled). Over
the centuries, the European cuisine and pre-conquest cuisine merged to
become a truly unique cornucopia of individual 'one taco at a time' servings
to complete royal bashes. Pork was introduced and replaced the hairless dog,
rice was brought by the African slaves and augmented maize, beans, chiles,
squashes.

Few examples in the history of man compare to the wonders that came from
this mish-mash of ingredients. Blame it on the Catholic nuns in Puebla! (And
to an American named Sanborns who opened a little bistro in Mexico city at
the end of the 19th century, while Porifirio Diaz reigned.)

Recopies abound. But festive assemblies make for true delights.

What I will be making and serving when they get he

Guacamole and tortilla chips on the table while everybody gets a chance to
bring everybody up to speed with tall tales and political extravaganzas. A
bottle of tequila and copitas on the table for those who care, soft drinks
and beer for the others.

Broth from the chicken used to make the enchiladas will be served in small
bowls. Salsas will be coming and going during the whole event. Limes will be
bleeding their welcoming juices to add a drop or two to the consommé
(broth), along with some crumbling chile de arbol, some oregano, some
cilantro and a radish or two cut up and waiting to be added to somebody's
caldo. Bolillos will be on hand for the pleasure of breaking away a pinch or
two to wet in the caldo and slurp it with pleasure. Dipping into a green
salsa is paradise on earth!

At a given note of relaxation, a pot of day-old but not quite refried beans
on the table. Two hot tortilla baskets, one on the north side of the table,
one on the south. Four bowls of salsas, two red and two green. More
guacamole to replenish the spent.

From the kitchen I will serve each three enchiladas swisas along with a
spoonful of rice. On the table they will scoop sour cream, finely diced
onions, and my special tomato salsa with tons of cerrano chiles to make it
volcano hot.

You will notice, if you ever locate an Enchilada Suisa recipe, that it does
not include chile... nor do most Mexican recipes. Chile is added to the
eater's 'gusto'.

My 'guests' will spoon whatever bean they want, will take whatever salsa to
add to their already rich Enchiladas and we will be telling tall tales all
the while.

Maybe an hour later we will move on to the more important thing, taking a
short meditation break, known as a siesta.

There will be leftovers, and they will be consumed in three or four
different manners, from huevos rancheros, to enchilada tortas, tostadas,
sopes and the like.

Stay tuned!

Wayne

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 27, 11:12?am, "Wayne Lundberg" >
wrote:

> Mexican food is a ceremony!

Well, actually, a ceremony is a ritual that doesn't allow much
deviation. It's like a baptism, or an initiation as a Mason. A
Passover seder or a Japanese tea ceremony
would be a ritualistic celebration of certain types of food and their
serving methods.

Perhaps it would be better to say "Mexican food is a celebration!"

But, rituals are celebrated, and the whole idea of ceremonies and the
celebration of ceremonies isn't quite what the average Mexican thinks
of when he bites a chunk out of a taco and washes it down with beer.

> Individual Mexican recipes are fine... but for a full afternoon of joy,
> happiness and well-being, you need a Mexican meal!

I thought you were going to post a menu for a comida, but all I saw
was appetizers, there was no pasta, no fish, fowl or meat main dish
mentioned, no rice dish, and no dessert.

What kind of comida is that?

It's more like some sort of satire on "Waiting for Godot", played out
with enchiladas and salsa...

There is no hope for Didi and Gogo. Mr. Godot "not" coming to their
rescue, and Wayne is never going to post a recipe on how to prepare
Bistec Tampique?o...
>
> Not so in Lundy's Joint where only authentic... yes AUTHENTIC Mexican food
> will be prepared and served. By authentic, I mean, Pueblaprotocol.

Did you invent that term for defining the supposed "authenticity* of
Mexican cooking yourself, Wayne? Has it been canonized?

> Few examples in the history of man compare to the wonders that came from
> this mish-mash of ingredients. Blame it on the Catholic nuns in Puebla! (And
> to an American named Sanborns who opened a little bistro in Mexico city at
> the end of the 19th century, while Porifirio Diaz reigned.)

Tell us about the Sanborn Heresy and the Diaz Conspiracy. It might be
interesting.

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 27, 5:14 pm, "The Galloping Gourmand" >
wrote:
> On Jan 27, 11:12?am, "Wayne Lundberg" >
> wrote:
>
> > Mexican food is a ceremony!Well, actually, a ceremony is a ritual that doesn't allow much
> deviation. ...

Blah, blah, blah.

How about just shutting up and reading for awhile. Then you might tell
us some real experiences such as what Wayne and Rolly and Jack share
with us, and maybe someone around here might begin to respect your
anonymous "contributions." Maybe.

David

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 27, 5:35?pm, "dtwright37" > wrote:

>
> How about just shutting up and reading for awhile. Then you might tell
> us some real experiences such as what Wayne and Rolly and Jack share
> with us, and maybe someone around here might begin to respect your
> anonymous "contributions." Maybe.

I have been reading for years, but there just isn't much useful
content from most users, beyond repetitive description of what kinds
of tacos or tamales or enchiladas they like, or how they ate tacos and
tamales and enchiladas and drank a lot of beer, or somebody telling
about their favorite taqueria where they ordered tacos and tamales and
enchiladas off the menu painted on the wall behind the grill.

And now Wayne is talking again about some "Puebla Protocol" that
supposedly defines what is and isn't "authentic" in Mexican cooking,
and how eating Mexican food is some sort of "ceremony" and you expect
me not to think he's being just a little bit silly?

The whole idea of alt.food.mexican-cooking is to talk about how to
cook Mexican food at home, even though the purpose of the group has
never been officially defined.

Nobody has to be an expert or a master chef. Nobody has to live in
Mexico, or visit Mexico frequently to discuss how to cook Mexican food
at home. Nobody even has to ever visit Mexico or have any kind of
experience with Mexican food at all to discuss the subject or post a
recipe and ask a question.

And, nobody even has to read the postings of the trolls that hang out
in this group.

But it's really sad to think of how many people are reading this NG
that think tacos and tamales and enchiladas are all there is to
Mexican cooking.

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

"The Galloping Gourmand" > wrote in message .

---snip----
>
> Tell us about the Sanborn Heresy and the Diaz Conspiracy. It might be
> interesting.
>
-------

You would be disappointed with my recipe for Biste a la Tampiquena because
it is nothing more than a nice broiled steak on a wide plate, scoop of
refried beans on one end with the right amount of tortilla chips, a scoop of
guacamole on the other end, and three rolled red cheese or chicken
enchiladas above the steak. Which, in your unhumble opinion are nothing more
than antojitos to be found on the walls of any taco shop.

Last night's meal was a complete meal in every respect. Chicken broth soup
to start with, chicken enchiladas topped with sour cream, diced onions and
as much chile as the individual eater likes, beans and the desert was a
combination of fresh fruits and fruit cake. I'd say that is a complete meal.
The salsas making up for whatever idea of a salad. So... soup, salad,
chicken, tortillas, beans...

This morning I used left over salsas I used in making the enchiladas, made
some fresh green salsa and served my guests a complete breakfast meal
consisting of two poached eggs in the salsas, one green and one red, served
over two lightly fried tortillas and a side of beans. Each 'eater' put their
own onion, cilantro, chile, salt, pepper... whatever. These are called
huevos divorciados and a delight to anybody who likes Mexican food... or
just good food.

Sanborns chefs 'invented' the Enchiladas Suisas, which are basically green
enchiladas topped with Mexican style sour cream.

The Puebla Protocol thing is nothing more than my humble attempt to classify
some of the origins of Mexican food and culture based on historical fact or
historical fiction since it is impossible to really get to the historical
truth what with the burning of all but a few codices written by the ancients
and observations by Spanish priests who certainly wrote with a jaded eye by
condemning everything as heretical and unChristian.

You probably consider anything with chile in it to be Mexican?

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 28, 10:18�am, "Wayne Lundberg" >
wrote:

> You would be disappointed with my recipe for Biste a la Tampiquena because
> it is nothing more than *a nice broiled steak on a wide plate, scoop of
> refried beans on one end with the right amount of tortilla chips, a scoop of
> guacamole on the other end, and three rolled red cheese or chicken
> enchiladas above the steak. Which, in your unhumble opinion are nothing more
> than antojitos to be found on the walls of any taco shop.

That's not a recipe, it's a combination plate or "plato tipico". There
would be about five or six recipes necessary for a beginner to make
that plato, while an experienced cook would do it without measuring
anything.

The above is not intended to infer that the antonjitos served along
with the steak aren't
delightful in their own way.

If you have just one small antojito, you can serve it on a *platillo*,
if it's drizzled with mole or salsa and the person eating it doesn't
want to hold it in his hand.

> Sanborns chefs 'invented' the Enchiladas Suisas, which are basically green
> enchiladas topped with Mexican style sour cream.
>
> The Puebla Protocol thing is nothing more than my humble attempt to classify
> some of the origins of Mexican food and culture based on historical fact or
> historical fiction since it is impossible to really get to the historical
> truth what with the burning of all but a few codices written by the ancients
> and observations by Spanish priests who certainly wrote with a jaded eye by
> condemning everything as heretical and unChristian.

It takes at least two parties to agree to a protocol, according to the
definition of the term.

One person can't impose a protocol unless the other parties agree or
submit to it.

One of my illustrious non-Mexican Hispanic relatives delivered the
Queretaro Protocol to the Mexican minister De la Rosa, and the Mexican
Cession of 1848 is U.S. territory because the government of Mexico
agreed to the protocol.

And, I know about the burnings and the intolerance of the Spanish
priests. That's why our familes are non-Mexican and of Hispanic
origin.

> You probably consider anything with chile in it to be Mexican?

Absolutely not. But I hesitate to offer any recipe which does not
contain chiles, being wary of those who believe "no hay comida sin
chiles".

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

"The Galloping Gourmand" > wrote in message
oups.com...
--- snip ----> You probably consider anything with chile in it to be
Mexican?

Absolutely not. But I hesitate to offer any recipe which does not
contain chiles, being wary of those who believe "no hay comida sin
chiles".

------------------

There are millions of posted recipes for everything I mentioned for the File
a la Tampiquena, which by the way, can be ordered from most upper class
Mexican restaurants and made to their own version, but pretty much following
what I described. My family first 'discovered' this wonderful meal on the
long ago running passenger train from El Paso to Mexico City... sometime in
1970. It is a true delight!

Protocol... yes, of course, we need more than one person to reach even a
basic agreement. Which I have been proposing since the days this forum began
in CompuServe with Linda as our champion poster and contributor.

I think it's a fun project... Would an armadillo taco be possible in the
Queen's court before 1520? Not important, and certainly not as important as
any of the daytime TV programs or the most popular American Hero or whatever
it's called. But when time is on our hands, we humans seem to look for
things to keep us busy. It's your choice to read my stuff or not. To
contribute or not.

As to the chile thing... I really do not agree with you. Few 'real' Mexican
(south of the tropic of Cancer) recipes call for hot. A chile ancho (smoked
and/or dried Chile Poblano) is not normally hot. Most cooks cull the hot
ones from the batch knowing that Mexicans do not like hot in their meals
unless they add it to taste by themselves. Believe it or not, this is a fact
of life for Mexicans.

So you see? You are already helping with the definition of Mexican food...
you say chile must be present in the recipe. I claim chile is served in a
nearby bowl in the form of salsas. Let the eater heat to taste.

Wayne

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

"Wayne Lundberg" > wrote in
:

>
> "The Galloping Gourmand" > wrote in
> message
> oups.com...
> --- snip ----> You probably consider anything with chile in it
> to be Mexican?
>
> Absolutely not. But I hesitate to offer any recipe which does
> not contain chiles, being wary of those who believe "no hay
> comida sin chiles".
chili verde recipe please

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

Chili verde... need to know more. There are many ways to make the many
versions of the many different words in chili verde.

Chili is normally associated with the Texas style fabulous chili in all it's
variations with and withouth beans.

Chile is normally used to describe a Serrano, Habanero, Ancho, Anaheim,
Poblano, Jalapeno... etc.

If I were to take a shot at what you may be looking for is a north of the
border concoction made up during the height of the Brazero program during
WWII.

Stop here if I'm not hitting the mark. But chili verde, in this case, is a
'gravy' made from green tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro and serrano
chiles. I call this a north of the border because it contains actual chiles
in the recipe. Not what you find in most south of the border Mexican
recipes.

If this is what you are looking for, let me know and I'll give you a few
variations. Most will include some form of meat, beef mostly north of the
border, and used to smother burritos to make a delightful meal.

Wayne

Mexican food is a ceremony?????
 

"Wayne Lundberg" > wrote in message
...
> Chili verde... need to know more. There are many ways to make the many
> versions of the many different words in chili verde.
>
> Chili is normally associated with the Texas style fabulous chili in all
> it's
> variations with and withouth beans.
>
> Chile is normally used to describe a Serrano, Habanero, Ancho, Anaheim,
> Poblano, Jalapeno... etc.
>
> If I were to take a shot at what you may be looking for is a north of the
> border concoction made up during the height of the Brazero program during
> WWII.
>
> Stop here if I'm not hitting the mark. But chili verde, in this case, is a
> 'gravy' made from green tomatillos, onion, garlic, cilantro and serrano
> chiles. I call this a north of the border because it contains actual
> chiles
> in the recipe. Not what you find in most south of the border Mexican
> recipes.
>
> If this is what you are looking for, let me know and I'll give you a few
> variations. Most will include some form of meat, beef mostly north of the
> border, and used to smother burritos to make a delightful meal.
>
> Wayne


Oh Geez, like there is some magic to making "Mexican" food that only the
truly pious can understand and to add insult to injury we still have the
class distinction of the "north and south".

A Green Chile Sauce, Mole or Salsa can be made in many way and it usually is
a just component to a dish. So here is one for a basic Chile Verde Sauce.
Just make it with the best and freshest ingredients you can find.

This will make about 3 cups (x 2 and you get twice as much) .

1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 medium to large white onion, coarsely chopped
3 or 4 large garlic cloves, depending on taste, leave them unpeeled until
roasted
3-4 fresh chiles of choice or a combo of 3-4
3 tablespoons cooking oil or Lard
1/2 -teaspoon salt
1/4 -teaspoon pepper
2 cups chicken broth
1/3-cup cilantro (optional)
1 tblspn cumin (optional)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, mix tomatillos, onion, garlic and
your chile de jour. Toss in 2 tblspn of the cooking oil, season with the
salt and pepper. Pour onto a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 35-45
minutes, until peppers and tomatillos are charred in spots and the garlic
turns a golden brown in its husk . Cool, peel the garlic and then puree
the mixture in a blender or processor. Be careful when putting a hot mixture
in a blender or processor as it expands quite rapidly, almost explosively
when really hot and steam is contained

At this step you have a chunky puree for use as a thick salsa for chips or
use on eggs, chicken, fish or even meat, just reseason, throw in some
cilantro and serve. If you want to make a sauce more suited to enchiladas or
chile Verde, heat the remaining 1-tablespoon oil in a large skillet over
medium high heat. Pour Tomatillo/Chile puree mixture into the skillet all at
once and cook, stirring for about 4 minutes until thickened and darker. Add
the chicken broth and the cilantro, bring to boil, and reduce to simmer.
Simmer for about 10 minutes until the sauce it thick enough to coat the
back of a spoon. If you like cumin , add it at this step to allow the spice
to infuse in the simmer at about a 1/2 tspn at a time until it suits your
taste. Lastly, reseason with additional salt/pepper, if desired. .

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 28, 12:15?pm, "Wayne Lundberg" >
wrote:

> So you see? You are already helping with the definition of Mexican food...
> you say chile must be present in the recipe. I claim chile is served in a
> nearby bowl in the form of salsas. Let the eater heat to taste.

No, I am NOT saying that chile must be present in the recipe. I am
saying that I hestitate to offer any recipe that doesn't contain
chiles, being wary of those who claim that "no hay comida sin chiles."

When reading modern recipes in Spanish and translating them, I often
wonder whether it's a recipe from the USA which has been translated
into Spanish, or if it's a traditional Mexican recipe.

And then there are commercial recipes that were invented to promote
products sold in Mexico in the 1950's and 1960's, like "Pastel de Tres
Leches". It's a sponge cake soaked in condensed milk and evaporated
milk and is said to be sinfully rich.

I never heard of such a cake before reading about it in Spanish, but
it seems to be popular in San Antonio.

Also, you still didn't tell me what Porfirio Diaz did to "authentic"
Mexican cooking that was to its detriment.

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 27, 8:01 pm, "The Galloping Gourmand" >
wrote:

> The whole idea of alt.food.mexican-cooking is to talk about how to
> cook Mexican food at home, even though the purpose of the group has
> never been officially defined.

Well, when Linda Gonzalez started this group in early 1998, she wanted
it to be an easy going discussion of Mexican food, no matter where it
came from, home or not, Mexico or not. At least, that was the way I
read it.

There were several friendly people who had a good time here, and a
few, maybe 3-4, jerks who came along who decided their ideas about
Mexican food were better than those of anyone else who was here, and
who were mean about it. Too bad, because they drove away some nice
people. One of those jerks eventually even kill-filed Linda because
she had the audicity to ask him to stop insulting people.

Linda opened a cantina in southern California in 1999, and some of us
thought that her bar could be a metaphor for this newsgroup, that we
would all enjoy sitting around a table at her place, drinking cerveza,
eating pickled pigs feet and other snacks, and talking in a friendly
way about our favorite type of food. We could play pool, too.

So, GG, when we talk around here about our antojitos, we come about it
honestly and historically. And we've lost Linda, I'm sorry to say.

That's the way it is, to borrow a phrase.

David

Mexican food is a ceremony!
 

On Jan 29, 3:59?pm, "dtwright37" > wrote:

> Linda opened a cantina in southern California in 1999, and some of us
> thought that her bar could be a metaphor for this newsgroup, that we
> would all enjoy sitting around a table at her place, drinking cerveza,
> eating pickled pigs feet and other snacks, and talking in a friendly
> way about our favorite type of food. We could play pool, too.

If some of the guys drank too much cerveza, they'd eventually start a
fist fight...

I don't go to bars for the food. Bar food is just snacks to get the
patrons to buy beer.

I go to bars to hook up with unattached females. Buy 'em a few drinks
and take 'em home and bang 'em.

About the best-behaved and genteel bars I've ever been to were English
pubs.

I was staying at a large motor hotel near the bridges over the Firth
of Forth in Edinburgh, and I dropped by the dining room around 7:00
PM, looking for dinner.

The maitre d' told me I couldn't get seated before 9:00 PM without a
reservation and told me that I should go to the pub downstairs.

I told him I didn't want any damned pub food, I'd eaten something
suspiciously reminiscent of Hamburger Helper at the pub the night
before and didn't want to repeat the experience.

I demanded to know why I couldn't get a table in an empty restaurant
with 200 tables.

He finally relented and seated me. There was a solo lady from the tour
at the next table. I asked her how she got seated and she said she had
a reservation.

I told the tour guide the next day about the incident, and she told me
that I should try to buy an English title. She said I needed to be at
least an earl to go around demanding to get into restaurants without a
reservation...

Mexican food is a ceremony?????
 

On Jan 28, 3:26?pm, "Gunner" <gunner@ spam.com> wrote:

>
> > WayneOh Geez, like there is some magic to making "Mexican" food that only the
> truly pious can understand and to add insult to injury we still have the
> class distinction of the "north and south".

If you draw a line across mainland Mexico from Mazatlan to Tampico,
there is no culinary culture to the north of that line, because the
popular tourist destinations are in the southern half of the country.

After the Mexican revolution of 1821, the Mexican government wanted a
compact state
close around the capital city, and Mexicans really didn't want to go
out and live in the arid interior, unless the government gave them
leagues and leagues of free land.

That was what caused Americans to migrate to Texas and California.
Free land.

Of course, you can prove me wrong about the culinary wasteland to the
north by posting a few recipes of what tourists would regard as
culinary delights from Durango and Chihuahua and Monterrey and Ciudad
Victoria.

Maybe there is a unique specialty from Guaymas?