Food Friday: May 5th

This year, Cinco de Mayo is over the weekend. It is going to be a balmy Sunday, when we can throw open the windows, and notice all the new weeds that sprang up overnight in the garden. Mr. Sanders has spotted a proliferation of bunnies in the neighborhood this week while taking Luke the wonder dog out for their morning walk – they are probably gearing up for a festive weekend in our back yard, avoiding the weeds and directing their attention to the tender shoots of basil, and the quivering young, tomato plants.

For your continuing edification, Cinco de Mayo is the annual celebration of the victory of Mexico over France in 1862, at the Battle of Puebla. It is not Mexico’s Independence Day. There is much food, for which we are truly happy. Here is a quick, informative video:
Cinco de Mayo

Bon Appétit is quick to point out that there are many recipes for Mexican foods which are not tacos, but I am sure you can enjoy as many tacos as you wish. Because we are all about food, travel and celebrations:
Mexican Foods That Aren’t Tacos

There will be no mariachi bands entertaining at our house on Cinco de Mayo, but there will be tacos, and maybe some good Mexican beer. And I have to confess that I came to the taco party late. When I was growing up, our spices were limited to Christmas nutmeg, cinnamon for cinnamon toast, black pepper and baking powder. Garlic was an exotic commodity. Red pepper was on the tables at Italian restaurants. I doubt if my mother was acquainted with cumin. We never had Mexican food. My mother’s idea of adventurous ethnic cooking was preparing the annual corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. And so my international food indoctrination came from my peers, as do so many of our seminal experiences

The first tacos I ever had were at my friend Sheila’s older sister’s apartment. Margo was oh, so sophisticated. She was in college, and we adored her and the string of characters who wandered through her tiny beach house. She made tacos regularly, and we mooched often. I learned how to grate the cheese, shred the lettuce, and chop the onions and peppers that went on top of the taco meat, which we browned in a frying pan and then covered with a packet of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix with a cup of water. I thought fine dining couldn’t get any better than that.

Sheila and I graduated to the scalding hot pewter platters of searing nachos chips and oozy beans at the Viva Zapata restaurant. (I think we were actually more attracted to the cheap pitchers of fruity, blood red sangria, which we drank, sitting outside in dappled shade, under the leafy trees, enjoying watching the colorful parade of amusing passersby.) Gradually we drifted over to Mama Vicky’s Old Acapulco Restaurant, with its dodgy sanitation, and her exquisitely flaming jalapeños hovering on the lard-infused refried beans, in pools of greasy melted yellow cheese. Ah, youth.

We are older now, and take a more sophisticated approach, by following these ideas from World Food and Wine: Sophisticated Ideas for Cinco de Mayo

With winter barely behind us, let’s get ready for summer, with these ears of corn:
Mexican Street Corn

The good folks at Food52, never at a loss for recipes and great ideas, has a page of fantastic drinks, salsas, and guac:
Food52 Cinco de Mayo

We will carve up the season’s first watermelon so we can enjoy the sweet goodness of Merrill Stubbs’ Watermelon Paloma. Yumsters.
Watermelon Paloma

Enjoy yourself. May is truly here.

“It’s spring fever…. You don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
– Mark Twain