Bittman and Tacos

I love Mark Bittman's column in the NYT, "The Minimalist", and I also really love his show "How To Cook Everything", but he really pissed me off today.

In today's NYT Food section, in a column titled "The Taco Joint in Your Kitchen"

Mark Bittman wrote:There are a lot of tacos around, certainly, and many of them can be satisfying enough. But the genuine article is often hard to come by — except in Mexico, on the West Coast and in the Southwest, where taco passion runs deep.

Bittman regulary seems to ignore Chicago and this felt like a slap in the face.*

Best,
Michael

*In the interest of channeling anger towards progress, I invited him to come to Chicago and have a few tacos.

Bittman has that flyover disease. Probably a big Knick's fan with a related phobia of Chicago leftover from the '90's.

To Bittman's credit, he did send me a quick apology email in reply. Nevertheless, he didn't take me up on my offer to visit Chicago.

Best,
Michael

He will never know what he does not know.

Mike G wrote:He will never know what he does not know.

"As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know."

-Donald Rumsfeld

I'd like to ask Bittman where the Chicago Mexican culinary community falls in this spectrum.

Best,
Michael

"When the press writes about something you know about, you realize how wrong they get everything."

--Oliver Stone

I'd like to ask Bittmann what he thinks all those Mexicans in Wichita eat, Tacoburgers at Taco Tico?

It's also strange that he seems to think one cannot get a taco in New York.

Darren72 wrote:It's also strange that he seems to think one cannot get a taco in New York.

I don't think he's that far off on that one. They're available, but finding a good, authentic taqueria in NY requires some digging around. I think he's speaking to the average NYTimes reader who probably isn't on the hunt for authentic tacos. He's trying to enlighted some people who live in a community that does not have the concentration of Mexicans that can be found in other cities.

Best,
Michael

Bittman???? I thougt this thread was about Batman

Oddly enough, yesterday in an IRC chat I hang out in during the workday, a friend in Berkeley mentioned he was "going out for an authentic burrito, not that you know what that is." Wrong on so many levels. Fortunately, although census.gov works hard to avoid giving you info, I was able to demonstrate to him that this metro area has the second largest population of Mexicans in the U.S. But the belief that we are all Nordics surrounded by Nordics lives on both coasts.

He probably meant a sesame-grilled seitan burrito with artisanal goat cheese and bok choy-cilantro aioli.

Actually, and I'll give him credit for this, he enjoys tacos de lengua and has tried both cabezas and ojos, none of which are foods I've touched.

Bob S. wrote:Actually, and I'll give him credit for this, he enjoys tacos de lengua and has tried both cabezas and ojos, none of which are foods I've touched.

I'm not going to say anything about ojos, but the tacos de cabeza and tacos de lengua at La Piramide are among my favorite tacos in town. I highly recommend giving them a try. Drop me a PM or an email and I'll meet you there anytime to coach you through it.

Best,
Michael

Bob S. wrote:Oddly enough, yesterday in an IRC chat I hang out in during the workday, a friend in Berkeley mentioned he was "going out for an authentic burrito, not that you know what that is." Wrong on so many levels. Fortunately, although census.gov works hard to avoid giving you info, I was able to demonstrate to him that this metro area has the second largest population of Mexicans in the U.S. But the belief that we are all Nordics surrounded by Nordics lives on both coasts.

According to Rick Bayless, the Burrito is actually a "fusion" dish, which has it's origins north of the border using Mexican ingredients.

Hi,

Rick Bayless appears to be correct, the burrito is more an American item. I learned this maybe 17 years ago when my sister was dating a Mexican whose family learned for burritos once they were in the USA.

Regards,

I remembered reading that, which is what prompted my "wrong on so many levels" reaction to his mention of an "authentic burrito."

But then, keeping in mind my suspicion of claims to "authenticity," any post-Colombian Mexican food could be said to be fusion.

stevez wrote:According to Rick Bayless, the Burrito is actually a "fusion" dish, which has it's origins north of the border† using Mexican ingredients.

I'm sure that's true but as with all such things, one needs to be careful and precise in what one claims. The big flour tortilla filled with beef and lettuce and tomato and onions and sour cream and cheese, etcetcetc... well, yes, I reckon that this thing, loaded with a typical and excessive amount of stuff, is a north of the border thing that reflects to some considerable degree at least gringo tastes and proclivities toward excess...

But there are clearly forerunners of those things, some called burritos (others not, e.g. the especially large sobaqueras from Sonora) which are just large flour totillas with stuff on them that Mexicans and other inhabitants of the northern states of Mexico and the territories seized by the US eat.

We had some very simple 'burritos' (which weren't very large at all but they were folded over in burrito style, not open as a taco properly is) with carne adovada in Alburquerque earlier this year and they struck me as being as 'real' or 'genuine' or 'authentic' as you could want. Pork, slow cooked in the garlicky red chile sauce, served up in a nice flour tortilla -- that's it: not as big as your head, no lettuce, no cheese, no nothin'.

So then, there is such a thing as genuinely Mexican burritos, that is, more or less large flour tortillas with typical and simple fillings, but of course, they are a regional item of the north (seek them not in the Yucatan or Tabasco). The things stuffed with guac and cheese and sour cream and lettuce and tomato and rice and beans and pesto mayonnaise and crispy corn tortillas... well, they're not.

Like pizza, it wasn't invented by gringos, just ruined by them.*



For more on adovada:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=76612#76612

Antonius


† 'North of the border', it should be remembered, includes a good chunk of territory that was a part of Mexico and contains a population that had and to a degree in areas still has a cuisine that is part of the culinary landscape of Mexico. Around that have arisen gringoised or anglo-americanised versions of old norteño dishes -- and the burrito alla gringa is surely one of those, but there are still people who make their old, local regional Mexican dishes who find themselves 'north of the border' without having gone anywhere.
* In point of fact, I personally believe a well made and not too excessively tarted up burrito alla gringa can be a very tasty thing. Even so, the sizeable stuffed flour tortilla is better the closer it gets back to its Norteño roots. A fine example are the tacos de Sabinas served at Nuevo Leon West and East:
http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=73158#73158

Muerte a todos las personas que hablan mal de los productos de harina de trigo! Viva el Norte de Méjico! Viva Pancho Villa! Vivan los verdaderos burritos y tacos!

I heard the Spicy Chicken Crunch-Wrap Supreme(r) is a specialty of Jalisco.

Antonius wrote:We had some very simple 'burritos' (which weren't very large at all but they were folded over in burrito style, not open as a taco properly is) with carne adovada in Alburquerque earlier this year and they struck me as being as 'real' or 'genuine' or 'authentic' as you could want. Pork, slow cooked in the garlicky red chile sauce, served up in a nice flour tortilla -- that's it: not as big as your head, no lettuce, no cheese, no nothin'.

Oh...now you're just making me hungry! As revenge, here's a picture of some adovada style ribs I had in Phoenix at Los Dos Mollinos.

Adovada Ribs

gleam wrote:I heard the Spicy Chicken Crunch-Wrap Supreme(r) is a specialty of Jalisco.

Wrong!

That's from the central highlands and the form of the thing is intended to resemble the ancient Aztec conception of the cosmos, also used as the form of the sacrificial altar... described in detail in Bernal Diaz, glaub' ich schon...

Tlaneltocaqui
(Antonius Malus)

stevez wrote:Oh...now you're just making me hungry! As revenge, here's a picture of some adovada style ribs I had in Phoenix at Los Dos Mollinos.

Adovada Ribs

Mmm... nice flour tortilla in the background too...



A

eatchicago wrote:

Bob S. wrote:Actually, and I'll give him credit for this, he enjoys tacos de lengua and has tried both cabezas and ojos, none of which are foods I've touched.

I'm not going to say anything about ojos, but the tacos de cabeza and tacos de lengua at La Piramide are among my favorite tacos in town. I highly recommend giving them a try. Drop me a PM or an email and I'll meet you there anytime to coach you through it.

Best,
Michael

I appreciate the offer of sharing that pleasure, Michael, but I've reached a balance in which I can be content and secure in my immature squeamishness.