The sharp ogler will observe some finely shredded cabbage. Cabbage! What? On Mexican food? Well, I don't mean to be totally outrageous here, but finely shredded cabbage is a superb replacement for shredded Iceberg lettuce. It's got better crunch, better flavor, and better nutritive value, and they might even eat members of the cabbage family in Mexico, just maybe. But do you ever see shredded cabbage at authentic Mexican Restaurants? Nope! You see it under your egg roll at Chinese restaurants, and you see it by the truck load around Saint Patty's Day, but nope, it's all Iceberg Iceberg Iceberg at Chi-Chi's and Chilies, La Torre, El Toro, El Dopo, La Migra, and Los Alamos! Why? Why no cabbage either? Take a wild guess, Einstein.
fresh out of the oven
And now onto the lentil tostadas...
With the tostadas I did something completely wrong: I sliced up some Snow Peas and added them to the salad topping. "Snow peas?" you say, disparagingly. "There is no snow in Mexico. I just googled it. There isn't snow until at least the highlands of Peru, and even then there aren't any peas!" Well, guess what people? It's like the story my grandmother told about the Swedish Man who ran the pizza shop in New Jersey. When asked what business a Swede had making pizza, which is an Italian food, he replied, "Cooking is International!" And so it is. But I still cannot understand why these Authentic Mexican Restaurants don't serve more lentils!
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I feel like a bit of a dolt, always trying to tell people about Mexico -- I guess I just love it, and don't have the dough to attend Europe, so it's my flavor I guess. I tried to tell Stosh, and he just said he'd been there a few times. Most people have. Mazetlan, my favorite (known) destination is a popular spring break deal, geez, I saw some hotties there. I try to tell Chef Simms about it, but I think he likes to play video games better. At any rate, I usually like to mention the quessadillas de carne asada with white cheese and avacado sauce. I'm not a fool, those things were like the best things I've ever eaten! Mazetlan is about mid way; that's where things start getting great. The damn cafe next to the autobus station has better tortas then the entire state of California. What? I love it, these housewives make their garages into restaurants, so you can find homecooked food down any residential street. I don't see any american taverns serving tacos, maybe a couple I've heard of, but not religiously. I met up the this expatriot Dave last time and he helped me order better stuff than I come up with. Maybe next time I'll ask him about the lentil tip.
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