messican 10/18/09

i've always been simultaneously delighted and appalled when other white people pronounced "mexican" messican. i can't decide if it's a loving but sardonic embrace of the most dominant culture in california or just old-fashioned racism. (for the record, when i say messican, i'm trying to accomplish the latter.)

i eat more burritos than a flea market porta-potty and it goes without being said that mexican is one of my favorite cuisines. as long as they're vegetarian, i'll eat quesadillas, enchiladas, tacos, burritos and los crunch wraps until i see stars.

i got a plate of chiles rellenos today, not because i'm sick of burritos, but because i'm sick of taking pictures of burritos.

chile relleno is a spanish term that means "best thing ever." it's a mild chile stuffed with cheese, battered and fried, then covered in tomato sauce. (i actually just made that up- i don't remember what's in the sauce.)

i would venture to say that they're the perfect food, but i'm pretty sure that distinction goes to the burrito, whose addictive properties rival percocet's.

i love everything about mexican food; the freshness, the gentle burning, the bean coma...the only thing i'm really not down with is their heating methods. i was at a mexican friend's house when his mom tossed two tamales into a plastic ralphs bag and microwaved it- that fucking freaked me out. as a kid, i wasn't even allowed to refill plastic water bottles or get near a microwave and here was my friend's mom filling a plastic shopping bag with food and then microwaving it.

anyway, my food was delicious. i didn't bother touching that lettuce because it's gross, but everything else was top notch. whether you call it mexican food or messican food, it's proof that colonizing the americas was a good idea. i just wish that cortez had advocated heating food in pots instead of microwaves and shopping bags, jew know?