Gustavo Arellano’s “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America” is a terrible read and ultimately a waste of time but I made my way through the cheese and finished it. In the end I learned a whole lot more than I wanted to know about the history of corporate Mexican-ish fast food and developed a bit of mental indigestion. Are you interested in the history of Taco Bell? Cheetos? Doritos? El Torito? How about the combo # menu thing? Chipotle? The history of the reprehensible food items marketed under the Old El Paso brand? Do you want to know who first started putting margaritas in a frozen Slushee machine? You are? Well then you are a dolt and this book is for you! There are a few interesting bits but it mostly reads like a compilation of corporate press releases. Maybe I’m just not the intended audience.
Instead of defining the essentials of “Mexican Food” we get a plea to include all manner of crap into the category, and woe be to you if you dare question the logic.
“Those who dismiss Taco Bell, the taco pizza, even a church enchilada booth as somehow not Mexican because Mexicans aren’t the main consumers or creators miss an imperative point. We must consider the infinite varieties of Mexican food in the United States as part of the Mexican family-not a fraud, not a lesser sibling but an equal.”
To Arellano, there is no such thing as authentic Mexican food, everything with even a tenuous association is part of the culinary family. Since he readily opens the door for everyone to join the “Mexican Food” tent he basically says that the foods cooked on the sidewalks of D.F. are not much different from the processed food products you’ll get at your local drive-thru Taco Bell. Someone like Diana Kennedy, who documents the food actually cooked by Mexicans in their own kitchens, is characterized as just some old caga palo that can’t get with the times where everything is groovy and constantly changing. The fact that he devotes a chapter to insult her work of documenting regional specialities is kinda confusing. What’s the point? I suspect his thinking has been warped a bit due to being part of LA foodie circles and he is reacting to the respect Kennedy receives for her work, cuz I doubt anybody other than foodies gives a shit about her.
Another major problem I had with this book is that if you have actually tried the food he highlights as exemplary then you’ll know right away, in your gut, that he is trying to pull a fast one on some poor saps from the mid-west. Take for example his description of the Manuel’s Special at El Tepeyac:
“There is a burrito sold in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights that’s beyond cosmic, that’s as close to touching God while eating Mexican food…It’s the Manuel’s Special at Manuel’s El Tepeyac Cafe.”
Other than the portion size, there is nothing special about this burrito. This is food for horses. You can’t even hold it in your hands, it is so large that you have to use utensils to eat it, basically defeating the purpose of the burrito. The food at El Tepeyac is grotesque, a tourist trap frequented by locals. Arellano pumping it as akin to fondling God means you should be wary. Very wary.
Towards the end of the book he decides to list “The Five Greatest Mexican Meals in the United States.” It’s a stupid way to end the book but since there is no cohesion to any of it, I suppose it’s fitting.
I was suspicious. So I googled. I can’t know for sure but since I’ve taken many pictures of food I think I can guess how these dishes taste. I believe it would be good for you to see what he chose as the greatest Mexican meals to be had North of the border. No mas cuz.
5. The Night Hawk Special, El Rancho Grande, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Lot’s O’ Cheese on some chili, and kinda gross looking. Is he really vouching for this?
4. Sonora Dog, El Guero Canelo, Tucson, Arizona
“Is this hot dog truly Mexican? Who cares? In Tucson, the birthplace of Linda Ronstadt, Americans became Mexicans long ago; it’s now the rest of the country that’s finally wising up.”
If this is what “wising up” means I’d rather stay dumb.
3. Taco Acorazado, Alebrije’s Grill, Santa Ana, California
The only thing that looks appetizing on his list, and Mexican for that matter, with some nopales, aguacates, and jitomates on a homemade tortilla.
2. Rolled Tacos, Chico’s Tacos, El Paso, Texas
“Chico’s Tacos’ specialty dish is a paper tray containing three rolled flauta-like tacos submerged in bath of tomato juice and then topped with shredded American Cheese.” —Wikipedia
Pass.
photo via Arellano’s twitter feed
1. Mexican Hamburger, Grandma’s The Original Chubby’s, Denver, Colorado
I hope it’s delicious, but it looks like crap. And yes, the eyes do play a part in how food tastes. Three of the best Mexican meals in the US look goopy, not a descriptor I associate with the cuisine.
If he had called this the Greatest Mexican-American Meals in the United States then I might not object to the choices. But to try to claim that flour based sauces smothered in American cheese are the height of Mexican cuisine is an insult to those that are interested in the culinary traditions of the peoples around the globe.
I think these pictures are illuminating,
Provecho!
Note to those not in So Cal: Arellano is considered a food critic for the OC Weekly.
Insulting Diana Kenndey? Insolente! She’s responsible for this Gabacha learning to cook. Her cook book took me on a culinary journey that I’m still on at a time when I could barely boil water. Now when I serve my Pozole to Mexican friends and get raves it is because of her.
That was a really good review. I like how you illustrate the problems with the book with specific references—that helped me grasp what was going on. I think it’s important to fight people like that author, people who would empty foods of all cultural and historical meaning. That author is clearly on the wrong side of the fence when it comes to food justice.
Mooncrazy,
Yeah, Kennedy’s books are great resources, Arellano’s animosity towards her seems personal and ill conceived.
CWM,
Its one thing to acknowledge and defend Mex-American food for what it is, it’s quite another to promote crappy corporate food as being part of our culinary history.
no shit you aren’t the intended audience. it is probably for the fools that eat that corporate crap, in more ways than one. i will probably never read this book. i previously mentioned on some other site, i got through 1.6 pages of his last opus. what thorough research no? since i cannot comment on this book i must write this review is fuckin funny. you write it is a “a terrible read and ultimately a waste of time.” i agree with you, i am probably not a dolt and this book is probably not for me.
you write of “LA foodie circles” and i know of no such things, shit i can barely provide sustenance for myself. I know first hand of your culinary mad skills, so your words on the topic are respected.
oh shit, el tepeyac is “grotesque.” i haven’t been there in decades but when i did eat corpses, i remember being very unimpressed by that place. sounds unsurprising that this guy would laud that spot. of course, you’re supposed to like that place since it’s an east los mainstay, so of course he would praise it. here in city terrace, we are supposed to like juanito’s tamales but fuck that place too. i
anyway, i remember reading one of this guy’s columns, and my friend waited for my reaction. i just passed it back, numb from the blandness. seems like you know what i mean.
“…Diana Kennedy…is characterized as just some old caga palo that can’t get with the times..” You had me rolling all the way in Detroit. Thank you for the review. I was actually considering purchasing the book but I shall refrain. I’ve been a long time reader of this blog. Your commentary is classic. Much respect to you.
Chavo, you are the only one on earth that can pull back the curtain on that big fake head.
I enjoyed the book. It didn’t make me want to eat the food he boosted, but it had a lot of history about the mass-market Mexican food business. That’s intersting to me. When I visit processed food websites, I like to read the histories, and even go searching for the real histories. For example, I didn’t know Duane Roberts, who was a Green Party activist, was the heir to a frozen burrito kingdom. Did you know Soyrizo was invented by an old white guy in El Monte? Probably explains why it tastes crappier than Reynaldo’s…. but Reynaldo’s started out in the business making packaged sandwiches, not Mexican food. Maybe I’m interested because driving from the SGV to Downtown, you see a lot of food processing, and I wonder about who’s moms and dads work in the factories.
Glad you liked the book! And I’m sure you think the Aztecs feasted on your beloved huevos rancheros, right?
That’s your comment? Yer embarrassing.
Synchromystcism in action: About 30 minutes after reading this post, I was just cruising around, listening to NPR and Gustavo Arellano was a guest on America’s Test Kitchen. I really liked how he dropped the derogatory term “midget” four times (three, if you discount his initial quoting of an unusual “Ask a Mexican” question), before correcting himself and switching to “little people.” Moments later he totally ignored Chris Kimball’s jaw droppingly ignorant statement “Obviously this country’s made up of nothing but immigrants, were all immigrants…” as if it wasn’t totally insulting first to Native Americans/First Nations people, and also to Latinos, many of whom, living in America, have never been immigrants to this country either!
You can listen for yourself here (Arellano comes on at around 17:30):
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/radio/program/detail.php?docid=41461
U know, any tourist could probably get five meals surpassing the above by eating unauthorized street food on Whittier or Olympic east of Soto. Some of the sit down places would also do okay.
I totally agree on El Tepeyac’s giant burrito: unnecessarily huge (to the point that it’s gross to imagine eating it all in one sitting); highly overrated; anything but divine.
damn, that is embarrassing.
¡Ay dios mio! The two leaders of the latino snarkosphere are at war against each other!
¡¿Y ahora quien podra defendernos?!