![\"hr_marthas.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/hr_marthas.jpg\")
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Please excuse the terrible picture, I took it as an afterthought. What you see here is the genesis of an idea, the visual cue for a sudden decision to document the state of Huevos Rancheros today. Yes, I am a fan of Huevos Rancheros (as long as they don’t come in a cone)<\/a>, that simple staple of a proper Mexican\/Chicano breakfast that consists of fried eggs on fried tortillas, smothered with a tasty tomato and chile sauce. Despite the simplicity, this dish is elusive: a proper example is an increasingly rare sighting. The minimum requirement is that the eggs should be placed on a crisp fried tortilla, and with that qualifier most examples fall short as they don’t abide by that one basic principle. This might end up being a series of disappointments but that’s a sentiment to which I am not averse; the measure of our Joy is intimately tied to its counterbalance. Despite the bleak prospects I intend to try out different HR’s throughout the city and see if we can find something worthwhile. As for the bad ones, at least now I can remember where not to try them again!<\/p>\n First on the list of lastimas<\/em>, Martha’s Kitchen…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Martha’s Kitchen (2526 Daly Ave. 323.226.9099) serves up Sinaloa style food (so sez their sign and business card) and though I am partial to the Norte\u00c3\u00b1o lifestyle, this was only the second time I’d been there, the memories of the great eatery they replaced (Anita’s)<\/a> just keep me away. I should have gone with my instincts. The first thing the waitress tells me after I place my order is that breakfast is 75\u00c2\u00a2 extra when you order after noon. Huh? What, did you throw out all the eggs? Why don’t you just stop serving breakfast then? That’s pretty ridiculous, considering it’s only 12:30 on a Saturday, and I thought you all were from Sinaloa, not Monterey<\/em>. Okay, whatever, you cheap bastards, I still want the dish. That should have been another hint. When my food did arrive, I was shocked. Where the fuck are my Huevos Rancheros and who the hell dropped this block of cheese on my plate? Oh wait, it was the cook. Now do you see why I decided to document the sad state of HR’s? It makes me want to cry. Next time some anti-Latino Miniman tries to claim that “they don’t acculturate” just show them this picture, that’s Americanization in a snapshot: smothered in cheese. The queso puddle made it so you could barely taste the sauce and distracted from the fact that, unlike most other places, they actually did use a fried tortilla underneath the egg! It might have just been a tostada but in any case it was a waste, they drowned my food and even the tasty tortillas hechas a mano that came with the plate couldn’t rescue this casualty.<\/p>\n The thing that makes me not want to go back is this: Martha’s practices discriminatory friendliness. I really don’t know what other term to use, but that one seems to sum it up. Let me explain, as I’m letting you in on a public secret. Pssst!-my gabacho and middle class friends-sometimes, that really friendly and hospitable Mexican waiter\/ess is being friendly only because they are afraid of you. Not afraid as in you’re gonna hurt them, but afraid in that they don’t know your world, don’t know what you can do, don’t know your status on the ladder, but they want you to like them because you obviously seem important. Having spent many years working at a family owned shop on Brooklyn Ave. and seeing how my abue<\/em> would suddenly stand at attention when white folks came in, I know of what I speak, and I can spot this attitude in others. In this situation, an obviously middle class latino couple that comes-back-to-the-barrio-to-reconnect was a table away, getting all kinds of extra attention, unnecessary info about how they only use fresh food, a rundown of their specialties, while I could barely get their attention to ask for the tortillas that had yet to show up on my table. I was just a commoner but this other couple was special. Something about that sort of instinctual deference rubs me the wrong way, its a form of unintended groveling that mostly the locals notice. And it’s stupid. But so it goes, you can’t understand being Chicano without the constant reminders of why it would have been much easier and better to just have been born in the proper context.<\/p>\n How’s that for a food review?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Please excuse the terrible picture, I took it as an afterthought. What you see here is the genesis of an idea, the visual cue for a sudden decision to document the state of Huevos Rancheros today. Yes, I am a … Continue reading