{"id":3123,"date":"2012-09-16T23:50:20","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T07:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/?p=3123"},"modified":"2020-08-14T21:14:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T05:14:14","slug":"taco-usa-the-missing-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/?p=3123","title":{"rendered":"Taco USA: The Missing Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gustavo Arellano’s “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America<\/strong>”\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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<\/a> is grotesque, a tourist trap frequented by locals. Arellano pumping it as akin to fondling God means you should be wary. Very wary.<\/p>\n

Towards the end of the book he decides to list “The Five Greatest Mexican Meals in the United States<\/strong>.” It’s a stupid way to end the book but since there is no cohesion to any of it, I suppose it’s fitting.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\nphoto via Tulsa World<\/a><\/p>\n

5. The Night Hawk Special, El Rancho Grande, Tulsa, Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Lot’s O’ Cheese on some chili, and kinda gross looking. Is he really vouching for this?<\/p>\n

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\nphoto via roadfood.com<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Sonora Dog, El Guero Canelo, Tucson, Arizona<\/p>\n

\u201cIs 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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this is what “wising up” means I’d rather stay dumb.<\/p>\n

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\nphoto via Food Gps.com<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Taco Acorazado, Alebrije’s Grill, Santa Ana, California<\/p>\n

The only thing that looks appetizing on his list, and Mexican for that matter, with some nopales, aguacates, and jitomates on a homemade tortilla.<\/p>\n

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\nphoto via Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Rolled Tacos, Chico’s Tacos, El Paso, Texas<\/p>\n

“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<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pass.<\/p>\n

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\nphoto via Arellano’s twitter feed<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Mexican Hamburger, Grandma’s The Original Chubby’s, Denver, Colorado<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If he had called this the Greatest Mexican-American Meals in the United States<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

I think these pictures are illuminating,<\/p>\n

Provecho!<\/p>\n

Note to those not in So Cal: Arellano is considered a food critic<\/em> for the OC Weekly<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gustavo Arellano’s “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America”\u00a0 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9,10,5,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fotos","category-los-angeles","category-la-comida","category-shit-i-hate","category-chicano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3123"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5202,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3123\/revisions\/5202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chanfles.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}