A blog about food, history, data visualization, and more
In celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day (September 16) and the period when both summer and autumn foods are at the Bay Area farmers markets, I have a post at The Ethicurean about chiles en nogada, a roasted poblano chili stuffed with vegetables, cheese and dried fruit; a creamy walnut sauce; and pomegranate seeds. These ingredients […]
Photo from Hummanna, subject to a Creative Commons License. In my Week of Eating post, one of the frequent meals was enmoladas — corn tortillas covered in mole sauce. There are as many recipes and variations for mole as there are cooks. But in general, a mole is a paste of made from some of […]
Just in time for football season, a (American) football-shaped snack: the tlacoyo. Tlacoyos are another in the family of antojitos (“little whims”), the delicious and diverse masa-based items from Mexico. Diana Kennedy, in From My Mexican Kitchen, writes Tlacoyo is the common name, a variation of the Nahuatl words tlatlaoyo and claclaoyo, given to an […]
At farmers markets in California, the tomatillo season is similar to tomato season, running from July through October. Tomatillos are slightly sour, sharp and fruity, a combination which is delicious counterpoint to the mellow, round flavors of a corn tortilla and the creaminess of a melting cheese like Monterey Jack. Roasting is an especially good […]
In Mexican cuisine, there is a large, popular, and delicious class of foods called antojitos (“little whims”). These whims include quesadillas, taquitos, tostadas, and one of my favorite appetizers: sopes. Sopes are little bowls of a corn-based dough that are baked on a griddle and then filled with spicy and savory toppings. They consist of […]
When I go to the Latin American markets on San Pablo in Berkeley or on San Leandro Blvd in San Leandro, I usually end up buying a 6-inch stack of about 60 corn tortillas (which is the medium size package. The large has over 100!). Even on a Mexican food weekend marathon that includes quesadillas, […]
(Updates: 2/15/15, a link to a blog post about the earliest mention of a burrito in a restaurant review in the S.F. Chronicle; 12/14/16, fixed broken links, added an early cookbook mention; 11/3/18, added link to web article about an early San Francisco Chronicle article about burritos.) In 1998, the Washington Post sent Peter Fox, […]
Today I’m dissecting a modern San Francisco burrito to reveal a little bit about the origin and history of the ingredients. Europe and Asia contributed wheat, cheese, onions, beef, pork, chicken, and rice; the Americas contributed the tortilla, beans, salsa making techniques, chiles, tomatoes, and avocados. Flour tortilla: The corn tortilla is an ancient food, […]
Updated below, 11/3/18: Link to an early article about burritos in the San Francisco Chronicle. The burrito was originally a simple and rustic food—a flour tortilla, rehydrated dried beef, and probably some hot sauce—that was eaten by miners, cowboys, and others who needed portable and nonperishable food for long journeys into the wilderness of Northern […]