caroline

Fascinating thread. When i was in Hawaii I often heard Okinawans comment on the differences between Hawaii Okinawan food and food in Okinawa. A common theme seemed to be that it was sweeter in Hawaii. And another issue was the famous purple sweet potato. Some people told me that was more Hawaiian than Okinawan although associated with Okinawa in Hawaii. Any comments from all you very knowledgeable people? Rachel

Yesterday a Mexican friend told me that she loved chicken with "salsa gravy." And a dozen images flashed through my mind. Gravy in the British Empire Gravy over plate lunches in Hawaii Chile gravy in Robb Walsh's Tex-Mex book Dim memories of Indians using gravy as a synonym for "curry" Gravy mixes (yuk) The Oxford English Dictionary helpfully comments that the word "gravy" is of obscure origin. Obscure maybe. But potent. Just how far has the word gravy spread? And does it always include flour or a roux? Rachel

Esperanza, I'm thrilled to hear you liked Karne Garibaldi because just today our local paper said they were opening a branch in Leon. I can't wait to go, Rachel

Thank you, thank you for a truly informative post. I especially appreciated the connections you made between changes in the restaurant scene and the changes in politics that precipitated them, Rachel

Fascinating post, Sun-ki. I guess what most took me back was the raw potato salad. Rachel

When I was in Hawaii it was widely believed that there was a state ordnance that forbade sidewalk cafes. It was supposed to date from the days when Hawaii was worried that this would make it look sloppy. At least that's my memory. It may just be a myth. Rachel

I'm with Adam. He's given us a set of rules for how to decide whether things are edible that produce pretty good results. Not infallible of course but that's life. And he's started on a set of rules for how to make the inedible (too poisonous, too tough) edible. Try: water (rinsing, boiling) heat (drying, grilling) freezing alkalis (lots of natural salts, ashes) acids (fruit juices) grinding/pounding/chopping sprouting clay (kaopectate effect) natural "ripening" ie fermentation Test. Then begin again. Try every imaginable combination of the above. It's amazing what you can do. And what you could have done even prior to agriculture. That adds a new set of techniques. And I think you can go on to dig out rules that we have had (again not infallible nor eternal but very handy) for producing new dishes and even new cuisines. Rachel

Extra MSG, Just came across a book on the history of Peruvian food that was published by the University of San Martin de Porres in 1999. The opening sentence, roughly translated, says "our knowledge of the culinary customs of the prehispanic peoples of the andes and of their agriculture is very scanty." It depressingly goes on to say that we know much less than about Mexico and that although recent archaeology is helping we are still pretty ignorant. Rats, Rachel

Looking at the links, I think you are right. Gum karrya and the lower second grade too. So I can't dine out on my enounter with deep fried francincense! Too bad. But this gum does turn out to have lots of interesting properties, wouldn't you say: dental adhesive and ground meat filler etc. Thanks for pursuing this for me. I love these one-off paperchases. Rachel

I don't think that raw milk goes bad nearly as nastily as the pasteurized, homogenized, vitamin D added variety. It can ripen rather nicely to a kind of yogurt. Now getting the animal to let down milk! that's something else, Rachel

Thanks Gingerly, Well it certainly looks like Boswellia serrata though may be all gums look alike. But if it is, I've been munching on frankincense, as in gold, frankincense and myrrh. I'd never given much thought to what frankincense might be like. But I certainly wasn't expecting to find it in this dusty little plastic packet. I wonder what happens when you heat it dry? A nice smell? I'll have to try that next. The Dragon's apothecary does tend to the kooky but there's lots of information. And I can't go back to the store as it's in Lexington Kentucky and I'm now home in central Mexico. But there's a fax number for the Delhi supplier. May be I will get inspired enough to try that. This certainly is taking me down unexpected paths, Rachel

I see Rancho. And I suppose you're too far north for it to flourish in the winter when there is rain. Here's it's planted round about now when the ground is good and wet enough to see it through and it's harvested around November. Best, Rachel

Improbably we've had some pretty good meals on business/first Aeromexico out of Mexico City to Sao Paolo, Paris and Madrid. That perhaps because they tend to fall in the stew rather than grill or roast category. Not so good on the return flights. But I never fly without cheese or jamon serrano sandwiches (preferably my own bread and a good sharp cheddar), black olives, fruit, and good quality teabags (Earl Grey, Darjeeling, and Manzanilla). This covers breakfast, lunch and dinner as far as I am concerned. Rachel

Thanks Rushina and Gingerly, I haven't made the complete recipe but I have tried frying the gum. I had to get the oil pretty hot but then the chunks changed texture nicely (they didn't really expand) and the taste became more pronounced. Good to crunch on specially as they change back to a bit gummy giving a nice contrast. Now my mind is racing away about gummy things and new mothers. Gums, saps, reinvigoration, etc, Rachel

That looks like it. I would never have dreamt of deep frying the gum. Here comes one more kitchen experiment! Thanks Rachel

As I write I am rolling some edible gum around in my mouth. It comes in small lumps about the size of rock sugar crystals. It softens to a slightly furry texture. I bought it in an Indian store in Kentucky and it is labelled "Packed by Unique Fragrances" in Delhi. I'd love some background? What does it come from? How is it used? Rachel

Hey I just realised that Extra MSG, Esperanza and I am all on at the same time. I tried fast reply and nothing happened. But it would be a joy to chat Rachel

Rancho, Why is corn so hard to grow in California? Like others, I really look forward to hearing more about your experiments. Extra MSG, Loved your comments. I'm not sure I wanted to say that uchepos were a staple in the sense that they were consumed year round (though if you could get two maize harvests they might have been more than an occasional treat). Nor do I want to say that th Central Highlands of Mexico were necessarily the source for ground or pounded fresh maize. As you say, that is a fairly obvious thing to do. But that said, I am always astonished at how what seems obvious in retrospect isn't to users. Just consider how differnt European and Sudanese ways of dealing with maize are from Mesoamerican. But a few random and not necessarily consistent thoughts. People in Mesoamerica tried an amazing range of combinations of techniques with maize. Perhaps there is a principle that the longer a foodstuff has been used somewhere the more things will be tried. I do have the impression that many archaeologists believe that nixtamalization was Mesoamerican and it spread from there. I don't have the impression that tortilla making spread very far south or north. I don't have the impression that the metate was used as much in Peruvian regions. Soups and atoles seem much more widespread than more complex uses. And I have the impression that although nixtamalizing does improve the nutritive quality of maize, many peoples (probably including early Mesoamericans) accepted it as a staple without this technique. And that of course often had appalling consequences as in the US, Italy, etc. But this is all just speculation, Rachel

Goodness, this is a huge topic. Uchepos must belong to old Purepecha cookery (that's the cookery of the people who lived in what is now Michoacán and who hated the Aztecs). It's an indigenous holdover, and all the better. Even a book like La Cocina de las Abejas (Cookery of the Busy Bees) a middle class effort from Patzcuaro in Michoacán does not have a recipe for uchepos. This although even in Guanajuato 150 miles away we have Michoacán restaurants dishing up delicious uchepos. Neither is there a recipe in Josefina de Leon, who was the first to begin collecting regional recipes in the 50s-70s. And only one for a sweet uchepo with piloncillo (raw sugar) in Patricia van Rhijn's Cocina del Maíz. But fresh ground maize dishes have to have been early. I think, Shelora, that it might be possible to tell a story about nixtamalization that went like this. Mexicans of the central plateau ground fresh grains for tamales (uchepos), toasted grains for pinole (still done), dry grains for atole (still done). Adding flavor meant adding salt. But salt in Mexico comes mainly from (1) ashes of certain palms and (2) old deposits around salt lakes, common in Puebla and San Luis Potosi for example. Both are a mixture of salts, the latter fizzes when you add it to water. Good gracious taste and fizzy life too. And then they discovered a third great fact, the ground grains made a paste (masa) and could be rolled out in to a dough. The rest of the Americas missed out on this (sad and the question is why). But in northern Argentina, for example, it's like in most of the rest of the Americas: uchepo by another name and pozole by another name Sorry to go on but I'm sufficiently nutty (maizey?) to get wound up about such things. On them rest the history of the world, Rachel

In Guanajuato , taco stands often often have shredded cabbage. I'll have to check next time I am in Mexico City. I'll ask around here. And what's for sure is that all those cabbages in the markets go somewhere. Red cabbage, which is also available in all supermarkets here, is, I suspect part of upmarket cuisine. Manos a la obra, amigos (let's get going friends). Pitch in all, Rachel

Yup, with Esperanza I'm not sure that Mexican kinds of maize map very well on to American. I'm not sure most kinds used here are dent at all. I can't lay my hands on an article by Ricardo Salvador at U. Iowa at the moment but if I remember right, he stresses that Mexican varieties are much more floury. In fact that's one of the things at stake in the maize debates at the moment. Rachel

I agree with Esperanza. Cabbage is all over the place. Perhaps it's just yet one more of those things that gets lost when Mexican food is translated for/transplanted to the US, Rachel

Esperanza, Thanks for so forcefully pointing out the economic realities of Mexican food. In the middle range (well upper range) we have Tony Roma for Ribs and Italianni's in León. Plus of course all the VIPS, Californias etc. And you're certainly right Extra MSG that hamburguesas and perros calientes are popular street food, though I think the former would still be high end street food. I like the way the cook hot dogs but oooh the dog itself. Yuk! Rachel

You're in good company. I was on a tour with a Mexican group last year. We were supposed to be looking at churches. But what everyone wanted to do was to go to the back of the church where nuns sold wafer sheets with the communion wafers cut out. They snacked on these for the rest of the trip! Rachel

You're in good company. I was on a tour with a Mexican group last year. We were supposed to be looking at churches. But what everyone wanted to do was to go to the back of the church where nuns sold wafer sheets with the communion wafers cut out. They snacked on these for the rest of the trip! Rachel