Food rules in my world are surprisingly few in my out-of-the-kitchen hours: 1. Eat Mexican seafood or Asian food at every opportunity. 2. Anything on a bun is friendly territory. 3. If fast food is involved, make it McDonald’s. Everyone in the culinary industry has their fast-food weakness, no matter…
It may be hard to keep anything alive with the relentless heat of summer, but one likely survivor is probably also a seemingly unwelcome guest: verdolaga, more commonly known as purslane. This wild succulent is just itching to be picked, and dumped not in the garbage, but onto your plate…
When it comes to dry chiles, the smaller it is, the bigger the kick. Sure anchos and guajillos have great depth of nutty flavor and make great everyday sauces, but you’re not going to lift a bland bowl of soup into pore-cleansing sweaty heat by crushing one into it; you…
If you don’t frequent Arizona Mills Mall, I can’t blame you. With five or six different blaring types of music within earshot, pushy sales people prowling the halls, and the exposed blue-light-flooded mouth of a stranger who fell for the very public “20-minute tooth-whitening,” the place is an overload nightmare…
Some days, life needs a spicy kick to every mouthful. And when your nightly supper becomes something along the lines of a sandwich comprising a slice of processed cheddar wrapped around two slices of cheap turkey deli meat, eaten while foraging through the fridge for some other edible, non-beer item…
Did I just spy a cocktail shaker behind the cashier at my local Chipotle? Why, yes, I did. Chipotle has rolled out a new Patron Margarita, a margarita “so good, you’ll forget you’re drinking from a plastic cup.” Their words, not mine. I just had to see that shaker in…
The problem with traveling to eat is that by 11 a.m., with terrible coffee, pastries, tortillas and seafood in my stomach, I was full to the point of wanting nothing more than a nap in an air-conditioned room. You know that sun that spreads out throughout the Valley of the…
A few weeks ago, I started counting the years since I’ve visited my hometown of Hermosillo. After removing my socks so the counting may continue, and hitting the very high number of 10 fingers and 7 toes, I was glad to have toes to spare, but I panicked at my…
Dear 5th of May: We were never together and I never cared about you, but now we’re officially over; you were, after all, never that important to me when I lived in Mexico. It’s not like you have ever been a national holiday celebrated with closed banks and schools, paper…
Pick your favorite fruit or color and chances are there is a refreshing agua fresca to match. Pink, yellow, orange, red, white — a rainbow of glass jugs filled with sweet, icy, thirst-quenching beverages. And they are easy to make. See Also: -Scientists Show That A Single Sip of Beer…
Not every day in Minervaland is filled with sweet young coconuts stuffed with tender seafood, juicy marinated papaya, and frosty cold cans of Tecate just itching to pop open and receive a finishing touch of salt and a lime squeeze. Tecate, that refreshing, totally drinkable, and, yes, unremarkable Mexican lager,…
Mention the words ‘Mexican food’ and the descriptors ‘rustic’ and ‘peasant food’ as well as ‘burrito’ and ‘killer tacos’ may come to most minds. This narrow and pastoral view of Mexican cuisine — held not only by the average Joe, but by food writers and chefs alike — is my…
My search for fresh Mexican coconuts started with a tall tale of a machete-wielding old man running a stand at the Phoenix Park’n Swap selling the hard-shell beauties, breaking them open enough to first enjoy the refreshing water, then fully cutting the top to expose the tender flesh inside, and…
Growing up in Hermosillo, in northern Mexico, in the 1980s, my school lunchbox was filled with healthy and delicious snacks of juicy orange wedges, crunchy cucumber spears, jicama slices drizzled with lime juice and sprinkled with salt and chile powder, and a cold can of Jumex brand mango nectar. I…
Mexican papayas are not for the commitment-fearing yet fruit-loving person in your life. This is a fruit that requires careful thought in selection, peeling, deseeding, and cutting. Then, there’s the actual preparation. This is not your average brown-bag-lunch kind of fruit. Papaya requires love; it requires patience. And most of…
There are 23 reasons I avoid the Mexican grocery store when my inner pig-tailed child is having a craving: $23 of tangy, chile-spiked, salty and only occasionally sweet Mexican candy overflowing from my shopping basket as my inner child does a twirl in her patent leather Mary Janes. Let’s just…
Dearest Taco: I’m sorry, but we have to break up. No, it isn’t me; it’s you. You’ve changed. You’re not the same robust, cheap, and juicy meal you used to be. You used to be as big as my hand, now you’re the length of my index finger. I thought…
With the current overabundance of boutique coffee shops in the Valley serving small-batch. single-source coffee — each high-end bag listing the name of the farmer, roaster, packager, graphic designer, delivery driver, etc. — poured steaming hot or cold in a variety of creative and highly decorated coffee drinks, it comes…
Welcome to Minervaland. In Minervaland, all food is Mexican — or should be — and tostadas are easily consumed all the way through without breaking. Strawberry ice creams bars can be found on every corner, every cup of coffee is face-smackingly strong and is always served with a concha; those…
