Hi and welcome to my blog.
You must be wondering “Why Beaner???” Beaner is sometimes used as racial slur. Many people take offense as it is a derogatory term used when speaking badly of someone South of the Border but mostly Mexicans, just the same way as people from certain Asian regions are sometimes called Dog-eaters because guess what’s on the menu? I choose not to take offense. Name-calling is an utterly useless and narrow-minded attempt to reduce other human beings to just one label. There is so much more to a person than the color of their skin or their diet. Poor bigots, I pity them. They don’t know what they are missing.
So, sticks and stones and all that. Furthermore, I defiantly embrace the “Beanerness” in me and make it my billowing pennant; I walk tall and never forget where I come from. I am not ashamed of being Mexican and I am proud of the gastronomical prowess of my country, one of which main staples is beans; red, green, white, black, brown, variegated. Every region of Mexico has its beans of choice and a distinct way to prepare them.
As I write these lines I reenact in my mind the battle that ensued when the name for the blog first popped; it was suggested by my husband (hereinafter called “the Gringo”). “Are you loco?” I responded outraged and added several more choice words I dare not repeat here. “That name is going to cause me muchos problemas!” While these words left my lips, Cicero observed me warily, Zoltan stared at Cicero with disdain, The Gringo casually glanced at Zoltan and I gave The Gringo a ferocious glare that would have withered the freshest chile poblano into a chile ancho in a matter of nanoseconds. I was this close to pounding His Royal Cheek, pun intended, so flat that I could use it as a tortilla. I could hear a collective in crescendo “Uh-oh” coming from the Menagerie chorus as their hackles rose sensing the coming storm.
It was not that I took offense at the word. The Gringo and I are very politically incorrect. We don’t go around insulting people, we just call things as we see them. I was just worried that an internaut would take issue. But hey, welcome to the 21st century when everyone on the internet is offended by what everybody else says and thinks. Later that night when I was trying to sleep on it and was doing everything but, I admitted to myself that I liked “A Beaner on the Frontier”; it was catchy, it had a “ring” to it, it had sass and a subtext I really liked. After all, “Beaner” is how my Gringo affectionately calls me (not to mention that the name “Farto’s Beaneria” was most definitely out of the question!); finally I relented; resistance was futile against the Pig-Headed Husband juggernaut.
The Gringo 1 – The Beaner Zilch point Zero Zero.
I would like to add that nowadays what passes here as “Mexican Food” is not Mexican at all. I am not judging (I stopped judging the day I found out how unavailable some Mexican ingredients are, like epazote, a widely used Mexican herb, for instance). 1) What is known as “Tex-Mex” is what people here in the North, maybe everywhere in the US, consider “Mexican” food; they are not the same at all. 2) We are so far from any Mexican-densely populated area, that we have to make the best of what we have here. Or just go ahead and make your own ingredient. It can be daunting but mostly a pain in “where the back loses its holy name”, to put it in the Mexican vernacular.
The first time I ordered “Taco” at a restaurant here I was thinking more along the lines of the original Mexican taco, you know what I mean? A soft corn tortilla with a delectable hot and spicy filling.
When the waitress brought the so-called “taco” what I really wanted was to stand on the table and harangue the multitudes hollering “Anathema! Blasphemy!” simultaneously tearing my robe (wow, what a Shakespearean scene, right out of a “telenovela”!) but the thought that I might end up in jail for indecent exposure put a damper on my outrage and I just sat there, tried the pseudo-taco and found the pervasive and intense taste of cumin horrid. That was the decisive moment that kicked-off my “Stop Cumin Abuse” crusade.
You see, we use cumin very, very sparingly in Mexico. Few dishes actually call for it as an ingredient and even then with much moderation. But this American Taco tasted of nothing else but cumin, its flavor obliterating everything else. And what’s with the black olives???? We do use olives on occasion in Mexican cooking but mostly of the green variety. You might find it surprising that both cumin and black olives are mostly used in Middle Eastern and Levantine cuisines. How they made the cross-over to Mexican food in the US is beyond me. Your guess is as good as mine, but I would say people found it easier to cope with the spiciness of cumin rather that the hotness of chile. Also, the people who created the “American Taco” were probably second or third generation Mexicans that couldn’t find the original ingredients, couldn’t recall their grandma’s original recipes and there you go, you have a “Tacocalypse” in your hands and, even worse, in your mouth, which is a very bad thing if you have once tasted the real deal!
So welcome to “A Beaner on the Frontier”; I think of this blog as a vindication of the authentic Mexican cuisine, so rich that it has been designated by the UNESCO a cultural treasure. Although we will try to keep the dishes as true-to-tradition as possible this should not be construed as my being rigid and intent on never experimenting with the dishes presented here; there will be times when we will have fun with “fusion” cuisines, giving unexpected “Beaner” twists to American or British dishes, for example. I will clarify what kind of dish is discussed on each entry, whether Traditional, Fusion, etc. I will also provide the sources and/or alternatives for ingredients that are hard to come across. And, above all, my dishes will not break the piggy-bank.
Through this blog I want to give you a chance to prepare real Mexican food and the opportunity to try it, taste it, savor it, and enjoy it. It’s OK if you want to go back to the American version of Mexican food. It’s a free world and your taste buds are after all, that, yours. I just propose that you give it a try and have fun learning and also leaving feedback. I have every intention of learning from you too so your suggestions, ideas, doubts and comments are all welcome. Let our interaction be enriching, always polite, and fun. Happy Cooking y Buen Provecho!
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