RE: [ranchos] Re: Tamales and mole

[Irma GomezLucero <igomezlucero@...>]

I guess you're right, we did eat well at the expense of hotel rooms & baths!
We only ate out in Mexico because it was cheaper to feed a family of eight
with big appetites. :)  Occasional burgers in the U.S. happened more rarely.

During our trips, we would pile into a hotel room the night before arriving
to our first destination: Ags (my dad's family immigrated there from Jal.in
the 1950's) for showers.  The other 2 nights were spent in the car.  

-----Original Message-----
From: Alberto Duarte [mailto:albertodua@...] 
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 8:32 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [ranchos] Re: Tamales and mole

You ate real good!  I envy you.  I can count the number of times on my left
hand that my dad took us to a restaurant.

Alberto.

--- Irma GomezLucero <igomezlucero@...> wrote:

> You're right Alberto.  I recall when I lived in San Diego, a 
> Mexican-Amer co-worker telling me that another made tamales funny.  I 
> responded with how does she make them?  He answered that she folded 
> them instead of tying the ends with a small strip of hoja.  I smiled 
> because we fold them, and I kept wondering why they tied the ends in 
> all of the Mexican restaurants in San Diego.  This is when I 
> discovered that this was how they made them in Baja California where 
> my first co-worker's mom was from, and many of the restaurant cooks in 
> the area.  By the way, I vote San Diego for the best Mexican 
> restaurants.  In San Diego, my husband & I never got that stuffed 
> feeling we often get from Northern Calif. Mexican restaurants, unlike 
> my mom's.
> 	I remember while traveling to Mexico as a kid to visit my abuelitos,

> we used to have some of the best steaks in the Northern states from 
> Ciudad Juarez through Durango, Zacatecas, etc., to our final 
> destination: San Juan de los Lagos.  My dad would give us a little 
> lesson about what certain areas were known for.  Northern states with 
> all that grazing land: Steaks!!,
> Tepatitlan: carnitas!!  Yep, we'd eat our way through Mexico.  The 
> other route through Nogales, Guaymas would send us along the Gulf 
> Coast, and my dad would push the sea food.  Unfortunately this child 
> didn't like seafood at the time.  I recall my older sister ordering 
> camarones naturales.
> Expecting the bay shrimp from a can, she was horrified when they 
> served her raw shrimp, heads, tails & shells, as if they had just been 
> pulled out of the sea.  Naturalmente  :)
> Irma   
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alberto Duarte [mailto:albertodua@...]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 3:49 PM
> To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [ranchos] Re: Tamales and mole
> 
> It's all regional:
> Funny, if you ask the people from Zacatecas if their food tastes 
> better, 99% will tell you that there is food is much better.
> And if ask the people of
> Jalisco if their food tastes better, 99% will tell you that their food 
> is better.  To me, the Mexican food here in California is the best 
> (But I won't tell that to my wife).
> 
> Alberto.
> 
> --- Alicia Carrillo <alliecar@...> wrote:
> 
> > Irma,
> >  
> > Jalostitlan and Tlachichila Zacatecas are only
> about
> > 2 hours from each other so I''m sure that many
> foods are very similar,
> > this must be one of those foods.
> >  
> > Alicia
> > 
> > Irma GomezLucero <igomezlucero@...> wrote:
> > Alicia,
> >     You're making me hungry.  My parents used to
> make the agua fresca
> > w/ lettuce & fruits.
> > Unfortunately we didn't appreciate it because of
> the lettuce.  My
> > folks are from Jalostotitlan, Jalisco.
> > Irma
> > 
> > 
> > ---------------------------------
> > From: Alicia Carrillo
> [mailto:alliecar@...]
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 10:48 PM
> > To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [ranchos] Re: Tamales and mole
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Esperanza,
> >  
> > These tamales were a recent addition to our family
> that is within the
> > last 25 years or so. We learned that from the
> families in Ensenada.
> >  
> > My mom is and has always been an excellent cook
> but she didn't make
> > tamales with all these ingredients.
> > I believe that in addition to economics, family
> culture also is very
> > telling in how a family cooks and eats.
> >  
> > In my mom's family, everyone prides themselves in
> their culinary
> > skills. My mother is renowned for her mole,
> pozole, tortas de camaron
> > con nopales, capirotada, all types of atoles.
> Atole de piña, de
> > maizcena, atole blanco etc. My mom has this great
> dish that she makes
> > called patas de puerco en salsa cruda. It's labor
> intensive but oh
> > sooo good. She makes this agua fresca with romaine
> lettuce, fresh
> > orange slices, lemon slices, sugar and yerba buena
> and other fruits if
> > desired and is served only in the summer when it's
> very hot. She lets
> > the ingredients sit in the very cold water for a
> couple of hours and
> > is served in a tall glass with a spoon so you can
> spoon out the
> > oranges, romaine and other fruits. I prefer it
> without the other
> > fruits and only with citrus.
> >  
> >  Mom's mole is a two day job as she uses about 4
> different types of
> > dried chiles. She seeds and cleans them, toasts
> the chiles then she
> > boils them till tender and then puts them in the
> blender and purees
> > them, strains them to remove skin that didn't
> completely puree. Next
> > she toasts all the other spices such as sesame
> seeds, pumpkin seeds,
> > cumin, oregano, avocado leaves the  bread and
> tortillas also get
> > toasted and are used as the thickening agent. The
> following day she
> > boils the turkey or chicken and proceeds to
> gradually fry all the
> > toasted and ground ingredients. This is when she
> adds the peanut
> > butter and chocolate mexicano along with the broth
> from the turkey or
> > chicken and all the other seasonings such as
> garlic, salt, pepper etc. 
> > I have learned how to make it but only make it for
> very special
> > occasions because it's so laborious
> >  
> > With many of these dishes it's how you serve them
> and what you serve
> > them with that makes a difference. I guess I'm
> lucky to have a mom
> > that has spoiled us with great food from
> Zacatecas.
> >  
> > Alicia
> >  
> >  
> > 
> > latina1955@... wrote:
> > Wow Alicia, those tamales sound fascinating. 
> Where are your people
> > from that they had available such resources?  Do
> you think this is
> > rather a recent phenomena?  I surely do appreciate
> the article Joe
> > sent us all regarding tamales and the relative
> recent acceptance of
> > tamales and other delectable's as decent, and even
> desirable food!
> >  
> > To change the conversation a bit, how does your
> family make mole?  I
> > know the recipes vary according to region and even
> what you put in it,
> > or how you wish to serve it.  While I love my
> mother-in-law deeply, I
> > can't stand her "mole", especially when she uses
> it in tamales.  But
> > as mentioned previously, her skills and resources
> were limited.....and
> > so while I don't blame her for lack of her cooking
> abilities, I still
> > don't like her "mole".
> >  
> > Being raised by folks rom Jalisco, I can tell you
> that there were at a
> > minimum two variations that were used frequently
> which
=== message truncated ===


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