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亲爱的墨西哥人： I read an article you linked to about how it could be hard to order a lime in Spanish-speaking South American countries. The bottom line was that, depending on where you where, 一个柠檬 could mean a lemon or a lime; it was all a matter of local dialect. Curiously, limes originated in 欧洲; lemons in 亚太地区. Growing up in encinitas, 加利福尼亚州 there was never a question of la palabra correcta for which was which. This realization, logically, led me to ask you, The Mexican: How did the combination of onion and cilantro—both basically 地中海 in origin, and brought by the Spanish—become such intrinsic ingredients in the culinary traditions seemingly everywhere south of the border?
Devorador de Nopal
Dear Cactus Eater: Wait, how did you go from an etymological question about lemons and limes to asking about onions and cilantro? That’s a non-sequitor on the lines of talking about democracy, then mentioning Trump. But the Mexican will use any opportunity to plug the works of his pals, so I forwarded your question to Lesley Tellez, author of the fabulous Eat Mexico: Recipes from Mexico City’s Streets, Markets & Fondas and creator of great restaurant tours through la mera capirucha.
“Mexicans have a rich history of using aromatic herbs in their cooking,” says Tellez. “Pápaloquelite, epazote, hierbas de olor (just to name a few)—they’re used abundantly to flavor everything from quesadillas to stews. Cilantro came from Asia but its herbal punch fits right in. As for onion, there’s evidence that a type of wild onion existed before the Spaniards arrived, so indigenous Mexicans might’ve already had a palate for it. The combo that’s popular at Mexican taquerías today—raw, diced white onion mixed with chopped cilantro—is all about texture and balance. The taco needs that necessary crunch and brightness, just as much as it needs salsa.”
Everyone: buy Lesley’s book. And Devorador: linear arguments, 混帐!
Why do us Mexicans call conflais—or “Corn Flakes” for the 加巴斯—any type of cereal?
Tepito Timoteo
Dear Pocho: Same reason why 加巴乔斯 say “Xerox” as a verb when they want to photocopy anything, call cotton swabs “Q-Tips” and call all steroidal creams “Quadriderm.” The bigger question is how Mexican Spanish seemingly mangles a straightforward term like “corn flakes” into confleis. The answer, 如 SIEMPRE, is elision, the linguistic concept of combining vowels and consonants to create new words that confound 加巴乔斯 and fancy ass Mexicans alike. Try this head scratcher: How does “Pues, está para allá, hermano” (“Well, he’s over there, brother”) turn into “Pos, ‘ta’ pa’lla, ‘mano”?
WATCH BORDERTOWN! Folks, the FOX cartoon on which I serve as a consulting producer still has a shot at renewal, so 请 watch THIS SUNDAY at 7 p.m. PST, or stream it any time on Hulu or FOX Now. You have more of a mandate to watch this week’s episode, as it’s the season finale and your humble Mexican wrote the episode. 谢谢, and don’t forget to tweet #renewbordertown!
在问墨西哥人 [电子邮件保护]，在Facebook上成为他的粉丝，在Twitter @gustavoarellano上关注他，或者在Instagram @gustavo_arellano上关注他！
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Who do you think colonized Latin and South America? The Spanish and Portuguese.
How come Mexicans in The U.S never open restaurant businesses that serve non Mexican food? I live in The Bay Area and it is very common for American style diners, mom & pop pizza joints, mom & pop burger joints, and even mom & pop Italian restuarants to be run and operated by Chinese people. Chinese small business restaurant owners in The Bay Area do not limit themselves to just selling Chinese food.
Mexicans in The U.S work as cooks at mom & pop non Mexican restaurants, but they are never actually the owners of these non Mexican mom & pop restaurants.
Current day Mexican food has Mediterranean roots. Except on the occasions where human hearts were ritually ripped from the breasts of the captured unfortunates, and eaten, traditional Mexican food would have been quite vegan friendly. No cheese or sour cream.
Mexicans did not eat human hearts. Those were the Aztecs and they were not Mexicans. In fact there were no Mexicans at that time because Mexico did not exist until the early 1800’s. The fact that earlier Central American civilizations engaged in human sacrifice and consumption shows they were not at all vegan (an idiotic modern religious cult centered around plant food), and most likely, and rightly, would have considered anything vegan to be food (prey).
When I lived in Berkeley there was a Korean BBQ place that seems to have been mostly run by Mexicans.
这里是 - http://www.steveskbbq.com/
Clearly present-day Mexicans have a lot of outside genetic and cultural admixture and include also non-Aztec peoples but their name derives from that of the Aztecs since another name for the Aztecs is Mexica.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexica
Mexico in the old days and even now refers to the area of Mexico city. You only have to watch Mexican telenovelas to know that they still use the name “Mexico” to refer to their capital without even a qualifier such as “city”. I’m assuming the telenovela translation is correct, of course :).
The finale of “The Simpsons” adjusted up a tenth to 1.1, while “Bordertown’s” final episode on FOX adjusted down a tenth to 0.4.
Oh my ….
Dear woodenfishhead,
Trump loves you , because you are poorly educated. The best name for the Aztecs is the Mexica. (pronounced Meh-SHE-ca). Did you ever wonder where the name Mexico came from?
The Mexica and their neighbors ate almost everything. Lizards, snakes, birds, wild game of all types, frogs, etc.
Trump loves me because I’m a patriotic American while you are a social marxist traitor. Mexica is pronounced mex-ee-cah in English. You are so F’ing stupid you probably think chipotle really is pronounced with “lay” at the end. The word mexico is a derivative of “wetback”. Go figure.
They also ate a lot of pond scum floating on Lake Texcoco. This was protein for the masses. For the ruling elite – fish caught then ran in (literally) from the Gulf of Mexico and, of course, human flesh.
One thing the Mexica never ate: livestock. Their ancestors ate them to extinction many eons earlier, including the native American horses.
其余的是历史。