Monday, June 1, 2009

Dear Huitlacoche,


[photo courtesy bkusler]

Dear Huitlacoche,

Huitlacoche, I have been intrigued by you for over a year, and have occasionally looked for you in bodegas that seemed like they might carry you. I looked around in the 3-aisle "Hispanic Foods" section of the Food Bazaar for a canned version of you, but with no luck. So when I walked past the new "auténtica cocina mexicana de Williamsburg" by my house and saw the taco de nopales, hongos y huitlacoche on the menu, I was READY.

Sometimes I wonder about the first person to have eaten a thing, like, in history. Like, who was the dude who saw lobsters and was like, "You know what might be delicious? THOSE THINGS. Let's trap them and feed them to our pigs.* Oh wait, no, let's also eat them ourselves." Or mussels, or mushrooms, or hot dogs, or any number of things that, in theory, sound super-gross, but turn out to be amazing.

But, you, Huitlacoche, are probably the king of Things That Sound (and Also Look) Gross But Are Actually Delicious. Reason number one: YOU ARE INFECTED CORN. You're the most basic foodstuff - the building block of the food chain of the New World - that has been INFECTED with a FUNGUS. It's like someone said, "Hey, do you want to eat this hamburger? The cow had cancer so it's extra good!!"

But somehow it works, Huitlacoche. And for that, I will always love you.

Besos,
Anna

*seriously, the pilgrims did this.

4 comments:

Laurie Stark said...

Wait, is that SERIOUSLY good? Because the pic is making me wanna vom for realz.

p.s. Thanks for the info on Look Around You. Much needed.

Laurie Stark said...

p.p.s. Look Around You might need its own letter.

Laurie Stark said...

p.p.p.s. I love that 'huitlacoche' effectively means 'crow shit'.

Reader Submissions said...

a) It is for reals good. I specifically picked a pic that kind of made me want to vom for reals. I think the low lighting at Mesa Coyoacan helped.

b) Look Around You needs a letter for every episode.

c) Have you had crow shit? There's a reason they* call it "the caviar of the Amazon Basin."

*no one

 

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