I love Mexican food in general--the refried
beans, the rice, the enchiladas, and those
hard-to-find tamales. But my favourite part of
the Mexican meal is the plain, simple tortilla.
When I was very little--we're talking 4 - 5, my
mother and father and I lived in a rather seedy
section of downtown San Francisco. Once a week,
we all went to the grocery store, and as part of
this weekly expedition, we went out to dinner to
a nearby Mexican restaurant which, if I saw it
today, I would also probably call seedy. But the
food, at least in my memory, was wonderful, and
has become the touchstone for all Mexican food
that I eat now. This was also one of the few
times in the week that we ate together as a
family, sitting around a table, so it was a
special moment. At the beginning of the meal,
before the rest of the food was brought out, the
Mexican waiter would bring us a basket of warm
corn tortillas and butter. My mother would put a
little butter on my tortilla and roll it up--and
man, that tasted good. And ever since then, I've
been a sucker for Mexican food and, in
particular, the plain old corn tortilla.
Great stuff, I really enjoy these personal stories that people send me. The correlation between food and memory is strong and in my research I have found that people often describe Mexican food using personal experiences. Thanks, Ellen!
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