My Former Life

I'm still pretty much convinced that I was Latin in a former life.

It's very rare that I'm NOT in the mood for a burrito, or something Mexican, Salvadoran, Peruvian, etc. More often than not, I am ALWAYS down for some chaufa de pollo, a good bean burrito, a pupusa.

For the past week, I've had the biggest craving for tostadas. I was thinking of making them myself, but knowing I didn't have the proper ingredients and the time to get them, I was trying to think of things I could have in lieu of them. I tried cooking up some fake chicken sold at Trader Joe's (which I didn't like - the texture was way too gummy) and season it all tasty-like, but that didn't work. The bean burrito run from Taco Bell was a major fail and am a bit embarrassed to even admit I spent money and ate them. Saturday I was looooooving the carne asada that was grilled, and then later the awesome guacamole and freshly made tortilla chips someone brought. Even though it was planned to get Arby's with the coupon I had on Sunday, I wound up getting Green Burrito flautas instead, and enjoyed mooching off another's carnitas nachos (good thing we decided to upgrade).

Still, that didn't satisfy my fix, and yesterday, I went and got some tostada discs, and was so excited to make them, I forgot to get other ingredients to add (mushroom would have been good, as well as tomatoes, but the bell peppers didn't look so good) and went home with that. At least I had onions, and to compensate for the lack of other veggies, I just chopped an entire onion into the mix. Then I used veggie ground meat and seasoned it with some cayenne and white pepper, as well as a generous dose of Trader Joe's 21 seasoning salute. I also bought myself some vegetarian refried beans, even though I should have known myself better and had two cans of refried beans waiting at home. I added some veggie broth to thin it out and added a few splashes of Tabasco. Once that was all done, I busted out the Tapatio and I was ready to feast.

I was pretty surprised that it actually turned out pretty well!

Needless to say, that's all I've been eating since (save breakfast, where I had Oriental ramen with egg), and I'm contemplating having one more after already eating one for dinner.

Next time, I definitely need to make sure I have stuff like mushrooms, tomatoes, perhaps some bell peppers and maybe, maaaaaaaybe some cheese. OH! Lime. The lime would also make things pretty yummy.

I would need to get more ground meat of some sort, and of course, the above mentioned veggies to make more. After all, I still have a lot of tostada shells to polish off before they go bad.

Speaking of Latin food, I'm starting to learn how much I really do like Salvadoran food. I fell in love with the pupusa as soon as I discovered it, and even though some people don't favor it, I loooove their horchata made with toasted rice. I know some of their dishes they call one thing is different than the Mexican version, but I was so surprised when I was given a Salvadoran empanada yesterday. I had a feeling that it would be different than the other empanadas I'm used to (basically it being a food pocket), but I did not expect a lump of refried beans surrounded by sweet plantains, then fried. Even though it was a little heavier and sweeter than I kind of wanted, it was still really good. As I was enjoying it, my boss' housekeeper were trying to figure out how it's made, as she was the one who gave it to me, but didn't make it herself. Now we have this mission to try making our own Salvadoran empanadas, and allowing ourselves to have it in different sizes rather than that fist-sized lump of mushy.

I'm still kind of surprised that in the past few years people have mistaken me or thought I am Latin. It's a HUGE difference from when I was growing up and had people telling me I could only be Chinese or Japanese, because I was clearly Asian and those were the only kinds of Asian they knew. I was tickled when I overheard a conversation between two friends telling one another that they thought I was Latina when they first met me, and was kind of hoping I was so I'd be "part of their team."

At that moment, I wished I was.