05.01.2008
Go authentic this Cinco de Mayo
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Putting together a menu to celebrate Cinco de Mayo can mean loading up on chimichangas, fried ice cream and the hottest peppers you can find.
But for a menu of authentic Mexican dishes, you definitely want to broaden your options.
Depending on where you go in Mexico, folks may have never heard of fried ice cream and chimichangas—dishes that are more American creations than Mexican cuisine.
“I think the main thing that comes to mind when people say ‘Mexican food’ is chili peppers,” said Jose Ramon, chef at Cielito Lindo in Richmond, Va. He owns the restaurant with his wife, Betsy Ramon.
But just focusing on peppers for making dishes as hot and spicy as possible misses the point, Ramon said. The peppers need to add some flavor.
“For instance, a lot of people love our salsa, but they don’t understand that the right thing to make salsa is you have to roast the peppers,” Ramon said. “Roasting makes a big difference in the flavor.”
He prefers roasting over boiling or cooking the peppers some other way.
Cinco de Mayo, or May 5, is recognized in some parts of Mexico and in the United States to mark a Mexican victory at Puebla against the French in 1862. It is not Mexican Independence Day, as some think.
A history of the celebration on the Web site of The Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California at Los Angeles notes that U.S. Cinco de Mayo celebrations were started in California by Latinos reading of the 1862 battle victory in newspapers.
Over the years, commemorations waned. In more recent times, the celebrations have served to showcase Mexican heritage and culture.
“It’s a great way to celebrate Hispanic heritage,” said Michel Zajur of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. At his family-owned restaurant, the day has been marked for years. This year, as usual, there will be music and dancing and special menus featuring authentic Mexican cuisine.
“Mexico has regional cooking similar to the United States,” Zajur said. “In different regions of Mexico you will find different ways of cooking, different foods that are native to that area. Toward the south they will use more black beans, compared to pinto beans maybe in some of the northern areas.”
Many of the dishes in Mexican restaurants are really Tex-Mex or modified to appeal to American tastes.
Zajur said real Mexican tacos are different from the Americanized version.
“It’s a corn tortilla, and it has the diced steak or diced chicken or diced pork. And you put the diced onions and cilantro on top of it. And you put the salsa verde and pica de gallo,” he said.
Fresh ingredients and freshly made dishes are key to authentic Mexican cooking, said Zajur’s brother, George.
“You cannot make it ahead of time,” he said. “You have to make it to order. The flavors come out.”