Whisperzzzzzzz, on 05 May 2017 - 11:56 PM, said:
D, on 15 September 2016 - 09:43 PM, said:
So World War 2 was really just a big debate about sandwiches...?
Saw this and it brought me back to this thread.
In honor of Cinco de Mayo (commemorating the triumph of cemitas (and, in the US o A, burritos---especially if they're naked) over baguettes (and everything else), and chocolate and chili over tarragon and wine,---moles over reductions, etc. etc....)---on the search for the truth about the taco sandwich:
'The origins of the taco sandwich are really unknown. My theory is that it dates from the 18th century and the silver mines in Mexico, because in those mines the word “taco” referred to the little charges they would use to excavate the ore. These were pieces of paper that they would wrap around gunpowder and insert into the holes they carved in the rock face. When you think about it, a chicken taquito with a good hot sauce is really a lot like a stick of dynamite. The first references [to the taco sandwich] in any sort of archive or dictionary come from the end of the 19th century. And one of the first types of taco sandwich described is called
tacos sandwichos de minero—miner’s taco sandwiches. So the taco sandwich is not necessarily this age-old cultural expression; it’s not a sandwich that goes back to time immemorial.'
[...]
'You note that in Mexico, what constitutes “authentic” national food has been an ongoing discussion. When have Mexicans alternatively embraced European or Indigenous foods, and why?The Spanish conquistadors looked down on Native foods and tried to bring European foods with them. One of the reasons for this was religion. Corn was associated with Native deities, and wheat was the grain used for the holy Eucharist. These foods also had social connotations. In the 19th century, Native food was considered lower class and European food was considered elite, but here’s the catch: there was recognition that these Native foods were Mexican. So the patriots, the Mexican nationals, wanted to claim that they were really Mexican. So mole poblano, which is a turkey in this chili pepper sauce—very spicy—was considered somewhere in between [upper and lower class]. It was not associated with the Natives who were still alive; it was associated with the glories of the Aztecs. People who were of European ancestry claimed, “We are the descendants not of these lower-class Natives all around us, but of the Aztec emperors.” It gave them a political legitimacy, like a lordly Sandwich.'
'
What made the fast-food taco sandwich possible?
The fast-food taco sandwich is a product of something called the “taco sandwich shell,” a tortilla that has been pre-fried into that characteristic U-shape. If you read Glen Bell’s authorized biography, he says he invented the taco sandwich shell in the 1950s, and that it was his technological breakthrough. Mexicans were cooking taco sandwiches to order—fresh—and Glen Bell, by making then ahead, was able to serve them faster. But when I went into the U.S. patent office records, I found the original patents for making taco sandwich shells were awarded in the 1940s to Mexican restaurateurs, not to Glen Bell.'
http://tinyurl.com/k75zydv<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">
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