What does it take to make decent texmex here? Well, it took me three grocery trips, lots of confused grocery stockers, and some tortillas flown in from the U.S. There was some improvising, but I was pretty happy with what I dubbed “Afri-Tex-Mex.”
It’s something I had wanted to do for a while, but it finally came to pass because I got a shipment of tortillas from the U.S. That’s right. A friend’s dad is a pilot who was flying to JNB, so I met him for a meal and got some tortillas from the deal.
The final meal was tacos and Spanish rice with chips and salsa – a slight downgrade from the planned enchiladas, Mexican black beans, and the rice. I got curious and tallied everything up. Final cost? ~$8/head. Not bad vs. going out, but relatively expensive for home cooking.
In my quest to put together this meal, I was buying a bag of Bandito’s chips and as I got my card out and signed the receipt the cashier looked at the chips… turned them over… looked at me… and finally asked me something like, “what are these?” I told her they were plain chips for salsa, not like that would enlighten her at all. She said in an amazed voice, “They’re expensive!” She’s right. As discussed before, chips are pricey. I also found that Bandito’s has a monopoly on all things quasi-Mexican (the only jalapenos I found are also Bandito’s, and I saw taco sauces).
I came up short when looking for black beans. There are plenty of beans, but just no black beans either in canned or dry form. I may be able to find them at a specialty store. I also gave up on chicken broth after several guys all staring blankly when I asked for it.
I was at a point of crisis until I found out that cilantro is coriander leaf. I didn’t realize this until I went to my third store and found someone who made the connection. Once I found that out, one of my key missing spices turned out to be ubiquitous.
At that same third grocery I finally found lime juice… in an expensive, small jar. Lime and dill are some of my favorite seasonings, so this is disappointing.
While shopping I was wearing a t-shirt I got in Honduras that was designed by a friend I work with at Building a Future. A guy in an elevator turns to me and says, “All the way from Mexico?” I let the Honduras/Mexico mix-up slide, and then he says: “That must have been a heckuva canoe trip.” Yes, yes it was…
It’s something I had wanted to do for a while, but it finally came to pass because I got a shipment of tortillas from the U.S. That’s right. A friend’s dad is a pilot who was flying to JNB, so I met him for a meal and got some tortillas from the deal.
The final meal was tacos and Spanish rice with chips and salsa – a slight downgrade from the planned enchiladas, Mexican black beans, and the rice. I got curious and tallied everything up. Final cost? ~$8/head. Not bad vs. going out, but relatively expensive for home cooking.
In my quest to put together this meal, I was buying a bag of Bandito’s chips and as I got my card out and signed the receipt the cashier looked at the chips… turned them over… looked at me… and finally asked me something like, “what are these?” I told her they were plain chips for salsa, not like that would enlighten her at all. She said in an amazed voice, “They’re expensive!” She’s right. As discussed before, chips are pricey. I also found that Bandito’s has a monopoly on all things quasi-Mexican (the only jalapenos I found are also Bandito’s, and I saw taco sauces).
I came up short when looking for black beans. There are plenty of beans, but just no black beans either in canned or dry form. I may be able to find them at a specialty store. I also gave up on chicken broth after several guys all staring blankly when I asked for it.
I was at a point of crisis until I found out that cilantro is coriander leaf. I didn’t realize this until I went to my third store and found someone who made the connection. Once I found that out, one of my key missing spices turned out to be ubiquitous.
At that same third grocery I finally found lime juice… in an expensive, small jar. Lime and dill are some of my favorite seasonings, so this is disappointing.
2 comments:
Next time you're home I promise to do my best to fill that TexMex void you're experiencing.
David, Jan says to get chicken stock all you have to do is boil your own chicken. You should try that for your next SA Fiesta.
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