Down the Rabbit Hole

Tasting Life

"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
Day 801 May 17th, 2016
Prompt: How strong is your taste imagination? Have you ever felt the taste of any food inside your mouth just by thinking about it? Write about this.



I've had the opportunity to travel. One of the best part of going anywhere is to sample the locate cuisine, especially if its another country. International travel becomes some what of a food odyssey with certain dishes and tastes become as much as part of the memory of a place as the sights and sounds.

I spent a lot of time in Mexico and my favorite tastes have been from all corners of that country. I had been warned about eating "street food" but the best things I've ever eaten where prepared on the streets Mexico City, in the zucalos of Oaxaca and sold from vendors at aromatic, if questionable, open markets.

There is nothing in the world like the taste of tacos el pastor at 2am in the heart of the zona rosa after a night of dancing and tequila. The meat is savory and a bit briny, the spices straining it a terracotta red. The vendors cut it off from the vertical machine that slowing spins, cooking the mass of dripping meat, slowly, crisping the edges to perfection. They wrap the chunks of greasy pastor in fresh, warm corn tortillas that are topped with fresh cut cilantro, onion and lime. The combinations are so well balanced, and the taste sensation explodes on your tongue and settles in your stomach with a deeply satisfying heat.

It was during the La noche de los rábanos (Festival of Radishes) in Oaxaca that I first tasted blue corn tortillas stuffed with the bright orange pumpkin squash flowers and Oaxacan string cheese. It was an exotic combination, sweet and savory on the tongue. The colors contrasting, beautifully vibrant. Washed down with lukewarm coca cola in those little glass bottles, these quesadillas would rival any gourmet creation anywhere. The old woman grilling the tortilla crisp on her wide iron skillet was as much a part of the night as the oddly beautiful sculptures of radishes lined up around the town center. The sights, sounds and tastes of that evening in Oaxaca will stay with me always.

If I had to pick one dish from Mexico that stood out as my favorite among so many, it would easily be Elotes. Elotes are great ears of large kernel corn, about a long as a human forearm. They are sold in alleys, from carts in village streets, from vendors outside busy nightclubs and ruta stations. They are speared on wooden sticks, roasted to perfection and covered with crema, cilantro, chile pepper, lime juice and spices. They are messy and visually chaotic but they are in a word...spectacular. The first time you bite into one, the kernels pop from the cob and fill your mouth with flavors of the culture around you. The taste is all at once buttery, spicy and sweet. You can taste every element on your tongue, uniquely blended, somewhat familiar but amplified somehow in their combination. Elotes are simply the best thing I've ever tasted, ever.

I did do a lot more than just eat in my travels but clearly eating was as much a part of my experience abroad as visiting the ancient historical sites, touring the towns and villages of coastal Mexico and dancing in the streets of Veracruz.


"Blogging Circle of Friends "
DAY 1280 May 17, 2016
Let's talk books : What's the last one that you made cry? What's the last one that made you laugh? What's the last one that made you furious? Do/ can books give you all of these emotions in one story?

Regrettably I do not get as much time to read as I used to. My literary exploration these days is limited to listening to audio books on my way to work most mornings. I miss the habit of crawling in bed to end each day with a chapter or two of whatever volume I've borrowed from the library that week.

The last book that made me cry was a classic, "Of Love and Other Demons" by the great Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This passionate, moving book tells the story of a young girl who is sequestered away in a convent, isolated and marginalized after being bite by a rabid dog. Tragic and moving, Marquez's story is about a love and longing that left me aching and sad.

I'm currently listening to the "Summer of Night" by Dan Simmons. Simmons writes about a small town in 1970 and the band of boyhood friends during the summer following their graduation from 5th grade. They are typically boys, roaming the streets and woods, patrolling with their bike brigade. They are a charming if motley crew, and I've found myself laughing out loud at their antics numerous times. Of course, all is not mirth and sunshine and as with other such tales like "Stand by Me" or "It", danger looms and evil lurks. Something dark and ominous waits in the shadows to test this group of friends beyond their limits.

I think its possible for certain books to evoke a range of emotions in me. I recently read James Lee Burke's "Wayfaring Stranger" and there were days when I experienced anger, joy and sadness over a span of chapters in that beautiful saga that began with one boy's chance encounter with the infamous Bonnie and Clyde. Books can deliver the goods. They can take us places. They can make us feel in many ways on a deeper level than watching something on the screen.