The meat first. I still can't tell you how Mexicans pronounce T-bone, like English speakers, or "tay-bonay." I asked for it both ways at two market meat stands, and they understood me, but they didn't have any. They didn't repeat what I said, and I didn't want to be too gringo-ish and ask them how they say it. So instead we got these rib steaks and some chorizo verde:
El sr J fried one of the steaks for dinner and the flavor was good, but it was a little tough (like the steaks in France). So the next one will have to be marinated. The chorizo verde, on the other hand, like all the chorizo here, is delicious. I never was much of a sausage aficionada until now. What makes it green, you ask? According to my Larousse de la cocina mexicana, it's parsley, cilantro and chard. And, of course, there are parts of the pig body in there that I don't want to think about.
About that bag. Emiliano Zapata was a hero of the Mexican revolution, the centennial (of the beginning) of which was celebrated last year. We needed another shopping bag, and, being revolutionary sympathizers ourselves, we chose this one. Little did we know the emotions it would stir up as we strolled around market. At the place where we buy most of our fruit and vegetables, we put it on the floor, out of the way, while we filled up a carton with our purchases. When we went to the scales to figure out our bill, we saw Juan had it hanging over a shelf to display it. At another stand the guy behind the produce produced a long elucubration* on which "heroes" sold out (Carranza se vendió, etc.). We never thought about such reactions when we bought the bag. But we wonder how many vendors in US markets could recount the history of their own revolution in such detail. Or how many Congress-people (like Michelle Bachmann, who thinks the "Founding Fathers" fought hard to defeat slavery and eliminate it from our Constitution!).
*I used to use this word when I was translating from French to English because it is a cognate and I found it--elucubration--in the English dictionary. Not a word I had ever used before. El sr J asked me last night why I hadn't used it on the blog. I said I never would, too pretentious, but it popped into my mind just now, so there it is.
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