Food-Porn Friday: “Tortilla Soup”

Food Stylings: Gansito Marinela

Food-Porn Friday: “Como agua para chocolate”

Amuse-Biatch RIP: Elia Aboumrad Birthplace in Hot Water

From Japan comes breaking news of a tragic loss to the food world. 96-year-old Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant noodles, has died. He is to be freeze-dried and buried in a styrofoam coffin, there to await the hot water of the Resurrection.

We're all for nil nisi bonum and whatnot (e.g., Gerald Ford), but we would like to point out that in addition to feeding college students and astronauts, Ando-san's invention is having a devastating effect on the cuisine of Elia Aboumrad's native country. According to the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Service, "instant noodles' consumption [in Mexico] is higher than that of beans and rice." And according to CNN,

The noodles are especially popular among the urban and rural poor, many of whom no longer farm the corn and beans that once sustained them and instead work long hours in factories or small businesses, leaving little time for cooking. Diconsa, the government food-assistance agency, is purchasing hundreds of tons of Maruchan a year.

But the love affair with MSG-laden high-fat noodles has Mexico's public health experts on high alert. "We are seeing both malnutrition and obesity in rural areas around the country," says Teresa Gonzales de Cossio, a nutrition expert at Mexico's National Institute of Health. The increasing presence of Maruchan and other low-nutrient foods, combined with less physical activity, is a major factor in Mexico's ballooning obesity epidemic, which may earn it the laurel of most obese nation in the world in 2006.

And so let us take a moment to remember Ando-san as he goes to his eternal reward.

Tamales de Puerco

And because we wouldn't want to skimp on what we had for breakfast today, here is our view of the tamal de puerco that accompanied the tamal de rajas, the crispy, succulent pork in chile rojo sauce bursting from the chile-tinged masa like an eager cocotte's bosom from a too-tight corset.

The End Result

Here is the end result after cooking. Note how the cheese has melted and spilled forth and gone toasty and golden in spots, with the pasilla peppers soft and swooning into the cheese's embrace, and the corn husk glistening from the richness of the masa.

Ecco Tamalem

B ehold the product of perfection, the lord of delicacies, el Señor Tamal (yes, tamal is the singular of tamales), just before cooking.

Chiles & Cheese

First, the cheese. It should be queso mexicano, preferably from the state of Jalisco, aged just enough so that it has a rind, but retaining the soft, fresh, cool, devotional interior of a French pain de mie, akin to the sacralized sensation of burying your face in the beloved's neck.

Next, the chiles. Our favorite is a combination of fresh pasilla peppers (the ones used for chiles rellenos) and fresh jalapeños.

Finally, the corn husks. They must be dried corn husks (fresh or green cornhusks are used for tamales de elote or green-corn tamales, and the leaves of the corn plant are used for tamales de ceniza, or corundas if you hail from Michoacán). The dried corn husks are soaked in water until pliant, and cleaned of all stray strands of corn silk. Then they are spread with the masa, blessed with the cheese and peppers, and folded up into purses of pleasure.

La Masa

The essential element, the sine qua non, of a good tamal, but especially a tamal de rajas, is good masa. With a tamal de rajas, you have nowhere to hide, no mole sauce or meat to take up the slack or disguise brittle-textured, lumpen, or flavorless dough. There is nothing but cheese, chile and dough between you and nirvana.

Of course, it's better to make your own, and the oft-hidden truth is that it's really quite simple. If you want to know the secret, you have only to write to us, and we might risk life and life and disownment in order to give it to you.

Tamales de Rajas

B ehold the wondrous alchemy of rich, creamy, homemade cornmeal masa, queso mexicano, and fresh pasilla and jalapeño peppers, steamed in a cornhusk--as perfect and simple a food as ever woman conceived.