Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-26
MEXICAN COOKING
PEOPLE USED TO IT DON'T LIKE
THE AMERICAN SORT.
influence Of Climate on Appetite and
Palate-Arabic Names in
the Kitchen.

From the Mexican Herald.
Americans living here for some time find
that the climate has an influence on their
palates, and that they can eat many ''pla-
tos nacionales" with gusto. Well-made
mole Is delicious, and there is variety
OF sweetmeats, such as tropical people
everywhere are exceedingly fond of. getting
their carbon preferably from sugary foods
rather than from fat. The Mexican palate
has to have a foreign education really to
like pickles, which all Americans appear to
crave 80 exotic are pickles that the Span
ish name "encurtidos' has given place to
PICKLES." by which even the Spanish shop
keepers know them best. There is a grow
ing demand here among the Mexican people
Of the better class for oatmeal and other
American cereals, physicians recommending
them for anemic people and for delicate
children.
In cosmopolitan city like this there is
give and take in dishes, and so 1t comes
about that in many households Mexican,
French and American culinary preparations
come on the table. The cooks who succeed
one another in the city restaurants con-
tribute to the growing variety of the bill Of
fare. The result is that the distinctively
Mexican cuisine must be looked for in small
places remote from the capital.
Piquant With Pepper.
There are many Mexicans, especially wo-
men, who do not like foreign cooking, and
some of them, travelling in the United
States, have been known to regard with
something like adherence most of the great
and splendid hotels. There is nothing to
eat In the United States" say these pa
triotically prejudiced women. Mexican
dishes are apt to be most savory, spiced and
perhaps piquant with pepper. When one
has grown accustomed to the best Mexican
cooking American dishes seem insipid. Not
few Angio-Saxon residents complain that
when they go home on visit they ma the
cuisine very tame.
The best Mexican cooks, who have inner
tied the old traditions, keep up many OF
the old Spanish dishes, and 1t is fortunate
that the Spanish ''alboniguillas' (really
Moorish meatbalD has been retained. 1t Is
not the tasteless concoction of the careless
American cook. but is an artistic compound,
with spices and delightful sauces varying
II, color and flavor according to taste. Rice
In the Valencian style is very Spanish, and
few cooks prepare 1t well. When old
fashioned Mexican cook, such as may be
found in fine old families presents dish OF
'arroz la valenciana," then you have
true gourmet's delicacy, worthy of Brillat
Savarin himself.
Various Sweetmeats,
AS for sweetmeats. old-fashioned and
wealthy families keep up the Arabian Gus
TOM OF having many Oh lhO uliliicA Sabie'
sometimes half dozen distinct kinds.
There are good housekeepers who can make
several hundred varieties Of "dulces, and
1t is said that the art Is q most difficult one.
The best Mexican families live well. spend
ing lavishly on the table, and women In
country houses, the men away. sit down at
noon to dinners OF many courses. The
picked up" dinner Is not a Mexican no
ton; in this lavish land people Of means
like to have a Well-supplied table.
In many a hacienda house the table Is set
out abundantly. and the cooking Is most
appetizing. In remote places in the coun-
try one finds cooks who are indeed Jew
els" possessed Of culinary lore and proud
to exercise their art And 1t Is cause for
philosophic meditation that so many of the
dishes introduced into Spain by the Moors.
who in turn, got their culinary traditions
from the Saracens and Persians, as we'll as
their architecture, should still survive In
this pleasant land of Mexico.
Arabic names persist in all our kitchens
here in Mexico, and the commonest utensils
are found to suggest the Moors and their
wonderful civilization. Some day an en-
thusiast will appear who will make a book
about the influence of the Moors on the
American cuisine, which has been
varied In Mexico, Central America and the
lower tropics by the profusion Of distinc-
lively American roots herbs and fruits. 1t
is fertile theme, well worthy of investiga-
ton, and far more important than grave
dissertations on Pan-American topics. We
must eat several times a day; international
law is an abstraction remote from our daily
lives.