Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1916-05-07


their punitive expedition into Mexico
they would have found it decidedly
lean and would have had occasion to
complain bitterly of the commissary,
for although the neighboring republic
has within its borders an extraordin-
airy variety of food products, including
most Of the vegetables, fruits and GER
calls grown in both the temperate zone
and the tropics, there is neither variety
Lor abundance in its northern states.
\ bulletin on culinary practices in
the Southern republic, issued by the
National Geographic Society in Wash
ington, says:
Since the days of the Montezumas,
Mexico's staff of life has taken the
form of the tortillas made of Indian
corn, which is indigenous to the coun-
try. The preparation of the tortilla is
the work Of the Indian women, who
first boil the grain and then, while
aiding water, grind it to a stiff paste on
a metate, or fiat motar This paste
usually is moulded with the hands into
thin cakes and is cooked much after
the fashion of the hoe cake of Dixie
land
THE frijole, or Mexican bean fire.
quently fried in fat, is another staple,
both when served alone and when con-
shutting an important ingredient of
the famous chile con carne, a sort of
goulash, compounded, customarily, of
beer and beans, with plentiful seas
oning of chill, the Mexican pepper.
"The hot tamale has made it's way
across the border, but it does not have
the same flavor when taken from a
can as when the particles of meat are
seasoned with pepper, mixed with corn
meal, wrapped in corn 'shucks,' boiled
until thoroughly cooked, peeled out of
and eaten from the shuck.
One of the odd dishes of northern
Mexico is the pipian, made Of finely
ground squash-seed, boiled in a sauce
pan.
while the tortilas, frijoles, chile
cen carne, and tamales, washed down
with liberal potations of pulque, may
be considered the foundation of his
menu, the peon of Southern Mexico
has various appetizers which are un-
known to the peon of the north. There
is, for example, the water wheat
which is not exactly what its name
implies, but the eggs of flies. The
A. native Mexican eats his water wheat
with the same epicurean relish that
the Chinese mandarin eats his expens-
i've bird-nest, the Central African his
raw hipFopOtamus, the Canton merch-
ant his Stalled dog, and the West
Indian his palm worms stewed in fat.
The water-wheat fields are ponds in
which the peon places bundles of reeds
q few feet apart, so that their tops are
! just above the surface. On these reeds
/ or rushes the insects deposit their
eggs in Incredible numbers. The
bundles are then removed and the
crop is shaken off. The eggs, re-
! sembling fine fish-roe, are made into
small cakes and are sold in the mar
kets, to be eaten either as we eat
cheese or mixed with corn meal and
fowl eggs. The insects themselves,
which are about the size of our house
flies, are also eaten, the method of
pleparation being to pound them into
paste and boil with corn husks
THE fruits of Southern Mexico are
numerous and some of them are delic-
ious. One of the most unusual is the
papaya or melon zapote, which grows
on tree and often weighs as much AZ
20 pounds. 1t has characteristics of
pumpkin and the watermelon, and in
addition contains considerable pepsin.
SO that the diner may take his aid-to
digestion and his dessert at one and
the same time. The parrot fruit is
peculiar chiefly on account of its strik