"cinco de mayo" news and stories

With Cinco de Mayo coming up after the weekend, Chicago-area Mexican-Americans reminisce with traditional foods:

• Vegetable-stuffed peppers
  
• Ranchero sauce
• Mango and jicama salsa
• Mexican meatball soup
• Salsa Soup
• Tortillas at home
• Seafood 'cocktail' to start the meal
• Grilled cheese with beans
• Chorizo in an easy noodle dish
• Spicy stew with hominy

Also, for preparation in the kitchen:

• Equipping a kitchen with the right tools
• Mexican beer tasting: Forget the lime, go for flavor
• Achieving taco greatness starts in your kitchen
• Mexican cooking classes
• #2 By the numbers
• Mexican chef offers free cooking pointers
• By the numbers

There's also a Mexican Food Quiz, a list of some essential Mexican ingredients, and Mexican Cookbooks.

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Despite evidence to the contrary, Cinco de Mayo is not Spanish for 'another excuse to get totally faced.' What Cinco de Mayo has come to signify in this country, however, is exactly that. Just like we knock back Guinness on St. Patrick's Day and gorge ourselves on beer and brats during Oktoberfest, Cinco de Mayo has become our way of showing appreciation for our Mexican neighbors in the best way we know how; by getting slobber-faced.

This upcoming May 5, we'll be raising glasses of tequila. So let's take a minute and find out exactly what is in that glass and clear up some misconceptions.

I didn't realize until a few years ago that in most other parts of the US, Cinco de Mayo isn't as huge a deal as it is here in LA. For some reason, I just assumed that everyone around the country used the "holiday" as an excuse to eat chips and salsa, drink margaritas, and shoot tequila to messy excess. Well, given that we also had the The Fight, and Derby Day yesterday, it's no surprise that I sort of "missed" my own Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Still, that doesn't mean that the gorgeous mango, lime, and margarita glass that have been sitting on my countertop should go to waste. Since Cinco de Mayo has already past, let's just call today Cinco de Mango, and enjoy the Mango Salsa from the National Mango Board, which LAist Lindsay William-Ross has already made and photograhed. The recipe for the salsa is after the jump, and for more mango recipes, check out www.mangoinfo.org.

Before we get into Happy Hour recipes for the celebrations this weekend, I wanted to draw attention to this non-alcoholic Mexican drink that admittedly sounded strange to me until I tried it - now I am hooked.

Though there are drinks under the name Horchata in other cultures, the Mexican version is made from blended rice. It looks (and even tastes) like a milky drink, but there is absolutely no dairy in the recipe. It is rumored that this drink helps to cure hangovers, so you may want to whip up a batch if you plan on indulging at all this weekend.

If you want to try the drink but don't want to go to all the effort of making it yourself, Rice Dream apparently makes a version that is already prepared, though I've never tasted that myself. You can find the full recipe after the jump.

If you are looking for a Mexican dish to serve for your Cinco de Mayo celebrations this weekend, my recommendation is to check out Homesick Texan, who will not only give you a bit of history about the holiday, but provides an amazing recipe for Tinga de Puerco.

This dish is a Pueblan stew consisting of pork, chorizo, tomatoes and chipotles. As she states, the stew is traditionally served on crisp tostadas, but may also be eaten with tortilla chips, wrapped in soft tortillas, or eaten like a typical stew simply with a spoon. I'm getting the ingredients for this myself tonight - serve with a few cerveza and Cinco de Mayo has begun!

(image: Homesick Texan)

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