With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.

My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.

Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.

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.

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)

Over the next few days, we will be getting ready for Cinco de Mayo here at Slashfood, and I decided there is no better way to start the day than with coffee. Actually, make that Café de Olla, a Mexican-style sweetened black coffee. I first had this drink about ten years ago, and still make it periodically throughout the year. The flavor is bold and sweet, laced with the subtle flavors of cinnamon and anise.

Though I have come across many different ways to prepare this beverage, the following is a simplified version I've adapted over time. If any of you have any tips on making it better, please feel free to add your comments below. The full recipe can be found after the jump.

Sometimes, holidays just beg to be celebrated with fried foods. Yesterday, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, Jessica made churros and posted about them on her blog, Su Good Eats. Jessica tells us that churros got their start as a French dish, not a Mexican one, since they are based on choux pastry, which is typically used to make eclairs and cream puffs. In this case, of course, it is deep fried and rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixture to make a crispy and delicious snack that you'll want to eat as soon as it's cool enough to pop into your mouth. Coincidentally, the recipe came from the same cookbook that was our cookbook of the day yesterday, Rick Bayless's Mexico One Day At A Time!

We're nosy, yes we are. So won't you tell us what you did last night for Cinco de Mayo? Maybe you ignored it completely and it was dinner as usual, maybe you threw your own party at home with a walking taco for everyone, or maybe you left work early, went to the closest cantina for cheap Cinco de Mayo happy hour (that would be "hora especial") specials, then made your way to who knows where before finally ending up at home this morning, in the same clothes, with a killer tequil-ler hangover. If that's the case, drink some water, turn off your computer and go back to bed!

Me? I tried to go somewhere, a couple of places, actually, but realized we'd be waiting in line for over an hour, so went to have Chinese food for dinner!

It's Cinco de Mayo (that's "5th of May" if you took French in high school), so don your sombreros, head out to the local cantina, and start the fiesta! LA is a veritable goldmine of Mexican joints, with everything from upscale Border Grill to the taco truck on the corner (though we're not sure the taco trucks have blended margaritas). Here are eight places around LA to celebrate the victory of the tiny Mexican militia at Puebla. Get there early, since places will fill up fast on a Friday afternoon.

1. Baja Cantina, 311 Washington Boulevard, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292, (310) 821-2252, www.bajacantinavenice.com  - Get there early. Last year, I drove by it, and kept driving because the line was full of guys in Mardi Gras beads and straw hats waiting to get in.
2. Cabo Cantina, 8301 W Sunset Blvd (@ Sweetzer), Los Angeles, CA 90069, (323) 822-7820 - There is also a second location on Wilshire Blvd on the Westside. That's where Monkey was having his margarita!
3. El Carmen, 8138 W Third St (@ Crescent Heights), Los Angeles, CA 90048, (323) 852-1552 - It's dark and moody inside, with creepy masked Mexican boxers on the walls, but their selection of tequila is incredible.  
4. El Cholo, 1121 S Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90006, (323) 734-2773, www.elcholo.com - El Cholo also has a Westside location at Wilshire and 11th in Santa Monica. It is very popular. If I were you, I'd go there now. No, really, now.
5. El Coyote, 7312 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, (323) 939-2255, www.elcoyotecafe.com - Margaritas are HUGE, food portions are HUGE, but the girls are tiny.
6. Lula Cocina Mexicana, 2722 Main St Santa Monica, CA 90405, (310) 392-571, www.lulacocinamexicana.com  -
7. Spanish Kitchen, 826 N La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90069, (310) 659-4794, www.thespanishkitchen.com - I've never been, but all my friends love the place. A bit expensive, and sort of hipster-ish, but fun nonetheless. 
8. Velvet Margarita, 1612 N Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028, (323) 469-2000 - Like Spanish Kitchen, it's a wee bit of a hipster place, so dress nicely. The giant margaritas in fresh pineapples are sort of touristy, so stick with a regular one on the rocks and you won't look like a plebe.

Like Valentine's Day, like St. Patrick's Day, like many other "holidays" in the United States, we take the word "holiday" literally and use Cinco de Mayo as a reason to celebrate. We call it a day early, head out to the closest Mexican restaurant or bar to indulge in way too many chips, salsa and guacamole, and celebrate with gleeful, drunken shouts of “Happy Cinco de Mayo!”

But as we clink lime-seasoned long-neck Coronas against our friend's salt-rimmed margarita glass, do we even know what we're celebrating? In fact, is Cinco de Mayo even a reason to celebrate at all, or should we just be respectfully observing the day? Do we all know why we do rows upon rows of tequila shots as if the 5th of May were the first day of Spring Break in Cancun?!

I came up with this recipe for pineapple margaritas when I was making my pineapple-jicama salsa last week. I was already thinking that margaritas would be a good thing to serve with the grilled salmon and salsa dish and, when I ended up with a lot of extra pineapple juice, things just fell into place. These margaritas are a bit sweeter than the average plain margarita, but they still have the tang of lime and a bit of kick from the tequila. I would normally salt the rim of my classes, but sugaring the rim of the glass works better for this drink, and it's easier to do than it looks. Just moisten the rim of your glass, either with water or a bit of pineapple juice, and dip it into some sugar that is spread evenly on a small plate. Garnish with a slice of pineapple and you're ready for happy hour!

Pineapple Margaritas
2/3 cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup margarita mix
1/3 cup tequila
1/6 cup triple sec
2 tbsp fresh lime juice

Shake with ice and serve in ice filled, sugar-rimmed glasses.

Makes 2 drinks.

[Photo and recipe by Nicole Weston]

Sangria is a Spanish drink, not a Mexican one, yet it is still one of the most popular beverages served during Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the US. Instead, suggests Julieta Ballesteros, owner of the new Crema Ristorante in New York's Union square, opt for the Mexican alternative: agua loca. The name means "crazy water" and makes the Spanish punch look tame by comparison because it doesn't water down its fruit and alcohol base with any filler, unlike many sangrias, which may use soda water for a light carbonation. As Ballesteros explained to the New York Times, "You're always told, when you start drinking, that mixing different kinds of alcohol will make you crazy."

And the strong drink is not called "crazy water" for nothing.

The recipe below is an adaptation of the one served at Crema. It makes nearly 3 gallons of the drink, so it might be best to scale it back a bit for home use. If you're already having a Cinco de Mayo party, though, it could be just the thing to spice up the night.

 

Friday is Cinco de Mayo.  Do you know what that means?

If you replied, "that the Applebee's next to the on-ramp had better pull down all those remaining 'St. Patrick's Day' and 'Kiss Me I'm Irish' streamers," you'd be wrong (although they probably should).

It means that you and your hombre had better go stock up on some cervezas, hermanita.
 
Everybody knows Negra Modelo and Corona, and everybody knows the differences between them: namely, that Negra Modelo is for frat boys, Corona for sorority girls. But here are four very-slightly-off-the-beaten-path options:

Bohemia: The Rey of Beers, this smooth, medium-bodied pilsener has been brewed since 1900. It's named after the famous beer-brewing region of what is now the Czech Republic.

Pacifico: The top-selling beer in Mexico, Pacifico is a pilsner. American travelers to the Baja Peninsula have brought back a fondness for this golden, full-flavored beer.

Tecate: Medium-bodied. Never in bottles. If you're a fan of the can, Tecate (teh-kah-tay) is your beer. 

Dos Equis: A Vienna-style lager. The name translates to "Two X's" or XX. Not to be confused with XXX, that movie with Vin Diesel. Watch XXX only after several Dos Equis.

 

Cinco de Mayo is this coming Friday, and it's an excuse to indulge in more than our fair share of Coronas, margaritas, and of course, food. But as many people may know, Mexican food isn't always considered to be all that light and healthy. Heck, a basket of chips and salsa could put you well over your daily calorie needs in one tequila-fueled haze. The American Heart Association lists a few tips to keep your health in check when you're shouting out "Ole!"

• Instead of flour tortillas, which are often made with lard, opt for corn tortillas, which can contain little to no fat.
• Choose grilled chicken, fish or shrimp over fried carnitas (beef or pork) or chorizo (sausage).
• Rather than refried beans (this is always the killer for me), go for frijoles a la charra or borracho (simmered in liquid).
• Sour cream, cheese, and guacamole can be replaced with as much flavor from good salsa, pico de gallo, and fresh chopped cilantro, onions, and japalenos.
• Instead of a plain quesadilla, order fajitas and stick with the tips above for corn tortillas and salsa
• If you get a "taco salad," resist eating the shell