"mexico" news and stories

Photo: Scott W. Baker

Alabama-born LeNell Smothers defines herself first and foremost as a bartender, but she's been called many things -- most recently, the proprietress of LeNell's liquor store. She's owned her own whiskey label called Red Hook Rye and has been recognized by her home state as an honorary Colonel. Other interests include gin, sin and men.

The moving truck rolls into Brooklyn this week. The big international move to Mexico has been brutal to organize, but -- lucky me! -- I had the very cool cats called Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC) host a splendid Hasta Luego shindig in my honor.

One of the members, Elayne Duke, served up an original creation she called "Little Bit of Country," that's perfect for the chill coming in the air these days. Her cocktail pretty much sums me up: kick of bourbon, little sweetness, nice tartness, touch of spiciness and just enough bitter to balance it all out. My Granny sent me a fabulous leopard-print dress to wear that just had to have a pink feather boa for the party ... and I sported my cowboy boots for a "little bit of country."

'Fresh Mexico: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor'
By Marcela Valladolid
Photos by Amy Kalyn Sims
Clarkson Potter -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Marcela Valladolid may seem familiar to fans of the short-lived "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." She made it through 11 weeks of the show before Martha bid her "goodbye."

A former recipe tester for Bon Appétit, Valladolid landed on her feet, hosting a Discovery Familia TV show "Relatos con Sabor," and penning her first cookbook, "Fresh Mexico."

It is here that Valladolid shares family recipes from her childhood in Tijuana and San Diego, Calif., and does her best to debunk the notion that Mexican food is heaps of yellow cheese melted on tortilla chips. There is a taco recipe in "Fresh Mexico," but overall this is Mexican fare way outside the box.

Caesar Salad. Photo: stu_spivack, Flickr.

Veni, vidi, evicted.

Caesar's, the restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, credited with creating the now-mainstream Caesar salad, closed last week over a rent dispute.

"I showed up for work on Monday and I found all the furniture outside," Miguel Angel Ventura Oros, a waiter at the restaurant, told the Associated Press. "The manager told us there was an eviction for not paying the rent."

Xoco's churros are hard to get. Photo: ehfisher/flicker.

Would you wait three days for a "Top Chef" churro?

Rick Bayless, one of Chicago's top chefs and the winner of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters," is extending his gourmet Mexican empire to street food. Last week, he added XOCO (pronounced "Sho-Co") to his string of Windy City hot spots including Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. The latest aims to bring authentic Mexican tortas and caldos (sandwiches and soups) to the masses. How did it go over with the locals? The line snaked out the door.

When Slashfood swung by for after-dinner churros -- the delectable fried-dough treats sprinkled with sugar and spices -- it took three nights of trying to get in.

Chicago's own Rick Bayless may be the king of Mexican cuisine in America, but his win on "Top Chef Masters" proved the chef could also cook through the canon of other world cuisines.

Bayless slogged through tongue, Southern Italian cuisine and Oaxacan mole to emerge victorious on the competition.

"It's really hard," Bayless tells Slashfood of the experience. "Plain and simple, really really hard."

Now he's offering his advice to winning the competition.

"What I learned going through the first competition is that it's a game," Bayless says. "Yes, you have to be a good cook, but you have to be able to play that game."

So, all you "Top Chef" wannabes, you need to create a strategy.

"You have to choose which path you're going to go down and you never look back. Once you start second-guessing yourself, you really lose your focus, and then you can't do a good job with what you're doing," he says. "A couple of times I chose to do something and then halfway through I'd go 'Wow it would have been so much better if I'd done something else,' I'd say 'No, put that away and make the absolute best out of this thing that you did.'"