I have just returned from Southern California and I have Mexican food on the mind. Nothing to remind you how far from the border Boston is like eating authentic Mexican food in a place much, much closer. Southern California is littered with hole-in-the-wall taco joints, hiding behind nondescript facades in strip malls and street corners, some even have drive-throughs. A taco or enchilada at one of these unimpressive looking eateries is bound to outshine that of a well known chain or east coast hotspot.
While in Southern California, I didn't get many chances to eat the Mexican food seducing me from freeway roadsides, rather as I was visiting family we were almost always full from eating homemade comfort food including my Great Aunt Lois's biscuits and gravy, grilled sausage and corn on the cobb, fresh-from-the-chicken-coop egg scrambles, cornbread, cooked chard and beans. All of this was wonderful, and certainly soulful food, and perhaps at a later date I will post more specifically about some of these foods, and maybe try and create some myself. But today I am craving some spicy Mexican food. It seems one place where these food traditions meet- comfort food, Mexican flavors and southwest traditions, is represented well by an easy but flavorful dish- Tortilla Soup.
