Oh, those wacky gabachos! It seems huitlacoche–the swollen black growths on corn that American farmers labeled corn smut and toss away but that Mexicans have eaten for millennia because of its earthy, beautiful taste–is the Mexi culinary flavor of the month, ever since some report revealed–OH MY GOD–that it's good for you. You mean something eaten by Mexicans for thousands of years won't kill you and might actually be beneficial? Stop the pinche presses!
Huitlacoche was a topic last week on KCRW-FM 89.9's Good Food program. And it was also the subject of a piece I did for another radio program: Dinner Party Download, which airs occasionally on KPCC-FM 89.3.
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I gotta admit: when co-host Brendan Newman got in contact with me for the segment, I figured he wanted to do some exploitative bit ridiculing Mexis for enjoying what the Aztecs lovingly called raven's shit. He was excited that he found a spot that sold huitlacoche tacos and wondered if I could drive to LA and eat them with him. Better than that, I replied: come down to OC and try a huitlacoche quesadilla at El Rincón Chilango in SanTana.
Newman proved a sport and drove down. He's still relatively new to Southern California, so new that not only did he try huitlacoche for the first time ever (which he thoroughly enjoyed), but Newman also tried horchata–horchata!–for the first time. He also loved it. Guy's from Philly, and he admitted their regional mystery meats, Scrapple and pork roll (Dave: you HAVE to bring me some. Scrapple, I love, but pork roll I must try…), are far more bizarre eats than huitlacoche.
Anyhoo, below is the clip (or click here just in case it doesn't show). Download the show weekly–muy funny y informative! And bloggers: if a part-goombah from Philly can not only like huitlacoche but declare it just any other food, howzabout ustedes?
