In my case it absolutely had to do with BSE. I grew up in Germany, and calf’s liver, kidneys, sweetbreads and brains made regular appearances in my mom’s cooking. I will admit the first time she brought the brains home I wasn’t sure if I could eat it… there is really no way to pretty up raw calf’s brains to look appetizing, but my mom was a solid cook & I’d try pretty much anything once.
In any event, she lightly floured, seasoned, and pan-fried with lots of butter. Served just so with a squeeze of lemon. It’s similar to sweetbreads, but with a lighter texture (unless it’s overdone like the pig’s brain at our whole animal feast at the Breslin many, many years back.
Then the whole mad cow thing broke loose, and that was the end of calf’s brains in any butcher shop I’ve been to since. Wah.
Since the mad cow thing I’ve seen brains on menus at Indo-Pak places. Come to think of it, maybe only Pakistani places, which I guess would mean Halal meat? Never tried it.
Okay - I didn’t know but I thought it might also consider how it was raised. But the comment was meant to suggest if you want to get brains for home-cooking you should check perhaps at a Halal butcher shop, of which there are many here. I should have worded it more clearly
Where I live in Nor Cal, the Mexican markets sell tamales. I don’t buy them often, and can’t say they are “the best”, or as good as the ones given to you by someone you care about, or who cares about you, but they are pretty good.
I don’t have a thought out step. I suppose I pick up the taco with my hands, try not to spill the content, tilt my head and eat it.
I didn’t know about splitting the foods into the two top and bottom tortilla though.
I used to work in a moderately large office building (six floors, probably 2-3 thousand heads, all in). Pre-Sept 11, we used to get regular visits from custodians (always middle-aged Latinas) who worked for a custodial contractor used by many office buildings in the area. The women would be carting around huge coolers jammed with tamales. Some were hot, and some were frozen. You could buy them singly or by the dozen. I always assumed the custodians were either on their lunch breaks or perhaps done for the day (a lot of them worked overnight or swing). The tamales were cheap, and the best I’d ever had. Unfortunately, security crackdowns post-Sept 11 put those to an end. [sigh]
For lunch, I visited the taco truck that’s sometimes parked by our local Grocery Outlet. There were actual pineapple pieces on the al pastor, and a first for me: slices of cucumber on the slide. Nice palate cleanser.
