This might sound a bit cliché, but living in New York truly gives you the best of both worlds: Park Avenue class with authentic Mexican food and drinks.
Photo: Laura Martínez
Category: Food
Insight: How to Attract more Hispanics to your Restaurant
I just love it when business writers and business journals on the business of writing meaningless business pieces give business owners advice on how to attract more Hispanic customers to their, ahem, businesses.
Take the Orlando Business Journal, whose appropriately-named Latino spin-off (Latino Business Journal) recently walked us through 4 tips to get more Hispanics into your restaurant.
Among the earth shattering insights shared by presumably non-Hispanic writer Hernan Tagliani:
Make it a pleasant, relatable experience. […] Fresh, healthy ingredients, along with quality and service are very important factors.
Because, as everybody knows, non-Hispanics love to dine out in unpleasant, un-relatable places, where they can stuff themselves with canned foods and unhealthy ingredients.
Thank you, Orlando Business Journal, for the insight!
How do you Say ‘Sandwiches’ in Cuban Spanish? Pues Así
Photo: Lisa Paravano; blog correspondent in -where else?- Miami.
Bimbo’s ‘Negrito’ Goes Rasta with ‘Negrito Raztachoc’
If you thought Bimbo’s decision to drop the name ‘Negrito’ from one of its decades-old brands was final, think again.
A “correspondent” of this blog in Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo has spotted this treasure, now in vanilla flavor.
(And no, it’s not old: This Raztachoc is good through May 7, 2014)
Click here to see Bimbo’s negrito “evolution” through the years.
Photo: Begoña Lozano
Food? Drugs? Free Wi-Fi?… Mexico Has you Covered
Foto: Laura Martínez, Mahahual, Mexico 2014
I’ll Take My Cocktail With a Twist of Social Justice
For the uninitiated, a Mexican “cockteleria” is not really a place where you sip cocktails; instead, it is ground zero for shrimp, oysters, mussels, squid and other seafood deliciousness… and if you can have all this with a bit of social justice, all the better.
Photo: Laura Martínez, Isla Mujeres, México 2013
WARNING: These Japanese Crackers are so Spicy, you Could Grow a Mustache and Look Mexican
Speaking of Hispanic-targeted snacks & drinks, here are some Mexican-flavored wheat crackers you can enjoy while playing with your culturally-relevant toys.
¡Ajúa!
[These things look so delicious, they reminded me of these other ones.]
Hat tip: @SaraChicaD
See? NAFTA Was a Good Idea, After All…
We make Canadians pay $5 for a kilo of tortillas. Ha!
J.C. Penney Wants you to Have a Very Happy ‘Tamalegiving’
In the latest installment of the “How to Turn your Gringo Holiday into a Relevant Latino Holiday,” series, I give you Tamalegiving, a simple -yet delicious- way to turn Thanksgiving Day into Tamalegiving Day instead.
Watch a very cute, acculturated Guatemalan-American kid saying “guácala” to his mom’s gallina as he makes his case for a Thanksgiving full of tamales. Oh, sí.
Alas, I’m more of a ‘Tacogiving’ type of person. But hey, that’s me!
Happy Tamalegiving, pues!
hat tip: Betti Ortega
Looking to Reverse Soup Slump, Campbell’s Turns to Hispanics
If you thought Fiesta Nacho Cheese, Kick-It-Up a Nacho or Mexican-style chicken tortilla soups were enough to satisfy the demanding palate of my people (i.e. Hispanics,) think again. The venerable Campbell Soup Company, hoping to reverse a “soup slump,” is ready to accelerate its Hispanic-themed and Hispanic-targeted canned soups and other so-called food products.
But don’t think that throwing in some queso and tortillas will be enough to attract more U.S. Hispanics. According to this article in Food Business News, the company “has added dual-language packaging for some of its products,” presumably in a similar way they’ve done with the “French” language.
Yummy!
How do you say “Western BBQ” in Spanish?
Why bother thinking of creative ways to call a sandwich when you can just go with a straightforward, good ol’ translation?
Now… about translating Grilled Sliders into Spanish… that’s another story.
This Argentinian ‘Chef’ Will Teach you How NOT to Make Tacos
Argentinian “chef” Maru Botana this week came under fire by my people (i.e. The Mexicans) after she attempted to do something Argentinians should never, ever, do: prepare Mexican food.
“Botana,” which is Spanish for “snack” and thus very likely not her real name, took to national television in Argentina to demonstrate how to prepare “real Mexican tacos,” which was nothing but a bizarre concoction of eggplant, green peas, chicken, cherry tomatoes and hard boiled eggs wrapped up in something she thinks is a home-made tortilla.
The offending recipe reaches its peak when Ms. Botana decides to place the tortilla maker actually on the burner, quickly transitioning her endeavor from a cooking parody to just plain disaster.
Below is a small taste of the debacle. For the complete mess tutorial of how NOT to make tacos, go here:
Mexican “Fusion” Stuff in NYC Now Getting Ridiculous
First came the “tortaria,” and now, this: A fusion between a taquería and a trattoria. Pinches bambinos!
Hat tip: @tropicarlitos
What Else were you Going to Call a Sushi Truck in Mexico?
Remember Mexico’s awesomely named courier service? Well, my people (i.e. the Mexicans) have done it again, this time with the Sushingon “FoooTruck”
Photo: Iván Sanchez
CNN Can’t Tell Difference Between Curves and Love Handles
I am not the one to criticize misleading headlines. After all, I use them all the time, for they can make all the difference between actually clicking on one story or ignoring it forever.
So, when I saw CNN.com had a story about Latinos and our ‘curves,’ I couldn’t help but clicking on it (secretly hoping there would be a mention of big-butted Latinas like myself). To my disappointment, CNN was actually reporting on obesity, diabetes and other health-related issues, and not about my people’s real curves like these ones here or here.
It looks to me the above photograph is more suited for a story about Latinos and how we’re basically doomed by our penchant for American fast-food -the only type affordable in this day and age. [To CNN’s credit though, I must confess my curves are starting to look more and more like llantas, but, well, that’s another story.]
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