Tortillas vs. Wheat Bread And Other Things

Burritos, I am told, are not Mexican but a North American invention. A burrito is made from wheat flour and although one can find a tortilla made of wheat in Tenancingo,, corn tortillas outnumber wheat by a million to one. I calculated once that Tenancingo with its population of 100,000 consumes more than 1,000,000 tortillas a day,, perhaps as much as 2,000,000. Masons alone eat ten tacos for lunch each taco using two tortillas. A burrito is nonexistant in this zone,,only perhaps in malls and chain restaurants. I do however like the
taste of a burrito,, crepe-like gooey filled with hashy stuff. I suppose I miss the flavor of wheat at times,, but you know it's somewhat unfair to compare corn tortillas and wheat bread like comparing oranges and apples. They both wrap other things in their embrace and are eaten with meals but the similarity begins to break apart from that common point. Bread absorbs everything wet into its very soul and a tortilla repels moisture. Bread lasts for days and tortillas have a shelf life of about one hour. After that they must be reheated on a
comal and even then they do not taste the same. A fresh hand made tortilla right off the comal is divine. Tortillas wrap around many different salsa-moles-whatevers and
retain their consistency resisting their moistures like a parka. Bread on the other hand becomes soggy in seconds. Great sopper of sauce bread is. I imagine that to some extent the different characteristicsof the two staples have defined recipes in each culture. Sopes, tacos, quesadillas, can be made with bread,, but the holding time is less. A burrito without someone to consume it bleeds after a bit spilling its
guts like a stuck squid. A taco left uneaten turns into an old cigar filled with beans.
     And habaneros aren't the hottest chile in the world. There's one from India that looks like a turd and is practically off the Scoville Scale,,, A habanero rates 350,000 units on the Scoville Scale while the Indian turd pepper weighs in at 1,400,000 units,, that's 4 times
hotter. There's another from Trinidad that rates the same as the
indian fire turd.
     They say there are 500 different varieties of chile in Mexico, the country from which the chile came. In the last couple of years I have been making lots of salsas. Before I used the entire pepper,, seeds and all. Recently, however I have been only using the meat of the pepper and tossing the seeds in the compost pile. What a difference! (There are peppers coming up everywhere on the property.) The salsas are still hot but nothing like with the seeds included,, and they retain the individual pepper's taste. Each pepper has their peculiar flavor. Salsas are a whole new delight. My palate is in tact, in fact right on down to mi touch hole. No little midget welder trying to cut his way out. Probably most of you already knew that but for me it was a great revelation. The chiles we use in this region,, and by the way in each region they have their own preferences, are listed here by order of popularity:

Manzano
Serrano
Chilaca seco or Chile Macho
Chipotle tamarindo y rojo
Pasilla seco
Arbol seco y fresco
Jalapeño

Have you ever eaten one and then your temperature begins to rise,, and you can feel your face flush with heat? Some salsas here are so overladen with piquante that to me the heat utterly and completely supercedes the flavor dominating the thing robbing one of the opportunity to enjoy other flavors within the salsa. I do like piquante though,, and
now any dish without it just seems bland.
      It's ironic but my father liked chiles. You know the chile flakes that they put on the table in pizza parlors,, which the Italians call diavolochino (chinese devil). I really don't know from what chile they were made,, yet I think they were what they call cascabeles here (rattlesnakes), but with the seeds and veins as part of the mix they could be pretty hot. My mother didn't like anything except Sax Fifth Avenue and Atlantic City.

      

     A friend once said something about making art as 80% busy work 20% creativity. Perhaps that is even being generous for most artists. Concerning the porportions of work and creativity, if creativity is measured by the quality of the result and how that result compares to the creative gestures of other artists,, well there may be much more creativity in one work of art over another. One artist can spend hours and hours thinking about a painting,, kneading the possibilities before they begin, and this may be all out of porportion to a fast execution. Some artists,,, very few artists,,, prepare a painting in their mind. They employ instinct but only after the idea has been plotted. In comparison 99% of the artists just do it,, that is start slapping paint down then reacting off that first application,,, and then they start painting between the strokes,,,, and then between those strokes too.