Mexico, lindo y querido

Happy dieziseis de septiembre! Happy Mexican Independence from Spain in 1810!

I miss Mexico today.

I miss the food. I miss the colors. I miss the aromas. I miss the homemade tortillas. I miss all of Texas being Mexican for a day. I miss the tequila, margaritas, Dos XX, chips & salsa, and horchata. It's good to miss things, tho.

Yet, am I one to sit around and wallow in nostalgia? Nope. I found some white corn tortillas (in the "ethnic breads" section) during an earlier trip to Coles supermarket (and to think that back in Austin, I was such a snob that would only buy tortillas made as close to the Mexican border as possible. I refused tortillas made in New Jersey, Chicago, --- even Fort Worth, Texas), so I was prepared to find things to fill them, such as arroz con pollo, tacos, salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo, carne picada ... and I tried my best. Jasmine and basmati rices from Thailand, India, and Australia. Tomatos from Italy. A huge bunch of cilantro -- about the same size as a large head of iceberg lettuce. No avocados. No jalapenos. There was an extensive amount of Old El Paso products, made in Oz. Ewww. Reminds me of Lausanne, Switzerland with Old El Paso products made in the Netherlands. Huh? Furthermore, no “hot� salsa. Just mild and medium. One looked promising, made in Byron Bay (home of Julian Rocks), yet only came in mild & medium. Looks like we'll have to make homemade salsa with what ingredients we can muster.

Happily, I was able to find a bottle of Sauza Tequila Gold at the liquor store (AUD$43.50/USD$28.28). A bit spendy, but some times, one has to suck it up to celebrate. I asked the lady at the liquor store if anyone else had bought tequila today. She said, "No, why?" I told her that today was Mexican Independence Day. She said that there were a few blokes who bought a few bottles a long time ago. I continued by saying that we were trying to create a Mexican meal with what we could find in the supermarket. I mentioned that it's coming out like "Aussie-Mex". She laughed and said that they call it "fusion" nowadays. Tex-Mex is fusion, too.

Robin's USC chum David is popping in later to celebrate with us. David even mentioned that I should open up a taqueria while I'm here. The son of our apt. bldg owner, he told us that there are NO Mexican food places here in Brisbane. Hmm....maybe I'll make good on my idea of making tortillas and selling them while here.