Mexican Smut and the Internet

One food item that is quintessentially Mexican is “cuitlacoche” or sometimes-spelled “huitlacoche” – the Náhuatl Indian word for this weird product pronounced “wheat-la-coach-eh”. It is that black and grey fungus, smut or mushroom type growth that appears on the ears of corn, usually when it gets a little too wet in the field. It is cultivated and coveted here in Mexico as a delicacy. They make crepes, soup, soufflés, tacos, empanadas, stuffing for meat and eggs and even ice cream flavoring from this weird food. Now is the season for it but one has to look for it in the deepest parts of local markets.

I came across a recipe for pasta sauce made from cuitlacoche and have been experimenting with it for a few weeks. I have to say that once you get past the visual part, it is quite good and the flavor sort of grows on you. I even tried it on a half dozen friends for lunch yesterday (among them a couple of aficionados) and they all agreed it was very good. Well what would you expect? They were in my house!

It is certainly not the most attractive food in the world due to its very dark (almost black) color. But mixed with some olive oil, shallots, onions, garlic, pine nuts, epazote, and cream I think it is very tasty indeed. As ice cream flavoring I will give it a pass. It doesn’t stop the Mexicans however, as they have avocado, pine nut, and shrimp flavored ice cream available just down the street - so why not cuitlacoche?

Finally, the coveted orange sticker announcing “Obra Autorizada” along with the work permit arrived. It took seven months from the first request to change the facade and paint the front of the house. My contractor however, got right to it and started on time with a small crew the next day. He says he will be done in a couple of weeks. I will give him three. Certainly the brickwork has moved right along and should be done today, but the finishing, new “cantera” around the windows and door, and the painting will take a little longer. Paint incidentally, for buildings in “Centro”, can only be the old fashioned kind where they mix special pigments with lime. No acrylics! I am looking for color suggestions.

I took advantage of the construction to change the way my cable TV and Internet comes into the house, in order to remove their ugly wires from the front of the building. It meant splicing the Cable Company's line and rerouting it over the roof. It has been nothing but trouble since! Finally after 2 visits by the Cable company it worked yesterday and about three hours later the guys working on the roof accidentally cut it again. I could not get it restarted. The TV works fine but no Internet signal. If and when you read this you will know I have finally gotten it fixed again.

In fact the Cable guys just left after insisting they had to change the entire cable (54 Metres) - at my cost of course. And to add insult to injury I finally wore out my old B&D hand-drill drilling the holes through the concrete walls for the cable that now will never be used. Dang I hate having to pay for things twice! I did however find a nice almost new Dewalt drill and to tell the truth I had been trying to break that old B&D for a number of years. It has to be at least forty years old with none of the features of the newer models. It had served me mightily and certainly owes me not a cent. I even thought of burying it in the garden with full dress ceremony but instead gave it to the Maestro in charge of the crew laying bricks. He may be able to fix it or give it away for a few pesos. At least he didn't say he didn't want it.