{"id":237799,"date":"2021-05-11T00:34:55","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T08:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/?p=237799"},"modified":"2021-05-12T09:51:43","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T17:51:43","slug":"the-five-star-plate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/the-five-star-plate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five-Star Plate"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today, I cried<\/strong> at the nearby mercado here in Oaxaca, Mexico, when I tasted the blue-corn tortillas with huevos con rajas verdes<\/em>. I\u2019m no foodie and have only missed corn tortillas in Portugal.<\/span><\/h4>\n

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<\/h4>\n

But the food here is sublime \u2014 the mamey<\/em>, the atole<\/em>, the nopales con salsa de tomate<\/em>, the gelatinas<\/em>, los dulces<\/em> and nieves<\/em>. I eat like a rich person \u2014 whole grain, organic, packed with herbs and spices. Epazote<\/em>. Oja de aguacate.<\/em> I hallucinate. Dozens of salsas and chiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

And today, I broke down sobbing as I poured the huevos onto my homemade tortillas. Abuelita<\/em> raised me on corn tortillas, cafe con leche<\/em>, guisaditos<\/em> with very little meat. Pan dulce.<\/em><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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\n

For a moment, I am six years old, back home in the Panhandle of Texas, middle of nowhere, and it\u2019s 4:00 pm, and my abuelita<\/em> has gorditas for me \u2014 not fried \u2014 comal<\/em> only, filled with black beans and queso fresco<\/em> she\u2019s smuggled into Texas. It is 1960. I smell corn, freshly ironed linens. Hear Mami\u2019s rancheras, the click of her scissors. . . . She\u2019s making me new panties with lace, quincea\u00f1era dolls to sell too, this time in lavender. The newest baby babbles in his crib.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My white classmates have harrassed and called me names all day. Circled me. Another long day. And I am home now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Everything will be OK,<\/em> I tell that little girl. You have all this.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You have inherited this five-star meal.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Today, I cried at the nearby mercado here in Oaxaca, Mexico, when I tasted the blue-corn tortillas with huevos con rajas verdes. I\u2019m no foodie and have only missed corn tortillas in Portugal. But the food here is sublime \u2014 the mamey, the atole, the nopales con salsa de tomate, the gelatinas, los dulces and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":237834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[54,260,284,247],"class_list":["post-237799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expanding-beyond","category-let-there-be-light","tag-childhood","tag-food","tag-mexico","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writersatlarge.com\/riff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}