Tag: Cinco de Mayo

May 28, 2025 – Air Fryers and Frozen Burritos

May 28, 2025 /

I do these things so you don’t have to. I am still looking for a best use (or any use) for this air fryer. I will talk about some of my other results a little later, but first I thought that a fast food machine might be best used on some prepared burritos. It is like terroir in wine, pair the food with the wine from the region. In this case, pair the food cooked with the method of cooking.

My wife was in Las Vegas during Cinco de Mayo. She kept sending me a bunch of pictures from the city wide ‘street party’ with giant margaritas and festive food. I can’t say that I didn’t feel a little bit jealous that I had planned beef bourguignon that night. I wondered if using the air fryer with prepared burritos. I liked them in the oven better but it seems insane to bake for 45 minutes.

I thought I would buy some bean and cheese burritos so that we could all eat, meat eaters and vegetarians alike. I would doll them up with some fixings like you see at a Mexican restaurant and they would be something like a chimichanga or fried burrito. So, that is what I did.

I didn’t make much in the way of sides so I had a couple of mangos that were end of their lives, leftover whipped cream and I paired that with some shortbread to make a shortcake kind of desert. I sprinkled Tajin on the top of it all for that flair.

I won’t lie, you can see the picture as well that I thought it looked pretty good. In actuality, the burritos were terrible. The tortilla was like leather. The bean and cheese filling was kind of tasteless clay. The added vegetables and salsa made it somewhat palatable. My mango shortcake was excellent however.

This critique comes with two aspects. The first is frozen burritos are a low quality product. I mean, what would you expect at $1 a piece. Once I get through these, I am done with them forever, unless I am starving to death. I feel like thirty years ago I used to like them as an occasional, inexpensive snack but I am also sure that the quality ingredients has steadily declined in that period as well like everything else in the food industry..

As to the air fryer… For sure, the air fryer didn’t help with the exterior. They turned part of that tortilla into leather and other parts into a cracker. I have used this air-fryer probably half a dozen times now and I am about to give it the pass in my kitchen.

Last night, I made steak fries and the outside was definitely crispier but the inside was potato-y. They were very dry in texture overall and not appealing to me. That pretty much sums up my experience with the air fryer. It does make the outside crispier but is also dry’s out the food, leaving a less than taste.

I won’t say that an air fryer doesn’t have utility. It is convenient when I am using the oven for something else at a different temperature. But if the results are going to be substandard, I don’t know if it is worth the utility. I have also found that I can run the air fryer and the toaster on the same circuit at the same time. I didn’t do the math before I tried it, but I was definitely surprised.

Before I let the air fryer rest in peace I have one more complaint. The overall volume is very small. When I have made something like French fries for dinner, I have to make them in batches. This results in either eating cold food or eating in batches, neither of which is really satisfactory.

End Your Programming Routine: I would confidently say that I have used the air fryer enough to determine that I wouldn’t recommend it. It is fast and convenient but the overall result is less than satisfactory. If it turns out that that my household becomes significantly smaller, then maybe but it would require a lot of experimentation. At this point, I am not willing to suffer through the investment of time when other methods yield better results.

May 5, 2021- Feliz Cinco De Mayo

May 5, 2021 /

This is one of those days that has changed in my lifetime. I suppose that with the rise of Latino culture in my area, there has become more awareness of the culture in general. I would equate it more to Saint Patrick’s Day where people are enjoying something that they have no idea what it is about.

Ask a typical American what is Cinco de Mayo and there is a good chance they are going to say Mexican Independence Day which is wrong. Mexican independence is September 16 Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of a victory against the French at Puebla in 1962. Huh, so what so important about that? Good question, not a lot. My wife who has lived in Mexico says that it really isn’t acknowledged as a holiday.

You can read all about it if you like, but now that you know the truth what are you going to do? I say enjoy it. I love Mexican food and the weather is (often) nice. Crack a cold one or two and start to get educated the real history.

Now that I have given permission to enjoy, let’s get serious. Mexican food is way (and I mean way) more diverse than tacos and Coronas. Just like the United States, Mexico is an infusion of culture primarily German, French, Spanish and native. For instance, my favorite Mexican beer is Dos Equis Amber which is an example of a Vienna style lager. In fact, all of the ‘brown’ beers like Negro Modelo are take-offs of the Vienna style lager. We all know about the Margarita (lime and tequila) but what about the Paloma which is grapefruit juice and tequila?

I am going to transition from drinks to food now but I was trying to give some recognizable difference to show what is under the surface but probably not known. So, food… who doesn’t love nachos? But what we think of as Mexican food is colored by a number of factors. First let’s start at a high level history of the food.

The basis of the food is the indigenous base. That means that it is different depending on the location. For instance, food is different in the southern region than it is in the northern and the inner regions differ from the coast. Because of the long history of different indigenous cultures, every state (in Mexco) often has variation of the same dish. It had to do with the spices and raw ingredients available. To the tortilla, wheat is from the north and corn is the most ubiquitous. It is also why I consider pairing wheat with beef but more often corn with everything else.

You take the base (or real) Mexican food and you start mixing food from other countries like France and you end up with very intricate and refined food. Sauces such as mole are extremely complicated and rich in flavor. Don’t be fooled with the restaurant mole, this can be highly refined and delicious. I would submit that Mexican food can be fine dining and held up against anything else in the world or dressed down to street food.

As food and culture migrate, so does the interpretation. Frequently what we see as ‘Mexican’ food has been coopted into Tex-Mex and American tastes. It is kind of like when I had a hamburger or pizza in China, close but not right. Our typical rice, beans, entrée plate has become what is synonymous with Mexican food but it runs much deeper than that.

End Your Programming Routine: Enjoy Cinco de Mayo. I haven’t decided what is for dinner yet, but it is either going to be ceviche (not originally Mexican but already made) or some fresh made chorizo (Spanish origin) I bought yesterday. Take the time to be educated in history and culture so that you make your celebration about the right things like just having fun rather than thinking you are some culturally sensitive, woke dumbass.