Beans Beans Beans

Mexican food in Asia is dismal to say the least. I think of it as greasy, sloppy, tomatoey, beany (oorgh), one-dimensional hot-with-no-other-spice-overtones food. Today however opened my eyes to another side of the cuisine.

Today the amateurs got placed into the same group, an arrangement which worked much better. We had to prepare a Mexican menu (excellent for me because I have zero experience preparing the cuisine), and dishes of note were the snapper stuffed with seafood and the seviche. I learnt how to remove the backbone of a whole fish without butchering the skin (not easy), as well as how to prep a cactus (spiky slimy bastards!). What really struck me was how similar to South-East Asian cuisine the marinade was for the fish - chillis, coriander, limes and garlic - it's like Thai without the lemongrass and galangal.

What do I think of Mexican food now? Well, I still don't like beans and sloppy tomatoes, so I'm yet to be convinced about chili and chili-derivative dishes. And I still think the spice and herb overtones can be turned up. But I guess that is an unfair comment as I am used to associating spicy-hot with other equally strong herbs and spices. I really did enjoy the seafood-based and non-bean dishes.