Life without Salsa

By now you may be getting tired of hearing about the Bonner County Republicans’ decision to protest the County Fair theme of “Fiesta” by naming their booth “Celebration”, but I’m still flabbergasted. I understand that they wanted to make a political point of siding with the new Arizona immigration law, but did they really think that they could eliminate all Spanish-derived words from our language? Where would it end? Would they stop going to rodeos? Would all the alpaca breeders in the area need to send their animals south? And would we have to stop barbequing and just grill instead?
Our language is so full of words from other languages we don’t even notice it anymore. It would be sad if we lost all those colorful words and had to go back to speaking Shakespearean English instead. Luckily, our language is constantly evolving and is influenced by new ideas and different cultures on a regular basis. It would be very difficult to rid ourselves of all those “non-English” words.
Would the Bonner County Republicans stop at just eliminating Spanish words? I wonder if Cornel Rasor wants to try to eliminate Latin American and Spanish influenced food from our county as well. I fear this would be even tougher than the language problem.
Where would they start? Would they get rid of all the New World foods that were discovered in Mexico or further south? I know I’d be resistant to living without chocolate for the sake of someone else’s political agenda. Life without vanilla, potatoes, tomatoes, peanuts and chili peppers would be a sad existence. Our entire packaged food industry would be lost without corn.
Let’s say they didn’t want to be so extreme, it would still be hard to draw the line. Latin American food is as diverse as the people and has itself been influenced by different cultures. It is has been developing for thousands of years and been affected by native populations, African slaves, Spanish explorers, and white settlers.
If you did want to rid our county of any trace of Latin American influence, it might be easy to get rid of tacos or empanadas, but Latin American food has so thoroughly infiltrated our cuisine you might miss a few items if you didn’t look closely.
Take the tortilla for example. This simple flat bread made from corn or wheat flour is now ubiquitous and not just in Mexican restaurants. It’s used to wrap up all kinds of different foods into easy to carry little bundles. The goodies inside can have a Hispanic influence or they can be as “All American” as turkey, cranberries and gravy.
One look at the chip aisle in a grocery store would convince you that fried tortilla chips are a staple in our diet. Although they haven’t overtaken the potato chip as the U.S. favorite snack, they might be difficult to eradicate. And Texas would have to find a new official state snack.
Barbequing has it’s origins in the Caribbean not in Mother England. The Spanish introduced pigs to these islands, while the native people provided the technique for slow cooking meat with indirect heat. Today the southern states are the ruling kings and queens of BBQ but it will never lose its Spanish beginnings.
And what would you do about hot, spicy foods? Although the chili pepper has spread to many cuisines across the globe, it truly shines in Latin American food. With many thousands of years of a head start, it’s no wonder that they’ve got the hot food thing down.
The thought of eating bland, boiled vegetables and organ meat for the foreseeable future is a bleak vision, but that’s what we’d be in store for if we ate only English food with no other cultural influence.
Whether or not the Republican Party in our town wants to deny us the vast and delicious array of Latin American cuisine makes light of the more important food issue here. Illegal immigration reform does need to happen, not so we can keep all those Hispanics out of the country but so we can keep some of them here.
Much of the food grown in this country is picked by undocumented farm workers. The current laws make it difficult for them to be here legally. The work they do is work that most legal citizens don’t want (if you disagree and want a job in the fields, the United Farm Workers has a Take Our Jobs campaign going on right now and I’m sure they’ll be able to hook you up). If we deported all illegal farm workers, the agricultural industry would collapse. Undocumented workers also make up a large percentage of slaughterhouse labor. There is obviously something wrong with the system that wants its food cheap but doesn’t want the cheap labor that makes it all possible.
There must be a better answer to this difficult question. Not being a political wonk, I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m convinced changing the theme of our fair and displaying some out-of state license plates isn’t it.


Tofu Fajitas (in which only 2 ingredients are English in origin)
Serves 4

1 lb Spicy Small Planet Tofu
1 T. + 1/8 c. mild chili powder (divided)
Juice of one lime
1 c. beer
4 T. canola oil or other neutral oil, divided
2 medium onions, cut in half and sliced into 1/4” thick rings
2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips
2 t. cumin powder
¼ t. cayenne powder (optional)
1 c. fresh salsa
Salt and pepper to taste

Accompaniments:
Lettuce, shredded
Tomatoes, diced
Cilantro, chopped
Jalapeno, finely chopped (optional)
Additional salsa or hot sauce
8 Flour or 12 corn tortillas, warmed

Cut the tofu into ½”x ½”x3” strips. Mix 1 T. chili powder, lime juice, and beer together in a shallow pan. Place the tofu strips in the marinade and let sit, turning occasionally, for 30 minutes.
In a large frying pan, heat 2 T. of oil on medium high heat. Add the tofu, reserving the marinade, and lightly brown on all sides. Remove tofu and set aside.
Add remaining oil. Add the onions and peppers and cook for 15 minutes or until soft. Return the tofu to the pan and add 1/8 c. chili powder, cumin, cayenne, salsa and remaining marinade. Continue cooking and stirring the mixture until the liquid has reduced and thickened a bit. Adjust the seasonings. Serve in a bowl accompanied by individual bowls of lettuce, tomato, cilantro and jalapenos. Assemble fajitas in your choice of tortilla.