Friday, February 26, 2010

Just Because

Here we have a "just because".

To our left, we see a liter coke bottle from the Latin Store I discovered on the other side of town. One of the things I've most missed in my move "way down south" are tamales, good tamales. I happened to ask the owners (en inglés because I no longer have enough Spanish to tackle anything more challenging than "my name is..." or "where's the bathroom", admittedly important phrases but almost useless at the Latin Store) if they knew anyone who made good tamales. The inevitable answer was, "But yes, my sister does." I then was connected with Yvette the sister and hooked up with a dozen tamales. Now, Yvette's tamales are very good, but I'm afraid that she might have gringa-fied the ones for me because they had about as much spice as oatmeal. Yvette and I must tactfully revisit this in the future.

The true success of the visit was the discovery of Mexican Coke, which for reasons unknown to me tastes different than the US version, and I LOVE it. Of course, I try not to drink coke but I couldn't resist. These things take me back to a visit to Mexico City and daily orders of "una coca en bolsa", the practice of serving coke in a plastic bag with a straw so one does not pay the bottle deposit. Now, years later more than Pyramids or Cathedrals, when I think of Mexico City, I think how good that coke in a bag tasted after a long day of work at the student center near campus.

9 comments:

  1. It tastes better because it is made with cane sugar instead of corn sweetener.

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  3. When I was in grad school, I did a project that involved touring the Coke bottling plant in Austin. I told the guy there I could tell the difference between cane sugar coke and corn sweetener coke. He told me that Coke had done blind taste tests and that consumers could not tell the difference. Baloney.

    BTW, the Dr Pepper plant in Dublin (Texas) uses cane sugar, too. Or at least they used to.

    Coke that is kosher for Passover is made with cane sugar. So stock up in a few weeks.

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  4. Nice post... Ann Maniscalco was here at work today and says "Hi" to Bethany among other things; She was very impressed with your photos and blog.

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  5. CF, that makes sense. The Dublin Dr. Pepper was still made with cane sugar as of a five years ago. They're still very proud of that in Dublin.

    BC, thanks for relaying the message. That was very nice and encouraging to "hear". I haven't seen Ann in while.

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  6. yep, i discovered the same thing with other drinks in Mexico. the Goya peach nectar in a can in Mexico was made with sugar and was great. the same can here in the states is made with high fructose corn syrup and tastes like crap.

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  7. Anon, it's such a disappointment when things you expect to be wonderful, aren't. Hope you have a good Latin store where you are.

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  8. I love Mexican coke. I can tell the difference too. Plus, there something very cool about the glass bottle.

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  9. I agree about the bottle. I always keep one around to stick a few flowers in.

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