{"id":2815,"date":"2026-01-31T06:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/?p=2815"},"modified":"2026-02-12T06:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:37:43","slug":"international-meals-mexico-part-3-el-norte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/?p=2815","title":{"rendered":"International Meals &#8211; Mexico, Part 3: El Norte"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The northern part of Mexico is where the &#8220;Mex&#8221; in &#8220;Tex-Mex&#8221; comes from.\u00a0 It has saguaro cactus, flour tortillas, and John Marston in act II of Read Dead Redemption.\u00a0 It does NOT have Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef.\u00a0 That&#8217;s Italy, and we already did that.<\/p>\n<p>It also has a great deal of cattle, so for this episode we&#8217;re making the classic dish of\u00a0<em>carne asada,\u00a0<\/em>which literally just means &#8220;grilled beef&#8221;.\u00a0 There&#8217;s a million recipes for this, so we turned to the inimitable Kenji Lopez-Alt, who did a whole pile of science to come up with his.<\/p>\n<p>This means that the ingredient list was not 100% traditional.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_114646.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2816\" src=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_114646.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_114646.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_114646-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_114646-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_114646-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dried chiles &#8211; check. Citrus juices &#8211; check. Olive oil &#8211; Sure, why not? Soy sauce? Fish Sauce?<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve never said we&#8217;re making the traditional VERSIONS of recipes on here &#8211; just that we&#8217;re making food vaguely from the region.\u00a0 And the soy sauce and fish sauce here just serve to bring out more umami in the meat.\u00a0 We&#8217;ll allow it.<\/p>\n<p>The actual process is quite simple. You basically shove EVERYTHING in a blender, done, now you have a salsa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120502-rotated.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2818\" src=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120502-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"584\" height=\"779\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120502-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120502-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120502-rotated.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Separate out half of that to use as a topping later, and then take the other half and dump in more salt than is comfortable.\u00a0 That&#8217;s your marinade.\u00a0 But what are we marinating?\u00a0 By going over to our nearby Whole Foods instead of the neighborhood grocer, I managed to locate skirt steak, which is a classic cut for this dish.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120930.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2819\" src=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120930.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120930.png 1000w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120930-300x146.png 300w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120930-768x374.png 768w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_120930-500x244.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And with the steak marinating, it was time to go get some more hot chocolate, which you can check out over on my Instagram.\u00a0 Or you could, if I were to post a link.<\/p>\n<p>Once it was time to cook, we fired up the grill, and I got to once again marvel at the view from our balcony.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_183141.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2820\" src=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_183141.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_183141.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_183141-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_183141-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_183141-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But wait!&#8221;, you ask. &#8220;What&#8217;s the deal with the corn?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m glad you asked me that, fictional narrative device person who is once again adequately serving their role in the construction of this essay.<\/p>\n<p>For our second dish, we&#8217;re making\u00a0<em>elotes<\/em>, better known as &#8220;Mexican street corn.&#8221;\u00a0 It&#8217;s actually pretty simple &#8211; you grill corn until charred, and then you dip it in a savory sauce consisting of mayonnaise, salty cheese of some kind, and what ever other herbs and or seasonings you choose. It is absolutely addictive if you&#8217;ve not tried it.<\/p>\n<p>And once everything was cooked, dinner was served!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_184502.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2821\" src=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_184502.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_184502.png 750w, https:\/\/fnerk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260131_184502-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>OK look &#8211; at this point, it shouldn&#8217;t come as a surprise to ANYONE that Mexican food is delicious, right? Mexican food is delicious. We all know that.<\/p>\n<p>So lets take a second and think about the immigrants FROM Mexico, and everywhere else in the world who are being actively terrorized all across the US at the moment. Leigh and I are fortunate enough to have made our way to Canada and achieved citizenship, but that&#8217;s a direct result of our privilege, and we try very hard not to forget that.<\/p>\n<p>Every time you sit down for a quiet, undisturbed meal, try to allow a thought for those who CAN&#8217;T do so without worrying that there will be a pounding at the door from the current US administration&#8217;s jackbooted Gestapo.<\/p>\n<p>Do what you can to help, but the absolute, absolute minimum you can do is not turn away.<\/p>\n<p>Even on a stupid blog about two idiots making dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Next time, the Federated States of Micronesia.<\/p>\n<p>Recipes:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouseats.com\/carne-asada-food-lab-recipe-kenji\">Carne Asada<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriouseats.com\/mexican-street-corn-elotes-recipe\">Elotes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The northern part of Mexico is where the &#8220;Mex&#8221; in &#8220;Tex-Mex&#8221; comes from.\u00a0 It has saguaro cactus, flour tortillas, and John Marston in act II of Read Dead Redemption.\u00a0 It does NOT have Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef.\u00a0 That&#8217;s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/?p=2815\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-meals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2822,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2815\/revisions\/2822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fnerk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}