Monday, October 20, 2008

Mexican Japanese Peanuts Report

As this is the number one topic on this blog (closely trailed by "why does one get sick in Mexico"), my readers may want to know that I have tasted the Mafer Mexican Japanese peanuts and here is my verdict:

The texture is really good. The coating is lighter, fluffier and crunchier than Nishikawas, and it resembles the coating of actual Japanese Japanese peanuts. The flavor is very good too, salty and satisfying; BUT the Mafers are made with MSG (monosodium glutamate) which leaves a strong aftertaste (and makes you salivate and want to eat an entire shipment of peanuts). I don't like the aftertaste and I don't like that they are made with MSG. But they're pretty good.
Now, at the behest of Middle Enchilada I am supposed to give you a recipe for dressing your cacahuates japoneses. To me it sounds like gilding the lily, but Middle Enchilada swears it's great.
(You know that you can eat them alone, with just lime, with lime and chili powder, with lime and chamoy, with liquid chamoy, with American style mustard, etc).
This is a newfangled recipe:
Lime juice, Maggi sauce, Worcestershire sauce (salsa inglesa), chili powder. Mix in bag and eat.
Another recipe for you to eat at your own risk (since apparently Rielitos have a high lead content):
Dissolve a Rielito (a Mexican tamarind-chili candy chew) in lime juice until the Rielito disintegrates and forms a thick sauce. Add that to the Japanese peanuts. Get lead in your brain. Enjoy.
I love the Mexican laissez faire attitude with regards to American claims that many Mexican chili/lime snacks have big quantities of lead and thus are deemed unsafe for importing into the US. Some of our favorite porquerías have been banned here in Obama country.
Mexicans are not fazed by this. "You can still get them in Mexico", they proudly, defiantly tell me.
So the Mexican government is not following the FDA's lead to protect its citizens from lead ingestion? My question is almost looked at with scorn and a whiff of pity. Nobody tells a Mexican to stop eating chamoys and those amazing porquerías. Nobody. We are still a sovereign country. Lead poisoning be damned!

1 comment:

  1. I soooo want a rielito!!! Haven't had one in years! :)

    ReplyDelete