Mexican Corn

We live in a neighborhood that is primarily Spanish speaking and these people are mostly from Mexico.  They are very kind. They have invited us to birthday parities for their children and sent over the best Mexican food you have ever tasted. You can't even begin to imagine how delicious their homemade food is. I am sitting here hoping our neighbor brings over some of whatever she is having for dinner as I write this. Our community reminds me a little of people from Appalachia: kind, friendly, self sufficient, hardworking and good cooks. That they have been accepting of us and have welcomed us into their fold even though I speak English with a twang that likely makes it hard for them to understand me, and my Spanish is super duper sketchy at best. Okay non-existant.

Dinner from our neighbor

Mexican birthday parties are over the top - if you have never attended a birthday party thrown by a family from Mexico you really need to. They do it up. And by do it up I mean rent tents, tables, chairs, bouncy houses, make lots of food, beautiful cakes and hang piñatas. They sing to the child and then smash their face in the beautiful cake, for real, face down smashed into the cake. And a girl's 15th birthday is another story. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to learn about their culture.

Q being especially dainty with the piñata yet very stylish

There are people that cruise through the neighborhood selling things from a cart; ice cream bars, strawberries, mangos and corn. The focus here will be on the corn (although the crates of strawberries and mangos are great too). When I first arrived, I saw people lining up to get this corn on a stick from a man pushing a cart. I was intrigued. I stood in line to see what the fuss was about. Of course I did.  I watched as he was making the corn for all the people in front of me and couldn't figure out what he was putting on it. I asked a little girl that was in line, as I had recently learned that the children spoke much better english than their parents  (I was obviously the only person not fluent in Spanish in line). She informed me that it is mayo, cheese (it is either parmesan or cotija), chili powder and lime juice. At that point I thought of getting out of line. I like all of those ingredients as much as the next person but I have only put butter and salt on my corn and I like it like that. But, I decided that I need to try this.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was delicious. The combination of flavors made my tastebuds absolutely pop. How could mayo on corn taste so good? Well, this man had the magic recipe. And I can't get enough of it. The corn man has a distinct horn on his cart. It sounds like a bike horn. Each time I hear his horn I start rummaging around like a crack addict looking for cash. It is a cash only operation of course. The corn costs $2.00 and sadly I rarely have that much cash. It has gotten so bad that I have taken the plug out of Q's piggy bank (after she offered) and dug out $2.00 before taking off sprinting to catch the corn man. When I arrive, I usually have a passing thought that there is no way that his corn cart could ever pass a health inspection, but I get in line anyway. I. don't. care.

You must try this if you haven't before. Here is a recipe that I found online. This recipe doesn't have chili powder but you could always sprinkle that on. Also, this recipe calls for butter but I am sure you can omit this. I would feel a little guilty putting butter and mayo on it :) http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mexican-corn-on-the-cob-elote/

Yay! He cruised by when my girlfriends were in town! 

They got to try the corn I had been raving about! 

Notice - I have two ears. 

I apologize to my brother in advance about this post because he hates anything with mayo. I am pretty sure that if he tried this corn he would make an exception.

Quick Q &A:

Would you like to learn Spanish?
Si

Do you feel like a dummy bc you can't communicate easily with your neighbors? 
Si