To Gustavo Arellano, Mexican food is a big melting pot

The author of 'Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America' explores the history and types of cuisine, and weaves in a larger picture of assimilation.

This author shows how intertwined food, culture, immigrants and assimilation are. This has happened with other immigrant groups in our history too.     - - Donna Poisl

By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times

It was a humble Cal-Mex combo plate that first brought enlightenment to Gustavo Arellano.

At the time, Arellano, now editor of the OC Weekly, author of the syndicated ¡Ask a Mexican! column and five-star cultural provocateur, was an Anaheim high school student. His Irish American girlfriend craved Mexican food and steered the couple to a landmark Orange County restaurant.

But when the meal arrived, Arellano was taken aback. Instead of the beloved cactus leaves, goat stew and "stinky cheese" he'd been served since childhood by his Zacatecas-immigrant parents, he was confronted with a plate of dry rice and a glop of refried beans, laced with toxic-yellow queso and smothered in a sour-cream avalanche.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-gustavo-arellano-20120418,0,883158.story
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