Troy Headrick
The American University in Cairo
Maadi, Cairo, Egypt
contact@savvy-women-magazine.com
The computer keyboard is a delicate piece of equipment. It has zero tolerance for liquids of any sort being spilled, poured, or even dribbled on it.
I learned that lesson this morning when I drooled on mine while watching this video. As soon as I did so, the monitor sort of flickered and then an ominous warning box popped up that said “IMMINENT SYSTEM FAILURE AHEAD!” Luckily, this “imminent failure” was not so imminent. In fact, it never took place.
Shortly after I dried the thing off with a paper towel, I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me. That’s because I’m a little more than a month away from flying home to Texas, that Lone Star State and the Mexican food capital of America.
I have this friend named Georgina from Albuquerque who also teaches as AUC. Not long ago, while eating lunch together, I said to her, “Hands down, Texas has the best Mexican food.”
Mid-bite, she replied, “No way! New Mexico does it better!”
“Come on,” I retorted, “when was the last time you heard the term New Mex-Mex? Never, right? That’s because it doesn’t exist. The Mexican food in Texas is so good they had to invent a new term to describe it, and thus ‘Tex-Mex’ was born.”
Georgina had no comeback to that.
I’m such a Mexican food nut that sometimes, when I’m back on one of my yearly visits, I plan my whole day around the trip I have planned to one of the Tex-Mex restaurants in Big Spring, the town where my mother lives. For my money, La Posada, over in “North Town,” is Big Spring’s finest. In Georgetown, the place my father and stepmother call home, there’s this eatery called Dos Salsas that is absolutely to die for. In either one of those places, I’m very likely to order the most deluxe plate on the menu, something that comes with a taco and perhaps two cheese enchiladas and a tamale. Of course, it goes without saying there’ll be big piles of refried beans and Mexican rice on the plate as well.
At this point in the blog I’d like to make a recommendation: If you’re ever down in Texas, you just have to sample a bit of authentic Tex-Mex. It doesn’t matter where you choose to do so. Even the smallest of towns, places so doggone tiny they don’t even have a single stoplight, have at least one such eatery. And as soon as you step through the front door of such a restaurant, just look for paintings of bullfighters on black velvet and absurdly large sombreros hanging on the walls. If you see gaudy décor like that, you can bet the farm that the food is going to be muy bueno.
Now, getting back to the video and Yolanda Navarro’s Houston taqueria, Villa Arcos Tacos. Not only is Yolanda a very savvy businesswoman, she comes across as something of a philosopher as well. She names “quality, consistency, and personal attention” as being key to the success of her place.
I’d say those things will help you succeed in just about anything, including making the meanest tacos around.
