you taco-ing to me?

[cheranne]

I want to share this from my newspaper.

Beans get such a bad rap.

If you talk about enjoying them, people either think you can't afford meat, or they make really lame fart jokes.

At Mexican restaurants, they're usually an afterthought, and for good reason. They're often pretty mediocre. Too often, taco places use lard as the main seasoning and then dump a spoonful of slop on the side of a combo plate.

And that's too bad, because beans can have a very nice flavor. The classic frijoles de olla are just beans in a clay pot (called an olla) and simmered for hours with garlic and salt. They are simply phenomenal. The only downside is that the olla might have a glaze made with lead.

Or you can always have the frijoles a la charra or the frijoles borrachos. Both have a wonderful mix of some pork (usually bacon or pork rind), tomatoes, onion, garlic and jalapenos that are sautéed and mixed with the beans as they cook. If you mash those and fry with a little oil (or properly rendered lard), you're talking about some great frijoles refritos.

By the way, the word "refrito" doesn't mean re-fried. It means well fried. Please correct your friends if they use it wrongly.

[kimberly]

I can't get over the newspaper printed the word f..t.

[RumRunner]

HEY HEY! Nothing wrong with the beans you get in most "hole in the wall" Mexican places in SoCal - although yes lard is often a "main" ingredient. No slop - just good beans

[cheranne]

..and there is always BEANO!

..and there is always BEANO!