My Search for Viandas (A guide to what they are!)

Germania, my lovely grandmother, came to the States from the Dominican Republic in the '60s. She was an amazing cook and from her I learned how to make the Sancocho, a traditional Dominican stew featuring an assortment of viandas and meats. The thing about a Sancocho is that it's a dish meant to be shared with the family plus the neighbors plus the kid from down the block who always hangs out with the neighbor's son plus whoever else happens to be walking by. There's no such thing as a "four portion" Sancocho. Which is why I've decided to make one for some of my students.

Success?

Chicago is a mecca for tremendous Mexican cuisine (see New Rebozo—quite possibly the best Mexican food I've had outside of Mexico and certainly worlds better than anything one can find in New York—the chef/owner features 18 kinds of mole) but when it comes to the Spanish Caribbean, not so much. The real trick is the viandas, the starchy vegetables that form the base of the stew. And after six months of looking for these in various supermarkets, desperation has set in.

So, given the sad dearth of Dominican and Cuban ingredients in ordinary grocery stores, I set out on a quest (based on the recommendation of a Puerto Rican employee at Whole Foods) to find the famed Armitage Produce on the westside of Chicago…

Success! Behold, a surfeit of malanga!

Malanga

Ñame (the true yam)

As you can see, people have split the ñame in half—in this case, the employees themselves. This is to verify that the root is good (people also do that with the malanga and yuca). One elderly gentleman, who grumbled about the mediocre size of the batata we combed through, warned me against trusting the quality of the root from the outside.

Pedro Meyer: detail from Batman and the Religious Procession (1991). A religious parade in Oaxaca

Laura Molina: Amor Alien/Amor extraterrestre (2004). An unmistakable reinterpretation of “The Legend of the Volcanoes” of Mexican myth.

 

Ignacio Montano: details from Assembling Energy Panels from the London Complex at Preference, Mars/Montando paneles solares del complejo de Londres de preferencia, Marte (1990). Floating astronauts with oxygen-packs at the Mars base—Just to be clear, this hasn’t happened, yet.

Alfredo Arreguin: Ballads from My Land/Corridos de mi tierra (2004). Emiliano Zapata and the Virgin de Guadalupe, as well as other iconic figures of Mexican history and legend fill the night sky.

Pedro Meyer: Batman and the Religious Procession (1991)

Ignacio Montano: Assembling Energy Panels from the London Complex at Preference, Mars/Montando paneles solares del complejo de Londres de preferencia, Marte (1990).

 

Por : david te amamos y creemos en ti 2008-12-28 01:50:58

dios mio gracias por poner en mi camino a un ser tan extraordinario como david murcia guzman dios mio gracias por mostrarme que en colombia no todo es corrupcion y maldad dios mio gracias por presentarme al ser mas humano,bueno y generoso te amo dios por esta oportunidad que me das de ver un ser limpio como david dios mio gracias por ese privilegio que me das de pertenecer a la familia dmg

Already embattled in a fury of public outcry because of the lethal stampede in a bar where high school students celebrating their graduation were killed as police raided a nightclub (parents around the city have mobilized decrying the police action), Mexico's police are sure to face even more after the release of torture videos yesterday.




A regional Mexican paper broke the news, showing several videos of members of an elite tactical group experiencing torture at the hands of other officers, as part of training intended to prepare them should they fall into the hands of organized crime groups that kidnap and torture. But given the reputation of corruption and violence within the police force, the videos have caused outrage among Mexicans who see this as instructing police how to torture.

"This group has to be prepared for extreme situations. This isn't a game of child's play. Now, this isn't about applying torture; it's so that they can resist it," explained Vicente Guerrero, a PAN leader. But this milquetoast excuse has done nothing to de-escalate the situation, which has led to broader investigations into the history of torture in the country.

And the instructive presence of the unnamed American trainer in the second video will do nothing to assuage concerns that US contractors are equipping Latin American military forces to terrorize their own people. See also Lesley Gill's The School of the Americas.