I’ve been a professional cook for many years, in a town where the population is about 30% Mexican (yes, 99.9% of the Hispanics here are Mexican). I’ve made sort of a hobby of observing people’s eating habits, and I can predict, fairly accuratley, what kind of eater a person is just by looking at them (don’t ask me to explain how - it’s just one of those things you start picking up on after twenty years.)
So there are a couple things I’ve noticed in particular about my Mexican customers. I’m curious to learn the reasons. I guess there are cultural reasons - I’d like to hear them. The majority of Mexicans in my town originate from the Southern parts of Mexico, so suppose there are cultural differences between Northern and Southern Mexico.
So I’ll ask:
Mexican men who do not speak much English, when ordering breakfast, very very frequently order ham and scrambled eggs. I can understand the ham part, considering the fact that the Spanish word, jamon, sounds very much like the English ham, whereas the Spanish tocino and chorizo do not resemble the English bacon and sausage. But why scrambled eggs? Is eating fried eggs uncommon in Mexico?
Mexican men, dining alone or with other men, tend to order just like any other man in the restaurant, regarding portion sizes. But, when a Mexican man is dining with a Mexican woman - i.e. on a date - it’s usually obvious from the way they’re dressed that they’ve come from or are on their way to one of the big Mexican dances that are frequently held here - the man will order the biggest freakin’ thing on the menu for himself. I’ve seen this often enough to reach the conclusion that there is some cultural reason behind this behavior.
BTW - my questions focus on Mexican men simply because it’s still uncommon to see Mexican women dining alone here.
My point was that the ordering trends are consistent enough to make me think there might be some cultural significance. I honestly don’t see the same behavior among my Anglo customers. Sure, there are some Anglos who do the same things, but it isn’t something I would say that “all” or “most” of them do. For one thing, Anglo men who order huge portions tend to do so consistently, whether alone or with a woman. They also tend to be larger men. The Mexicans I’ve observed have ranged in size from large to diminutive. Regardless of size, they still order the huge portions when they have a date with them.
Some other consistent things I’ve seen over the years:
Odds are, the well-done steak I’m cooking is for the African-American guy. Seriously - every black man for whom I’ve cooked a steak has ordered it well-done. Black friends have confirmed that black men like their steaks well-done, but they don’t know why.
When I see a middle-aged white woman with mushroom-shaped hair, wearing a business suit and rimless glasses, I know with 90% certainty that I’m about to get an order for skinless grilled chicken and a salad with Italian dressing. Dressing on the side.
I am from El Paso, where 75-80% of the population is “Hispanic”, plus many of the restaurants attract a lot of customers from across the border.
I may be wrong, but I think if the behavior you describe is correct it may be a class thing more than a cultural thing. Its strange that you describe Mexican women rarely eating alone. I think you must have a specific subgroup there. Over here there are “cowboy” types that behave as you describe. On a date, such a guy would want to show off a bit by ordering an imposing item. Not all Mexicans think that way of course, just the “muy machos”.
As far as eggs, Mexicans probably eat eggs more often than American. They are not just for breakfast. Scrambled eggs are often “á la Mexicana” (mixed with salsa, tomato or chiles). Its also very common to have a fried egg on top of enchiladas as well as for breakfast with beans and tortillas (the famous “huevos rancheros”).
When you say “Mexicans” in the OP, are you referring to Mexican tourists, Americans of Mexican descent (zero, one, or more generations removed from the motherland), or Mexican citizens who are temporarily in your area (Washington State) to harvest the local crops?
0-3rd generation Mexican-Americans, as well as migrants. I’d have to say that most are not more than two generations removed - i.e. their grandparents were born in Mexico. When I moved to this town twenty years ago, you only saw Mexicans when there was work to be done in the orchards. Once the work was done, they would move on (or be “moved on” by the local authorities. This town was fairly racist back then.). Only in the last ten years or so have more Mexicans been settling down here as discrimination has lessened, and it’s just in the last five years that the permanent, year-round population here has been 30% Hispanic.
Phase42, I’m going to put you on my potential employment list for a new restaurant concept.
Instead of wasting time sending someone to the table to take a food order, we will have spotters near the door, who will be able to determine visually what the food order is likely to be based upon body language, skin color, clothing or party size.
For a second there I read that last bit as “panty size.” I’d think it would be easier just to ask the customer what she wants to eat than to get that information out of her…
It does seem to me that fried eggs are less commonly eaten in Mexico. When they are eaten they tend to be part of another dish, like huevos rancheros (which, by the way, differs depending on the region of Mexico you are in). One Mexican family I lived with offered me either ham and eggs (scrambled) or a cheese omelette every day.
Bacon is not as commonly eaten in Mexico as in the U.S. Greasy, American breakfast sausage is something I can’t imagine finding in Mexico. It is not the same thing as chorizo, which is a particular kind of spicy sausage.
Huevos a la mexicana are eggs scrambled with tomato, onion, and chile. Red, white, and green are the colors of the Mexican flag.
There’s a big difference between northern, central, and southern Mexico, with differences from coast to coast. I’d say the differences are more dramatic (from my foreign perspective) than the regional differences in the United States (okay, them thar appalachians and the gay part of San Francisco are probably quite extreme, so…)
That said, scrambled eggs are way, way more common than fried eggs (starred eggs) in Mexico, and I’d wager that you especially see it if you don’t have a good salsa in the restaurant.
It’s typical to scramble the eggs in ham. In fact, I rarely see ham taken any other way (maybe in a Sandwhich Club, or an Egg McMuffin [Canadian bacon]). I remember that at the breakfast place we (Americans) would always go to, I’d have to tell the waiter to serve the ham (or bacon) on the side (by default they’d put it into the eggs).
I’ve never seen American style breakfast sausage there, although there’s a great wurst store, and of course chorizo’s good.
As far as huevos estrellados (fried eggs) goes, I think half of their charm (as an American) is dunking the toast into the yolk. Yummy! But in Mexico the common, omnipresent accoutrement for all meals is the tortilla. Yeah, of course there’s bread, and wonderful bolillos, but to talk in broad generalities (which of course covers most of the lower classes) the tortilla is what you got. My wife (Mexican from Mexico) fries her eggs hard, and doesn’t like runny yolk, 'cos she prefers tortillas. For me, tortillas don’t work with the runny yolk – it truly retires toast. So I’ll propose the grand idea that Mexicans don’t eat many fried eggs for lack of toast.
Given that, when you do get fried eggs, they’re typically more intricate, and definitely eaten with salsa.
My Taiwanese and Chinese co-workers (who have been here 3-4 years) always ordered scrambled eggs because they didn’t understand the friend egg lingo. They were pretty sure they knew what “sunnyside up” meant (and they did) but they didn’t know what the degree of doneness is for “over-easy”. I think they’d heard “basted” too and didn’t know what that meant. Also, they didn’t know for sure if there were more choices than that and what those might be.
My Mexican-American father, one generation from the migrant peoples, doesn’t trust a fried egg in a public restaurant.
He will also order a huge meal when on the town because he likes to see a lot of food in front of him. He can afford it and he enjoys seeing all the food. You should see the table on holidays! Tamales and ham and turkey and all the sides and 4 types of pies, then the cakes and cookies. Daddy loves restaurants, all kinds. You’d think he’d be terrifyingly overweight, but he’s not.
I was “forced” to have scrambled eggs for a while, too, because no one ever told me that what I really wanted was eggs “over hard.” That is what is commonly served in Taiwan.
Could be a language problem.
Old joke…
Manuel and Jose are brothers. Manuel speaks no English, while Jose is bilingual.
Jose teaches Manuel how to say ‘bacon and eggs, coffee’, so he can eat at the local diner without the bother of a menu, that he can’t read anyway.
Manuel has his bacon, eggs and coffee every day for a few weeks. He’s tired of it, so Jose teaches him to say ‘apple pie and coffee’.
On his next visit to the diner, he orders ‘apple pie and coffee.
The waitress asks if he’d like ice cream on his pie…
…and Manuel says…’bacon and eggs, coffee’.
My wife’s family (not sod farmers, smart people) don’t refrigerate their eggs at all, so if it’s fear of salmonella, then I don’t get it. Hell, in all of the public markets including national, huge, brand-name, chain grocery stores, the eggs aren’t sold refrigerated at all! Yeah, there’s a Cecil article or staff article and a thread about this occurring in France. But I’ve gotta drege it up again. Ugh!
To tell the truth, a lot of Americans don’t understand all that, either. There are a bunch of people who will consistently order their eggs “over easy” when what they really want is “over medium”. This is obvious because they order “over easy” and then send the eggs back “to cook some more”. I’ve come to the conclusion that for most people, whatever their mothers called “over easy” is “over easy” to them, correct or not.
Tend bar for a while and you’ll have some very similar experiences. Waitress comes back w/ order for Courvoisier and Coke, I know something about the table. Fellow orders a rum and Coke for himself and whiskey sour for his date, ditto.
In La Mancha they put fried eggs on sandwiches, and cut a hole in the bread so it stares up at you like an eye. They have fried eggs for supper. Even give you fried eggs on pizza.
A man walks into a restaurant, orders fried eggs and french fries. A lady sits down at the next table and orders the cow tongue. When the waiter returns, he gets the plates mixed up. So the man turns to the woman and says, “Excuse me, would you pass me the tongue for the eggs?” This is hilarious in Spanish.
I was out to breakfast once with a bunch of friends. When the waitress asked one of them how he wanted his eggs he looked at her quizzically and said “cooked?”. I guess his mom just made him the same kind of eggs every time and he wasn’t sure there were other ways.
He was a WASP, and this is completely off topic, but I thought it was funny.
