Thursday, November 26, 2009

The Day I Ate Corn Smut

I'm not much of an adventurous eater. After all I've not eaten anything with a face since 1984. However, I did recently try Corn Smut. Just in case you're not familiar with this Mexican snack (also known as "huitlacoche" which translated from the Nahuatl means, literally "ravens poo"), corn smut is a disease of maize which can infect any part of the plant it usually enters the ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of the cobs with large distorted tumors. In the United States it is considered a pest. In Mexico… it is a delicacy!
Here's my corn smut being prepared by a local senorita in Xochimilco. The green and yellow bits at the bottom are for a different taco snack of flor de calabaza (squash blossoms) and mushroom.Here's the finished smut (top). It tasted pretty good. Sort of mushroom-like, sweet, savory, woody, and earthy.Washed down with an ice cold Negra Modelo. Yum! Delicious.

No comments: