Oh, Rotel
25 Mar. 2008
Much as poutine to Quebec, marmite to Queensland, or egg cream to the Bronx, such is Rotel to Texas. Which means it has thus far eluded me in NY, and now I find I need it desperately. Shit, shit, shit. Time for another weekend mission, I guess. Googling indicates the following as possible sources, but I fear the list is outdated:
- Walmart
- Stop & Shop (I do recall as a student in Yonkers that this was accurate...but today?)
- Food Emporium
- Target
- Dean & Deluca
- Random bodegas
If any of you five trusty readers has had a recent Rotel sighting, now is the time to come forward! Do you remember that crap queso I served you recently? Do you?! Do not make me feed that to you again.
Update: Although the bodegas and larger groceries of Astoria and Greenpoint were sadly lacking in the Rotel department (as was Kmart), Food Emporium of Union Square came through.
2: Key Foods @ Ditmars has Rotel. Instead of being shelved with the other canned tomatoes, however, it is tucked away next to the beans and Mexican foods.
28 Mar. 2008 4:51 am
Not to be a total hag, but could you include a link for Rotel-- I'm thinking something like a link to a basic definition. I get the general gist of your post (need to find a food indigenous to the the city in which you do not live), but the specific example that you use eludes this Yankee Retard (Yank-Tard if you will).
28 Mar. 2008 8:53 am
Hahahah. In the 20 seconds it took you to write that comment, you could have totally Googled it. Put that $$$ law school education to work, mama!
Here, I'll give you this link - Can I Find Rotel in New York - which is the first thing that came up when I searched for +Rotel +nyc and, in a bizarre twist of "isn't the world a small place...like...you know...fucking creepily so?" was written by an SLC alumna who happens to live in my current neighborhood and who is also from Texas.
Basically, it's tomatoes and chilies in a can, but the conversation above describes the most common use for it and includes links. It's usually used for anything Tex Mex that contains tomatoes and requires some level of cooking (ie - you don't eat it completely raw). Personally, I'm planning to use it in King Ranch Chicken. I'll leave it to your superior deductive skills to figure out what that is.
28 Mar. 2008 4:28 pm
I did google after leaving my comment. And I knew I could google when I left my comment. The point of my comment was that as a blogger, you kind of have an obligation to provide links to things you imagine your reader might not know about. I try to do this. In some sense, it is a way to eliminate the google middleman, and does save your reader time.
28 Mar. 2008 4:29 pm
Oh my god, I totally remember Krissa!
28 Mar. 2008 5:04 pm
Actually, I don't consider that I have an obligation to readers - technically speaking, I write this blog for myself to remember things I think of or come across. Hence the name "Scratchpad." I quite literally consider this a place for me to jot notes to myself. It's cool that other people read it and I'm glad when they comment and stuff, but my intended audience is really just myself. It's part of why I didn't bother with comments for so long, and why half my posts don't even make sense at all.
There are lots of reasons to have a blog. An adoring audience is certainly one, but it is not my reason. And to nip the "but you put this in a public place so obviously you intend an audience" argument in the bud - I chose the web as my medium of choice a long time ago because I feel comfortable with it and enjoy making things on it. I keep a personal site not because it lets me reach out to other people, but simply because it gives me a creative outlet and lets me play around with the web I love in ways that I can't at my job.
8 Apr. 2008 2:55 pm
Speaking of crap queso, what's with the floury cheese goo served up at the old style Tex-Mex eateries in Houston? How hard can it be to dump an industrial-size can of Ro-tel into a couple of gallons of Velveeta?
Mind you, the only time I set foot in one of these horrifying anachronisms - Felix on Westheimer comes to mind - is when I've made the mistake of letting a friend choose the restaurant, they declare it their favorite and a look of rapture comes over their face. ugh.
8 Apr. 2008 3:22 pm
Well, nopunynerd, you might be glad to hear that the nostalgic abomination that was Felix's finally closed down in the last month or two. Unfortunately, that does nothing by way of putting a dent in the thousands of other eateries that mimic its unpalatable style.
Really, in a lot of ways I've come to appreciate Tex-Mex for what it is. It's not Mexican. It's not Texan. It's a frightening, unholy mix of the two that just tastes damn delicious and will always have a special place on my table when I'm not really in the mood for either "pure" cuisine.
That said, as annoying as hipster foodie authenticity hounds can be, I'm not suggesting that I am above snobbery in food. I'll admit to being a Tex-Mex elitist. There is both a right and a wrong way to do Tex-Mex...and Velveeta + Ro-tel? So, so right. And so, so easy. Anything less is uncivilized.