This email came to us from Ronnie in California, a new listener who's getting caught up on past episodes. He recently listened to our French Fry Toppings show, and had this to say:
I felt really let down that you didn't cover one of California's ghastly abomination of a "fusion" food; carne asada fries. I say this because although I find this dish particularly delectable, it is a product of the never-ending dilemma of the southern California population being forced to choose between our Mexican food and American food. So we mash it all together, as you can also see with our taco burgers. Anyhow, carne asada fries are a wonderful arrangement of fries (thin fries are used normally, but I prefer steak fries for this dish), seasoned and chopped carne asada steak, sour cream, cheddar cheese, guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, refried beans, and some restaurants even give the option of adding chili into the mix. If either of you have tried this dish, I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Thanks and keep up the good work with the podcast!
I have not tried this dish, but I must say that it sounded amazing until I saw this picture. The picture in my head looked a lot better. As for the fusion trend, I personally think that as long as you can still get great, pure, unadulterated Mexican food somewhere in California, the fusion trend isn't such a big deal. After all, so many Mexican dishes involve the same basic ingredients, just re-purposed or tweaked slightly, that I'm sure some of those dishes (which I LOVE) are essentially inbred. They themselves are fusion dishes that came about when two other Mexican dishes got a little freaky together. Ronnie, when foods from different places end up near each other, they tend to do the same thing that people do when they end up near each other: They mate. /dan
