My chili has corn and green beans in it!

So, I go over to the sandwicher to have my lunch, usually a lovely turkey and gouda on ciabatta. But today, I decide to be adventurous and try the soup since it's freezing (again today, big surprise). I walk in, and a lovely aroma fills my nose...yummy...chili...I order a bowl to go and get back much looking forward to my chili. First bite, I get a corn kernel. Ok, no biggie, next bite, a green bean! A GREEN BEAN! Now, I'm just stirring it about trying to figure out what other alien ingredients are included - I've found an olive, brocoli and cauliflower. What the hell?!?!? Is this really what Germans think chili is supposed to be?

OK...so I'm just in a bitchy mood today. I just feel the need to bitch. Feel free to rant about whatever you see fit.

That's funny.. I had chili today too.. only with corn though. That is weird.

Time for a long weekend at home, honey. Then again, I tend to include corn in my chili. Cauliflower - granted that it shouldn't be there. Shouldn't be anywhere, in fact.

I am making chili today, but with none of that shit in it!!!

The corn I can see, it is common in the SW. Yes all those professional SWers can argue but being MERXICAN I know that it is common in the places I have gone. As for the green beans all I can say is what the hell?

But chili isn't Mexican, it's American

Good thing you're American too

yeah, corn in chili is quite common.

not the other shot though. Maybe it was chili con verdura and not chili con carne

green beans, olives, brocoli and cauliflower!!!

agreed. THAT'S NOT CHILI!

I used to work in "Chilis" in Reading and gues what, we had green beans in our chili... along with corn... and well, the steaks came vaccuum-packed and pre cooked from the states, as did the ribs, and all the spic emixes, cutlery...basically everything, horrible, just horrible... (well, the cutlery and that wasnt pre-cooked...but u get the picture..)

Or "Spanish online music" to the rest of us.

Corn does not belong in chili imho but you get it and other veg in all sorts of meals here unwanted and unasked for.

How's this one at a hostelry near here, Mexican Platter had. . . , wait for it . . . . Spring Rolls in it

Yeah, my German gf and I were making Pizza, and she insisted on corn on her side of the pizza.

Didn't you know? That's authentic American pizza! If you want to make anything "American" you just add corn to it.

hey anthony since we're from the same neck of the woods, have u found any real mexican food since uve been here.. Ive been looking forever and am always crushed with disappointment when my alleged burrito arrives.. im talkin bout carne asada,refrieds,pico, the whole shabang

No. Sorry. I haven't tried all the places here, but I don't expect to get the real stuff here, especially a rightous carne asada burrito.

Damn! Now why did you have to bring that up?

@ surferinthecold, AiE, et al.

FYI: We went to Mercado de Mexico this weekend and got some excellent refried beans, canned serrano chillis, fresh corn and flour tortillas, etc. and made some REAL enchiladas and burritos. They also have lots of frozen home-made tamales, quesadillas, etc. which looked great.

The hardest thing to get here is decent cheese. We substitued English cheddar and bagged "Pizza Cheese" (not actually Mozzarella) with good results.

The only gripe I have with Mercado de Mexico is this note from their website:


Ahem - BULLSHIT. Fuego, etc. is no more Texan or Tex-Mex than it is Mex-Mex. It's Deutsch-Mex, plain and simple.

Thanks, DW, this will make my Ma's life easier. No more carting canned chilis in her suitcase every time she visits.

dude, I think i love u. I just checked out the homepage... and thats what Im talkin bout! I have tried hopelessly to make a real mexican meal (none of this ketchup-with-green-flecks-salsa, or chicken wing tex-mex crap) 4 ever! im gonna head over there later, but how are the prices, like 4 euros for tortillas like at tengelmann?

The prices aren't terrible but they're not cheap either. I don't recall what the tortillas costs but they were worth every penny (hint: before use steam them in the microwave between a couple of wet paper towels).

Chicken wings are from Buffalo, NY, not Texas/Mexico! And what's with spare ribs being regarded as Tex-Mex? Oh, and if your "fajitas" aren't made with skirt steak they're just soft tacos that you assemble yourself. Finally, what Sausolitos sells as a burrito is just a wrap.

/rant over!

Did i just read someone said that it was hard to find good cheese here, and then suggest that CHEDDAR is said good cheese which must substituted!??

What did he substitute this wonderful cheese with...? erm, "pizza Cheese"...ahem...

Got to be kidding me.

English cheese is shite...!

Hand to god it was a good compromise for the real thing. This is Munich, not San Antonio after all.

My rant has been hijacked!

Anyway, has anyone tried Joe Pena's Cantina y Bar? There's one here in Frankfurt; we're going to check out for dinner tonight. The website shows one in Munich too.

http://www.joepenas.de/home/joes/index.htm

Any experiences folks? Should I prepare myself for the same old crap or is it decent?

@ ajohnson

An English guy I work with said it was great. Obviously you should take that with a grain of salt.

or a dollup of Marmite...

It´s actually quite easy and cheap as well to make your own tortillas.


We had a thread before with suggestions of Mexican food that can be made with ingredients that can be found in Munich. I've always found that the best way to get the food you really want is to make it yourself.

pirulero you nobstick, a good hunk of mature country cheddar is a wonder to behold and even better to eat. will you kindly desist from trolling for sport constantly.

corn in chilli imho is ok, the other stuff? certainly not. mind you there is a fine line between my chilli and my bolognese sauce!

DW, yeah, I discoverd the Mercado a few months ago as I was walking with my gf and said, hey, I've heard of that place let's go in. Turns out that my gf used to work with the woman that runs the place (small world). Great place to get the right ingredients (not all, but close).

I didn't think of that for the surfer's question 'cause I was thinking restaurants.

Outside of the Mercado, it is Damn hard to find corn tortillas in Munich.

Think I'm gonna have to host a "tamale making party" for those tamale eaters out there that haven't made their own tamales!

Cheddar is lazy cheese making - fact!

Stilton, i MIGHT give u, but apart form that, British cheese is poor. When you have hundreds of versions of the same cheese, the only difference being how strongly they taste of toejam, you know you have a problem. Im not trolling at all on this one...cheddar is only good for melting on toast twith that other awful British export, Lea and perrins...

I disagree. I personally love a good cheddar. I prefer the harder consistency to the usual cheeses that I can buy here and I like the flavour. Perhaps it's what you are used to or what you grew up with. I'm not saying that I'd ever use it on pizza or in many cooked dishes, but I still love the stuff.

Or maybe there's a difference between British and Irish cheddar

As for Joe Pena's, I've not been there in a long time. However, when I used to frequent it, they had very good food (again, can't comment on authenticity, but that's irrelevant as far as I am concerned given that I have no experience of such), tables were tightly packed together and booking was essential. Even with a booking it was normal that you'd have to wait up to half an hour for your table. That was usually ok as you could have a few nice drinkies at the bar area. Would never have been my first choice for atmosphere, but the food was always top quality. That said, the last time I was there was around 2001 so it could be completely different now.

Good cocktails, take your own chili sauce as they water it down in the Munich branch with vinegar. Biggish portions, I can't cite them for authenticity though.
The Mercado de Mexico tortillas also freeze beautifully, excellent tamales and their mole mix can be played with to make something very special (brokenm asked for the recipe when I made it and I had to admit it was this mix ).

There's definitely a difference, Irish cheddar is yummy! I just find English cheddar is either melting-rubber, or citrus flavoured sour-curd...

But anyway, it's the comparison with other cheeses from other countries which makes British cheese poor.

(doesnt mean i don't enjoy it now and again though...)

Kiwi cheddar is nice, but its totally unsuitable for melting as it seperates into oil and rubbery bits. Actually it comes in 3 varieties, tasty, mild and colby, not sure if they all have that problem though. Is british cheddar the same?

is Kiwi cheddar like "TASTY COON" in Ozland? Almost pissed myself in the supermarkets, especially as it was next to "Golden Gaytime" ice cream and "Nads" hair removal cream...

(by "next to" i mean in the same shop...)

Pirulero. You may want to read Cheese Primer by Steven Jenkins. You will then find your statement to be a complete and utter load of bollocks.

By all accounts you have tasted Tesco Value cheddar (20kg for 20p or whatever) and Stilton, and that's it.

Believe me, there are some wonderful british cheeses out their

@pirulero Heh dont know, never heard of tasty coon, I think kiwi consumers would find that funny too. I do think we used to have gaytime ice cream cones though, but I think it changed. Never looked at the hair removal cream section..

nah i've tried all kinds of British cheeses, in fact i once went on a trip around the British isles tasting cheese with my parents (they're weird) and i just found the cheeses of other countries to be superior in general. Obviously there are outstanding cheeses in Britain, but the AVERAGE is low (and the average is generally cheddar...) whereas in Spain for instance it would be hard to find a bad manchego or similar which is the equivalent of cheddar in Britain...

orkney cheddar is wonderful stuff, as is another scottish cheese, crowdie. actually there are some damn fine island monkey cheeses now i come to think of it and i really must pick soem up when i'm there in a couple of weeks.

picked up some engerlish cheddar at edeka in erding this afternoon, so off for an oatcake or two to test it, mmmm.

DO NOT GO THERE!

I lived in Frankfurt for 5 years and boycotted the place. Wait till you come back to Munich and eat at Tacos y Tequilas - it's the best place I've found in Germany - owned and run by a Mexican.

Joe Penas is a failure at Mexican food:

Expensive (5 EUR for a Coronas, or margaritas)
Corn in EVERYTHING
Horrible service (I could write a book with my boycot experience)
Crowded (why?)
NOT Spicy
Pretentious

hmm. wondering if we should have another thread with a poll: which is the greater offense to all creation and life as we know it - green beens and corn in chili or the same on pizza? tough call.

All through this thread everybody has winged about various foodstuffs and whether they are authentic or not and as far as I can see nobody has mentioned whether chili with extra veggies actually tasted good or not. The only thing food has to do is taste good, the ingredients are not set in stone, there's no fuckin' reinheitsgebot for chili, like most popular dishes it's peasant food, made out of the stuff that was to hand, had veggies been around when chili was first made they would have been in it! End of Rant!

would you say the same for curry then, anything goes? green bean curry for all. or perhaps you should tell the Italians they need more green bean pizza.

Yeah, if it tasted good, if they can put pineapple on Pizza they can put beans on them, I'm fairly sure they didn't have pineapple in Italy when the pizza was invented.

Go to thailand. You'll find "yard long beans", essentially green beans really, in shitloads of curries. They work well, give a sweet flavour, and a good fresh crunchy texture.

hmm. I can't say I'm in the fan of fruit on your pizza club (or corn and tuna for that matter. ).

I had a bad curry "experience" once that leaves me leary of it, beans or no (though the more veggies would be imo better)

Back to the Chili topic...Anyone ever found cornbread here to have with chili and to make cornbread would I buy Maismehl?? Is that the same as corn meal in the US? ( Yes, I know mehl is flour )