The Culinary Legacy and Conventional Mexican Ambience in Pancho Villa - Case Study Example

ESSAY REVIEW ON A TAQUERIA – PANCHO VILLA. Summary The famous taqueria, Pancho Villa located at No. 3071, 16th Street, San Francisco Californai, has been named after Doroteo Arango Arambula (1878 – 1923), the Mexican revolutionary general whose military exploits are well known in Mexico and beyond. He was better known as “Pancho Villa” and the restaurant has not failed to continue that tradition but not in daredevilry though. The name has a truly remarkable appeal to those in San Francisco and the rest of the region. The culinary legacy and conventional Mexican ambience are the hallmarks of this taqueria and its management and the staff, all Mexican, continue to maintain these inherited characteristics steadfastly. Its menus and appetizers all make the visitor wonder if “it were a paradise of sorts”. Analysis As one enters the restaurant, he or she happens to see a long queue of hungry people with their watering mouths and eager eyes. However, this long line of would-be diners dwindles so fast. The staff is really efficient though the rooms are a bit small. Then there is this accordion player who enthralls the visitor with his repertoire mariachi music . “Bon appetit” and “a votre sante” are toasters’ remarks at the diners’ table associated with the French cuisine and culture. However, Mexican gourmet has not failed to recapture some of these cultural habits with its own food and drink. Pancho Villa restaurant serves as a monumental landmark reminding us, the Americans, of a fast spreading craze among diners to seek variety and novelty. There can be no better encapsulation of this than the Pancho Villa atmosphere. It strikes the visitor in almost every aspectual nuance from the aroma of spices to the courteous staff. Nonetheless, there is still a cultural perspective to appreciate the inevitable air of dignity displayed by the waiter. A subtle and bucolic atmosphere makes the visitor wait in anticipation before the waiter or waitress appears at the table, and it is just what seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Above all it is the idyllic atmosphere of the place that vividly revives the memories of grandeur and chivalry. The menus are detailed and Mexican in every respect, including the names of appetizers and desserts. The historical connectivity and the current status of every food and drink of Mexican gourmet are as important as the culture that identifies itself with this time-honored tradition. Mexican food has come a long way from the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Aztecs who used tortillas ( a type of thin round bread made of maize flour and eggs) to wrap food. At Pancho Villa the casual visitor is received into a highly classical and authentic Mexican environment that has a highly dynamic impact him. The langua or the beef tongue priced at $ 9.35 is delicious and the salsa and the nacho are diners’ favorites. The main menu includes the tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, tortillas, salsas, beans, fajitas for dinner and botanas as appetizers. Mexican cuisine has not abandoned the verisimilitude of healthy gourmet habits (Coffeen, 2002, p.42). For example its juice bar offers a range of natural fresh juices such as liquados, batidos, jugos de naranja and Mexican smoothies with milk and banana. The desserts like flan, churros, alfajor and caramel are usually common at Pancho Villa. The historical delineation of the burrito (a type of Mexican food made by folding a tortilla and putting meat, beans and cheese inside it) describes the use of the burrito found in Mexico and the United States. Hand-held take-out food like the burrito has a long history. Indigenous people used to eat hand-held snack foods like corn on the cob, popcorn and pemmican before the Spanish colonized these regions. The Spanish invaders observed with a degree of amazement how the Aztecs sold take-out food like tortillas, tamales and sauces in open marketplaces. The Pueblo community of the desert-like Southwestern region also made tortillas with beans and meat sauce fillings that were prepared much like the modern burrito. The pre-Columbian Mesoamerican Aztecs of Mexico had a very big appetite for fillings in tortillas and their ancient culinary practices and food habits were necessarily influenced by the very environment in which they lived. For instance they used tortillas to wrap food with fillings ranging from tomatoes to mushroom, chille sauce to corn and squash to avocados. A notable feature of their historical food habits was the variety. For example, Spanish missionaries who made close observations of these practices wrote about them in detail. Not only corn which was a very common food at the time but even squash and amaranth were used as fillings in tortillas. Some Aztecs went onto use even turkey, eggs, and then honey as a flavor. Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish missionary described these habits as novel and far too advanced at the time. Pancho Villa has not been impervious to other continental (European) cuisines as well. For instance different varieties of cheeses are used as fillings with an equally varied range of sauces to go with. Vegan food and drinks are served with gusto to the choosy customer. It is the calorific content of the food that matters here. Some visitors are attracted by the health-is-wealth philosophy that the restaurant has adopted as a prerequisite to attract a whole gamut of diners. These diners include not only company executives but also the average college student whose appetite for foreign food is unquestionably satiated. At the same time the average diner without much care for health might not be disappointed. His appetite for high calorie food will find its satisfaction too. Conclusion Both the owners and the staff are basically Mexican and there are some Americans too involved but their presence is not marked. The staff is employed on the same rules and regulations that govern the employment of restaurant staff in the USA. There are quite a lot of part-timers and they are paid according to hours worked or/and piece-rate. Full time employees are paid according to statutory provisions and they are given annual bonuses plus increments. However, when one speaks to the staff, some disturbing information also comes out such as illegal immigrants from Mexico being employed without proper papers at a fairly lower wage. Other annuities and super annuities are hard to come by, though the government legislation on employment is followed to the rule. Finally the management at Pancho Villa does not encourage employees to join trade unions, though there are some employees who are members of some the well known unions in the country. For example immigrants have a tendency to join UNITE HERE, a trade union organization in North America that represents restaurant workers as well (Milkman and Voss, 2004, p.75). With a membership of 465,000 employees, UNITE HERE has been fighting against the government’s policy of sending back illegal immigrants on humanitarian grounds. REFERENCES 1. Coffeen, Kelley Cleary, (2002), Fiesta Mexicali (Cookbook and Restaurant Guide), Cleveland, Ohio, Northland Publishing. 2. Milkman, Ruth and Voss, Kim (2004), Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement, New York, Cornell University Press. Read More