stimac@tymix.UUCP (Michael Stimac) (04/20/84)
<...> Just a note to save people some future confusion - Sopapillas, delicious as they are, are NOT Mexican food, they are from the New Mexico cuisine. When I first moved to California some years ago I was delighted by the many Mexican restaurants, especially after I encountered "sopas" (as sopapillas are sometimes referred to). I was puzzled, though because only one out every 50 Mexican restaurants had them. I later learned that they are New Mexican in origin, and it is more the type of Mexican restaurant that serves "early southwestern cookery" (very similar to Mexican) that had sopas. Last year I went on a trip through New Mexico and Colorado; we found sopas in all the Mexican restaurants in New Mexico and they were inexpensive, like 3 for a dollar. Here in the Bay area they are more often $.50 to $1.00 or more each, IF you can find them. Needless to say, we ate a year's worth of sopas in the week we were there. These were invariably served with a little packet of honey, although there is one restaurant in San Francisco that serves a "desert" sopa with ice cream, whipped cream, and cinnamon on top. Michael Stimac Tymshare, Inc. Cupertino, CA
ed@unisoft.UUCP (04/22/84)
Sopapillas, and other "southwestern" items, cannot really be separated from Mexican food. What's important to note is that Mexican food is as regional as any other nationality's. It's also true that the native foods of the US southwest are closely related to the Mexican. This is true because of the geographic similarity of the regions, i.e., the same sorts of things grow in both places. -- Ed Gould ucbvax!mtxinu!ed
jhf@lanl-a.UUCP (05/04/84)
There are just a few points to be cleared up here: 1. No contributor to this discussion has spelled it right yet; it is "sopaipilla". I looked in a couple of Spanish dictionaries and found that "sopaipa" is a honey fritter. The "illa", of course, is a diminutive. No etymology was given in either dictionary; perhaps it has an Indian origin. 2. Calling the sopaipilla a "treat" gives the impression that it is a dessert; it's actually bread, usually eaten with the main course. 3. It's "incredibly fattening" only if one really overdoes it on the honey. Joe Fasel Los Alamos National Laboratory en La Tierra Encantada