We’re celebrating Autostraddle’s Fifth Birthday all month long by publishing a bunch of Top Fives. This is one of them!
I was born and raised in a very special place called the Rio Grande Valley, a region comprised of four counties in South South South Texas with a 90% Latino population.
I have a love/hate relationship with this wonderful, weird place.
I grew up in a whole different world from the stereotypical Texas that people know — the one full of cowboy boots, barbecue and country music. (I mean, I grew up with that stuff too but it wasn’t as prevalent; it was more like carne asada and Tejano music.) The Valley has its own hybrid culture created by Tejanos, Mexican immigrants, and Mexican natives living together on the Texas-Mexico border. We have our own distinct dialect and various cultural markers, but most notably we eat some of the most interesting and innovative snacks in the world.
This is a typical “raspa stand” in the Valley. Shoutout to my brother for taking this picture.
Raspa stands or snack shacks — that carry all of this mouth-watering goodness I’m about to share with you and more — are ubiquitous in the Valley. (Pro tip: the shittier and smaller the place is, the better your snacks will be — same can be applied to tacos, just saying.) Some of these snacks were invented on the streets of Mexico and were carried over to the borderlands and some were maybe created in the Valley, who knows. These snacks are certainly not just tied to the Valley; I’m sure you can find any variation of them as far north as San Antonio or anywhere there is a Mexican/Mexican-American community. What I can say for certain is that I grew up with these tasty things and I thought they were normal until I went to college in Austin and found out that nobody knew what I was talking about, which made me homesick and proud all at the same time.
Now that I live 9 hours away from my hometown and gave up fried food for a year, you have no idea how much I miss these things! But soon I will return to my homeland and FEAST, my friends (and maybe get heartburn or acid reflux in the process.)
Top left corner: The best way to eat duritos come in a bag that you bought from a street vendor. Bottom left corner: One of the many ways to top off duros preparados Right: Those aren’t onions, they’re cueritos.
5. Duros Preparados
Duros de harina or chicharrones de harina are basically puffed wheat snacks. I grew up eating duritos, the little wheel ones from a bag, and dousing them in lime and Salsa Valentina. Soo good! To cure an extreme snack attack, people eat duros preparados, the long rectangular chicharrones with different toppings. Typical toppings include: cueritos (pickled pork rinds), avocado, refried beans, lime, cabbage, tomatoes, cheese and of course some form of hot sauce.
That’s my hand in the top left corner.
4. Elote
Elote or corn on the cob is a beloved Mexican street food. It’s usually roasted and you can either have it on a stick or freshly cut and in a cup. Toppings vary but the main components are salt, lime, mayonnaise, crumbled cheese like cotija or parmesan, and hot sauce/chile. Nowadays you can find this at fancy Mexican restaurants or at trendy taco places, usually owned by white people. I hope you know that while you’re eating your super cool, hip $5 “rotisserie corn” appetizer that I can get this for a $1.50 at any corner in the Valley.
Top Left Corner: Pickadilly; Bottom Left Corner: Raspas and a chamoyada; Right: Something I actually ordered in the Valley
3. Raspas
For the majority of the year in the Valley, it is hot and hotter, especially during the summer when temperatures easily reach 100 degrees. Raspas, snow cones, are a very necessary tool to combat the heat. In the Valley, raspas come as varied and unique as the queers in this world. You can literally find any flavor you want from weirdo ones to obscure fruits to some that are little more than lime juice and chile. One of the most popular raspas in the Valley are Pickadillies which are made of shaved ice, a red flavored syrup like cherry or Hawaiian Punch and topped with pickles and sprinkled with Lucas, a chili powder candy, or with chamoy. Personally, I can only eat about a few spoonfuls before I have zero stomach lining. My favorite though is a raspa that is kinda like the Pickadilly except instead of the pickles it has gummy bears. Yum!
The one on the right was ALL MINE!
2. Smirnoff Preparadas
Whoa, so many bells and whistles! What is this even? I didn’t know these things existed until a few years ago when relatives and high school friends posted pictures of these beautiful concoctions on their social media. I immediately had to investigate and buy one too. And thank god that I did because a Smirnoff Preparada is probably the funnest alcoholic drink I’ll ever consume. It’s a container full of fruit and then people pour their choice of flavored Smirnoff over the fruit. Or, for a non-alcoholic version, people just fill it with fruit juice or a raspa/fruit mix. Then people top it with all sorts of things: more fruit, chile, lime, gummy bears, chamoy sticks, more gummy candies, a tiny, colorful umbrella — the possibilities are endless.
This is what childhood looks like.
1. Hot Cheetos With Cheese
Oh man, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are a heavenly gift given to humankind. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know about their crunchy, fiery goodness. Growing up, it was so hard sharing a precious bag with friends but if you didn’t, it would’ve compromised the friendship. Hot Cheetos are golden, but they are even more golden when smothered in nacho cheese. Mmmm! (You don’t even know, ok.) There are so many textures going on with this snack; at first they’re crunchy, then they become soggy on the outside but are still crunchy on the inside. But if you wait too long, they become very soggy. Hot Cheetos with cheese are sold everywhere you go in the Valley: school events, competitions, high school football games, flea markets, even ice cream trucks sell them. We are dead serious about Hot Cheetos with Cheese.
Header Image by Rory Midhani
can we have a Smirnoff Preparadas cocktail hour at a-camp
we totally should! smirnoff preparadas for everyone!
this would be so much fun
also, it would rehabilitate my relations with Vodka, after drinking way too much cheap stuff in college
I want to eat all of these things immediately.
Omg, the corn on the cob is my favorite! with all the toppings! In my neighborhood the corn carts have a horn and the ice cream carts have a bell. So we always call it the “horn means corn” to decipher it from other less delicious corn.
Mmmmmm! I want some right now!
I demand a Get Baked for each of these.
Everything looks so tasty. I really need to find a store that sells cheetos, then I will at least have something.
I’ve been in college in Alabama for the past four years but I grew up in the RGV and even though I wasn’t super into any of these things, this made me so homesick. The food I miss the most is breakfast tacos handmade from the gas station. I want one so badly now and I love/hate this article for that haha.
Breakfast tacos are totally the best.
I love elote! But in a cup so it’s less messy. That’s the one thing I was dying for when I lived in Spain.
Yvonne. yessssssss. everything. want.
I didn’t think I could live in a world deprived of flaming hots, or that such a place even existed. well it does; canada. ketchup chips, get off my lawn
yvonne gets me
It’s the same way here in Southern California, the worse the Taco place(or Mexican dessert shop) looks the better. I though it was just regional thing, I guess not.
I love Pickadillies, but try and stay away for the same reason. In San Antonio, though, I’ve only ever heard of them referred to as Changos?
This is one of the only reasons I love living in the RGV. Nice to know an Autostraddle writer lived here and could share this!!
dear yvonne I love you for this, k?
I think the fact that I had acid reflux at 17 was due in large part to all of this.
I want to try this stuff you are making me hungry!
Regarding the stereotypical Texas thing: people from outside Texas fail to understand that Texas is way to big for just one kind of stereotype. :-)
I used to live in McAllen! One snack I loved was gummy bears with lime juice and chile powder, all mixed together and melty. Does anyone know what that’s called?
I also love raspas from Jojos in Mercedes.
Yvonne, those duritos were literally in my dreams last night! I’ve never had them, but I tested out and bought a big bag of a spicy variety at little grocery store in my dream. (Also, I bought two very large donuts, but that part I’m blaming on But I’m a Cheerleader, which I watched before bed.) Now I think I must try them!
cotija cheese is the best cheese!!
And I’m totally not surprised that someone would put pickles on an iced beverage.
And I’m pretty sure I saw people eating hot cheetos with cheese when I was in mexico, but was too afraid to try that because I was in Mexico.
I can never hear/see a reference to Hot Cheetos without getting this song stuck in my head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YLy4j8EZIk&feature=kp
HOT CHEETOS WITH CHEESE OMFG CHILINDRINAS AND HARINAS AND ELOTE CON VASO AND AND AND OMG CAN I MARRY YOU?
I live in Irving now. I miss these snacks :( I’m from Donna. I’ve ordered raspas nothing to compare like back at home, even the elote. When I visit let’s just say I try to catch up with the snacks I’ve been craving!
Fat glutenous worthless spic. All that sounds nauseating. Your not different bitch we’ve all heard of that stuff.I bet you have a gut or your gonna and fart and shot all day. Go die in your shithole down were you probably duck your bean cousin. Stop blogging to make you think your important or cool. The only people listening are worthless sponges like you..and me who just hates you. You know who I am ;)
The trolls are wrong (moderators, can you remove the insults?) – this is delicious and Yvonne is a beautiful person (who, incidentally, writes far more eloquently than the trolls).
Pondering the wrongness…
The troll is confusing me with their hispanophone choice of screen name but use of a hispanphobic slur.
Plus how can glutenous possibly be an insult? Gluten is delicious.
Unless like they’re some cultural “purist” who has it out for RGV culinary culture things like wheat flour tortillas rather than maíz flour.
Someone sure sounds jealous of Yvonne’s gorgeousness and amazing snacks. This article made me want to pay a visit to Texas! :)