PAMELA ANDERSON goes to MEXICO

We dined at Corazon del Mar last night. It is a "Mexican " restaurant in downtown Nantucket. They tried very hard to create a mexican atmosphere. The benches and chairs were blue-green, the tables heavy wood, the walls were a soft orange, and the piped in music was " La Cucaracha-esque." The menu had authentic sounding mexican dishes and an assortment of mexican beer and Margaritas. That is the extent of the authenticity. I did not see ONE mexican anywhere in the restaurant. There are mexicans in the gardens of Nantucket, but mostly, south and central america is represented by folks from el Salvador. There may have been one in the kitchen, but I don't know, I did not check. That is not to say the food was not delicious, it was. From the fish tacos, to the salsa and guacamole, it was yummy. I ordered Mole' Poblano and though I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was not Mole'. I had a bottle of Negra Modello beer for $6. A whole six pack costs $7.50 in a grocery store, maybe not in Nantucket. The whole experience reminded me of Pamela Anderson...FAUX but pretty good all the same. I recommend CDM mostly in comparison to other Nantucket restaurants. Bring lots of Pesos.

There seems to be an ANGLO version of almost anything here. The whole island screams MAYFLOWER. There are lots of jamaicans who come here every year to work, and a very authentic jamaican small restaurant/take-out called the Rotary, which coincidentally is located at...the rotary. It is the real deal, dialect included, mon. The Italian restaurants, especially the one I wrote about yesterday, are as if someone read a couple of recipes on the back of a box of Barilla pasta, and then cooked it after deleting the spices so as not to offend the New England taste buds. So many up north here are of Irish and English backgrounds where spice is a 4-letter word. "Ah, Paddy, what's that exotic taste you snuck into the stew...could it be black pepper?"

I see a tremendous opportunity to write a cook book. "Ethnic foods of the world, cooked New England Style." Moo goo gai pan with a side of french fries. Chowdah and Lobstah Francaise. And the unforgettable Pasta cooked way beyond al-dente with a sauce made from diluted Campbell's tomato soup. Oh, and I am forgetting the pizza-fondue? Well, maybe the lesson is..."when in Rome..." and leave it at that. I sense a disturbance in the Force. I think I will return to a Lobstah Roll for lunch and confine my true ethnic dining to home where everyone in my family knows where the hot pepper, curry, and cilantro are kept, and use them.