Taqueria El Torito

Nestled in one of the larger grocers (El Torito) on Cherokee Street is a large and open collection of tables known as Taqueria El Torito. Do not let appearances deceive, Taqueria El Torito is fabulous. We were greeted by a fairly extensive menu including some weekend specialties, menudo, barbacoa, etc. Perhaps the one word of caution is that El Torito makes liberal use of peppers, particularly jalapeno. While I do not find this a source of trouble, Ambrose threw a fit of the sort that only a six year old can when he first mistook the salsa verde (which is quite creamy, and very tasty) for the guacamole we had ordered. Though he overreacted, the salsa was hot. Very hot. Fantastic, but hot. The guacamole arrived and it also contained notable chunks of jalapeno. Ambrose was heart broken. He managed to navigate the peppers and eat it anyway, but he was not pleased. The rest of us were quite pleased with the preliminaries. I should also point out the extensive selection of Jarritos and Coca-Cola with real sugar. A rarity and a nice treat. Now on to the main event.....

I opted for a milanesa plate, something I have not seen on a menu in a very long time. Even right on the border this is somewhat uncommon. That said, it did not, in any way, disappoint. Served, as is conventional, with a salad (read lettuce and tomato) including crema and a bit of queso fresco and a healthy portion of fabulous rice and beans, the milanesa was hammered thin, lightly breaded, cooked to perfection (perhaps a bit past), and was absolutely delicious. My wife ails to remember what she had, but knows she was impressed. All in all, Taqueria El Torito would survive in any market in Texas. To put it succinctly, between Taqueria El Torito and La Tropicana, Saint Louis has become a much easier place to live. If only there was a real tortilleria that made flour tortillas.....

La Tropicana Supermarket

La Tropicana is a nondescript Mexican/Cuban market just northwest of the intersection of Kingshighway and Chippewa in South City. If you are traveling south on Kingshighway, turn right on Chippewa and there is a fork. Stay to the right on the fork and it is a block or two down on the right. In addition to being a functioning grocer, albeit small, there are quite a few tables, a fairly extensive menu, and a cold case with all kinds of goodies. We did not eat in; we will very soon. We did grab some fresh guacamole, black beans, and ensalada de nopales. All were very good. The latter was a bit spicy, but quite tasty. Worth the trip. Next time I go, I am going to have to grab a bottle of Flor de Cana (nicaraguan rum, a real treat!)....

Mi Ranchito [887 Kingsland Ave., University City, MO]

Mi Ranchito is in the top drawer of Tex-Mex/Mexican restaurants in Saint Louis. We have been on multiple occasions and it fails to disappoint. The first real test of any such restaurant are chips and salsa. The chips are just right; the salsa is chunky and tasty. Ambrose loves the guacamole and I have never had anything there that I did not quite like. Their mexican cheesesteak is tasty with chile con queso that is pleasantly spicy and untouched by velveeta (critical). The fajita is tasty and, unlike many local restaurants, has quality inputs. We have now been four or five times and are always pleased. The bar is a fantastic place to watch a Champions League game on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons (with a nice selection of Mexican beers and, my wife claims, good margaritas). If there is anything to complain about, the division between the smoking and nonsmoking sections does little to contain the rather powerful smell in the evening.

Mexican versus Tex-Mex

Joe Drape of the New York Times has written an article on Tex-Mex cuisine in Texas. I must admit that I am a frequent violator of the category error that he discusses; my roots are from the border region of Texas (7 miles door-to-bridge, to be precise) where Tex-Mex and Mexican food are one in the same. Having spent a significant part of my teenage years wandering around the border region of Mexico (when it was still safe to do so), I am not sure that the line is as fine as depicted; at best, the differences are quite subtle.

publicizing manifestos

I watched in shock as NBC News engaged in one of what I believe to be the most shocking and irresponsible acts of journalism that I have ever witnessed. I am at a loss to explain why any responsible news agency would air the grievances of a sociopathic murderer. Everything that I have seen about this suggests that the murderer was an attention seeker; those who paid attention to his profane musings were concerned that he was fundamentally disturbed. Were his ramblings to have been sent to NBC without the backing of his unfathomable actions, they would have been discarded as the concerns of a misguided misanthrope. Backed by his outrageous actions, he has now been given voice. One wonders what set of incentives this puts forth. If one cannot find an outlet for such musings without engaging in horrific behavior, then one might logically conclude that the horrible behavior is a necessary condition for publicizing the misanthropic beliefs. To say that publicizing this manifesto sets a dangerous precedent diminishes not only the needless sacrifice of 30+ lives at Virginia Tech, but also places a target on innocents that happen to unknowingly cross paths with silent misanthropes that wish their antisocial beliefs to be publicized. I hope that my inferences are incorrect. I fear that they are logically sound.

Statistical significance.....

Gelman and Stern published a paper that every social scientist employing statistical analysis should read. This is, of course, not the only paper that every social scientist employing statistical analysis should read, but it makes an important point that is almost certain to be lost on those who merely read the products of social scientists that use statistics. Ok, ok, so statistical significance is not the holy grail. That is not the point. The point is that differences in statistical significance often cannot be statistically distinguished from one another in statistical terms. And this should be troubling. Troubling above and beyond the other oft cited issues with statistical significance.

El Maguey [Watson Road at Des Peres]

El Maguey was acceptable to pretty good. This was our first Saint Louis mexican food experience since the trip to Texas and this creates a wee bit of bias in the assessment. Between the three of us, some guacamole, chorizo y huevos, a quesadilla, and a fajita plate arrived. The portions were large and the staples were quite good. The guacamole was a bit artificial, but tasty nonetheless. The rice was excellent; the refried beans were also very good. The chorizo y huevos were out of balance in favor of the chorizo. The fajita plate was tasty but the steak was excessively fatty. The chips and salsa were quite good and both were fresh. Flour tortillas leave a bit to be desired. In the end, El Maguey is good for Saint Louis; it would not last months in Austin. Next stop, a whirlwind tour of Cherokee street! This time, I promise to remember the names......

HIV, Circumcision, and Ethical Experimentation

In a fascinating story, the BBC reports that a randomized trial of circumcision halves the rate of HIV infection among heterosexual men in Kenya and Uganda consistent with previous evidence from South Africa. The story laudably notes that circumcision should not be thought to justify sex without protection and this point should not be overlooked. What I find fascinating is the consequence of a pilot study for experimentation. In short, the US NIH had to stop the trials early because it deemed a continuation of withholding circumcision from the control group unethical. While in this case, I cannot disagree; it would be morally reprehensible to continue. That said, I fear that this creates a dangerous experimental precedent for treatments with consequences that are less well known. Were it not that circumcision is a practice that dates back centuries, but instead was a pharmaceutical, say Vioxx or some relation, might we be inclined to engage similar moral concerns and ultimately support the wide employment of a treatment that leads to forms of longer term harm that might have been known were the study to have continued. In short, in this case it makes sense. What I hope is that researchers remain skeptical because a part of the justification for rigorous trials is the hope that unintended consequences may be discovered.

Ruiz's Mexican Restaurant [901 N US 67, Florissant]

Ruiz was just a bit above average. We have only been once and it was shortly after our arrival from Texas. I have had far worse, [insert the name of every Mexican food restaurant that we tried in the Boston area with the exception of one place that I cannot remember the name of in Union Square, Somerville]. The guacamole Ruiz was quite good; the rest was nothing special. Rio was not thrilled, Ambrose complained; neither of these is a good sign. I was so desperate that I would have been happy with virtually anything that improved on Taco Bell. On this account, Ruiz did not disappoint. The one thing that was quite memorable was that they have good flour tortillas. This is an important thing to me; now that I have found Harina para Tortillas, it matters quite a bit less because I can make my own.

This review is admittedly a bit lame, but it has been a few months since I was back there. If I find myself in Florissant again, I might go back, but I would not make a special trip.

An Aside on Boxed Lunches

In theory, food offers a selective incentive to encourage attendance at the plethora of seminars that we have had this semester. But I am beginning to sense a problem -- a paltry menu. Working one's way through the menu and trying everything once was easy, now that we have come almost through round two, how I hope that something better comes along. I suspect there are structural reasons why we cannot change [indeed, I am almost certain what they are and this is a REALLY silly reason].

Looking down the game tree, I see an issue on the horizon. After almost one dozen talks that are not a part of regularly scheduled seminar series [after all, in some way or other, every talk is a job talk] and nine in the space of two weeks, another dozen are scheduled between a joint search with International and Area Studies and a search in normative political theory. Without a change in the menu, the selective incentive will, at least for me, be completely underutilized because I think I would rather fast.

El Indio [Manchester Rd. in Rock Hill]

I am not sure what I think about El Indio. The first time was nice. The food was tasty and the service was excellent. The guacamole was excellent and the rest was way above the bar. The next time was not so good. Part of it was my fault, I was in the mood for nachos with fajita and they were not at all good.

Lily's Mexican Restaurant [4601 S. Kingshighway near Devonshire/Landsdowne]

I like Lily's; my favorite so far. The food is tasty and authentic in a host of ways. The chile con queso was unique; very much like a queso flameado with roasted peppers. Mmmmmm..... I had the carne asada plate which was tasty; the sopes (can you believe it, sopes on a menu in Saint Louis???) were very good also. The gent making Margaritas in the blender was priceless (Mexican beers are also available); the organization of the restaurant is interesting. Walk in, stand in line to order, serve yourself sodas and salsas, chips are given to you after ordering, take a seat and wait for your food to arrive. The salsas were very good! The guacamole was tasty. Another high point was recognizing that they make abondigas on Thursdays and pozole on Saturdays. That has been marked on the calendar....

Instrumental Variables

Now that Thanksgiving break has started, I have a bit of time to read things that I have been meaning to read that are not directly related to work. Ha ha ha.... So I read a piece on instrumental variables in econometrics in the Economist. The piece gave me something to think about; I frequently find myself coming across odd data and thinking about the various uses for these odd data as instruments for things. Then I stop myself and get back to work ignoring endogeneity. Thank gosh I am not interested in causal inference......