..you're resting on the beach after taking a pounding by the surf...it's hotter than hades outside and your mind drifts like wood between random thoughts...then you hear the music...it's approaching, god bless capitalism, alive and well on the gulf of mexico.
the van is playing music, but it's more mariachi than ice cream man...no bother. you can respect the ice cream man for coming through no matter what tune he lures you with...
but no, there's something more amiss about this ice cream man... he has spanish words sprawled all over his van...you search the high school spanish data bank in your mind and find most the volumes checked out. but here's the one word you recognize for sure, caliente, cripes neighbors, where have i been? hot ice cream?
i turned to our hispanic brethren who were hanging out and asked, "mike buddy, can i get a translation over here?"
mike said, "sure, what ya need?"
"the ice cream van? what's up with caliente? doesn't that mean hot?" i asked
"that's not ice cream, it's corn in a cup with chili pepper, jalapenos, mayonnaise, and a little lemon juice...it's good, you want some?"
"hot corn in a cup? it's 110 out here...it's got mayo and lemon juice? who eats that?"
"stop it, girl, you are making me hungry..."
so, there were two interesting things i learned from the hot corn sales on the beach. 1> must be an ethnic thing, the thought of eating hot corn in lemony mayo makes this gringo wanna puke. and 2> the hispanic folk love hot corn no matter what the temperature... i saw three "hot refreshment" vans go by in under an hour. the demand must be red hot, because the supply was ceaseless.
fyi: not a single ice cream treat for sale in the musical corn van. never occurred to em, i guess...far out.
Posted by shoe at June 20, 2005 07:18 PM | TrackBack