It’s been a familiar and infuriating story during the pandemic: Hours waiting for an agent only to have the call dropped. The ordeal of rescheduling canceled flights. Delayed refunds. What gives?
Having arrived in the country via the Spanish Conquest, the grain’s presence poses the question: What’s native, and what isn’t, when it comes to a nation’s culinary history?
When browned on the bottom of the pot by a skilled cook, the grain is transformed into a complex delicacy, one prized by food cultures around the world.