Mexican Beer Snacks

During my third year at A&M, I worked as a bartender for a large hotel in College Station. It was an easy job, and most of the time I really enjoyed it. Businessmen would drop in, have a gin and tonic or four, and try to impress me by leaving very large tips. Pretty sweet deal.

The only problem that I had with this job was whenever my patrons requested free bar snacks. This always made me cringe. I couldn't help it. We had a huge, 6 lb. bag of pretzels behind the bar that had been there for as long as I'd worked there. And that's what I was expected to give these men. This bag had already been opened (not by me), and it did not have any kind of handy zipper feature to seal it back up. It just always stayed open.

IT ALWAYS STAYED OPEN.

The thing about pretzels is that they don't rot. Well, maybe if they got wet they would. But that's beside the point. They stale. They may look just fine, but they most certainly are not. And I am just not okay with serving sub-par food to anyone, especially a complete stranger.

But those strangers would ask for them. And it was part of my job. So I'd suck it up, scoop up a bowlful of misery and hand it to the sorry bastard, my inner chef sobbing and wailing, "No! No! Noooooo!"

Maybe a bit of an exaggeration. But anyway, that was my only real experience with bar snacks until just recently.



I am forever indebted to my fellow cooks for introducing me to this "beer snack." No, it doesn't contain any beer. I think they just call it that because it goes so well with beer. Especially Corona. Or Modelo. Mmmm...



You will need:

Salt (preferably kosher)
Cayenne powder
Chili powder
One cucumber
The juice of 4 limes
A handful of cherry tomatoes
Chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

You will also need:

A knife
A cutting board
A bowl
Plenty of beer

The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Peel and slice the cuke. If you want, halve the tomatoes. Combine everything in the bowl, and give it a good toss. You can add as much or as little chile as you want, but I like lots of it. And lots of salt.



The next time you're having friends over for beers and barbecue, TRY THIS. You'll thank me. And you'll thank Mexico. It is salty, spicy, tangy nirvana. And it beats the hell out of stale pretzels.