ACP is the sort of totemic dish Southerners squelch instead of trumpet

April 10, 2018 7:07 AM

"Only the americanos order it," he told me. "They devour it."
posted by PussKillian (82 comments total)

Is it wrong that I thought "Squelch" and "Trumpet" were also Southern dishes?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:20 AM on April 10, 2018 [19 favorites]

Ah yes, the good ol' ACP from La Rancherita. I have to admit it, I really enjoy that particular dish from that particular restaurant. It may be Mexican food for non-Mexicans, but dammit, it tastes good.
posted by NoMich at 7:22 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I had no memory of this from growing up in NC, but I checked the menus of places I went as a kid and sure enough there it is. (One place only had arroz con camarones, but it was the same rice, protein, cheese sauce idea).

I can also absolutely see the white people in my family fucking loving that dish, complete with calling it an an acronym so they don't have to use any Spanish.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:22 AM on April 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

I had no memory of this from growing up in NC, but I checked the menus of places I went as a kid and sure enough there it is.

I think it's more of a recent development for Mexican restaurants. It seems to have popped up overnight everywhere. It's the General Tso's of Mexican food.
posted by NoMich at 7:24 AM on April 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

That looks nothing like the ACP I had in Costa Rica, which was amazing. If you're in Park Slope and get a hankering, Bogota Latin Bistro has a killer ACP.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:29 AM on April 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

Every country has a version of this one-pot meal that finds chicken cooked on a bed of seasoned rice.

Right of the gate, not really? At least in Chile, you can order chicken, and you can order rice, but it's not a thing or on the menu. And if it's a true Chilean restaurant, the rice is guaranteed plain white & seasoning-free.

But I guess their definition of 'every country' in Latin America doesn't extend this far south.
posted by signal at 7:31 AM on April 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Well yeah, it looks nothing like anything anyone has seen in any non-southern-US restaurant because that's the only place it exists.

"He doesn't sound like a cool reporter," the text read.

i love this very much thank u
posted by poffin boffin at 7:32 AM on April 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

Fort Worth girl here, and shy away from any ACP versions that taste like something I made at home in my 20's. That wasn't good stuff, and it's unfortunately what most of our Tex Mex places find acceptable. Having spent a lot of time in the Caribbean, I miss the good stuff....
posted by lextex at 7:35 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I am an advocate of the Cuban style of arroz con pollo and now feel the need to make some. Also maybe some picadillo. I won't lie though, if presented with this Southern version of ACP I would also definitely devour it.
posted by PussKillian at 7:36 AM on April 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'm gonna second PussKillian in saying that the Cuban varietal of this dish is the best version I've encountered.

I think the author definitely should have referenced that style more. It's absolutely delicious and far from the pedestrian goop in the pictures.
posted by Dillionaire at 7:42 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oddly, I just had this dish for the first time at El Salto in Brooklyn Park, but it was called "Pollo Cancún." It was definitely the same thing: rice, chicken, gloopy cheese sauce. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that it's lurking on other menus under different names, even at places that serve more authentic arroz con pollo.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:44 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh. Oh wow. I’m so glad for this article because gloopy cheese sauce is not what I would expect when ordering arroz con pollo. I’d expect something like the Cuban version. I’d be very sad. I’d also be willing to admit I was an idiot.
posted by bilabial at 7:47 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

One reason that isn't likely to "spread everywhere" is that we'd rather eat better versions of it out west. Yes, it's an interesting story but that doesn't make me want to eat bland food.

We have our own questionably gringo-fied cantina food out here too don't get me wrong (El Torito probably being the most visible chain but not as good as the smaller ones, and its menu somewhat less gringo than it used to be). It's not quite that denuded of authenticity or flavor:

POLLO FRESCO EN ADOBO
Chicken breast marinated with chile de árbol adobo, grilled and served atop sautéed fresh spinach. Served with a grilled stuffed pasilla chile and rice.

This is how I do it too (without the chile) using thighs and Herdez's ranchera & chipotle in adobo in equal proportions straight out of the cans. And if I'm in a hurry I eat it with cous cous spiked with pico de gallo instead of rice.

Versailles, probably the best known Cuban place in LA, does have an ACP on the menu:

#9 Arroz Con Pollo - Chicken and Yellow Rice
A classical Cuban dish - Valencia rice and chicken married in just the right amount of seasoning and garnished with peas and pimentos.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:51 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

Wow, that seems singularly terrible, and I actually have had a similarly-terrible thing outside of the south. I found myself, somehow, in a very White People Mexican-sih restaurant and -- this was an obvious mistake, I don't know why I did this -- I ordered arroz con pollo. It was pretty much as described here, although I don't recall if there was melted cheese.

My mother is very much a meat-and-potatoes white lady, but she learned to cook a few Puerto Rican things over the years (her arroz con gandules is much, much better than mine; I have no idea why), and I was expecting something like I'd had at home. No dice.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:53 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

the point is, from the restaurant owner's point of view, it doesn't matter how inauthentic or "pedestrian" the dish is, because their customers like it and order it, which is good for their bottom line. the dad referenced in the article was like "idk what this shit is but we're selling it," it's not like his family's restaurant is going to be denounced from on high by some shadowy all-knowing latino restaurant association.

"I don't think he's ever even tasted it. But we sold it. It paid the bills."
posted by poffin boffin at 7:53 AM on April 10, 2018 [30 favorites]

Out of curiosity, I had to look up Pollo Tropical -- which was the regional chain I went to in Florida when I wasn't in range of Tacos Al Carbon or didn't feel like tacos that day -- but they don't have anything like the described ACP. The closest thing on the menu is that the boneless chicken breast looks like it's served on "Spanish" rice, but there's no cheese. The bone-in chicken platters, which are the main attraction, are served with black beans and white rice and no cheese.

But then Florida has always been a bit of an oddball compared to the other Southern states.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:54 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

ACP was in Sydney, Australia, in the '80s. It was my favourite dish at the local Spanish restaurant. Thanks for the reminder.
posted by emf at 8:01 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was actually trying to figure this out the other day with no luck, so I'll ask now: what are the major differences between the Puerto Rican and Cuban styles of arroz con pollo? I've never had either (and none of the Cuban restaurants around here have it on the menu).
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:01 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

huh
that is absolutely not what i was expecting when i read 'arroz con pollo'
i am glad to know that this can happen to one, in restaurants; forewarned is forearmed
it reminds me of that curious menu scourge, 'santa fe chicken,' which pops up everywhere and anywhere and has absolutely nothing to do with anything i can place
posted by halation at 8:04 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I always assumed arroz con pollo was Texan, given that it uses a level of cheese that is endemic to Tex-Mex dishes and not in Mexican food. The La Charreada chain in Indiana serves it with bell peppers, onions, and tomatoes mixed in, which is quite delicious, and oh, huh, I'm just now realizing that they're basically just mixing chicken fajitas in with some rice. Tasty, nonetheless.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:23 AM on April 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

You'll also find the exact same thing under slightly different names at your Applebee's/Ruby Tuesday/TGI Friday/etc etc places as "Tequila Lime Chicken" or similar..
posted by k5.user at 8:25 AM on April 10, 2018

What is wrong with people? You people, I mean. For not linking to or describing your best recipes for Cuban/Puerto Rican/etc versions? Come on!
posted by rtha at 8:30 AM on April 10, 2018 [17 favorites]

(1) Make Goya yellow rice
(2) Put schickums in it
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:33 AM on April 10, 2018 [5 favorites]

Lunch Special P at El Rodeo in Durham pretty much made my day in the late 90s. If you had a slow afternoon and could handle the food coma, you would add chorizo for $1. Durham has changed a lot, and so have my tastes. I'd pass on it today. Maybe.

Now I prefer the Dominican version, Locrio. In fact, I bet I could eat a different style of ACP every night.
posted by a complicated history at 8:34 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

OMG. La Rancherita is my hometown, around-the-corner place I go when we don't feel like cooking or spending a lot of money. In and out in 30 minutes for $30! And I do get the ACP! Or sometimes the fajitas that are served inside half a pineapple.

I discovered ACP when I lived in Southern California but at least they wrote it out in Spanish on the menu there.
posted by something something at 8:35 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

As luck would have we are in the process of killing off a large mess of Pollo con Arroz adapted from The Tex-Mex Cookbook. No cheese. Not even any chiles, although we do spice it up a bit. Simple, filling and tasty comfort food. Cheap too...
posted by jim in austin at 8:40 AM on April 10, 2018

San José de la Paz may look like a 1,000 person village in Jalisco, but it is also home to one of Mexico's top-secret intelligence and propaganda labs.

This is where ACP, among other 'Mexican' cultural items, were specially developed for export to the USA.

Their mission is to improve the Mexican people's morale and bring our neighbors down a notch. If you have ever walked down a street in Mexico at night, seen the glow of TV screens, and listened to whole families laughing inside... that was the secret cable channel were we Mexicans can watch gringos with giant sombreros slamming margaritas on Cinco de Mayo andas eating ACP.

While we eat our grilled chicken with a side of red rice seasoned with fresh sour cream and crumbled cotija cheese.
posted by Index Librorum Prohibitorum at 8:42 AM on April 10, 2018 [30 favorites]

ACP from Fiesta Grill on Highway 54 just outside of Carrboro, NC is great. Everything I've ever had there is great.
posted by 41swans at 8:47 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've never heard of ACP before despite growing up in Texas, but as folks have noted it's kind of a new thing. I dunno, it sounds kinda good? Chicken and rice with a creamy / cheesy sauce? If you did it honestly with plenty of spice and fresh chile it could be pretty good. I wouldn't confuse it with authentic Mexican food, nor Tex-Mex. But maybe Cal-Mex?

(Total derail, but this article is like the third time I've seen "Viet-Cajun" this week. It was not a term I'd heard before. I understand how such a thing could come to be from the Gulf Coast, but is it really a Thing? Could someone please export that to the rest of the US now? Thank you.)
posted by Nelson at 9:03 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

As a someone of Latino descent, it is amusing to me watch folks distance themselves from Americanized Mexican food. I mean, who cares if it isn't authentic, if you like it, you like it! Hell, my Mexican mother and I still go to those sort of places when I visit her back home. We aren't looking for what she and my grandmother make, we're looking for something that everyone else in our extended family eat who aren't very adventurous.
posted by Kitteh at 9:06 AM on April 10, 2018 [26 favorites]

Starch (rice, potatoes, pasta) covered in a high fat, high salt sauce (cheese and/or tomato, gravy), with some protein (chicken, beef, pork, sausage). It's going to be popular with a lot of people because it has lots of fat and carbs and salt and it has meat. That crappy Velveeta-type cheese has amazing mouth-feel I love that 1 Mexican town has launched all these entrepreneurs who are likely hiring family and friends from back home. If people want to eat an inauthentic dish, I will toast them with some delicious American pizza. Not really, I don't eat cheese, so no ACP for me. Great story.
posted by theora55 at 9:28 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

. . . Chipotle, which took the burrito style of San Francisco's Mission District. . .

That's. . . an astonishing statement. Does Chipotle actually say this? Yikes.

Alongside tamales and maybe empanadas, arroz con pollo is one of the most beloved dishes in Latin America.

I've eaten a lot of chicken and rice in many tens of cities in Latin American countries. (To be fair, not even half of the big ones.) But, I've never heard or read this phrase anywhere before today. Both tamales are empenadas are quite regional, though present in multicultural cities elsewhere, but I've encountered each many hundreds of times. This sounds an awful lot like a made-up thing that doesn't actually exist anywhere beyond the author's immediate neighborhood. Which doesn't mean it's bad.
posted by eotvos at 9:32 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think nobody wants to claim it because it's like the laziest cooking you can do and still call it cooking. Change the flavor of the rice and sauce slightly and you've got like 20 different Lean Cuisine diet meals.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:47 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I grew up in suburban L.A. where/when the El Torito chain was fairly ubiquitous, and was the "family Mexican restaurant" where I could eat pseudo-Mexican food with my gringo taste buds (I couldn't tolerate Medium Salsa until my 40s) while my parents consumed frighteningly large margaritas. When 10-year-old me tired of combo plates with Tamales and Enchiladas I tried the Arroz Con Pollo and liked it... standard 'spanish rice' topped with chunks of white meat chicken cooked in a red-ish sauce. No cheese I recall. I'm semi-sad to see it replaced on the El Torito menu with Pollo Fresco en Adobo, but tempted to go back just for that.

Let me just say that I HATE the current trend of using initials/acronyms for EVERYTHING. "ACP"?!? Instead of "Queso", Chile Con Queso should be "CCQ", right? If we're going to acronym-ize over-Americanized dishes, let's make Egg Foo Yung "EFY".
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:56 AM on April 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

We have a legit dish called Arroz con Pollo in Peru but it's green and very coriander heavy, and not cheesy at all.

It's pretty tasty, though, and easy to make.
posted by Tarumba at 9:59 AM on April 10, 2018 [7 favorites]

I think the thing about this that kinda of touches an off note for me is that they don't just call it 'tequila lime chicken' or come up with some fictitious(?) war hero and give it the General Tso's treatment.

'Pollo El Guapo'
'El Pollo Del Jefe'
'Pollo Secreto'
'Pollo Guererro'

I mean arroz con pollo means something specific to most people of Latin American or Central American heritage.

If I went to a Cajun place and ordered beans and rice and they brought out black beans or kidney beans, it wouldn't technically be wrong...it just would be kind of misguided.
posted by Dillionaire at 10:00 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

So I've been making a version of Arroz con Pollo from The Joy of Cooking for over 20 years now. My kids LOOOOOOOVE it. For several years, you could get a version like that in Mexican restaurants. Saffron/paprika rice with bell peppers, onions, chicken. Really, really good. But the last few years it's all ACP and the first time one of my kids got the ACP version, they actually sent it back to the kitchen and ordered something else.

Anyway, the version I make is similar to this recipe but I don't add green olives and I can't remember if I use a bay leaf or not. I also add diced ham with the onions and peppers.
posted by cooker girl at 10:14 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Deep in the heart of Las Palmas country (a.k.a. Nashville), restaurants here don't call it Arroz Con Pollo, but Pollo Loco. It's basically ACP with a sprinkle of diced medium-hot peppers in the cheese. Still about as enticing as TFA suggests.

If you are in Nashville, this gringo thinks La Hacienda in Woodbine beats any of the chain places hands-down for Mexican food (President Obama ordered take-out there once and a whole wall of the place is photos of the staff with Mr. POTUS44 in shirtsleeves), or else visit one of a string of pupuserías a little further down Nolensville Rd in the Tusculum area if you're looking for decent Central American fare.
posted by pianoblack at 10:15 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I've been living in the South for over half a dozen years now and I've never heard of ACP, nor of it being a thing, until this very moment.

The glamor photo on the NPR page looks straight out of an early 1960s Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, albeit substituting cheese for the mayonnaise in the mayonnaise-and-cheese sauce, and adding more seasonings to the salt and oregano.
posted by ardgedee at 10:38 AM on April 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

See also Singaporean "Chicken Rice."
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:44 AM on April 10, 2018

> I wouldn't confuse it with authentic Mexican food, nor Tex-Mex. But maybe Cal-Mex?

It was created by Mexicans, to serve customers mostly in the US South.
posted by rtha at 10:47 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Viet Cajun sounds delicious. I've had Vietnamese Mayan cuisine and it was very good.

Speaking of Mayan cuisine, I once went hiking and camping in the Usumacinta river region to look at some partially excavated pyramids and frescoes.

We made pit stops at small Mayan communities along the way to buy vegetables. One time a family offered to cook us some rice. My friend asked for Arroz con Pollo, big faux pass in such a poor community. We tried to backpedal, but this family was having none of it.

The grandfather went into the jungle with bow and arrow and an antique air rifle. He came back with a large black bird, and we had our meal.

It is the only time I've had Arroz con Holofaisán (rice and great curassow), and it was delicious.
posted by Index Librorum Prohibitorum at 10:52 AM on April 10, 2018 [16 favorites]

ooh was it at yaxchilan
posted by poffin boffin at 11:00 AM on April 10, 2018

Close to yaxchilan. A few miles from the river into the Mexican side
posted by Index Librorum Prohibitorum at 11:17 AM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you are interested in learning more about Viet Cajun, David Chang has a new documentary series out on Netflix called "Ugly Delicious" (I think). He's got one whole episode devoted to the phenomenon. It was pretty interesting.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 11:46 AM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I've lived mostly in NC and Georgia for 40 years and never heard of this. I've even eaten at El Rodeo in Durham many times, but their menu is so damn long with all the combination platters that I guess I just skipped right over the "ACP". These days in both NC and Georgia there are large enough Latino communities that we have a wealth of other options besides those places with the long menus and the endless combination platters.
posted by hydropsyche at 11:58 AM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I make my wife's mother's Cuban arroz con pollo every week. mmm-hmm is that good eatin'. Her secret ingredient is soy sauce, which may point to an explanation regarding a distant and somewhat murky ancestor known as El Chino. Her mom's side of the family also surprised us when they came back above the Cuban average for Native American DNA, so who knows.

Most of the other Cuban-heritage stuff I've learned came along with fussy prep steps that lengthen time-to-table - the only modern one I've been able to adapt is pre-sauteeing bacon (or whatever pork you have on hand) with onions, garlic, and green peppers before adding black beans from a can, which does pretty good job with the flavor density. It does lack some of the more complex flavors of a long-prep black bean, though.
posted by mwhybark at 12:18 PM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I will say, as a frequenter of one of the NC restaurants mentioned in the article, that I've been going there for over a decade and I'm pretty certain they only started abbreviating it "ACP" on the menu within the last couple of years.
posted by something something at 12:58 PM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've been living in the South for over half a dozen years now and I've never heard of ACP, nor of it being a thing, until this very moment.

I've lived mostly in NC and Georgia for 40 years and never heard of this.

This whole article reads like something someone was just making up. I've had chicken and rice, and Arroz con Pollo in many places, but never noticed it being a particular thing in the South, or seen or heard the abbreviation ACP. I've actually thought at times that it didn't seem as popular as it was in SoCal. Maybe it depends on where you are in "The South".

Do they also say "lamestain" there?
posted by bongo_x at 1:06 PM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

what are the major differences between the Puerto Rican and Cuban styles of arroz con pollo?

I'd like to know as well. In two of the recipes I found with a quick search, the Cuban version includes orange and lime juices and tomatos, while the Puerto Rican version doesn't; there are also some other minor differences as well. But I have no idea how typical or representative either of them are.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:24 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

lamestain

Certainly not! That's PNW only,* sirrah!

*well, in origin. it is only spoken of in hushed tones.
posted by mwhybark at 2:04 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

BTW that Peruvian recipe sounds delicious and I wish to subscribe to your cilantro/culantro-infused newsletter.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:06 PM on April 10, 2018

My mother-in-law's is very simple, no saffron or bijol rice, no peas or tomatoes or green or pimento peppers. Sliced green olives maybe. No lime/orange component, athough using some lemon while cooking the chicken is fine. Basically it's chicken thighs sauteed in olive oil with spices, garlic, and onion, adding to the base including soy sauce and sometimes a Goya Mojo or Sofrito if any is on hand. Then one can either add the rice to the pan a bit at a time to make it like a risotto or make the rice separately, cook's choice. Cleanup is easier with standard rice.
posted by mwhybark at 2:11 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

This whole article reads like something someone was just making up. I've had chicken and rice, and Arroz con Pollo in many places, but never noticed it being a particular thing in the South, or seen or heard the abbreviation ACP.

I've seen the abbreviation before. American College of Physicians, Automatic Colt Pistol, forty-four other popular acronyms, one hundred fifty-one other acronyms... but I'm pretty sure "arroz con pollo" is poised to break into the top 200 now. Perhaps NPR could look into making "fetch" happen next.
posted by roystgnr at 2:23 PM on April 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

(Wait, should I have made those links to specific versions of each page? If someone goes to Wikipedia after me and finds that "arroz con pollo" has been added, check the edit history and see if it was added by an IP in the 216.35.221.x block...)
posted by roystgnr at 2:25 PM on April 10, 2018

Viet Cajun sounds delicious.

If you should find yourself in Austin, there's a Creole Peruvian food truck downtown.
posted by Candleman at 3:03 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

Inspired by this post, I made arroz con pollo for dinner. The wife loved it. Or maybe she was just being nice. Anyway, she ate it all.

I thought it was tasty, but I’ll admit, inspired by the first photo in the article, I added a side of dipping sauce from ye olde Sizzler Malibu Chicken. It’s mostly mayonnaise and mustard. Mostly.
posted by valkane at 3:34 PM on April 10, 2018

There is a similarly made up dish common in Mexican places throughout the south called Chori-Pollo which seems to be the same thing with the addition of a bunch of diced chorizo. I’ve never encountered anything like it in Mexico, but it is very popular in those weird mini chain places. The notion of a group of people who started those restaurants and divided up the turf is very interesting and was just tossed off as an aside in this article. I’d love to learn more about that group and how it came to be.
posted by Lame_username at 4:31 PM on April 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

As it happens, I just flew in to Chapel Hill and am having dinner with my parents at La Hacienda on US 15-501. Guess what's on the menu? Oh you bet imma try it.
posted by mwhybark at 5:44 PM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have been hunting for a good arroz con pollo recipe since moving from Texas. There was one Cuban place that killed it. It was prepared as a paella style dish for 2-4, so it took coordination to have a plus one. I haven’t had luck. I can’t tell if I’m messing up the soffrito or just in the wrong regional recipes. So you can bet I’ll be trying out everyone’s link.

As a kid, I was super picky (still am!). In an effort to reform me, my mom served me my favorite meal day in and day out. The idea is that eventually I would get bored enough to try what the rest of the family was eating. After a month, she caved. Years later, I’m mostly an adult, and take them to said Cuban place. I order for us, mostly to ensure I’m getting my favorite dish. And halfway through dinner my mom commented about how adventurous I’d become.

“Because I’m willing to eat more than chicken rice and peas?” as I eat another bite of my delicious chicken rice and peas.

She insists it’s different. Because spices. But I maintain that it’s just evidence I can have my preferences without being bland or uncultured.
posted by politikitty at 6:04 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

All of this talk about "ACP" is very creepy to me. It's this impulse to pressure-wash everything they see into a dull paste. It's not enough that the only thing they'll eat is slabs covered in cheese but then nothing is allowed to just have a name that describes what it is, it's like a dystopian society that only gives people ID numbers. Our dystopian society only gives our cheese-covered protein slabs 3-letter identification strings.
posted by bleep at 6:41 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

I hope many people continue to enjoy this, and I hope their continued enjoyment of it continues to piss off other people.
posted by dantsea at 7:27 PM on April 10, 2018

I mean, it's cool that these Mexican business owners found a way to profit from the bland-ass palates of their white neighbours, but as soon as Chipotle starts selling ACP shit is gonna get dark.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:01 PM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

> I wouldn't confuse it with authentic Mexican food, nor Tex-Mex. But maybe Cal-Mex?

It was created by Mexicans, to serve customers mostly in the US South.

Dix-Mex!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 9:08 PM on April 10, 2018 [4 favorites]

I can't help but be thinking ICP this whole thread.
posted by Zalzidrax at 9:14 PM on April 10, 2018 [8 favorites]

We have a legit dish called Arroz con Pollo in Peru but it's green and very coriander heavy, and not cheesy at all.

When you said Peru, I thought maybe you were going to be talking about that delicious thing with chicken and rice wrapped up in a banana leaf and boiled. But I guess that's a different thing: Juanes.
posted by straight at 10:21 PM on April 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

La Hacienda actually had no less than THREE A.P.X. offerings: A.P.C., A.P. Tex, and A.C.C.

APC was rice, chicken, and supposedly shrimp (I did not note any). AP Tex replaced the chicked with steak, and ACC used only shrimp (camarones, presumably).

I included a picture of the APC I received in the linked post. It was extremely salty, but not terrible. The cheese appeared to be something like melted Monterey; for some reason I had been expecting something like Texan queso. The chicken had been marinated in a prep sauce that was citrus heavy but which appeared to have tomato and chile elements. I was not able to determine if the saltiness was due to the cheese, the rice, the marinade or a salting prior to service. I suspect it was the marinade.

My mother remarked that it both looked like and reminded her of poutine. I am sure, athough she did not specify, that she meant poutine steak frites.

What it reminded me of is Seattle takeout chicken teriyaki, with the cheese subbing in for the often hypersweet teriyaki sauce. I couldn't tell you if La Hacienda's ACP is representative, good, excellent, or what, exactly. It was edible; it wasn't bad, exactly. I would be interested to try a less-saltly version, but I don't think it's a keeper for me.
posted by mwhybark at 10:44 PM on April 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

a distinction I want to raise here in-thread, too - A.C.P. and arroz con pollo are definitely not the same dish, and Arellano's article is careful to use the words to mean distinct dishes. A.C.P. seems to be most consistently defined by the use of the acronym and the presence of cheese sauce.
posted by mwhybark at 11:01 PM on April 10, 2018 [6 favorites]

See also Singaporean "Chicken Rice."

I am here to mention Malaysian Nasi Ayam, which is pretty much the standard meal. But much better to just find the local Indian place and get it with some decent sauce.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:16 AM on April 11, 2018

Never heard of "ACP," but the story reminds me of the provenance of cashew chicken, another dish modified (or invented) by immigrants to appeal to American tastes.
posted by Drab_Parts at 4:41 AM on April 11, 2018

This reminds me of my impression of German Schnitzel versus Wiener Schnitzel. I've lived in both countries and as an outside enjoyed hearing the controversy because it was refreshingly not America-centered. The Austrian purist cannot fathom dumping sauce all over something so sublime as a perfectly prepared Schnitzel, which only need a squeeze of fresh lemon, while the German Schnitzel lovers cannot find any reason to avoid sauce on anything. Jedem sein eigenes Schnitzel!
posted by waving at 6:10 AM on April 11, 2018 [2 favorites]

This article reminded me of my "delicious plate of goop" AskMe a few years ago. And confirmed that all the Mexican restaurants do indeed use the same menu! Dinner combo #9 for me, thanks.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 9:02 AM on April 11, 2018

Kitteh: "As a someone of Latino descent, it is amusing to me watch folks distance themselves from Americanized Mexican food. I mean, who cares if it isn't authentic, if you like it, you like it!"

Food-shaming threads are one of Metafilter's oldest traditions.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:06 AM on April 11, 2018 [5 favorites]

My interest as a Peruvian in the US is for American people to try as much Peruvian food as possible, because if there is a market, there will be restaurants, and I really want more Peruvian restaurants near me. Cantonese-Peruvian, Amazonian, Peruvian Creole, I want all of that stuff!

They can put cheese on stuff to make it more marketable, I don't care.

If you should find yourself in Austin, there's a Creole Peruvian food truck downtown.

*cries with jealousy*
posted by Tarumba at 10:02 AM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Today I learned the Spanish word for rice is arroz. I seriously did not know that, all the Mexican restaurants I have been to just said "rice".

And now that I think of it, I also didn't know the Spanish word for beans. Google says "frijol". Thanks Google!
posted by leaper at 10:43 AM on April 11, 2018

What beans are called is somewhat regional in Spanish. In Puerto Rico (as far as I know), beans are mostly referred to as habichuelas (rosadas, blancas, rojas, etc.), except for black beans, which are frijoles negros.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:05 AM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sorry, they probably saw me mixing the melty queso fresco the places I used to eat at would often use to top a chimichanga with the ubiquitous rice 25 years ago and decided they should make stuff that comes out of the kitchen that way. ;)
posted by wierdo at 11:55 AM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

Reflecting on this more, it reminds me of Tyler Cowen's theory of maximizing your restaurant experience.

The steak and chicken dish are likely to be dull and unimaginative. It's a constant among lots of various cuisines. They are typically reserved for the fussy eater in any given party.

Which is why trying to replicate a particular rice with chicken dish has proved such a personal challenge.
posted by politikitty at 1:20 PM on April 11, 2018 [1 favorite]

uncleozzy, that is the damnedest thing. I have never heard them called anything but frijoles in all my trips to Latin America. But it's true that I've never been to PR, although I have more than a few acquaintances from there. Now I must quiz them. Sofa King interesting!
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 12:28 AM on April 12, 2018

In Chile beans are porotos.
posted by signal at 4:57 AM on April 12, 2018

I think you can see this in Goya's branding in the US; the default is to use "habichuelas," presumably because its original market was Puerto Rican New Yorkers, but for products typical of other Latin American countries, they'll use "frijoles."

(For example, although whole pinto beans are labeled "habichuelas pintas," refried pintos are labeled "frijoles pintos refritos.")
posted by uncleozzy at 4:57 AM on April 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

The notion of a group of people who started those restaurants and divided up the turf is very interesting and was just tossed off as an aside in this article. I’d love to learn more about that group and how it came to be.

Yeah, both the article and MeFites are surprising unenthusiastic about a small group of immigrants from one village in Mexico dividing and conquering a foreign country with extra-cheesy adaptations of their hometown comfort food. I would totally watch that movie.

Predicting foreign tastes is not trivial. I grew up in this country and have been sharing meals with native U.S. people for decades now, and I'm still frequently surprised what people around here will and won't eat.
posted by d. z. wang at 6:32 AM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]