Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with mushrooms! Or rice. Or ice cream.
Or vodka. (And you thought it was all about tequila.)
Also, avocados and margaritas.
All of the above have come across my desk in press releases seeking stories about how to incorporate these products into your “Cinco” party (you’re having one, aren’t you?).
“Just because it’s Cinco de Mayo doesn’t mean you have to break your diet like a piñata!” shouts a pitch from a self-described “celebrity” chef offering a “chili” recipe.
And a Boulder food company’s shipment of Jamaican, Caribbean and Cuban rice mixes to “commemorate Cinco de Mayo” is just wrongheaded – the islands don’t celebrate a Mexican military victory.
A peddler of flavored vodka wants us to “say ‘hola’ to one of our signature flavored varieties & for a unique cocktail experience.”
A high-end tequila maker wants to bring the tasting party to the office: “What better way to pay homage to our Mexican friends than by learning a brief history of their signature alcohol and the proper techniques of enjoying the fine spirit.”
Well, one Mexican-American friend calls this weekend “Stinko de Mayo.” Could it have something to do with the day’s focus on beer and margs, rather than an obscure battle between French and Mexican forces that took place on May 5, 1862?
Seems that marketers have finally discovered the Latino market, but the messages are as muddled as a mojito (a Cuban cocktail).
Every holiday, real or Hallmark, is a marketing opportunity for the food and drink industry to sell us, “the media,” and you, the unsuspecting public, on their products. Newspaper inboxes fill with pleas for publicity all year long. Next week, it’s caviar, chocolate and cappuccino for Mother’s Day, then it’ll be grill gear for Father’s Day and Fourth of July, Halloween candy, and on through Christmas, only to surge for Valentine’s Day and Easter.
These e-mail pitches are often followed up with a phone call from a squeaky-voiced PR Barbie. “Hi, this is Amber and I’m calling to see if you got the Mother’s Day cocktail press kit we sent you…”
Yeah, I got it. No, I’m not going to write about it. But a deskside martini sure sounds good.
Speaking of martinis, watch me make one for our Food on Film project at denverpost.com/food. Last week, movie critic Michael Booth and I talked about “Casino Royale” and this week, it’s “Moonstruck.”
The movie features a young, scraggly Nicolas Cage as a baker and Cher’s love interest, so I’m offering the No-Knead Bread we featured last fall after The New York Times wrote a story about a radical new approach to bread. All you do is mix the water, yeast, salt and flour and let it sit 12 hours. It really works! See the recipe online with this week’s Food on Film.
And get me a drink, Mother’s Day is on the way!
Food editor Kristen Browning-Blas can be reached at 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com.
