e sse nt i al dining
Spicy Pork in Corn Tortilla, Tings Chicken in Flour Tortilla, and Carne Asada in Blue Corn Tortilla
by Kyle Jaco b son It’s hard to think of a food that has celebrated and betrayed a culture more than the hype and expectations surrounding tacos and burritos. To some, knowledge of Mesoamerica doesn’t extend beyond fast-food tacos—a goto for myself after hotboxing in college. But then there’s a deeper appreciation for the food found in rolled out blue corn tortillas filled with ripe ingredients from a backyard garden. Though I’ve no problem with the Americanized take on Mexican food, I think what’s lost in translation deserves to be discovered through authentic indulgence, and the best place to experience it just might be Migrants in Madison. Owner Oscar Villarreal learned early on about his passion for food. “Everything I 6 | madison essentials
loved to do was to cook. I always cooked when I got home from school. I always fed my cousins.” Natural as the road seemed, it was paved with hard work and deep loss. But he’d learned at a young age the importance of establishing a goal and working harder than expected to achieve its end, aptly summed up in a lesson his uncle taught him. At Rodriguez Brothers Farm, just north of Delevan in Turtle Valley, a nine-yearold Oscar was tasked with using the new lawnmower to mow the different grasses surrounding and intersecting the 2,300-acre farm. In one of the fields sat a large rock. Upon encountering the rock, Oscar maneuvered around it then continued mowing his rows. When he was done, his uncle checked his work.
“What happened there?” asked his uncle, noting the rock. “I had to go around the rock,” said Oscar. “Oh, so you were too lazy to get off the tractor to move the rock?” It turns out Oscar’s uncle had put the rock there to see what he would do. He told Oscar to go to the front office and get the hedge trimmer. For the next four hours, Oscar cut the rest of the grass by hand. If we’re going to Aesop this: always do the thing doing with what you’re doing. Oscar worked at the farm until he was 20, when he became a dishwasher at the
