Time travel and Taco Bell
52 Weeks of Cooking, Week 7: The Dream Daughter
“There was something about the never-ending vastness of the sea and sky that usually gave me comfort, reminding me that in the enormity of the universe, my problems, no matter how painful, were very, very small.”
― Diane Chamberlain, The Dream Daughter
This week’s meal and book are all about the past.
The theme — Discontinued. All those nostalgic snack foods and fast food menu items that used to exist, but don’t anymore (RIP).
Taco Bell was the first thing that sprung to my mind. They are constantly changing their menu, adding new items, taking other items away and then bringing them back to much fanfare (Hello, Mexican Pizza. Thank God you’re back).
Taking inspiration from The Hungry Bookworm, another literary food blog, I read The Dream Daughter, a time travel novel that features Taco Bell. I made a classic item from their 1970s menu, since discontinued, the Enchirito.
The book
This genre-bending novel was wild and kept me guessing until the very end. It's 1970, and Carly has just lost her husband and found out that their unborn child has a fatal heart defect. She's devastated until her brother-in-law reveals that he's from the future and knows how to time travel — he can send Carly to the 2000s to have fetal heart surgery and save her baby. Carly travels to the future and has the surgery, but things get way more complicated after Carly is forced to return to 1970s without her newborn daughter. She spends the rest of the novel chasing after her, and things get very tense and complicated. There were moments where the plot became a little too long, meandering and random for me, but the ending was satisfying. If you enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife, you'd probably like this book too.
The food
Throughout the novel, Carly is introduced to many things that are common in the 2000s, but would seem unusual or even impossible in the 1970s: laptop computers, smartphones and microwave cooking among them. One of the first meals Carly eats when she travels to the future is Taco Bell. There’s no Taco Bell in her life in a small beach town in the 1970s and Carly experiences tacos, burritos and enchiritos for the first time.
Enchiritos are no longer on Taco Bell’s menu, so I made my own homemade version for this week’s Discontinued theme, using this recipe.
It’s a very easy dish, with only a few more steps than tacos.
First, saute chopped onions and ground beef in a skillet until the beef is cooked through. Drain off the fat, then add your favorite taco seasoning.
Heat up refried beans and warm your tortillas. Spread each tortilla with a spoonful of refried beans and a scoop of taco meat, then roll up. Place the rolled tortillas seam side down in casserole dish. Cover with your favorite red enchilada sauce and shredded cheese.
Broil the enchiritos in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve, garnished with sliced black olives.
The verdict? These tasted like Taco Bell — not authentic, but delicious, filling and quick to make. The sauce and cheese make this a messy, fork-and-knife kind of meal, so I can see why a fast food place might not be able to keep it on the menu for long. I’d like to try out enchiritos with different proteins — maybe shredded chicken, with some avocado on top instead of olives.
Next week: Bulbs
For my family, it was A & W. Relatives lived in farflung locales [northern Montana and south Texas] so summer vacations were arduous and very hot. Root beer floats hit the spot.