Duro Con Cueritos

I love chicharrones.  Otherwise known as pork skins or pork rinds.  That sinfully crispy crunchy fried pork snack that most people shy away from.  I like buying a bag of plain chicharrones and eating them with a squeeze of lime and a dab of hot sauce.  So when my neighborhood ice cream truck had something listed on the front as “ chicharrones cueritos”, I knew that I had to try it sometime.  Especially when I saw a guy walking away with what looked like a plate full of fun toppings. 

Today, when I heard the ice cream truck’s song, I jumped up and ran out the door and ordered the very last plate of chicharrones cueritos.  It took the lady in the truck five minutes to assemble the whole thing.  As I watched her pull out a large jar of what looked like sliced onions in water, I realized that there weren’t any crispy fried pork skins involved in the concoction.  Those weren’t onions at all but “cueritos” which are pickled pork skins. Well, I thought to myself, I guess I will just have to try it at least.  I can’t chicken out of this now!

For some reason, typically unappetizing food items can seem appetizing when they are fried.  When some such food is served in another way, I don’t really want to eat it it.  For example, I would much rather eat a crispy fried bug than the same in a stew. Yick.

This pork skin dish that I had is really called “duro con cueritos”. The duro is a deep fried square curved flour thing, which resembles a giant slab of fried pork skin.  This holds everything else inside of it.  The ice cream truck lady first slathered on some Miracle Whip.  (I never eat that stuff.  It is much too processed and tastes too weird to tempt me.)  On top of that she layered shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced onions, fresh sliced jalapeños, tomatoes, and the cueritos.  She then topped it all off with a crumbly Mexican cheese that tasted like Cotija cheese,  Tapatio hot sauce, and Mexican crema, which is a runny version of sour cream. 

I took this strange concoction home, quickly photographed it with my new macro lens and proceeded to eat three quarters of it. The cueritos had a gelatinous texture. The crema and Miracle Whip drenched everything and the duro was a soggy by the time I was done photographing it (which didn’t take long).  Only the duro's edges remained crispy.   I found myself wishing for more iceberg lettuce and the other veggies.  But I always wish for more lettuce.  I can remember savoring the lettuce more than a fast food burger I had when I was fifteen.  Anyways…the duro con cueritos wasn’t bad but it isn’t what I will find myself craving in the future.  Am I glad I tried it?  Of course I am because I will now stop obsessing about it every time I hear the ice cream truck. But all in all, I don’t think I will order it again.