[Kirkwood]

Well,that’s one way to do it... just give up on eating heathy and say it is a cultural choice to chow down on the refried beans and tortillas.

[RedStateRocker]

What some people miss in all this is that the whole point and purpose of a LOT of “ethnic” (poor folks) food the world over is to maximize caloric intake. If you are at the edge of subsistence then lard is GOOD! The danger of obesity is non existent and the problems of diabetes and hardening of the arteries are a heck of a lot less immediate than starving to death.

I LOVE biscuits and gravy; learned how to make it from an ol’ southern lady at a place I used to work (and for a California boy I can make it *GOOD*)but the whole damn point of that dish, like re-fried beans and many dishes from many cultures is to put as many calories on the plate as possible, making use of ingredients that poor (excuse me, economically disadvantaged) folks have access to.

A lot of ‘gourmet’ dishes are really what poor folks scraped together to survive, figuring out how to make “meat” that had been dead a bit too long taste good, later adapted to having access to good ingredients. Nearly any damn fool can cook a steak, but to create a tasty dish packed with survival (calories) from ingredients that those with other options would be repulsed by, THAT'S where great food comes from.

I keep lard and pinto beans as part of my survival stash. That, some water and basic spices and I can put 3000 calories of survival on my plate without needing to refrigerate anything and do it cheap.