The Unexpected Lessons Of Mexican Food is very much a coming of age story. Armando Montano recalls his upbringing as someone of mixed cultural heritage with his father being Mexican and his mother being White. Armando was in a sense a stranger in both worlds with the Mexican side of his family calling him "The White one" and the other side calling him "Wexican" or white Mexican. Armando's father who was a cultural anthropologist took Armando with him whenever he went on research trips to the border of south Texas to his fathers hometown. Along the way Armando and his father experience some racial profiling and stereotyping witch angers the young boy, however his father is able to teach his son a valuable lesson in acceptance and peace because of this. Throughout the trip Armando got to experience much of his Mexican culture through food and the markets that sold authentic Mexican foods and ingredients. The author (Armando Montano) is able to really convey just what the markets and the foods they are selling is like. As a reader you can almost taste the spices, smell all the magnificent scents, and really visualize the hustle and bustle of the busy restaurants and market. Eventually Armando leaves for college, his junior year he decides to go on an adventure to Buenos Aires. The food here is not like the kinds he is used to back home. Eventually he decides to cook the way he is used to, with spices, peppers, and a endless amounts of various flavors. He invite's his Argentine friends over and cooks for them. They are not used to the hot and spicy foods that Armando is used to. For the next couple of months Armando cooks for them and tries to explain that he is not technically Mexican but that he is considered Hispanic. Much to his dismay they respond by telling them that he speaks Spanish, cook Mexican food, and has a Montano for a last name, so to them he is Mexican. Soon Armando returned home. Armando says that he and his father eat at chipotle sometimes even though his father thinks of it as "The Mexican PF Changs". When they are there they talk to the Mexican women behind the counter and listen to their stories about their kids and their cultural experiences.
