This last spring, I was visiting my friends Maria and Isidro at their home in Jalisco, Mexico. They were great hosts and it was really different than visits to their home here in Napa.

Maria loves to cook and talk about food. Everyday, the tortilla man came by with a package of fresh tortillas and she laughed at how fast they seemed to go with me visiting. Isidro likes to forage and trade fruit, cactus paddles and citrus and Maria incorporates them into the meals. They tended to eat a lot of vegetables, chicken and some beef but no pork. On the table at every meal was her salsa made from de Arbol chiles and it was memorably hot.

I talk a lot about tacos and on some level, think almost anything fits on a warm tortilla, but the traditional dishes are there for a reason and Maria likes to make these beef tacos. It was casual but hardly haphazard.

Each tortilla had a scoop of ground beef, some coleslaw, a few beans and salsa. The slaw was the perfect counterpoint to the hot salsa and the beans and beef gave the tacos body. Cold beers were always nearby for obvious reasons.