"Does street food make the best cuisine?"

Calvin Trillin asks this question in his Sept. 3/10 New Yorker article about street vendors in Singapore, and it's also a key theme in any number of television food shows, most notably Rick Bayless' "Mexico: One Plate at a Time" on PBS and "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations," a Travel Channel staple.

Bayless regularly opens his show in a market, noshing on authentic food dished up by Mexican vendors. Sure, he also hits up some trendy restaurants serving not-so-traditional cuisine, but he usually shows how the traditional street food influences even the most progressive chefs.

Bourdain, in this week's episode from Argentina, stepped into one of Buenos Aires' infamous villas miserias to sample a stew made from hog parts, chorizo, squash and beans. Bourdain (though obviously accompanied by his crew and a native Argentinian) was in his element, eating simple food prepared in a streetside cazuela, just as he has in numerous cities around the world.

The one constant in foreign street food tends to be the inclusion of "lesser" cuts of meat, which Bourdain and Travel Channel chum Andrew Zimmern coaxed from a New York restaurateur preparing organ meats for his clientele.

"The rest of the world doesn't eat filet mignon," he told his celebrity guests. The history of the world's nutrition, he argued, owes much more to livers, chitlins and brains than it does to juicy choice cuts.

Trillin on Americans' ideas about street food:

"For an American visitor the operational translation for signs that ostensibly say something like 'bhel puri' or 'tacos de nopales' is 'Delivery System for Unfamiliar Bugs That You Will Bitterly Regret Having Ingested.' "

He continues to describe Singapore's efforts from the 1970s to enforce higher public health standards on its street vendors. That effort resulted in all vendors being brought to central markets with proper health controls.

Fort Collins' most famous street vendor, the gyro guy who sets up in Old Town and feeds the barflies there, is a start, but he can hardly replace the kinds of experiences that Trillin, Bayless, Bourdain and Zimmern encourage us to try.

Rock is Gay: Go Big Red

Nebraska, which hasn't won a conference title in college football this century, went on the road Saturday and defeated the defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion 20-17. Admittedly, the Cornhuskers played an uneven game against Wake Forest, and NU made its share of mistakes. But in the end, coach Callahan's team earned its second victory in as many games.

So Nebraska fan (I'm aggregating here), is moved to negativity by the outcome. Those of you who may be fans of Michigan, Notre Dame and Colorado State (three 0-2 teams at this point in the season) may ask "Why?"

Here goes.

Nebraska fan spent has spent most of his (I'll risk the gender specificity in this case because I think it fits) life watching Nebraska football in the way most of the rest of you watch a classic movie, be it "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "Animal House" or "Old School."

He turns on the tube at the appointed Saturday afternoon hour, settles in with a beverage and some unhealthy foodstuffs, and expects to see a classic script out of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. The script reads something like this:

A. Archetypal characters are established: the virtuous head coach, the misunderstood superstar and the scrappy overachieving non-scholarship player. On the other sideline stands the embodiment of evil, be it named Switzer, McCartney, Spurrier, Devine or Stoops (perfect casting, in his case).
B. Dramatic tension is established early, and complications in the plot lead to at least some surface conflict that the VHC, the MUS and the SONSP must overcome.
C. Intermission brings a little uncertainty, but we know the final act will restore justice, usually in a punishing climax in which the uber-villain throws a visor on the ground.
D. The denouement involves a fourth-string quarterback genuflecting, presumably in honor of the VHC.

Unfortunately, the old screenwriter died in Boulder about six years ago, and the plots have never been the same. For a while there, the bad guys were winning as often as the VHC. And now, even when the good guys come out on top (such as this past Saturday), it's in a way that somehow doesn't feel quite right.

Look at it this way. Have you ever watched one of the classic Rock Hudson-Doris Day romps of the 1960s? You know, the ones where Doris and Rock flirted for two hours before finally realizing they were right for each other and deciding to spend the rest of their lives in matching twin beds? "Pillow Talk," "That Touch of Mink," "Move Over Darling." Yeah, those.

OK, now watch them over and over, all the while trying to appreciate the movies from a romantic, "this-is-the-way-the-world-should-be" early 1960s perspective. I'll wait.

Now comes the part where I tell you Rock is gay. And if he weren't, Doris wouldn't have coquetted around for two years, she would have talked him out of his tux and boxers before the first date. Where does the story go from there? Pretty shocking if you've been enjoying the films between episodes of "The Andy Griffith Show."

So it is with watching Nebraska football. The plots twists are different, the characters not quite the same, the VHC has been replaced by some short guy who swears occasionally.

This isn't to say there won't be a revival season sometime in the near future where all the classics are played out in true Osbornian fashion. (Though, to be perfectly honest, as a playwright, Tom's work really didn't reach its literary potential until the mid-1990s.)

Until that time, though, enjoy watching the new movies, no matter where they may lead.

Rock is Gay. And Go Big Red.

He wants to eat Fort Collins

I have a cousin visiting from Omaha this weekend, and I want to show him a decent time and a little bit of what makes Fort Collins unique. (We've already done the brewery tours with him, so don't start there.)

If I were visiting him, the choices would be relatively easy to figure out. Omaha is the home of stockyards, eastern European immigrants' descendants and the College World Series. So he'd likely take me out for a steak, some classic Czech cooking or a hot dog, even if it might cause "genetic mutation."

But what constitutes a classic Fort Collins meal, or even a classic Colorado meal, for that matter. It's not as if Fort Collins lacks good places to eat, but the best spots (in my opinion, Jay's Bistro and the Canyon Chop House) feature fusions of many cuisines, none of which Fort Collinsians were sampling in the '70s, let alone a century ago.

For "classic" Fort Collins cuisine, long-time residents tend to prefer places like Nico's Catacombs (in business since 1973), the Charco Broiler (serving charred and broiled beef since 1957) or Bisetti's (sticking things to the ceiling since 1979). But their longevity hardly stacks up to the century-old traditions in Omaha, and two of the restaurants specialize in Italian food, which belies Fort Collins' German-American and Latino heritages.

So where does one go for a traditional Fort Collins meal? Is it Consuelo's, the home of New Mexican cuisine in northern Colorado? How about the Moot House or the Crown Pub, both of which attempt to re-create and English pub setting? Or should we just head to Coopersmith's, which just might embody the essence of Fort Collins: homemade beer.

Let me know what you think.

My cousin arrives on Friday.

Rellenos bring autumn to life

Fort Collins' farmers markets may not rival Boulder's main market in terms of diversity or sheer volume of produce and pedestrians, but September is the perfect month to visit the local market and buy some roasted chiles.

And once you've purchased the chiles, there's no better use than to stuff them and serve them as rellenos.

Two questions arose when my wife asked me to make rellenos: Is there a way to avoid frying the rellenos (the traditional method)? Can we jam something besides cheese into the chiles?

Answers: Yes. Yes.

First, I found a recipe for baked rellenos from a restaurant in Los Angeles called Senor Pico's. With that in mind one Sunday, I purchased a half-gallon bag of roasted poblanos from the farmers' market at Harmony and Lemay.

However, when I first tried Pico's recipe, the egg (whites whipped to stiff peaks and yolks beaten) and butter mixture was too soupy at the end of the baking process. Thus, it slid off the luscious rellenos.

So this weekend, I added a half a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix to the eggs, and it sat up nicely, but might have been a bit too stiff. The coating stuck to both the rellenos and the pan. Next time, just a little less mix ought to do it.

Second, I've experimented with non-cheese stuffing for the rellenos. The most interesting and tasty result came from a mixture of local Hazel Dell baby shiitake mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and Native Seeds guajillo chile powder, and touch of sharp manchego cheese.

Of course, try out your own combinations. The chiles are tasty enough to cover any missteps you might make.

Buen provecho.