Saturday, April 12, 2014

Why Chile Chocolate and Creamy Jalepeño?

So Chile is a pretty unusual last name. It's pronounced Chee-lay. I taught my students to remember Cheese Lays. However we still get many varieties of pronunciations.  My assistant calls me Mrs. Chili. My British students also, but with cute little British accents. An Australian student's mother calls me Mrs. Chilies. White Americans often say chile (ch-eye-le) as in the slang for child.

Despite the pronunciation corrections, or the fact that I always have to spell my last name for people, it's got great potential for plays on words.

So then there's Chile (yes, he goes by his last name. His first name is Ariolys. You tell me how the average American is going to pronounce that, and what body part it is strikingly similar to). We have some pretty obvious differences going on here. Let's go ahead and get the race card out of the way- he's black. And let's play the culture card too- he's also Latin. Very Latin, people. And there's some really good chocolate that I fell in love with while I was in Egypt. It's chocolate with chili in it. Yummy, delicious, with a subtle spice that tingles on your tongue and leaves you wanting more. And my Chile definitely leaves a tingle on my tongue and l..... No, no, no- I'm just kidding (mostly, but then again I AM pregnant with twins). But he's sweet, chocolaty colored, and full of zingy Latin spice. And I fell in love with HIM while I was in Egypt too.  Thus, Chile Chocolate.

Now for Creamy Jalapeño... First let's state the obvious. I'm white. Like, really really pale white. But my last name is Chile. I love how it throws people off. Because I am oh so not Latin. And my favorite restaurant in the world serves my favorite dip in the world, creamy jalapeño.  The perfect combination of creamy ranch deliciousness and jalapeño spice. Well that is definitely me! Deliciously  spicy and very, very white American.

We're so glad you've found us. We have some catching up to do (like the last 2 years since I left Egypt and stopped being interesting enough to blog). And soon enough we'll have 2 new little peppers to introduce you to. Can't wait to share our crazy life!

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