Jorge Garcia owns a Oaxacan restaurant in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles, so he's used to working across cultures.
But Garcia says that there's no working with Los Angeles County health inspectors when it comes to quesillo — a type of cheese that's a staple on Oaxacan menus. Quesillo isn't pasteurized, and that doesn't meet local health standards. What's more, the crackdown on the sale of quesillo at local markets has prompted suitcase traders to bring the stuff from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico for sale in the Los Angeles, while other entrepreneurs have taken to making their own batches in unregulated production facilities.
Garcia says that health inspectors should rethink their approach.
"It's a wrong idea they have about quesillo," says Garcia, whose restaurant is called La Morenita. " It's not fair that we try to give the best and they don't let us work. This affects us a lot because people ask us for those products and we don't sell the food they want anymore because we're threatened by the inspectors that if we sell that, they'll send us to court or suspend our restaurant license."
Steve Lyle, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture, counters that unpasteurized cheese sold illegally presents a disturbing risk to public health.
"The risk of bacteria is distressing," he said. "This is something that our agency works on because we believe that it is a significant problem."
Health officials warn that quesillo is dangerous because it is not pasteurized, a heating process that kills harmful bacteria such as listeria, salmonella, E. coli, bovine tuberculosis, and brucella. Those conditions can cause a range of maladies from diarrhea, fever, and stomach pains to infections in the bloodstream.
Employees at some stores that offer Oaxacan merchandise claim that inspectors have been known to throw shipments of quesillo in tubs and pour chlorine on them to ensure they can't be sold.
Owners of stores and restaurants that cater to the large population of Oaxacan immigrants in Los Angeles say that quesillo is safe if used properly. They add that they can't do without the specialty cheese from the mountainous Mexican state.
"The quesillo is essential, as long as it's made in Oaxaca," said one restaurateur. "It's the main ingredient of foods like the tlayuda. A tlayuda without quesillo is like making chicken soup without the chicken. No other cheese can substitute for the quesillo, which is a main ingredient of the torta, tlayuda, empanadas and other Oaxacan foods."
The community of immigrants from Oaxacan is estimated at 100,000 in the Los Angeles area, a big enough market to spark door-to-door sales of quesillo if stores can't sell the cheese.
Maria Gonzalez is a local resident who says that she won't stop using quesillo just because local stores don't carry the cheese.
"What happens is if the businesses don't sell it, they lose customers, but we can get it from people who make a business of home delivery," Gonzalez says.
Restaurateur Garcia says the crackdown by health officials has led to an underground supply chain and some strong-arm tactics by the various peddlers.
"If there was only a way to legalize the quesillo, we would prevent those kinds of problems," he adds.
So far there appears to be no progress in working with health officials on any plans to find a way to make quesillo available through standard wholesale or retail operations.
Los Angeles County health recently confiscated approximately 300 pounds of the cheese as it arrived from Oaxaca, accusing a trio of store and restaurant owners of illegally selling the unpasteurized cheese. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has claimed that the cheese was purchased from vendors who advertised their products in the Spanish-language press or went to restaurants or stores on sales calls.
The three proprietors were fined more than $3,000 each and sentenced to 2000 hours of community service.
Nora Alicia Estrada is a writer for Impulso.
Photo from www.notihuatulcopuertoescondido.com.
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