Ting-a-ling

Lunch special at Reposado in Palo Alto on the 17th was a variant of tinga (details below). A musical intro from Buddy Holly, doing his 1958 cover of The Clovers’ 1952 song “Ting-A-Ling”, which you can listen to here.

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The crucial lines:

The way they laugh, the way they sing / Makes my heart go ting-a-ling

So, not about linguistic things and not about a Mexican shredded chicken dish, but about palpitations and (figurative) ringing.

From Wikipedia:

“Ting-A-Ling” is a 1952 song by The Clovers. “Ting-A-Ling” was The Clovers’ final number one on the Billboard R&B chart; however, the group continued its chart success throughout the 1950s. It was covered by Buddy Holly and released on the 1958 posthumous album That’ll Be the Day. Holly’s former band, the Crickets, also covered the song (featuring Earl Sinks on vocals) for their 1960 effort, In Style With the Crickets.

Now to Mexico. From Wikipedia:

Tinga is a Mexican dish made with shredded chicken in a [thick] sauce made of red and green tomatoes, chipotle chili and onion strips. It originated in Puebla, Mexico.

It is often garnished with guacamole or avocado slices and with greens, and served on tostadas or in tacos, as here:

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The Reposado tinga was delicious, but it was far from the classic Puebla dish in several ways: it was made salmon rather than chicken, in a slab on top rather than shredded, and with calamari in the sauce, so it was a seafood tinga, and it was served with rice rather than some form of fried tortilla.

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