I love Mexican food.  I think I could live on cheese dip and margaritas.  It wouldn’t be a long life but it would be tasty.  There’s one Mexican restaurant in particular, close to my home, that I frequent with some regularity.  They have really good food, reasonable prices, great margaritas (2-for-1 on Saturdays!) and the staff is fantastic.  Whenever it’s my turn to choose a restaurant, for any occasion, I always choose this place.

I have only had one bad experience in this restaurant.  It was on my birthday so, naturally, I had chosen this place for a celebratory dinner.  As usual, after enjoying a wonderful meal, I sat back to relish the bloated feeling of satisfaction that comes from too much cheese dip and Diet Coke when the entire wait staff paraded from the kitchen with a slice of cake.  They put a huge (and, I assume, dusty) sombrero on my head and sang to me in Spanish while my friends and family laughed and smiled like children at Chuck-E-Cheese.

And then it happened.  They didn’t serve that slice of birthday cake to me … they shoved it, literally, in my face!  The table erupted into howls of hilarity and drew the attention of everyone in the restaurant directly to the absolute FIT that I threw in response.  I was not … I repeat, NOT … a good sport about this.  I had frosting up my nose on my special day, in my favorite restaurant, with my favorite people!  I was humiliated, mortified, embarrassed and p*ssed off because cake (a precious commodity) was wasted!  Argh!

I’ve since learned that it could have been worst.

Last Saturday night, an unidentified California man playfully wiped cake on his girlfriend’s face at her birthday party.  Some thought it was funny but the woman’s brother became enraged, took out a knife and stabbed the boyfriend and two other guests!  Stabbed them!

He stabbed one of the three in his abdomen, one his back and the third twice in the back and fled before police arrived.  All three men were taken to a local hospital for treatment.  The assailant’s name has not been released.

Apparently, it is a Mexican tradition to chant “Mordida! Mordida!” after the candles are blown out, and then to smash the birthday person’s face into the cake.  I love Mexican food, music, people and culture but I will NEVER choose my favorite restaurant to celebrate my birthday again.  And I'm guessing this woman won't either.