Kai - in Mexico!

Food in México is a little different from NZ. Well, a whole lot different. Mexicans are very proud of their culinary traditions – as well they might be. Some of the things seem a little strange – like pork cracking. Except the whole dish is pork crackling (no meat) covered in green chile sauce... Probably not the healthiest meal…

Chilli is a constant – both cooked into the dishes and served as a salsa. The salsa, usually in a small dish on the table so you can add the amount you wish, is made of fresh chillies. There are a confusing number of varieties – with varying taste and hotness. This leads to the occasional mistake – one accompanied by tears and an immediate burning sensation – and a burning sensation a lot later too. The hottest chillies burn twice as the saying goes…

Pozole - maize (Elote), Jitomate (tomato), chilli, pork etc..

 Chilli makes even ‘blah’ food interesting. Yesterday we had soya – I guess a sort of tofu? What made it tasty was the red chilli sauce. And the day before it was ox tongue. Again made delicious by the green chilli sauce.  Neither was too spicy either.

We had an interesting experience while visiting an indigenous town. Every year a group from the University Parish does a mission in a village a couple of hours from Toluca. The Indians are Mazahuas. The men are known as traveling salesmen and range as far as the United States selling almost anything. The women stay at home and raise the kids. 

A great line-up! A shared meal Mazahua style.

After the mission group had done their catechising, we all shared a meal. The pots and plates of food were lined up outside the church, I blessed the meal and then visitors hoed in. The mission kids didn’t hold back either. It was traditional Mexican food with none of the processed stuff you get in the cities – with the exception of fizzy drinks!

Mexicans eat tortillas with everything. The Mazahuas are no different – except they raise their own maize, grind it and cook it themselves. The tortillas were fresh! And they had purple ones too – which tasted of wheat, rather than the maize they were made of.

The tortilla and chorizo on the hotplate.

Recently I was travelling near Puebla, to the south of Mexico City. We stopped on the side of the road for a quesadilla. These are tortillas filled with something – usually queso (cheese), but many other things too. I had queso and chorizo toluqueña (sausage from Toluca). 

Quesadilla (with a bite gone!)

The green stuff is the chorizo

Toluca is famous for its chorizo – not the least because some of them are green! There’s nothing so tasty as fresh artisanal bread stuffed with fried chorizo!

We also had mushroom soup. None of the cream of mushroom with tame lily white farmed mushrooms. This soup was a meal in itself! The mushrooms were wild, meaty mushrooms gathered locally. And no, no one had hallucinations or died!

Mushroom Soup

What we and the rest of the world know as tomato is called Jitomate here. Tomate (tomato) are green tomatoes that never turn red as they mature. They have a covering of green leaves almost stuck to the skin – and of course have a very different flavour. They seem to be used universally in green sauces, mixed with chillies. I haven’t seen them used uncooked.

Tomate (the green ones) y Jitomate (the red one)

 Mexico also has a great variety of fruit – both temperate and tropical. I tried one called Zapote. I was told to sprinkle it with orange juice – it was a dark brown colour inside, slimy textured and tasted of – orange juice! The larger variety is tastier, I’m told. I’ve since discovered it’s mildly narcotic... 

And this strange fruit is a pitaya dragon fruit.

There’s a lot more too – but I’m getting hungry. I’m off for a nice dish of Punta de Res  (Ox “foot” in green chilli sauce). A bit of meat, bone and sinew! Just kidding… There are some dishes I had which are unrepeatable!

I did notice these in the fruit bowl the other day...