gulfporter

As a person who eats dinner out every weeknight, I applaud this chef's position. We dine at small independent eateries which often only employ 1 or 2 waiters on weeknights. We have eaten at many of these places for over ten years and the limited staff on low-volume weeknights has worked out fine. Except for the past 2 or so years when we now routinely hear requests by many patrons for changes (often multiple) to the menu items (yes, we eavesdrop). When a waitperson asks for our order, we manage to spit it out in probably under 30 seconds. But nowadays other diners literally hog the waitstaff as they ask for changes and/or substitutions by actually demanding that the waitstaff go ask the chef before finalizing their order. A table of 6 (or more) can literally tie up a waiter for 15 to 20 minutes, just getting their "changed" orders taken. These diners are not just holding up the kitchen and the waitstaff, but also their fellow diners. I often wish they were rich enough to hire personal chefs at their home rather than try to force a restaurant to replicate exactly what they want in a menu item.

I am halfway through McIlhenny's Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire. It's well-written and the geological facts about Avery Island (one of largest salt domes on earth), as well as how the family was able to trademark the word "tabasco" (illegally through political connections) are quite interesting. When we were moving from the east to AZ in 2003, we stayed in New Iberia but didn't take the time to tour Avery Island and I always regretted that decision. https://www.amazon.com/McIlhennys-Gold-Louisiana-Family-Tabasco/dp/0060721855

For many years (in the past), Michoacan was the state with the highest number of immigrants going to the US; many villages were left without any adult men. Almost any time I meet a Mexican in Florida, when I ask, they are from Michoacan. I tell them the truth: even though we live in Jalisco, sin duda Michoacán es la mas bonita estada en Mexico. It really is. Sadly much of it was and is, cartel turf fight territory.

This Michoacan abuela is rocking the internet with her down-home Youtube shows. Read about her here: https://hiplatina.com/mexican-abuela-traditional-recipes-youtube/ She is very sweet and straightforward. The closed captioning can be set to either English or Spanish. Link to videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJjyyWFwUIOfKhb35WgCqVg/videos

Thanks @chromedome. FYI, 2 of the 5 eateries are including butter tarts in their dessert offerings, but also have the requisite pumpkin pie. I have heard Canadians rave about butter tarts, but have never tasted one. I may try to grab one of those if I can (my husband detests TDay foods so we don't participate in either US or CDN meals).

The expats here are mostly Canadians, so some of the local eateries will have a Thanksgiving dinner on Monday. Of the 5 ads I've seen, 3 are serving Waldorf salad. I don't see it mentioned yet in this thread....is it traditional?

@Panaderia Canadiense Best wishes to you at this time. You have the right attitude to deal with this; many expats do not. We have had intermittent shortages of goods and services, and some nasty cartel violence during our years in Mexico, though never a shortage of most foodstuffs simultaneously that you are experiencing. Like you, we figure if such a strike or stoppage of food deliveries should occur, that the family farms near us would help pick up the slack, though after the prolonged gasoline shortages we experienced last winter we wonder how the produce would get to us, or vice versa.

They leave the head on so you know it's not a cat (that is a joke that refers to my purchase of rabbit at a meat market). I grilled it for exactly 5 minutes skin-side down since it is thin fleshed and boneless. Before grilling I slathered with a bit of a homemade quasi-zarandeado schmear with a Mediterranean bent....mayo. dijon and capers. Another thing I love about it is that it thaws in an hour on the counter (for those days when life gets ahead of my meal plan).

Recently a few Ajijic restaurants have offered trout (trucha in Spanish). I asked our waiter where it came from. Mazamitla, he replied, which is a small Sierra Madre mountain town (2500 meters or 8000 feet altitude) to which we once did a day trip (it's a 90 minute drive each way). Senor Google confirms there is a rainbow trout hatchery there (we did not know it when we visited). A few days ago I was rooting around in the freezer section of a local grocer and found these trout. The price on all the packages (no matter their weight) is 74 pesos, or $3.75 USD.

I am all for convenience, yet I see his point. Why not put all sauces together, all noodle products together, rather than by ethnicity. It may open some eyes (and taste buds) to more culinary diversity if they saw an ethnic product in a "regular' aisle, especially if they don't normally venture to the international aisles/shelves. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/voraciously/wp/2019/09/30/to-david-chang-the-international-food-aisle-is-a-last-bastion-of-racism-others-see-it-differently/

Neither of us drink soda, but I buy an awful lot of Cokes. An unwritten Mexican law requires homeowners to provide Cokes to workers at least twice a day when they are working at your home. And they must be sugared Cokes; when we first moved here I added some Diet Cokes to the mix and all went unopened. Pepsi is unknown here.

Never seen a Domino's with Roman columns and chandeliers, and table service. No, we didn't eat there.

Here in Mexico, chamorro (pork shank) is extremely popular. I have never shopped for pork shanks in the US, maybe it is reasonably priced. You might want to try it. Quick! before it gets featured on Food Network 👩‍🍳 🖥️ Chamorro is not as delicate as lamb shanks; it holds up well to a spicy red chile sauce. Every bit as tender as lamb shanks if not more so.

Rack of lamb on the grill. I marinate overnight in olive oil, fresh lemon juice, fresh garlic, fresh rosemary and a squirt of dijon mustard, lots of fresh ground S&P. Frenched racks usually weigh between 1.2 and 1.4 pounds where we shop. My grill method (after I preheat gas grill to 400) is normally 9-9-9. Nine minutes side one; nine minutes side two, nine minutes rest. Larger racks I may go 10-10-10 and smaller, 8-8-8.

Another al fresco person here . We eat out 7 days a week (5 dinners and 2 lunches). At our MEX home, we can walk to 25+ restaurants including Thai (3), Italian (4), French (2), Argentine (2), Spanish (3), Polish, German, vegan (2), Greek, Cajun, Chinese (but it's awful), Vietnamese, a myriad of what I'd describe as International or Continental and of course, Mexican. Only a few have solid roofs from wall to wall. Most have patios or gardens. Our weather here allows us to eat outdoors almost 365 days a year. It's one of the top reasons we chose it! From our FL home we can walk to a dozen non-chain eateries and all but 2 have outdoor seating available. We are rarely at our FL home these days (only 5 weeks so far this year), but when we visit next month we will seek indoor a/c, for sure). We aren't crazy. We make the same choices on vacation. For the past 5 years our vacations have been to Spain, Portugal, Guatemala and other parts of MEX and we are always able to find very good to excellent restaurants that offer outdoor dining.