eG Foodbog: Caroline

[Pierogi]

Rachel, forgive me if this question is naive, it very well may be.....but I'm going to ask it anyway, because I'm curious and simply don't have the experience to even guess at the answer.

Do you use purified water to wash dishes (I'd guess yes) and wipe down counters and table tops as well? How did you make that a habit? I would think it would be extremely hard to break yourself of wetting the sponge/dish rag under the tap and mopping up the crud on the counter and then moving on to the next prep task.

How about hand washing? I run my hands under the tap about a billion times each time I cook, it would be a huge mental leap to train myself not to.

Again, apologies if this is a silly question. TIA........

[eje]

Agua de jamaica is...?  Ginger beer?  Something else?

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Agua de Jamaica is a beverage made from dried hibiscus flowers.

They make a similar thing in the Middle East called Karkade.

Hibiscus Tea on Wikipedia

Enjoying the blog Caroline!

[caroline]

Rachel, forgive me if this question is naive, it very well may be.....but I'm going to ask it anyway, because I'm curious and simply don't have the experience to even guess at the answer.

Do you use purified water to wash dishes (I'd guess yes) and wipe down counters and table tops as well?  How did you make that a habit?  I would think it would be extremely hard to break yourself of wetting the sponge/dish rag under the tap and mopping up the crud on the counter and then moving on to the next prep task.

How about hand washing?  I run my hands under the tap about a billion times each time I cook, it would be a huge mental leap to train myself not to.

Again, apologies if this is a silly question.  TIA........

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Not naive at all. No you don't use purified to wash dishes or countertops. You do let them dry before using them. And you do wash in the regular water. Cripes, think of the cost if you had to use purified water. But again you dry before, say, putting your hands in your mouth.

I'll say more about water later.

Rachel

[rancho_gordo]

On my trips to Mexico, as a tourist, I haven't been stupid but I haven't been that cautious, either. I brush my teeth with bottled water but I've also had horchata and pulque in the markets. Are the ice cubes made with purified water in a situation like that? Am I being foolish?

Knock wood, I've never had a problem. My theory is the copious amounts of lime on everything and the plentiful tequila shots (again with lime) are keeping my system clean and happy.

[caroline]

I'm always a day behind it seems. Here we are packed up and ready to go yesterday. Snacks, water and soft drinks for the drive, my coffee mug ready to fill, remnants of wine in the basket. The soft-sided cooler has spent the night in the fridge so that remaining eggs, butter, cheese, the vegetables for Guanajuato are all nice and chilled.

We pulled out of the apartment this morning at 8 on the button, tore up the Mexico City ring road, out of the toll booth at the north of the city forty minutes late. How I wish I could have had all of you with me. A glorious day, a day to make the heart sing with the mountains standing out like cutouts, even the volcanos visible in the distance.

As we sailed up through the state of Hidalgo, the end of rainy season flowers were at their most gorgeous, fields of nail-polish colored pinky purple cosmos, banks of marigolds and sunflowers and the marble sized golden globes of the tejocote (a species of hawthorn, much used for food in Mexico) littering the edges of the road.

It's four to six lane highway all the way from two blocks from our Mexico City apartment until the entrance to Guanajuato so we sail along chatting or listening to satellite radio. For two hours it's a straight shot north. In San Juan del Rio we stop to pick up dinner. Barbacoa. San Juan is just north of the state of Hidalgo, much of which is too mountainous for crops. So they raise sheep and make barbacoa in pits.

We are taken to see the lamb that has been cooked in maguey leaves in a pit.

The sun was blindingly bright behind me but you can just make out the young man picking out a nice piece of meat before folding the penques (leaves of maguey) back and topping it with a sheet of steel.

Here's the young lady wrapping up our barbacoa, tortillas, and separate plastic bags of salsa roja, chopped cilantro, chopped onions, and limes cut in half.

We could have eaten in the restaurant. There are at least thirty barbacoa places along this stretch of road and I certainly under-counted.

On we go, turning off the road north at the prosperous town of Queretaro, heading west across the Bajio, some of the richest agricultural land in the country. The sorghum and maize for animal feed is ripe and brown or tan depending. In between are fields of garlic, broccoli, and other vegetables for the export market, each with their porta potties in one corner. This area is booming and we sail past the towns of Celaya (famous for cajeta or dulce de leche), Irapuato (famous for strawberries) until we come to Silao (famous for GM suburbans). Only twenty minutes now.

The Bajio (low country) is at 6000 feet low only compared to the Sierra. We are heading into a crack in the Sierra. We turn the corner and there's the Bufa that overlooks the city.

Guanajuato got its wealth from some of the richest silver mines in the world. It's in such a constricted space that much of the traffic goes underground. Here's the first tunnel.

You can see the add for the Festival Cervantino, the largest in Latin America. It goes on for three weeks with top ranked performers from all over the world.

But we are sliding past the city center to go up above the city. We'll go through the tunnels you see in the middle of this photo.

And we've greeted the dog, I've taken Juanita home, and here's the barbacoa chopped and ready to go.

And here's everything on the talble.

And here's my taco.

Verdict. The lamb's excellent as always, the tortillas are so so, the salsa is a tad on the picante side for us so we just use a bit less with the onions, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Worth waiting for,

Rachel

Edited October 15, 2007 by caroline (log)

[caroline]

On my trips to Mexico, as a tourist, I haven't been stupid but I haven't been that cautious, either. I brush my teeth with bottled water but I've also had horchata and pulque in the markets. Are the ice cubes made with purified water in a situation like that? Am I being foolish?

Knock wood, I've never had a problem. My theory is the copious amounts of lime on everything and the plentiful tequila shots (again with lime) are keeping my system clean and happy.

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No, you just have to just common sense. A cholera scare in Mexico about a decade ago plus the availability of purified water and purified ice cubes (which were not available then), plus a good bit of public education mean that the purified water message has reached everywhere. In fact there are probably many places where "agua de la calle" mains water is perfectly good to drink if heavily chlorinated.

We have special problems in Guanajuato because the reservoirs from which the city draws its water for much of the year are in old silver and gold mining districts which mean that apart from microbiological life and piedritas (little stones) and mud that can be filtered out, there are a lot of not particularly nice minerals in solution that you can do nothing about.

At the end of the dry season, in April, May and June, the city switches over to water from deep wells. This is pure and drinkable. At least it is if you are in the right place. Where we are on a hill, there is a kind of back wash from downtown at certain times of day. The pipes are ancient.

Ironically it means that some of the villages with least water actually get better drinking water. A "pipa" that is a tanker goes round to these villages full of well water every few days and people line up with buckets and pans for their share. It's nice and clean but not very much when you have to use it for everything. The father of the girl who works for me bought a pick up so he could go and fill up several drums full for the family at one time.

There's also the problem of water rationing. This is done by turning off the "agua de la calle" for a certain number of days a week.

This is one reason why houses in Mexico have round black plastic "tinacos" on the flat roof. The other is that the tinaco also creates enough pressure (just about) for showers and so on (though it can be hard to run a washing machine or a dishwasher).

Rambling on, here in Guanajuato, even if you change the filters on the entry pipe every couple of months, the tinaco has to be cleaned out every six months or so to get rid of the deposit of mud and piedritas in the bottom. Well-to-do houses have cisternas, usually under the garage, that are the size of small swimming pools. Ours is about 8 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet. These also have be to cleaned out.

You've no idea how long it took me to figure out the ins and outs of water in Mexico!

Rachel

[dividend]

Menu for daughter's birthday shower yesterday (birthday showers are big news in Mexico)

Russian salad

Elbow macaroni with ham and mayonnaise

Celebration cake

Horchata or soft drinks

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Is this is a specific type of cake? The other day, I bumped into the father from the Mexican family who lives upstairs, carrying a gorgeous cake up the stairs, with "feliz cumpleaños" written on it in frosting. (He said it translates as happy celebration, but I'm assuming it was a birthday cake.) Later his two little kids came down in party hats with peices for me and my BF. It was a very wet milky cake, which I'm assuming is tres leches. Is that kind of cake specifically traditional for birthday celebrations?

I'm really enjoying your blog. I spent 10 days in Zihuatanejo last year, and haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Your pictures, especially the markets and all the vibrant colors, are making me feel something a little like homesickness (if one can feel that way for a place that's never been home).

Edited October 15, 2007 by dividend (log)

[caroline]

Menu for daughter's birthday shower yesterday (birthday showers are big news in Mexico)

Russian salad

Elbow macaroni with ham and mayonnaise

Celebration cake

Horchata or soft drinks

←

Is this is a specific type of cake? The other day, I bumped into the father from the Mexican family who lives upstairs, carrying a gorgeous cake up the stairs, with "feliz cumpleaños" written on it in frosting. (He said it translates as happy celebration, but I'm assuming it was a birthday cake.) Later his two little kids came down in party hats with peices for me and my BF. It was a very wet milky cake, which I'm assuming is tres leches. Is that kind of cake specifically traditional for birthday celebrations?

I'm really enjoying your blog. I spent 10 days in Zihuatanejo last year, and haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Your pictures, especially the markets and all the vibrant colors, are making me feel something a little like homesickness (if one can feel that way for a place that's never been home).

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Feliz cumpleanos is happy birthday. And this does sound like tres leches. I called the cake "celebration cake" off my own bat. Cakes are very important in Mexico for all kinds of celebrations. Few people make them at home. this is not an oven society. They go to the neighbor who specializes in cakes, to the cake store (pasteleria), to Costco. They are very important for weddings, birthdays, etc.

For all that, I think that most cakes here are not very good. My American husband has liked very, very few bought cakes in Mexico.

Cakes are one of the gifts of the US and England to the world. I think! My Mexican neighbors frequently ask me for brownie or cake recipes. Incredibly difficult to translate given different measuring systems, different ingredients, the high altitude, the different sized pans, and so on.

I have the general opinion that sweets and sweet dishes translate much less well from one country to another than savory dishes. What do you think?

Rachel

Rachel

[C. sapidus]

Y ya. And there you are.

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Your quick filet of beef looks like a delicious quick main course. We have made a similar-looking dish with shrimp and ancho chiles, but I imagine that salsa morita (or the chipotle equivalent) would substitute nicely. I am enjoying this very much, and you have inspired me to dig up a map of Mexico to better follow along.

[caroline]

Y ya. And there you are.

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Your quick filet of beef looks like a delicious quick main course. We have made a similar-looking dish with shrimp and ancho chiles, but I imagine that salsa morita (or the chipotle equivalent) would substitute nicely. I am enjoying this very much, and you have inspired me to dig up a map of Mexico to better follow along.

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Thanks Bruce. Mexico is such a huge country. And I just love maps. You'll see that our commute is just a smidgen of the territory. We do find driving even with toll roads a good bit more tiring than in the US,

Rachel

[BarbaraY]

I'm really enjoying your blog. I spent 10 days in Zihuatanejo last year, and haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Your pictures, especially the markets and all the vibrant colors, are making me feel something a little like homesickness (if one can feel that way for a place that's never been home).

It has been 14 years since I was in Mexico and I still feel that way. Seeing glasses of horchata always reminds me of the first trip 22 years ago. We would get horchata to sip on while we had our siesta and just lounged.

The tamalito looks absolutely delicious.

I'm enjoying this blog very much. Can hardly wait for tomorrow.

[caroline]

Now on to a miscellany of topics for today. As usual I hoofed it off at 8 this morning with my lovely dog and my walking group.

I must tell you about them because they have been so wonderful. We started walking together ten years ago, two miles out round the old mining road about a hundred yards above our house, two miles back. Three of us have survived all those years. Normally between five and seven people, others have cycled through as they took jobs, or had children, or left town. These are accountants, lawyers, professors, and the like. One of the three original had a small restaurant downtown for years.

If I'd had a brain in my head, I've had noted down all the recipes exchanged, all the meals described. Only one of the group has a cookbook. They are all good home cooks, they have no option. They are all experimental. It's been an unsurpassed window into the home cooking of this Mexican province.

To see them just go to the teaser for this list. There we are, a bit swollen in numbers by Maria Elena's visiting sisters, doing the Guanajuato equivalent of blackberrying, garambulleando. We are picking the sweet black fruits, the garambullos, of the old man cactus. These are eaten out of hand or made into sauces for icecream. In the past they were probably dried and traded around Mexico. "Muy regional (very regional)" as Ricardo Muñoz once told me.

I return home famished. Coffee and some of that ethereal chicharron that I bought. This is the best, light and fluffy, with those lovely carnitas. It is spectacular in salsa roja or salsa verde. Some like it well soaked but I find that a bit slimy. So I heat some bits in the meecro (microwave) with a little of the salsa roja from the barbacoa.

Here's the breakfast table.

Then we get to unpacking. I bought some beans in the San Angel market for Rancho Gordo who will be arriving in a week's time to spend two or three days with me. He probably has them already but here they are.

Brown vacitas (little cows)

Aren't they glorious? Don't you want to stroke them? And red vacitas.

There are black ones too but I know he has those.

Here's one view of the kitchen if anyone is interested. We put in the woodwork. the concrete dividers and the tile are the work of the previous owners, a geologist and his wife, who built the house as the house of their dreams and then had to move for work.

And talking of water here's my latest gadget. The garafons are lined up in the pantry/laundry room.

See the one with all the tubes coming out? They lead to a faucet in the kitchen and when it opens an incredibly noisy pump sends the water there. But I just love the fact that no one has to heave the garafons upside down on to garafon stands any more. Here's the photo of the year, the regular faucet and the little garafon faucet.

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1192491246/gallery_8553_5278_18785.jpg

Rachel

[caroline]

A quickie. We have three kinds of corn tortillas (the only ones that count around here) in the house at the moment. Here is a photo of the front and back sides of the three. Which is the best? Which is from the tortilleria? Which is hand patted but bad? You can't tell everything from appearance but a good bit. And I've more or less given the game away,

Rachel

[caroline]

Finally dinner tonight. Something homey. Chicken with potatoes, the small onions from Mexico City, mushrooms in a white wine, garlic and rosemary sauce (rosemary from outside the back door). Salads of watermelon and the sparkling watercress from Mexico City. Ginger ale for my husband, agua de guayaba (guava water) for me (we've had our drinks before dinner, remember).

Rachel

[caroline]

Tomorrow. What's it's like to work in a kitchen in Mexico? What about salsas? The sweets I've been promising? What about servants?

Can I cram it all in?

Rachel

[rancho_gordo]

Then we get to unpacking.  I bought some beans in the San Angel market for Rancho Gordo who will be arriving in a week's time to spend two or three days with me.  He probably has them already but here they are.

Wow! I knew about the black ones (and had a hell of a time with them here in Napa) but the red are new to me. I would almost bet money that the brown ones are what we call Yellow Eyes:

but I've been wrong before. Actually, they could be butterscotch calypsos. Or brown vacaitas as you say.

Is that a stray Flor de Mayo among the brown vacacitas?

Yes, I do want to touch them!

I can't wait until we're breaking bread, er tortillas, together.

Edited October 16, 2007 by rancho_gordo (log)

[heidih]

Really enjoying the blog and totally appreciate your patience and good attitude with the image uploading issues. The tamal with spinach- was that the main flavoring or was there a protein component? The chicharron- oh my!!! Your thick glass with the blue rim I was surprised at- I am drinking out of one now. Thought it was a Baja Mexico thing, but are they common everywhere? I love how the thickness holds the cold and how the light plays through the blurry glass.

[Jamie Lee]

I know it will be shortly after this Herculean effort, but please consider documenting your time with Rancho Gordo - pics and diary!

Have you met before?

Edited October 16, 2007 by Jamie Lee (log)

[Pierogi]

I have the general opinion that sweets and sweet dishes translate much less well from one country to another than savory dishes.  What do you think?

Rachel, I completely agree. Much as I love and crave and admire the cuisines of Asia, Latin America and India, I cannot wrap my tastebuds around any of their sweets and desserts. Far too different from what my experience says is "dessert". Perhaps its because sweets and desserts are so closely associated with childhood memories, and our own cultures and history?

At any rate, thank you for your gracious answer to my dopey question about the water, and I am TOTALLY loving your blog. Your writing style is a joy.

P.S. Any chance of doggie pictures?? Always a winner in my book

[Adam Balic]

Those tiny avacado's are really interesting. I have seen serveral books mention the anise flavour of avacado leaves, but to date none of the leaves I have tried have any of this flavour at all. Is it a variety thing or a location thing do you think?

[racheld]

Brown vacitas (little cows)

Aren't they glorious? Don't you want to stroke them?  And red vacitas.

We buy the big brown blanket-sized sheets at a carniceria next to the within-smelling-distance bakery around the block. Southern folks finding fried pork rinds that take two hands to hold---Heaven.

And the vacitas---yes I DO want to touch them. Also memories of my Southern childhood, when dried beans of several colors were a fascination. Relatives had a little grocery store, and just inside the flappy screendoor, a rank of perhaps six or eight half-barrels were bolted to the wall, just hand-height. They each held an immense quantity of beans, and the colors and their cool slippage through my fingers and the slishy sound of them as they rattled back into the pile---I've never forgotten.

Uncle didn't seem to mind our grubby fingers buried in someone's prospective dinner, and he allowed us to man the silver scoops at will, but his first words to children through the door, repeated countless times in that cavernous deep-rumbly voice: "Don't mix the beans."

[lemniscate]

Great blog. I have a question regarding a chain of restaurants in Mexico City. There are called La Parrilla Suiza (The Swiss Grill). We have a few in Arizona and I really enjoy the "Mexico City style" food there. But I've wondered, since I really have no idea what Mexico City style should taste like since I have never been there, how are these restaurants regarded in MX? Is it considered quality food or something akin to real-Italian-food vs. Olive-Garden-Italian-food?

I really like the chuletas and their chicken soup is phenomenal. The table salsas are the best in town (by my standards) also.

[caroline]

Here's the view from the kitchen window as I struggle to consciousness.

If you want to see some good photos of Guanajuato, go to

http://www.terragalleria.com/north-america...guanajuato.html

I have no connection with this site, but they sure take better pictures than I do.

The gossip on the walk this morning is all about the upcoming Black and White Ball run by the Rotary. Maria Elena's daughter will be queen (queens are a big issue in Guanajuato) so she has been busy teaching the younger girls, the fifteen-year olds who will debutar (come out), how to dance the cotillon. Each, dressed in a white dress with black touches, is accompanied by a chambalan. Just try saying it, I think its chamberlain.

No dinner is served just an "ambigu" a cold plate of rolls of ham and (you guessed) Russian salad.

The family of each girl is expected to buy between one and three tables, each seating ten, cost $300 a table. The entry fee for each individual is $25. The dress costs about $300.

The number of debutantes has beeen gradually falling from about sixteen to nine this year. Another tradition hits the dust!

Much concern, though, because the profits go to equipping houses for the handicapped.

Back to breakfast on that good bread, nata (clotted cream) and plum jam from the cooperative of village women up in the mountain village of Santa Rosa about ten miles from here. They are inspiring.

www.ccg.org.mx/santa.htm

The plum jam is slightly tart and slightly runny, not over-sweetened and pectined, and the nata, well, it takes me back to my family kitchens. Bliss.

The puffed lip indicates that my dog agrees.

Rachel

[Jaymes]

Then we get to unpacking.  I bought some beans in the San Angel market for Rancho Gordo who will be arriving in a week's time to spend two or three days with me.  He probably has them already but here they are.

I can't wait until we're breaking bread, er tortillas, together.

Ahem.

[rancho_gordo]

Then we get to unpacking.  I bought some beans in the San Angel market for Rancho Gordo who will be arriving in a week's time to spend two or three days with me.  He probably has them already but here they are.

I can't wait until we're breaking bread, er tortillas, together.

Ahem.

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With jaymes, of course, who is integral to so many of my Mexican food adventures!