My Mexican Adventure

[Miss J]

Well...it's been a few weeks since I came back to British soil, but work's been pretty unforgiving so I haven't been able to write up my holiday notes. Now that my tan is fading (but my freckles aren't, oddly), I hope that I've still got all the details down accurately!  

As mentioned before I went, I was lucky enough to be visiting someone whose boyfriend is Mexican and local to the Yucatan. So I had a great guide to all the best places to eat (not to mention the cleanest - I think Sian was the biggest neat-freak I've ever met) and an 'in' to his 80-year-old mother, a tiny lady with a great line in tamales. I have a LOT of things to talk about, so rather than writing one single post (which is going to take AGES), I'm going to do this is bits & pieces. At least that way it all seems a bit less daunting...

First, my overall notes. I'm relieved to report that I didn't suffer even the smallest bit of tummy trouble, in spite of eating everything under the sun. I'm sure this was mainly due to Sian's hawk-like attention to cleanliness, although I joined both him and Tara in munching veggies washed in tap water with no ill effects. (My hosts were adament I wouldn't have any problems, so I thought it was worth the chance.) And Stellabella, I have to shamefacedly admit that I COMPLETELY disregarded your advice on the seafood, and not only indulged but paid special attention to the local cerviche. (Served with tortilla chips. Mmmmmm....)

So anyway, without further ado here's Part One of What I Did On My Mexican Holiday:

Tara & Sian picked me up from the airport after waiting for nearly two hours for me to clear customs. It seems that I'd booked just in time to coincide with the arrival of the North American Spring Break package tours (which I remember being advertised at my own university), which meant that EVERY new arrival was having his/her luggage searched for illegal substances. This took ages, and Tara and I consoled ourselves with jumping up & down and generally trying to communicate through the thick glass separating the customs queue from the arrivals area. We failed dismally, and in retrospect were probably lucky we weren't arrested on some set of charges or another - a really bored official might have thought we were arranging some sort of smuggling ring, or something...

They live in Playa del Carmen, a fairly built-up coastal resort that used to be a sleepy little fishing village before Cancun's popularity started spreading to the rest of the Yucatan. On the way into town, we stopped at a supermarket to pick up some key ingredients for dinner, and I was THRILLED as snooping around supermarkets is one of my favourite things to do when I first arrive somewhere new. I was delighted by the huge carts of dried chiles in umpteen different varieties (so different from the UK, where having more than a couple types of chile is considered a bit excessive), and by the enormous piles of less-than-perfect limes. It was refreshing to see fruit with all the typical blemishes on them, instead of the gleaming and heavily waxed 'perfect' versions we usually find in our supermarkets. I was also interested in the in-store bakery. Tara picked up a big metal tray and a pair of tongs, and walked around selecting her choices. When she was finished, she took the tray up to a counter where the assistant bagged her goodies and wrote the price on them - hyper-service, or just an attempt to keep people from scoffing their rolls before reaching the checkout? I was never entirely sure... I was also intrigued by the huge vats of mole and spice pastes, all ready to be scooped out in bulk and packed home for dinner. As I was to discover later, the 'rojo' seasoning paste was ubiquitous at the pollo rojo (grilled rotisserie chicken) stalls, and unfortunately was so readily available commerically that no-one was really bothered to make it themselves. Which means that I haven't got a recipe for it, alas...

I scored the extra room in Tara & Sian's small two-bedroom flat in the 'tourist' area (translation: the roads were paved), and within an hour of coming through the door Sian was preparing his famous chicken fajitas to 'give me an easy introduction to real Mexican food.' His mix for the filling was very simple (onions, green peppers, chicken, salt and pepper), and he made up a big pot of rice to go alongside it. He also produced a wonderful guacamole and fresh tomato salsa, also with a bunch of hand-patted tortillas from a bag of tortilla dough he'd picked up at the supermarket.

According to Sian, the biggest problem with guacamole in the US & Canada is that we put far too many ingredients in it. His rule of them is to stick to six ingredients, stretching to seven if you fancy a bit of tomato in your buttery green dip. The five key ingredients are: perfectly ripe Hass avocados, white onion (a fairly mild variety), salt, pepper, a bit of lime juice and fresh habenaro chile.* Sian mixed everything into a still-slightly-chunky texture, and then finished the whole thing off with a few shakes of bottled green habenaro sauce.

*The habenaro - cousin of the Scotch Bonnet and popularly known as the hottest chile in the world - is THE chile of the Yucatan, and it turns up in absolutely EVERYTHING. I saw our local empanada vendor carting home a 3-kilo bag of habenaros at the end of the day, which must contain enough firepower to light most of Western Europe for a week. Fortunately, I'm a chile devote and wasn't the slightest bit put off by the region's passionate habenaro-worship, but anyone who's a bit nervous about fire should be warned to be very, very careful about what you eat when in Mexico's "Mayan Riviera." Some of the most innocuous-looking red sauces (like the one that came with the empanadas) left my lips glowing with chile burn after just a couple of eager bites - no build-up required!

Our salsa was a simple mixture of freshly chopped (and very ripe) tomatoes, white onion, cilantro (fresh coriander to UK readers), fresh lime juice and another whole bunch of chopped habenaro - deseeded for Tara. It just needed a bit of seasoning and a few minutes to sit so the flavours combined before we were allowed to snorfle it up.

One of the first things I observed that night was how 'natural' tortillas are in a Mexican meal. None of the carefully pre-rolled, painsakingly presented stuff you find in restaurants (although admittedly most places are more casual with fajitas). And assembling a fajita was a very loose, off-the-cuff experience compared with what I've seen north of the border(s). Most of this was down to the size of the tortillas, which Sian made just slightly larger than palm-sized. This made it simple to pick up a warm tortilla in one hand and quickly fork just a little fajita filling, rice, guacamole & salsa in, and then fold it with a quick flip of your fingers & thumb before biting in. No complicated rolling, no knives, and just a fork required to move food from your plate to your tortilla-wielding hand - truly, poetry in motion.

We accompanied our meal with lots (and lots) of lime-spiked Dos Equis, a local lager with an incredibly numbskulled sex-sells advertising campaign (as an Ad Girl, I feel allowed to criticise campaigns no matter where I go). Sian is fond of adding a bit of salt to his lime before popping it into his bottle, and it's quite common to add a few slices of fresh habenaro too. Figuring that my system was probably at its weakest due to air travel, I didn't give this a try right away. Sian pressed me though, insisting that it was really refreshing and not to be missed.  :wow:

Many, many fajitas later, I gave my thanks and made my excuses and headed off to bed. My hosts told me to rest well, as we were going to depart the next morning on a short trip taking in the Mayan ruin sites at Tulum and Coba before heading inland to the colonial city of Merida, where Sian promised to show me some of 'the real Mexico...'

To be continued. (And don't worry, I'm not going to detail every day and all its meals to this extent!)

Miss J

[cabrales]

(And don't worry, I'm not going to detail every day and all its meals to this extent!)

Miss J -- Please do continue with the vivid detail, unless it's burdensome to you  

[jhlurie]

Good reading...

[lullyloo]

More!  More!

[sladeums]

Bravo!

I've been waiting to hear the details...please don't spare them!

[marasubo]

Well...it's been a few weeks since I came back to British soil,

Hi Miss J,

i'll soon be making the jump acrossdapond - currently residing in T.O.

seeking a fellow canadian's perspective on where to live, etc. the usual stuff when one up roots.

should i start a separate thread or would you consider letting me email you directly?

whatever works for you.

mara.

[Malawry]

Don't stop. This is good readin'.  

[stellabella]

Miss J--

Have been waiting to hear about it.

I am glad you disregraded my advice.  While in Panama I ate buckets of ceviche, with no ill effects--I think the lime takes care of a lot of organisms.

I want to hear more about the pastries for sale in the bakery, and any accounts of shopping in other markets.

Did you ever try any refrescas from sidewalk vendors?  If so, please give a detailed account of how delishus they were.

[Miss J]

Just popping in quickly to say the next installment is on its way - I've just been swamped at work over the past day or so and haven't really had the chance to write much.

Actually that's not entirely true - I just haven't really had the chance to write anything that I'm not likely to be paid for.  

So I'm not holding out - just pausing for breath!

Miss J