The Mija Chronicles

Mexican food and culture, on both sides of the border

Archives for December 2009

Sweet potato salad with rajas, onions and oregano dressing

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I’m addicted to this salad. Seriously. I’ve made it maybe four times in the past two months, and each time, I’m scraping the bowl with my spoon and hoping that I have leftovers for the next day.

It’s a cinch to prepare. (Well, “cinch” meaning it takes about an hour with the chopping, but there’s no major cooking involved.) It comes from Rick Bayless’ Mexican Everyday, one of my go-to cookbooks since I’ve moved to Mexico. In the original version, he uses regular potatoes and flaked tuna. I’ve prepared it that way, but also with sweet potatoes, chicken instead of tuna, and no meat at all. They’re all fabulous.

My favorite version is with camote blanco. It’s a purple-skinned sweet potato with white flesh, and it’s not as sweet as the orange sweet potato. It balances perfectly with the tangy herbed vinaigrette. I wanted to take a picture of this salad, but Crayton had the camera, so you’ll have to settle for an iPhone shot.

Here’s the recipe. It pairs really well with a glass of white wine.
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A gourmet Mexico City food fair

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Slow Food Mexico is part of the larger, international organization Slow Food, which supports organic, sustainable eating around the world. Yesterday one of the Mexico chapters sponsored a gourmet food fair in Coyoacán.

Local restaurants and small-business owners from all over the country had set up dozens of items under a white tent: artisan mescal, Mexican wine, Querétaro and Jalisco cheeses, tamales with various fillings, fruit jams, dried and candied xoconostle, heirloom beans, seeds, fresh fish from Michoacán.

I wanted to eat it all, ALL ALL. But I settled for 60 pesos (about $4 USD) to taste three dishes. My friend Emily did the same, and we decided to share.

First up were the tamales, made by El Tajin Chef Adriana of Cafe El Popular in the Centro. The filling contained quelites, a dark, hearty leaf; nata and requesón, a type of mellow Mexican ricotta. It was served with a little olla of salsa. I took a picture before I got to the quelites, because I was too hungry to wait.

Then we tried a strawberry tamale, which had strawberries mixed directly into the masa, and a few bits of gooey strawberry pulp. Yum.

We tried trout from D.O., an upscale Mexico City restaurant. It came with a citrus syrup dotted with orange rind, a toss of pepitas, and a scoop of lentil-wild rice salad. Utterly divine.

Then there was the decadent gut-bomb, in a good way, of a turkey tamale wrapped in hoja santa leaves, doused in tomato sauce and topped with a dollop of nata. God. Can you imagine? It tasted as rich as it looked. I loved the idea of serving it in a cornhusk.

Update: Ruth of Alegria in Mexico says these were made by Gerardo Vazques Lugo of Nico’s restaurant. He’s also the Chapultepec Slow Food convivium leader, and one of the Sunday event’s main organizers, along with Alicia Gironella De’Angeli of El Tajin.

We also tried a wonderful selection of cotija cheeses, aged and crumbly, each sitting in its own little pool of marmalade. (The pineapple marmalade speckled with vanilla bean outshined them all, and I wanted to spoon it into my purse and take it home with me.)

In another aisle, a soon-to-open Condesa bakery called Acento had set up a basket brimming with concha rolls, muffins and chocolate croissants. I watched two people in a row walk by, gaze at the bread and murmur, “Qué bárbaro. Qué delicia!”

Bought a chocolate concha, and it was fine. A little dry. (I’m sticking to my belief that conchas must be tried within an hour or two of baking.)

At the end of the day, I came away with a package of fresh trout, a jar of tecojote marmalade from Michoacán, a bag of heirloom pinto beans, and my favorite, a lead-free clay bean pot, which I bought after being inspired by this refried beans post on Mexico Cooks.

I’m in love with my new pot, which is now sitting on top of my kitchen cabinets. It’s round and chubby and so cute. I plan to make some beans on Saturday, so I’ll definitely have to take a few pictures and show you.

Update: Forgot to mention that the beans and bean pot came from Xoxoc, a husband-and-wife team based in Hidalgo state that make wonderful xoconostle products, and also seek out small-batch bean producers in Mexico. They’ve provided beans to Rancho Gordo, the well-known heirloom bean producer in Napa, California. (Check out the New York Times article on Rancho Gordo here.)

Mailing off a Christmas present, Mexico City style

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How many stops does it take to mail off two Christmas presents from Mexico? I found out last week.

Click on the icons below for more info. (Hint: Start on the green house, and move clockwise, ending with the green push pin.)

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105662237355781038208.00047a3fd14f5530d9d86&ll=19.430132,-99.167173&spn=0.003541,0.00456&z=16&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

When a random Mexican dude offers to pick up the tab

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A few weeks ago, I had lunch with my new friend Mary Claire at La Moscota, a cool cantina in the Centro where the food is free if you order a few beers. We ordered sopa de médula and tostadas de picadillo and had a good time. When it came time to pay the check, the waiter removed the 100-peso bill I’d placed inside and said: “Te invitó.”

Me: “Huh?”

“Te invitó.”

I looked at Mary Claire. She looked as bewildered as me.

“I’m sorry,” I told the waiter in Spanish. “I’m a foreigner, and I don’t know what that means.”

“The man behind you wants to pay for you ladies.”

Whaa? This had never happened to me in Mexico. I didn’t want to turn around and see whom the waiter was referring to — that would be rude — so instead I looked helplessly at Mary Claire, and then back at the waiter.

“I’m sorry,” I told him again, in Spanish. “But this is the first time this has happened to me. If we accept, do we have to do something?”

“Nah.”

“But we should thank the guy, right?”

“If you want.”

His nonchalant attitude struck me as strange. I asked Mary Claire if she was cool with some random guy paying, and she said yes. I didn’t mind either. I could use that 100 pesos for a cab ride home.

So we said okay, and the waiter disappeared, and then it was time to leave. I turned around and saw two tables directly behind ours — one with two older men and a woman, and the other with three late 30s-ish men. I guessed it was the latter table. But what was I supposed to say? I eyed each of the men and they eyed me back. One in particular stared longer than the others. My brain scrambled for words, but all I could think of was: “Era…. tú?”

God, was that even grammatically correct?

The man slowly shook his head.

I had no idea what was going on, so I mumbled “gracias” and we left.

“I have no idea what just happened,” I told MC as we were leaving. She didn’t either.

Anyone out there know the proper response? I told Crayton about it later, and he said I should have just turned around and said, “Gracias, muy amable” to no one in particular. But was the waiter correct? If a random guy offers to pay your tab here, will he not be offended if you don’t pull up a chair and sit down? In the U.S., if a man offers to pay for a woman’s drink, 98 percent of the time it’s rude to not chit-chat with him a little bit. (Unless the guy is a complete jerk, or you’re already drunk and have no idea what you’re doing.)

Thoughts?

Hearty corn and oatmeal pancakes

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Last Friday morning, still snuggled in my bed, I suddenly had an intense desire for pancakes. But then I realized I had no flour. My rolling pantry (really a bunch of Elfa drawers from The Container Store) can only fit small packages of flour, and I’d used mine up to make these chocolate and ginger tarts. Whole wheat flour would’ve worked okay. But whole-wheat oatmeal pancakes… ugh, that sounded too dense. (Are you seeing what a picky person I am to live with?)

So I brainstormed alternative pancake flours. Garbanzo… no… semolina… no…. Maseca… hmmm. Yeah. Maseca is a corn flour that most people in Mexico use as a shortcut to make tortillas. I’d bought Maseca to make nicuatole, and it seemed like it was light enough to work in a pancake. To quote Crayton: What’s the worst that could happen?

Oatmeal and corn don’t sound like they go together, and I was expecting them to taste a little strange. But the pancakes actually turned out really well. They didn’t taste overwhelmingly of oatmeal, or of corn, instead rounding out into this generally hearty, grainy taste. I used a combination of plain yogurt and milk, which made them moist. And they were fluffy, too. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Except maybe a mimosa.

Maple syrup seemed odd in this case, so I slathered them with butter and drizzled on honey. If you have any Maseca in your pantry that you’ve been wondering what to do with, this is a perfect recipe. I made them over the weekend for Crayton — okay, technically he made them, since I was on the phone with my mom — and they got his seal of approval.

Recipe below.
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Mercado San Juan de Dios, and other cool places to visit in Guadalajara

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I know I’m getting to my Guadalajara wrap-up kinda late, but better late than never, I guess. First off: If you’re ever in Guadalajara, you absolutely must visit the Mercado San Juan de Dios. It’s three stories (!) of food stalls, produce, meat, jewelry, leather, boots, pottery, kitchen items.

A few other spots I’d recommend if you’re ever in GDL:

1. Casa Vilasanta: A small, clean hotel with free high-speed Internet, gorgeous patios and a communal kitchen. It’s also really cheap. I paid the equivalent of $30 USD a night.

2. Casa Bariachi: A group of new friends and I were looking for a place to catch live mariachi music on Tuesday night, and our taxi driver referred us here. I’d feared it would be touristy, but it wasn’t — it was actually pretty awesome. A mariachi band played partially on stage, and then amongst the crowd. Everyone else there was Mexican, and they sang along when they knew the words. We each had a bandera or two of tequila and split a few desserts. (Highly recommend the coconut ice cream.) Prices aren’t super cheap, but they’re reasonable.

3. Loncherita: A cute, Mexican-kitsch place with mini tortas smothered in salsa (they’re called “loncheritas” here), and Guadalajaran microbrews. We ordered tostadas de marlin and pata, one loncherita a piece, and a burrito stuffed with panela. Everything was good — above average but not insanely fantastic. That’s fine with me. I’d go back again for the drinks and ambience.

4. Zapópan: A suburb about 8km north of Guadalajara with a quaint plaza (that’s it in the picture above), a cool little museum — where I caught the fantastic “Phantom Sightings” exhibit, showcasing Chicano artists — and narrow, colonial-type streets. I ate some tacos de carnaza at the market there, and wanted to explore more, but I didn’t have time. Next time.

More pictures below!

Mercado San Juan de Dios from the outside -- it sits next to a big plaza

Puya chiles are similar to guajillo chiles, but hotter

These arbol chiles were grown in nearby Yahualica. Interestingly, the other arbol chiles for sale came from China.

Among the many strands of Christmas lights for sale in the back market area

More Guadalajara pictures, if you’re not too tired of looking at them, after the link…

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A Mexican YouTube Classic: “Edgar Se Cae”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b89CnP0Iq30&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Edgar Se Cae, a video about a chubby Mexican boy who falls into a creek while shrieking, “No guey!”, is a Mexican YouTube phenomenon. Nearly 17 million people have watched the original video since it debuted in 2006. This month Chilango magazine included the video on its list of most memorable moments of the decade.

Edgar spoofs abound on YouTube. There’s a Donkey Kong version, a Super Mario Brothers version and a Mortal Kombat version. There are Edgar Se Cae cartoons. My favorite one ends with Edgar waddling out of the creek, little blue pools beneath his eyes. “Pobre niño gordo,” a caption reads. (“Poor little fat boy.”)

My friend Jesica showed the original video to us a couple of months ago. I thought it was funny, but not 17-million-views funny. Then I looked at it several times this morning, and found myself giggling. Edgar’s friend coaxes him across the creek, and then forces Edgar to fall. SPLASH! Oh god, watch it again.

Seriously, it’s a story of the underdog. Mexican’s aren’t just laughing at Edgar — well, they are, especially when his “no guey!” and “ya guey!” shrieks get progressively louder — they’re laughing at how sometimes, the skinnier, stronger guy gets the leg up, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Also, sometimes kids are just plain mean.

Wrap-up of the FIL in Guadalajara

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I’ve got a post over at The Dallas Morning News’ books blog with a few highlights of my time at the FIL. Missing it there already. Although, you know, it’s good to finally not feel exhausted.

I have a few more pictures to share of Guadalajara, but I’m too tired to do anything today, so I’ll get to it next week. You’ve got to see Mercado San Juan de Dios, which is three stories tall and has everything you’ve ever wanted, and things you never even knew you wanted. (Like paper lanterns printed with poinsettas!)

The bravery of an American woman

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Another Guadalajara cabbie and I struck up a conversation yesterday, while I was on my way to the book fair from an art musuem in Zapopan.

He’d asked where I was from — “Espana?” he guessed — and we chit-chatted about the differences between Guadalajara and Mexico City. I mentioned that I’d moved to Mexico for my husband’s job, and the cabbie, who looked no older than 30, asked how my husband was enjoying Guadalajara.

“Oh, he’s not here,” I said. “I came by myself.”

He looked surprised.

“Why didn’t he come?”

“Because he had to work.”

“So you’re here completely by yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

(Me, wondering whether I should continue further, lest he pull off the road and rob me): “Yes, really.”

He eyed me through the rearview mirror.

“Orale!” he finally said. “You’re brave.”

“I’m an American woman,” I said. “We’re very independent.”

That made him laugh.