Mexican Food
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Food Culture
I have been reminded many times recently on the vast contrasts between population with and without food culture. The easiest definition of what is food culture, in my mind, is that populations or people who have food culture live to eat, and those who don’t eat to live. Reduce to its bare essentials this is the simplest definition.
Generally in the northern parts of North America, meaning Canada and the US, the majority of the people do not live to eat, they generally eat to live, thus the great popularity of fast food. The French influence in Quebec is prevalent, though it is moderated by the North American influence, thus the food culture is not uniformly distributed in all the population.
The current climate in North America that is dominated by gourmet food and all of those food channels on TV is not real food culture, as it is a recent fad, and like all fads it will probably fade in the long term. There is also an elitist aspect to that fad that is not part of what I consider food culture. The good thing with such fads is that it may penetrate part of the population and in the long term help establish food culture in some groups of the population.
Our recent trip to Veracruz reminded me of the prevalence of food in my life, and what I consider the tenets of food culture. Like in most regions of Mexico the general population has a much closer relationship with food than elsewhere in North America. It is a cultural thing and people of all classes take their time to eat and enjoy it, and food is an essential part of appreciating daily life.
You see it in the town as people goes out to eat in the middle of the day, and take the time to enjoy the food and relax while eating it. A lot of offices have a 2 hour lunch time, since people like to take the time to enjoy their food. While we were visiting Veracruz we went to various places where the locals congregate to enjoy specialties at various times of the day. On one morning we went to Las Anitas, a little place in the industrial neighborhood that specializes in “Gorditas” and “Picaditas”. We went a little late for breakfast but the place was still crowded and people were eating like there was no tomorrow. On the way out of town we stopped for breakfast at Las Farolitos which was completely full in the middle of the morning, and which specializes in “Tamales De Elote” and other local specialties.
We went to a few seafood restaurants that were both excellent and relatively cheap for the type of meal we could get there. We were in town only for a few days so we did not have a chance to drive a little bit out of the town and visit little fishing villages where supremely good fresh seafood cost less than a fast food meal. We will definitely go back there to visit as the both the food and the people are great and the atmosphere is inviting and relaxing.
Even in Mexico City you see it in the outdoor markets where the food vendors are full of client from early morning to the end of the day, and you can barely move when it is lunch time. On Sunday morning everybody goes out to eat with the family and everywhere from nice restaurants to street vendors are full of clients. The same is true in the evenings where everybody goes out for an evening snack, and itinerant vendors shout their wares even in residential neighborhoods. From “Tamales” to “Sweet Breads”, to “Camotes”, everybody comes out to grab something to eat.
There is a complete obsession for food at all levels of society and traditional food are still king, and the penetration of most fast food place is not as great as other places due to a rich food culture that is shared by everybody. Of course the convenience of fast food is very attractive for the busy families, but a lot of people are more inclined in eating at local fast food concessions, thus in a way the food culture is still prevalent and tied to the local culture.
I will come back to the subject in the coming weeks, and drop me a note in the comments or via email on what is your relationship with food in your neck of the world and how does it compare to the local population.
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Corn Quesadilla, Turkey Ham and Manchego Cheese
Ingredients
4 Tortilla Corn
4 Turkey Ham
4 Manchego Cheese
La Perrona Hot Sauce Chiltepin
Preparation
1. Wrap the Manchego Cheese with the Turkey Ham.
2. Then wrap the Turkey Ham and Manchego Cheese with the Tortilla Corn.
3. Heat the quesadilla a heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Serve.
5. In the quesadilla put La Perrona Hot Sauce Chiltepin.
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J. Luc Paquin – Curriculum Vitae
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Lucito
I have not been in the kitchen since last Friday… Actually I am lying there as we were invited by some neighbors to an outdoor Mother’s Day bash on Saturday. The men were preparing various fish dishes for the Mothers and after sitting around for a while sipping wine I decided to help with the prep-work as I did not want to interfere with the cooks. The did a huge salad with octopus, battered deep fried fish filets and shrimps, deep fried fish, grilled fish, grilled stuffed fish in aluminum, dried shrimp soup and all kind of other fishy things. It was an afternoon meal and we returned home past midnight well fed and well drunk. Luckily we live walking distance from there.
Sunday was spent visiting my mother in law for Mother’s Day, which is actually on the 10th here, thus yesterday, but the family got together on Sunday instead. We had a light meal of ham and cheese sandwiches and salmon sandwiches, followed by gelatin and cake. We returned home early and yesterday was spent trying to resolve some emergencies so we really did not have much time to cook. Normita prepared a nice chicken noodle soup with chipotle this time, and with the cooked chicken breast she made the soup we had some nice chicken tostadas. For those who do not know tostadas are corn tortillas that are fried or oven baked until crisp. For the sake of healthy living we have been buying the oven baked ones for years now.
They can be used as a side dish, or as we did as the main fare. They are normally topped with a variety of things and what we did is butter them with cream, followed by a sprinkling of salt, then a layer of shredded chicken, some avocado, a bit of grated Parmesan and some Valentina hot salsa. Very nice and tasty and we had the same again today as we both had soup and chicken left. We will see what we do tomorrow depending on if we have time to go food shopping or not. Since things have been hectic for the past few weeks and we have not had time to go shopping, we may need to improvise again…
Lucito
In our long quest to reuse all leftovers and not leave anything uneaten, this morning we prepared a nice breakfast make mostly with leftover ingredients from last week. We had 4 of those chalupas we used with the mole last week and a bit of refried beans and spicy tomato salsa that Normita made last week. We decided to use all of that to make a nice tasty breakfast. As with most of these things the effort is minimal and the result very rewarding.
We started with the chalupas that we fried on both sides in a pan with a few tablespoons of oil. Once nice and crisp we buttered them directly in the pan with the beans, then added a bit of salsa and some shredded bits of Oaxaca cheese. You keep cooking them until the cheese melts and you end up with a savory Mexican breakfast pizza. We enjoyed them with a nice strong cup of coffee and we shared a huge grapefruit afterward. Too bad they are all gone…
I started eating and found them so good that I rushed to the office to get the camera to record the event before they were all gone…
Our nice Mexica breakfast pizzas - Chalupas
Lucito
In continuation of our stressful week today we had the leftovers from yesterday which were partly leftovers from some weeks back that we had frozen. As a first course we had the leftover chicken soup from yesterday that, as usual, was tastier on the second day. We did another quick Mexican dish with the leftover mole from yesterday which had the leftover shredded chicken cooked to make the soup yesterday.
That’s a lot of accumulated leftovers. We made some enchiladas that are essentially tortillas dipped in a chile sauce. You start with some nice corn tortillas, in our case we used some Jalapeño tortillas we bought Tuesday. You normally fry them in oil, but we just cooked them on the comal until nice and crisp.
Our nice corn tortillas with Jalapeños crisping on the comal
When the tortillas are nice and crisp, you just dip them in the chile sauce and fold them in half. In our case we dipped them in the mole and chicken from yesterday.
Dipping the corn jalapeño tortillas in the mole sauce
Once you have placed your folded tortillas on the plate you ladle more of your sauce over them.
The plated enchiladas de mole con pollo
Traditionally like yesterday’s chalupas the enchiladas are served topped with grated cheese, and like yesterday we did not have cheese so we used a dollop of heavy cream on them.
The plated enchiladas ready to eat
The meal was very tasty as usual and took a grand total of 10 to 15 minutes to prepare. Now we need to really think about what we will have tomorrow as we ran out of easily accessible leftovers and we will need to actually cook something.
Lucito
We had bought a nice big chicken breast yesterday and decided at the last minute not to prepare it and use it today. Normita prepared her famous chicken noodle soup again and she cooked the chicken in it. We had that as a first course. We had some mole almendrado we had used a while back and that we had frozen the leftovers. We normally buy fresh mole paste at the market and we use it in a variety of way. Normita added the freshly cooked chicken after finely shredding it with her fingers and reheated it in the mole.
We had also bought some “chalupas” literally some “rowboats” yesterday. Chalupas are made with the same dough as corn tortillas and are shaped like little rowboats thus the name. They are about as thick as 3 tortillas and are normally handmade with a little rim. The ones we bought looked machine made evenly cut from a thick sheet of dough, instead of hand-formed. They are easy to prepare, you put a few tablespoons of oil in a hot pan, or a comal and fry the chalupas in the oil until golden and crisp. You place the fried chalupa after draining the oil on a paper towel on your plate and butter them with a nice layer of refried beans. You then add to it some of the mole with chicken, and you traditionally top them with some grated cheese. Since we did not have any cheese to grate, we topped them with a dollop of heavy cream.
They turned out to be very satisfying and like many traditional Mexican dishes that you eat with your hands they were also very messy to eat, but that is part of the fun of good Mexican food.
A nice and very tasty serving of Chalupas de Mole con Pollo
Lucito
Like I mentioned earlier today, we have had those yummy meatballs that Normita made yesterday, again today. They were even better today as the sauce was much thicker and tasty. Like many types of dishes, this gets better with a day or two of age. Here is a quick picture I took…
The nice meatballs and Mexican rice we had today
The only problem I have is now I have to start thinking about what we will eat tomorrow. It never stops and I am sure I will think of something in time especially when the hunger starts in the evening.
Lucito
We have had a very busy last few days and I did not get a chance to post anything anywhere yesterday. The Daily Express for both yesterday and today is “Albondigas”, Mexican Style Meatballs. Every few weeks Normita prepares them as it is a very quick and easy meal to prepare and it last 2 days, which is great when we are very busy and do not have much time to spend in the kitchen. The meatballs can be prepared fresh with the ground meat of your choice. When Normita prepares them from scratch she does it the traditional way with some cooked rice and eggs in the meatballs. The next time she does some I will document the recipe.
When we find them at the supermarket, we buy some inert gas packed meatballs that tend to be very nice and tasty and we freeze them. This way, on days we do not really have much time to cook, we can have a nice meal with little effort. Normita cooks the meatballs in a thick sauce of fresh tomatoes, garlic, onions, celery, carrots and chipotle. We normally eat them with a side dish of Mexican style rice, like we did yesterday and we will do again today with the leftovers.
It makes for a nice and quick meal that is both tasty and easy to prepare.
Lucito
I finally managed to cook those pieces of suadero on the barbecue earlier today. My aim was to have something nice and very tender to eat, but it did not turn out as planned. The meat became very though and chewy from the dry cooking, even though it had marinated for 2 days. The main reason is that the meat has a membrane that just tenses up and that was too thick to crisp well. Also the texture of the meat once cooked was not as expected. It looked like something like arrachera, bavette, or flank which has long fibers, but it really does not. I should have inspected it better before marinating it, but since I was too tired at the time it is my lost.
The taste was fantastic as the cut of meat is very tasty and with the added flavoring of the marinate it tasted very good. The meal looked great, and the side dishes were perfect for it. If it was not for the chewiness of the meat it would have been a great meal. Here is a look at the plated dish.
The plated poor man arrachera
Looking back at it I should have slow cooked it over moist eat or cooked it until it was very crisp. The stringy texture would probably go either way. I will see what I can do if I buy some again. I was tempted by the cheap price, and I got what I paid for. A big contrast with the nice pork we bought cheaply at the same place as it turned out great.
Since my motto is to learn something new each day, then I will not go to bed stupid tonight as I learned how not too cook suadero! Like in science there are no bad experiments in cooking, just some that yield unexpected results. No I have to go take something for the heartburn…
Lucito
Yesterday I posted HERE that we would be having that nice suadero meat that we had bought Sunday and that has been marinating since then. It turned out that when Normita and I went to sit down and relax before the meal we were both so exhausted that we would not have enjoyed the meal. We decided to make a quick sandwich and keep the nice meat for today. Of course this means that it marinated for an extra day and that hopefully there is still something left in there and that the meat did not just dissolve completely. I have yet to check on that…
So we will have the suadero today with some oven-roasted baby potatoes and grilled asparagus, as planned yesterday. This time I hope that we actually eat it as I am starting to be very hungry, though Normita says she is not. We’ll see how this turns out today… If we actually do eat it I will try to post some photos of the results later.
Lucito