There are different ways of living and different ways of thinking. Mine is such that allows me to be part of any group; I like to adapt but also to satisfy my needs, I like to enjoy with people without jeopardizing my beliefs or needs but in general I love to eat and I would eat almost anything except for chicken hearts (Brian’s favourites).
In this part of our journey, in Merida Yucatan, we are living with an old friend who is ova-lacto vegetarian and we have adapted our diet in order to respect her home and gathering system, so no meat crosses the door but I have to admit that in couple of occasions we have left the home to go hunting.
I will present couple of things we have found in the area and couple of recipes or ideas we have gathered from my friend; generally speaking I love eating this way but our way is so much fun!!! Thanks Patricia Chuey for helping me realize the way I want to live, 80-20% …
Marquesitas.
These are delicious snacks offered in many places throughout the streets of Merida, what are they? They are something that is a blend of an ice cream cone with a crepe. They are crunchy as the cone, but are rolled up and filled with Gouda or Edam cheese, or maybe cajeta (caramel) or nutella.
The marquesitas are only available at the Yucatan Peninsula as far as I know. They were invented in 1945 by a the owner of an ice cream parlour; it was a very cold winter and the sales of the refreshing item dropped as low as the temperature, so nobody was buying, in desperation he tried to utilize the remainder of the cones, instead of the triangular shape and cold filling he began to do some tests with salty items like ground meat and other stuff, but people didn't like them. Of the several ingredients the cheese was the most accepted.
In this part of Mexico the most popular cheese was from the Netherlands, mainly Gouda and Edam, and those were the people’s favourites.
The ice cream parlour was located not far from the temple of Santiago. People were making big crowds to eat this sort of crunchy crepe after mass.
I did not find them economical but they are reasonable priced, I ate one once but would not buy them regularly.
The price of a marquesita with two ingredients: nutella and queso de bola, is $25 Mexican pesos.
Calabacitas.
Zucchini is an excellent and simple veggie. Waldo, my friend’s husband, made this simple and tasty dish. He did not tell me how much he spent but for next time I will make sure he let’s me know.
Ingredients:
Zucchini
Tomato
Can corn
Garlic
Onion
Preparation:
1) Simply fry as much garlic and onion as you like.
2) Then add the rest of the ingredients previously cut in reasonable sized squares, also add the can of corn.
3) Cook for a little while, serve and enjoy with tortillas.
Las Alubias de Dona Mary.
What are alubias? Alubias are a kind of bean, it is white and remains white once cooked. Very tasty. My friend’s mom cooked them simply with salt and we ate them as a soup with tortillas and pico de gallo = tomatoes+onions+cilantro+jalapenos+salt+lemon.
Ingredients:
Alubias
Salt
Water
Preparation:
1) Boil the alubias until they are soft.
2) Add salt and serve.
Again, price? Not sure, they did not mention…
BMW Chicken…
Don’t be confused, BMW does not produce chickens yet!!!
We used the BMW dealer’s facility in Merida Yucatan to conduct the repairs of Brian’s fork and when we finished they got some chicken at a local place called: Pollo Brujo. Awesome chicken especially after days of not having any meat in my system.
Price, don’t know, we were too tired to ask.
Thanks guys.
Aguas y chicharrones de Betty.
Betty is my good friend from Secondary school. Together with her husband they sell “aguas” (juices) in Merida, but also chicharrones (fried snacks) and palomitas (pop corn). A 900 millilitres bottle of juice (watermelon, mango, lemon, barley, etc) is $12 Mexican pesos and a little bag of chicharrones or palomitas is $5 Mexican pesos; perhaps the fried snacks are not the healthiest option for anyone but sure it makes money.
The juices are very tasty and they make them with care and love.
Avena Rivero.
This is a 400 grams bag of ground oats with banana flavour. Price is $18.81 Mexican pesos and a great mistake. It is full of sugar and the flavour added is not the one we were looking for, so back to our original idea for cereal at breakfast time… Thanks Archie!!!
Paletas Janitzio.
There is an ice cream shop in the Zocalo in Merida that offers fantastic ice cream in a different shape of what we are normally used to. The shape is called paleta.
A regular paleta is $10 Mexican pesos (made with fruit and water) and a more complex paleta goes for $17 Mexican pesos. I love the Oreo one!!!
Thanks Betty’s mom for the invitation.
Vegetarian chilli.
Chilli goes well with or without meat so I decided to try with soya (soy).
Ingredients:
Soya
Boiled black beans
Garlic
Onions
Celery
Red bell peppers
Jalapenos
Potatoes
Carrots
Tomatoes
Tomato sauce
Paprika
Cumin
Salt
Black pepper
Bay leaves
Preparation:
1) Boil the soya with some bay leaves and once boiled, squeeze the water out of it.
2) Cut all ingredients in reasonable sized pieces.
3) Fry the garlic and onion. Once this is done, add the carrots and potatoes, continue to fry.
4) Add the celery, jalapenos and red bell pepper, fry some more.
5) Add the tomatoes and stir a little bit.
6) Add the tomato sauce.
7) Add paprika, cumin and salt to taste, perhaps a bit of black pepper if desired.
8) Finally add the soya and boiled beans. Let the entire mix cook for about 15 more minutes… check for salt and fix.
9) Enjoy with corn bread or tortillas. When in Rome, be Romanian!!! Don’t forget your Modelo beer.
What to do with the leftovers of the soya. A ceviche with soya which is basically cold soya with fresh tomatoes, onion, cilantro, lemon and salt.
Pico de gallo with habaneros.
The habanero chili comes from the Amazonas region, and from there it was spread in Peru. One domesticated habanero, which was dated at 8500 years old, was found at an archaeological dig in Peru. An intact fruit of a small domesticated habanero was found in Pre-ceramic levels in Guitarrero Cave in the Peruvian highlands, and was dated to 6500 B.C. It migrated North to Mexico and the Caribbean via Colombia.
Upon its discovery by Spaniards, it was rapidly disseminated to other adequate climate areas of the world, to the point that 18th Century taxonomists mistook China for its place of origin. Today, the largest producer is Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
The habanero pepper is one of the more intensely piquant species of peppers of the Capsicum genus. Unripe habaneros are green, and they change colour as they mature. Common colours are orange and red, but white, brown, and pink are also seen. Typically a ripe habanero is 2–6 centimetres (0.8–2.4 in) long. Habanero chili peppers are rated 100,000-350,000 on the Scoville scale.
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the spicy heat (or piquance) of a chili pepper. The number of Scoville heat units (SHU) indicates the amount of capsaicin present. Capsaicin is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes; capsaicin itself has a Scoville rating of 16,000,000 SHU.
The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. His method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test. The modern commonplace method for quantitative analysis uses high-performance liquid chromatography, making it possible to directly measure capsaicinoid content.
Anyway, after all those lines let me tell you how to make pico de gallo with habaneros.
Ingredients:
Habaneros
Onion
Tomatoes
Cilantro
Lemon
Salt
Preparation:
1) Cut all ingredients but be extremely careful when cutting the habaneros. My hands were burning for two days after I made this delicious dish.
2) Mix them all up and enjoy with anything.
Note: Tomatoes are from Nolo, a small little town where I got two kilos of tomatoes for $10 Mexican pesos and on top of it, the ladies gave an extra kilo for free.
Las tortas de Betty.
If you may recall a torta is a Portuguese bun with anything inside. A Portuguese bun in Mexico is called bolillo and it goes for $1-1.2 Mexican pesos.
I remember when I used to ask Betty for a piece of her torta; besides my delicious tortas made by my lovely mom I liked hers made by her lovely mom too.
In Merida she has made couple of tortas for us: one with egg, lettuce, tomato and avocado, another one made with: kidney beans from Cuba (I brought them), nopal (cactus), cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado and non spicy red sauce.
Thanks Betty for sharing the goodness with me again.
Los tacos de Waldo.
Waldo knows how to cook which is not the “normal” situation in a Mexican home. He made mushroom tacos which were pretty tasty. He simply cooked the mushrooms with onions, garlic and salt, of course he used oil.
To serve, you simply place on the table the pot of cooked mushrooms, tortillas, hot sauce, lemons, fresh cilantro and onions and anything else you may want to add.
