(no subject)
I thought I was was a spice guy, but Yucatan has humbled me. In a land where Habañeros grow as weeds, and every meal big or small is served with deadly-hot salsa, I think the past few days have put me to my limit. In some of the smaller villages, where a dining gringo still turns heads, I had to constantly fight my eyes from watering during meals, when everyone is watching to see how the norteamericano will react to Yucatec food. "Don't let em see you wince, don't let em think that Americans are wusses, just three more bites, smile now, okay, smile." I mean, they dunk corn-on-the-cob in chili sauce, for chrissake!
Food on the whole here has been interesting: I expect that much of the cuisine is extremely local, and probably distinct from the rest of Mexico, based on how the pronounciation of most dishes is very Mayan in character (Pok Chuuc, Tikin Xik, etc). Spice plays a big part, and meat of some sort (lots of pig, some fish, and suprisingly, a good deal of turkey) composed about 75% of the net weight of any given meal, though I can't say if that holds true in home cooking as well. When you order a dish, you get something like a miniature taco bar handed to you, with all the salsa, tortillas, etc, along with the meat that you ordered and some beans, usually in the form of a soupy purée. You then assemble at eat it at your leisure, and wash it down with iced hibiscus tea (which I'vew really come to dig), or a fruit smoothie.
This trip has excited a little bit of interest in the rest of Mexico for me. I'm pretty sick of Latin America (and would take a break from it entirely, if not for the cheap flights and lazy ease of already knowing the language) but my first real trip here has defied enough of my preconceptions that I'm curious about the other parts of the country. I don't know if its just that Yucatan is capital-d-Distinct from the rest of Mexico in the same way that, say, the deep south is capital-d-Distinct from the rest of the US, and the rest of the country mainly conforms to or elaborates on expectations, but I'd be curious to poke my head in and see.
Food on the whole here has been interesting: I expect that much of the cuisine is extremely local, and probably distinct from the rest of Mexico, based on how the pronounciation of most dishes is very Mayan in character (Pok Chuuc, Tikin Xik, etc). Spice plays a big part, and meat of some sort (lots of pig, some fish, and suprisingly, a good deal of turkey) composed about 75% of the net weight of any given meal, though I can't say if that holds true in home cooking as well. When you order a dish, you get something like a miniature taco bar handed to you, with all the salsa, tortillas, etc, along with the meat that you ordered and some beans, usually in the form of a soupy purée. You then assemble at eat it at your leisure, and wash it down with iced hibiscus tea (which I'vew really come to dig), or a fruit smoothie.
This trip has excited a little bit of interest in the rest of Mexico for me. I'm pretty sick of Latin America (and would take a break from it entirely, if not for the cheap flights and lazy ease of already knowing the language) but my first real trip here has defied enough of my preconceptions that I'm curious about the other parts of the country. I don't know if its just that Yucatan is capital-d-Distinct from the rest of Mexico in the same way that, say, the deep south is capital-d-Distinct from the rest of the US, and the rest of the country mainly conforms to or elaborates on expectations, but I'd be curious to poke my head in and see.