Last time I started a series about my first impression of Mexico (you can read PART I here). This is the second part of that series and, this time, I'm going to talk more about Mexican food.
So, here goes:
Observation 6: Your life has never been spicier
If you like spicy food, Mexico is the place for you! Every meal (including breakfast) is likely a spicy one, as are lots of candies, chips, and what-have-yous in the country (more about that in PART I). Basically, it seems Mexicans can't eat anything without breathing fire!
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| Breakfast eggs with red salsa and corn tortillas |
However, it's important to remember that Mexican spicy is not global spicy. Mexican spicy is another level! If you live in, say, Northern Europe and in your local restaurant you always order that one meal that's described on the menu with three whole chili pepper icons (wow), congratulations - that's the starting level in Mexico.
Also, the spiciness scale in Mexico is not from one chili pepper to three chili peppers. It's from "Wow, this is spicy," and "Help, my mouth is on fire!" and "Water! Water! Wait...why is this getting worse?" and "Are you insane?!?" all the way to "Joven? Dónde está el baño, por favor?"
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| The spiciness scale at El Farolito taqueria |
So. If you're planning to eat in an authentic Mexican restaurant, here are a few pro tips that might come in handy:
a) It's inadvisable to ask the waiter, "Is this meal spicy?" They'll just tell you it's not, although by your standards, it probably is. Rather, you should ask, "Tiene chile?" ("Does it have peppers?"). That way you'll have some idea whether or not you can handle it.
b) If you are served a spicy sauce, for Heaven's sake, try it a little before you drench your whole meal in it! Remember, it's always easier to add more spices than try to scrape them off of your food that's already soaked them up like a vindictive spicy sponge.
c) The so-called Moctezuma's revenge (traveler's diarrhea) is not caused by spices but rather by bacteria in the water to which the locals have developed immunity but you have not (NB! I strongly urge you to research what you should and shouldn't consume before visiting Mexico). However, before you decide to order your habanero on habanero meal, please know your stomach and how it reacts to spices. And if you have a particularly sensitive stomach, don't try to be a hero (you'll regret it later)!
d) If you fail a and/or b (do NOT fail c!) but you want to avoid being laughed at by the locals (because laugh they will), first take a deep breath because this is going to be no walk in the park (I bet you wish you were at a park right now). Then just go for it. Take teeny tiny bites of your food (don't eat too fast), have rice water (horchata) if available (if not, tortillas), and when your Mexican friend asks you with that infuriatingly knowing grin on his/her face, "Sooo... how is it?" play it cool, nod, smile (as much as you can without making a weird face that might give away your rookieness), and say, "It's delicious, thanks so much." You don't need to finish all of your food but take at least a few bites (so as not to look suspicious) before you claim to be full. You can do it, I believe in you (you can cry later).
Observation 7: Tacos come in many different forms
If you are lucky enough to know Mexican people, then you know that there's one thing you can never ever ever ever do in their presence: blurt out how much you enjoy hard-shell tacos (for the record, I don't!). If you do that, well... all I can say is I hope you're a fast runner because staying where you are would be a very, very bad idea (I exaggerate only ever-so-slightly).
However, turns out there is a loophole to that rule: flautas!
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| You guessed it - flautas |
Flautas a.k.a tacos dorados are basically filled tortillas that are fried crispy. Now, to a non-Mexican, it may seem that they meet the two main criteria of a hard-shell taco because a) they are tacos and b) they have a hard shell. And yet, Mexicans act as if flautas and hard-shell tacos were two completely different things, and, if you are smart, you'll play along.
However, everybody's allowed their occasional moments of non-smartness, aren't they? So, one day, when I was feeling particularly not smart, I decided to live on the edge and ask my fiancé this potentially fatal question, "Sooooo, honey? How are flautas different from hard-shell tacos again?"
But instead of getting defensive or upset, my fiancé just gave me a pitying glance and then looked up, as if trying to figure out how to explain bees and birds to a six-year-old. Finally, he said, "Because... they are just different."
[a moment of deafening silence]
Unsurprisingly, as charming as this response was, it did little to answer my question (like, at all). So, I kept on pestering, until finally Fiancé offered this response: "Well, it's like the difference between watching a Marvel movie in IMAX vs. watching a Spider-Man impersonator at a kids' party."
Okay. Whatever that means, I have no clue, but I'm guessing hard-shell tacos are NOT that Marvel movie in this analogy. However, I found there's another way to explain the difference between flautas and hard-shell tacos: flautas are rolled tacos, whereas hard-shell tacos are... well, I don't know what they are, but rolled they are not.
There are also other things that look like tacos but are not called tacos (such as enchiladas and quesadillas), but more about them another time.
Observation 8: Beer is not beer
Having lived in Belgium for three years, I thought I knew pretty much everything there was to know about beer. After all, Belgium is not only famous for its beer but also has a vast variety of options. Surely, I'd tried every type of beer worth trying by now... right?
Turns out I was wrong. Once again, Mexicans have managed to take another food (well, drink) item and spice it up (both figuratively and literally).
Let's begin with the inconvenient truth: Mexican beer by itself is nothing special (sorry, Mexicans). According to my fiancé, it's something cold you drink on a very hot day, but Belgian beer it is not.
However.
If you want to experience beer like you've never experienced it before, you should try something called a michelada. Just as a taco, a michelada can come in many different forms: at its simplest, it's just a beer with lime juice and salt, but it's not unusual to add peppers and/or some sauce - e.g. soy sauce, Worcester sauce, Clamato (clam + tomato juice), or Maggi sauce - into the mix as well.
Now, if you want to fully step into the dark side, I warmly recommend my (so far) favorite michelada place in Mexico City - Michelas (just to be clear, I'm not being paid anything to recommend their business)!
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| My michelada on the left, Fiancé's on the right |
Michelas (situated in Condesa) is a bar where you make your own michelada (NB! The following description is based on the "full michelada experience," which is a bit more expensive than the simpler option): First you dip your cup into chili or tamarind syrup so that the rim gets sticky. Then, you dip it into one of the (Miguelito-type) candy powder options available. After that, you can pour more powder (either sweet or spicy) into your cup along with different juices such as lime juice. Then you proceed to the candy part - there's about a dozen different types to choose from, for example tamarind sticks and gummy bears as demonstrated in the picture above. Finally, your cup will be filled to the brim with the beer of your choice (I believe there are three different ones to choose from).
And there you have it! Now, I'm aware this all may sound kind of weird, but I still urge you not to knock it 'till you try it. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Observation 9: Jesus truly does appear in food (in 3D)
While Christians everywhere are waiting for Jesus Christ's second coming, Jesus himself seems to have taken a liking to appearing in various food items around the world (I'm sure we've all read the news about Jesus's face appearing in a loaf of bread, chai tea latte, mozzarella cheese, and what-have-you). However, in Mexico, Jesus's food appearances seem particularly frequent, but in a different way. It looks like Mexicans have taken it upon themselves (probably aware of Jesus's busy "food appearance" schedule) to make sure that cake-lovers everywhere in the country have an equal opportunity to find Jesus. This they've ensured by inserting a plastic baby Jesus in each rosca de reyes.
If you've never heard of rosca de reyes before, suffice it to say it's a cake (or sweet bread) eaten as part of the Three Kings' Day celebration (January 6th). According to tradition, whoever finds Jesus has to throw a tamale party in February.
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| Where art thou, Jesus? |
Intrigued by this tradition, I decided to try my hand at finding Jesus in my mother-in-law's rosca de reyes. Before I started, though, I needed to get a few facts straight:
Q: Is it possible to accidentally cut baby Jesus in half with a knife?
A: No. Baby Jesus is very resilient (plastic).
Q: Is it possible to accidentally eat baby Jesus?
A: No. Baby Jesus is actually less of a baby Jesus and more of a toddler Jesus (google images). That's why, if you eat him, you'll notice.
Q: Is it possible to choke on baby Jesus?
A: Again, the answer is no. However, I wouldn't introduce baby Jesus to children under the age of three.
Now, when trying to find baby Jesus in rosca de reyes, you have to a) ask thyself, "Where would Jesus go?" b) cut the cake accordingly, and c) keep cutting and eating the cake until you find him.
Unfortunately, I only had one piece and didn't find Jesus.
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| Sadly, this piece was not worthy of Jesus |
I was just about to accept defeat, when my fiancé shouted, "Look, you got it!" (Apparently, if Jesus sticks out of either one of the parts that you cut, you can claim to have found him.) And before I knew it, Fiancé was poking Jesus with a knife to get him out 😲! However, it soon turned out not to be Jesus after all, but a piece of walnut (I know. The two are so easily confused).
Sadly, after that one try, my mother-in-law took the cake to her office, so my chances of finding Jesus this year were lost. Oh well... something to look forward to in 2020, I guess.
Closing Words
And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the read (you can let me know what you thought in the comments). There's more than enough material for a longer series here, so let me know if you'd like to read more about my observations on Mexico :). Until then...
Hasta luego!
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