Under the Fan in the Yucatan: Food and Drink

One of the first considerations when visiting a new place is the food.  We got off the bus starving to death and headed for the closest eatery which turned out to be a "Chili's".  For shame!  But in our defense we hadn't eaten in ten hours by then.  We have never patronized a Chili's at home but this food was excellent, although as they say, hunger is the best spice or something like that.

Yucatecan cuisine is quite bland on its own however many things are served with a tiny side dish of runny green salsa.  Beware!  This stuff can remove paint and melt steel!  The sauce is made from the Habanero pepper which look like tiny squishy pumpkins. But don't let its benign appearance deceive you! An American pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville came up with a way of measuring the capsaicin (the chemical that produces the hot heat) in peppers. The ubiquitous jalapenos rate between 3,500 to 8,000 Scoville units but habaneros weigh in about 100,000 to 350,000.  Hot stuff!  Drinking water or beer only spreads it around and unlike with Indian food, yogurt doesn't help.  I have heard that chocolate will help quench the fire.  Must try.

And speaking of chocolate, Yucatecans have been cultivating it for as long as three-thousand years but never combined if with sugar let alone milk.  They used it as a beverage like coffee and the cocao beans were fermented and concocted into a frothy bitter drink.  It took many, many years for northern Eurupeans to make it into candy.  Mexicans also use chocolate in  "mole" (moe-lay), a thick dark brown sauce with about eighty ingredients, none of them sweet.

The Yucatecans were the first culture to domesticate the turkey which the early European visitors here found disgusting.  (They found EVERYTHING that was different from home disgusting.)  Turkey plus pork and chicken are the main meats of the Yucatecan diet.  One of the local especialities is "Sopa de Lima" which is a turkey soup with lime and tortilla strips.

Did I say "tortillas"?  Folks here subsist on tortillas like we do on bread.  And they like them VERY fresh.  There is a bicycle vendor who passes by our casa every morning and the locals poke their heads out to hail him over.  Even Walmart has their resident tortilla makers and some restaurants and markets have them sitting in the window making them the traditional way.  Tortillas are made from "maize" pronounced "mice"  (Tortillas are made from Mice?  Yes, they are!) Which is corn that is not as sweet as ours.  The maize is soaked in lime to make the grain more digestible for the human body.  This is then ground into "masa" which is then made into tortillas with nothing else added.  Wheat flour or "harana" tortillas are probably a European adaptation.

This is Mexico and they love their beans too.  Some grocery stores at home have two kinds at the most but here there are dozens.  Cheap, tasty, low-fat protein and an essential ingredient in many a Yucatecan dish.  Black beans are used for a rather unnerving jet black sauce.

Another Yucatecan favorite is ground toasted pumpkin seeds eaten much like hummus.  Hmmm.  Turkeys, pumpkins -- this place is like a perpetual Thanksgiving.
 
You would not want to be a lime here!  Limes are an ingredient in most Yucatecan or Mayan dishes and essential for Corona and gin drinkers like us.  There are no lemons!  Just limons and limas, both green, which after much investigation I have concluded are just two types of limes.
 
Everyone here buys their produce and most of their meat from the neighborhood markets.  For dairy, processed foods and household cleaners, etc.  they head to the local store which in this neighbourhood is the ISSTEY, a Yucatecan version of the Co-op.  There is also the aformentioned Walmart for gringo needs like gin, Pepsi and such and there is even a Costco further up the road for those inclined.

Meridanas are a chubby lot but the men tend more to the lean side.  The chubbiness I attribuate partly to the snacks available for sale every few feet downtown.  Mostly healthy stuff though, e.g. peeled oranges and grapefruit, mangos on a stick but lots of other sticky concoctions too.  Food and drink is everywhere!

There is plenty of beer in Merida although Corona seems only of interest to turistos like moi.  Unlike much of Mexico, tolerably good wine is available, which is mostly imported from Chile, Argentina and California.

Coffee here is fantastic!  Just a couple of blocks from our casa is a little shop that roasts sacks of Mexican grown coffee beans (and grinds them if you choose) right before your eyes.  And the finished product is fantastic!  So good that Neil has even quit putting cream in his morning brew!!!

And of course, there is the aforementioned juice which is also available everywhere in various concoctions.  My favorite is Jugo Verde or green juice which is a combination of orange, pineapple, celery and parsley.  There is another green one that is just pineapple and chaya, also called "tree spinach".

Of course, we have been here only a little over two weeks so I'm sure there is much more to be tasted and we will make the sacrifice just for you!