Food: Fresh and Local!

So far I've only hinted at the yummy food down here, so maybe now is a good time to go into more detail.  Because we are staying in one place this first month, we are able to do much of our own cooking.  Being without a car and off the highway means we do have to carry everything from town down a quiet mile and a half of dirt road.  We split the load between our two backpacks and we go in every third or fourth day, so it really is manageable.  This does mean that our diet is limited to what we can buy locally.  The good news is that we are surrounded by growing fields.  Along our walk to town we pass fields full of tomatoes, peppers, basil, squash, and avocado trees.

While it is tempting to step through the gates at one of these fields and "liberate" the ripest of those cherry tomatoes, we do respect the farmers' work, complete the walk to town and wait to see what is available at the roadside vegetable stand.  Fidel tells us nearly everything we've selected and placed in our tub for purchase comes from Pesacdero. It is not refrigerated, so you know it has to be freshly packed, and picked ripe, none of this picking green business for easier shipping to far off places like Montana. We regularly buy bananas, tangerines, avocados, poblano peppers, red peppers, young zucchini, young white potatoes, jalepenos, and other spicy hot chilis which we can't name, but which Fidel has recommended. We also get yellow, purple and white onions, garlic, tomatoes, cilantro and broccoli. Sometimes we can get cantelope, peanuts, sweet potato and dried chilis.  We always buy enough grapefruit to squeeze for our "Poor Man Margaritas.". (Glenn, our favorite bartender calls them that even when we use the better Jimador tequila mixed with grapefruit juice).

Our second usual stop in town is the small local grocery store.  Here we get fabulously fresh, locally made flour tortillas, locally made quesadilla cheese, yogurt, a local brand of processed cheese which resembles jack cheese, eggs, butter, corn tortilla chips, rice, pasta, canned refritos, a bag of cookies, and Jimador.
To mix things up a it we sometimes stop for a beer while the guy at a roadside stand across the street roasts a whole chicken for us on his outdoor grill fired by mesquite charcoal. This we take home and it becomes three meals!




In the afternoons a woman stands outside the Oxxo store (Mexico's 7/11 store) and sells pork, beef or chicken tamales for 10 pesos each (a little less than one US dollar). They were steamed in the morning and are kept warm in a cooler and they are delicious. The first time I bought them, intending to eat them for dinner, I had to snarf down two right on the spot!

What do we make with all this fresh stuff? We've discovered that with things this fresh, every combination is delicious. Breakfast is usually yogurt/banana, coffee, sometimes eggs, veggies and tortillas. Lunch varies. Bruce likes cheese and tomatoes grilled between two sides of a sweet white bun. My favorite is a quesadilla with that creamy smooth local cheese and some veggies. Some days we just eat peanuts and tangerines on the beach. Happy hour usually includes my own homemade guacamole on chips. After happy hour there's time for a trip back to the beach or to the palapa for sunset watching before eating again. Dinner usually consists of rice or pasta or potatoes topped with sautéed veggies (various combinations of what we haven't eaten up yet). We like to top the spud dish with grated jack cheese, the rice dish with tasty red tomatoes (yes, the ones down here taste like they came out of your garden) and the pasta dish with whichever. We have bean burritos one or two nights a week, and sometimes we might have eggs in tortillas for dinner.

That's about it for our home cooked meals. Later I'll write more about the meals we eat in town. We will have to gather a few more experiences for a full report on that, though. Tough assignment, eh?