La Comida en Tuxtla

Those of you that know me, know that I am passionate about food. I am especially fond of Mexican cooking, of course. I haven’t written about the food yet because it is so good, I wouldn’t have the time to devote to describe it adequately.

I will describe a meal I have made a few times. It is based on tostadas I have had in a couple of different restaurants here.

Tostadas de Frijoles

I will describe what I made for dinner and then write a ‘dumbed down’ version as supermarkets outside Mexico (tragically) won’t have the selection that I have here.

* starting at the bottom and working my way up *
Tostada – the base is a tostada (fried corn tortilla)
Frijoles refritos con queso and chipotle – refried beans with cheese and chipotle
Queso Chiapanecan – Cheese from Chiapas (like drier, crumblier feta)
Cebollas – diced onions
Aguacate Chiapanecan – Slices of avocado (locally grown)
Limon – Freshly squeezed lime juice
Sel – a little salt
Herdez’ Cinco Chiles Salsa - 5 chiles salsa (try and guess if it is hot)
Crema – Cream (like sour cream, but creamier and not sour)
La Anita Habanero Salsa – hottest salsa I’ve had so far (bright green too)

** In a restaurant here this would have a layer of shredded chicken or beef too, but when I cook at home I rarely cook with meat. Tostadas often come with lettuce, too, but good lettuce is hard to find here. These are also great with cilantro.

So here is my advice on how to make this in Canada or the US.

Tostadas – If you can’t buy these, buy CORN tortillas and fry them until they are golden and crunchy. Drain well.
Frijoles Refritos – Buy or make refried beans. Add some grated cheese to heated refried beans and add some Chipotle vinegar (or diced chipotle peppers if you are brave). Spread the finished refried beans on the tostadas.
Queso – You will never find Chiapanecan cheese at home, so just put a little mozzarella or monterey jack on the refried beans (yes, as well as mixing it in). I used a microwave to heat these and it seemed to have the added benefit of making the tostadas less brittle. You could also use refried beans straight off the stove to melt the cheese.
Cebollas – Put some diced onions on top.
Aguacate y Sel – Some avocado slices are a must. Salt the tostadas.
Limon – Some freshly squeezed lime juice on top is a must.
Salsas – Most salsas in Canada are full or tomatoes and corn and peaches and whatnot else. Salsa means sauce in Spanish. Most salsas in restaurants are what we would call hot sauce. I mentioned the two I used above. For the most authentic flavour, try to find “salsa habanera”. Be brave. Put as much on as you can handle.
(¡If you use ketchup, I will come back, hunt you down and force feed you salsa habanera!)
Crema – Put a little daub of sour cream on top. It is close enough to crema to simulate the taste. It also helps you recover from the picante salsas.

Make lots. The first time I made these, I made five and I had to make a second batch (four more) because they were so good. (I had to wait an hour because I was afraid to type on a full stomach.)

By the way, I thought of an analogy that gives you an idea of how much better the food is here. Eating (Mexican food) in Chiapas is like listening to a symphony orchestra in a concert hall. Eating Mexican food in Canada (due to the smaller selection of ingredients) is like listening to the same orchestra from underneath the water of a nearby pool. In other words, I have died and gone to heaven.


The First Day of School

Today, August 21st, was the first day of school. It was very exciting to finally meet the students. The fact that my students speak almost no English was a bit of a shock. Actually I think it might just be the fact that they have not heard or spoken English since the last day of school. It did cause some serious last minute changes to my plans. The kids seem really nice and they have already responded very warmly to me. I look forward to spending the year with them and vastly improving their English. In all honesty, I couldn't be happier. The school is fantastic, the kids are a lot of fun, the food is outstanding and life is an adventure once again. Stay tuned.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Home

I went into a small shop to buy produce (as they have better produce than the supermarket where I do most of my shopping). I was the third customer in a row to give the guy a large bill - 200 pesos ($20 or so). He didn't have change, so I offered to buy something at the shop next door. He thought this was a good idea, so I headed over there. Of course they didn't have very much change so they sent an assistant over to get change from the produce guy. Life is strange, sometimes.