The holiday season has come and gone, and with it, two trips from New York to both Mexico City (November) and Calgary, Alberta, Canada (December) for weddings. And all with just a two week gap in between.
Now, don’t get me wrong, going back home to Canada is always great, but how many times does one get to say that were in Mexico??? Well this was definitely a first for me and it was great.
Yes, we did all the tourist things like visit the pyramids, spectacular, and checked out some of the great architecture located in and around the old part of the city. But the food, that was something all to its self.
The four photos below show something that I thought was just so cool. Yes, I said cool, because this machine was used to make fresh corn tortillas. The aroma that came from the machine as it baked each tortilla was just heavenly. How did it work, simple, at the top was a hopper that was used to feed the machine the dough that was made fresh from the corn being ground on site, as shown in the top left photo. The dough was feed through, rolled out and stamped out into rounds. Here, the rounds are collected on a metal belt that is roughly 6-8 feet long and runs through an oven that bakes it from both sides and it’s all collected at then, bagged, tagged and purchased faster then they can make them. Fresh and ready to go daily for lunch or supper.
Food markets, OMG the FOOOOOOD MARKETS! Yes there are all the same things that we can find from all around the world such as common carrots, celery, onion and so forth. But what you don’t find at the other food markets around the world are items such as chilies found and grown in abundance in Mexico. The different variations of corn that one can use to the limit of their imagination. And mole, both wet and dried forms, all ranging in colour, flavour, heat and all representing a different region of Mexico.
From the market to the street vendors, sooooo many various types of food to choose from. Chilaquiles, tamale, street corn, chiles en nogada, tostada, enchilada, al pastor, chimichanga, carne asada, churros, the list just keeps going and to be honest, I was too busy easting to take photos of them all. But here are the photos of the food I did take.
All in all, I would go back in a heart beat. The three full days that we spent in Mexico City was just wonderful, the people are pleasant, I don’t kneed to mention the food, and as long as you do some research and are open minded to new customs and traditions, all will be well.
Quentin Glabus - Opiminawasow 