FOOD del Yucatan--my favorites

Hola amigos! So here are a couple of my favorite dishes that I've had here in Mexico (only a couple, because there were soo many good things that I couldn't remember the names of). This may be a very long post, as I plan on putting anything and everything I discovered about food for the last six weeks in here. Bear with me, and hopefully you'll find some gems that you can search for if you ever go to the Yucatan yourself. :)


First, I got a few recipes from my mama, Elisa, of food that I've only ever seen in our house. I don't have exact measurements, so it's all to taste.

Elisa’s Tortilla Lasagna

This definitely ranks as one of my favorite meals that Elisa made for us, aside from her many different kinds of fajitas. I don't really know how to describe it except as so dang delicious. It's like a lasagna, in that it has layers, but it uses tortillas instead of lasagna noodles.

•  Make layers with totillas harinas--flour tortillas, carne picadillo (carne molida), salsa verde, and crema
• For the top layer, you only need the tortillas, salsa, and queso (more is always better!)
• Salsa Verde
•  Green tomatoes (or tomatillos), cilantro, ajo--garlic, salt, limón , and chile if desired
• What's in the Picadillo
• Carne (pollo, puerco, o como quieres), pimiento--pepper, chile, cebolla--onion, ajo, papas, y limón  

Lemonada Pitaya--Dragon Fruit Lemonade

Talk about a divine drink. Wow I love this. If you have heard how much I love Aloe juice--which is muchisimo--then you must know that this drink ALMOST BUMPED ALOE OFF from the top of my favorite drinks. Aloe still ranks first, but only just by a string. Here's how Elisa makes it:

• For about 1 lb of wáter: azúcar--sugar (cuanto quieres), limones (3 o 4 de los grandes), y pitaya
• With the pitaya, just peel it, cut it up a little, then you can seperate it with your hands to as small of pieces as you want. It's okay if the seeds are in the juice. The seeds taste fine, and if you don't like them they are pretty easy to avoid, as they sink to the bottom.

Fruity Flan Dessert  

This was the treat that Elisa made for Rebecca's birthday. It's an interesting combination of textures. I liked the icecream and fruit part, but was a little thrown off by the flan, as could be expected. But Rebecca enjoyed it a lot! 

Here's a picture of it; it's layered with flan, icecream, fruit (Elisa used canned cocktail fruit), and topped with chocolate sauce

The following are foods that I liked, but didn't get their recipe:

The links take you on a tour of some delicious-looking pictures of each food :D

Frijol con puerco

   Black beans with pork, in a soup that you could die for. I'm not usually a fan of soup, but anytime this was served, I was most pleased--even on the hot days. The rice that is served with it has SO much flavor. Our mama was describing what they put in it, but I can't remember exactly. You put the rice in the soup, along with roasted or grilled tomatoes, cilantro, onions, lime juice, and anything else you want in there.

   Also, for normal rice, I do know that putting ajo in it makes it very flavorful. We thought for sure the rice had salt but when we asked, Elisa surprised us by saying it only had garlic.

Tacos al pastor

   I got this almost every time we went to a taco place, which we did a lot. One of our groups favorite things to do was eat tocos together. In fact, one night we even went on a taco tour, trying tacos from three different places in a row.
   Taco al pastor is on a small corn tortilla (or flour if you choose) with pork cooked on a roaster. See picture to the right. The meat is fantastic, and the staple is to serve the tacos with pineapple. You put your sauces on, like green salsa, tomato salsa, salsa picante, habanero, or whatever the restaurant has, add some lime juice, and let your mouth water over it. 
   It really is important to try a lot of dirrenent restaurants, and find the one that serves it the way you like best. Los Taquitos was one of our favorites. :)

Tres Leches postre

   Tres Leches is a cake that literally seems to dissolve in your mouth. It is full to the brim with sweet moisture, making any cake you have afterward seem sadly dry in comparison. Definitely one of the best, although you can't have much of it if you have any sense of a "too sweet" stop sign for your body.

Cochinita pibil 

   This is another pork dish (Mexicans eat pork most often--it's the cheapest meat). I had no idea how it was prepared until I looked on Wikipedia, but after seeing how it's made, it makes it look even better! Meat cooked in citrus juices? Come on, don't tell me that doesn't sound good.

Mole

   I've already talked about this in another post (Sweet Sunday) so I won't say much about it. But yeah, it's a meat dish with chocolate sauce. Need I say more?

Burritas

   These are actually just quesadillas, but with cheese AND meat. It sounds good, and when it has real meat in it, it IS. But oftentimes it was a kind of lunch meat which I wasn't a fan of. These were a simple dinner that we would have all the time: a little tortilla harina, cheese, lunchmeat, green salsa, and crema. 

Sadly, I didn't keep track of the food that I ate very well. I'm more the type that just says "oh this looks good" and then eats it--no question as to what it's called or how it's made. 

However, I DID pay attention to the icecream. And we ate icecream--almost every other day! It was one of the best things. The icecream in Mexico isn't the same as what United Staters think of as rich. While they do have the more creamy kinds in Mexico, it's more common to see REAL fruit icecream.





So, to explain more about this, I will devote a chunk of time to the Ice-cream

First of all, they have some GOOD flavors there. I'm all about the fruity kinds; I tend to gravitate toward the Sherbet in the States. And you'll find all sorts of fruit In Mex. that you can't find over in the Utah/Idaho area. My favorites? Let's just say all of them. I did take a picture of a bunch side-by side:

Here you've got (starting top left) Guanabana, Dragon Fruit, Caramel w/Sea Salt, Mamey, Mango, and Lime. 

For those of you who don't know how these taste.... I'm sorry for you. Really, I am. Because there's no way I could describe them in words anyone would understand. I will say this: Guanabana is a very sweet and rich fruit. Pitaya is sweet, but a little more subdued. Caramel Sea Salt was an interesting one--the first time I had it I though it was heavenly, but the second time it was way too bitter for my taste (I think it had a lot to do with the campanion flavor I combined with it. Pitaya was a perfect compliment; Guanabana made it bitter). Mamey reminded me of persimmon, but slightly more earthy and much more grainy. Mango and Lime, I assume you know those fruits well enough to imagine. 

One other flavor that I never got the courage to try, but wish I had was Corn. That's right, they have corn-flavored icecream. Our professor tried it and said it wasn't his favorite, which is probably why I never had it. But we saw it everywhere. <----- One place even did a great job of showing it off, don't you think?









As for the best places to get ice-cream, we had some regulars: 

1. El Colon, a chain place that you can find just about anywhere. This place is pretty cheap, charging only around 15 pesos for the perfect amount of icecream, and they have the BEST postres around. There is this cone-shaped pastry (only 10 pesos) that is like Tres Leches. It is sooo sweet, and filled with so much moisture that it melts in your mouth. Ohhh so good. Though it is too sweet to have more than a couple bites at a time. 
2. Janitzio Home Made Icecream. This shop is right next to Dairy Queen in el centro, and it is SO worth going to. Everything is homemade, and they've got a lot of great flavors there. I liked their popsicles, especially the strawberry kiwi one.  I also had the sweetest mango icecream at a place like this by El Progresso beach, though I'm not sure it was the same store or not. But man, that icecream was made from some of the ripest mangoes you could ever find. 
3. Pola, also found close to el centro. This is a great place, though a little more expensive than the other ones. It's smaller and less visited though, and where I took the picture of the flavors featured above. This was the only icecream shop that had the Caramel flavor, so if you want to try it, look for the sign in the picture to the right. :)

I also focused a bit more on the drinks (I'm a thirsty person, and appreciate a good juice) so I'll tell what I found. 

I had this amazing Pineapple Kiwi drink
at who knows where, that I want to find again.
If you ever see this drink on the menu, try it!

Indeed, it's Guanabana juice! Remember how
sweet I said this fruit is? The juice is delicious.

Surprisingly, I liked this juice even MORE
than the Guanabana one!
Guava for the win!

And lastly, we are enjoying a Pina Colada SIN alcohol at Los Taquitos!
I wish I had ordered another one.

That's all folks! The only thing left is to state a few more interesting facts that didn't find a place to fit in with all the other things. 

• It's true what they say about Coke in Mexico. It's everywhere, everyone drinks it, there's often only Coke as a beverage option (or Pepsi). It's just a thing. I even took a picture of an aisle in a store, because it struck me how much of the aisle was just full of Coke. I never noticed a difference between the taste, because I'm not an avid Coke drinker, but all of my classmates said that there definitely is a difference in taste between the Coke they have in United States and the Coke they have in Mexico. Apparently, if you buy it in Mexico, it's a lot better. 
• They have Flan in stores, in little pudding-like containers. Man, if I could just go to the store and buy Flan pudding, I would be so happy. And may they do have it in the US, but I've never seen anything like this before. That's all flan.
  
  

Belated Tales

Yayyy!! I'm writing on here again! Sorry for the week of absence, I've been so busy, and my computer has been unable to connect to the internet, so even if I had wanted to write on here, I couldn't have! Even right now, my internet is having major problems. But hopefully I'll be able to post this.

So, I'll tell a little about what I have been up to this week!

So, the last time I posted was Sunday, and the following Monday was one of the best! We all went to la playa in the morning (our first time heading to the public beach--by ourselves!) Our madre showed us where the bus was, but when we got on we realized we had no clue where to get off! Luckily, we found out we just ride it to the very end.

This is what we arrived to!

 
Anyway, we got there in the morning, at around 11, and we were there until 3. Yeah, a long time. And none of use realized until it was too late that we were SO sunburnt--even me!. My poor friends (especially Conner.. ohhh man...) were so so so red afterward. We had FHE that night, and everyone was putting aloe on each other and sharing their pain.

The next day was our second day of school, but Rebecca couldn't even come with me because she was feeling really sick from her sunburn. So I rode the bus by myself to school, and felt super boss while doing so. :D

After school I went with Claire and Conner to Walmart for the first time, and I got a picture of their setup of bikes.

We then went to do our homework at Claire's house, which is soo nice. It's the nicest one of all of the homes we stay at :)

Moving on to Wednesday, we went to the movies! I got to see Inside Out in Spanish, which was just as good, if not better than the first time I saw it! I definitely noticed how many things I had missed, because the first time I watched the movie was at a drive-in theater, and we were sitting way far away so it was a little tiny screen. It was definitely worth it to go see that one, even though everyone else went and saw Jurassic World.I'm not a fan of that movie, but IntensaMente? Definitely.

Alright, I've got to go to bed so I will save the rest for tomorrow, supposing my internet works! Pray that it does :)

As for interesting facts, here are a bunch!

• Many houses and fences are made of stone, the more rural areas just using random pieces and piling them together to make the fence. I like the feeling it gives, much different than the white wodden fences that you'll see in classic US movies. Also, lots of houses have fences that have spikes on top to prevent anyone from climbing over.
• The men will almost always be seen wearing pants out in public. I've no clue how they take the heat dressed like that, but usually the only time I'll see them wearing shorts is on their own property.
• Meal times are WAY different here. It takes some getting used to, because even if you eat breakfast at 6 in the morning, lunch isn't until 2pm. Snacks are needed. Then dinner is around 8, but it's a lot lighter than lunch. 
• There are no bus-stop signs on the smaller streets, so you just kind of have to know where the bus stops. I'm still wondering how you find out in the first place? Like if you just moved in... How do you figure out the bus system? It seems pretty hard to figure out on your own.

That's all for now, but I promise I'll have bigger and better things to talk about in my next post!

Sweet Sunday

Well, I sure didn't give a very good first impression today at church, because I was plain exhausted. I couldn't, for the life of me, keep my self awake. I was nodding off through all three hours, and the last hour I just gave up and stopped fighting the nod. I didn't really talk to many people either, but hopefully I will be able to make up for it in the coming weeks.

So yes, after morning church we just fell right asleep in our beds, waking up late for lunch. My mama's parents were visiting, so I got to meet them and talk for a while. Her mom was so fun, and just loved to talk about everything. I got to try a dish she made, called mole (I'm not sure if the actual dish is called mole, or if only the sauce is) which is meat with a sauce that has chocolate in it. It was really an interesting experience. I liked it, though I imagine it would have been better if I hadn't already been too full when I started eating it :P

We then headed al centro and checked out the things they have there every Sunday. It was similar to last night, with a bunch of vendors selling cool stuff, though there were a lot more places selling the traditional Yucatan clothing. And instead of performers, they had a band playing and an open dance on the street for anyone who wanted. There were a lot of people dancing by the end, including one little old guy who was the absolute cutest thing on the street. He just looked so HAPPY, like you imagine people looking when they dance, instead of the usual stone faces that we get now-a-days. I got a video of him so you could see what I mean.

We were able to check out the cathedral and go inside for a little bit. That was a very cool experience for me. I realized that while I appreciate the reason behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints not using the cross as a symbol, I also was able to see why the other Christian religions choose to. I know that Christ lives, and that His death was not the end and should not be the focus. But to look at him up on that cross, it made His sacrifice so much more real to me. It was easier to focus on what He did, and also WHY He did it. My experience in the cathedral was definitely surreal, and I was able to gain an appreciation for the feelings that other religious people claim to have. The Spirit can speak to you, no matter who you are.

To wind up the day, I'll just tell about these awesome stone chairs that face each other, which I love. Here's a picture of Rebecca, my roommate, and I enjoying our time in them :)

As for some interesting facts, I've got a few!

• At 6 o'clock (not sure if it's every day, but for sure Sundays!) they take the Mexican flag down, and while doing so, the police have a procession that plays the drums and marches in place--only lifting the left heel, keeping the right foot on the ground the whole time. They also have a bugle playing and Instead of folding the flag up right after taking it down, six soldiers hold it open in the air and march out of the square. Their marching is with straight legs.
• They have watermelon juice that tastes like it was literally just juiced out of a watermelon and put in a bottle. Drinks sold at vendors are sold in hand-filled bottles, instead of cups.
• When they dance, the women do not move their hips much at all. That must just be other Hispanic countries which are known for the Spanish hips; it doesn't seem to be a thing here.

Saturday, June 27

Weeeeee today was great! We explored a Mexican Walmart, which was very interesting to see what was the same and what was different. For one thing, there is loud music in the Mexican one. Also, movies are way cheaper, with $3 or $4 movies in the usually $5 section :)

On our way home we got lost on the bus system again, taking twice or three times as long to get home because we missed our stop. But every time something goes wrong, we learn something new and helpful for other future endeavors.

After eating a DELICIOUS meal with pork, soup, brown rice, avocado, and beans, we (Rebecca, my roommate, and I) met back up with Conner to do our homework together, then Scott and Brandon joined us at 8 and we went to the Mexican party they have every Saturday. It was finally the atmosphere that I had been looking for! I didn't want to go to any more big stores that are just like walking into the US, I wanted to have a small, Mexican feel! And this party was on the street, with vendors selling different things and performers dancing on a stage. I got a couple clips of them, though it's not the best quality:

We tried some tamales, and even though they didn't look very appetizing (they were green) they weren't bad at all. I also got a sort of cheescake with oreos. But it wasn't the cheescake that they have in the US, it's more thick and less sweet. So the oreos made it perfect.

I definitely learned some things about the culture, though I don't remember that much. Let's see what I can pull out.

• Waffle cones are a lot less sweet, but perfect for eating with sweet and fruity icecream .
• They have discounts for the bus to those who are poor, but not to any who can actually afford it. The bus is already so cheap--only 7 pesos--so if all students were to get a student discount the buses probably wouldn't be able to run.
• You can haggle prices with vendors on the streets, or anyone asking you to buy something.

Yeah, it's not much, but that's all I can get out of my tired little brain at the moment. Buenas dias!

Vamos a la Playa!

I tried to write my blog last night, but couldn't keep my eyes open, so I'm writing about it this morning. :)

 First thing we did after breakfast was get in a van and drive to the closest Mayan ruins. It was way cool to see the different kinds of structures and wonder what life would have been like back then. Luckily for us, the sun wasn't out while we wandered around, which meant it wasn't as hot as it could have been. But we were still dying of humidity by the end, drenched in our swimsuits even before we got in any water.

Which, getting into the water was what we were all excited for--to swim in our first cenote! A cenote is a hole in the ground where a section collapses, filling with water. The one we went to was nothing like the awe-inspiring pictures on wikipedia, but it was still fun! Like swimming in a pond, complete with personal fishies!


Here we are; we really did get in. :D And we had a free spa-like experience with the fish eating our feet. It was the weirdest feeling, extremely ticklish, but in the end we didn't want to leave.







After los cenotes, we went to the beach!! I've been to a beach before, but I had never actually been in the ocean, so this was my first time experiencing the big deep blue. Or more like light green, as it was shallow enough to touch for 200 feet out from shore. And man, the water was so SALTY. I swear every time I accidentely had my mouth open when a big wave crashed into me, I about had a seizure from the salt intake. And if it gets in your eyes or nose, they're burning for a while afterward. So the beach is fun, but you can't really do much except sit there and enjoy the lull of the waves. Oh and search for cool shells. That's what we spent hours doing. We did end up finding multiple starfish (live ones!), little baby shrimp, and a fossilized piece of rock. We were at a resort, and let me tell you, those pictures you see of the beautiful beaches, they aren't lieing! Here's one I took:

Awesome, right?!

Even when it started raining a little while after this, we still had a great time in the water because it was warm ocean water and warm heavenly rain. We ate great Mexican food, played volleyball, and genuinely enjoyed our time there.

After we got home and washed all the leaves, salt, and sand off of ourselves, we went and explored our neighborhood a little bit, then came home and ate dinner with the family :) Which, by the way, was scrambled eggs and toast. To conclude the day, we played a game of Clue with our 12-year-old hermana, only to find out in the end that we had been playing with two of each room card. hahahaha

Throughout the day, here are a few things I learned:

• Milk comes in small cartons, not plastic. And a lot of families don't refrigerate it. Also, other things come in different types of packaging, like ketchup which comes in a big packet, as well as the typical plastic version. 
• They also sometimes have garbage cans to put toilet paper in, so the toilets don't get clogged (though it's not as often or as strict as Korea about it, I don't think).
• There is free wifi in a lot of main locations, like el centro, the city center.

That's all until tonight folks :)

Day Two--Classes Begin!

Today was our first day at the university! We woke up bright and early (5am!) to get ready and go to our 7am class. Our classes are really small, which is wonderful! And though the campus is small, it's beautiful!

 So I'm going to keep this short, and just say that the rest of our day was spent with some great new friends. With whom which we went on our own to find the temple, and ended up getting drenched in the rain and wandering around for hours trying to find out where we were and how to get home. It was pretty splendid, aside from the fact that my shoes were not fit for the weather at all. For anyone who comes here, do NOT wear flip flops in the rain. The sidewalk is so slippery if you've got no grip.

Anyway, here are a couple things I found out about Merida!

• It is more common for universities in Mexico to be small, and specific to a certain major or career. 
• An update from something I said yesterday: there are actually crosswalks and lights, but they are more in the centro de la ciudad. But yes, they do exist but aren't nearly as commonly used
• And finally, if you lok at this picture, our university has this cool setup for recycling--each recycled waterbucket holds a different thing. Not sure if this is a Mexican thing or just an invention of our school, but I thought I would add it here just the same. :)

I've got to go to bed; I'm expecting a big day tomorrow! It's going to be a blast--the beach and las cenotes! This is the thing that I have been most excited for! I'm out, but hopefully tomorrow will have lots to tell. :D

I'm in Mexico. Wait, what?

I'm starting up this blog again, for the soul purpose of documenting my soon-to-be awesome study abroad in Merida, Mexico!

Today was the first day of the six-week ordeal, spent on a plane for a painful amount of time. No, there was nothing like the 9-hour straight flight to Korea (check out my adventures there @ Serving Souls in Korea) but with the early morning takeoff at 5:40am and the two transfers in Denver and Houston, it was almost as terrible. If I'm being honest, the fact that the long flights have free movies, music, and games--plus meals to keep your stomach full--make up for the nonstop sitting. There's none of that on the shorter trips. 

The greatest moment of the trip was when I looked up as I was about to get on my last flight and saw other people from my group. That meant I had friends to go through Mexican customs with! What a relief. :D And customs was not even a big deal.

Here's my first view of my temporary home:

Now, we get to Mexico! I'm actually here, laying in a Mexican home with the fan going and my feet hanging off the end of the bed. The family I'm with seems amazing; the mother is helping us figure things out. She's the sweetest person. :)

I definitely noticed a lot of things that stand out in the culture/surroundings of Merida, Mexico. The purpose of me writing (hopefully everyday) is to both keep a record of my adventures and also to jot down culture differences. Here's the list for today:

• There are venders in the street--guys who will just walk up to your window while you wait for the light and ask you to buy their fruit/flowers/etc.
• The avocados here are huge! The size of about three in the US. And the inside is yellow, like in this picture. The outside is just a soft dark skin, soft enough to bite through, though I don't think they eat it. 
• I haven't seen enough of the city to know if there are any, but so far I have seen little to no sign of actual crosswalks with the walking-man light. It seems to be expected that pedestrians just jaywalk and make sure they don't get hit.
• I don't think carpets are common. The home we are staying at has completely stone flooring, even in the bedrooms. I'm still a little unused to walking barefoot on stone rather than carpet or wood.
• They sleep in hammocks! And not just any hammocks. These are hand-made (I'll have to find out what material), huge, and built in a way that makes them super compfy. They stretch across the bedroom at night, and are taken down during the daytime. Perfect for hot nights when you want a breeze to lull you to sleep.
• Locks exist all over the place: for the closets, drawers, and of course the doors. Also, the windows are covered on the outside with bars, so no unfriendly guest can get in.

• I will add one final observation, but I still don't know if this is an actual culture thing, or if it's just the family we are staying with. Their home is very spacious inside, with lots of room and not a lot of furniture to fill it up. Compared with a typical American home, it seems they have slightly less furniture and slighty larger rooms. So it makes for a lot of space. I'll update further about this once I've visited other homes and seen how they look.

So yes, today was a full day with a lot of new things to see and hear. I am actually able to have conversations with our "mom" but still feel like a simpleton. However, I can tell that it will come quickly. :) Now that I am writing this, I feel excited for what is to come! Although, I'm pretty sure I had a little bit of homesickness/culture shock earlier today. Okay, maybe slightly more than a little bit.

I was exhausted, though I didn't realize it. So here I was going off of adrenaline, and then right about the time it wore off, I saw a friend's post on Facebook that made me go absolutely crazy with despair and a little (or a lot?) of jealousy.Which then started a downward emotional spiral 'till I got to the point that I just wanted to give up and not do anything at all, just lay there and feel sorry for myself until I went to sleep. Talking in Spanish suddenly became extremely hard to muster the will or strength for, and I almost started crying at the ATM when I couldn't remember my pin. This is so not like me that I can only pinpoint it down to one thing: I'm homesick.

But, I also attribute my homesickness to the fact that I haven't gotten any substantial sleep in the past week. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow morning I will be ready to enjoy this ride like nothing else!

Sidenote:
We have a cat. Not only do we have a cat, but she just had three kittens YESTERDAY. !!! And they are the cutest little gatitos in the world! I was happy beyond belief to see them. Also, there are three dogs and a guinea pig. :)