Cost Of Food For Mexicans
Perspectives allow an RV'er to grasp the ins and outs of why Mexico is what it is. When a higher percentage of basic income is used for staples and consumables it explains why certain foods are ...
Forum Discussion
"Here in Zihuatanejo we have a tiny Sam's Club, a small Bodega Aurerra (owned by WalMart) and a medium size Soriana. Electric scooters? Surely you jest"
Shirley I don't...
I'm ensconced in my 119 dollar per month medical hideout a few hours from the border. I'm stuck here until the cardiac surgeon and neurosurgeon have their way with me. Then a cataract removal and arthroscopic surgery on both shoulders. Not even the 2 tier IMSS facility is worth considering in Morelia, and then I get corrective eyeglasses gratis NOB. No arthroscopic surgery is in the IMSS formulary and I want it -all-done. I have a beta prototype dual lead Boston Scientific pacemaker and they want further confirmation that the battery will last twenty years.
So I am now in the land of the far north. Where spicy dishes are avoided and play-dough tortillas rule the tortillarias. I have the entire Contreras syndicate (60+ extended family) as friends and like anywhere I avoid the extraneous because I have nothing in common with them. Indeed I type long messages on this forum to keep my written Ingles brushed up. It's when I speak that Spanglish often comes out.
Sleep? Good god, I slept until ONE PM today. Overcast. I was out like a light. About 66F in the morning. This will give me a great chance to stock up on USA XX size clothing and shoes. I want a Carhartt vest for Patzcuaro, and ordinary cotton bed sheets. Wal-Mart USA has good sets for twelve dollars and I am going to buy a half-dozen sets. Vitamin supplements, Rx's for a thousand doses (COSTCO pharmacy) of Glyburide 1.25 mg (It's Glibenclamida in Mexico) and the crystal hard tiny pills are only available in 5 mg. A pill cutter shatters them.
I seldom if ever "eat out" and a housekeeper maintains this place as sterile as a hospital. There is a 90/10 tortilleria at the end of the block that sells ten corn tortillas for every 90 made of play dough.
I bought the lady who makes corn tortillas a 90 lb sack of prepared kernels and she grumbled "Finally! Someone who knows what a tortilla is!". She grinds the masa and makes golden tortillas for me and her family. She's from Chilpancingo. She shares her secret stores and origins of where to buy choice groceries.
And all the major markets here have disabled scooters. Except those that are tiny. In Lazaro the girls do the shopping like they do at tianguis. I sit at a stool at the tamal vendor, sip orange agua fresca and chomp tamales. The neurosurgeon is supposed to get me mobile again.
The Contreras family spoils me. Little 1-1/2 year old Vanya, screams "David! Es David y dulces!" Dulces, sweets, candy...
Tonight for dinner I had mixed vegetables and a bolillo (roll). This week I prepare 10 quarts of beans in the pressure cooker. Beans, tortillas and chili. I suppose few readers have ever had properly made beans, actually pure beans but in the form of a stew. With cotija cheese -- a chunk on the side.
This is the land of menudo, and once I discovered Mexicans do everything to mask it's flavor (loads of hot sauce, onion and cilantro) I can only wonder at it's popularity. But the regional tacos are great. They ask me in broken Ingles hos it want them. I reply in Spanish: "traditional style" They give me the eye when sprinkling spices on and I smile.
These people the norteno citizens seem to love Habanero zero flavor hot sauce. The market is flooded with false pretenders.
"They use one chili for every hundred bottles" I grouse. Go to Yucatan. Be a man, and ask for salsa habanera. It will burn you from the inside out. I like bottled salsas with character: Salsa chili piquin, de arbol, chipotle. Balantino brand is for smothering sliced mangos or cucumbers. I am picking up a half gallon of Tabasco green, Jalapeno.
There is also a push down spring loaded meat tenderizer I want from the USA. Marinate eraser rubber grade beef overnight in Papaya mush then even a ran and made ---- -off steer's beef becomes edible.
I promised Brenda a commercial french fry cutter. The recipe she now knows about making superior fries, has locals stopping by for a plastic bag of fries. Good money but she needs to prep ten large spuds per hour on weekends. Poor Dalia prepped over a hundred spuds last Easter break -- per day!
Making good chilaquiles is too much work for one person. Especially if pulled chicken is involved. So I need to hunt down the best cocina economica in town.
Shirley I don't...
I'm ensconced in my 119 dollar per month medical hideout a few hours from the border. I'm stuck here until the cardiac surgeon and neurosurgeon have their way with me. Then a cataract removal and arthroscopic surgery on both shoulders. Not even the 2 tier IMSS facility is worth considering in Morelia, and then I get corrective eyeglasses gratis NOB. No arthroscopic surgery is in the IMSS formulary and I want it -all-done. I have a beta prototype dual lead Boston Scientific pacemaker and they want further confirmation that the battery will last twenty years.
So I am now in the land of the far north. Where spicy dishes are avoided and play-dough tortillas rule the tortillarias. I have the entire Contreras syndicate (60+ extended family) as friends and like anywhere I avoid the extraneous because I have nothing in common with them. Indeed I type long messages on this forum to keep my written Ingles brushed up. It's when I speak that Spanglish often comes out.
Sleep? Good god, I slept until ONE PM today. Overcast. I was out like a light. About 66F in the morning. This will give me a great chance to stock up on USA XX size clothing and shoes. I want a Carhartt vest for Patzcuaro, and ordinary cotton bed sheets. Wal-Mart USA has good sets for twelve dollars and I am going to buy a half-dozen sets. Vitamin supplements, Rx's for a thousand doses (COSTCO pharmacy) of Glyburide 1.25 mg (It's Glibenclamida in Mexico) and the crystal hard tiny pills are only available in 5 mg. A pill cutter shatters them.
I seldom if ever "eat out" and a housekeeper maintains this place as sterile as a hospital. There is a 90/10 tortilleria at the end of the block that sells ten corn tortillas for every 90 made of play dough.
I bought the lady who makes corn tortillas a 90 lb sack of prepared kernels and she grumbled "Finally! Someone who knows what a tortilla is!". She grinds the masa and makes golden tortillas for me and her family. She's from Chilpancingo. She shares her secret stores and origins of where to buy choice groceries.
And all the major markets here have disabled scooters. Except those that are tiny. In Lazaro the girls do the shopping like they do at tianguis. I sit at a stool at the tamal vendor, sip orange agua fresca and chomp tamales. The neurosurgeon is supposed to get me mobile again.
The Contreras family spoils me. Little 1-1/2 year old Vanya, screams "David! Es David y dulces!" Dulces, sweets, candy...
Tonight for dinner I had mixed vegetables and a bolillo (roll). This week I prepare 10 quarts of beans in the pressure cooker. Beans, tortillas and chili. I suppose few readers have ever had properly made beans, actually pure beans but in the form of a stew. With cotija cheese -- a chunk on the side.
This is the land of menudo, and once I discovered Mexicans do everything to mask it's flavor (loads of hot sauce, onion and cilantro) I can only wonder at it's popularity. But the regional tacos are great. They ask me in broken Ingles hos it want them. I reply in Spanish: "traditional style" They give me the eye when sprinkling spices on and I smile.
These people the norteno citizens seem to love Habanero zero flavor hot sauce. The market is flooded with false pretenders.
"They use one chili for every hundred bottles" I grouse. Go to Yucatan. Be a man, and ask for salsa habanera. It will burn you from the inside out. I like bottled salsas with character: Salsa chili piquin, de arbol, chipotle. Balantino brand is for smothering sliced mangos or cucumbers. I am picking up a half gallon of Tabasco green, Jalapeno.
There is also a push down spring loaded meat tenderizer I want from the USA. Marinate eraser rubber grade beef overnight in Papaya mush then even a ran and made ---- -off steer's beef becomes edible.
I promised Brenda a commercial french fry cutter. The recipe she now knows about making superior fries, has locals stopping by for a plastic bag of fries. Good money but she needs to prep ten large spuds per hour on weekends. Poor Dalia prepped over a hundred spuds last Easter break -- per day!
Making good chilaquiles is too much work for one person. Especially if pulled chicken is involved. So I need to hunt down the best cocina economica in town.
