Mennonite Queso Chihuahua Advice

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I learned the expensive way to not squander ten dollars (180 today pesos) on an unsampled brand of block Chihuahua cheese. More than a few brands I have tried has a distinctly bitter snap to them. Mennonites vacationing at a hot springs spa gave me a small round of unbranded cheese that was as good as any cheddar-like cheese I have ever tasted. The elder in the group said there were a lot of knockoff competitors that were not even from the Ciudad Cuauhtemoc area of Chihuahua.

Like anything else (for instance, butter) quality varies wildly. Try before you buy. Butter? For years Lala brand butter in a plastic tub came from Belgium, and it was as good as Anchor butter from New Zealand. Then Lala switched sources to Uruguay but eventually Lala tub butter fizzled out in the taste department.

After comparing nutrition labels and deciding Primarvera to be the least offensive tasting margarine, when a Wal-Mart is nearby I settle for their house brand butter. Luckily I have mild HDL and LDL levels and can tolerate occasional bouts of butter patties on "hot kakes" the undisputed favorite of the grand kids. When I find real maple syrup I dilute it with "Jarabe Madrilena" Mexican sugar syrup. It's amazing that 15% maple syrup and 85% Madrilena is almost indistinguishable in taste. If maple syrup molds in the refrigerator, simply heat it and skim off the mold. If it's good enough for producers in Vermont and Montreal to skim syrup it's good enough for me. The taste is unaffected.

[moisheh]

Google Ace hardware for an umbrella 73 inch outdoor dryer. We had one that lasted 15 years in the Sonora sun.
Moisheh

[Talleyho69]

Living as we did/do, we have been together for 42+ years. Until February, we were laundromat people. Easy, once you are used to it, working "real, dressed" jobs in the US, even on the road and in Zihuatenjo.

In February of this year, we purchased an LG inverter washing machine and a gas dryer. We do about 1.5 loads a week. HEAVEN!!!!!

Thanks to very good advice (thanks, Chris) we monitored our electric and gas usage daily, but now only weekly. We can see absolutely nothing on our meter and gauge that shows we used anything!!

After each load, we look at each other, smile, dance and talk about the luxury of having our first washer and dryer.

ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT AND DON'T WANT TO LIVE WITHOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

However, we do have a very short clothesline for the daily dog towels and a drying rack for our bathing suits. We, the two dogs and us, are in the water at least twice a day. They dry quickly. Life is good!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Question here Tallyho....

How are you drying your clothes?

Summer RV'ers have a tough time unless they go to the lavanderia. I made a mobile rack for Brenda, she puts it out into sunshine during the day then back under the patio cover at night (or flies like crazy up to the house if summer clouds roll in from the mountains)

Papa! Quiero Secadora! The price of the drier is a real toe-tapper but 45 Kg tanks of gas are now 969 pesos and a 75 mile round trip.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Jesus, just stuffed his 240th kilogram of lobster into the freezers last week. Our ostiones are just shy of a teacup saucer in diameter. Our ocean is pristine. They surprise inspect the coastline for illegal outflows are there are none. So personally I am mariscoed-out. Sundays are lobster day when Brenda prepares a platter of them -- all of the shorts.

Fruit salad today! The girls insist I include cucumber. Vamos a ver.

There's talk of sector salud salting the mosquitoes this month in order to get rid of Dengue Fever forever. Already had it. Daytime mosquito bites avoid them. Dengue is like having the flu and your worst hangover all thrown in...yuck.

[Talleyho69]

Ocean shrimp are expensive, but the crawdads, crayfish, mudbugs "camarones" from the lake aren't, and are as yummy as lobster. They bring them to town in the back of a pick up truck, full to the top, crawling out. This week they are 70p per kilo and he takes the heads off and cleans them too. I prefer to do this myself.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

We eat mangoes till they're coming out of our ears! Cut into slices. Limon juice dribbled over them. Then a topping of Valentina sauce. C-o-l-d!

Try Tuba (just like the instrument) Vendors sell clear plastic glasses of the cloudy liquid. They'll top it with a handful of peanuts if you opt for it. Fermented sap of the coconut. About as potent as wine.

The there is the zapote. Green and then wine colored which is called the zapote borracho. Supposed to make a person sleepy. I ate a lot and it ended any thought of constipation.

Lots of bananas. My favorite is the little purple finger banana.

For some wacky reason the best oranges are trucked over from Veracruz. All valencias. Sold by costales, orange web plastic "gunnysacks" Rarely seen in stores usually pitched by vendors right out of the back of a truck.

SHRIMP wuuwee is it costly. Chop open a coconut and mix liquid with the pulpy meat of a young coco. Stir fry in a wok. Brenda and Andrea could not believe the taste. Add orange and stir fry trocitos, bits of chicken, chopped celery onion, and curls of carrots.

Have you tried the llaca (yaca)? lots of seeds. Push through a wire mesh strainer then add as the liquid to fruit smoothies. Use box cream.

Another smoothie treat. Mango with Carlos V chocolate. The chocolate makes an excellent substitute for coffee on very warm mornings. The amount of caffeine in chocolate is an eye opener. Cretins use Hershey syrup. My four cretins don't care. Same for orange juice. Add a smidgen of chocolate.

[daveB110]

Where we used to camp, we'd bicycle or drive to the old abandoned hotel, on the way we'd pass through a mango patch consisting of quite a lot of trees. One year we did the trip again. We saw the old, mature trees had all been cut back at the trunk, to what would look like a death blow to many trees, but the mangos were growng just fine - still!

[Talleyho69]

After doing a few school field trips to "pumpkin patches" we were exposed to the original forms of corn. Very interesting and hairy.

Current sweet corns sold in the US are triploid, "better living through modern chemistry" hybrids that hold their sweetness a long time. Over the last few years in California after growing our own, we played with shelf life for maximum sweetness. Many hold their wonderfulness for 10 days, which is a real treat for those that don't grow their own.

Again, yesterday, we were able to purchase Mr. Lucky brand sweet corn in a three pack at Soriana for 29.4 pesos. It was every good as the stuff available on the market in California. We have seen it twice. Are we posting this information on the forum here in Zihuatanejo? No way-we want to see it at the store sometimes so we can buy it!

Mangos-we live in mango country. Our house came with one big tree, they are yellow, small, and when tree ripened taste like pineapple! Here, we don't wash them because if your neighbors don't give you enough fruit, often in named varieties enough to swim in, you can go to the corner and get them. Most of ours are picked up on the street as tree falls on the way to the beach.

David, sorry your's aren't worth much, just eat as many as you can and celebrate their flavor.

[navegator]

Corn or Maiz was first "domesticated" or cultivated in the valley of Tehuacan in the state of Puebla, there are caves on the hills lining the valley and archeologist have unearthed pot shards and fire rings and the small husks of the domesticated corn about the size of a small child's finger, if you know what to look for you can still find the wild corn on some areas of the valley.

navegator

[daveB110]

Yes, corn is off my diet, along with a great host of other things. Fat is now my friend, bacon and eggs and vegetables, excepting corn and a couple of others that include most grown under the surface of the ground. Losing weight fast and getting rid of the sugars in the body. Recall as a very young man raiding a cornfield to have a big corn feast with a crowd, only to find that, probably, the farmer yelling at us was just telling us the corn was for his cows! One bite, and yuk ! The bash was off.

[RayJayco]

Just as a note, corn has a high sugar content. The second that it is picked, the sugar starts turning into starch.
If you really want to know what corn tastes like, it should be cooked on same day that it is picked. Almost impossible with store bought as it is likely a week or three old when you buy it, even if it is still in the husk.

Many different types of corn, humans eat sweet corn and animals eat feed corn. Of course with all of the hybrids out today... You may be trying to eat animal feed corn...

Interesting that corn is not a native species and does not grow in the wild. It was originally grass and was domesticated/developed (basically genetically modified) by Mexicans about 7-10,000 years ago, according to most.

Diabetics really shouldn't eat a lot of corn.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Jumex pays a pittance for my mangos. Three dollars eighty cents for a 10 Kg flat and they want zero manchas on the fruit. Full fungicide treatment twice per crop. I ve tasted 'Phillipimd and Thailand pasteurized juices every bit as good as Jumex.

Tommy Atkins
Petacon
Ataufo
Haden
Kent
Oboe

Are some of the more common varieties. I raise haden. Ataufo, Manila and Kent are mighty tasty. Mix varieties and it tends to produce gas --uncomfortable.

ALWAYS WASH MANGOS IN HOT WATER with a dash of dish soap. The fungicide used is potent and neither hot water nor dish soap alone does a good enough job in my estimate. All fruit northbound is washed in Queretaro.

[Talleyho69]

The Jumex Mango juice, just juice and pulp is great for a mangotini!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
The salt and sugar thingy has me vexed as well Moishe. I wish Kikkoman would bring out a 75% reduced in sodium Soy Sauce. The Mexican population is suffering horribly from this newfangled stuff. Especially from fritangas. fried stuff loaded with salt and sugar.

I do not buy totopos (tortilla chips). Tostadas have a great corn taste without the hideous salt content. I wish Herdez would get wise and chop in half the amount of salt in their canned salsas.

Stevia would grow great in Mexico --- so many opportunities down the drain (sigh)

"Bet'cha I'll eat just none!"