Dessert temptations, Mexican style

This post is loooooong overdue. I said I would write about Mexican marketing tricks after returning from my wonderful - if somewhat telenovela style - trip to Mexico last Autumn, but somehow it's March and I still haven't done it...

I'm a real pudding girl. If I have a choice between a starter and a dessert (or pudding, as they're called here in the UK), I almost always go for the latter. I have a very sweet tooth, which explains the prevalence of cakes over savoury dishes on this little blog of mine. However, I am very much aware that all those sugar and butter ladden cakes cannot be good for my waist-hip ratio. So I try to avoid them.

Not too difficult here in Scotland or back home in Estonia or anywhere else in Europe I've travelled. After finishing the main course, the waiter usually comes and quietly asks if I'm interested in the dessert menu at all. Here's the chance for me to exercise my often dwindling self-control and say "No, thank you". Sometimes I forget that I'm not really so hungry and/or not supposed to have a dessert, and let the waiter bring the menu. However, it is still relatively easy even at this point to look at the menu only fleetingly, convince myself that I'm not actually so hungry after all and opt for a coffee or tea instead.

But no, not in Mexico.



You see, in Mexico, they don't do the old-fashioned printed menus for desserts. In Mexico, they do these dangerously tempting and irresistible in-your-face dessert menus. When you're happily chatting away with your friends after yet another delicious meal, a smiling waiter appears with a huge tray of oh-so-delicious-looking desserts - real ones, not photographs or some artificial replicas, a true feast to all your senses. In Mexico the smart marketing people have long known that we eat with our eyes. However much you'd like to say that "No gracias, señor", suggesting that you're more than full already, you're doomed, you're bound to fail. Once you eye and smell those luscious creations right in front of you, you inevitably end up asking for one. At least that's what happened to me each and every time I ate out during my trip. After just one glance at the dessert offerings, my finger pointed at one of them, and the joyous waiter took my order to the pastry chef in the kitchen.

I know I'm not very good in resisting good food anyway, but I was always taken by surprise how easy it was to give in. How could I possibly fit in that chocolate and raspberry cake at Bistrot Mosaico in Condesa after a very generous slice of huitlacoche quiche, terrine de berengenas and other delicious Franco-Mexican concoctions? Or how did a simple cocktail with a friend at the slowly revolving 45th floor restaurant of the World Trade Centre, Ciudad de México on my last day in town ended with the planned cocktail and a delectable mocca mousse (that's the one in the middle on the left side above, next to the mango cheesecake)? You get my point..

Oh well. At least no-one in Europe seems to know this particular dessert marketing trick. Yet..

At a Mexican market

I have been back from Mexico for over a month now, but still have lots of pictures and stories to share (so there is more to come). I have already posted a story about shopping for exotic fruit in Tepostlán. Here are pictures from one of the numerous travelling food markets in Mexico City. This one makes an appearance literally outside my hosts' window every Monday morning. It was a maze of colours, smells and unusual fruit.

On the above banner you can see red bananas on the right - I had never encountered these before. They had brownish-red skin, and the flesh was slightly pinkish. Tastewise they were a bit sweeter than 'normal' bananas (though not as sweet as the little 'dominican' mini bananas I've managed to leave out of the picture).

As it doesn't happen every day that an exotic food market camps outside my house, I went to buy some fruit and vegetables with my host Ada and kids. Poor vendors, they must have been very confused about this shy Estonian trying to take sneak pictures of them or their produce. Although this pulse&rice seller started arranging his hair in order to look nicer:)


Here are lots of different chilli peppers:

The dark brown ones on the left are ancho peppers, which are called poblano peppers when fresh and dark, almost purply green. As these are comparatively mild chillies, they are the most popular ones for stuffing:


Nicely arranged citrus fruit. My host Ada explained to me the difference between Mexican limes - which are tart, but mild & sweet enough to eat as they are - and the sour lime known as lime elsewhere..


Here are tuna-fruits or cactus fruits. They can be either red:


with this gorgeously red flesh:


or they can be green:


This is cherimoya, which has huge black seeds in it and very juicy and tasty pale flesh:


And here is dragon fruit, also known as pitahaya or strawberry pear. I didn't think it had a particularly interesting flavour, as it was bordering on watery. But it does look beautiful:




Some tiny citrus fruits:


And finally, a happy vegetable family, the Chayotes or the Christophenes:) Here is the hairy father:


the glossy mother:


all together now, with the little one as well:

Eating Mexican: Taxco

Well, actually I didn't eat much in Taxco. To be really honest, I don't think I ate anything in this buzzing former silver town high up the winding mountain roads. I was still stuffed after the very tasty and substantial late lunch at Hacienda San Gabriel de las Palmas. But if I had been hungry, I may have been intrigued by this establishment.

Maybe next time:)

But Taxco itself comes highly recommended. It's a charming former staging-post on the royal road to the port of Acapulco, and it's known for its magnificent baroque Santa Prisca church (with its golden interior) and red-roofed whitewashed houses:

Eating Mexican: My first ever hacienda lunch

Well, having already posted two stories about my recent trip to Mexico, it is now time to get back to the beginning. Alias to my first full day in Mexico...

I hadn't enjoyed my flight from Frankfurt to Mexico City at all - it felt absolutely endless. I was dead bored after 2 hours (that's 10 hours too early), I couldn't sleep, I couldn't watch the movies (they were only available in German and Spanish, and although I speak 5 languages, these two are unfortunately not amongst them) and so on. So when I arrived in Ciudad de Mexico, I went pretty much straight to bed. It was only on the next day that my senses were more or less alert and I managed to take the first proper look at the city - first from my bedroom window (above) and then in a car. It was a brief look though, as already before lunch we (alias me together with my wonderful hosts Ada & Mauricio and their newest offspring Pablo, right) headed towards south. Destination: Guernavaca, with lunch in Hacienda San Gabriel de las Palmas and early evening drink in Taxco.

It took us about 1,5 hours to get to the hacienda, but it was quite impressive. Founded in 1529 for the Spaniard Hernán Cortés, it is today a museum/hotel/resort/spa and a popular place for weddings and large parties. And it has a very nice restaurant where we enjoyed a rather spectacular and tasty meal. My first ever lunch in Mexico was delicious. My first ever hacienda in Mexico was rather grand. I knew this was going to be a lovely holiday... I sat down at the table, enjoyed the view:

... and then allowed Ada and Mauricio to choose from the menu. It's not often that you get to be in the safe hands of two Mexican foodies (one of them a chef). Here are some pictures (click to enlarge!) with short explanations of my first Mexican feast.

These are really delicious nibbles, chilapas with avocado sauce and creamy goat cheese, topped with deep-fried coriander/cilantro. A real favourite of mine! The combination of avocado and goat cheese was a real success.

I was too busy eating and enjoying our starter, tuna dip with chipotle and totopos, that I forgot to take a picture of that one:)

Here's a lovely plate of delicious pollo con mole y arroz alias chicken mole with white rice.

This dish is called arrachera de carne con nopales, which is grilled meat with roasted peppers and cactus.

Here are some quesadillas de queso manchego (on the front, right) and a Mexican pasta dish fideo seco (on the back, left).

This is the original hacienda kitchen, and me proudly posing in that kitchen:


Hacienda San Gabriel de las Palmas
Km 41.8 Carretera Federal Guernavaca - Chilpancingo
Amacuzac, Morelos, México
www.hacienda-sangabriel.com.mx

Food in Mexico: Floating lunch in Xochilmilco

According to my guidebook, 'Xochimilco is a throwback to the capital's Aztec origins, with its canals and "floating" nursery gardens'. Apparently the Aztecs created these floating gardens or chinampas to grow various vegetables, fruits and flowers in order to supply the capital Tenochtitlán. If you look at old maps, you can see that Tenochtitlán was a small town surrounded by lots of water. To overcome this shortage of farmland, the Aztecs developed a system of 'floating gardens' that are rooted by willow trees. Xochimilco is on a southern edge of Ciudad de Mexico, and a popular destination for Mexican families to spend their weekend. We went there after a lovely morning at Museo Dolores Olmedo Patiño (where I spotted these incredibly rare, incredibly expensive and not particularly pretty hairless pre-Hispanic dogs Xoloitzcuintle!).

You rent a colourfully decorated trajinera or a Mexican gondola/punt and a punter and spend a leisurely hour and half floating on the canal system. And just enjoy yourself. Should you need some entertainment, then there are plenty of musicians, including mariachi singers, who volunteer to break the silence - in our case two cylophone players:


Should you get hungry, there's no need to despair either. Every now and then a floating 'restaurant' would pass by and offer you something, whether it's refreshments, tortillas or maize:


We also spotted few boats with large families on board, who had brought along their cooks who were serving them food on the boat. Again, quoting my guidebook, the punts, 'packed with large groups or families, combined with countless flower- and food-sellers in canoes to create watery traffic jams. But this is Mexico, and chaos is part of the colorful picture'. As we were in Xochimilco on a Thursday afternoon, it was quite peaceful and relaxing. I really enjoyed the trip, but I'm afraid I would have found the full show on the weekends a bit too noisy and chaotic. I am Estonian after all:)

Food in Mexico: exotic fruit, grainy wall and a meal with a view in Tepostlán

Here are few pictures from my second full day in Mexico. Mexico (oh well, I guess this is not gonna be in chronological order). We had spent the previous night in Guernavaca, and on Sunday headed to this small Indian town which is famous for its church, lively market and Toltec (predecessors of the Aztecs) archeological ruins.

The market was indeed lively, colourful and very vibrant - and we admired this interesting mosaic town gate just next to the market. The mosaic is made up of various grains and seeds - I spotted sunflower seeds (pepitas), various dried beans and pulses, different types of rice and peppercorns.

I also really enjoyed exploring the market, and it was here in Tepostlán that I got my first taste of really ripe exotic tropical fruits. On this picture the guy is slicing some cirvela fruit for us to try, I believe. It was really nice, with a hint of watermelon.

Here, on the other hand, I saw, touched and ate my first mamey fruit. Beautiful colour, and lovely taste, though I thought it needed a drop or two of lemon juice. My friend Ada used mamey for a smoothie next morning. And apparently it doesn't require any lemon juice at all. Who am I to argue with the locals:)

We ended the visit with a glass of limonada for girls and a cocktail made of beer, Tabasco and tomato juice for one and milk for the other guy at this nicely located restaurant. Look at the view of Tepozteco mountain (and El Tepozteco pyramid that is hidden in the mist)!!!

Living the Mexican telenovela

I am back in Edinburgh after 10 days in Mexico. Still slightly jetlagged, granted, but I am happy to report that I had a wonderful holiday. I stayed with my friends Ada & Mauricio and their adorable children Fernanda & Pablo (thank you so much!!!), who showed me around Mexico City, Taxco, Tepostlan, and Guernavaca and generally took extremely good care of me. I enjoyed every minute of my trip (apart from the long-haul flights, that is...)

The only downside to the trip was that at a true telenovela fashion, the bride called off the 650-person wedding just 2 days before it was supposed to take place, the upset groom fled Ciudad de Mexico with his family to lick his wounds, and we ended up going to just a nice no-wedding dinner with friends instead.. Oh well, there will be another Mexican wedding to attend in the future, hopefully...

Most importantly, I ate well during my trip. It will take a few days before I sort out my photos and start posting again, but here's a glimpse of things to come.

* My first ever hacienda lunch
* Ingredient spotlight: huitlacoche
* Fruit-shopping in Tepostlan and below my window
* OTT Mexican lunch experience
* Classy Mexican lunch at Villa Maria, Jerónimo
* Floating lunch in Xochilmilco
* Eating the national colours
* Mexican marketing tricks or how to make sure a customer will say Yes
* Mexican hot chocolate
* Another hacienda meal
* The no-wedding dinner

Some of them I will just mention in my future posts, some of them I will write about more in my "Eating Mexican" series. Hope you will be back reading!

Mexico, here I come!!!

I'm off to my very first cross-Atlantic flight early tomorrow morning and I'm heading to Mexico City. Over the years I've met many lovely Mexicanos & Mexicanas in Edinburgh, and got numerous invitations to visit. As this time one of my Edinburgh friends of 1998/1999 vintage, R, is getting married, I decided to take the plunge and go. I'll be gone for 11 days. The wedding - a 650-people Mexican soap-opera affair!!! - is the night before I return, so I am not sure how soon after getting back to Edinburgh I'm able to blog again;) We'll see.

But it suffices to say that I'm very much looking forward to the trip. I'm staying with my dear friends Angeles & Rafael in Mexico City. Angeles is a very good cook. She has a food technology degree and worked in a small bakery while Rafael was studying in Edinburgh - and I enjoyed many a nice meal at their place in Edinburgh 2000/2001. I'm sure I will be pampered this time as well.

I also anticipate couple of nice meals at Ada & Mauricio's place, my friends of 2001/2002 vintage:) Ada is a professional chef who has contributed to a cookbook about Veracruz food, and she was entertaining quite a lot when her hubby Mauricio was studying for an MBA degree here in Edinburgh. On the side, she also consulted some ready food suppliers on Mexican food, and refreshed and spiked up the menu for one of Edinburgh's Mexican restaurants, Viva Mexico - she even made it to the national newspaper!!! Apart from the numerous dinners at their home, I had also the pleasure of being one of the 'guinea pigs' that was invited to the 'main preview' of the new 3-course menu back in Viva Mexico in August 2002. It was absolutely delicious - and how could one not like it when the chef has taken the concept of 'personal touch' so far:



I will be staying in Mexico City most of the time, and unfortunately cannot travel out of town with neither Angeles or Ada - both of them have just had a baby (first and second child, respectively - and in the first case only last Sunday!). But some of my other friends have volunteered to show me around and maybe even take me to the coast for a couple of days. Who knows, I may be able to recreate the tan on the above picture - acquired during a 2-week conference/holiday on Santorini and Sifnos in Greece in 2002 in time for the wedding:)

But I'm pretty sure I will have lots to write about when I get back! Hasta la vista, amigos!