Weekend re-cap

There were many new food experiences this weekend. There were also non-food experiences, but the food-related experiences are always more interesting to me.

Saturday morning, Adolfo and a friend/co-worker and I went to the Abastos market. Abastos means supplies, and it is where the granola supplies are found. My dictionary defines Abastos as “basic provisions…. especially food-stuffs,” that seems appropriate. I wrote about this market before, when we had first arrived.

I am still unable to drive around the Abastos by myself, and my friend and I managed to coerce Adolfo into coming with us (she is very pregnant, so she had a good excuse for needing another set of hands). She knew of several excellent finds including some specific veggie stands that she liked and a creamery, which sold me a gallon of yoghurt and some really good queso cotija. We bought squash blossoms and eyed the cuitlacoche, but didn’t get any. (check the photos) We finished up by going to the Mamá Gallina (mother hen) for the granola supplies and FINALLY the powdered turmeric.

I was very interested in buying some pumpkin seeds, but they were all out. So, I will have to wait to try a recipe for Mole Verde. I also wanted to put some pumpkin seeds in the granola and the protein bars. Oh, well.

After the shopping we needed a big breakfast, so we invited our friend over and made eggs with chorizo, refried beans, queso cotija, and tortillas, coffee and juice. Mmmmm….. My favorite kind of breakfast. (This morning I had yoghurt and fruit salad, Adolfo had cereal and fruit salad.)

After breakfast, our friend left and we headed out of town to Chapala. Chapala is a weekend get-away for many tapatillos, but also has a thriving retired US and Canadian citizen population. The town is on a lake of the same name. Lake Chapala is the largest freshwater lake in Mexico.

A friend’s parents have a house there and we were invited to his sister’s going away party (it seems that everyone is leaving for Spain these days). There were various appetizers, but the main food was brought out in two large tamale steamers. They contained tacos al vapor (steamed tacos), but Adolfo told me that in Guadalajara these are also called tacos sudados (sweaty tacos!). The tacos are made up ahead of time and stacked in the steamer. Then they are steamed so everyone can have tacos which are all hot at the same time. And, you just pick up your taco and put a little salsa on top and away you go.

It was a good party and I tried a couple new tequilas and one that was really nice called 7 Leguas (leagues). The bottle has a picture of a horse on the front and I cannot figure out what the Leguas have to do with a horse. I’m going to look for it in the store and see if it’s in my price range.

We finished off the night (pretty early) by going down to the waterfront and getting an ice cream. Chapala is, for some reason, known for its ice creams. I was advised to go with the Guayaba and I was very excited about trying some guava ice cream, but when we arrived at the ice cream stand, they were sold out of guava. So, I had to go with my second choice – Elote. Sweet corn ice cream is just about the closest thing to having real, farm corn. I’m not sure I can properly explain it, but I think it has to do with how starchy, uninteresting other corn tastes and how sugary-sweet farm corn tastes – just like this ice cream. I was pretty impressed.

Today, I made the Calico Crumb Cake. I’m pretty sure I’ve found where 350˚ F is on my oven. The cake turned out just fine and I’m going to send some to DF with Adolfo when he leaves on Wednesday. I think our friend there will appreciate it. When we visited him in April, he hardly had anything in his refrigerator.