EATING IN MEXICO

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1935, Page 2

EATING IN MEXICO

SOME NOVEL EXPERIENCES. MANY UNUSUAL MENUS. If you are dining at Mexico City this evening, and following native tradition, you probably are eating very little (writes James E. McGinnis, in the San Francisco Chronicle). It’s that old Mexican custom of taking, according to an American view, practically nothing for breakfast, a hearty comida, or mid-day meal, and again not too much for the sena at night. Some Mexicans say that it is the high altitude which makes it unhealthy to eat heartily, and that on the coast one may indulge his appetite more freely, but whatever the reason, the custom has existed since the days when the conquering Spaniards first visited Mexico and wrote home that the natives seemed hardly human, they ate so little. Of course, there is nothing to prevent the visitor from eating as much as he wishes, and with the great variety of exotic dishes offering he probably will be just beginning when the residents have finished.

The typical Mexican foods, changed little or not at all in the last 400 or 500 years, and the fruits and vegetables of the tropics probably provide the most interesting items on the day’s menu, from a stranger’s point of view. In addition to the tamales, which are familiar to most residents of the United States, Mexico dishes include tortillas, enchiladas, tacos, flanes, mole, arroz Mexicano, guacamole, topopo jalisciensce, rejas poblanas, and dozens more.

Most of these are served alike in the little restaurants patronised by the common citizens of the captial and in the more luxurious places where the elite—and the tourists—dine.

As to' what they are: Tortillas, nothing more than flat cakes of maize, flour and water, are made in countless molinos, or mills, throughout the city, as well as in the restaurants, baked and served in place of bread; enchiladas are fried tortillas, with chicken or beef, chile sauce, onions, and the whole sprinkled with cheese and served, sometimes with slices of aguacate or alligator pear, on top; tacos correspond to sandwiches of tortillas, chicken, chile, and cheese; and flanes, of which there is a variety, are custards.

Mole is a Mexican feast day dish, made of turkey, or sometimes of chicken or beef, served with a sauce which at its best requires several days to make, and includes some 20 or more ingredients; arroz Mexicano is rice fried with tomatoes and onions, and guacamole is composed of aguacates, shredded onions, tomatoes and chile.

Rejas poblanas is a meat dish of pork, tomato sauce • and cream cheese, while totopo jalisciensce is a very fancy dish of fried tortillas and fried Mexican yams, built up with shredded lettuce, chicken, chile, arid topped with a piece of tomato. HOURS OF EATING DIFFERENT. Not only are the foods themselves different—although, of course, one may obtain the traditional potatoes and broiled steak if one wishes—but the hours of eating also are other than those of the United States. The city dweller from Oaxaca to Monterey traditionally begins his dating at about 8 or. 9 o’clock in the morning, when he consumes perhaps a small glass of jugo de nararijas, which is orange juice, a piece or two of pan dulce, sweet bread, and coffee, which is brought to the table in a tall pot, accompanied by another pot of hot milk. About two-thirds milk and one-third coffee is the favourite Mexican mixture. With this rather meagre beginning nothing more is consumed, unless perhaps, an oyster or shrimp cocktail, until about 2 o’clock in. the afternoon, when the comida is served. Sena is generally eaten at 7.30, 8, or somewhere later, and chocolate or coffee sometimes at 10 or 11 o’clock. Restaurants of the capital are cosmopolitan. There are German restaurants, French restaurants, Italian restaurants, Spanish restaurants, Austrian restaurants, American restaurants, and Mexican restaurants. There are restaurants varying from those frequented by the minor toreros of the bull ring to those of the capital’s fashionable society; restaurants with fountains in their dining-rooms and restaurants with American music for dancirig or with Mexican folk music, although those of the last two classes are surprisingly rare. Typical of the smarter of the city’s eating houses is Sanborns, in "The House of Tiles,” a large and antique structure whose history dates from some 300 years ago.

Stands for oyster cocktails abound, advertising ostiones de Guymas, one of the west coast towns where the best shellfish are gathered. Likewise booths selling refrescos of orange, lemon, pineapple, or sugar-cane juice, with such names as “the mountain of snow” and "the North Pole.” More picturesque are the open street stands, consisting of a canvas cover over a few wooden benches, where zarapewrapped peons, soldiers, leather-clad cowboys, and other passers-by may be seen at night under the flickering light of oil tapers, eating tacos and drinking coffee.

The Mexican’s inherent love of gambling is seen in the tiny dulce stand, kept by an aged woman, where at a tiny roulette wheel the muchacho may play for his bit of candy.

VARIETY OF FRUIT. At thb wayside stands and in the great markets are offered all of the expected variety of tropical fruits—guavas, mangoes, pomegranates, tunas, of the fruit of the cactus plant, chirimovas, red arid yellow bananas or pdatanos, in all sizes, from no bigger- than a thumb to enormous ones pilefl in heaps nearly as high as a man, and possessing pink and orange as well as the accustomed yellow flesh; coconuts., pineapples, limes, oranges, tortonjas, or grapefruit, and so on. lecamas are one of the popular turnip-like vegetables. Vendors, from those one sees at every whistle stop on the train routes of the Republic to those wandering the streets of the capital throughout the day, play a large part of the culinary life of the country.

At the train stops are offered dulces, unlike candles of the United States, made from cactus, pumpkin, coconut and milk, candied fruits and yams, and cajetas, pastelike sweets of milk and wine, sold in small, round wooden boxes. In addition, milk is sold by the glass or in uncapped beer bottles; coffee by the cup from a glazed earthenware jug, lemonade in bottles, halves of chicken or duck, broiled and piping hot; fruit, great frosttopped custards, and an innumerable variety of other foods. Vendors of the city proceed through the residential districts, offering wild ducks, doves, and rabbits; live chicken carried in great bunches across their shoulders, or turkeys which are driven in flocks with a small -tring whip. Milk boys deliver their wares on bicycles, carrying the milk in ordinary bottles in baskets in front and behind, covered with pieces of ice. Likewise boys delivering other commodities pedal by, balancing great trays on their heads as they move through the traffic. All in all, eating in Mexico offers a fascinating show as well as a novel menu.