50 days in México.: Day 39: Food

Blogging again and not writing my essay. What am I doing?

So the food here is amazing. The other night we went to a little street cafe—one of the hundreds all around here—and ate a late night meal. The boys got tacos al pastor for only 6 pesos. That's about 50 cents. I always let Daniel order for me because he knows what is the best so he suggested to get a torta. Those were 23 pesos and my first thought was that it was so expensive! 23 pesos is less than 2 American dollars. What? The most expensive and delicious thing on the menu is less than 2 bucks? Awesome. They also brought out our food within 3 minutes of ordering. The food here is super rich and super cheap.

Mamá Pilar and Tía Amira feed us 3 square meals a day. Mamá Pilar's oatmeal is to die for, the best oatmeal I've had in my entire life. Her empanadas are great, too. Tía Amira makes mean flautas. There is also always some type of juice to drink always freshly made like jamaica, pineapple juice, orange juice or limade. We also always have fresh fruit and chile peppers available. Mamá stopped putting chile in everything because she realized I couldn't handle the spice like the other girls can. She also separates a little guacamole for me before she chiles it up. However, Lyndy said after eating chile everyday that she doesn't even taste it anymore, so I've started to eat more chile so that when I get back to the States, I will be able to eat the Spicy McChicken sandwiches from McDonalds. Those are too spicy for me:( I'm pathetic.

There is a stereotype outside of México that Mexicans are lazy because taking a siesta or nap is a big part of the culture. First, may I say, having a time set aside for napping everyday is awesome. It's super hot outside anyway during those hours, but I recently learned that the reason for the siesta is because of the food. Most of the food here requires rest to be digested properly. Not all of it, carne asada doesn't require it,, for example. And it doesn't have to be a nap, but at least a rest. Totally opposite of how I think about food and how it needs to digest. Anyway, México is being strongly influenced by the United States so through its americanization, its losing this part of the culture. More people are working the standard 8–5 during the day now and aren't able to rest during the day as they need to. (Oh, and they are losing other parts of their culture too which worries many people here.) Well, basically I'm saying that Méxicans are not lazy. I think they actually work more hours in the day than we do on average. There are too many stereotypes that are just not correct.

Here are some pics of our cooking lesson with Mamá and Tía: