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Bubba

Mar 11, 2007, 2:42 PM

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On the Food Chain in Mexico

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There is this really nice restaurant in San Cristóbal called The Creperie owned and run by a really good French chef named Bruno who, every Sunday night has this special which is shrimp sauteed and flamed in rum and this dish is really excellent served with a fresh salad and a Brazilian inspired lime/pepper/parsley/tomato dipping sauce. This is so good we asked him where he buys the shrimp which were attractively served with the heads and shells still on. He told us he bought them only on Sundays at the local big box supermarket branch in San Cristóbal. However, he told us, we should only buy the shrimp on Sunday because they come in only on Saturday and reside in the store´s fish market until sold no matter how long that may take.

Well, today ( Sunday) my wife, inspired by this tale, went to the supermarket and asked the fish market manager when the shrimp came in. He told her two days before. Well, OK - they should still be edible although one should certainly smell them to make sure they are not rotten. After all, her question was as to when the shrimp arrived at the supermarket´s San Cristóbal branch, not when they exited their homes in the sea. This is an important distinction you had best learn here.

As she waited for the fish man to wrap her shrimp she noticed a bunch of small clams on ice and just for the fun of it touched several of the clams. None of them reacted to her touch and the whole bunch was obviously long dead.

WIFE: These clams are dead.
FISH GUY: Of course they´re dead. You don´t eat live clams.
WIFE: I grew up on the Atlantic coast of France among fishermen and can tell you that you do not eat dead clams and these clams are dead.
FISH GUY: You don´t know what you are talking about. You´re telling me you don´t eat dead clams?
WIFE: I eat clams I have just killed, not clams lying stone dead in a supermarket. These clams could poison somebody.

Fish guy gets really irritated and walks off in a huff.

I asked what else she had bought. It seems she had bought a whole chicken. I asked her if she had ever noticed that all big box stores in Mexico always seem to have tons of chickens in stock and that´s just up front on the retail floor. I have always wondered how long they keep those chickens if they don´t sell them quickly.

I also wonder how long they keep those dead clams just sitting there day after day rotting away.

If you want fresh free range chickens and turkeys in San Cristóbal I´ll direct you to the indigenous market where they kill and dress the birds that morning or sell them to you still alive. Of course, those market chickens are pretty tough but tasty.

When we first arrived in Mexico in 2001, the proprietor of a nice Ajijic restaurant decided to show me how to shop for fresh fish and shellfish at the Mercado Del Mar in Zapopan - a huge wholesale/retail fish market where he buys all his fish for the restaurant. He took me to his favorite vendor and introduced me. He said he always used one a few vendors he trusts and told me that I should always buy whole fish - not fillets - and be generous in tipping the guys who cleaned and processed the fish for me. We now have a favorite vendor at the Ajijic tianguis because Zapopan is a long drive for fish.

(This post was edited by Bubba on Mar 11, 2007, 3:06 PM)