Forums > Specific Focus > Mexican Kitchen

Bubba

Aug 10, 2005, 7:08 PM

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Available at Local Markets

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I don't know about the rest of you guys but I went to the local tianguis and gringo markets today in Ajijic and came back with an abundance of real lemons, fresh fennel, excellent leeks and By God yellow onions. There was, in addition, a variety of tomatoes that, while no contest with the now available heirloom tomatoes up north, are very good and grown locally in Jalisco. I also brought home some unfrozen shrimp from Mazatlan.

This town is improving. The difference in the four years I have been here is astonishing.

However, they still can't bring a decent turnip or rutabaga to market. Damn.

Esteban

Aug 11, 2005, 4:27 AM

Post #2 of 14 (1474 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Available at Local Markets

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One thing that astounds me is that I can't find crawfish in Mexico. Am I missing something here? With all the estuaries around Mazatlan, I'm wondering why they aren't available. I guess my question is: "Has anyone even seen a crawfish in Mexico?"

Esteban

caldwelld

Aug 11, 2005, 8:26 AM

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Re: [Esteban] Available at Local Markets

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Harry's bar in SMA and Queretero have crawfish on the menu and a tank of the live critters at the entrance. They will sell them live to you if you want but as to where to get them elswhere I cannot help. The ones at Harrys appear to be of the Australian Blueclaw variety.
dondon

Bubba

Aug 11, 2005, 12:08 PM

Post #4 of 14 (1449 views)

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Re: [Esteban] Available at Local Markets

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Thay have to have mud bugs in Mexico but it may be that people do not value nor harvest them. You would think that they would be popular here.

You never know. When walking about Ajijic along the lake front with some French friends they noticed that there is a local variety of tree that produces the expensive and prized pink peppercorns so popular in France yet nobody in this area seems to like them and they are not to be found in local markets.

Another of my favorites is that I have this fondness for bitter oranges which are so popular in Yucatecan cooking. These fruits add a wonderful flavor to several Yucatecan stews that I love. In markets all over Yucatan this fruit is sold in abundance yet I have never seen it for sale in markets here at Lake Chapala. Well, a friend of mine recently moved to Guadalajara and tells me the area around her house is filled with bitter orange trees and the fruit is there for the picking.

Of course, none of this should surprise me. The common California garden snail is the precise same creature prized by the French as a comestible but despised in California as a pest and thought of there only as shoe poppers.

Cynthia7

Aug 11, 2005, 1:53 PM

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Bitter Oranges make good marmalade. My English friends go loco over them..

wendy devlin

Aug 11, 2005, 1:58 PM

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Re: [Esteban] Available at Local Markets

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Yes Crawfish are baited with pieces of coconut and trapped in Colima, but sold directly to restaurants. The traps are shaped like very narrow cones, made out of split bamboo.

mazgordon

Sep 11, 2005, 4:23 PM

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Maybe I'm mistaken, but aren't "langostinos" crawfish? Here in Mazatlán I've had them at Playa Bruja and also at the estimable El Torito on Rotarismo. They sure looked and tasted like big, fat crawdaddies to me. Armando Galván tells me they grow them up in the Sierra and that the shrimp ladies have 'em!

¡Echar todo la carne al asador!

Esteban

Sep 13, 2005, 7:01 AM

Post #8 of 14 (1276 views)

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Re: [mazgordon] Available at Local Markets

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Las changueras have langostinos but they look like west coast lobster to me. I've never seen a crawfish sold there. What word, in Spanish would you use for lobster Gordon? I've noticed that the lobsters have grown steadily smaller in the last 6 years. Everyone in the business says that they'll soon be extinct here. The divers take them all year round without regard to size.

Bubba

Sep 13, 2005, 7:55 AM

Post #9 of 14 (1266 views)

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Re: [Esteban] Available at Local Markets

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Since the name of fish and seafood is the most difficult thing to translate even within the same country we have different names for the same thing so I am not sure if this is correct here in Mexico but ecrevisses in France come from fresh water and have claws and disappear pretty quickly when waters are contaminated. We used to have a lot of them in some of the rivers when I was a kid, then they disappeared and now that the rivers has been "cleaned up" they are slowly coming back .
Langoustes are from the sea and do not have claws.BP

wendy devlin

Sep 13, 2005, 10:23 AM

Post #10 of 14 (1256 views)

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The fresh water crawfish in Colima are also called langoustinos, and they do have two claws.

Esteban

Sep 13, 2005, 10:28 AM

Post #11 of 14 (1252 views)

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Re: [wendy devlin] Available at Local Markets

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If you want lobster what do you order?

esperanza

Sep 13, 2005, 11:31 AM

Post #12 of 14 (1246 views)

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Re: [Esteban] Available at Local Markets

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Langosta.

http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

Carron

Sep 13, 2005, 12:59 PM

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Re: [esperanza] Available at Local Markets

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But how do I afford to pay for it??? Our local Soriana always has frozen lobster tails and they cost 411 pesos per kilo. Way beyond my meager retirement budget. Sure miss those free crawfish I used to scoop up by the dozen from the open ditches in New Orleans when I was a kid.

Wonder what Katrina did to the local crop?? Maybe they will mutate into something even bigger and better in all that toxic stew the papers are reporting.

Elaine

Sep 27, 2005, 2:13 PM

Post #14 of 14 (1178 views)

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Re: [Bubba] Available at Local Markets

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Bubba? Snails? Okay, I'll tell the truth, a friend of mine during the period that I lived in California, would go out and collect the snails in her yard and keep them in a box of cornmeal for a few days then prepare them. The cornmeal was suppose to cleanse them of any toxins from garden sprays, etc.

Me, I tried them, both at my friend's home and when I went out to dinner. Both times they tasted like rubber with butter and garlic. You can have all my snails, Bubba, I'll save them for you if you like them. ;o)

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