I should have brought the camera

[nadinbrzezinski]

next week, after mom and dad are doing better. I will go to the market to get groceries in Mexico City. And let me tell you the place is a feast to the eyes, with all the things that I grew up, but might be exotic to many Americans. I know, I should have...

Next time I come visit I will make a point of bringing, even a cheap digi camera, so I can take some photos. Oh hells bells... that is what the WWW is all about, these are photos from the Mercado de la Merced, the main one for Mexico City





Speaking of exotic foods. This is Mamey, a wonderfully sweet buttery fruit



and a final panoramic



Enjoy

[hippywife]

1. I have a question for you about the

layered gelatin dessert I see in one of the pics. One of the Mexican girls here at work made me one in the form of a big ring. I took it home and tasted it, there was no real flavor to it and her sister, who also works here, was telling me it would be delicious because she's such a good cook.

It was very pretty but I really tasted next to nothing. Just kind of a very faint perfumy fruity aroma to it. Is it supposed to be like that. It also does not melt no matter how long you leave it sitting out.

Hope you are haveing a great visit! :hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. That gelatin dessert is supposed to have flavor

but mild.

And this was a medical visit, so we got some good news. Takind dad home from hospital one tonight, and mom should be released from second hospital tomorrow. Dad was ahem an emergency, the underlying cause is serious, what he needs done is not.

[hippywife]

3. I hope everything gets taken care of

for your folks and that you have some help with them, too. Sending healing vibes for them both. :hug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Sis came along

so that makes it much easier. And thanks.

[hippywife]

5. Oh, good! I'm so glad the two of you are together

to support one another. :hug:

That Mamey looks very interesting. Does the taste compare to anything else, to give us a better idea?

[Warpy]

6. Thank you for giving me a slight boot in the arse

I'm planning to hike on down to a travel office and make the arrangements to get to Merida, target date February.

I love the colors, the smells, and the people in Mexico. I'm really looking forward to the trip.

Thanks for the reminder of why I want to go.

[katkat]

7. That dessert looks pretty

the dead animals, not so much.

I'm sure it would be easy to come up with a dessert that looks similar but tastes better.

Here's an animal photo I like better:

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Well you do buy very fresh chicken

round these parts, as well as beef.

That market might have changed in architecture and form, and some of the offerings, from ahem Pre-Hispanic times. After all, in Pre-Hispanic times you'd not have chickens, but wild turkey, yes. Dog, absolutely. And the dog was raised for food, not for pet. So they were kept in pens and all that. You even had fish back then. These days the fish is 24 hours old and brought up from both coasts by refrigerated truck. Back then it came up by runner, in less than 12. Imagine this, a set of relay runners from the coast of Veracruz to Mexico City, bringing fish.

The connections to the past are pulsating there...

Oh and as Warpy said above, a photo cannot convey the smells of market.

[Warpy]

9. Fresh chicken will be an absolute delight

and it will have been running around that morning since the Mexicans can't afford things like fast chillers to hold dead chickens for a week or two before sale. I'll also enjoy getting the feet with it as a matter of course instead of having the butcher look at me like I'm completely nuts. It will also be nice to escape that weird flavor from commercial chicken feed with gawd knows what in it that even organically raised birds seem to eat.

By the way, those bins of what looked like really fine couscous were really bins of fly eggs, a pricey Aztec delicacy. I'll pass, too.

[GoCubsGo]

10. Mamey! Good stuff!!!

I was able to get my hands on one of those years ago. I was at the DeKalb Farmer's Market outside of Atlanta, and I am big on trying new things. I bought a mamey and a cherimoya. The mamey was, by far, the better tasting fruit. It reminded me of a sweet, pink avocado. The Publix grocery store chain used to sell a mamey sherbet, but sadly, they seem to have discontinued it. Or, maybe my local store no longer carries it.

[katkat]

11. speaking of not carrying stuff

What's with no jicama in New England, not even at Whole Foods.

I looked at growing it myself, but apparently the vines are, like, kudzu.

[katkat]

12. mamey = sapote?

The same or no, I can't tell from the web.

[katkat]

13. look what I found

when looking this up:



More fruit porn at:
http://www.tiskita-lodge.co.cr/fruit_collection/index.html

[hippywife]

14. I get to taste mamey tomorrow!

Another of the Mexican girls who works here in the kitchen is going to bring me one to try! :bounce:

They are all so good to me. They give me all the veggie scraps from the kitchen to feed my chickens and I share the eggs with them. Very sweet and lovely young ladies they all are.