Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Hand made in Mexico

One of the benefits of Mexico is that a lot of the day to day items, especially food products are hand made.  We go to the bakery two or three times a week, where we purchase conchas, orejas and other items that you would only find in plastic envelops NOB, almost always made by some oven or machine larger than your house.
Our tortillas are either hand made at restaurants or we stand at the tortillaria waiting for them to come off the machine still steaming as the attendant packs them into a plastic bag, but not before grabbing one or two and applying some salsa and salt that the tortillaria has provided at the counter.

When we go out to restaurant, a mark of a decent place is that they have a dedicated person that makes them by had, which they bring to your table in a hot steaming basket.



On one of our rides around the lake there is a roadside restaurant that overlooks the lake, a small family run place that has about 4 or 5 tables , which we will usually stop by for a meal.  The menus at these kind of place is usually limited to 3 or 4 items.  Either some sort of taco or perhaps a fried fish dish or an arracherra.

One can usually expect to pay anywhere from 50 to 80 pesos for the meal which may include a small salad with a squeeze of thousand island dressing plopped on a sliced tomato. Some of these places even provide a cold beer, not ice cold but at least not room temperature.

These places are usually a family operation where the mother or grandmother tend to cooking, the son or daughter wait on the table and the baby provides security or entertainment for the clients. You have to pull off the side of the road with usually space for only two or three cars close to the cliff.


There are several of these places ranging anywhere from 3 or 4 tables, a shack with a roof held up with sticks and poles, on the other side closer to civilization there are several larger places with dozens of tables a parking lot, area for kids to run around and play ( outside of where the dining room tables are) and a menu with dozens of items.
Some of these places specialize with fish, others only have meat dishes, but all of them will usually have hand made tortillas.

I actually enjoy these hole in the wall , dive places more than the larger more organized places. It seems that the food has a more genuine taste when you see mom or grandma making the stuff.

I  may make a map of the places that dot the perimeter of the lake. I would estimate that there are probably about 20 of these place if you include the proximity of the ones in Quiroga lake front.

All in all, you owe it to yourself to try these places.  Don't be squeamish if you happen to see dirt floors or no doors on the establishment. You might be surprised on how good and cheap the vittles are.

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