A Younger Palate: Mexico Part I

Loving Mexican Markets

It’s been about two weeks since I’ve come back from Mexico, and although I haven’t written much about the experience, I have spent a good amount of time reflecting on it. Fun-wise I had an excellent trip. I saw some things I wanted to see, did a decent amount of going out, won a bunch of scrabble games, didn’t get stressed out and tired, and did a lot of eating. Obviously it is fun to have fun, but anyone that knows me understands that now, whenever I travel, the focus of any trip will always be food.

So what do I think of my eating experiences in Mexico?

I loved the street food and a lot of the more low end food we had and I was disappointed by the high end food. I was also extremely happy with the markets and grocery stores in Mexico City. Mexico has an incredibly long growing season, which means that fruits and vegetables are abundant. This also makes Mexico a fairly large exporter of fresh produce to the United States. However, while I feel guilty buying Mexican produce in New York (I’m not a big fan of the carbon footprint it leaves and would much rather purchase New York produce in New York) I have no problem about buying Mexican produce at markets in Mexico, I actually get really excited by the idea. Actually, the amazingness of the Mexican farmers markets is really what spurred my disappointment in the fine dining restaurants—there were little to no vegetables in any of the dishes they served.

Part of what I love about eating at restaurants in New York these days is the distinct influence of the seasons. Much of the produce you see in the Greenmarkets will actually wind up on your plate in a restaurant. Chefs really get to think and be creative with fruits and vegetables and the dishes they create for us are complete, pairing a protein with produce that complements it, and elevating the flavors of everything on the plate.

The finer restaurants in Mexico however, did not do this. Although I was intrigued by some of the combinations on restaurant menus, I was underwhelmed by what showed up on the plate. Certainly the food was good, but the beautiful looking produce I saw at the markets was conspicuously absent. The Duck confit with mole that I had at one restaurant was pleasing for the first few bites, but after a while I didn’t want to eat a duck breast and sauce, I wanted leeks or lettuce, or anything to alleviate the heaviness of the dish. There are several other examples of this, an osso bucco with Mexican Spices served with fettuccine; I also remember a rack of lamb seeming particularly lonely.

This isn’t to say that cheaper Mexican food is loaded with vegetables, its not. There are condiments, salsas and tiny accompaniments, but I don’t feel like I must have vegetables when I’m buying a 3 dollar torta, I do when I spend 20 dollars on a lamb dish.

Perhaps this is why some of the people I cooked for during the course of the trip were excited by some of the thi

ngs I came up with. We took a day surveying a couple of markets and I wanted to cook a meal with the stuff we found. I think I was able to sue my own style with the Mexican ingredients to come up with some fairly interesting dishes.

Our dinner menu was as follows:

Roasted figs with bacon, mountain cheese and honey

Cornmeal crusted Squash Blossoms stuffed with avocado, leeks, tomatoes and Serrano

Squash with ground beef, cinnamon, cumin, raisins, almonds, cashews and a salty cheese
(I’m not really sure what either of the two cheeses we bought at the Market were called but they tasted really good)

Rack of lamb with peas, favas and huitlacoche (blue corn fungus) tequila