Glorious Food: Gimme Some Hot Sauce!

First off, apologies, I really am doing a terrible job keeping this blog updated. I now have so many little stories, here comes another onslaught of blog posts!

First off, the food. My goodness. I completely understand how all exchange students get fat here, because I have yet to consume something that wasn't completely delicious.  I've been getting many great tastes of Mexican cuisine- it's a good thing I like seafood! I have tried various prepared forms of fish and shrimp, offered up with the ever present tortillas and salsa! Diced, grilled, served up in a sauce with vegetables, coated in salsa picante- you name it! Despite these selective meals, I have actually been eating quite healthy. I never realized how much bread I ate daily in Canada, and now with eating only tortillas, and a skimpy amount at that, I feel pretty great. That and the fact that because of the heat, I don't eat nearly as much as I did before. I have gone from eating more than most people in Canada to having my host mum fussing over me because she thinks I don't eat enough! That's a pretty weird feeling! It took me a while to get accustomed to the meal times here. You wake up and have a light breakfast, then don't eat until 4, when you have dinner. At 9:00, you have a pre-sleeping snack, ranging from tamales and ice cream to yogurt and granola! I'm lucky, my host mum is also a fan of the yogurt and granola option, so up till now I've been eating an excessive amount of granola, fruit and yogurt (2/ 3 meals a day). Also, the food, especially fruits, are super cheap here which is awesome! Although I have to admit, it gave me a bit of a shock when I ordered a $200 plate of fish the first week- took a few moments to register that it was in pesos. However, the Mexican peso is pretty weak, which is good for me at least! (eg., 100 pesos is around 8.30 Canadian).

I love the fact that here, every meal is coated with and served with hot sauce and salsa. Eggs, meat, vegetables, even potato chips are covered with the stuff! In fact, my host family stores a bag of tostadas (think crunchy tortillas) and a bottle of hot sauce in the car for snacking purposes. In my opinion, much more exciting than normal chips or pretzels! At restaurants, I still stare cluelessly at the menu a few minutes before pointing to something at random (it's like the wheel of fortune, menu-style), but as of now, it's been working out pretty wonderfully! At one point I went out for dinner with some girls from school, and my mother (aware of my indecisiveness with menus), actually called one of the girls and asked her to help me pick something! Also, a milestone that I think every exchange student needs to note in Mexico is their first taco! My first weekend here we went to Guadalajara for a night, and though I barely got to see the city, I did get to try out the legendary taco! It was a meal filled with greasy, savoury, delicious bites. (I believe this is one of the root causes of exchange student weight gain).

First taco! (it's sort of an anticlimactic photo, but I promise, it was fantastic!

Anyways, I'm a fan of the food here (in case you haven't noticed), and I'm pretty sure that any remaining space in my suitcases for the return flight are going to be filled with this special Valentina hot sauce. I might start hoarding it... that's how good it is.

Here are a few samples of my culinary experimenting!

Ain't nothing like eating tamales (cooked chicken with tomato sauce steamed in a corn husk) and atole (a hot, creamy chocolate corn-based beverage) at 10:00 at night for a bedtime snack!

Sampling some fantastic steak in Puerto Vallarta with, shocker, tortillas, salsa, and hot sauce!

Breakfast- Hot sauce (or salsa picante, if you feel spanish),  eggs,  steak, and tortillas. Oh, and did I mention hot sauce?

First full day in Mexico! Beachfront restaurant: we got served 3 intact fish that were thrown on the grill,  (possibly while still feebly kickin'), that you then pick apart and eat with salsa, tortillas, and an excessive amount of hot sauce! (Need I say it, DELICIOUS)

A close up on my very first taco(s) ! Guadalajara, some tiny little restaurant. SO GOOD.

Guadalajara taco place, this gent was somehow cutting meat on a slab with a hefty knife, throwing tortillas into the oil and constructing the taco in one spasmodic but frighteningly efficient motion, without ceasing the entire night! Impressive.