Meerkat Meanderings: May 2010

Eating on the streets in Mexico isn't just tacos and licuados (a fruit/milk or yoghurt drink). The picture above was taken in Zacan. Every day this guy sets up his outdoor barbeque operation and cooks up 'pollo a carbon' drizzling on a great spicy salsa sauce. I only was able to sample it once....the other times I could just stare longingly as the intercity bus drove by.

Usually if you get chicken to go you get rice or a small marinated salad and lots of extra sauce in a bag to go with it. Some places even toss in some roasted onions and peppers.

Here is a corner vendor on the very busy Ave Lazaro Cardenas in Morelia. The bright yellow things on a stick are mangoes....all sliced and ready for a juicy bite. I haven't tried the red balls in the plastic glasses....only because I think they are extremely sweet.....they appear to be rolled in ground pepper. (I just discovered they are tamarind balls, tamarind ground into a paste and coated in red somewhat like an M'nM's......but with a sweet/sour flavour.)

One of my favourite snacks are churros. There are 2 kinds of churros for sale here on the streets. The baked sugar-coated ones which are everywhere in the mornings are sometimes filled with a sweet custard. I myself prefer the snack sticks with are sold in small or gigantic bags and onto which the vendor puts either lime, salt and/or a variety of salsa sauces. There they are on the top shelf on the far left.....along with a variety of other unhealthy snacks I have tried to avoid developing a taste for.

I accidentally one day got an order of chicarrones. I had no idea what it was, just this dish in the mercado was in a great looking tomato/pepper sauce. Then I discovered I was eating fried pork rind, but the sauce was great! I just didn't eat the other bits. I will have to add a picture of how these are usually displayed as I knew enough never to order them when displayed this way. The stand in the mercado was just so bonita!!