Hot Dog Salad!
South Philly Barbacoa
From Dave Cook’s long-running Eating In Translation: what barbacoa tacos look like en el otro lado. Check out the flower oilcloth! Look at that salsa caddy!
Yep, that’s the place that was on Chef’s Table! Who else cried buckets during this episode?
A Typical Coastal Yucatan Village Market
Where I’m living, the daily market borders the central plaza. With only 3 vendors selling food, the market offers a wonderful introduction to local, seasonal cooking in this part of the world. It is spacious & unhurried. There’s plenty of time to ask questions, and share recipes.
My haul this morning includes aromatic sour oranges, tiny plum tomatoes, fresh chaya greens, 2 kinds of chiles, juicy mangos, fresh cilantro, mint & chives, and a fat papaya. Today I didn’t wake up early enough for fresh pork.
After my shopping, I went across the street to the best loncheria of the 6 on the plaza for an empanada and a salbute, both garnished with cabbage salad, fried tomato sauce, & a pureed habanero chile salsa
Custom explorations of the Yucatan coast!
The coastal villages lining the Gulf of Mexico in Yucatan state possess a sleepy, timeless vibe. Arriving at the wrong time, it may seem everyone has deserted this dusty paradise. Other times will reveal a vibrant community of fisherman and families, bustling with activity between the pier & the plaza. Looks can be deceiving for any traveler, but especially here in the hot Yucatan.
Constant sea breezes take their toll on buildings, signs, and furniture. Locals are accepting of the slow deterioration. They know where & when to eat & shop. Where to find the most delicious ceviche when the octopus is abundant. Village residents know what time the wood-fired ovens cool & the bakers put out crusty pan frances. Home cooks know that the butcher rises before dawn to harvest only 2 pigs each day, and shoppers must make their purchase well before 9 am.
Send a whats app by clicking on the icon on the lower-left corner or a send me a message for pricing & availability!
Here’s what our tour looks like:
michelada beer cocktail 
how salt is harvested 
laguna rosada 
beachside eating 
handmade sorbets 
botanas at a cantina 
fishing village 
salbute y empanada 
BEACH TOWN FOOD TOUR (3 hours)
Our first stop will be Chicxulub Puerto, a small fishing village east of Progreso. We will visit the tiny Municipal Market, to learn about coastal Yucatan’s cuisine & ingredients. Then we will walk across the street to a tiny loncheria selling incredible empanadas, panuchos & salbutes. We will hit up a roadside coconut stand to fuel ourselves for the next leg of our journey.
Then we will travel 30 minutes by car to visit an active Mayan salt-making operation at the picturesque Laguna Rosada. We can see how salt is extracted manually, in a method virtually unchanged in 1300 years, & talk with a few of the 50 people who have the skills to extract it. A salty mudbath & the opportunity to take incredible photos are offered at no extra charge.
This stop will be followed by a quick tour of a nearby archeological zone, that a served as a local business center for traders who traveled to the region to purchase salt starting in the Late Preclassic period (100 BC-250 AD). The combination of the salt-making center side-by-side with the ruins really give you a perspective on Mayan life over the past millennium.
We will return to Chicxulub to take a short walk around town to enjoy some swimming, cold beers, a ceviche tasting & tropical fruit sorbet, before heading back to Progreso (15 min by car.)
BEACH TOWN FOOD TOUR (full day)
Our first stop will be the historic shipping port of Progreso. We will visit the 90-year-old Municipal Market, to learn about coastal Yucatan’s cuisine & ingredients. We will share a typical local breakfast, Lechon (roasted pork on french bread) from a restaurant opened in 1937. Lechon is traditionally paired with Coca-Cola, but we will try several tropical fruit juices and agua frescas instead.
Then we will travel 40 minutes by car to visit an active Mayan salt-making operation at the picturesque Laguna Rosada. We can see how salt is extracted manually, in a method virtually unchanged in 1300 years, & talk with a few of the 50 people who have the skills to extract it. A salty mudbath & the opportunity to take incredible photos are offered at no extra charge.
This stop will be followed by a quick tour of a nearby archeological zone, that a served as a local business center for traders who traveled to the region to purchase salt starting in the Late Preclassic period (100 BC-250 AD). The combination of the salt-making center side-by-side with the ruins really give you a perspective on Mayan life over the past millennium.
Then we will have lunch across the street from the beach at a family-owned seafood restaurant in Telchac Puerto. Cooling off, hydrating with ice-cold beers, and swimming in the sea will be on our agenda for the next couple of hours. We will sample ceviche & choose from a plethora of fresh seafood. Before we drive back west, we will visit a typical sweet shop that sells the most amazing cheesecake I have ever tasted!
Our last stop will be in Chicxulub Puerto, a fishing village located 30 minutes away. We will drink fresh coconuts & take a short walk around town to enjoy tropical fruit sorbet & sunset on the pier before heading back to Progreso (15 min by car.)
Send a whats app by clicking on the icon on the lower-left corner or a send me a message for pricing & availability!
Craft Beer in Merida: Hermana República
Yucateca craft beer
On the road to Progreso, just past Merida’s mallandia, you’ll find the most successful of Cerveza Patito’s brewpubs.
I’m constantly looking for a comfy bar for solo drinking and a cool modern brew pub vibe with a/c
I like their beer ok & I love that it’s yucateco & independiente. I think Patito tastes best when consumed quickly because it doesn’t have a lot of carbonation.
The full menu includes local specialties like castacan, carne Ahumada de Temozan, Chile Xcatic & Sikil Pak are along with trendier dishes tuna carnitas, fried octopus, croquetas de cochinita pibil. A 3 beer sampler is $70 a growler to go would set you back $140. apps are $75-155. Mains are $165-265
Salbute y Empanada
Salbute (a fried corn tortilla) topped with relleno negro (turkey and hard-boiled egg cooked in a charred chile sauce), an empanada (turnover made of masa) filled with carne molida (ground pork) served with shredded cabbage salad, habanero salsa, and fried tomato sauce (not shown). This is one of my favorite A.M. spots. They usually run out of food around noon.
Bolsas de Mandado: a Life Long Obession with Mexican Shopping Bags
I have loved these woven bags as long as I can remember. Indestructible, waterproof & colorful; great for carrying caguamas, laundry, many kilos of fruit…available in sizes from wallet toting to queen sized comforter hauling. I remember a snooty wine sales rep claiming that she would use one for her samples once she got on the street (jajajaja! nice thought!)
Can Oreo cookies be sustainable?
We are seeing intense pressure on food companies to adopt more sustainable supply-chain and production practices. But can an ultra-processed food ever be sustainably produced? Or, is a sustainabl…
Source: Can Oreo cookies be sustainable?
Merida Market Tours
Come with me on a personalized market tour of Merida. I love the buzzing energy of the market, witnessing the tapestry of relationships built over generations of merchant-vendor exchanges, and unearthing the best local & seasonal ingredients. My trips are comfortable, tailored to what you most want to experience. If you don’t care for the sights & smells of fresh meat or live animals, we can avoid those sections. If you want to eat the absolute best of the market food, we can chow down. If you are interested in seeing a bit of living history, that is guaranteed!
Here are a couple of ideas:
- stock up on colorful shopping bags
- visit indigenous fruit & flower vendors. Purchase homemade drinking chocolate, spice blends, melipona honey, hot sauces, specialty jams, recados, and natural candies
- get a basic overview of local handcrafts- embroidered clothing, woven hammocks & guayaberas
- explore the bustling fruit & vegetable market
- sample castacan- sliced, deep fried pork belly with the skin left attached
- taste small batch coconut sorbet
- eat indigenous foods that are relatively unchanged in hundreds of years
- assemble a picnic lunch or ingredients for a special meal
vegi tacos: the easiest, most delicious way to bring the mexican market into your kitchen
Vegi for vegetarian, vegi for vegetables…tacos for one or two…a little veg, a little bean, some cheese, avocado would be awesome…any food is better in taco form. As long as the tortillas are decent, I could never tire of my tacos. Like many, my home cooking is mostly plant-based.
I stock my fridge with homemade salsa, jalapeños y carrots en escabeche, pickled red onions, queso fresco, and the freshest tortillas I can find. Farm fresh eggs, any cheese, cooked potatoes, sautéed greens, a bit of vegetable left over from dinner, warmed up on the comal and served in a warm corn or flour tortilla transports you to your favorite mexican kitchen.
my basic bean cooking
pickled red onions