But, but, Those Potatoes Have dirt on Them

So exclaimed a one-time guest of ours in San Cristóbal De Las Casas; a person widely touted as a Mexican cooking "expert" who claims to have been resident in Mexico for so long she may have once crossed paths with Cortez. It apparently came as a surprise to her that potatoes grow in the ground and indigenous growers/vendors do not wash them off a la Safeway.

We were strolling the fabulous indigenous market that sprawls seemingly endlessly out from the city´s large, enclosed municipal market and sits in the shadow of the ancient Ex-Convento Santo Domingo in this colonial city´s historic center. About 95% or more of both the vendors and patrons of this crowded, cacaphonous and exhilarating place are indigenous as is a significant portion of the population of San Cristóbal which, in turn, is completely surrounded by the high pastoral Jovel Valley, alpine forests, often steep mountainous pastures devoted primarily to raising sheep and other livestock and farflung municipalities of indigenous people readily identified by their usually quite colorful dress unique to their respective ethnic groups.

The indigenous market appears anarchic and, I guess it is to some extent but with a structural order that makes it work to the benefit of everyone. Over time, one learns that various areas of the market are devoted to different types of produce, meats, poultry, flowers and such and the whole thing is, in turn, surrounded by all sorts of merchants selling everything from hardware to paint to pharmaceuticals to clothing to shoes to you-name-it. A fine and entertaining place to spend time daily shopping for the day´s provisions. No need for a freezer if one lives within a stone´s throw of such fresh abundance as do we when here.

There is even a small section of this market dedicated to selling fruits and vegetables purchased from the local abastos for resale at the indigenous market as many items such as citrus fruits and the like are not grown locally and must be brought in and sold at wholesale. However, the real charm of this market is that almost all of the produce, meat and poultry being sold at any given time has been grown and is being sold by locals who have grown and harvested that produce on small mountain milpas on whiich they and their families live largely independently of the world outside of their immediate indigenous group

When one has such a treasure so close by one shops daily for the raw ingredients needed for that day´s meals plus perhaps some reserves for future meals when particularly attractive fruits and vegetables are brought in by vendors that may or may not be available at a later date. We usually are here only in winter and mid-winter is the season for fabulous greens which are a variety of vegetables highly favored by the indigenous of Highland Chiapas who are mostly vegetarians without the irritating sanctimony (since, I suppose, the eating of chicken or turkey among the poor raising these creatures among the family, requires the killing and dressing of them before dinner is served - a true pain in the ass).

There is such an abundance of fine vegetables available day-to-day here, mostly picked just before being trucked into town, that it is hard to describe the experience of shopping for and selecting the day´s meals. Today, we brought home kohlrabi, broccoli rabe, tender young beets and beet greens, baby spinach leaves, turnips and turnip greens and small, sweet radishes, We also found some ginger and cardomom seeds which the indigenous hereabouts only use medicinally although they were intrigued as to how we used these in cooking.

In this market one is rarely cheated or overcharged just because one is a foreigner and that pleases us. Items are generally pre-measured and all are charged the same price. As Martha Stewart would say; that´s a good thing.

That should read "self-proclaimed expert" who although has lived in Mexico long enough to have interviewed Cortez for her blog, waited until just very recently to become a citizen. Bullshit served with the most exquisite mole is still bullshit.

Bullshit or not.... I'll tell ya the food is so much better in the Jalisco Region than out in Quitana Roo.... Plucked fer the Truck... or Fresh to yer Table... Choice is obvious!!!

I met one of those Vegetarian Fellas once.... seemed kinda pale....

hockables wrote:Bullshit or not.... I'll tell ya the food is so much better in the Jalisco Region than out in Quitana Roo.... Plucked fer the Truck... or Fresh to yer Table... Choice is obvious!!!

I met one of those Vegetarian Fellas once.... seemed kinda pale....

Pale indigenous Maya in Chiapas and Tabasco and Yucatan and Quintana Roo and Campeche where native peoples endowed with extraordinary copper skinned beauty are ubiquitous ? The absurd notion that redneck Jalisco food is better than the food on the Yucatan Peninsula whether in Yucatan State, Quintana Roo or Campeche could only be posited by one who has never ventured beyond Ocotlan.

Here we have a choice. The sophisticated food of Southern Mexico including the truly not southern Northern Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapanecan and Oaxacanecan and Southern Yucatecan food that is extraordinary versus the insipid pork and beef and chicken stews of El Rancho Grande (Jalisco) served family style after all recipients are soused on tequila and have lost the nuances of taste to pedestrian hot chiles whose main function traditionally was to prevent food poisoning.

Tell me, hockables, how are things going there in downtown Jocotepec, the culinary capital of all things considered in the west of the sump?

I enjoyed your post Dawg...my imagination took flight at your descriptions.
I found it amusing about "the dirt on the potatoes" since I remember 20 years ago at a farmer's market in Northern Ontario that the carrots with the "dirt" commanded a far higher price than the cleaned and bagged carrots beside them. "Dirt" was indicative of "just picked" (and therefore fresher) produce and was very much sought after.

*** snork

hound dog wrote:

hockables wrote:Bullshit or not.... I'll tell ya the food is so much better in the Jalisco Region than out in Quitana Roo.... Plucked fer the Truck... or Fresh to yer Table... Choice is obvious!!!

I met one of those Vegetarian Fellas once.... seemed kinda pale....

Pale indigenous Maya in Chiapas and Tabasco and Yucatan and Quintana Roo and Campeche where native peoples endowed with extraordinary copper skinned beauty are ubiquitous ? The absurd notion that redneck Jalisco food is better than the food on the Yucatan Peninsula whether in Yucatan State, Quintana Roo or Campeche could only be posited by one who has never ventured beyond Ocotlan.

Here we have a choice. The sophisticated food of Southern Mexico including the truly not southern Northern Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapanecan and Oaxacanecan and Southern Yucatecan food that is extraordinary versus the insipid pork and beef and chicken stews of El Rancho Grande (Jalisco) served family style after all recipients are soused on tequila and have lost the nuances of taste to pedestrian hot chiles whose main function traditionally was to prevent food poisoning.

Tell me, hockables, how are things going there in downtown Jocotepec, the culinary capital of all things considered in the west of the sump?

Naw... I wuzn't talk'n bout Redneck Shit.... Fact is.... I never even been ta yer neck of the woods
I wuz talk'n bout fresh food, fresh spices, fresh herbs.... things I woulda thought a Roads Scholar woulda learnt in Hitchhickers Guide Ta The Galaxy...
So chows pretty good where yer at too? Gud fer U!!

Dawg,

The market sound wonderful! I've never been to that area of Mexico and don't know what the food in like, but one day... Did you travel around a lot before deciding on that part of Mexico for your other home?

Dawg missed out on one of the best spots in Mexico, the state of Michoacán at your state's southern boundary, because of all those ol' gringo ladies that become self-proclaimed experts on everything Mexican that keep coming here. Sheeesh, if I hadn't spent my first few years here avoiding anything that resembled "anglo" - including looking at mirrors - I might have caught-on to that and avoided the place myself.

Dawg won't tell you the reason they don't wash them 'taters is 'cuz the Chiapas water is worse 'n the dirt, and even the air is deadly if you breathe it on a windy day. No matter though, I like marimba music so it's worth the risk. Tere and me are gonna have to visit Dawg and Dawgitte so I can go by their plaza and listen to them wooden xylophones.

Peter wrote:Dawg missed out on one of the best spots in Mexico, the state of Michoacán at your state's southern boundary, because of all those ol' gringo ladies that become self-proclaimed experts on everything Mexican that keep coming here. Sheeesh, if I hadn't spent my first few years here avoiding anything that resembled "anglo" - including looking at mirrors - I might have caught-on to that and avoided the place myself.

Dawg won't tell you the reason they don't wash them 'taters is 'cuz the Chiapas water is worse 'n the dirt, and even the air is deadly if you breathe it on a windy day. No matter though, I like marimba music so it's worth the risk. Tere and me are gonna have to visit Dawg and Dawgitte so I can visit their plaza and listen to them wooden xylophones.

Good points about the unsafe water and even the air one breathes, Peter. You are communicating with two people who came down with amoebas after dining in a cafe rustico on the slopes of the Tacaná Volcano outside of Tapachula so you´ll get no argument from us. Folks in San Cristóbal have mixed feelings about the warm, windy spring weather as people tend to get sick from airborne bacteria. Remember that Chiapas is Mexico´s poorest state and many people don´t have indoor plumbing so tend to personally fertilize fields adjacent to where they reside. That nice warm breeze at times may contain invisible bacterial cointamination from dried human and animal fecal matter. Which reminds me - beware of "organic" produce down here as that may very well mean "fertilized with agua negra" or what the Chinese call "night soil".

There are definitely some risks to living here including the rather primitive hospitals. That may help explain why we decided to keep our Lake Chapala digs after I had my gall bladder removed in a filthy local charnal house called the Colonial Hospital which I now think means it was built by the original Spanish settlers in 1528. This event which nearly ended in my demise, helped me appreciate our Lakeside proximity to Guadalajara.

Yes, indeed, Simpsca, we looked at a number of places for a second home before we, or rather, mi jefa, decided on San Cristóbal. We looked at Mérida ( one of our favorite towns but too hot and humid so we just drive down the mountain and visit there every year if possible), San Luis Potosi, Guadalajara, Oaxaca City and the Orizaba-Córdoba region of Veracruz State (too much drear and chipi-chipi) and Querétaro.

By the way, Peter, we just recently drove from Lake Chapala to Zihuatanejo and traversed what I call Michoacan´s "empty quarter" down Autopista 37 and it was a fun trip with some neat scenery. Perhaps all those masked federales with their machine guns and bullet proof vests we passed en-route were a bit disconcerting but that beats roadblocks set up by La Familia Michoacana.

As long as we are discussing Chiapas, when we moved here in 2006, it was necessary to drive through the heart of Mexico City to get here from Lake Chapala but with the opening of the new Arco Norte Autopista which allows the driver to get from Atlacomulco or Querétaro to Puebla without crossing D.F., the drive, while not shorter in time, is, shall we say, less adventurous than driving through the heart of the beast. Partly as a result of that improvement in the drive, we are seeing more tourists from western Mexico north of the capital who used to avoid coming here rather than risk driving through the city.

Since I was discussing the drive from Lake Chapala to San Cristóbal de Las Casas and the new Arco Norte Autopista that makes the long drive (about 1450 kilometers) more pleasant, I should mention that, now that the new autopista from Oaxaca City to Juchitan, Oaxaca on the Isthmus de Tehuantepec that connects later with Arrista, Chiapas and the new autopista from there to Tuxtla Gutierrez, may change the dynamics of that journey. It may be possible to take the Oaxaca cutoff from the Puebla-Veracruz Autopista and head for Tuxtla Gutierrez through Oaxaca in about the same time one reaches that destination today through Orizaba and Manititlan. I´ll try that alternate route on my way back to Lake Chapala and report back here as to my experience.