June 16 '08- Food Glorious Food.

Although we stocked up quite well with food stores before we left the States, there is only so much food you can take. We brought with us some essentials, brown rice, pasta, couscous, lentils, lots of olive oil and lots and lots of tea. However, we figured that we would just make do with what the local fare was, wherever we went, and learn to cook new and exciting dishes. This has worked only to a degree. Although we do enjoy the food in Mexico, I mean who doesn't like a fresh fish taco loaded with Guacamole, we have been quickly reminded of our privileged status in the US. In the States our stores are stocked with so many different types of foods you could quite literally eat something entirely different for dinner for at least 3weeks to a month straight. Not so in Mexico. The food variety is very limited which means we eat pretty much the same food everyday, just in variation. We have avocado diced, blended and in omelets. We eat mangoes in salads, in salsas and for breakfast. We have Beans, refried, in soups, on rice and in omelets. We eat salsa on everything and cilantro is a constant. Plantains and Bananas are plentiful as are tortillas. We have tortilla soup, tortilla chips, tortilla wraps and eggs sandwiches wrapped in tortillas. There is an up side to the limited choices in that it is not too hard to decide on what to have for dinner and all that we prepare is fresh. On good days the local fisherman will sell us fresh fish which is worth getting up early for. It seems that the one grocery store in Puerto Morelos has no chicken or seafood, only some questionable looking pork looking thing, however there is a lady down the street who sells chicken out of her home. We are not sure if she is a middle person for some chicken distributer or she has chickens in her back yard, we think the latter. The upside to our different diet is we do try new things. I made a huge black bean soup two nights ago. We ate it the first night, like a soup, reheated it and added cream and big chunks of avocado for the second night (more like a Black Bean and Avocado stew) and we will blend it up tonight in our little Cuisinart and serve it up on rice. Keith made a very odd looking but delicious plantain mash with a sweet Dutch popover type bread for breakfast one morning. It tasted like apple pie, yummy. All in all we are learning to make do with what we have. Although I must admit, I am a little taco'ed out and I would kill for a French Baguette, a lovely Greek feta and some fresh asparagus!