Now that we have gotten over our initial fear of street food, there is no end to the good eats. By “street food,” I mean anything you can buy in a stand, as opposed to food prepared in a restaurant or in our own kitchen. We shied away from most street food at first to give our stomachs a chance to adjust. But there are only so many times you can walk by someone selling mangos on a stick, fresh squeezed juice, or quesadillas on hand-made tortillas, before you have to give it a try.
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| Mango. |
We try to choose food stands that look relatively clean, but that category grows the longer we are here and the more accustomed we get to how things look and work. It also helps that almost all street stands use bottled water.
Here is an example of a street food meal that stands up to anything we have had in a restaurant. Yesterday while walking past the “20 de Noviembre” market near the Zócalo, I ducked into a smoky corridor full of meat vendors. Next to each stand is a red-hot grill. Here is how it works:
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| Hall of Meat Stands |
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| First, get a basket and vegetables for grilling from one stand. |
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| Second, choose your meat at a different stand. Leave the basket with them. |
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| Someone at the meat stand will grill the meat and vegetables, then bring them to you. |
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| Meanwhile, order a drink and select your salsas. |
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| Yum. |
In addition to the types of food I mentioned above (street, restaurant, and our own kitchen), there is another popular category of food we have not tried. It is food people cook in their own kitchens and then sell as take-out. We have not quite adjusted to the timing yet to have one of these meals. They are available mostly for the early-afternoon “comida,” which is the big meal here. Try as we might, we usually are not ready for a big meal until about 4:00, and by then the home take-out places have closed for the day. We will get there. --Harrison
Everything looks so fresh and yummy. Look at those bright colors! Would we be in trouble as vegetarians there? Or are there any good non-meaty options.
ReplyDeleteIt would definitely work for you as a vegetarian. There are beautiful fresh vegetables everywhere we go, and we're told it is year round. It would be more difficult for a vegan, since cheese would be the most common alternative to meat when the food is served on a tortilla, which is about 90% of the time. I've seen a couple of vegetarian restaurants. Not sure how many non-meat dishes at your typical restaurant contains meat products, e.g., lard or chicken broth. Most of the moles in restaurants are served with meat, but if you were cooking at home or having someone cook for you it would be easy to use the moles for veggie dishes. Walking through the meat & poultry sections of the markets is not for the squeemish, whether or not vegetarian, and they are hard to avoid if you enjoy the markets.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maureen, that everything looks so good. I never had a mango before Sierra Leone and I love them to this day. I also remember my first experiences with meat in the market--not too pretty to see a slaughtered cow.
ReplyDeleteThe street food scene was not as sophisticated in Sierra Leone as your photos. Market vendors would gather around lorries, the most common method of transportation, with roasted peanuts and oranges. The oranges had green peel which was removed. People squeezed the juice and threw all of the pulp away because oranges were plentiful. Locals would laugh at the volunteers if they ate the pulp, wondering what the goats would eat if the pulp was not simply thrown out a window.
Hope all is well.
Looks awesome, even for someone who doesn't like Mexican food! Have you gotten sick at all?
ReplyDeleteooooh. Cheese! Better be careful. With all that food talk I might just visit!
ReplyDelete