Mrs. ItchyFeet Food blog or travel blog? I’m currently sitting on my gorgeous deck in Sanur, Bali, Indonesia, typing about the amazing food I had during my stay in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, México. The food here has been wonderful, but nothing compares to the flavors of Oaxaca. Prepare for some food porn!
Restaurants
I rarely go out to eat because it is expensive, and I mostly like to cook. But when I do go out, I try to get something that I have never had before. Or something that is really difficult, time consuming, or isn’t reasonable to make in smaller batches. Like tamales. Families get together to make these in giant batches and sell them in restaurants or from street carts. Sometimes even the occasional trunk of a car parked outside a grocery store (trunk-tamales)! So good, and very inexpensive! Here in PE, I tried tamal de chepilín made with leaves from a chepil plant. Noms! A bit like spinach or green bean tamales, but better.
Obviously, when in México, you must eat freshly made tortillas. In Puerto, this was actually a slight challenge because the best tortillería (Tortillería Adela) which made tortillas with fresh nixtamalized corn instead of dried corn flour (yes, there is a difference in taste!), was over a kilometer away (also yes, it was worth walking past at least three other tortillerías to get to this tortillería!). And I eat about a kilogram every four days, so that’s a lot of walking. Luckily, they only cost about a dollar. One bleary-eyed morning, I accidentally shorted them a few pesos. The lady was very confused when I made a point of walking over just to give her 5 pesos a day later. I explained I had forgotten last time, and she thought it was pretty humorous that this gringa walked all the way back for roughly 25¢.
Another delicious thing I discovered, that I wasn’t about to make myself, was carne frita from the Mercado. Fried meat! I think it was pork. The shops would have trays with large chunks of meat and fried fat (and sometimes bone). The shopkeeper hands you a bag and a set of tongs, and you pick out what you want. Charged by the kilo and amazingly delicious. Mostly, I would chop it into smaller pieces and use it in various recipes such as Sopa Seca con Fideos.
Aren’t you sick of tacos?
One of my Puerto friends also took me to several amazing restaurants. My favorite of which was this taco joint with vats of delicious meats, freshly made tortillas, and all kinds of toppings. You would think that by eating tacos for every breakfast that I would be sick of tacos, but you would be very wrong. There are so many types of fillings and toppings that need to be tried! And how could I ever tire of eating fresh tortillas!?
I also tried loads of different fruit and coffee smoothies because the Intercambio Spanish practices were held at local cafés, and you just gotta. It also helps the businesses hosting the Intercambio. Being from the States, one of my favorites was banana and peanut butter. The bananas in Oaxaca are so good! Another Puerto friend gave me freshly made coconut milk, which she made, for my own smoothies (Monkey La-La!). Have you ever had fresh coconut milk? So good!
And last but not least, that same PE friend that gave me coconut milk took me to a fish shack in La Punta that had po’ boy sandwiches. Now I can’t eat them because of the glutens but they looked, smelled and, according to a friend dining with us, tasted amazing! I was really surprised that there was New Orleans food in southern México. North America really is a melting pot of delicious eats.
Cooking time!
Have I mentioned chilaquiles to you? Of course I have! It’s how México eats nachos for breakfast. I usually make it with a red sauce because, for some reason, my tomatillo sauce doesn’t save very well. I usually add shredded chicken and an egg on top. You have to get the right totopos (corn chips) or your chilaquiles will be mush. Well, in Oaxaca, they have chilaquiles con mole. OMGaw! I don’t know if I can go back to the red sauce when I now know about mole salsa-sauce! Oaxaca’s mole is a thing of legend. I cheated and bought the paste at the Mercado because it’s ridiculously time consuming to make. I do reconstitute the paste using homemade bone broth, so it’s basically homemade…
I know I have also discussed with you the importance (and cost savings) of eating local. Import taxes are legit, and fresh is the best. Puerto Escondido is a fishing village, so I assumed I would be eating a ton of fish. However, it was tuna season while I was there, and there is only so much tuna I can eat. I did head down to the fish port at Playa Principal early one morning (before it was completely destroyed by Hurricane Erick), where they had a freshly caught sailfish just off the boat. 260 pesos (US$13) for 1.25kg! I’ve only eaten sailfish raw as sushi (so good!), so I had to research how to cook it. Turns out it’s a bit like tuna. Not bad, but better as sushi.
Well, with fish out, I figured I would be eating a ton of chicken. Turns out that chicken was kind of expensive in Puerto. Not sure why as I saw loads of chickens running around (and occasionally in a tree or two!). Eggs were plentiful and inexpensive, so I ate dozens upon dozens of those. I contemplated smuggling a bunch of eggs up into the States for a profit but decided it probably wasn’t worth the risk. So, I ended up eating more pork than I expected.
Puerco’ing around in Puerto
I have a ton of recipes that call for chicken. Luckily, pork loin is a wonderful substitute and was readily available. Fajitas with thinly sliced pork loin. Noms! Tacos, of course. Huaraches with bits of fried pork sprinkled on top. I even learned how to make Pork Humba, which is an absolutely delicious Filipino dish that used up the last of the fermented black beans I brought with me from the States. I’m drooling just thinking about it!
Beef is expensive everywhere (as it should be because it takes so many resources to grow), but I did get to try Tasajo in a Tlayuda. Tasajo is beef that has been cut really thin, salt cured, and then dehydrated. A bit like beef jerky but much thinner and larger. It goes in all kinds of recipes in Oaxaca but is most common in Tlayuda, which is best described as a large corn flour quesadilla that has been toasted and filled (or topped) with refried beans, veggies, cheese, asiento (pork lard), and meat such as Tasajo. Noms, but a bit hard on my jaw.
On the subject of beans, let me tell you about frijoles peruanos (Peruvian beans). I’ve never had these before, so I decided to try them both dry and purchased as refried beans. So good! The dry beans soak for a much shorter time period than black or red beans, and the cooking time is less as well. They are very creamy and delicious and may be my new favorite bean variety (although Dominican red beans are hard to beat). Turns out they’re not local, as you could probably guess from the Peruvian in the name, but they have become very popular in México.
From the street
When I say ‘street food’, I’m assuming that you think I’m talking about food trucks or booths that sell delicacies to the masses. Well, I was in Puerto during mango season, so I’m talking about food that you could literally get off the street. Just before mango season started, this massive gas truck was heading down the driveway and knocked off this giant green mango. It went rolling down the road, so I picked it up. Do mangos ripen on the countertop?
Not really… but I searched the internet and found a recipe for Thai Green Mango Salad. Sliced thin red onion and a carrot. Discard the peel of the mango and use the peeler to slice the flesh into thin strips. Add fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, sugar, and dried arboles. Skip the cilantro because it tastes like soap. It was so amazingly good and spicy! I can’t wait to try this in Thailand. I was disappointed my vegan friend couldn’t try it, but I bet you could make it vegan by subbing the fish sauce with soy sauce.
So there I was, catching a ride from one of my PE friends back from Intercambio when he slams on the brakes and backs the vehicle up. He gets out to grab these giant leaves from a plant growing by the side of the road and hands them to me. Hoja Santa! Piper auritum, to be precise. These leaves are in the pepper family and are sometimes called Root Beer leaves in the southern US. They have a very unique flavor that I have never had before.
Per my friend’s instructions, I tossed a leaf in a hot pan with oil, cracked an egg on top, and cooked for a bit. Then I put another leaf on top of the egg and flipped to toast the other side. I rolled it up and served it like a burrito with toppings. Huevos Enhojados! It was so delicious! I’ve never seen these leaves in grocery stores, but I have heard loads of people grow them at home because they are so pretty. If you have any, let me know and I’ll stop by!
The tropics and things I learned
As always in the tropics, if you leave any food out or in the garbage, you will get critters. The owner of the building I was staying in had an absolutely hilarious tale of leaving eggs out on her countertop in her open kitchen. In México (and a lot of other countries), they don’t wash the protective coating off eggs, which allows them to remain stable at room temperature. Well, a large black iguana decided that the eggs were his, as well as the kitchen!
She had to fight him for the space. Luckily she won, but from then on, she kept her eggs (and fruit) in the fridge. I mimicked that just in case. And I get it. I had to ward off a particularly aggressive iguana from my terrace a number of times. The owner did warn me about insects—“or worse”, and I discovered what she meant by that! All food scraps and wet packaging went into the fridge or freezer until I was ready to take the trash down to the street.
One thing I was definitely surprised about was the ants interested in coconut oil. I was getting such bad eczema on my hands in the States that my dermatologist suggested using coconut oil on damp skin instead of lotion (worked well and got rid of the itchy skin on my toes as a bonus!). It’s cheap and easy to get in the tropics.
Ants!
Well, the ants in my bathroom (“bathroom-ants”) were all over my coconut oil! I would put it down on the counter for a second, and they would swarm. Unbelievable! Luckily, the ants just outside my kitchen (“kitchen-ants”) did not care one bit for the coconut oil. I just had to remember to grab the bottle before heading across the hall to take a shower or wash my face. The bathroom-ants and the kitchen-ants apparently had long-ago sorted out any territory disputes. Once the coconut oil was in kitchen-ant territory, it was safe.
Another fascinating thing I learned while in Puerto Escondido is that yucca and yuca are not the same plant. Yucca (with two ‘Cs’) are the big spiky plants I grew up with in the deserts of Colorado. They are in the Agavaceae family and resemble the wonderful agave that is used to make tequila and mezcal (this is mezcal territory, and gorgeous agave plants of many shapes and sizes grow all over the place).
Yuca, on the other hand, is the root of this woody shrub in the Euphorbiaceae family. You may have heard of the other edible versions: cassava, manioc, tapioca, farofa, and garri. All my boba drinkers out there know what I’m talking about as boba is the nickname for the ridiculous tapioca pearls in the drink. You need a special straw just to suck those monstrous blobs into your gob!
I have learned so much during my travels, and my time in Puerto was no different. Currently, I’m in Bali, which is getting some much needed rain (unusual for the dry season). This is unfortunately bringing out the mosquitoes (mozzies for my Aussie peeps). Time to head inside to eat some cassava crisps. Miss your faces!
