The flavors of Mexico

Before leaving on our trip to Mexico, I asked on Facebook what kind of posts you guys would like to see about it. A lot of you wanted to see food!

Being married to a Mexican, I usually travel as a local rather than a tourist, which gives me a unique perspective. I find that most of the basic food items are similar to what I would make at home, the main differences are the spices, and the corn flour (as opposed to wheat).

The picture above is coconut with Valentina. Although having a coconut on the beach is not something unusual, to me, the sauce is. Before meeting my husband, I never would have thought of putting spicy sauce on coconut. It's actually pretty good.

In the first picture below is something pretty typical. Re-fried beans with a corn tortilla and rice. The brown part is chicken with mole rojo. Looks gross right? But what if I told you it's chocolate based? Yup, it's a mild spicy pepper and chocolate sauce. It's as delicious as it sounds. 

The following picture is a container of spicy chocolate chunks. You use it to make Mexican hot chocolate. My mother-in-law also uses it to make the mole rojo amongst other things.

Last but not least, the end picture is tamales. Tama-what? This is a delicious breakfast made with a corn-based starchy dough that is steamed in a corn leaf. They're filled with different things from fruit to meat. I'm pretty sure anything goes, even cheese.

There's a lot of other things, but those are the ones I was able to take pictures of. If any of you are interested, I could ask my husband to help me write up some Mexican recipes so you can try them. What do you think?

Have you ever tried any of these?

Mexico 2015

You may have noticed that things have been quiet around here for the past 2 weeks. My family and I just came back from our Mexico vacation. Every few years we go and visit my in-laws in Mexico D.F. It's hard to live so far from family, but the bright side is that we get to travel. Right? ;)

For this trip, we decided to mix things up and spent half the time in Acapulco. We hadn't been to the beach in quite some time and we wanted the kids to see the ocean. Our family joined us at the Mayan Palace and we spent quality time together by the pool, or the beach, every-single-day.

It was the first time we went to a hotel since having kids. I was a bit worried about traveling with my son who has an egg allergy because we can't exactly go to restaurants and I didn't know what kind of foods we would find at the local supermarket. I was so pleased to see that, as discussed with the hotel staff, the room had a complete mini kitchen, so my mother-in-law and I were able to cook delicious meals. Plus, we saved a whole bunch of money, win-win! The food at the store was all marked for allergens too so that also made things much less stressful.

As for traveling with kids, it wasn't all that hard other than the obvious need for a schedule and organization. We tried to keep their regular meal and nap times intact to avoid unnecessary tantrums (not that we ever get any, but I didn't want to adventure down the road of sleep-deprived babies). Besides, it kept sunburns at bay since their nap time is usually around noon to 3PM.

In the mornings we went to the pool and in the evening to the beach, next time I'll do the opposite though because the pool water was much too cold in the morning and there was no shade for the 11AM sun! It would have been better to play in the sand at the beach early in the morning, in the shade, and keep the pool for the late afternoon when the sun was less strong and the water warmer. Eh, you learn with experience right? We still had a lot of fun though, the kids played with their inflatable boats and goggles, and we made tons of sand castles.

We took the kids on a horse ride on the beach. They absolutely loved it, and so did we! :) But...did you know that those poor horses are usually starved? My husband was saying that the owners, usually poor, keep most of the money for their family and the poor animals go without food or drink for much too long. Sad isn't it?

My in-laws babysat the kids on one night which gave my husband and I some time to go out dancing. BEACH DANCING PARTY. Like, um, yeah! I almost forgot what it was like to lose myself in music. I love to dance. So hubby and I danced salsa until our feet hurt.

Before I left for my vacation, I had asked a few of you what you'd like me to write about from my trip and I have a few posts coming up about local food, a drink recipe, and some other fun things so stay tuned!

Until then, a Happy Easter to all of you! Don't eat too much chocolate. ;)