Broke Training for Food

I've been enjoying my training, seeing results, and feeling healthier. So giving it up for an evening isn't easy. I didn't know I'd be giving it up for food. I thought at first a movie, maybe with one person, then with three, and then it turned out we'd all rather eat than go to a movie. So we went on a culinary tour of downtown Puebla, trying street foods I hadn't yet dared to order.

Like, to start, molotes. There are two sidewalk molotes stands on the street across from my climbing gym. When I pass by at 9 p.m. on my way home, the sidewalks are full, and people are spilling into the street. I walk by slowly, and try to figure out what people are ordering and eating. It's bewildering. The image on the right is from an indoor restaurant, but it gives you a sense of just what goes into making a molote. You can see that it isn't haute cuisine. Just focusing on the molote, one can choose from about twelve different ingredients to fill a masa dough patted into a round,then folded in half over the chosen ingredient(s), then fried. (See this excellent blog entry for more details, recipes, and pictures). Many times, I imagined myself mano á mano with the molote Nazi, and passed on by.

Not tonight. With my companions at my side, I got a lesson on the various ingredients, the difference between Veracruz and Puebla molotes, and finally settled on a Tinga and a pollo molote. Tinga, in brief, is a thick sauce made with pulled pork, poblano chili, and other spices. It's a dark red, and tastes rich and delicious. The chicken was spicy and flavorful. Both were topped with a salsa verde and thick cream. I had to wait a few minutes before mine had cooled off enough to eat. Delicious!

From there, we walked back around the corner to a little place opposite the cathedral and zocolo. I think it was called Taqueria de la Catedral. I'd noticed it because they advertised tacos arabes, another specialty of Puebla. Tacos arabes originated, it is said, from Iraqi immigrants to Puebla in the 1930s. The first tacos arabes were made from mutton, and served on flatbread--sound Middle Eastern?--but now are often made from pork and served on what more closely resembles a flour tortilla, with salsa and lime as condiments. I couldn't eat mine, or watch the meat roasting on a spit (see image to the left, and note the pineapple on top of the meat) without thinking of gyros.

Time for postres. I'd seen a popular little corner place, in back of the cathedral, brightly lit and filled with young people most evenings. It was a churroria, selling the popular fried dough pastries known as churros. They are squeezed out through a pastry gun in long sticks, with a hexagonal shape. They are then sprinkled with sugar and/or cinnamon, and/or topped with chocoloate sauce. Churros are found throughout Mexico and, apparently, in the U.S. (Little Caesar's serves them). But excellent fresh out of the fryer.

Finally, we need to wash it all down with a few beers. So a few blocks down the street to my favorite cafe, where Lupe and I enjoy a few beers, and the ladies enjoy something that I still need to research: a combination of beer, mango fruit, and hot sauce. Stay tuned.

If you're going to break training, then go big, right? Now I'm groaning in front of the t.v., watching the football match between Mexico and Venezuela. Viva Mexico!