other mexican things

here are some other delicious mexican foods that i am lucky enough to get to eat on a regular basis.

First up we have enchiladas. These are NOT your run-of-the-mill TexMex enchiladas, nor are they the cream-topped enchiladas suizas. These come from the state of Hidalgo, where I live. They are basically a corn tortilla stuffed with some kind of egg-chile-tomato mixture and then fried in a thin layer of oil. I have not learned to make these in the 3 years i have been eating them (which is probably a good thing, because if i knew how i would make them every day.)

enchiladas

Next there is queso Oaxaca, a cheese that comes from, well, Oaxaca. Its got a consistency like that of...string cheese; its easy to pull apart and actually tastes similar to string cheese. I cant find any other way to describe it, really.

queso Oaxaca

These beauties are tamales wrapped in acelgas (swiss chard). My fiance's grandma makes them, and has offered to teach me, but i just havent made time. but as with the enchiladas, its probably good that i havent learned, or else i would be eating way to much of them. These are just one of many, many types of tamales. These particular ones are served with a salsa roja thats not spicy.

These are flor de calabaza, or zucchini flower. it has a very bitter taste, and i dont particularly like it, but my mother-in-law uses it a lot for soups or to fill quesadillas or empanadas.


And finally we have guacamole made in a molcajete. A molcajete is a stone mortar and pestle. Guacamole from a molcajete tastes soooo much better than guacamole from a blender or food processor.

sopes de huitlacoche

Today I was in a Mexican food mood. I wanted sopes. A sope is basically this:
Its like a corn tortilla, but thicker and oval shaped and topped with beans, meat, chicken, whatever you want, really. I told my boyfriend my idea and he agreed that sopes sounded good. But he had a special request...he wanted sopes de huitlacoche. BLECH!!!
For those of you who havent had the pleasure (insert sarcastic snarl here) of trying huitlacoche, I will enlighten you as to what it is.
Its basically corn mold. In the US its considered a plague, but here in Mexico its a really expensive delicacy. I tried one eensie weensie bite once that I couldnt even chew, and i will never try it again. Its not that it was bad, necessarily...it tastes pretty much like dirt or mushrooms. Its the fact that its mold. I have a mold phobia. it really disgusts me. I'm ok eating cheese, because it doesnt really look like gross disgusting mold that grows in damp bathrooms, but unfortunately huitlacoche does:
My mother-in-law had given us some a couple weeks ago, so I decided to oblige my boyfriend. I mean, its not like i was the one who had to pay upwards of $15 for the stuff.

So we went to the tortilleria and bought the handmade sope bases. When we got home I heated them on the comal (a cast iron plate...they come built in on stoves in Mexico), and filled them with huitlacoche for him, beans for me, queso oaxaca, and salsa. YUM!!