Author: Rae

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Selecting Avocados

This post is in reply to comments I’ve gotten both on the blog and on Facebook about picking avocados.

When I go through a bin of avocados, I’m always happy to find firm non-ripened ones because that means I can stock up. Avocados last a surprisingly long time in the fridge. Take them out as needed and leave on the counter to ripen.

The tricky thing is when the avocados are soft. I’ve been told on Facebook that I should only use the squeeze test to ensure that I’m getting a perfectly ripe avocado. I’m sorry, but that test is not exact and can result in the purchase of slimy avocados good only for the compost pile.

What a produce manager taught me is that when you get these soft avocados, check out their belly buttons under the stem. If the stem doesn’t come off on its own, do not force it. That will damage the avocado and cause it to ripen too fast.

But if the stem comes right off, the avocado is at some point of ripeness. Check the colour of the belly button. Bright green and moist means you’re holding a perfectly ripe avocado. Brown and woody, the avocado shouldn’t even be for sale anymore and you haven’t done any damage by removing the stem.

These soft avocados with a bright green belly button should be eaten immediately or in the next day or two at the most if stored in the fridge.

I repeat, do NOT remove the stems on the unripened avocados, just the soft ones where the stem is ready to fall off on its own, unless you plan to bring that firm fruit home. Otherwise, you risk turning the avocado into something that can’t be sold, especially important when buying directly from a grower whose profit margin is thin.

Again, my information comes from a produce manager. Your experience and personal opinion may vary. But I have never brought home a bad avocado thanks to this information and I don’t have money to waste on food that shouldn’t be for sale in the first place.

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Pulling Out a Childhood ‘Recipe’

I used to make what my family called ‘macaroni chinois’ (Chinese macaroni) all the time until I switched to using Japanese soy sauce. It’s a ridiculously simple mix of sautéd onions, carrots, elbow macaroni, and Chinese soy sauce to taste, a very inexpensive and reasonably healthy meal for a hungry student! Thinner Japanese soy sauce works okay, but doesn’t have nearly as much flavour in this application.

I added way more veggies than I normally used to, when I was pretty much guaranteed to have onions and carrots on hand, but not much else. Here, you can see red onion, carrot, green beans, chayote, and garlic.

I added way more veggies than I normally used to, when I was pretty much guaranteed to have onions and carrots on hand, but not much else. Here, you can see red onion, carrot, green beans, chayote, and garlic.

Add in cooked macaroni and soy sauce and done! The macaroni gets much darker with the Chinese sauce than it does the Japanese. I also had to use almost a quarter of a small bottle to get a burst of flavour throughout. Still has that wonderful umami flavour, though!

Add in cooked macaroni and soy sauce and done! The macaroni gets much darker with the Chinese sauce than it does the Japanese. I also had to use almost a quarter of a small bottle to get a burst of flavour throughout. Still has that wonderful umami flavour, though!

The only thing lunch lacked was protein. I only remember after I was done that I had some almonds in the freezer! I’ll add some of those to my leftovers. 🙂

I’m not going to be eating vegetarian per se this winter, but definitely more so than I have in a while. I’ve read about shopping for meat in MX and I’m not sure I have the stomach for it on Isla. I know I could get packaged meat at a Soriana or other grocery store in Maz, but that’s not very convenient. The chicken lady will keep me stocked in poultry (that I won’t even have to cook!) and I’ll eventually get to the fish market. So far, I’m not starving and I’ve even lost a couple more pounds. 🙂

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Caught A Veggie Guy!

I’m homebound for the rest of the week because my internet installer is supposed to come by!!! My landlady said that if I miss him, I will likely never see him again!

I’ve finally got lots of work, so being ‘stuck at home’ for a few days is fine. Dale is off to the big city and is supposed to come back with Oaxaca cheese, a cheese grater (for shredding veggies), and ear plugs for me, if she can find all that, and she’s available to get anything I need at the store.

Since six this morning, I’ve been getting up at every chime and honk to see if I might catch one of the elusive veggie men. Moments ago, I did! I yelled, “¡Verduras por favor!” and he heard me and stopped.

This guy was younger than the last one and he had a lot more choice and better quality stuff, but I think that that is not a fair assessment in that I caught the other guy at the end of his day.

I went a little nuts and got all this, resisting the urge to get a pineapple, too! All for 58 pesos! My word of the day is very important as it is my favourite veggie: ejotes (green beans)!

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I believe that’s a (pauses to remember the English word because she’s been working in French all morning and she can apparently only handle two languages at once) grapefruit at the top. I didn’t check because I like surprises. 🙂 There’s also a white onion, two avocados, a bunch of the best bananas I’ve seen in MX, two white potatoes, two carrots, two chayotes, four limes, two tomatoes, an apple, and two tangerines.

The produce I get back home at the supermarket is so dismal that the veggies and fruits here are a real treat. It’s also hard to keep fresh fruits and veggies on hand because I don’t go to town that often during the summer.

I’m eating an apple right now that is absolutely lovely, so I bought another of the same kind. The veggie man showed me that he had Red Delicious ones, too, but I don’t like them, finding them pasty. This apple is a bit pasty, but still has some crunch to it.

If I can get a load like this every couple of days, I’ll be very healthy by the end of the winter!

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So I Met An Avocado Fairy…

I went to the store this afternoon to get some additional items for dinner. I have a lot of time to kill right now and the store is a good distance away, making for good exercise, so I might as well shop daily as the availability of stuff appears random.

Hoping for an avocado, I looked through the box, trying to inconspicuously examine the belly buttons to find a bright green moist one. I was taught this trick by the produce manager at the H.E.B. in Port Lavaca and it has never failed me once so I am reluctant to potentially waste money on an avocado that does not meet this criteria. No luck. The veggie guy’s avocados yesterday were also dismal.

Bummed, I headed off to look at the cheese when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and a man winked and handed me an avocado with a bright green moist belly button! I have no idea who this man was! He’s not the man who runs the store. I’m thinking he’s a local who got the one good avocado out of the box and decided to sacrifice to make a gringa’s day. Thank you again, Mr. Avocado Fairy!

So it was a familiar scene in my kitchen tonight, me in the mood for tortilla chips and frying my own to go with some awesome guacamole (and the rest of the refried beans)!

Since moving to corn tortillas as my ‘bread’ quite a while ago, I’ve been eating a lot of Mexicany-type meals. This is not me in Mexico trying to make local cuisine, but me in Mexico making a taste of home.

For those sick of the cooking posts, feel free to send me some transcription work to keep me busy on other stuff! 😉 I LOVE cooking. I kind of forgot how much I loved it over the past few years, but my dietary changes and the distance from Haven to restaurants has rekindled that passion. I can’t wait to go to a market in Mazatlan and get a whole bunch of unknown produce to try!

(Note to self: you need a colander and cheese grater or mandoline!)

The guacamole was so good I was halfway done before I remembered that I had beer, too! 😀 The store sells small 210ML bottles for just 8 pesos!!!

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Fluency Perspective

After working leads to no avail this morning, I decided to go for a walk on the beach in the hopes of lifting my grey mood.

I met Dale at the entrance to the beach and we chatted for a bit. We might go down to the docks later to check out the cruise ships.

In a bid (successful, might I add) to avoid vendors, I turned left at the beach and walked towards the other apartments I looked at on Thursday, hoping that Daniel, one of the French guys, would be there so I could touch base and make sure there are no hard feelings about my not taking one of his places.

He was outside painting, so we gabbed for a bit. He apologized for the suites being so dirty when I saw them. While, yes, that had bothered me, I knew that he was doing renos, so that was not the main reason I wasn’t interested. I came here to get some experience living in a Mexican community, early morning horn blasts and roosters included, and his suites are rather isolated. He was very understanding about that, especially when he learned that I speak Spanish.

I was beyond ready for lunch by this point (and am learning to move ‘lunch’ to somewhere between 10:30 and 11:30!) so I headed home. On the way there, I got stopped by one of my Mexican neighbours who wanted to introduce himself. I had him repeat and spell his name, but I don’t remember it. 🙁

He asked a lot of rather personal questions, but this is such a small place that I know people talk and that anything I didn’t answer he was going to learn from someone else, so I just answered him — renting alone, from Canada, working from home, here for the winter, etc. He was very friendly, but not in a creepy way, and we had a nice chat.

He said that he is delighted that I speak such lovely Spanish, with a good accent and pace. I replied that I’m enjoying the practise, but know I am making so many errors!

He then said something no one has said to me here yet (translating loosely): “We are having an interesting conversation in my language. I am understanding you perfectly and you me. When you leave, I’ll remember what we talked about, not the mistakes.”

This is exactly my theory of using a foreign language. Use it. You are going to get the odd jerk who will mock you, but, really, you’re the one who gets the laugh as you gain entry into another culture.

I am not going to stop rehashing all the mistakes I make in my interactions with people, because ‘good enough’ isn’t for me, but I’m going to try to stop being embarrassed by errors!