Top 10 Reasons to Miss Mexico, #5- #1

#5: Markets

How do you buy your meat? Do you watch your butcher cut into whole sides of freshly butchered animals for the cut of meat you want?

Fruits and vegetables are stacked into impossibly high walls at every stall.

Forgive me for being repetitive, I know I have expressed my love for markets many times here. I absolutely love the freedom they give shoppers who are free to comparison shop for the best quality, best prices and even find unique products like all double yolk eggs. Markets exist in the U.S., but they are the alternative means of shopping and heavily regulated, which is done in the name of public safety and sanitation. Malarkey!

#4: Sapote Fruits

Mamey Sapote: I think it has the sweet flavor of squash in a fruit with the texture of avocado.

Chico Sapote/ Sapodilla: a new favorite, it looks like an old potato from the outside, but inside, it has soft, mushy flesh that breaks into segments. The texture of the fruit is slightly gritty like extremely over ripe pears. The Flavor is intense molasses. Juice just pours out of this fruit as soon as you pull it apart. It was too sweet to eat more than one segment at a time.

Sapote Negro: sometimes called the chocolate pudding fruit because it has the same color and texture. Personally, I didn't think it tasted like chocolate. Sapote Negro is actually a relative of the persimmon.

There are a multitude of distantly related and unrelated fruits that carry the name "sapote." Here in meat and potato country we have a saying: "I've never met a potato I didn't like;" I can now confidently apply the phrase to sapote fruits as well.
Sapote fruits, related to the plant family sapotaceae or not, do seem to have a few key similar characteristics:
All fruits grow on large trees throughout the world's tropics, all sapote fruits are desserts in themselves, no sugar added, all sapotes become nearly mush when they are ready to eat (which would be why they're not available in your super market), and all sapotes have large seeds which are toxic if ingested.
#3: Tacos

I regret, of the thousands of tacos I have eaten in Mexico, this is the only picture of them. In the summer of 2008 I ate my first Mexican taco from Chana, a celebrity in Acapulco for selling tacos on the street.

This should be self explanatory and it might have to be, because I don't know where to start! The topic of Mexican tacos is so vast, it deserves its own blog, let alone its own blog post.
I will start by making clear that ground beef tacos, seasoned with a packet from the grocery store piled with yellow cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and chunky salsa is not Mexican.
So what are real Mexican tacos? well, they're kind of like classical French sauces, they're all made from the same components, but there are a lot of regional differences and if you change one ingredient, it gets a new name.
Also, depending on the type of taco you order and where you are ordering them, you may order a certain number of tacos or you may order the taco meat by weight and then you get all the fixin's. The fixin's will vary, but you will always squeeze lime juice over it and add either red or green salsa. Then tear the tortilla in half or quarters and pinch a bit of meat between the tortilla with your hands and there you have your taco.
#2: People Selling Goods on the Street

I never fail to be amazed by the amount of food that is able to be stored, cooked and served on a card table and portable flat top grill on a sidewalk.

For all the problems Mexico has, in a few ways, Mexicans are more free than Americans. (don't tell Jonathan I said that, this topic caused many debates) They truly have a free market capitalist economy. People are free to sell, pander goods, and perform their talents for money as they see fit.
Enterprising Mexicans are free to set up a grill and sell food on the sidewalk, or walk around with a basket of goodies. They can also stand on the street and act as parking attendants, directing you to a good spot, and for a few pesos they will wash your car while you're away. At stop lights, jugglers, fire breathers, slit walkers and clowns entertain while others pander candy and flowers. Several times, I saw an individual with a bucket of paint, painting yellow stripes on speed bumps collecting change as people passed, of course they use water based paint so that they can come back in a few weeks and paint the stripes again. These were just ordinary citizens trying to earn money.
There are also plenty of people who sell real, tangible goods by walking them around the street or driving around with speakers on top of their car announcing what they are selling. Need a queen size bed frame? or dinning room table set? There are men who walk the streets pushing a cart carrying them, I swear! Music is a great attention getter. Once I saw two men pushing a very large xylophone for sale down the street and playing it the whole way. Then there was always the gas truck:

I'm not saying that these are jobs Americans should aspire to, or that drug cartels aren't giving poor people a shake down for money earned. Maybe the government is simply too busy to worry about how its citizens make and honest living, but can you imagine trying to do any of those things in the U.S.? Someone would call the cops! Then you'd be shut down and saddled with a fine for not having a permit or you could be arrested, or worse, sued! Is that freedom America? Nobody forces you to eat street food, if you think it's unsanitary, then don't eat there, but government should not impede anyone from starting an honest business with rules and regulations.

#1: New Expiriences

I looked too gringo eating with a fork and knife, so I switched to eating my traditional Mole with a tortilla, the Mexican utensil.

The thing I will miss most about Mexico is the fact everyday I saw or learned something that I had no idea existed. I miss the adventure involved in everyday tasks. The truth is that Mexicans and the whole world do not live the same lifestyle we do. I like some of their customs better, and I like some American customs better, but what I like most of all is learning about all of the customs and ways of life.