LA COMIDA

Today I am writing about the importance of food - la comida - in Mexico.  Let me tell you - it is very, very important!

First, food, prepared food, ready to eat food,  is available everywhere:  a person can set up an umbrella and a table or cart, with a propane fueled hot plate anywhere and sell hot food - virtually anywhere - without any license or permit.   Thus, hot tasty food is available everywhere there are people that might pass by.  Prepared food from street vendors is much less expensive to buy.

At various corners in our neighborhood there is a little food vendor at all times of the day.  In the morning there is one on the corner selling hot breakfast tamales.  She always has a line when we drive by.  By my grocery store there is a very popular vendor with freshly prepared, hot tacos with salsa everyday.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you in the 7 minute walk from my house to the grocery store, I will pass 5 people selling hot food or snacks in a little cart as well as at least 15 "storefront" cafes as well as a person or two selling  candy on a blanket sitting on the sidewalk.  And it is that way everywhere I have been in this city!

Yes, there is fast food from America in the more populated areas of town:  KFC, McDonalds and Little Caesar's Pizza are the most popular.  But when it comes to "fast food" it doesn't come any faster than the people selling hot food on every corner of this town.

I am told by locals that you can tell which street vendors to trust by how many people are buying their food each day, day after day.  You can trust that if people come back day after day, they didn't get sick the night before!  We tell the missionaries to choose very carefully where to buy tacos on the street.  Our mission doctor tried to tell them not to buy tacos on the street - but knows that is impossible to do!  Mexico City is absolutely famous for tacos and they are the best in the world!  The most popular taco here is "al pastor":  layers of thin sliced pork and a whole pineapple cooked on an upright spit, rotating in front a flame. When a taco is ordered, a man uses a big knife to slice off tender slices of meat and pineapple that fall onto the corn tortilla into his other hand.  It is very tasty when you add the chopped onion, cilantro, fresh squeezed lime and salsa! Muy rica comida!

Food also comes to you in your car on the highway, just by rolling down your window --- and it is practically everywhere!  On many medians and between lanes of traffic in busy intersections all over Mexico City, people sell food:  hot churros piled high on a tray on a woman's head, ice cream bars in a cooler slung across a vendor's shoulders, cups of gelatin on a tray,  ice cold water and soda, cookies - all for a few pesos when you are stopped at a street light or moving slowly in heavy traffic. (Also, you can have your car dusted, windows washed, be entertained by a man juggling machetes, or buy balloons, seat covers, fresh cut flowers, newspapers., etc. in busy interesections!)

We just celebrated "Dia de Muertos" on Nov. 1-2.  On those days, people set up altars in their home or yard for their loved ones who have died.  These altars have the favorite foods and beverages and pictures of the departed.  (The family eats the food themselves on the second day, I am told.)

Every ward event I have attended has fabulous food - much of it hauled in by Relief Society sisters in huge metal pots - all of it different and very tasty!

You've never lived until you have tasted a roasted or boiled ear of corn, served on a stick, slathered in mayonnaise, rolled in a special white powdery cheese, sprinkled with chili, with fresh lime squeezed on top!  It is incredible!

Each month I get to know missionaries that are waiting for their interviews with the President.  Last month I had a map of the Western Hemisphere and had each missionary put their name on the map by the city they were from.  Often I would ask the missionary what other states or countries they had visited around their hometown.  When asked about how their country differs from the ones next to them, the missionaries from Mexico, Central and Southern America will first reply "La comida es mas picante -  the food is more spicy there, or the food is more bland there. I was surprised at how a country is identified by it's foods.

And you see the food on the highways...piled as high as possible in old pick up trucks headed to street markets, grocery stores and cafes.  Every day - anytime of the day - you will see these trucks with the heaviest load possible of bags of white onions, white potatoes, carrots, limes, peppers, guava, cilantro, oranges, pineapple and sugar cane.  One day we passed a pickup with a wire fencing building up the sides of the back so that the broccoli heads could be piled up at least 6 feet deep, no boxes or bags - just heads of broccoli piled as high as possible.  And all that produce is fresh daily, right out into the littlest, most remote parts of the city, where the horse and cart is a common site.  So Mexican's like their food and they like it fresh!    The produce is some of the freshiest and tastiest in the world.

When you stop to visit almost anyone at their home, they almost always offer you something to drink, and frequently something to eat.  Most kitchens in our mission area are quite humble, but they have great big metal pots they can cook up huge amounts of soup "pozole" and other local favorites.

Food is always important to missionaries, of course, but with Christmas coming and this being the only party we have all year, I took the menu choices to our leadership council, and I am glad I did.  It was an enthusiastic discussion and vote to decide what we'd eat.  They all wanted carne asada (beef cooked over an open charcoal grill), but that was way too expensive.  (They smile enthusiastically and lick their lips as they say "carne asada".) They all wanted "cow" though, so believe it not, for Christmas dinner this year, we are having hamburgers and fries! (with grilled pineapple and jalapenos of  course!)   Feliz Navidad!