Cooking again!

With the beginning of this semester I stopped eating out every night and I returned to my beloved hobby cooking instead. It's not only so much cheaper but - soooo much better. Sometimes I rag my roomies, saying that Mexico offers an incredible variety of great ingredients, and that it's just a pity that the Mexicans never learned how to use them in a way that would make an equally great dish. Poor roomies, so much to suffer from the totally unadaptable German with no sense for good taste. Or so. No, to be honest I'm really lucky with my roomies, as they are very humorous, patient and understandable. But I still don't like Mexican food.

After giving Mexico a chance for a total semester, I came to the same conclusion as most of the foreigners here: It's better to do your own thing. Oh yeah. Due to a lack of Asian ingredients, I use a lot of locally available stuff. And it makes great fusion dishes, I tell you. Finally I can use all these mysterious salsas I spotted on the markets.

Mexico really is kind of unique when it comes to ingredients. We might have some of them as well in Germany. But when you walk over a Mexican market, things are really local. As I explained in my travel reports, there are a lot of different climatic zones within the same country. This makes it possible to grow just everything. Chilis? Of course. Vanilla? Indeed. Nuts and artisanal nut butters? Here you go. Aaaall kind of vegetables (which more often than not in German supermarkets are imported from Spain) - yes! And what is more: Many of these ingredients have their origin here. Well, perhaps except tofu. Since it's virtually nonexistent here and the local cheese normally doesn't have a very strong flavour, I even started to eat dairy products. Handmade cheese, without any preservatives, just the real thing. You just have to be careful, as most of the cheese is still made with raw milk - but I've discovered a stall which works with the pasteurised material.

When I bought rice for the first time, I asked the vendor what kind of rice was in the bag at the far end. He was about to explain me that this was not exactly for cooking purposes, as it was already broken. Are you kidding? Broken rice makes the beeest base for Asian rice bowls ever. And it's dirt cheap. As I wisely brought a pair of chopsticks with me, I can now indulge in all the foods I was craving for the last semester. But guess what - even the Mexican food can taste good, as long as I adapt it to my taste: Sopa Azteca, Fabian style:

Sopa Azteca: Locally grown tomatoes and spices, chilis, three kinds of local cheese, freshly made tortilla, local avocado and cilantro - you can't go more local.

And to finally complete my travel reports (sorry, from now on you have to content yourself with the university reports again), here's a last photo taken in Querétaro on the world's third biggest monolith:

K. (Canada) with the two Germans - making a break from climbing Peña de Bernal