Baja style shrimp tacos recipe

Have you ever tried these?  I've been living in Mexico for over three years now and I have eaten a LOT of tacos.  Among all of those different taco recipes, Baja's recipe for shrimp tacos stands up there with the best in my and many others' opinion.  If you're looking for something different to cook for dinner that is downright delicious and taken straight out of authentic Mexican cuisine, then look no further and try these out!  Your taste buds will thank you.

Cancun's Regional Mexican Cuisine

If you've ever been to Cancun, you can't help but notice that it is very touristy: the beaches are beautiful, they're lined with huge hotels and party people, and it's a fun place to crash for a weekend.  It can be hard to find anything authentically Mexican in this place, but if you look, you can find some great dishes endemic to to the Cancun area.  I like this article by KC Kudra that touches on this:

...tacos filled with pork skin in green sauce, beef, potato or Mexican sausage, cheese and potato quesadillas served with salsa or Tik-in-xic fish which is fish marinated in a sour orange juice and achiote marinade and baked in banana leaves. Tamales in Cancun are great and these are steamed cornmeal stuffed with pork, chicken, or beef.

You can read the full article here. 

Speak soon,

-Carlos Lima

Carne Asada Tacos - A Super Popular Taco Inside Mexico

Carne asada (grilled beef) tacos are very popular in Mexico at many of the street stall vendors and restaurants that line the streets in this country, and I just found this simple recipe for them that About.com recently published.  I would definitely try these tacos out if you have a craving for either meat or tacos AND you're interested in learning more about authentic Mexican food!

Here's what someone commented about this recipe:

These are delicious, easy, and taste like the ones in good mexican restaurants!

 

Try this taco recipe out and let me know how it goes--I've got my hands full with some other taco recipes I'm working on right now, but I may have to make these in the near future if they're as good as they sound!  Talk soon, -Carlos

Tex-Mex food vs Authentic Mexican Cuisine: A Classic Battle

I hear this asked all the time: why is there such a difference between what many call "Tex-Mex" cuisine and authentic Mexican food?  While I'm sure the reasons are many, my opinion is that, aside from cost reasons, restaurant owners abroad find it more marketable to latch onto the bright, colorful and flashing cultural stereotypes that people identify Mexico with than it is profitable to invest promoting the real Mexican cuisine and having to educate the public to a large extent on what that even means and why they should get excited about trying it. I wrote a good article about it here your can check out:   Tex-Mex cuisine vs Authentic Mexican food - why the difference?

I'll speak to you again soon! -Carlos Lima

Mexican Lent Recipes: I Found Some Popular Ones For You Guys

As it happens, we're currently in the middle of Mexican lent.  Lent of course is the period following the lustful, primal, animal, and favorite-time-of-year-for-many carnival, and is seen as a period of repentance: a period of time where we're supposed to reflect on all the bad shit we've done over the past while and feel bad and make cheap resolves to be "better" en el futuro.  My mockery aside, there are certain changes some people make to their diet during lent: in Mexico, a Catholic country (at least on its face), you are supposed to go without eating meat on each of Friday during lent.  For those wondering why, this is to pay homage to all the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, without the comforts or spoils of the city life in Jerusalem.  Whether it does him justice, I'll leave that to you to decide, but in all seriousness I recently came across an article by the venerated about.com, that details some popular dishes for Mexican lent, where non-meat dishes like the famous chilaquiles (picture below) enjoy their moment (or Fridays) of fame...

 

Some foods are traditionally associated with Lent in Mexico. It is very common to eat seafood on Fridays - fish and shrimp are both very popular. Another food commonly eaten during Lent isempanadas de vigilia. These empanadas are made with a flour pastry shell and stuffed with vegetables or seafood.

 

Read the full article here:  http://mexicanfood.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/Mexican-Recipes-For-Lent.htm

Tasty Mexican Chicken Soup Recipe: Caldo de Pollo!

If you've ever wondered what Mexican comfort food is, you're in for a treat today.  I just finished writing up the latest of my traditional Mexican recipes: Caldo de Pollo.

Caldo de Pollo For The Mexican Soul would ring true for a lot of Chilangos, and it’s no wonder: traditional Mexican recipes like this are found everywhere in this country. 

 

Mexican chicken soup is a great meal for a cold day, when you just want to stay in and eat something tasty and yummy and savor all that flavor right there in the bowl, and it's also a great dish if you're sick and you need something simple and easy for your stomach to digest, so be sure to check it out.  The full recipe is here:  Caldo de Pollo recipe.

Until next time, keep cooking new recipes and pushing your culinary boundary!  -Carlos Lima

Oaxaca salad on the list today

When searching around for new authentic Mexican recipes to test out, I'm often inundated with elaborate taco recipes, meat dishes, and other heavy meals that take longer to make and are more suited for a night of dinner with friends.  But what about if you want something quick to make, something lighter, like a salad?  I've been searching around for Mexican salad recipes lately and I've arrived at my first selection, which I'll be testing out later today.  It's featured by Mexconnect.com, and comes from the kitchen of Chef Pilar Cabrera: Oaxaca salad by Pilar Cabrera