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| Food & Drink |
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“Montezuma's revenge”
is worldwide known as part of traveling in Mexico. Nevertheless, if you take some precautions you can avoid stomach infections.
As a rule of thumb, it is always better to avoid drinking tap water, unless it is safely boiled or filtered. As well, it is not safe to eat raw leafy greens or drink prepared soft drinks (“aguas frescas”). This can be done safely only at good restaurants. Anything raw should be peeled, or washed with bottled water. All restaurants serve excellent lemonade ("limonada mineral” or “limonada preparada") made with sparkling water ("agua mineral"), lime juice, and sugar. Unless you are in a good restaurant, avoid "limonada natural" (lacking bubbles). For the same reason, in some places it is better to order drinks without ice ("sin hielo").
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TRADITIONAL FOOD |
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The typical dishes of Veracruz are mostly a mix of European and Prehispanic food mainly based on seafood. The best example is “Huachinango a la veracruzana”, a fish covered with tomato sauce, olives, and capers and onion. Soup of seafood is also delisios, such as “Caldo largo de pescado”, in which fish are prepared in a sauce of tomato with “chile guajillo” (a hot pepper not too spicy), with a touch of coriander and limes, or the variant call “Chilpachole”, which is more spicy. “Ceviche” is a dish that you most try, but only in good restaurants, since it is raw fish cooked with lime juice then mixed with tomato, onion, coriander and oregano, served with avocado, olives, lime slices and crackers. |
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“Mole” |
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Mole is probably the biggest attraction regarding exotic food. Mole is a generic name for dishes that use a “sauce” made with a combination of several chilies and tomato or tomatillo. Mole can be very hot (“picante”, spicy) or mild. In Mexico, mole is prepared and consumed mainly in the central part of the country. There are many recipes for mole, almost as many as the number of families that made it from scratch. Made from scratch, mole can be extremely elaborated, since it includes dozens of ingredients that need to be ground in a mill. |
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Nevertheless, mole can be purchased already prepared, in the shape of a paste or dried-dust that normally it is dissolved in chicken broth. The most common and perhaps must well-known has as key ingredient “chocolate” (cocoa). In Veracruz, the most famous mole comes from Xico. |
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“Quesadillas”
Quesadillas are very popular in Mexico and are safe, easy to prepare, and a good alternative for vegetarians. They are tortillas (in the central or southern part of the country more often corn tortillas and less frequently flour tortillas) folded and filled with several ingredients, such as cheese and “epazote” (the leaves of Chenopodium ambrosioides), “hongos” (mushrooms or other fungi), “flor de calabaza” (Squash Blossoms), “cuitlacoche” (corn smut), etc. A typical variation from the region are "Molotas", made with flour tortilla and filled with several ingredietns such as potatos, meat or chees. |
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"Chiles rellenos”
(filled hot peppers).
Chiles rellenos can be extremely hot, but if you like spicy food they are definitively recommended. In this dish, different types of chilies are filled with ground meat, chicken or cheese and prepared in different ways, most frequently covered with egg and flour and fried. |
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