Cookin by the Book

Another week in Veracruz has come and gone without too much fanfare. It was a quiet week at the school with only 3 students, and I decided to take advantage of the vast library to study on my own. And with a lightning fast internet connection I was able to catch up on all the highlights of a very enjoyable football Sunday.

I did continue my culinary education and learned how to make a number of delectable treats. Empanadas are a typical Mexican snack eaten in the morning or afternoon, but unlike in Bolivia you can find them just about any time of day. You probably have encountered some version of the empanada sometime in your comestible adventures, but here is how to make one Mexican style. For those unfortunate souls who have voluntarily regressed along the evolutionary spectrum, this version does not have meat.

First step, acquire the ingredients. We only need two for empanadas de queso: dough and cheese, and both can be found at the local tortillera.

 

The dough is actually produced offsite by farmers who receive some government subsidies to keep prices low. That is great for us at the school, but unfortunately the recipe is not widely known anymore and is aledgedly difficult to reproduce. I will have to count on a member of the Mexican population north of the border to have retained this national secret... I hear there might be a few in California.

Take a look at the menu and order your two ingredients, Maza and Queso Fresco. For reference, $1 is 13 pesos.

Once you have ordered, the dough is weighed, bagged, and you can be on your way.

 

Now you have your ingredients, its time to make the tortillas. Take a handfull of dough, ball it into a circle, and lightly slap it onto the middle of your circular plastic cut-out. Slowly spin the plastic circle with one hand while applying pressure to the outside of the dough with the heel of your other hand and watch your tortilla grow! This sorry excuse for a tortilla took me about 45 seconds to spin and required some emergency resuscitation from the master chef; it took her about 10 seconds to crush hers. But this is how we learn, and the good news is that even the ugly ones taste good.

Once you have your tortilla, time to add the cheese. The cheese comes in a large block but is very easy to string, a job that I most dutifully carried out.

Now its time to fold. Here's where the plastic comes in handy again, all you have to do is take hold of one side and match it together. Apply a little pressure, remove the plastic, and your empanada is ready for the frying pan (apologies for the blurry picture on this one).

 

 

Scoop that bad boy up with a spatula and place it into a frying pan generously filled with oil. Cook until things look crispy (about a minute) and try not to burn yourself as you take your delectable snack out of the pan. ¡Provecho!

 

 

 

A Few Observations

8 hours of school and afternoons spent lounging around is even less interesting to write about than living in Sucre. But here are a few thoughts on Veracruz:

This is essentially the US with slightly more dilapidated infrastructure. Walmart, Carls Jr, 4g networks, and the Hunger Games can be found throughout the city. There are absolutely no foreign tourists... other than the students at the school I have seen 2 English-speakers. I had read that this was not a touristy place and the people who did come were mostly Mexican tourists, but for a beach city with 500,000+ people it is a pleasant surprise that English is all but absent.

 I never stopped believing in you big guy

The food is awesome. It took me 7 days before I finally ate a non-Mexican dish and it is looking like another 7 days before I need break. Part of that is Mexican food has always been my favorite, but there are just so many different meats and salsas that I could eat tacos every meal for a month and it would be a slightly different taste. Mix in empanadas, quesadillas, picadas, chile rellenos, and mole and I am set for life.

 Fresh tacos al pastor!

Finally, there are no police here... just the millitary. I haven't done my own reading, but from what the teachers have told me there were some issues with drugs here a few years ago. So the government replaced the municipal force with the millitary and now there are no problems. You will often see pickup trucks full of soliders equipped with machine guns patroling the boulevard flashing their lights, but I have yet to see them actually do anything. And they are very polite, I usually say hi when I walk by a group and get a friendly response. From what I have experienced so far this is an incredibly safe city and I have no problem with their presence.

 ¡Hola!

Bienvenidos A Veracruz

After a week hiatus for a quick turkey recharge in the US I'm back on the wagon. My next destination is Veracruz, a coastal city in southeast Mexico.

I'll be studying Spanish at the aptly named Language Immersion Institute. Run by an American couple, the school takes a slightly different approach to teaching, emphasizing conversation and activities rather than the traditional lecture format. I found the school by googling Spanish immersion and Mexican cooking: Mexican food has always been my favorite, so I figured I might as well learn how to cook as part of my year of self enrichment.

Everything happens at the school: classes, room, and board. The median age for students here is 49 and as expected I am the youngest one here, but many of the staff are my age and with an early morning wakeup it is probably for the best that there is less of a temptation to stay out past my parents' bedtime.

And here you really are immersed in Spanish. My day began at 7:30 for breakfast with the students/teachers followed by an hour of cooking: today we prepared two different kinds of salsa and a flan.

Next was an hour of conversation and reading one-on-one, followed by an hour walk around the city with my professora. Everyone reconvenes for lunch, and formal classes finally end with another 2 hours of conversation in the afternoon for essentially 8 hours of straight Spanish. After that there is a teacher assigned to hang out on the couch until 9pm for anyone that wants to continue to practice, and there are evening excusions a few nights each week.

I honestly cannot think of a better set-up for Spanish immersion. Everyone has their own room and bathroom with AC, there is high speed wifi throughout the school (same speed as home), you get to eat delicious home-cooked Mexican food, and you are forced to speak Spanish for a minimum of 8 hours each day. But aside from the physical comforts, it is the emphasis on conversation that really wins me over. At this point in my Spanish development I've learned the fundamental aspects of grammar, it is now all about speaking. I also appreciate that the school is half a block from the ocean.