México en la Piel

There is a rather famous song here called "México en la Piel" written by José Manuel Fernández and made famous by Luis Miguel. The song repeats "Así se lleva México en la piel" which basically suggests that 'Mexico is carried in the skin', that it is part of everyone who has ever experienced it, inescapable.

If you would like to hear the song, this video (which was most definitely NOT made by yours truly) has good audio quality and while the quality of the video is poor, this was the only one whose images actually look like the Mexico I know and love.

Anyway, I am here to tell you that while the metaphor may be true, I am not literally carrying Mexico in my skin. Rather, I am carrying it the adipose tissue which lies just underneath my skin. That is, I'm carrying about 20 pounds of Mexico, specifically in my thighs, belly, and love-handles. All this "Mexico" comes not without hard work and dedication, however! Do you know how much street food you have to eat to do this to yourself???

While I consider that my progress in the gastronomic experimentation sector of life has been pretty strong throughout this entire year, since I only have less than 2 weeks here in Mexico I've been really kicking it into high gear and going for it! This is the last 500m of a 5k race, the last 5 questions on a timed test, the last... calf-brain taco in a series of strange foods? It is, as Karen Klinger would say, time to empty the tank (though little does she realize that in this particular case it's really more a question of filling the tank- with delicious food).

Let me say here that Mexican food has a tendency to use all of the animal, so the opportunities for "weird" foods abound. Last night, for example, our late-night taco binge included the very standard tacos arabes (spicy meat- much more than that no one seems to know), the rather unusual but delicious tacos de lengua (cow tongue), the mysterious tacos de cabeza (simply means "head"- I can't visualize it, but it tastes great!), and the texturally unique tacos de ojo (made of some poor creature's eyes- incidentally, actually "taco de ojo" is also the Mexican expression for "eye candy" and echarse un taco de ojo can either mean to eat an actual taco made of eyes or to check out a particularly nice piece of eye candy). On the menu were also tacos made of tripe, cheeks, genitals, lips, brains, and a few things which even my Mexican companions could not identify. To be perfectly honest, however, once each of these tacos is topped with onion and cilantro, drenched in lime juice, and smothered in either red or green salsa (or both, if you're a rebel), they all begin to taste pretty similar.

Other 'odd' foods which I have recently included in my diet are mole de panza (a sort of soup which includes chunks of cow stomach), tostadas de pata (fried tortillas layered with lettuce, tomato, cheese, radishes, salsa, and strips of gelatinous hoof meat), flautas de sesos (brains mixed with spices, rolled into a tortilla and fried), tacos filled with a spicy congealed blood sausage (whose name I don't remember), and mole flavored ice cream (which actually tastes like the spicy, savory mole sauce).

The moral of the story is that if you don't eat meat, in Mexico you miss a big part of the culture. And if you don't eat "weird" animal parts, you're just plain missing out! And if you don't eat street food, you will probably avoid 'carrying Mexico in your skin' but what fun would that be?