1. Chile. Mexicans love spicy. Everything has chile, and I mean everything. From meat, to beans, to vegetables, fruit, chips, candy, everything has chile. There are a lot of types of chile. There is chile powder, or Tajin, which you normally eat with popcorn, fruit or vegetables. Cucumbers, mango, and pineapple with Tajin and a squeezed lime is delectable. There are also salsas or chile in bottle. There are ton of kinds. There are chiles for seafood, meat, and salty things. Here is a picture of Act II popcorn being sold with a bottle of Valentina. Valentina is the most popular chile for salty snacks like chips and popcorn so they are basically saving you a trip to the chile aisle in Wal-Mart.
2. Chanclas. My sweet husband loves his flipflops for a very special reason. In Mexcio we call them chanclas. In the states we wear flipflops for everything, the beach, pool, going shopping, even church, we wear them with jeans, or a dress or shorts or whatever it may be. In Mexico chanclas serve a different purpose. They protect your precious warm feet from touching the cold floor. Most homes in Mexico are cement or tile, carpet doesn't really exist (they don't need it since it doesn't get too cold here). So you take your outside shoes off at the door and slide your feet into your flipflops (or slippers if you want something cozy). Bare feet are a big no-no. Sometimes if Gallo cannot find his flipflops, mine suffice at protecting him from the chilly floor.
3. Hot and cold. This has to do with the flipflop thing. If you're feet are warm and they touch the cold floor, many Mexicans believe this will cause you to catch a cold. If your body gets too warm, it must be protected. If you are wet, you will also catch a cold. If your throat hurts, only drink warm things because cold water will hurt your throat more. If you are playing soccer, you must wait for your body to cool off before you take your shoes off. Don't eat or drink anything cold while doing exercise or playing. All these things will cause a cold or worse.
4. No plans. Not having a plan is usually the plan. Winging it, going with the flow, you name it. Going on vacation? Great. When? Maybe tomorrow or the next day. A great example of this is, the city of Tijuana and the surrounding area were announcing that they were going to shut the city's water off for a number of days. The people readied themselves, the Oxxos where filled with jugs of water for people to buy and everyone was ready. The date passed that they said they would turn the water off, and everyone continued on with their daily lives of showers and dish washing. They did eventually announce a new date for the water turn off a few weeks later but it was a learning curve for us non-Mexicans. You just have to be flexible and enjoy those extra showers a little longer, if the plan is flexible, the people should be too.
5. Botana. Mexico is known for its street food. I have never known a country to have more street food than Mexico (except maybe Thailand, they love their chicken on a stick!) Ten 'o' clock at night is prime taco eating time, the streets are filled with pungent smoke of the grill cooking that yummy beef. Another aspect of Mexico's love for food is botanas or snacks. I like Mexican snack time, the food tends to be more on the fresh side. Like pineapple, cucumber, mango and jicama (a starchy potato like veggie). A typcial botana would be all the fruits and veggies mixed with "japonese" style peanuts, Tajin and of course chile. In this case the typical choice of chile would be, Chamoy. A very liquidy salsa used for botanas and even popsicles and ice cream.
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| Yummy snacks any Mexican teenager would enjoy. Veggies,chips, fruit, ice cream, all topped with Chamoy, chile powder, squeezed lime and peanuts. |
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