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Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
(including Cancun and Cozumel)
Culinary Traditions •
Ingredients •
Classic Dishes
For the Meek •
For the Bold •
For the Digestively Challenged •
Links to recipes
A word to the wise: Your digestive system may
not be accustomed to foreign microbes. If you want to try local fruits
or vegetables, prudence suggests that you make sure you wash them
thoroughly or buy them at an upscale restaurant that's used to catering
to the delicate constitutions of tourists.
Culinary traditions
Isolated from the mainland by mountains, the residents of the Yucatan
Peninsula developed a distinctive cuisine influenced by the Caribbean
and Europe as much as the rest of Mexico. Mayans feasted on venison,
wild turkey, squash, bananas, tomatoes, pumpkin
seeds, corn, chocolate, honey, achiote
and chilies. The Spanish introduced ingredients such as chicken, beef,
pork, garlic, oregano, cinnamon and cumin. Trade with the Dutch brought
a fondness for cheese - Yucatan markets still offer plentiful supplies
of Edam and Gouda, used in queso relleno.
In the late 19th c. many Lebanese Christians fled here from the Ottoman
Empire, adopting their cuisine to the ingredients available in the
Yucatan: tacos al pastor, pork roasted on a
skewer, is an adaptation of shawarma, made in the Middle East with lamb.
Seafood is plentiful and fresh, as are tropical fruits such as
tamarinds, plums, mameys, and avocados.
Ingredients
Achiote: from the seeds of the annatto
plant, used for flavor in some recados and
to add deep golden color to other dishes.
Adobo sauce: tart and sour sauce of ground
chilis, herbs and vinegar.
Epazote (a.k.a. pigweed, skunkweed): herb
with a slightly bitter but lemony taste and a strong fragrance that has
been compared to citrus, petroleum, mint or putty; often used to flavor
beans, corn and fish.
Habanero pepper: one of the spiciest
chili peppers
Nopal cactus: appears on the flag of Mexico.
Its fleshy paddles are served as vegetables. (Yes, they do remove the
thorns.) Its fruit, the prickly pear, can be eaten raw or fermented into
beer.
Pepitas (pumpkin seeds): ground to use for
flavoring.
Recado: spice paste with some combination of
cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, oregano, cumin, garlic, coriander,
vinegar, and sour orange. Comes in many variations,
of which the most common is achiote recado,
used in dishes such as cochinita pibil
and pollo pibil.
Salsa mexicana: tomatoes, onion,
Serrano or jalapeno chili peppers, salt, lime and cilantro; very hot.
Salsa verde (green sauce): made from
roasted tomatillos and hot chilis,
garlic, cilantro and onions; mildly hot.
Sour (Seville) orange: green, thick-skinned
orange, often used in sauces; tastes like a combination of lime and
orange.
Taco: fresh corn tortilla.
Tomatillo: small, green relative of a
tomato, very tart.
Xnipec (shnee'-pec) salsa:
habaneros, tomatoes, sour oranges - very spicy.
Classic Dishes
Cochinita pibil: one of the
Yucatan's most famous dishes; suckling pig rubbed with
achiote recado,
wrapped in banana leaves and slow cooked - traditionally, in a pit.
Empanadas: pastry dough most often filled
with beef or cheese, fried.
Frijoles con puerco: pork and
black bean stew, seasoned with epazote
and chilis.
Huevos motulenos: breakfast dish
of tortillas topped with black bean paste, fried eggs, green peas, cubed
ham, cheese, and salsa.
Panuchos: half-fried corn tortillas
stuffed with beans and topped with chicken, cheese, avocado, and pickled
onions. Salbutes are similar, but don't have the beans.
Papadzules: chopped hard-boiled eggs
wrapped in corn tortillas dipped in pumpkin seed
recado, topped with
salsa mexicana.
Pastores: pork cut into thin strips and
marinated in adobo sauce, skewered and cooked over
low flame, then piled on soft tacos with onions and
sometimes pineapple.
Pescado Tikinxic: fish rubbed with
achiote recado and
charbroiled or baked in banana leaves.
Poc-chuc: pork marinated in
sour orange sauce and achiote
recado, then grilled.
Pollo pibil: chicken rubbed with
achiote recado,
wrapped in banana leaves and cooked slowly, traditionally in a pit.
Quesadillas: flour tortillas with
cheese and other ingredients, baked or fried until the cheese melts.
Queso relleno: hollowed-out Edam or
Gouda cheese stuffed with spicy minced pork or beef mixed with raisins,
olives, almonds and spices, then steamed until the stuffing is runny.
Served in slices covered with cream sauce.
Sopa de lima: soup of chicken or
turkey with vegetables, flavored with lime and a touch of
habanero pepper.
Tamales: steamed corn dumplings pressed
into a corn husk, then filled (often with pork) and steamed.
Drinks
Aquas frescas: water with pulped fruits (watermelon, cantelope,
mangoes, tamarind, etc.) and sugar. Ask if the water is bottled.
Horchata: blend of finely ground rice, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon,
and sometimes milk; non-alcoholic.
Micheladas: dark Yucatan beer such as Negra Modelo mixed with
lemon or lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and Tabasco.
Xtabentun: alcoholic liqueur (30%!) made with honey, rum and
anise seed; like very sweet Sambuca or ouzo with a honey aftertaste.
Used in Mayan coffee.
For the Meek:
empanadas or quesadillas
with cheese, sopa de lima.
For the Bold:
Xnipec salsa: the hottest the restaurant offers
(perhaps on panuchos)
For the
Digestively Challenged
Low carb & diabetic: cochinita pibil,
pollo pibil,
pescado tikinxic, poc-chuc,
queso relleno
Low fat: pescado tikinxic,
pollo pibil, sopa de
lima
Vegetarians: perhaps a nopal cactus salad (ensalada
de nopales) - check the menu for ingredients
Links to recipes
Cochinita pibil:
http://www.dianaskitchen.com/page/pork/pibil.htm
Huevos motulenos:
http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECIPES/mexican_food_cooking/eggs_motul_mexican.html
Michelada:
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink5334.html
Papadzules:
http://www.restmex.com/recipes/0301papadzules.shtml
Poc chuc:
http://www.mexgrocer.com/mexcocina-mar1.html
Recipes for many other dishes
can be found by doing an Internet search of the name of the dish.
Copyright
©
2008 Dianne & Salvatore Durante, all
rights reserved.
This list was
originally prepared for participants on the Quent Cordair Fine Arts
Cruise
on Royal Caribbean's
Voyager of the Seas, January 2008
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