17 May 2007

chiles

chiles at the post in mercado la merced, yesterday between mangos for 2 points a kilo and a witches cauldron of guanabana puree. i'll also have you know there are four kinds of sapote i've seen -- the mamey sapote (salmon colored, vulvlic seeds, really sweet), the chickoo sapote (common to india, very sweet, brown), the white sapote (green on the outside, haven't tried it), and the black sapote (a ball of gooey tar that uz once descibed as mexican acai and im compelled to agree. it is pudding).

all of which speaks to the infinite density of the amazonian project, how exotics we view as singular from afar turn out to be whole communities of exotic goodness up front. there as many kinds of apples as wines with as many varities and subtleties of perfume. we learned the same about mangos in india -- the pepper mango, the coconut mango, etc -- and now im learning that the once fabled and unique sapote is in reality a whole family of strange fruit trees shedding their sweet goodness on the violent crowns of this tropical mestizaje.

(back to the chiles)

ancho (reddish with a clear hint, a dried poblano)
mulato (almost black)
pasilla (longer skinnier spicier than the first two)

chile del arbol and the puya
guajillo

morita
mora
meco (the last three all beings kinds of chipotle, which is a form of dried xalapeno, i think...)


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because elephants are vegetarian.
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