Eating on the Street

Is it safe to eat street food? Well, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? It depends. How adventurous are you feeling? How strong is your stomach? How susceptible are you to intestinal problems? How hungry are you?

In general, cooked food is safer than raw food, although safe is a relative term in this context, since every body is different. There’s always at least a small risk involved in eating out, a risk only you can decide is worth it or not. You’ll have to go with your gut on this one. Ha.

What follows is my take on the most common foods sold on the street. I suggest that you start slowly and see what agrees with you and what doesn’t.

Keep in mind that few of these vendors speak English, so unless you already speak Spanish, be bold, point a lot, and smile widely.

The Tamale Stand

You can recognize tamale stands by the tall, cylindrical metal pots that are set up on tables in the early morning and evening. These pots are loaded with warm tamales made with a soft masa (dough made from corn), stuffed with meat and wrapped in a corn husk.

Popular flavors are rojo (red), which are usually made with pork, and verde (green), which are usually made with chicken. Sometimes vendors will have sweet tamales, dulce, made with pineapple or strawberry and sweetened masa.

Some vendors sell Oaxacan tamales, which are also made with masa and meat, but often feature mole sauce and are wrapped in banana leaves. Both kinds are delicious.

If the texture of your tamale is gummy and/or bland, find a different vendor. A good tamale will have an almost fluffy texture, with a mild masa flavor and a well-seasoned sauce.

Atole

Accompanying the tamales is often a large pot containing atole, a traditional drink made with chocolate or vanilla flavored corn starch and/or corn flour. Allow me to digress momentarily about the chocolate atole.

Just as there are Spanish cognates (words that sound alike in English and Spanish but don't necessarily mean the same thing), there are also Mexican food cognates, foods which you think you recognize, but really, you don't.

Chocolate atole is one of these. You will swear it must be hot chocolate until you take a big swig and then you will wonder what exactly is in your mouth. Instead, take a small sip, expecting a very thick, hot drink with something like a whiff of chocolate, and eventually you will acquire a taste for it, and perhaps even a hankering.

If you wanna feel like a local, hit the tamale stand on a chilly morning. Grab a tamal and an atole to go. There's nothing quite like it.

Gorditas

If you’re out on the town In the afternoons and evenings, you will likely happen upon a lady cooking gorditas and elote on a large comal that looks something like a giant wok.

A gordita is the Mexican version of a pita bread sandwich, the "bread" something like a very thick tortilla and the fillings, or guisados, previously cooked combinations of meat and vegetables, often housed in blue speckled kitchenware.

The cook will fry the dough and then ask you which fillings you would like. Pointing to whatever looks good works just fine in this case. Vegetarian options are often available, e.g., cubed potatoes, beans or nopales (cactus).

Elote

Corn on the cob (elote) is often sold alongside gorditas. Don't be expecting sweet, juicy roasted corn - this strain of corn is much starchier and less sweet. Mexicans make up for its rather bland taste by slathering it with mayonnaise, sour cream and hot sauce. When in Rome….

Ice Cream

You’ll be extra grateful for the ice cream stand when the temperatures start to climb and the sweat starts to drip!

Vendors set up all over town, their "refrigeration" supplied via metal containers wrapped in towels. It’s amazing how well this system works!

Mexican ice cream is less "milky" than ice cream north of the border, but still delicious in its own right. Take advantage of being in Mexico and try some of the fruit flavors - mango, papaya, lime (limón) and strawberry (fresa) are especially delicious.

The Taco Stand

Authentic Mexican street tacos are tiny, soft, served on small corn tortillas, and function as both a little snack as well as, en masse, a great meal. Look for a metal trailer on wheels, a pineapple hanging on one end and several men standing over a sizzling grill wildly flipping tortillas.

Taco types typically include al pastor (the Mexican version of the Greek gyro, in which pork is roasted on a vertical rotisserie and flavored with pineapple), bistek (yep, that’s steak!) and chorizo (Mexican sausage).

You can also often order a gringa (not to be confused with a Caucasian female), which is a quesadilla made with a flour tortilla (the white kind...get it?), cheese, and whatever sort of meat you choose. Your tacos will be accompanied by salsa (hot sauce) and verduras (vegetables) such as sliced onion, limes and cilantro.

The cilantro is for sprinkling on top of your filling and the lime is for squeezing over everything. Prepared as such, just one bite will convince you that you have died and gone to taco heaven.

Finding the best tacos is easy - just look for a long line come 10pm on a Saturday night.

In a Restaurant

Here are the top three things you need to know about eating in a restaurant in San Miguel:

1. 99.9% of the time, the water served to you in a restaurant is bottled water. If it makes you feel better, you can order your own bottle of water.

2. In Mexico, you need to ask for the bill. Mexicans don’t want you to feel like you’re being rushed, so they won’t bring the bill until you request it.

3. Service is perhaps not as fast as what you might be used to. Plan accordingly, and think twice before you complain - it’s certainly not going to make you feel happier, and it might not actually speed anything up.

Bonus Tip: As you leave the restaurant, it’s polite to say buen provecho (enjoy your meal) to the folks who are still eating. It might seem weird speaking to strangers, but here in San Miguel, it's simply good manners.