Sistema de Grabación y control de calidad

Good food and good cooking have become fashionable in Mexico in recent years. The number of eating places, from simple taquerías that offer unpre-tentious fare to elaborate, upscale restaurants where clients gather both to eat fine food and to see and be seen, have increased tenfold since the early 1980s. Urban Mexico has become a delight for gourmets. In the 1970s, restaurants served mostly nondescript international food to fill the demands of the tourist industry; although fine restaurants existed, they were few in number. Today, eating places are filled with the local population, who have become demanding customers, knowledgeable about food and possessing refined palates.

The number of food stalls, taquerías, torterías, fondas, loncherías, cafés, and elegant restaurants catering to different social and economic levels is truly prodigious. People living in urban areas are increasingly eating outside the home, because the increase of women in the labor force gives them less time and energy to spend in the kitchen. Daily food preparation is less complex than it used to be, but even so, it is easier and sometimes even less expensive to eat out. In terms of nutrition, it is preferable to prepare home-cooked meals, but because this is not always feasible, people have learned to make use of other options to fill their nutritional needs. Street foods play an important role in providing food for a large percentage of the Mexican population.

STREET FOOD

Mexico has a long tradition in selling street food. This has been de-scribed as food and drinks sold on public streets, ready for consumption,

prepared and offered by nonpermanent sellers in the city streets.¹The pro-liferation of food stands is not only a reflection of busy schedules or the lack of time for leisurely eating—although these two factors are important in explaining the abundance of street-food establishments—but is also the continuation of a long-established tradition in eating habits. Long be-fore the arrival of the Spaniards in sixteenth century, Aztec vendors set up food stalls in the markets to serve the general public, who came to pur-chase the many stews, fish, insects, sauces, and tortillas prepared daily for sale there.² This custom continued throughout the colonial and inde-pendent periods of Mexican history and continues on an even larger scale today.

There are many reasons for the increase in street-food establishments;

among them is the deterioration of the economic situation in rural Mex-ico, resulting in a lack of available jobs in those areas, which contributes to the migration of able-bodied workers to the cities. The expansion of Mexico City forces workers and students to travel long distances from their homes to their places of work or universities, making it almost im-possible for them to return home for their midday meal. Street food is also a reflection of unemployment and underemployment of people who are not qualified for more complex jobs.

The majority of the Mexican working class cannot afford to eat in a restaurant or even a fonda, and there are many options in street stands available for those who need to find a quick, inexpensive meal. Street food is the most convenient choice for many, in terms of both location and price. Some people take a hard-roll sandwich (torta) from home, while others choose to order a more substantial meal from a street vendor.

Temporary food stands can be found on city corners; outside bus or sub-way stations; near markets; in public parks; near factories, office buildings, or hospitals; or wherever there are plenty of people looking for a good, quick lunch. Some vendors serve food from the trunks of their cars or from inside vans. When they have finished selling all the food, they merely drive away with their empty pots and pans and return the follow-ing mornfollow-ing with a fresh supply of prepared food. Other vendors are truly itinerant and carry a basket of tacos or tortas to sell on a staked-out street corner.

Some stands are semipermanent, in which case they may have access to electricity and running water. A portable gas tank may be connected to the grill and used to cook or heat the food, or they may use a round metal griddle placed over a charcoal brazier, which gives good, even heat for long periods of time. Most street stands do not have these conveniences

and offer few amenities such as a washbowl or paper towels to wash and dry the hands. Plastic plates, forks, and spoons are generally provided, as well as paper napkins. If the food being served is tacos, they may be served on large squares of butcher paper that absorb the dripping sauce and hot oil and can be tossed into the garbage pail after eating. Tacos are eaten by holding them between the thumb and fingers, so no cutlery is needed.

Some stands offer a complete meal consisting of soup served in a plastic or Styrofoam cup, a meat stew, Mexican red rice, beans, and tortillas, served on a small, rectangular Styrofoam tray. A soft drink, to be drunk straight out of the bottle, and extra hot sauce complete the meal. This type of food is nutritious, filling, inexpensive, and probably cheaper than what a housewife could prepare at home. It is also within the Mexican food tra-dition, which many customers look for when choosing a place to eat.

There are many types of food offered by street stands; the most common ones provide one or more foods from the following groups of foods:

1. Peeled and sliced fruit, which may be eaten with the fingers, is offered by fresh-fruit stands. Peeled and carved mangoes impaled on a wooden stick are popular choices, as are slices of apples, oranges, pineapple, watermelon, or pears. Jícamas, carrots, and cucumbers are also favorite selections. Ground chile pepper, lemon wedges, and salt are usually offered to accentuate the fruit’s flavor. Fruit stands offer nutritious food that is a good source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

2. Shaved ice (raspados) made from syrups of natural fruits are popular; however, care must be taken to make sure the ice is made with clean water. Ice-cream bars and popsicles sold from small refrigerated carts are a safer purchase and have almost taken over the market.

3. Hot snacks such as quesadillas and sopes are good choices since they are made on the spot, served hot, and have less chance of being contaminated. They are traditional high-energy foods, made of a wide variety of choices. Quesadillas may be filled with cheese, potatoes with sausage, squash flowers, huitlacoche, chicken in a tomato sauce, or shredded beef.

4. Tacos, especially those called “perspiring tacos” (tacos sudados) are a popular traditional food, served from a basket; however, if they are kept at room tem-perature for too long, they may spoil and become a source of intestinal infec-tions.

5. Stews are traditional dishes made with meat and served with tortillas for mak-ing tacos. The meat mixture should be kept hot to prevent spoilage.

6. Tamales and atole are considered excellent choices, as tamales can be kept warm in a metal tamale steamer, while atole maintains its warm temperature if kept in a thermal jug.

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7. Fresh corn on the cob (elotes) is a favorite street food and can be found in the evenings on many street corners, especially near movie theaters. Tender ears of corn are pulled out of a pot of hot water and served covered with grated cheese, chile powder, mayonnaise, or simply with a generous sprinkling of salt.

These fried-food stands were traditionally set up in urban squares, in parks, or near churches in the evenings. They can now be found through-out the city at all hours of the day. Occasional hot-dog stands appear on the scene, but they appear to have less of a public than traditional Mexi-can snacks or light foods.

Setting up a street-food stand is a rather simple process. Little capital or experience in the management of food is required. Temporary stands do not bother getting a license or permit to sell food, so technically they are illegal businesses. A more serious problem may be finding a good location on a busy street corner that has not been already taken by a previous ven-dor. Boundaries must be respected by newcomers to the area. More women than men are involved in serving street foods. Often it is a single mother who involves her entire family in the business. Family members may participate in the purchasing, preparation, and selling of the food.

Wholesale markets are used to purchase basic products in large quantities at lower prices. The average age of vendors fluctuates between 20 and 50 years old.³The level of education of people in this profession is low; many are illiterate and would have difficulty finding employment in other areas.

A street-stand owner makes approximately double the minimum wage and thus has a higher income than a factory worker, and works between 5 and 12 hours a day.⁴The average client of a street-food stand is a worker who has a similar profile as the food sellers, with a low level of education and little regard for cleanliness in the handling of food.

On the positive side, food stands offer quick, nutritious, and sometimes very good food at minimal prices and at convenient locations. On the negative side, the food served may be contaminated by dust, lead, or car fumes from passing traffic. Uncovered pots of food are an attraction for flies and other insects. Cleanliness is not usually the priority of the food vendors, especially if they do not have water available. In those stands where there is only one attendant, he or she may handle the money when charging a customer and serve the food as well, without washing his or her hands.

People who patronize street-food stands were once disparagingly called los agachados,or “those who eat squatting on the ground,” because there were no stools or chairs for them to sit on. This is now a common way of

eating for millions of people, and there is no longer a social stigma at-tached to eating at a street stand.

Street food is a necessity in the everyday life of modern cities. City au-thorities realize the important role played by street-food stands in provid-ing quick and nutritious meals for the public and, even though many stands operate without a license or permit, they choose not to close them down. They do not pay city taxes, and they contribute to the lack of cleanliness of the city streets and may even be a source of bacterial infec-tions. Occasionally the media will warn the public of the danger of eating at food stands or provide recommendations on what to look for in choos-ing an appropriate stand.⁵There are too many in the city, and they are too mobile for the Health Department to be able to exercise much control over them.

Permanently established food vendors, called cocinas económicas, oper-ate from fixed installations and offer a full menu of soups, rices, pastas, stews, beans, and even desserts for a modest price. They must, however, follow city regulations and health requirements and pay taxes, which puts them at a disadvantage with regard to street-food stands. They are popu-lar with working housewives, who must divide their time between the workplace and home.

FONDAS

Another option for eating away from home can be found in small eater-ies called fondas. These are usually small restaurants with simple, unpre-tentious decoration that cater to office workers and set up their establishments near office buildings or wherever there are large groups of employees as potential customers. Many offer fixed menus, which are posted at the entrance, showing the food for the day. They usually offer chicken broth or another liquid soup, which may be a cream-of-vegetable soup. The second course will be a choice of Mexican rice or some sort of pasta with tomato sauce, paradoxically called a “dry soup,” or sopa seca.

The main dish may be tacos, enchiladas, stuffed vegetables, or even a meat dish in a sauce. The latter choice would raise the price of the meal.

Most fondas offer dessert, which is likely to be a custard known as flan, rice pudding, gelatin, or sliced bananas topped with cream and served with coffee. Any drinks, including bottled water, carry an additional charge.

The fixed menus have set prices and can be quite economical if one con-siders the amount of food received. Fonda owners consider street-food stands unfair competition as they do not have to pay rent, city taxes, or for

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the public services they use, and can offer food at much lower prices. Food served in fondas is under stricter controls on the part of health authorities and is generally more hygienic than food sold on the street.

Dry Vermicelli Soup (Sopa Seca de Fideos al Chipotle)

• 3 or 4 canned chipotle chiles en adobo

• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled

• 5 large tomatoes

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• one 10-ounce package vermicelli noodles, in nest shapes

• 1 cup beef broth

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

• 1/2 cup thick cream

• 2/3 cup finely grated Mexican añejo cheese or Parmesan

• chopped coriander, for garnish

Roast the unpeeled garlic on the griddle for about 15 minutes. Cool, then peel.

Roast half of the tomatoes on the griddle until black and charred. Cool, then peel.

In a food processor or blender, process the tomatoes, canned chiles, and garlic to a purée. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Mexican clay pot over medium-high heat.

Add the purée and stir for 5 minutes until it thickens. Set it aside. Brown the ver-micelli a few nests at a time in hot oil in skillet. Add verver-micelli and fry until quite browned. Remove with slotted spoon, draining as much oil as possible back into the skillet. Drain on paper towels. Continue until all vermicelli nests have been browned.

Add the broth, oregano, and pepper to the tomato sauce. Chop the remaining pound of tomatoes. Add them to the sauce and simmer briskly for about 5 min-utes. Taste and season with salt. Add the vermicelli nests, pulling them apart when they are soft enough. Add the zucchini and simmer until noodles are ten-der but firm, about 2 minutes.

Add cream, raise heat, and boil quickly for a few minutes. Stir in half the grated cheese, serve in warm soup bowls, and add remaining cheese on top with coriander for a garnish.

Many fondas specialize in regional foods, such as Oaxaca, Yucatán, Puebla, or Veracruz dishes. These are informal restaurants; some of them make use of patios or gardens to serve the public and are in reality too

large to be called fondas. There are many medium-sized restaurants that specialize in very good Mexican food and have been in business for decades. In a classification of restaurants, they would fall somewhere in between fondas and restaurants.

Eateries that specialize in vegetarian menus usually fall into the cate-gory of fondas. Small sidewalk cafés may specialize in serving snacks, sand-wiches, or pastries and soft drinks, as well as more substantial meals. Some cafés called churrerías specialize in Spanish-style deep-fried pastries called churros, which children and teenagers, who don’t have to worry about the extra calories, like to frequent.

Ice-cream shops often include sidewalk tables and chairs for the com-fort of their customers, and it is common to see entire families out for Sun-day ice cream. Mexico has a long tradition of making ice creams and sherbets from tropical fruits, some of them very exotic and refreshing.

Many neighborhoods have a favorite ice cream shop that local residents patronize, and long lines form around these popular outlets.

Coffee houses have become popular in recent years. Starbucks has re-cently made incursions in upscale neighborhoods, and they become pop-ular meeting places for the younger crowd, who consider it very hip to meet and order a chai latte at Starbucks. Sandwiches, salads, ice cream, cookies, and other pastries are popular items on the menu.

Fondas that Specialize in Specific Meals

Breakfasts have become popular meals in Mexico, both for the busi-nessman or lawyer who uses this time and occasion to close a deal in an informal atmosphere and for Mexican women who do not work and can spend the entire morning over coffee and gossip at the latest “in” café or restaurant.

Some fondas cater to the breakfast crowd and open their establishments as early as 5 or 5:30 in the morning and close at noon. The early morning hours are said to be for the benefit of those who have spent a night on the town and would like to eat some solid food before confronting family members at home. Hot, spicy food is said to make the body perspire and eliminate the effects of too much alcohol. More than likely, it is to bene-fit those who start an early workday and have no one to make their food at home at such an early hour. Many are neighborhood fondas that cater to the people in the local area.

An example of this type of eatery could be a fonda on the south side of Mexico City that has operated for nearly 50 years. It is located in a rustic

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warehouse-type building with the only amenities offered being trouba-dours who entertain the public with traditional guitar music and song.

Ten long, Formica-topped tables are used for seating clientele, who sit on long benches and share the tables with fellow companions in a most un-pretentious atmosphere. Plastic containers on the tables hold the neces-sary cutlery. Small bowls of hot sauce and plates of dried and fried chiles de árboldecorate the tables along with small plates of chopped onion, lemon wedges, and dried oregano leaves. There are no tablecloths or placemats.

The menu is different every day of the week. There is space for about 100 customers at a time. Service is informal, fast, and efficient. The long line outside the building discourages one from lingering over coffee, nor is this encouraged by the staff, who clearly want a quick turnover to serve as many customers as possible. Huge mole ollas decorate the walls and are used in the preparation of the food in the open kitchen. These, as well as cooking vats, are placed over large braziers called anafres burning thick

The menu is different every day of the week. There is space for about 100 customers at a time. Service is informal, fast, and efficient. The long line outside the building discourages one from lingering over coffee, nor is this encouraged by the staff, who clearly want a quick turnover to serve as many customers as possible. Huge mole ollas decorate the walls and are used in the preparation of the food in the open kitchen. These, as well as cooking vats, are placed over large braziers called anafres burning thick