Medellitin

It has long been on my list to make that amazing slow roasted pork dish of the yucatan: cochinita pibil.    Soak pork or chicken in a marinade made with a base of brick red achiote, garlic and sour orange juice, boosted with powerful spices like cinnamon, allspice, and clove. After an overnight marinade, wrap everything up in a banana leaf package, and let it roast for hours.  Serve with pickled onions augmented with the smoldering habanero chile. Or in my case, toss it in a plastic bag, vacuum seal and put in a 146 degree waterbath for a two hours.  I was worried about several factors going into this: Would the fresh garlic create that plastic-y, overly garlicy flavor that it is known to do?   The answer is: nope! Would the flavor of the banana leaf transfer and would I like the flavor?   The flavor of the banana leaf did come through, and without any surprises!   Chicken isn't pork, and its leanness doesn't really let you do any magi...

Previously on Altered Tastes, I discussed the joy of an amazing fresh tortilla.  the tortilla is ultimately a vessel for me.  a vessel to ferry meats, fish, shellfish and octopus , spicy salsa, salty cheese, fresh vegetables, broken glass, gravel, anthrax, etc. My first day in Mexico had me stomping through the flooded streets of Cabo San Lucas.  They don't get a lot of rain in Cabo, so stomping through the flooded streets of Cabo means stomping through one part water, one part mud and one part raw sewage.   During our travels, we walked by many things, including a mattress floating down the street.  However, on a side street somewhere, I walked right by perfection itself.  The spinning pillar of roasted meat.  Tthe spinning pillar of meat is sacred.  Ancient and Carnal.   Since we were exploring town and the streets were running with dysentery we didn't stop.  But I knew I would be back. Several days later I had some free time, whi...

Both Matt of mattbites and Ruhlman mentioned how fresh tortillas and salsas were his favorite experience during food blogger camp .  While I did not attend, I happened to be in a different part of Mexico around the same time.  I couldn't agree more.  The tortillas were unbelievably delicious.  I was in Cabo San Lucas, and even though everywhere I went I had completely different tortillas, they were all amazing.  During some of my adventures walking around town, I came across this place: The folks at Perla were kind enough to let us take some pictures of there tortilleria operation.  Sadly, this is what I do on vacation.  These two women were what we first saw when we entered the factory.  They perform two really valuable functions: packaging and quality control.  You can see in the middle they have stacks in front of them as well as a pile of rejects. The tortillas they were sorting were all coming out of this leviathan of a machine ...