I had amazing food while we were in Mexico. I did not try to follow my carnivore diet while I was there. I wanted to experience all the things.
My husband and I joked about trying to get all the squares to make bingo, in terms of eating at different types of establishments.
For example, our first meal was at a cafeteria type of place. They had several different establishments under one roof. You ordered and paid at a central kiosk, then whoever made that type of food would bring it to your table.
We ate at a dive. Had to go down four steps to enter the place. There was a bar in the middle of this very small space, with cooks on one side. Four chairs on the other. They did a brisk take-out business while we sat there and had amazing chilaquiles. We picked up tacos from a street vendor in a park, then had to go find a place to eat them. Similarly, we ate at a taco place that took up part of a sidewalk and had half a dozen plastic chairs for customers to sit at. We ate at fast-casual chains as well as one nicer restaurant.
I discovered back in 2017 that I could no longer eat dairy. A little bit of dairy can be okay, depending on the type and a few other things. A little bit more gives me a headache that lasts for twenty-four hours. More than that, and I get a migraine. This is something that I press up against all the damned time.
However, I could eat all the Mexican dairy that I wanted. I started easy, with just a small bit of cheese. By the end of our trip, I was having all the butter, cheese, milk, and ice cream that I wanted.
I never, ever, had a headache because of it.
I’m allergic to corn. I was tested for it when I was twelve. Corn always makes me swell up. I lose all the wrinkles on the backs of my fingers—they look like little swollen sausages. This is something that happens to me every time I have corn.
I suspected that my reaction was just to American corn. There’s a restaurant in Issaquah (Masa) that I love. I can eat their corn tortillas and have no reaction. Similarly, my eldest brother makes his own corn tortillas and I’ve never reacted to those either.
So yes, in Mexico, I was able to eat all the corn tortillas I wanted. And corn drinks, like champurrado (a hot chocolate that starts with corn meal). And corn ice cream. And…you get the idea.
I love rice. I lived in Asia for a couple of years and I ate rice every day. However, rice doesn’t love me. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to tolerate rice much less. It leaves me so bloated, swollen, and just feeling yucky.
Except—you got it—I could eat Mexican rice just fine.
We went looking for rice when we got back so my husband could make some horchata. That was when we discovered that all the rice in our grocery store was enriched with vitamins and iron. While I understand that’s a good thing in terms of white rice, for me, personally, I have to wonder if some of the chemicals they’ve added are what I’m reacting to, not the rice itself. We were able to find imported rice that wasn’t enriched in the specialty food aisle, and yes, I didn’t react at all to the horchata.
I ate beans while I was in Mexico. One of the places we ate at, that was in a market, kind of a fast food joint, had the most amazing black beans I’ve ever had. I could not identify the leafy herb that was served with the beans. It tasted something like a basil, but not an Italian basil or a Thai basil. This was something different. And tasty. (Possibly it was Mexican oregano—something I’m going to have to go find and experiment with.)
I also ate some bread while I was there. For the most part, bread still doesn’t do it for me. We tried the pan de dulche more than once. While it was good, it wasn’t great.
The churros on the other hand…yum.
And there was a Belgium bakery down there that had amazing European-style pastries that I tried. And again, no real problems.
I’ve gone back to my carnivore diet, now that I’m back in the US. There are just too many things that I’m allergic to, or that I can’t eat the American version of.
But it was really nice to take a break from it for a while. To try all the things. And to not suffer from the variation.
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