The internet is buzzing with something called the “Super Bowl” so I needed to find out what it was and get in the game! Hehe. I used to follow football when I was younger, at least I knew when the Super Bowl was and what teams were playing. But for the last several years I haven’t been as excited about it. However, I’ve been seing all the amazing food ideas that are flying around the Foodie Blog-o-sphere and I didn’t want to be left out. Here I present to you my 15 snack ideas for the Super Bowl. GO GIANTS!

1. Chorizo and chipotle refried beans
2. Salpicon tostadas
3. Chicken sopes with guacamole
4. Mexican bruscheta
5. Quesadillas Potosinas
6. Fish tacos with mango salsa (or just the salsa)
7. Chicharron salad/salsa
8. Tilapia tostadas
9. Mini molletes
10. Ensalada nochebuena (healthy option)
11. Avocado dip
12. Stuffed Onions
13. Avocado salad (healthy option)
14. Bean salsa in mini tortilla cups
15. Mango guacamole (my personal favorite)

Happy Super Bowl Weekend and Buen Provecho!

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments |
Post tags: Avocado, Guacamole, Mexican food, Snacks, Super Bowl

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the night at a friends’ house in Colonia Roma. Erik and Liz Vance did an outstanding job. They were amazing hots.

Liz prepared mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, three different kinds of pie (pumpkin, pecan and apple), brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce and a HUGE turducken. Erik made Glögg, a Swedish warm wine that was delicious! Jon made pumpkin chili and a corn casserole and I made avocado rolls and pumpkin flan.

There were 19 people total. Some people flew from California and Virginia for this dinner. We all had such a great time! Here are the pictures of this unforgettable night. I hope you enjoy it. How was your Thanksgiving?

¡Buen provecho!

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments |
Post tags: American food, American traditions, Mexico City, Thanksgiving

Last month I announced I wanted to take this blog in a different direction to change that. After a lot of thought I finally decided what I wanted to do with it. For the past 4 years it has been mostly a recipe and cooking blog. I love cooking, learning about new cuisines and trying new ingredients and I’ve had a blast doing it for this blog.

However, I want the main topic of this blog to be about Mexican cuisine and Mexico in general. I want this space to be a window into the amazing food this city and country offer and how that links to every aspect of Mexican life.

I won’t stop cooking, experimenting with food and posting about it, though. I will still try to post 3 to 4 recipes a month. But most of the new content will be about markets, food, towns, traditions and experiences in Mexico.  The home page shows the topics or categories I will be writing about.

But that’s not all. Jon will be contributing to this blog in a regular basis. He’ll share his experiences with food and life in general as an expat in Mexico City. He will also be an editor, travel companion, guinea pig and everything in between to help bring better content to the readers and visitors of this blog.

Why the change?

I guess I can summarize this with a comment I heard from an American visitor last week while I was taking a taco tour with Lesley Tellez. This lady from New York had been in Mexico City for less than a day and she said she was very surprised with the city. I asked her if it was a good or bad surprise. She said it was a very pleasant surprise. Before visiting she had a long list of myths about Mexico that she had been crossing out. She also said she wished her stay was longer because she was not going to be able to do and see everything she now wanted to.

Mexico in general has had some very bad press from the news organizations lately. But that’s not the only problem. Mexico City doesn’t get enough press, good or bad. Every visitor I’ve had from the U.S. during the last year has been impressed at how much this city of 8 million people has to offer in terms of food and culture.

I’m the first one to admit the country faces great challenges and that many things in the city need to change to make it a first class city. However, I’m very proud of what we have, our food, history and people. I want the world to know this is a great place to visit and this is a paradise for foodies and photographers.

This space will show you the other Mexico you don’t hear about on the news, the Mexico with the delicious food, breathtaking landscapes and friendly people.

Welcome to our adventures in Mexico!

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments |
Post tags: Mexico, News

Read the rest of Chicken Sopes with Mango Guacamole

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments |
Post tags: Avocado, Easy recipes, Guacamole, Mango, Mexican food

Fish tacos with mango salsa

Cecina tacos with nopal salsa

Mango guacamole

Bean salsa in mini tortilla cups

Spring mango salad

Mexican bruschetta

¡Buen provecho!

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments |
Post tags: Cinco de mayo, Easy recipes, Mango, Mexican celebrations, Mexican food

Read the rest of SlowFood Tamalada

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments |
Post tags: Events, Mexican chefs, Mexican food, Slow Food, Tamales

Well, that time of the year is upon us again and it is time for the What’s Cooking team (only one and in Mexico City now) to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful and prosperous New Year. This year has been difficult for me, but also a lot of new opportunities opened up and I’m sure 2011 will be a great year. I hope that all my friends, readers and occasional visitors also have a great year. Things only can get better, right?

The truffles from this picture were made using the same recipe for these garabato cookies filling. You only need to let the chocolate cool down a little bit more before forming the balls and then pass them through confectioner’s sugar or chocolate sprinkles. They are delicious and also a great idea for last minute gifts. I am aware that I owe you guys the recipe for the amaranth cookies but my mom wants to make sure she has the right amounts so we’ll make them again this weekend to write down the measurements. I’ll send it out or post it next week. As well as the recipe for the chocolates below. My mom and I are very bad at writing down recipes, hehe.

I might be around next week, but if not I’ll see you all in 2011. Have a feast with your loved ones and enjoy life that it’s too short to be a worrier, better be a warrior (I stole this saying  from my friend Peter).

¡Have a great end of the year and Buen Provecho!

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2010. | Permalink | 13 comments |
Post tags: Christmas, Good wishes, Holidays

A couple of weeks ago I thought I wasn’t going to do anything for Thanksgiving and that I was going to be depressed because this would be the first time in many years that I would be away from my family and friends in Ohio. But fortunately, I’ve been meeting some amazing people in Mexico that changed that perspective. Some weeks ago I met Nicholas Gilman who writes the blog Good Food in Mexico City and who is the author of the book with the same name. He had a tapas dinner party at his place where I met a lot more interesting people like his partner Jim Jonhston, Steven McCutcheon, Michael Parkers and Ruth Alegria among many others.

On Thanksgiving my friend Marco took me to a restaurant in the Marriot Hotel Reforma, where they were serving a Thanksgiving menu. The food wasn’t the classical Thanksgiving dinner I’m used to, but it was good. They didn’t get some things right, like instead of cranberry sauce they served the turkey with blackberry sauce, but I did get to spend the evening with an amazing friend and not just sitting at home being miserable.

Ruth, a lovely person and amazing chef, invited me to her after-giving-thanks dinner that she hosted at her place on Friday. It was an unforgettable evening and I had the opportunity to meet more people like the very talented June Jacobs, who cooked with Julia Child, Rachel Laudan, a historian who writes about food history, Nicté Bustamante, a very talented Mexican columnist and Jorge Silva, who runs a very nice bead and breakfast in Mexico City, among many others. There’s a lot I could say about this great evening, but as usual, I am better at expressing myself through the lens of my camera so I’ll let it tell you the story:

¡Thank you Ruth and buen provecho!

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments |
Post tags: Foodies, Friends, Mexico, Thanksgving

Read the rest of A new adventure

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2010. | Permalink | 14 comments |
Post tags:

Browsing the web I found this very interesting article by Corby Kummer about Walmart. I do most of my grocery shopping at three places, the Mexican market closest to my house, Kroger and Walmart. I’ve found that produce and meat is fresher and cheaper at the Mexican market (besides I like the idea of asking a butcher to get your meat and not having to pick it up already cut and wrapped from a shelf) while other groceries (oil, grains, cereals, pasta, canned goods, etc) are cheaper at Walmart. For more specialized items I go to Kroger or the North Market in downtown Columbus and very rarely I visit Whole Foods.

Part of this is convinience. Kroger and the Mexican market are close to my house and there’s a Walmart right across the street from my gym. But mainly my shopping is categorized that way because of prices. I do, however, can’t stop feeling guilty every time I enter a Walmart. There are many reasons, but the main one is that big supermarkets like this had a hand in destroying local economies. But after reading Kummer’s article I kind of felt less guilty (?) about shopping at Walmart.

Besides, for my surprise, I’ve found a lot of articles that I never thought would be in their shelfs. For example, the chicken we are eating for dinner tonight is Harvestland chicken (I hate Tyson and all that chicken with added “broth”). They now carry Oikos Greek Yogurt, King Arthur Flour and a lot of produce from local farmers (as well as produce from all around the world).

Is Walmart trying to compete with Whole Foods for a share of the concious-eater market? Is this shift driven by economics only? Whatever the reason they have caugth the attention of many people. They are a HUGE company and whatever they do always have consecuences. Let’s just hope that this new policies are for the greater good.

What do you think?

© Ben for What's Cooking Mexico, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments |
Post tags: Grocery Shopping, News, Walmart, Whole Foods