Mole burrito? Behind the scene from Mexico no.1
Happy Thursday!
Here is a little behind the scene of Montessori Hut / our life in Mexico,
and a cultural blunder we made. Pop the kettle on and enjoy.
(btw read to the end for a time limited special offer).
So the city we are staying in is called Oaxaca (wahaca - a Mexico restaurant chain is named after it in the UK).
It's known for the mountain, large indigenous population, art and FOOD!
How we chose here for our gap term? Tell you another day.
Back to grasshopper and mole.
On our very first trip to central Oaxaca,
we dropped into a little eatery called "La popular",
because we half recognise what it means, and it seems like a safe choice. 😅
Google translation showed us what's on the menu,
Our oldest child, M was an adventurous eater and
upon studying the menu,
he bravely said "I will have the grasshopper on my salad".
Grasshopper (chapulines) stalls in market
The rest of us quietly admired him.
Then he saw something else - there's also mole on the menu.
Mole?? The little wiggly animal that dig around?
I guess it's a mountainous area after all, I thought to myself.
I remember myself saying
"Ah, maybe it's a local delicacy, but probably too much for today."
I'm laughing out loud at myself as I think back.
If the waiter understood me I think he would have died of laughters too.
So we didn't touch mole for a while, and steered away from mole - burritos (see photo below).
Until slowly, we realised, it's actually not the animal mole.
Mole is indeed a local delicacy,
but it means sauce, and pronounced as mou-lei, like in guacamole!
Oaxaca mole includes spice, chili, nuts, chocolate even.
Eaten with taco, rice, just about anything.
About the most heart warming favour you can think of.
Later, we went on a food market tour,
When a plate with black, yellow and green mole sauce was served,
Our youngest child J ate with so much ease and contentment,
like he's been eating it all his life.
I said to my husband-
Now I know why we are in Mexico.
Jem was Mexican in his previous life,
and he wants to be back for some more MOLE！Jem reunited with MOLE from his previous life, during our market food tour
So this is me doing my bit for Mexico culture,
so no readers of mine will miss out MOLE for the wrong reasons.
Or if you or I had read this book, we would have been much better prepared for world food!
A Taste of the World (be much better prepared than me!)
What cultural blunders have you had? Please write back and tell me - I would love to hear them. I promise I'll reply (no AI was or will be used in my replies).