World Cup/Mexican Snacks

I watched the World Cup final at my friend Alejandro Maroto’s house. We had a great time watching Spain win the honors of “Best in the World.” This event gave me more insight into my new interest, soccer, but the day was not without some culinary observations. Before I talk about soccer, let’s talk about Mexican snacks.

Whoa Rick. What do you mean Mexican snacks? I thought you were all about shared borders and not forcing labels onto bits of culture that can easily be found on both sides of the border.

Well “imaginary voice,” I can’t find these snacks in the U.S. so therefore I refer to them as Mexican. Shall we take a look.

Let’s start with the chips. Ruffles makes these amazing Queso chips through a Mexican company called Sabritas. They have the same rigid texture like regular Ruffles Potato Chips, but these have a strong cheese flavor combined with a hint of lime. Delicious.

On that note, I’m starting to think that Mexico’s chips are far better than the U.S.’s chips. Now I know that the U.S. has the market cornered on fancy chips. All the kettle-cooked stuff we have is great. But, when it comes to just “good ole “ fashion junk food chips, I think Mexico wins hands down.

Next, the beer. We had Indio which is made by the Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewing Company. Cuauhtémoc also makes other beers such as Dos Equis, Sol, Tecate and Bohemia. I first had this beer in 2005 in Guanajuato and I have to admit that I didn’t like it. I'm starting to think that this past dislike was probably due to a dirty keg connection because the Indios I hade at Maroto’s hit the spot. Indio is a dark beer, but does not have an overly strong flavor, which makes it go down very easy. I like my beers to go down easy during a sporting event so Indio won me over.

Along with our snacks, Maroto also made some fajitas. Fajitas can of course be found in the U.S., but the corn tortillas that accompanied the fajitas cannot. I cannot get over how much better and more abundant corn tortillas are here in D.F. Honestly, most of the food I’ve tried has a somewhat close equivalent in the U.S., but not the corn tortillas. I guess this perfection is the result of over 10,000 years of practice.

This is Maroto and Mayra.

I had a really good time watching the game and hanging out with my new found friends in Mexico City. After the game, we all were standing in a circle and I watched these guys argue over who is the best soccer player then they all started making fun of each other using various inside jokes (Bariloche?).

I laughed at what I understood, and enjoyed the rest simply by being there. I put the fajitas on my corn tortilla, squirted some lime on the meat, added some salsa and devoured my taco. After my first bite, I took a big pull of Indio. This may not be how everybody in Mexico watches soccer, but it will forever be the way I picture it.

Other thoughts:

We had a fun day watching the game, but my favorite part came after the game when all the guys went outside to play a pick-up game, or as it’s called here a cascara. I believe a cascara can refer to any game that is not a “league game” or does not involve referees.

Here are some pics of the guys playing soccer on the street.