Job Discussion Forums

[ryandem]

I will soon be in Mexico and am looking for the Spanish names of vegetarian foods. Stuff that you could find at street food vendors as well as well as basic restaurants. Any help would be greatly appreciated as it will help vary my diet a bit.

I do realise that many foods can contain chicken stock, etc....that may remain hidden to the naked eye, I will accept this as it may be my only option.

Thanks,
Ryan

[Insubordination]

Fellow veg here, vegan actually. Get a 'vegan passport' in Spanish (google it). You take it around with you and it explains what you eat and can't eat in the local language. I speak Spanish but haven't been to Mexico. I call beans porotos but they call 'em frijoles I think.

[ryandem]

The "Vegan Passport" seems like a cool thing, but I am wanting more names of specific dishes. When I lived in China it took me 2 months to compile a list of veggie dishes I could eat, so I would like to try to get a jump on this list.

[NinaNina]

We're a family of four vegetarian/vegans living in Oaxaca and find it easy to eat just about anywhere (we, too, do not scrutinize on the chicken stock issue, but we try to avoid lard).

The roving carts and fondas sell un monton of veggie options: elote, tortas (say "sin carne" and they'll put in some cheese and/or veggies), molletes (bean sandwiches), tamales (can be a lard issue, but how I love black bean & epazote, chibil, and tamales dulces con pasas), memelas (again, most have a tiny bit of lard), tlayudas (I think this may be an "only in Oaxaca" dish), chile rellenos, tostadas, Sopa Azteca (some versions have chicken & chicharon, some do not), empanadas sin carne, quesadillas with flor de calebaza, and the tons of fresh fruit and veggies, some prepared with chili, lime, and salt. I also love to hit the bakeries and grab an agua fresca on the run. Tonight I scored some mushroom tacos. If you eat eggs, then breakfast is your friend. Chilaquiles, Spanish-style tortilla, huevos a la Mexicana, huevos rancheros. Provecho!

[notamiss]

Let me add to Nina's list, and elaborate on some items from a central Mexico (DF) point of view.

Tamales, sadly, are made with lard (even the sweet ones!) and broth but if you decide not to be picky about that there are many options; tamales de rajas (strips of chiles, often with cheese), tamales de verduras (e.g. a zucchini, tomato and corn combination), tamales de quelites (chenopodium greens), tamales de dulce (sweet tamales, usually containing some fruit), but if you are willing to pick out the chunk of meat, you can enjoy any kind of tamal.

"Tortas" is a name for two completely different dishes. One is a sandwich in a roll. As Nina mentioned, ask for one with just cheese, no meat (the torta rusa is simply 3 kinds of cheese). Torta is also the name of a patty held together with egg. These can include tortas de papa (potato patties), tortas de huauzontle (yum! stalks of chenopodium with cheese in the middle), tortas de espinacas (spinach patties) and more. (Caution, there are also exist fish and meat tortas; tortas de at�n and tortas de carne.) Also, tortas de papa are sometimes made with tuna (at�n).

Chiles rellenos (de queso): Poblano chiles stuffed with cheese and dipped in egg batter & fried (if you eat egg).

Quesadillas of anything meatless; often at small stands, they will be made in front of you and you can pick your fillings; vegetarian options usually available are mushroom, cheese, squash blossom (flor de calabaza) and if in season, huitlacoche. There may also be a potato filling, but often it contains sausage.

In restaurants, sopa de fideos; noodle soup in tomato broth. Also sopa de tortilla; very hearty and tasty with fried tortilla strips, cubes of white cheese and avocado. At worst, it may have some pieces of chicharron but you can pick them out. Caldo de verduras (vegetable soup) is often free of meat; you can ask.

Gorditas or sopes: These are small thick tortillas with a little border pinched around them to hold in the fillings which are typically beans, sauce, lettuce, cheese and cream. Ask for them to leave off the chicken, and be sure the gorditas or sopes aren't the kind with bits of chicharr�n in the dough.

Tostadas and huaraches are similar in principle, except that the tortilla base is a different shape or thickness or texture.

Tlacloyos are like large oval gorditas, except that they are flat (not pinched) and the tortilla part is stuffed with a layer of beans.

Note that if you ask whether something has meat, you will quite likely be told "no" if it has chicken, so to be quite certain there are no dead animals in it, you have to inquire whether an item has meat, poultry or fish.

[ryandem]

This all helps a lot. Thanks, this will make my time in Mexico much more enjoyable.

[Guy Courchesne]

[notamiss]

Elotes, corn on the cob (boiled or roasted); and esquites, fresh corn kernels boiled with herbs, served in a cup and topped with your choice of lemon juice, mayonnaise and/or cayenne pepper.

[chola]

I was looking for some recipes and came across this. Some descriptions of different foods...maybe it can help,

http://www.lomexicano.com/antojitos_mexican_food.htm

[MELEE]

I often tell people that it is very easy to be vegetarian in Mexico, but challenging to be vegan--unless you give up on eating out. Pretty much every thing is topped with some kind of cheese or cream, and there are always egg dishes on every menu. Most people don't understand why you would want to avoid dairy and eggs or will insist that a fish dish is vegetarian. I think people who are lactose intolerent have a harder time eating out than vegetarians do.

BTW in quelites in Oaxaca is any eatible greens that are grown in a corn field as a first crop--basically eatible weeds, not just chenopodium. I mention this because I've found a wide variety in the taste of quelites, some have a very strong flavor I didn't like, others were spinach like, others really mild.

[dixie]

[notamiss]

I recently found some vegetarian fake meat hamburgers and meatballs at Gigante that are the best ones I've tried in Mexico so far; tastier than the ones at the little naturalista shops.

[dixie]

[notamiss]

OK, I just checked. The brand name was "SAVE" (made by the "Salus Verde" company.) They weren't frozen, and they were on the open refrigerated shelves.

And Comercial Mexicana has falafel, tahini sauce and pita bread in their refrigerated section.

[Guy Courchesne]

The last year has seen two new suppliers of hummus, pita, and jocoque stocking shelves of various grocery stores in DF, much to my delight.