Fra_Diavolo

Apparently the ever gracious Mexicans are toning down the spices to please tourists and the loathsome digital nomads.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/w...smid=url-share.

Article "shared" for all.

If you can't stand the heat, stay home!

Melnq8

Weenies.

Faedus

Thanks for the reference, though it makes for sad reading. Also, I won't dispute your assessment of those digital types; and for those who might below, I'll point out that history's real nomads moved around, not for pleasure, but from necessity -- it was a survival technique. Unlike today's digital so-called nomads, they did not have the option of quitting and going back to California if they ever got bored with wandering.

crellston

That’s a shame. We are due to take our second trip to Mexico this autumn and loved the food the last time. We love spicy food which forms a large part of the cooking we do at home as well as eating out. The same thing happened in Bangkok about 10/15 years ago. Restaurants started dumbing down the food for tourists who couldn’t cope with/didn’t like/ weren’t prepared to try spicy food. Nowadays it is very difficult to source spicy food in any of the tourists centres? Wusses! They spoil it for the rest of us!

What I don’t get though, is whereas Thai food it is the dishes themselves that are inherently spicy, the same is not usually the case with Mexican food where the heat is in the Salsas? Perhaps just put out salads marked hot, medium and wimp?

suze

Manyost Mexican traditional dishes are not inherently hot. Guess that's why there are a dozen bottles of 'hot sauce' on the table

mlgb

Hmm I'm not sure that I ever saw a bottled hot sauce in any of the restaurants that I visited in Mexico.

It's usually served in little bowls on the table or dished out by the taqueria as requested.

bald0ne

I was thinking the same thing. Especially since the majority of places make their own and have their own recipes. I don't think I'd patronize a place that put out bottled salsa.

suze

You people are so funny. Are we talking about fresh salsa (vegetables chopped up) or hot sauce (yes in bottles)? And no not talking tourist restaurants. Brand like Cholula,Tapatio, Valentina, El Yucateco, and a dozen others. Usually in a wooden box in the middle of the table with an oil cloth covering in ma & pa places (inland in residential areas of Puerto Vallarta.

Maybe I am confused in terms here ?? 'salsa' ... of course is made fresh w/ chopped tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. BUT what spikes the heat in dishes that start out mild as many do in Mexican every-day dishes is the hot sauce, added to taste.

Melnq8

Salsa and hot sauce are not one and the same. Not in my world anyway (or suze's evidently).

mlgb

Salsa just means sauce.

Salsas in Mexico City are also the liquid type made at the restaurant, not just pico de gallo/salsa fresca ( the chopped up tomato type). Same at other places in Mexico where I've travelled. Either the sauce is part of the plate when served, or it's brought to a table in a small bowl.

Liquid salsas and chunky salsas are commercially bottled for sale. Just like soup is commercially canned. But to see a container of commercial bottled hot sauce in Mexico on a table (like you might see at a Denny's or any number of breakfast diners), never in my experience. So I guess we do eat at different types of restaurants when in Mexico.

In California, taquerias and casual restaurants often have the self-serve salsa bars with an assortment of heat levels (sometimes labeled), and ramekins for bringing sauces to the table, or you can just ladle it all over your plate. Even El Pollo Loco does it that way. Sometimes there are scratch-made liquid types in a plastic squeeze bottle at the salsa bar but usually there is just a ladle for either green (aka salsa verde), red (aka salsa roja), roasted, pico de gallo, onions and cilantro, extra jalapenos, limes, etc. Every region has favored or unique versions (different chiles, garlic, no garlic, roasted, not roasted, different spices, peanuts, olive oil, etc..)

Not a dozen bottles of hot sauce on the table, LOL...

The salsa/condiment bar at one of my locals





Pati Jinich, Salsa Roja or Salsa Verde:

https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/patis...d-cup-of-tacos

suze

I know what I've seen. Actually I have photos because I thought it was so humorous. We called it "you can never have enough hot sauce". These are neighborhood places (not tourist restaurants). The kind with wooden tables along the sidewalk where locals eat. Guess I'll tell them next time that all those hot sauces in bottles on the table that they are putting on their breakfast eggs are not authentic.

mlgb

Of note, you can also find a Grand Slam at Denny's Mexico. "An All-American Slam", complete with cheddar cheese.

bald0ne

In the context of discussing the article Fra D linked, you'll see exactly what mlgb described. Not a bottle of Cholula in sight. See the pics. And those clearly aren't tourist eateries either. The article discusses how restauratuers & taqueria owners are dumbing down their salsas to accommodate foreign tastes (and even for some local preferences). Putting out bottles of store bought hot sauces wouldn't accomplish that. And probably almost sacrilegious for many places. It'd be akin to setting out A-1 at Ruth's Chris.

suze

This is why I don't participate much on Fodor's any more. You can't contribute what you have experienced on a topic without getting made fun. If it is "sacreligious" for Mexicans to put hot sauce on their food... guess you need to let them know they aren't doing it correctly.

Mexicans also seem to enjoy McDonald's. What say you all about that?

crellston

Absolutely nothing! It has zero to do with the topic being discussed. Maybe start a separate thread re sauce sachets in Macdonalds?

Nelson

I am one of the aforementioned "weenies" , but don't remember salsas being overly picante on our Mexico trips. To be safe we'd always ask for the salsa "en el lado" if they were serving it on the plate.

Still, my favorite is the weenie-proof pica de gallo, which stills tastes delicious even with zero heat.