Mexican Breakfast Dishes

[Jetgirly]

I was in Mexico for six months and I've been back in Canada for two. Looking back, I was generally unimpressed with most of the food I ate in Mexico (I am a vegetarian and I was in Guadalajara). However, I have extremely fond memories of almost every breakfast I ate! At first, I always ordered scrambled eggs (which always came scrambled really firm, just the way I like them), refried beans and chilaquiles... and then I discovered it wasn't tacky to skip the eggs and just have the beans and chilaquiles! Praise the lord! And I had soooo many delicious fruit, yogurt and granola breakfasts (which, I suppose, aren't that unusual in Canada but certainly aren't among the "most popular" breakfast dishes at any restaurant I've been to). What are some other Mexican breakfast specialities?

[Sam Fujisaka]

In remote Mexico, we're almost on our way to the field at about 6:00 or 6:30. Fortunately, I always get my favorite breakfast: freshly hot small steamed tamales in maize husks -- with different fillings, one of which is often vegetarian. Plus a steaming cup of atole on cold mornings. Street and early market vendors are the ones to look for.

[Xacinta]

Tortilla (omelette) de huauzontles, crepas de huitlacoche, tacos de cáscara de papa, mousse de flor de calabaza, panquecitos de elote tierno, conchas con nata, té de manzana (they use the apple peel cinanmmon and dark sugar) gorditas rellenas de nopales, molletes with lots of diced tomato, onion, hot peppers and cilantro. Mexico is a big country with diverse cooking traditions, my housekeeper from Veracruz tells me she had never seen flour wheat tortillas until she started to work at my home. ..for us fresh fruit is a very important part of breakfast, sliced or fresh fruit juice made at home, we miss this very much when we travel the US or Canada.

[DiningDiva]

Xacinta, I'm having breakfast with you :-). Your list of breakfast specialties sounds delightful. I agree with you about the fresh fruit, it's really delicious and very satisfying.

[Xacinta]

Things aren´t going well in Mexico, Youre comment really put a smile on my face. Thank you. And I forgot about the tamales, sopes, champurrado, buñuelos, gorditas de nata, and i´m only thinking vegetarian dishes, quesadillas de hongos o de requesón, café de olla...

[DiningDiva]

Well, things aren't going so well here NOB either ;-). It's really pretty grim. But your breakfasts sure do sound good :-). Sopes, champurrado, gorditas de nata, I'll add corundas to the list. Hang in there and keep repeating after me...Everything's Going to Be Okay

[marlie202]

if you eat fish--the yellow snapper es muy delicioso everywhere-grilled-steamed-fried--with different chillis and sauces--or plain with garlic and oil--

[Anonimo]

At Fonda Mamá Lupe, in Pátzcuaro, a favorite breakfast dish is Enmoladas: tortillas dipped in a savory mole, filled with chicken shreds, folded in half and sprinkled with queso fresco.

Elsewhere nearby, fried charales (small fish) in scrambled eggs is something to be avoided.

[Veggo]

Fish in the eggs? Bleech! Remends me of Thoreau's displeasure in finding a trout in the milk.

[DiningDiva]

Especially if you've had charales ;-). Not my cup of tea either

[Pampatz]

Triple yuck. Charales are just nasty. At my one and only comida at El Patio on Plaza Grande in Patzcuaro, I was served a huge platter. Dozens of little fried fish just laying there staring at me.

[Maya]

Also, Papadzules - tortillas stuffed with hard-boiled eggs and topped with pumpkin seed sauce, found mostly in the Yucatan...

Thank you for explaining these dishes a bit! I'm still confused as to what certain things on this list actually are (and thus might not know to order them) like entomatados, enfrijolades, cazuelas, Huevos Oaxaquenos, Huevos Tiraditos, Huevos en Rabo de Metiza,Tacos de Canasta...

[menuinprogress]

The "en<something>adas" dishes are all tortillas that have been sauced with the <something>:

enmoladas - with mole
entomatadas - with tomato sauce
enfrijoladas - with a bean sauce
enchiladas - with chili sauce

[kare_raisu]

Sorry for the late response Maya!

Oaxaquenos are like mini fritatas then envelope q. oaxaca in a sunset red chile sauce. topped with fresh cilantro and avocado

Tiraditos lit. 'thrown' are scrambled eggs with black beans and their liqour.

En rabo de mestiza (in the rags of the woman creole) are eggs poached in a tomato, fresh pasilla sauce.

Tacos de canasta are my favorite tacos - small tortillas envelopling various fillings such frijolitos con queso, papas, carne debrashada, stewed chicharron and green mole. that are steamed - making them into almost mexican ravolis if you please and topped with a tomato caldillo.

Papadzules are another favorite of mine 'food of the gods!'

[islameg]

Cazuelas

[PAO]

In Oaxaca, entomatados are my favorite. You can also get enfrijolades.

[menuinprogress]

I like to get Huevos Divorciados - two fried eggs, one topped with red salsa and one with green. As an added bonus, they are often separated by a pile of chilaquiles.

[Jetgirly]

No, the list totally isn't limited to vegetarian options. But, do explain the dish!

[kare_raisu]

Salsa de Chicharron from Oaxaca
Molletes in Guadalajara
Chilaquiles in all its incarnations and glories {must be with frijoles!}
Huevos Oaxaquenos
Huevos Tiraditos
Huevos en Rabo de Metiza
Weekend Breakfast Barbacoa de Borrego
Tacos de Canasta
& My favorite: MENUDO!
Great Topic :^)

[Veggo]

Yummy suggestions, KR, but she's vegetarian.
I'm looking forward to breakfast tortas with lechon, chicharron, and habanero salsa real soon in PDC.
KR, what happend to the thick, crispy, smoky, sabroso tocino we used to get in Mexico? It's mostly skinny flavorless processed crap now.

[kare_raisu]

Yikes - I didnt know that this list was limited to veg options.

Not sure about the tocino but
dont forget to eat some Panuchos and salbutes for me out there!

[cristina]

All the bacon I buy comes from my butcher at the tianguis. He cuts it to the thickness I prefer, a little more than double what I see packaged at the supermarket. In fact, we just finished breakfast, which included the deliciously smokey thick bacon I bought from him on Wednesday.

One Wednesday he used the slicer to cut the bacon to twice the usual thickness and then individually sliced the length of each piece with a knife the size of a saber to get it the thickness I wanted. And he still has all his fingers!

Link: http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

[Veggo]

I'll have to sleuth out a good butcher for bacon this winter in PDC. I'm excouraged that it's out there somewhere.
Cristina, your butcher who sliced the slices in half by hand should be doing Ginsu knife commercials at 3 AM on Telemundo!

[Maya]

Can you give a little detail as to what all these dishes are?

[Veggo]

Migas are vegetarian, and you could order huevos motulenos (a largely Yucatan dish), without the diced ham.
It's definitely a meat -oriented diet and culture as the middle class emerges. A caution that use of lard is omnipresent, including in refries.