As I start wrapping up my time here in Merida and prepare for my move to Campeche I’ve been spending a lot of time with my hostel friends.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), much of that soocializing has been done around some awesome food.  I’m getting spoiled but boy is it worth it!

Last night we got a taste of South America when Andreas (from Argentina) offered (kind of) to prepare a typical Argentine meal.  We heated up the grill and then gorged on BBQ beef and pork ribs, corn, onions, mushrooms, potatoes and homemade guacamole.  Washing it down with ice cold beer, it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time and the tableside conversation made it even better.

Today Rafa (from Mexico) took it up  a notch when he brought all the materials to make chaya tamales (Yucatecan style).  Rafa, Selma (from France), Andreas and I spent the morning preparing the banana leaves, masa and sauce while Jaime entertained us with a Mexican history lesson.  It’s a fairly time consuming process though not hard but the great conversation made the time fly.  And even if it had just inched along it would have been worth it because they were some of the best tamales I’ve had. 

This version of tamales were a bit different than what I’m used to but were very nice.  Rather than being stuffed with meat or veggies, you add chaya to the masa and form them into thin pancakes which you wrap in banana leaves and then steam.  Once done you top the tamale with tomato sauce, chopped egg and ground pumpkin seed.  Different but yummy.  Now I need to see if I can repeat it on my own.

Tomorrow is Rafa’s goodbye party which will be another evening of gastronomic delight as several of the attendees plan on preparing some of their local specialties for an international taste of home.