Neat to Eat (or drink): Mexican Hot Chocolate

Recently, Mr. Wonderful and I headed south for a visit

with our southern neighbors in Mexico.  For the past few

years this has become an annual visit for us.  We love

the beauty of the country, the kind and friendly people 

and the food.  We were hanging out in the seaside town

of Playa del Carmen which has become a tourist hot spot

of late but still retains the charms of the fishing village it

once was.  When in Mexico, I go local ~ I go by the name

Elena Maria, my skin turns brown and I work on my

Spanish, though to be honest, most times it is more

Spanglish where I come out sounding like a mix of Salma

Hayek and Sophia Vergara when they speak English.  (I

find that Wonderful quite likes that...)

I love learning about the Mayan culture that once 

thrived in this area and who can't love a culture that

loved chocolate.  The Maya created hot chocolate over

2,000 years ago.  Chocolate was a New World discovery,

Cortes brought it back to Europe where it became a 

luxury item for royalty.  I had never had Mexican Hot

Chocolate in Mexico and I was determined to find some.

It was a wonderful surprise to find out that a one minute

walk from our apartment brought us to Ah Cacao ~ a

Chocolate Cafe.  I wish I had found this on day one of my

trip.  

Dinners are quite late when we are in Mexico so 

we had a pre-dinner dessert as the sun began to

fade.  We sat out on the sidewalk to watch the 

world go by, Wonderful had the Chocolate Maya 

made with honey and hot spices and I had the

Chocolate Traditional made with cinnamon and 

vanilla.  The cute, Mexican guy at the next table

was reading Kerouac's On the Road en espanol.

It was the oldest looking copy that I had ever seen,

I asked him what he thought of the book and he 

said he was enjoying it and planned to read Henry

Miller's The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy next.

In the cafe I bought a molinillo, a tool for frothing the

foam of Mexican Hot Chocolate.  In days of old, and 

perhaps not so old, a girl was judged to be acceptable

as a mate by the amount of foam she could produce in

her hot chocolate.  The future Mother-in-Law was the

one doing the judging...  I also picked up a bar of chocolate

soap because who doesn't want to smell good enough to eat?

Up the street, the pilgrims were gathering for 

their walk to a local shrine to honor Our Lady 

of Guadalupe.  A man named Eduardo told us

about the tradition of the pilgrimage to honor

the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of 

Mexico.  He asked us about our plans during our

visit and it turns out he works at the place we 

will be staying next week ~ small world.

At this point, Wonderful headed off to the mercado

to pick up some ingredients for his dinner creations

and I went to the beach to catch the sunset.

And the following week when we were in another

city hanging out with Eduardo we found another

chocolate cafe.  My drink was the cute bear, I think

the barista made it special for me because I ordered

en espanol even though I messed it up.  I ordered a

medium but said medio which he corrected me and

said it was mediano.  Medio was half whereas mediano

was medium.  When I looked it up half was also mitad.

So, the Spanish lessons continue...

And on a snowy day like today, I can still enjoy

some Mexican Hot Chocolate at home at Avalon.

In our grocery store in the Mexican section of the

International aisle, we can get powdered mix or a

cake of chocolate and spices.  I (surprisingly) enjoy

the powdered to the cake.  I found the cake to be a

bit gritty even after I frothed away with my molinilla.