# Availability of ingredients for non-Mexican foods



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Hound Dog said:


> The Chapala Municipality is still lacking in a variety of "exotic" food items including foods from the Far and Near East to the Indian Subcontinent to Northern and Sub-Sahara Africa and parts of Europe the Caribbean and South America among other places.


Would I be able to find ingredients for Middle Eastern and Indian recipes in Mexico City, Guadalajara and San Miguel?


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


Marishka said:



Would I be able to find ingredients for Middle Eastern and Indian recipes in Mexico City, Guadalajara and San Miguel?

Click to expand...

_You know, Marishka, my posts on this subject have been a bit misleading. One can find certain ingredients for Middle Eastern and East Indian recipes at Lakeside in places such as Super Lake and some other retail food outlets and some Chinese and Japanese ingredients as well. I have no doubt that you can find an even wider variety of these foods in Mexico City and Guadalajara and I know of at least one great retailer in Guadalajara specializing in Korean ingredients with Japanese ingredients as well. I have no idea what items are carried in San Miguel stores as I haven´t been there since the 1980s. 

A poster on another forum who lives in Mexico City writes of a great variety of Asian ingrdients available in that city but I have yet to go seriously shopping there except for outstanding espresso machines and coffee at the Nespresso Club headquarters there. I am nuts about their espresso products and if you join the Nespresso Club you can buy everything they sell with overnight delivery anywhere in Mexico. 

I think we may have to explore Mexico City for food shopping opportunities this winter.


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Marishka said:


> Would I be able to find ingredients for Middle Eastern and Indian recipes in Mexico City, Guadalajara and San Miguel?


I think you will or would have difficulty in Guadalajara. There are several stores that sell Asian ingredients, but Middle Eastern and Indian will be more difficult. I have yet to find a source for hummus in Mexico for example. There are several Indian restaurants and the proprietors could probably tell you about the sources they use. I have heard there is a Lebanese restaurant, but have never been to it. 

Mexico City is so large that it would be surprising to me if there were not a mideastern grocery store there. If someone else knows of one in Guadalajara, I would love to hear about it.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

TundraGreen said:


> I think you will or would have difficulty in Guadalajara. There are several stores that sell Asian ingredients, but Middle Eastern and Indian will be more difficult. I have yet to find a source for hummus in Mexico for example. There are several Indian restaurants and the proprietors could probably tell you about the sources they use. I have heard there is a Lebanese restaurant, but have never been to it.
> 
> Mexico City is so large that it would be surprising to me if there were not a mideastern grocery store there. If someone else knows of one in Guadalajara, I would love to hear about it.


I prefer to make my own hummus, so if I can find chickpeas and tahini, I'll be in business. :fingerscrossed:

That's a great idea check with restaurants! 

Of course, I do want to try all kinds of Mexican food, too. That's part of the adventure of living in Mexico. I'm looking forward to taking some Mexican cooking classes.


----------



## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Marishka said:


> I prefer to make my own hummus, so if I can find chickpeas and tahini, I'll be in business. :fingerscrossed:
> 
> That's a great idea check with restaurants!
> 
> Of course, I do want to try all kinds of Mexican food, too. That's part of the adventure of living in Mexico. I'm looking forward to taking some Mexican cooking classes.


You might have to start by grinding your own tahini. Sesame seeds (ajonjolí) and chick peas (garbanzos) are easy to come by. That is a good idea though. I tried once and wasn't that satisfied with the results. I should try again. One obstacle for me is that I don't use any electrical appliances for grinding, and thus must rely on my trusty molcahete.


----------



## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> You might have to start by grinding your own tahini. Sesame seeds (ajonjolí) and chick peas (garbanzos) are easy to come by. That is a good idea though. I tried once and wasn't that satisfied with the results. I should try again. One obstacle for me is that I don't use any electrical appliances for grinding, and thus must rely on my trusty molcahete.


My corned beef turned out very well once I found out the local names of a couple of spices and located pink curing salt at a large mercardo here.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

TundraGreen said:


> You might have to start by grinding your own tahini. Sesame seeds (ajonjolí) and chick peas (garbanzos) are easy to come by. That is a good idea though. I tried once and wasn't that satisfied with the results. I should try again. One obstacle for me is that I don't use any electrical appliances for grinding, and thus must rely on my trusty molcahete.


I've never made my own tahini, but I just consulted Señor Google, and I'm told that it's "super easy" to make at home. So I guess I'm all set!

I can't imagine life without my Vitamix, in particular. Why do you not use any electrical appliances for grinding?


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Guadalajara has a Lebanese community , a friend of mine is Lebanese American, she shops at Aladino. We got invited once to a big family celebration and had a wonderful Lebanese banquet, they did not have problems finding the ingredients for their meal but found some spices at Superlake they could not find in Guadalajara.
A Mexican friend from Puebla goes shopping at Superlake and goes crazy with things she cannot find in Puebla.
I know that we take a load of various spices and Jasmine rice when going to Chiapas.

There products in Puebla and Chiapas we cannot find in Ajijic too, it goes both ways.


----------



## tijuanahopeful (Apr 2, 2013)

I make my own hummus, but I've never tried to make my own tahini.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks to whichever mod moved these posts into a separate thread. Could you please split my last post and move the second part about Puerto Vallarta back to the "Largest Expat Population" thread?



citlali said:


> Guadalajara has a Lebanese community , a friend of mine is Lebanese American, she shops at Aladino. We got invited once to a big family celebration and had a wonderful Lebanese banquet, they did not have problems finding the ingredients for their meal but found some spices at Superlake they could not find in Guadalajara.


That's very interesting. I read in _First Stop in the New World_, a book about Mexico City, that they also have a very large Lebanese population. The author said that the city is loaded with excellent Spanish restaurants, many of which were opened in the early 1940s by anti-Franco refugees of the Civil War. He went on to say that Middle Eastern food was the other predominant foreign food in Mexico City--that there was a significant immigration from Lebanon and Syria at the beginning of the 20th century, and as a result, there are restaurants in Mexico City that serve "faultless baba ghanoush, hummus, kibbe, tabouleh, and so forth." So it is probably pretty easy to find ingredients for Middle Eastern food there.

Hound Dog mentioned that some Japanese food ingredients are sold in Ajijic. Does anyone know of any stores in Guadalajara, Mexico City and San Miguel that sell items such as umeboshi, miso, and pre-toasted nori sheets ?


----------



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Marishka said:


> Thanks to whichever mod moved these posts into a separate thread. Could you please split my last post and move the second part about Puerto Vallarta back to the "Largest Expat Population" thread?


It must have been Tundra Green who created this new thread. I don't know how to split posts. If you like, I can delete the second part of your last post and then repost that information on the "Largest Expat Population" thread.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Isla Verde said:


> It must have been Tundra Green who created this new thread. I don't know how to split posts. If you like, I can delete the second part of your last post and then repost that information on the "Largest Expat Population" thread.


Thanks, Isla! I appreciate it.


----------



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Marishka said:


> Thanks, Isla! I appreciate it.


Will do.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_[...Hound Dog mentioned that some Japanese food ingredients are sold in Ajijic. Does anyone know of any stores in Guadalajara, Mexico City and San Miguel that sell items such as umeboshi, miso, and pre-toasted nori sheets ?....[/QUOTE]_

In Gadalajara try the fabulous Asian Market at 881 Av. Americas near the Glorieta Colon as Av. Americas converges with Av. Lopez Mateos. I am not in Guadalajara at present and have no plans to go there soon but can tell you they have a very large and excellent inventory of Korean, Japanese and other Asian ingredients including their own kim chi in various styles all of which are far and away the best kim chis I have tasted in Mexico or the United States for that matter perhaps excluding Koreatown in L.A. which is worth a trip to Southern California just to go there and feast on Korean food which may be my favorite of all Asian ethnic cooking and that´s saying a lot since I am a freak about Asian food in all ethnic varieties from the Indian Subcontinent to the Plillipines.

Asian Market also has a variety of rice cookers and other appliances useful in Asian cooking. I don´t know if they have the specific Japanese items you seek but go there and shop just for the fun of the experience and in the unlikely event you don´t find precisely what you are looking for, you should still come home with some great ingredients for Korean or Japanese cusine you can prepare at home.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Hound Dog;1329802][...Hound Dog mentioned that some Japanese food ingredients are sold in Ajijic. Does anyone know of any stores in Guadalajara, Mexico City and San Miguel that sell items such as umeboshi, miso, and pre-toasted nori sheets ?....[/QUOTE]

In Gadalajara try the fabulous Asian Market at 881 Av. Americas near the Glorieta Colon as Av. Americas converges with Av. Lopez Mateos. I am not in Guadalajara at present and have no plans to go there soon but can tell you they have a very large and excellent inventory of Korean, Japanese and other Asian ingredients including their own kim chi in various styles all of which are far and away the best kim chis I have tasted in Mexico or the United States for that matter perhaps excluding Koreatown in L.A. which is worth a trip to Southern California just to go there and feast on Korean food which may be my favorite of all Asian ethnic cooking and that´s saying a lot since I am a freak about Asian food in all ethnic varieties from the Indian Subcontinent to the *Plillipines.*

Asian Market also has a variety of rice cookers and other appliances useful in Asian cooking. I don´t know if they have the specific Japanese items you seek but go there and shop just for the fun of the experience and in the unlikely event you don´t find precisely what you are looking for, you should still come home with some great ingredients for Korean or Japanese cusine you can prepare at home.[/QUOTE]_

I know that it´s gauche for me to quote myself but that should have been "Philippines". and it was too late to edit. An embarrassment that demanded correction even though it seems to me that one "p" would have sufficed when they named the place . I love their food but have never been there unfortunately.


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

No it is easy to find ingredient for Lebanese food not so easy for other types of Arabic food or Persian food either. Just try to find Sumac..actually the Lebanese use Sumac but my friend asked me to give her some as she could not find any anywhere try to find berberry or many other ingredients use in Marocan , Tunisian or Algerian or Persian food. I have yet to find any. They may exist in some store but I have not found them and neither has one of the Iranian expat who lives in Ajijic.


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

In my experience you cannot find an ethnic market with a depth of inventory. That inludes Aladino, Toyo and other ethnic markets in Guadalajara. Cannot speak for San Miguel as I have not looked for these ingredients there but I would not expect too much from San Miguel in that department. I would expect you could find just about everything you want in Mexico City but you would have to know where to get it.
There is also a Lebanese community in Puebla and I heard Merida.Not sure if that is correct but that is what I have heard.


----------



## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

In Mexico City, you can buy tahini (and other Middle Eastern ingredients and foods) at Jekimir, a Middle Eastern grocery and café with several locations around the city. Aside from that, I haven’t found Middle Eastern food as plentiful and easy to find as Marishka’s book suggests.

Also in Mexico City, anyone looking for Japanese ingredients or foods will surely want to visit Mikasa, located in Colonia Roma. They stock many, many Japanese ingredients and food products, as well as prepared foods to take out. On Sundays, they do a barbecue buffet which our Japanese friend who – although he loved Mexican food – also missed the tastes of home, found very much to his liking.


----------



## Anonimo (Apr 8, 2012)

maesonna said:


> In Mexico City, you can buy tahini (and other Middle Eastern ingredients and foods) at Jekimir, a Middle Eastern grocery and café with several locations around the city. Aside from that, I haven’t found Middle Eastern food as plentiful and easy to find as Marishka’s book suggests.
> 
> Also in Mexico City, anyone looking for Japanese ingredients or foods will surely want to visit Mikasa, located in Colonia Roma. They stock many, many Japanese ingredients and food products, as well as prepared foods to take out. On Sundays, they do a barbecue buffet which our Japanese friend who – although he loved Mexican food – also missed the tastes of home, found very much to his liking.


Mikasa is very well stocked, and there is also El Dragon Del Oro, on Calle Ernesto Pugibet, at Plaza San Juan, Colonia Centro. It's much smaller than Mikasa, but in many ways, I prefer it. I find prices to be somewhat less at El Dragon, notably on Basmati rice. I think it more personable. Moreover, it adjoins the fabulous Mercado San Juan, the mercado of chefs.

I have read of The Indian Store, located in Colonia Doctores next to a hotel de paso (Maxim?) but have not been to it. In fact, it was on this forum that I read about it. Here's the forward link: The Indian Store.

There's a Middle Eastern store on Avenida Cuauhtémoc, on the western edge of Colonia Doctores, at the corner of Calle Dr. Erazo; but on the two occasions that we've been there, we thought the treatment by staff ranged from indifferent to rude. A baklava assortment that we bought as a gift for friends was stale.

There are at least a couple of Lebanese/Middle Eastern restaurants in Col. Condesa, among them, El Jamil and El Arez. I haven't been to eat at either.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Are Greek yogurt and Feta cheese easy to find? How about Kalamata olives? I can make my own Greek yogurt, but the other two I'd either have to find or do without.


----------



## ElPaso2012 (Dec 16, 2012)

This whole thread makes me hungry... 

I made a check list of all the things I want to find out on my exploratory trip to Durango and Mazatlan, and a close look at both supermarkets and open air markets (prices, items available) is on the list. 

I may go in late September and will report back on those two cities in regard to Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern ingredients. I suspect the Asian part will be easy in any large city, though.


----------



## mes1952 (Dec 11, 2012)

If you cook very much (esp. Middle Eastern & Indian) then I assume you do know that they all use very similar spices so shouldn't have a problem. I live in Baja Norte which is much less progressive than the mainland and I don't have problems finding most ingredients for these foods. Only thing I still have to buy in the U.S. is tahini and tofu is cheaper in the U.S.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=mes1952;1366425]If you cook very much (esp. Middle Eastern & Indian) then I assume you do know that they all use very similar spices so shouldn't have a problem. I live in Baja Norte which is much less progressive than the mainland and I don't have problems finding most ingredients for these foods. Only thing I still have to buy in the U.S. is tahini and tofu is cheaper in the U.S.[/QUOTE]_

As retirees having lived in Mexico for over 12 years at both Lake Chapala and in the Chiapas Highlands and as people who enjoy preparing North African and Middle Eastern food at home, I can assure the reader that there are many ingredients in both North African food from Ethiopia to Morocco and Middle Eastern food as diverse as the cooking of Iran,, Lebanon, Turkey and other national cuisines of the region, in which there are many ingredients essential to preparing authentic recipes from those regions that are difficult to impossible to find in most of Mexico - perhaps especially Northern Baja and much of the United States as well. The same could be said of East Indian cuisine which is very diverse from region to region to the point that many ingredients essential to the cuisine of one part of India may not be available in another part of India.

Since we live part of each year at Lake Chapala where many ingredients for all sorts of ethnic cuisine the world over may be found in limited quantities, we are fortunate in that we do easily find such ingredients as commercially prepared tahini and tofu which, according to our our Baja correspondent, he/she must buy in the U.S. Other North African and Middle Eastern ingredients we bring back from our periodic trips to visit family in France (with its large North African and Middle Eastern population) include but but are not limited to:
* The spice sumac for which we have found no substitute
* Preserved lemons - essential for Algerian and Tunisian cooking among others (can be homemade but not the same thing as Algerian)
* Barberries as a deliciious component of certain Iranian dishes
* Ras el Hanout - a Moroccon spice mixture
* Berbere - a flavorful Middle Estern spice mixture indespensible in certain dishes
(and so forth)

I will say that all of the ingredients needed to make tahini and some of the above spice mixtures at home are available iin much of Mexico - especially at Lake Chapala and probably in several big cities. 

Hey, as an Alabama boy, I also find it difficult to find pork shoulder in Mexico that is sufficiently larded with fat to make southern traditional pulled-pork BBQ sandwiches which are not too dry - Mexican pork normally being too lean - so I eat the great charcoal broiled sausages and meats of Chiapas instead when down there. No need to leave Mexico for great food. In fact, no need to leave Mexico at all except to occasionally visit family in France and restock the larder with those Algerian preserved lemons among other important ingredients.


----------



## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

​


Hound Dog said:


> [_QUOTE=mes1952;1366425]If you cook very much (esp. Middle Eastern & Indian) then I assume you do know that they all use very similar spices so shouldn't have a problem. I live in Baja Norte which is much less progressive than the mainland and I don't have problems finding most ingredients for these foods. Only thing I still have to buy in the U.S. is tahini and tofu is cheaper in the U.S._




As retirees having lived in Mexico for over 12 years at both Lake Chapala and in the Chiapas Highlands and as people who enjoy preparing North African and Middle Eastern food at home, I can assure the reader that there are many ingredients in both North African food from Ethiopia to Morocco and Middle Eastern food as diverse as the cooking of Iran,, Lebanon, Turkey and other national cuisines of the region, in which there are many ingredients essential to preparing authentic recipes from those regions that are difficult to impossible to find in most of Mexico - perhaps especially Northern Baja and much of the United States as well. The same could be said of East Indian cuisine which is very diverse from region to region to the point that many ingredients essential to the cuisine of one part of India may not be available in another part of India.

Since we live part of each year at Lake Chapala where many ingredients for all sorts of ethnic cuisine the world over may be found in limited quantities, we are fortunate in that we do easily find such ingredients as commercially prepared tahini and tofu which, according to our our Baja correspondent, he/she must buy in the U.S. Other North African and Middle Eastern ingredients we bring back from our periodic trips to visit family in France (with its large North African and Middle Eastern population) include but but are not limited to:
* The spice sumac for which we have found no substitute
* Preserved lemons - essential for Algerian and Tunisian cooking among others (can be homemade but not the same thing as Algerian)
* Barberries as a deliciious component of certain Iranian dishes
* Ras el Hanout - a Moroccon spice mixture
* Berbere - a flavorful Middle Estern spice mixture indespensible in certain dishes
(and so forth)
QUOTE]

Thanks to a father in the diplomatic corps I enjoyed traveling extensively and eating some of the most exquisite foods the world has to offer. However, living her in D.F. for the past 35 plus years, I have found it hard to come by all the real spices needed. 

However, I did find a website a few years ago and I either order and have it sent to my sister's in Boston, to my P.O. Box that is brought here or I have even had it shipped directly to me here at home. 

The spices are dried, the lemons preserved in brine, but to me the taste is as authentic as I have ever tasted. OFF COURSE, that is my opinion, and we do know everyone has their own. Here is a link - Merchants of Exquisite Spices, Herbs and Seasonings | Chicago | Milwaukee | Evanston | Geneva


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Yes the best bet on getting ingredients for Middle Eastern or Thai or other exotic food is to grow the items missing if possible or get them from a site. My family comes every year and they always have a list of Middle eastern goodies and Asian goodies to bring, that is their price for their stay.
Most spices can be found in a dry form and most mixtures can be duplicated but not always as sometimes the basics are missing here. For exemple you can find zaátar that the Lebanese like to miz with jocote and olive oil but you can not find sumac that is also widely used and is in the zaátar. The inventories here are hot an miss in areas where you can find them good luck in some smaller places.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_
Thanks to a father in the diplomatic corps I enjoyed traveling extensively and eating some of the most exquisite foods the world has to offer. However, living her in D.F. for the past 35 plus years, I have found it hard to come by all the real spices needed. 

However, I did find a website a few years ago and I either order and have it sent to my sister's in Boston, to my P.O. Box that is brought here or I have even had it shipped directly to me here at home. 

The spices are dried, the lemons preserved in brine, but to me the taste is as authentic as I have ever tasted. OFF COURSE, that is my opinion, and we do know everyone has their own. Here is a link - Merchants of Exquisite Spices, Herbs and Seasonings | Chicago | Milwaukee | Evanston | Geneva[/QUOTE]_[/I]

Thanks, Panama Jack. I checked the link and found several of the items available from this vendor that we have been laboriously carrying on the plane back to DF from Paris from time to time and then on to Guadalajara or Tuxtla Gutierrez on a connecting flight but, frankly, we have worried about some items such as the preserved lemons in brine in glass jars which we dare not attempt to carry on board with our hand luggage since the TSA in Chicago almost confiscated the super expensive fine tequila we were taking to France for family enjoyment a few years ago (important because finding really great tequila in France is virtually impossible and., even if located, prohibitively expensive) . The French and Mexicans aren´t as up tight as the merciless TSA goons in the U.S but one never knows when one will confront a security or aduana inspector in a bad mood and this has been worrisome to us

Now, I find that this vendor will ship to Mexico via UPS and I can find most of the ingredients I have listed above for sale by this vendor to which you so kindly provided a link. As soon as tomorrow, I am ordering up a bunch of spices and other ingredients and looking forward to making an Algerian Tagine with the preserved lemons - an essential ingredient - as soon as the package arrives. When I get my goodies via UPS, I´ll let you know how it went with my order.

Thanks again for that great link.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Hound Dog said:


> I know that it´s gauche for me to quote myself but that should have been "Philippines". and it was too late to edit. An embarrassment that demanded correction even though it seems to me that one "p" would have sufficed when they named the place.


That's ok, Hound Dog. I've always believed there should be more than one way to sspell a word. 



mes1952 said:


> If you cook very much (esp. Middle Eastern & Indian) then I assume you do know that they all use very similar spices so shouldn't have a problem. I live in Baja Norte which is much less progressive than the mainland and I don't have problems finding most ingredients for these foods. Only thing I still have to buy in the U.S. is tahini and tofu is cheaper in the U.S.


The kind of Indian food ingredients I would need are items such as various kinds of split dals, asafetida, pappadams, vacuum-packed masalas, and ghee. I can make my own masalas and ghee, but I apparently inherited the lazy gene and would rather just buy them if I can find good quality products. I also like to use tamarind, but that's easy to find in Mexico, isn't it?


----------



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Marishka said:


> I also like to use tamarind, but that's easy to find in Mexico, isn't it?


I've never made it from scratch, but one of the most common "agua de frutas" drinks consumed here is "agua de tamarindo", so I would imagine that fresh tamarinds must be available in most markets.


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[The_ kind of Indian food ingredients I would need are items such as various kinds of split dals, asafetida, pappadams, vacuum-packed masalas, and ghee. I can make my own masalas and ghee, but I apparently inherited the lazy gene and would rather just buy them if I can find good quality products. I also like to use tamarind, but that's easy to find in Mexico, isn't it?[/QUOTE]_

I have found all of these things for sale here and there at stores or farmer´s markets at "Lakeside" AKA The Chapala and Jocotepec Municipalities AKA Peoria South on the shores of beautiful (if somewhat muddy and toxic) Lake Chapala. Just this past Tuesday, I purchased ghee from a vendor at the Tuesday Organic Market in West Ajijic and also took home a small ****** lime tree, useful in Thai cooking and a turmeric plant from which I plan to harvest turmeric root to grate sometime in the future also using the plant´s leaves in Asian stews. This same vendor expects to have galengal for sale in the next few months. 

It can be a trial living at Peoria South but there are advantages here and there.


----------



## Marishka (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks, everyone. It sounds like my husband and I won't have to miss out on any of the foods we enjoy. I'm kind of surprised, but pleasantly so.


----------



## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Isla Verde said:


> I've never made it from scratch, but one of the most common "agua de frutas" drinks consumed here is "agua de tamarindo", so I would imagine that fresh tamarinds must be available in most markets.


I don't think I've been to a tianguis (focusing on food) or a large supermarket in Mexico which hasn't had tamarind available for sale. For people unfamiliar with how it looks in the unprocessed state, here's a photo:


----------



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_Now, I find that this vendor will ship to Mexico via UPS and I can find most of the ingredients I have listed above for sale by this vendor to which you so kindly provided a link. As soon as tomorrow, I am ordering up a bunch of spices and other ingredients and looking forward to making an Algerian Tagine with the preserved lemons - an essential ingredient - as soon as the package arrives. When I get my goodies via UPS, I´ll let you know how it went with my order._

Belay that order as my wife reminds me that we have family coming over here from France soon who we can strong arm into bringing the Middle Eastern and North African stuff we need including the preserved lemons.

Lemons, (what Mexicans refer to as limones amarillos) which are hard to impossible to find in most of Mexico, are readlly available at some stores at Lake Chapala catering in part to foreigners . Since the lemons that are sold in North America have thick skins unlike the lemons used in North Africa which are small with thin skins, I will also try making this concoction with local Colima Limes with seeds. Colima Limes (as I like to call them) are the small, thin-skinned and exceptionally sour local, seed filled limes available an all of Mexico as opposed to the larger, fruitier and thicker skinned Persian Limes. I´m hoping that the Colima Limes will be a good substitute for North African lemons. We shall see.

Interestingly, while lemons are hard to find in mexico and expensive when found, in France, limes are scarce and then one can only find the Persian style limes, not the Mexican style small sour limes similar to key limes in the U.S. In Paris, I have paid One Euro per lime (about $1.33USD per lime) when a kilo in Mexico costs about Ten Pesos more or less subject to seasonal variations.


----------



## PanamaJack (Apr 1, 2013)

Longford said:


> I don't think I've been to a tianguis (focusing on food) or a large supermarket in Mexico which hasn't had tamarind available for sale. For people unfamiliar with how it looks in the unprocessed state, here's a photo:


Very common throughout Mexico and parts of Central America. Served often in homes for a drink at lunch or dinner. I have been drinking it for the past 35 years and it's quite refreshing.


----------

