Mandinga oysters are small and juicy and my favorite.

                      I have to start with Mexico City where I was raised, one of the biggest cities in the world, were the nearest fresh oyster were 350km away in Veracruz, that is where  I tried my first raw oysters in the shell sold by the dozen with saltine crackers, limes, salt  and hot sauce. I was afraid to take that first bite, the gray color, the slimy texture did not look inviting to a kid, but my father said; “try it, have I ever told you to eat something that was not good,” so I did and wow it was something else.  The mix of the oyster with the lime, salt and hot sauce and the strange feeling in your mouth; soft, tender, juicy and in some parts little hard and chewy, but it nothing like what I thought it would taste like, I was hooked. I was fortunate because almost every weekend we will go to Veracruz to visit family and get out of the city, I could not wait to get there and eat them again and again. We would go to a little village called “Mandinga” a twenty minute drive, at that time from the main port of Veracruz, I’d get my fix with a dozen and then go fishing right in front the restaurant  in the lagoon with a hand line. The hand line was just a  piece of wood wound with fishing line maybe 20 lb. test, a sinker and a hook, no pole, no reel just a simple set-up, but boy did I have fun. I would fish until I caught my lunch and then have the little restaurant that we were at cook it.  

At the largest Fish and seafood market in Mexico City “La Viga” I found my Mandinga Oysters.

                            Years passed and I grew up and the trips to Veracruz were fewer and fewer, so I needed a new place to get my Oyster fix.  I  was introduce to the fish market “La Viga” located on the heart of Mexico City,  it was a truly amazing place; with fish, shrimp, octopus, lobster, you name it and they had it, and it was so fresh that you could smell the ocean from the fish and the rivers from the langoustines.  They usually had three or four kinds of Oysters at any time and I learned to recognize the different types, but the ones   that I loved from Mandinga were always my favorite. You could buy the oysters already cleaned; they were sold in a plastic bag with the oyster juice. You could by a bag with a couple dozen oysters or with a 100 oysters all the way up to the largest bag of 500 oysters; the oysters with the juice in the long plastic bags with the end tied; looked just like huge oyster sausages.  Back then, a 500 oyster bag would cost around 250 pesos like 80USD and a bag of 250 oysters was 50 pesos or 18USD.               
 

My family would buy a sack or two of Mandinga Oysters on Sundays.

                          On Sundays my family would buy a sack or two of raw oysters in the shell, depending of the amount of family and friends that we were expecting to drop by, my uncle put me in charge of opening the oysters. The first time I opened all the shells and by the time I finished and was ready to eat they were all gone, so I found out that being in charge was a joke my uncle played on me, after that everybody opened their own oysters and that when the fun started for me. Opening Oysters is a skill, takes a few dozen or so to get it down, here was a whole house of people in the backyard with knives trying to open their fair share of oysters, most were really bad at it, and ended up cutting themselves or cracking the shells into pieces and ended throwing more oysters into the garbage, then they actually cleaned, but not me; I would open a couple of dozen oysters; make a nice plate up with limes, salt, pepper and hot sauce usually “Valentina”, and sit back and watch the family struggle, they’d get mad because I was the only one eating. While I was waiting for them to catch up I would grill some habanero chilies and make some fresh hot sauce for everybody, I’d take the grilled chilies and grind them up in a molcajete with a mortar. There is nothing like Oysters with habanero sauce, a cold bottle of Pico de Oro or Bohemia, the heat, the saltiness, the beer and the taste of the ocean just go together.  

Oysters with lime, salt and “Valentina" hot sauce is my favorite.

                           After School, I left Mexico City and started my journey around the country and the world working for Club Med, Club Med Resorts are mostly always located on a beach, at least the ones I worked at were, and where there’s a beach there are oysters, so I tried them all. My first trip to the Florida I was amazed how many places had fresh oysters, but I was shocked at the price, remember I used to buy them by the sac and it was a big difference in cost, I could have had a 100 for what a dozen costs! Once married; my wife and I traveled to the Florida Key’s several times, we stayed in Key Largo and found a hole in the wall that had a happy hour special – Oysters twenty-five cents apiece and a buck for a mug of draft beer, I was in heaven, I would down three dozen oysters and a beer and my wife will order several Salty Dogs her favorite drink so she wouldn’t feel guilty about how hard I hit the oysters.  

Panga filled with Oysters on the Jamapa River in Veracruz, Mexico.

                          Together we finally visited Veracruz and I was able to show her how different that part of Mexico is; she had lived in Chihuahua Mexico for a few years when she worked for Ford and when there, visited the tourist spots of Acapulco and Cancun. We went on a drive to visit Mandinga, on the way we passed the town of Boca del Rio, taking the bridge over the Jamapa River towards the town of Anton Lizardo (famous because Mexico’s Naval Academy is located there.) When we were on the bridge we saw a couple of houses on the shores that used to be residences of rich people, one was turned into a restaurant and had a view of the river and the city of Boca del Rio, they had a big sign FRESH SEAFOOD FROM THE RIVER so we decided to hold on to the visit of Mandinga and try the food there.  I ask the waiter for the oysters and he said that they no longer had them on the menu, which was disappointing, a couple of minutes later the owner approach me and ask me if I would like some fresh oysters and how many, I said a hundred to start it will be great, so he went to the balcony overlooking the river and whistled to his fisherman and order a hundred oysters, the panga took off and 15 minutes later they were back and opening the oysters for me. It was the last time I have had Oysters from Mandinga, but unforgettable.

Alex and I would order two or three Ostionazos each for lunch in cancun.

         We bought our first house together in the Mayan Riviera after visiting several islands looking for a place on the beach, that’s what my wife wanted, after all I spend so many years of my life living in really beautiful places on the beach provided by Club Med, I wasn’t about to de greedy and say no to my wife and tell her I preferred to live in Detroit with the snow. It was then that I meant my neighbor next door Alejandro, a real classy guy, well educated, hard worker and passionate about food, especially for raw oysters. Alejandro took me to this restaurant in Cancun, from its appearance outside it looked iffy, but appearances can be deceiving in Mexico – the food was great. Their specialty as an aperitif appetizer called “Ostionazo” basically it’s a Bloody Caesar /clam digger with a dozen fresh oysters in it, like a giant cocktail sized oyster shooter, and man was it was good. For a few years until Alejandro moved offices, we would meet for a quick lunch three or four times a week in that restaurant just to have two or three Ostionazos, we never did order anything else from the menu, I think we may have taken the place to bankruptcy because it’s closed now. These days the only place that serves “Ostionazo” is a restaurant called “El Cejas” (The Eyebrows), in Playa del Carmen and from time to time I serve them at my restaurant Hola Asia, if there is any left after I and Alejandro finish. 

El Cejas “The Eyebrows” Cocteleria in Playa del Carmen, Mexico has Ostionazos.

                      After being hit by three hurricanes (Ivan, Emily and Wilma) we had no chance to take a really good vacation until 2008 when we went to Europe. We took a Transatlantic crossing on Princess Cruise line departing from Fort Lauderdale crossing the Atlantic and stopping at ports in Portugal, England, Spain and France. The ship had a sushi bar/wine bar combo, the sushi had an extra cost of a dollar a piece, which we found remarkable. However, since it was an extra cost and since this cruise was full of +65 year old’s, the place was always deserted. I ran across it the first day at sea, and was delighted to find that they also served raw oysters along with the sushi, the sushi chef was from the Philippines and was so happy to have a customer and another chef to talk to, so it became our stop every afternoon. I would place my oyster order in a day in advance, dozen and a half for early afternoon along with a San Pellegrino water, my wife was happy she could get on the wireless internet, have a glass of wine and some cheese for snack while she worked online with the rentals, the sushi/wine bar combo was right up our alley. Hay with our Asian restaurant on the ocean in Mexico we are all about unusual food fusions! 

In Vigo Spain we had Spanish Oysters!

                                         When my wife and I vacation it’s all about the food from the regions we are visiting, some people its museums or sightseeing we like to walk through fish markets and try new foods. So our favorite stop on this Cruise was the port of Vigo in Spain. I was in my element; seafood, cold pork meats, sausages, tripe, Serrano ham, longaniza, chorizo, octopus, Bacalao made from Cod (my other all time favorite food) and raw oysters which were the highlight of the visit to this wonderful port. There was a pedestrian walkway lined with restaurants, in front of each restaurant there would be two old ladies each standing on a box, opening raw oysters and selling them by the dozen for 15 Euros, a little pricey, but worth it because I just had to try Spanish Oysters. At this restaurant I made a culinary mistake, the waiter offers wine and I asked; “What kinds you have, French, Italian, Spanish?”  he went crazy and said; “We are in Spain and we only serve Spanish Wine,” so I apologized. We enjoyed the Spanish wine with the Spanish oysters in a Spanish restaurant in Spain. After our meal, the waiter told us that he had spent his honeymoon at a resort in the Mayan Riviera, just a few miles down the beach from our home, and he talked all about how he loved the Mexican food he had, it’s a small world!

            This year our offering were Tamales, we prepared around 150 Tamales, but only about 10 were placed at the altar as an offering, the rest were for friends, relatives and those who put in the hard work making them.

          We prepared four different kinds, two were traditional Mexico City style Tamales and two were traditional Yucatán styles Tamales. The main difference is in the Masa (Corn Dough) Mexico City Style uses a courser corn flour “Masa de Maiz” the Southeast part of Mexico including the Yucatan Peninsula use a finer corn flour. When we are preparing the Masa we use chicken or pork stock and lard to keep the tamales moist.  

             For a filling we prepared Chicken with Mole (this time we used the southeastern type of mole that is a bit sweeter) and Rajas – is made from julienned green and red jalapeno chilies, Poblano chilies, sweet green chilies, white onion and garlic, which is then sautéed, topped with Panela cheese (a fresh soft cheese with a mild flavor,) both these fillings are mainstays in Mexico City.

         For the traditional Yucatán style we prepared a filling of Pork Ribs in Red Sauce (Grilled tomatoes, onions, sweet chilies and roasted garlic) and Shredded Chicken in Red Sauce.

        After the fillings are prepared, we spread the Masa on a banana leaf, next we top the Masa with the filling, and then wrap up the leaf so that the filling is inside the mesa dough, and we fold them and steamed for an hour.  You might wonder why we use banana leaf and not a corn husk as is the traditional way, it’s because here in Cancun it’s not always easy to find good quality Corn Husk, however, since banana leaves are a main ingredient in Mayan cuisine they are plentiful here.    The banana leaf also imparts a bit more flavor to the Masa, besides it’s a also contains polyphenols (like grapes) and EGCG (same as green tea) both are a potent antioxidants. In the South of Mexico the tamales are topped with a Spicy Red Salsa no matter what the fillings are, unless of course their dessert tamales. 

             Preparing tamales from scratch is very labor intensive and time-consuming, it can take up to 14 hours depending on the filling and style of Masa that you use,   so mostly they are prepared for special occasions or celebrations, but if you feel like it you can make them any day, it’s a great workout for your arm muscles! Since preparing tamales is so much work, it’s usually a group effort, two or three friends get together socialize while they are making a large batch, afterwards everyone takes tamales home, they keep well in the refrigerator for a week.

Tamales for Everyone!!!