Hermosillo, Mexico

FOOD AND DRINK INDEX


Packing for a trip to Northern Mexico? Loading the car with your favorite food and bottles of water? Maybe you should read these pages first. I find that when I buy and pack food for a trip, I almost always end up throwing a lot of it out. I usually buy too much of some things and even when I do it right, I end up eating the local food at the place where I am vacationing.

Before you spend too much, you should read these pages. Part of the adventure and pleasure can be the local food and Northern Mexico has some interesting foods and some real bargains for the careful consumer.

If you are like me and cannot enjoy a salad without salad dressing, you will need to bring your own. Mexican restaurants rarely have salad dressings. Traditionally, Mexicans put a little lemon juice and salt on fresh vegetables. Occasionally there is mayonnaise and ketchup and you can mix them together to make your own dressing. But it is best to bring a small bottle of your favorite dressing or pocket a few of those little packages that you get in fast food restaurants. If you need pepper, bring that too.

And... I am a seafood lover ... fresh clams, oysters, shrimp, crab etc. I cannot do without horseradish (and ketchup) seafood sauce. Horseradish is hard to come by in Mexico but there is plenty of ketchup and lemon (little tart limes called "lee mow nehs"...limones). Bring your own horseradish!


I can tell you that peanut butter, flavored diet soft drinks, skim milk, grape jelly, whole grain breads, bagels, English muffins, good ham, and sausages of all kinds will be hard to come buy if they can be found at all. If you need root beer, ginger ale or flavored diet drinks bring them with you. They are not food, but good stainless steel razor blades and cheap (one dollar a can) shaving creams cannot be had. I will add to this list on another page, but for now, if you have to pass time shopping while waiting for the start of the big adventure you can load up with the above items.

Meanwhile, check out the other food and drink pages to learn about the good stuff that you can enjoy while you are here ... including turning the whole trip into an adventure as you stalk, capture and prepare you own seafood.

I have mixed up a passable seafood sauce with ketchup, lemon juice and a little of the hot salsa that accompany restaurant meals. Occasionally I add a little mayonnaise. It's still not in a league with sauce containing horseradish.