Eating tacos in Mexico!

For our honeymoon we went to Mexico... Playa Del Carmen, Mexico to be exact. Playa is far south, along the Caribbean ocean, about an hour west of Cancun. It is simply gorgeous down there!! The beaches are filled with soft, white sand. The water is crystal clear & blue and pretty warm. We stayed for a week at an all-inclusive resort, and even though they set it up so you don't really have to go off the resort we couldn't resist exploring the Yucatan Peninsula. A short 5 minute taxi ride away from our resort was the town of Playa Del Carmen. I won't go into alot of detail about the town except to say it's got a nice, touristy area near the waterfront filled with little shops and restaurants. But if you venture even 2 blocks away from that area you'll find yourself among the locals, and with alot of options for little taco shops. We tried a few different places, but the one we liked the best we made sure to pay a return visit before coming home to Canada.

All the seating is outside, the few walls in the place were near the back, by the fridges, and they were so bright & colorful. The tacos here, and thruout this area of Mexico are all about simplicity and bringing out the flavors. Alot of times in North America Mexican food is all about cramming as much as possible into your taco or burrito. Down here a taco is in a soft corn or flour tortilla (hand made), with some grilled meat, and a little bit of cheese. On the side they provide cilantro, fresh cut onions, some limes, and some fresh salsa. The simplicity is what made them so tasty!! You can tasty every single ingredient. The grilled meats are succulent and flavor-filled. We had chicken and beef. And once i had a shrimp taco, and while it was super tasty i now believe that i shouldn't have ate it (i'm not telling that story on here).





And of course when in Mexico you get to drink Mexican coke. Trust me, it's better than what we have up here. And usually you'll get it in a glass bottle, which just makes it even better.

Next up... more eating in Mexico!!

Wedding Menu!!

I'm back!! Sorry for the lack of posting.... no excuses, let's just try to catch up.

Back in August 2010 i got married. The months leading up was filled with planning galore. One of the tasks i was put in charge of was food. Sadly i wasn't able to set up any meetings with caters where they would feed me samples. Instead we chose a caterer based on a friends recommendation and figured out a menu. We weren't having a big sit down dinner, just appetizers and an open bar. I was very excited to try the food (as i'm sure you can guess) but due to the wedding party going out for dinner before the reception and being so busy talking to people that I barely got a chance to eat anything. I'm sure some of our guests would be better at giving a review of the food. I will instead give you the menu and if i can remember anything about it i will say so;

Mini Caprese Salad – Fresh mozzarella, basil and cherry tomatoes on a mini skewer with fleur de sel.

Shiitake Springrolls - spring rolls with sautéed shiitake mushrooms, ginger and assorted vegetables. Served with chili plum aioli. (I did have a bunch of these. Quite tasty, not too greasy)

Ginger Chicken – Ginger and garlic marinated chicken with minced peppers on cumin bagel chips. (yeah i'm pretty sure i ate some of these, must've been good)


Tapas Platter - Chorizo sausage, serrano ham, proscuitto, aged manchego cheese, marinated olives, artichokes, and roasted peppers accompanied by sliced artisan breads (I for sure dug into these little tasty morsels.)

Local Artisan Cheese - Featuring a selection of BC artisan cheeses from Poplar Grove, Salt Spring Island and Qualicum farms, accompanied with seasonal fruits, berries and grapes as well as sliced French bread and organic crackers. (if there was a big plate of cheese you know i dug into that!!)

Spinach Salad-With crisp applewood smoked bacon, Okanagan goat cheese, seasonal fruit and pomegranate vanilla balsamic vinaigrette. (this was tasty but i think the bacon scared some people away

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip-Served with spiced tortilla chips, pita wedges and sourdough bread. (I loved this one!!)

Fresh Fruit Platter - An assortment of fresh seasonal fruits elegantly arranged and served with a light citrus yogurt. (everyone loves fruit, right?)

The true highlight of the wedding reception though was the cupcakes, prepared by Tracy Thorn. She didn't an outstanding job!! Not only were they tasty & delicious, but they looked great. Since music is a big part of our lives we had little vinyl records made of chocolate put on top of each cupcake. This little topper seemed to impress everyone (maybe even more than the open bar).


Coming up next.... tacos in Mexico!!