Menu for a Mexican Despedida
Every so often I like to post on what people actually eat. So here’s what was served at a Mexican despedida I went to yesterday. That’s the name for the hen party a mother gives a month or so before her daughter gets married (despedida can also mean being fired from your job but that’s not what’s happening here).
This despedida was given by a well-to-do family. It was perhaps a bit smaller than usual, around eighty people, because the bride is marrying a Sicilian and obviously that means lots of potential invitees are far, far away.
So there we are all, seated at red-tablecloth-covered tables for ten in the Rotary headquarters. The snacks are out: peanuts with salt and lime to add, apples covered in tamarind candy, jicama (a lovely juicy root vegetable) sticks, and queso filadelfia covered with tamarind sauce accompanied by Ritz crackers.
To drink: now and throughout the meal. Coke, agua de jamaica, or shots (well good double shots I’d say) of tequila, all served by waiters. Most of my table opted for the latter.
It was a cold day so lots of fur in evidence: scarves, stoles, and the like. But a despedida is not an occasion for which you absolutely must go to the hairdresser, makeup artist, and manicurist.
One of the great things about these events is that everybody loves to talk. You are not chained to your table. You can nip over to the relatives’ table to greet them, to the young people’s table to catch up on their babies, to neighbors from a different part of town to chat with a friend in that group.
The main course served buffet style in Mexican pottery is at once made up of everyday catered taqueria foods and a feast:
Mexican rice
Refried beans
Nopales with small red peppers
Chicken in mole
Beef in chile pasilla
Beef shredded in ? sauce
Potatoes and tomatoes
Pork in chile verde
Chicharron (pork rinds) in a pretty hot unidentified sauce
And a couple of others
Then a pause for a cigarette. Then gelatina, always delicious in Mexico
