Local Superfood

The word “superfood” sounds dramatic, but it’s just a marketing term that refers to certain kinds of nutrient-rich food. This trend overlaps into restaurants, markets, and grocery stores.

Blueberries, kale, and salmon are famous examples. I also see plants like bamboo as hemp as a superfood, since they can do so many things other than being food. Related to the superfood craze is the juicing trend, the popularity of detox drinks and the farm to table restaurant niche.

Growing up in western Ontario meant that fresh fruit was a novelty just as much as hot, spicy food. Actually, any kind of fresh food was a novelty.

My obsession with the tropics might have something to do with my appreciation for exotic food, especially fruit. Even bananas were a treat back in the day. And there was one variety – yellow.

Yellow with a sticker.

I remember the novelty of seeing mangoes and coconuts for sale in the grocery store at a certain time of year. They were a luxury, and restrictively expensive.

The mangoes were always a pile of dark green bricks that smelled better than they tasted and the poor little coconuts were barely the size of softballs.

The fresh fruits and veggies I enjoy now are too numerous to count. Cold-pressed juice, fresh seafood and organic vegetables are just a way of life here in Oaxaca.

Here’s a short list of some “superfood” that I see here almost every day.

Mangoes

A colleague at UNISTMO in Tehuantepec told me that there were more than 16 different types of mangoes in Oaxaca alone. I haven’t been able to find a source to back this up, but considering that Oaxaca produces more mangoes than any other state in Mexico, it’s not hard to believe.

The ones I often see are the small yellow local ataufas or the much larger Tommy Atkins variety, which range from green, orange, and deep red. They’re really high in vitamin C and contain minerals like calcium and iron that other fruits don’t often have.

Mangoes are fantastic not only because of the sweet, rich taste and nutritional value but because of all the things you can do with them in the kitchen and workshop.

They work great in smoothies, pancakes, and salads just to name a few. More ambitious crafters use the creamy texture in cosmetics like creams and shampoos.

Coconuts

Another food that can also be a million other things. Besides just being great fun to eat, coconut products have a number of amazing health benefits.

Is it the lightly scented oil that’s great for both your skin, in your smoothie and as a cooking ingredient? Or is it the refreshing water that seems to stay colder longer than water? Could it be it the husk, which you can use to build furniture, make jewlery or keep your beach campfire going?

Apparently, you can eat the tender white flesh on the inside, too.

Yes, coconuts contain a lot of fat. Deal with it.

Tamarind

Here’s one you don’t know. It’s a bean that grows in a seed pod from a tree and has to be prepared by being soaked or ground up before you mix it with water or sauce.

Tamarind is also common in India and Southeast Asia. The tart but sweet taste and fibrous texture of tamarind remind me of rhubarb and it has many of the same uses.

That taste comes from the abundant tartaric acid and an indication of the strong antioxidant properties. Then there are the high levels of vitamin A and C, and minerals like calcium and iron. It’s one of the common “aguas fresca” flavors and is commonly used to make sweets, snacks, spreads and pastry filling.

Jamaica

Here’s one you know, except that you don’t. But you do.

This is not the Caribbean nation that gave us Bob Marley and Grace Jones. This is the name of a herb that comes from a flower, and it’s pronounced “ha-my-kah.” Or you can use the word you’re familiar with; hibiscus.

Hibiscus tea is fairly common throughout the world, but there is a myriad of other things you can do with the dried pods and flowers.

Jamaica resembles cranberry in color and taste and has many of the same health benefits, but I find that it’s not as bitter. It’s got those good citric and tartaric acids and is used to regulate cholesterol and blood pressure.

I’ll keep posting these as I discover them. I originally wanted to add nopal, but then I thought it would be better to do a whole other post on cacti and related plants like aloe vera and different types of agave.

References:

Oaxaca. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia of the Nations – Information about countries of the world, United Nations, and World Leaders. Retrieved from http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/mexico/Michoac-n-Zacatecas/Oaxaca.html

Shereen Lehman, MS. (2017, March 27). Coconut Nutrition Facts: Calories and Health Benefits. Retrieved from https://www.verywellfit.com/coconut-nutrition-facts-4135199

The Surprising Health Benefits of Hibiscus. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.gaiaherbs.com/articles/detail/42/The-Surprising-Health-Benefits-of-Hibiscus

Trim down club. (2016, August 28). Superfood: Mango Nutrition [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.trimdownclub.com/superfood-mango-nutrition/

What Are Superfoods? (11, May). Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/34693-superfoods.html

What is Tamarind Good For? – Mercola.com [Web log post]. (2018, April 8). Retrieved from https://foodfacts.mercola.com/tamarind.html

The featured image at the top of this article is entitled “desktop-exotic-fruits-and-vegetables-wallpaper” and was taken from http://www.freehdimages.in/wallpaper/desktop-exotic-fruits-and-vegetables-wallpaper/

Remember that scene (skip ahead to 1:01) when the evil Jedi makes Obi-Wan Kenobi eat the poisoned apple because fresh fruit is so delicious that it can ease his physical pain? No? Not part of the official canon anymore, I guess.

The Beach of the Dead

Posted by Kristy Ambrose

Mexico has a number of famous tourist destinations, but there are still many mysterious places off the beaten path that are waiting to be discovered. Zipolite, also nicknamed “the Beach of the Dead” is one of those special places. Get there before the modern world gentrifies it into one of these charming and fashionable “magical towns.”

Zipolite

Playa De Amor and Roca Blanca

Playa Zipolite

Roca Blanca and Palapas, Playa Zipolite

There are probably thousands of beaches in Mexico, but this is the only one in the entire country where nudity is permitted and cannabis is openly smoked by both locals and tourists. Local vendors sell a wide variety of curiosities and handmade treasures. Buy crystals and glass pipes, get a henna tattoo, or indulge in a massage with scented oils. The nightlife is more than decent considering the size of Zipolite, and clubs and bars have names like “El Hongo” (the mushroom). The legacy of the first hippy tourists is alive and well between Playa de Amor and Roca Blanca.

Zipolite is not a big place, but the beach itself is vast and open, clearly marked by Roca Blanca in the west and Playa de Amor in the east. Roca Blanca simply means “white rock” and that’s exactly what you will see on the north end of the beach. This is a haven for seabirds and they’ve branded their personal space in their own distinctive way. Most of the shops, stores, tour guides, bike rentals, transportation, paved roads and other amenities are on the Roca Blanca side of Zipolite. Closer to Playa Amor you’ll find a quieter neighborhood with a soccer field, a quaint seaside church, and a children’s playground along with a few small shops and a relatively peaceful residential neighborhood.

Playa de Amor is the small, sheltered alcove at the very end of the beach on the eastern side. You have to climb a steep stairway to get there but it’s not a long one. In the high season, there’s a small restaurant perched on the top of this rocky outcropping where the stairway dips back down towards the ocean. This tiny beach is hidden in a little cove between two steep hills. There are actually two or three secret little beaches near this spot, and rip tides here are virtually non-existent, so it’s a nice place to safely swim. The rest of the beach is marked with yellow or red flags to denote safe swimming spots. The undertow is no joke and will often shift with the tides, winds, or time of day. Enjoy the ocean but be confident in your swimming skills, listen to the lifeguards, and bring a friend.

The End of the World

Zipolite, afternoon

The southern coast of Oaxaca was virtually untouched by tourism as late as the 1960s, when the first hippies headed south looking for a counterculture haven. They found it here, on a pristine beach that had neither bank, cop shop nor boat launch.

The name, Zipolite comes from the local indigenous Mixtec language and has two possible meanings. The first, which has become a part of the local urban legend and the area’s nickname, is “the Beach of the Dead.” The beach is uncrowded and virtually free of boats because of the dangerous and unpredictable rip tides that make navigation difficult and swimming dangerous. The second meaning, considerably less romantic and therefore likely more accurate, is simply “the place of many hills.” The latter is also accurate and makes for some inexpensive lodgings that still have a first-class view.

The geography of the area, including the ocean itself, also contributes to the ethereal feel Zipolite seems to have. Unlike the beaches to the north, which face west across the Pacific Ocean, Zipolite faces south. To head straight out from Zipolite would take you not to Hawaii, Asia or New Zealand, but to a vast expanse of virtually nothing, at least until the wastes of Antarctica.

The locals share all kinds of stories about the ancient history of the beach and those that were fortunate enough to find it before the days of highways and airplanes. One tall tale is about the ancient Nahuatl people. They were aware of this isolation on some level and would come here to offer sacrifices to the gods of the dead that lived past the end of the world. How true that may be has been long lost in the riptides of time.

Luminous Photina

Posted by Kristy Ambrose

My Easter Season started a few weeks ago. On March 9th, I came to school for class and was pleasantly surprised to find that the regular schedule was suspended to celebrate the Festival of Saint Photina. The students had mixed a few big batches of “flavoured water” (also called “aguas frescas” in other parts of Mexico) which they were serving to the teachers and younger students from the Primary and Kindergarten side.

There were some really nice varieties, including classic favorites like pepino-limon and jamaica along with several creative horchatas. I think it was still the usual rice base but it included papaya and walnut, too. After the teachers and younger students had been served, the students moved the large tubs to the entrance of the school and served free refreshments to passers-by.

Eventually I asked another teacher if there was any deeper meaning behind all this sitting in the shade and enjoying cool drinks when we should be working. It turns out there is.

jan_joest_von_kalkar_-_christus_und_die_samariterin_am_jakobsbrunnen — The original aqua fresca.

Every Friday that is part of Lent has a special meaning, especially in Oaxaca. This Friday March 9th we were celebrating Saint Photina. This festival is unique to the state and not commonly observed in other parts of Mexico. She met Jesus at a well during his journey to Jerusalem, and according to the Gospel of John, the two had an honest and intellectual discussion about spirituality and thirst after she helped him draw some cool drinking water from the dangerously deep well.

Then she converted to Christianity. Not only that, she converted her sons and the whole family went on to travel the world as evangelists before being martyred in Carthage. Legend has it they threw her into a well, a great example of an ending that would never work if you tried to include it in a fictional story, which leads me to believe it might have actually happened. And Christianity is all about how many people you convert and how painfully you die, so she’s pretty important.

Aside from being the inspiration for our school party, Photina is an important figure in Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Asian feminist theology. If you’ve ever met a “Svetlana” you’ve met someone who was named for this saint.

Our students were essentially recreating the meeting of Jesus and Photina. Some of the lessons learned during these non-class hours include welcoming strangers, sharing what you have, and being hospitable and friendly in general.

References:

Barbezat, S. (2008, March 6). How to Celebrate the Season of Lent in Mexico [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.tripsavvy.com/lent-in-mexico-1588773

Easter in Mexico – Planeta.com [Web log post]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://planeta.com/mexico-easter/

Water of Life (Christianity). (2017, July 2). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 8, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_of_Life_(Christianity)

Microcosms

Posted by Kristy Ambrose

La Playa Chica

This is a proposal I’m working on for what will eventually be a series of travel books. I’ll add more as I continue, but it may be convoluted or seems disorganized. A work in progress! Please comment as to what you think, it will help me polish the details. Cheers!

Travel books are usually written to encompass the bigger picture. These ones, however, are different. They take the big world and focus on a small piece of it – a microcosm – to share and enjoy. These books were inspired by a relatively small stretch of paradise called La Playa Chica (”the small beach” in Spanish) on the southern coast of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Development here has happened relatively late and slowly compared to other parts of Mexico and information on the area is still rather obscure. The Playa Chica stretches south from the city of Puerto Escondido and turns east before ending in the resort town of Huatulco. You could drive past it in two or three hours on a narrow, winding highway through the hills and never know the little world that you missed.

This is not to say that La Playa Chica has not been written about at all. The area is too small to be extensively covered in most travel books, and smaller books that focus on this area do not include information about local transit options. Most of the information that is most sought after in conventional travel books can be easily found using Google or a related smartphone application. “Microcosms” not only contains information that is not readily available in print but can appeal to a wider readership given its structure and focus. The basic layout is fundamentally different, rejecting the conventional table of contents and scale maps.

After two sections in which a brief introduction to the area and the transportation options are covered, the reader will be presented with a chart that can be used to find specific points of interest in each small city. Sections that include details about accommodations or restaurants contain only general information and are not specific. Transportation options between the small beaches are the most difficult information to find. Not only does it vary depending on the season but it can change arbitrarily and does not exist in print or online. Information about local transport is included in the introduction and on the maps.

City	Accommodation	Tourist Attractions	The Beach	Special Interest	Shopping
Huatulco	x	x	x	x	x
Puerto Angel	x	x	x	x	x
Zipolite	x	x	x	x	x
Mazunte	x	x	x	x	x

This is a relatively small area, so information about transportation is uniform and contained in a separate section at the beginning of the book, along with a small collection of maps. This allows the reader to find exactly what they-re looking for without flipping through pages of hotel and restaurant listings.

Accommodation: doesn’t contain specific information *names, phone numbers, etc* but general information regarding location, amenities, and prices*

Tourist Attractions: some attractions, like ruins and museums, will have specific information regarding location and contact information, but there are few in the area.

The Beach: this is the main attraction for locals and visitors alike. As there are so many, this will be a mix of specific and general information that will also include comments and observations about cleanliness, accessibility, amenities, and activities.

Special Interest: this information is given in a more specific manner. If you come to the Playa Chica looking for natural cosmetics, yoga classes, spas, ethnic food or ecotourism, this is your section.

Shopping: this section is organized by items and categories and location but not by price, as this varies widely. There are general categories (jewelry, beach accessories, clothing) and specific items (organic spices, traditional embroidery, natural cosmetics).

The books focus on local transit, commuter bus routes, and other local secrets. Distances are noted but the maps themselves are not drawn to scale. Almost everything is within walking distance of transit hubs, making these books ideal for budget travelers or local people who have no use for information about resorts, airlines or guided tours. Continuing with the theme of practical and efficient use, the book is also designed to be small and accessible. It should not take up a lot of room in a small backpack or be awkward to flip through when on a crowded bus.