Whole30 Mexico City Style

[mollie.jolliff]

Hi!  I am about to start my first whole30... I'm so nervous!  We moved to Mexico City, MX about 1 year ago and my Spanish is not quite up to par at this point.

 

I can hardly make it home from grocery shopping with my sanity and, after usually 2 or 3 stops, still rarely find everything on my list.  I am really nervous about finding well-sourced food... it's just going to be a lot more effort  on my part to ASK questions and UNDERSTAND answers.  I follow several people on Instagram who have done whole30 and see lots of good looking products, but I am almost positive I won't be able to find those brands here.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this or any advice/encouragement??  

 

Thanks!

[GlennR]

There's a learning curve, for sure. I used to painstakingly look at all the ingredients in canned goods, for example. But after a while, my eye would just catch noncompliant ingredients automatically (usually the long, unpronounceable ones) and I would immediately discount them as possible buys. Same thing when asking ingredients from, say, butchers or grocers. My ear would let pass all the acceptable words but prick up when, for example, they say "sugar," or "honey." Whoops, sorry. No thanks.

 

You'll get much better at it fairly quickly. For reference, keep searching through the other forums here, particularly the "Can I have --?" and "Food, Drinks, and Condiments" forums. And don't hesitate to ask when you can't find the info you need.

 

Good luck!

[AmyS]

I lived in the D.F. in the late 80s, so I know things have changed.  But the markets are what I remember - if you can get meat and veggies and spices, you can make good meals.  One thing I remember is that Mexican cuisine relies heavily on fresh ingredients.  True, you won't be in the maiz/frijoles/tortillas crowd, but you can make a bistec with pico de gallo and a great salad.  Just as a f'rinstance.  I guess what I'm saying is don't worry too much about finding things USAmericans can find, look at what's at the market that day and have fun.  If you're into peppers you could really go crazy with flavors.