EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



51 



to make a sauce which is cooked with the cactus 

 leaves. 



Squash are boiled, without being cleaned in- 

 side, so that the diner must carefully remove 

 the seeds and pulp or, as is more common, 

 simply spit them out on the floor. Sometimes 

 squash are cooked whole with a small hole cut 

 in one side to allow the hot water to enter. 

 Brown sugar sirup often is added. Conserva de 

 chilacayote, made with much brown sugar, is 

 a Lenten specialty. Orejones are made by sun- 

 drying thin slices of young squash. Later they 

 are soaked, boiled, dipped in egg batter and 

 fried in deep fat. 



Mushrooms, which appear in the hills at the 

 beginning of the rainy season, are a great deli- 

 cacy. They are boiled, then fried in lard to 

 which chopped onion and tomato have been ad- 

 ded, and then allowed to simmer with more 

 water added. 



During the spring months green peas are 

 boiled in water to which lard has been added. 

 They are served in the pods as a between-meals 

 delicacy, to be opened by members of the fam- 

 ily, who will interrupt their afternoon work 

 for a bit of relaxation. Green vegetables, as 

 well as carrots and beets, are eaten boiled or 

 in a meat stew. Meats and fowl are either 

 fried, sometimes in a tomato-onion-garlic sauce, 

 or cooked with cabbage and perhaps other vege- 

 tables in a stew. Fish are prepared in broth, 

 or fried, usually in an egg batter. Cheese, a 

 white, soft type, is grated on beans or fried 

 in slices. 



Mole sauce has pasilla chile and mulato chil- 

 e, browned in fat and mixed with toasted, 

 ground squash and cordiander seeds to which 

 are added ground tomatoes, garlic, and vinegar. 



BEVERAGES 



A number of families in the upper income 

 brackets often drink coffee (with or without 

 milk), chocolate, and milk. Te de limon is not, 

 as the name suggests, a lemon tea. It is an in- 

 fusion made from lemon grass {Andropogon 

 citratus) which grows along the lakeshore. Pul- 

 que, the fermented juice of the maguey plant, is 

 known, but very little is made or consumed. Sug- 

 arcane brandy (aguardiente) is drunk in bars. 

 Most of this comes from Uruapan. The Charanda 

 brand, presumably so named because the fac- 



tory was built on the outskirts of town on red- 

 dish earth of the type so named by the Taras- 

 cans, is most esteemed. As common, if not more 

 so, is the caballito ("little horse"), a horren- 

 dous tonic made from Coca-cola or soda pop to 

 which pure alcohol has been added. It is also 

 a ceremonial drink, and is presented by a sup- 

 plicant who comes to ask money or permission 

 for his son to marry another man's daughter. 

 It is also served by a thoughtful host at wed- 

 dings and funerals and on other festive occa- 

 sions. Amargo is a rather pleasant liqueurlike 

 drink made from alcohol in which sugar and 

 orange or lemon rinds have been steeped for 

 several days. Refrescos (soda pop) and small 

 bottles of beer are sold in considerable quan- 

 tities. 



FOOD CONCEPTS 



Tzintzuntzan still retains in a mild form the 

 basic Mexican Indian division of foods into 

 hot and cold categories, which have nothing to 

 do with actual temperatures. This concept is 

 now little more than mild superstition, scarcely 

 credited by most people, and no two inform- 

 ants give quite the same list. Comidas irritantes, 

 or hot foods, Nati tells me, include atole, opos- 

 sum, beef, white fish, chicken, wheat, choco- 

 late, mangoes, bananas, mescal, white zapo- 

 tes, capulines, potatoes, and rice. Hot foods 

 are pork, bass (trucha), lime, milk, kurundas, 

 pears, oranges, and peaches. A third category, 

 rather vague in the minds of informants, is the 

 cordial, neither hot nor cold. Hot and cold 

 elements may be mixed to form a cordial meal. 

 The nearby Tarascan hamlets recognize three 

 categories, irritantes (hot), frescos (medium) 

 and frias (cold). This is also true for the Sierra 

 Tarascan town of Charapan, and probably for 

 other Tarascan villages as well. 



Very few food restrictions were noted. If 

 one eats white zapotes, capulines, or mescal be- 

 fore breakfast, stomach ache is believed to re- 

 sult. For the same reason milk should not be 

 eaten with fish, pork, alligator pear, cherimoya, 

 or capulin. Milk also is said not to help one's 

 condition when suffering from a hangover. 



Tzintzuntzenos, like members of most other 

 cultures, have no doubt but that their kind of 

 food is the best. One of the problems connect- 

 ed with traveling to distant places is the fear 



