The Kitchen or Cocina
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The kitchen has to be in the top 1 or 2 rooms one would pick as a favorite. It is mine. I have no man caves so it is the kitchen for me.
First off there is equipment (the garage is not really part of the house and does not count guys). We have blenders, coffee makers, coffee grinders, Cuisinarts, vacuum seal machines, colorful Kitchenaid or otherwise mixers, shiny woks, pots and pans and all kinds of knives, spoons and forks not to mention wine and beer openers etc. I mean the kitchen is a place to marvel at technology (forget about the computer station). And our kitchen comes with a pretty woman who spends most of her waking hours in that room (lucky me).
The Mexican Kitchen Can Be a Real Social Meeting Place – BYOP – Bring Your Own Paddle
We have a park bench in our Casita kitchen. A seat to watch the action and the pretty lady in motion. Better than a seat in the park I would say. I spend time on that bench just marveling at the devices and the processes that go into preparing more than a 1000 meals a year.
I am the first to admit some of our accommodations are not the glitzy fancy type. We have no bidets or sparkling porcelain tubs or grand pianos. We do not have television screens the size of the one at the drive-in. Things are pretty simple around our houses. But we do make an effort to have the tools and provide the space for where food production occurs.
If there is any one room that will show you are no longer in a 1st world country it is the Mexican kitchen. I mean a bedroom is pretty much a bedroom as is a bathroom, living room or den. You will probably not see a molcajete, a tortilla press, or a tall bottle of propane in that U.S. kitchen of yours – no not likely. The sinks and cabinets are usually simpler. Mexican kitchens usually appear more utilitarian (we are discounting Tancho’s kitchen here) I have yet to see a store selling Wolf stoves or Sub-Zero refrigerators.
We have seen wood fired cooking areas and baby chickens scurrying about. We saw one more or less outdoor kitchen area with a large cement tank/sink that served not only to wash dishes but as a watering trough for the family horse. I kid you not.
We have been challenging our fellow Bloggers in our Mexico or Bust community of Blogs to showing their living condition. No holding back – even the laundry and bathroom did not/will not escape our peering eyes.
The Calypso Couple have four very modest houses. We will confine our kitchen exploration to the casa we are currently at in Xico, Veracruz. Ask us again when we are in Puerto in a few weeks.
Background: We have owned this Casita for 8 years or so. For the first 4 or 5 years we utilized the kitchen built into a 9 foot Lance truck bed camper which rests comfortably on Mexican dirt here in Xico for these many years. In the beginning there were three of us – mostly living in that camper. We eventually restored a couple of rooms in a Casita. We now have an office/bedroom/living room upstairs and a new, by a couple of years, kitchen that we built on a deck we had built when we first moved in.
If you have been following along for a while you watched and read about the cocina construction. It is in here amongst the many 100’s of 1000′s of words. Check back in May and June of 2011 by going to the right – look in the monthly archives.
But alas here is our cocina/dining room; well kitchen with park bench is more accurate:
If you look carefully you will see a propane gas tank in the corner. Under a Silpat mat we have a one burner induction stove top. Then we have a two-burner propane gas stove-top – very crude, but functional. Also note the mocajete – not often seen in a U.S. kitchen where as nearly all have and use one here in the Hood. Guacamole made in a mocajete – mm – you will never go back to a mixing bowl.
Induction Stove Top, Gas Two-burner and even a French Press
Nothing fancy in the sink area – kind of upscale for the Hood at that.
Señora Calypso at the sink.
We have refrigeration in the Hood
You might have noticed the refridge is hiked up on blocks – probably seldom seen in First World kitchens. Here it is a matter of possible water rising up on the floor and the fact that Mexican appliances are made for short people – there are none of those little people at the Calypso Casa.
Plastic shelving as opposed to lovely wood cabinets is a necessity in a humid area. At the beach the hinges will rust to needing replacing in a year. Air flow and plastic instead of metal wherever possible.
We do have a microwave with convection baking, nearly all the tools that a modern U.S. kitchen might have – just resting on a cement floor in the tropical jungles of Veracruz, Mexico and stacked on plastic shelves. We even have a recently added Keurig coffee maker.
So OK our cocina is pretty simple and definitely sports a Mexicano flavor. Now we are sending out the challenge to show us your food processing work stations. This has already been in discussion (with my ongoing threatening). So Laurie has put in her two cents HERE (she is such a good sport) and Felipe reminded me that his cocina has been on the Internet for viewing for several years. I think it really represents what a gringo can put together here in Mexico when money is no object – I mean wow – just keep me out of there when I have a hang-over!
Our water bottle sits on the floor – this does shame me.
And Felipe claims he doesn’t even know what a Wolf Range is – woof, woof! But then we have not seen Tancho’s Kitchen Kastle – because if memory serves me – it probably cannot be topped – Tancho?
Hopefully many of you will contribute a photo(s) of your Mexican (or otherwise) kitchens. We will all be closer when we know where everyone is during the commercials.
Stay Tuned!
