Sunday, March 11, 2007

Green-gos in Mexico

So, I took a month off of blogging ... but that doesn't mean I've gone back to my brown-life living ways. Nope, just working away and took a little holiday to visit our neighbors to the South ... which brings me to today's Welcome Back Blogger topic: eating organic on foreign travels.

Marc and I (along with 8 fabulous friends + 2 babies) spent the last week soaking up the sun, surf, sand and our share of cervezas in Sayulita, Mexico - a sleepy little town north of Puerto Vallarta. Basically, I discovered it's impossible to eat "organic" in Sayulita. There are no artfully drawn chalkboards listing the day's organic produce at the store like you'll find at Whole Foods, but considering the ever-changing abundance of tropical fruit and vegetables available in the tiny tiendas every day, I figured it had to be coming from local growers. And in my mind, eating local produce is the next best thing to organic.

One day, Molly bought camarones from a cooler on the back of an old Ford truck in town. While this might sound absolutely disgusting to most people, we knew that the shrimp had been plucked from the ocean that very morning, from the waters right out our beachfront villa door. It doesn't get any fresher than that ... and with Lamia's spicy touch, we feasted on the best tasting shrimp I've ever had. We supported the local fishing economy, shrunk our footprint on the earth by buying locally (less fossil fuels used to transport the food) and enjoyed WILD shrimp, not the farm-raised crap pumped with man-made food and added coloring. Big win for green living!

Marc and I took the task of hunting down local food even further when we joined Captain Ching-A-Ling on the mighty barco "Nemo" for an afternoon of Dorado fishing. We (Marc) reeled in 2 massive fish that we (Me) turned into a gorgeous spread of ceviche and grilled Mahi tacos for our bon voyage dinner.


So I didn't dine on organic spring green salad with biodynamic red wine dressing, but I also didn't bring it all home in toxic plastic baggies and I had the freedom to walk to and from the market every day - talking with Carmen, the tamale lady, herself and asking Ching-A-Ling's wife, Vicky, her favorite way to prepare Mahi.

And that, my friends, is green living at its finest.

No comments: