They also ate mosquitoes (formed into bricks) and grasshoppers and
other bugs for protein. ¡Yummo,! as "Raquel" Ray would say!
I like vegetables a lot myself but can't give up my carne fix
completely.:) Marge:)

I moved over to the general list.

thanks Arturo and Marge. Can you imagine how they must have been eaten
by the mosquitos if they were also eating them in quantities large
enough to form bricks.

Arturo if your memory triggers the names of those guest lecturers I'd
love to contact them to see if they'd be willing to do a podcast on that
subject for the http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com site.

thanks again very interesting reply from both of you.

dogs, huh, I betya a lot of Mexican folk would resist the idea that our
ancestors ate them. Then again a lot of folks are resistant to the idea
that the Mexican population has a significant African blood line mixed in.

joseph

====================

Joseph Puentes
http://H2Opodcast.com (Environment Podcast)
http://H2Opodcast.blogspot.com/ (Blog for above)
http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com (Latin American History Podcast)

arturoramos wrote:
> Joseph:
>
> I applaud you on your conviction and resolve to make the conversion. I tried vegeterianism for a while in college and converted back.
>
> My father, for health resasons, is largely a vegetarian as of several years back. He eats some fish and a bit of chicken but nothing else. He gets to eat nopales, frijoles, calabazas, elotes, huitlacoche, tunas and all sorts of other foods that he loves. The problem is more social since my mother and most of his acquaintances still eat menudo, pozole and tacos de carnitas. To my mother's credit she has started making chicken pozole.
>
> Anyhow, in college I had a course on pre-Hispanic Mexican history and anthropology and we had a guest lecturer for a couple of classes on the historic gastronomy of Mexico and given that turkeys and dogs were pretty much the only domesticated animals in Mexico... yes Mexicans ate dogs... little ones that looked like Chihuahuas but fatter because they force fed them corn... the diet was largely vegetarian.
>
> Beans, huitlacoche and fresh water algea and moss provided rich vegetarian protein sources.

Arturo,

You said that Mexicans ate dogs. I had heard that Chinese ate dogs and cats, but I didn't know the ancient Mexicans did. I thought they kept dogs as pets because I have a book of photos of pre-Columbian sculptures and one of them is of a young woman nursing a small dog, one that looks like what we call "Chihuahua" dogs. That sculpture just grossed my husband out, but I found it intriguing. I thought perhaps the young woman was a substitute mother to the dog and I am sad to think she was fattening it up to eat it. I think the Aztecs ate snakes and other crawly things. I saw a cooking program about people in Mexico going back to the way the Aztecs ate, but I could never eat those things. When I go out, I will still order carne adobada tacos or pork pozole.

My husband and I both are starting to avoid red meat except when we go out due to the concern about cholesterol and mad cow disease, but we feel better eating mostly salmon and tuna and vegetables and very little chicken. We now also eschew rice, potatoes, pastas and white bread; instead we use whole grain cous-cous (olive oil and garlic flavored) and whole grain bread or sour dough bread.

Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA ---
----- Original Message -----
From: arturoramos
To: announce@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 9:11 AM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] Vegeterian Mexican Cooking

Joseph:

I applaud you on your conviction and resolve to make the conversion. I tried vegeterianism for a while in college and converted back.

My father, for health resasons, is largely a vegetarian as of several years back. He eats some fish and a bit of chicken but nothing else. He gets to eat nopales, frijoles, calabazas, elotes, huitlacoche, tunas and all sorts of other foods that he loves. The problem is more social since my mother and most of his acquaintances still eat menudo, pozole and tacos de carnitas. To my mother's credit she has started making chicken pozole.

Anyhow, in college I had a course on pre-Hispanic Mexican history and anthropology and we had a guest lecturer for a couple of classes on the historic gastronomy of Mexico and given that turkeys and dogs were pretty much the only domesticated animals in Mexico... yes Mexicans ate dogs... little ones that looked like Chihuahuas but fatter because they force fed them corn... the diet was largely vegetarian.

Beans, huitlacoche and fresh water algea and moss provided rich vegetarian protein sources.