Well, I had a very busy but very fun New Years weekend! Jorge and I went to visit his family in the towns of Chabihau and Yobain (near Merida, Yucatan) for a few days.
My first meal of 2011 was filled with traditional Yucatan cuisine, made mostly with fresh seafood caught by Jorge’s uncles and cousins in the beach town of Chabihau.
For my first meal of the new year, I had "Chilpachole", a soup made with shrimp and "jaiba" (a Mexican crab). I also got to try the jaiba meat straight from the shell. This is one of my favorite soups!
fresh local "jaiba"
Jorge's uncle shows me the "tikinxic" (Yucatecan dish with enormous grilled fish) before going on the grill. It's split open and covered in bright red achiote sauce.
Tikinxic on the outdoor grill
Tikinxic... ready to eat!
Would anyone like to venture a guess as to what this is? It's a mass of fish eggs! Roe! Yummy...
Jorge's family gathered around for a meal of tikinxic, chilpachole, and frijoles charros (Mexican version of pork and beans)
And just so we can end this post on a non-queasy note, here are some photos of Chabihau on New Years Day, 2011…
What did you have to eat/drink for New Years?
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Looks like a lot of fun! Though I will admit I’m very squeamish when it comes to Mexican food-long story! I should blog about it sometime!
Let me edit that with: I CAN BE squeamish about Mexican food, but not all the time or about everything!
You should definitely write about it! Mexican food can be a little weird at times, but it’s still delicious! haha
Yummy .. I would love to be seated at that dinner table eating with all of you!
You’re welcome to join us whenever you like 🙂
Love those photos! It was traditional pork, sauerkraut and potatoes here. Always good to celebrate in the company of good family and friends. Happy New Year!
Pork and potatoes sounds delicious! (I’d kill to get a good potato here haha) Happy New Year to you, too!
woof. Okay, the crab and the sauce was fine. The blood red sauced up fish, got it. But that Tikinxic looked a little scary. That long penis like thing– was that the fish eggs?! What in the world was that thing?
Yes, that was a mass of fish eggs. In English it’s known as “roe”.
(The blood red sauced up fish WAS the tikinxic! I think you meant it was the fish eggs that scared you haha)
I did all right until we got to the two pictures with the enormous fish with all its “decorations”. Let’s just say that I have wormophobia, and well…yeah. I’m glad you ended the post with the gorgeous pictures of the area! haha.
Lets see, I think we had tacos for New Years. GC was working, and we are having our normal New Year’s company tonight, so we just had tacos. The kids were happy.
I’m surprised the fish eggs were the worst part… I was more freaked out by the sliced and gutted fish haha
I won’t judge you for the tacos on New Years because I had sushi on Thanksgiving this year. Have fun at dinner tonight!
Yummy..everything looked amazing and yummy to me. We found some yummy Italian here in Merida!
wow! Did I really just write yummy 3 times..i must be hungry. lol
It was pretty “yummy” 🙂
I hear Merida has a great pizza place called “Messinas”
All looks amazing! I do eat fish roe on sushi…but those suckers did make me a little squeamish. Guess it’s time to expand the horizons!
We had a wedding on NYE so lots of appetizers and desserts!
Happy New Year!
I hope you write about the wedding! A NYE wedding sounds pretty fun!
I’m not an adventurous person, especially when it comes to food. But I must admit that it would be cool to try all of that delicious food. Can’t find anything like that in our small town. 😛
Happy New Year to you and Jorge! 🙂
As an American woman living in small-town Mexico, I’m surprised you’re not adventurous! I’ll tell you a secret… I’m not adventurous either. No clue how I ended up in a foreign country haha
Happy New Year!
Great post.. I LOVE Chilpachole… maybe I’m becoming Mexican although the first time I saw it I was not too excited by the looks of it.. btw my boyfriend is from Yobain/Chabihau too!! I love going to visit his family there.
I don’t know, it looks pretty darn tasty to me! That fish on the grill looks amazing! It sounds like you had a wonderful New Years!
What a great way to spend a weeken, yummy food, family and the beach!
Mmmmm! A seafood FEAST!! Looks delicious!
Looks like fun anyway, hehe.
Just gorgeous. And I grew up with an Asian mama so me and grilled fresh are old friends. Bring it on.