These days, gelatinas can be found at bakeries and corner stores, on traditional Mexican restaurant dessert trays, and, of course, in home kitchens. Their glass-fronted push carts shelter the delicate, jewel-toned treats. Since the 1940s, Mexico City street vendors have sold gelatina snacks outside of schools, hospitals, and churches, as well as in traditional markets. We ate single-flavored Jell-O (strawberry, pineapple, watermelon) prepared with water, maybe a few grapes or sliced bananas thrown into the mix when she felt fancy. She considered it a healthy low-fat, light dessert. My feminist working mother favored Jell-O for its ease of preparation. I grew up after the Golden Age of Jell-O in the United States (1930s–1960s), when both savory and sweet “Jell-O salads” graced dinner tables across the country-bonkers recipes like lemon gelatin layered with pimiento-stuffed olives, sweet pickles, and walnuts. Mexican gelatina has little to do with the ho-hum Jell-O of my 1970’s Florida childhood. These gelatin desserts are sold by street vendors and in markets and bakeries across the city. It’s become a popular art form that expresses the essence of our traditions.”Īs a foreigner living in Mexico, I’m dazzled by the shimmering spectacle and diversity of gelatina. Gelatina carries within it a sense of cultural identity. “It’s uniquely Mexican-overflowing with creativity, imagination, color, flavor, and fantastical details. “It’s hard to convey the joy that gelatina brings to our daily meals and celebrations,” says Chef Graciela Montaño of Aura Cocina Mexicana, who loves gelatina so much, she’s writing a book about it. She remembers looking forward to it and wondering what color the Virgin treat would be. When she was a toddler, she attended a pre-school in Mexico where the teachers served the kids a gelatina snack each day that was shaped like the Virgin of Guadalupe. As it happens, one of my daughter’s earliest memories is about gelatina.
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