Street Food - puestos

The food booths (puestos) I mentioned as part of a festival when I first got here are not special - they are an everyday part of life. There is one ensconced in a niche on the outside of a church wall on the street next to our school. They are there every day. They sell quesadillas and tlayudas and drinks.



On the corner by the school, there is always a guy with a cart selling "Ricos raspadas," which is the local version of Hawaiian shaved ice. He has a block of ice and a rasp. He uses the rasp to shave a bunch of fluffy snow off the top of the block, then puts it in a cup and tops it with fruit syrup from a glass jar. The jars have fruit chunks or cherries floating in them - no artificial colors or flavors here. All homemade.

I haven't had one and probably won’t. In addition to the chunks of fruit, the jars are often crawling with buzzing or floating bees that are attracted to the syrup.

No one seems to mind. Insects are a pretty natural occurrence here, not something to be sought out and killed.
At Monte Alban, right next to the entrance turnstiles, there was a trash can boiling with bees.

In the U.S., somebody would have been calling animal control or their lawyer. People there just sat on the wall a few feet away, looking mildly amused at the spectacle.

Another local frozen treat is nieves de agua or nieves de leche - sorbet or ice cream. Vendors have tubs filled with ice surrounding aluminum cylinders filled with a sugar and fruit juice or sugar and milk solution. They use the heel of their hand to spin the cylinders until a slightly slushy, icy type of sorbet is formed.


A woman making nieves in Parque El Llano

There are many, many flavors. Some of the most popular seem to be tuna (cactus fruit), lime, melon, and leche quemada, which means "burnt milk." There is also lime with chile and one called Besos Oaxaquenos, which means Oaxacan kisses. I will have to ask about that one. My favorite is the rich gold "Rompope" which is made with an eggnog-flavored liqueur.