Local firewater #3: Pechuga

Pronounced: Pechuga

Means: Breast

Method:
i) take 75 liters of mezcal in a still with 25 lbs wild mountain apples and plums, red plantain bananas, pineapples, a handful of almonds and a few pounds of uncooked white rice. NB: If wild mountain apples and plums are not in season abandon the recipe and make a nice tagine instead.

ii) Next, skin a chicken breast leaving the bone structure intact. Wash in in running water for about three hours to remove any grease and suspend in the still during distillation.

iii) After 24 hours remove the chicken and place in a small shrine or tabernacle. The pechuga is now ready to drink.

Tastes like: fuity mezcal

Does not take like: chicken, breast, chicken breast.

Final verdict: 1/2 a McCartney

Local firewater #1: Pox

Pronounced: Posh
Made from: Sugarcane
Tastes like: Alcohol
Best served: Mixed with murky fruit juice in a plastic glass to a chattery room full of confused, sniffing men dressed like Dave Lister. Add deafening reggaeton music to taste.


I've been greatly inspired by this list of regional alcoholic drinks. I'm treating it as something of a to-do list for the next few months.

Upcoming highlights could include:

chorreado: in Mexico State, Morelos and Guerrero, a mixture of whiskey, milk, chocolate, sugar, and, sometimes, egg

huazamoteco: in Durango, alcohol diluted with water, with tequila

torito: dozens of recipes; in Mexico State, it is often tequila or rum mixed with orange juice, vinegar, onion and chili pepper; in Guerrero, mescal cured with vinegar, green chili pepper, onion, tomato, and cheese; in Veracruz, rum with fruits, such as guava, mamey, limon and peanuts, mixed with condensed milk, regular milk, and ice.

Readers connected to the sponsorship departments at Rennies, Tums, Alka-selzter or Pepto-bismol should note that my email address remains at the top of the page. Lets talk.

The list is from the Mexican Mercados website, an idiosyncratic guide to the markets of Mexico. I particularly like their taxonomy of fruit: small, roundish, yellow fruits; baseball-sized fruits and Misc. large fruits which has so far proven very useful.