The other morning, along with our omelettes, we enjoyed a version of somtam - a spicy Thai green papaya salad made with a papaya that was starting to colour, but not yet sweet-juicy ripe. I mashed a little garlic with salt with the side of the knife, squeezed some lime, chopped a serrano chile - all local ingredients here in Mexico, plus fish sauce from our portable pantry. So much of the produce we buy here in the local markets is just what I’d be buying at home in Vancouver, probably imported from Mexico. I got to thinking, how do regional cuisines develop different flavour palettes?

It’s hard to imagine South-Asian cooking, Indian curries and vindaloos without chiles, but chiles are a relatively new addition. Similarly, while those incendiary little bird chiles seem essentially Thai, chiles originated in the Americas, and were transported to Europe and around the world to Asia.

When a new food becomes available, my theory is that generally cooks will look for ways to use it that extends their culinary vocabulary with references back to the traditional flavours and methods of cooking. When I used to eat root vegetables, I made somtam with grated rutabaga. It was definitely not “authentic”, but delicious, a more local Canadian winter dish. Adaptations have their own following, for example, Chinese cooking with a curry-eating bent, sometimes called “Hakka” Chinese. Whereas the American Chinese restaurant adapted flavours to suit local taste, so did Chinese restaurants in India and the Caribbean amp up the spiciness.

Traditional Mexican meals invariably include fresh or cooked vegetable salsas, smooth or chunky, red or green. I think of fresh salsa as from the same family as somtam - even the pounding is similar, in a molcajete versus a deep mortar. My salsa version tends to more cilantro and cucumber than tomato and tomatillo to keep carbs down, and often includes a splash of fish sauce. Often, it’s chopped, not pounded. Sometimes I’ll add red wine vinegar, and for a more substance (or if there are just too many that need eating), a chopped avocado. We had some salsa the other night with thin, crisp slices of raw jicama as a platform - lower carb than tortillas or their next day derivatives, tortilla chips and toastada. I made extra salsa, and added the leftover beef steak, sliced into thin strips for a simple lunch today. It didn’t make that tough old cow any more tender, but it was delicious.

I’m soaking the leafy vegetables in a solution of Microdyn, which looks like iodine, but doesn’t leave a taste. I drain them in my salad spinner. If I’m washing a bunch of stuff, I spin it, and let it air dry before putting it away. The harder skinned vegetables are washed with soapy water, and peeled. I used to pick the leaves from cilantro, and throw out the stems. Now I prefer to chop them with the leaves and add them to the salsa. They add some crunch, like finely chopped celery.

In the Zihuatanejo municipal market today, I bought some dried ancho and mulato chiles. Also in the bins were two sizes of dried shrimp, and small dried fish. Easy protein for snacks, and convenient for adding depth of flavour - as in somtam, like anchovies in a salad dressing? Put those on the shopping list!