A Memorable Travel Meal: Chowing Down on Homemade Mexican Fare

This past July, my significant other and I had the opportunity to vacation in Chemuyil, a small village in Mexico about an hour south of Cancun. Our friends' sister owns a vacation home there, and we spent five days frolicking on the white sandy beaches in nearby Akumal, swimming with dolphins in a nearby park, and snorkeling in the ocean with the sea turtles. It was an amazing time, and the food was equally as good.

Mexican food south of the border does taste different than what we're used to here in the States. It's prepared differently, and I think the local produce and livestock they use to make their food also lends it a unique flavor. But out of all the delicious food we sampled, none was more memorable than discovering a local woman named Christina and her family.

We went looking for Christina upon the recommendation of another American family who owned a home in the area. She was not a typical restaurateur, in that she didn't have any signs promoting her business. Christina sells homemade meals on the front porch of her house, so you either heard of her by word of mouth as we did, or you had to stumble across her while exploring the village. To this day, I probably couldn't tell you how to find her. However, Chemuyil is a fairly small town, so the next time I go back, I'm sure we'll be able to locate it easily.

Christina's house is shaded by lemon trees, which she harvests daily to make fresh lemonade. As we walked up to her porch, the aroma of a homecooked meal drew us further in. Her "restaurant" is a couple of tables adorned simply with tablecloths and plastic chairs. Her house is so small that you could look in the windows and see her children napping on the hammocks and playing with the family dog. And despite the language barriers, we truly felt that we were being welcomed as a guest into her home.

For less than $10.00 each, we were fed a scrumptious meal of empanadas, tamales, and tacos. It was like being fed by your mom, only in another country. Freshly squeezed lemonade and papaya juice accompanied the meal, and we were definitely full by the time we finished.

Towards the end of our meal, Christina's son Diego stopped by for a visit. Diego spoke very good English, and spent several minutes telling us about the local tourist hotspots and cenotes around the area. (Cenotes are underground water caves that are commonly found in and around Chemuyil. Locals spend time exploring the caves, where you can go snorkeling and get a break from the hot sun.) An engaging young man, we thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Diego and found his advice very useful.

One thing Diego told us that we didn't realize is that our entire meal had been cooked on a homemade wood-burning stove made of cinder blocks. We had been so busy chowing down on our yummy food that we hadn't even noticed the resourcefulness Christina used to run her business and feed her family.

Dining at Christina's was definitely a local's experience, one that I will treasure for a long time. I sincerely hope that we will have the opportunity to return to Chemuyil in the future. And if we do, you can be sure that Christina's little homerun restaurant will be one of our very first stops.