Exploring a Mexican market

Since Andy’s very picky about his food (he basically eats plant-based only), whereas I like tasting and exploring local dishes, it was up to me to be the guinea pig for the food tasting. Our idea? Capture this place’s unique atmosphere. I was thrilled and I was ready! 💪🏼 Plus, we had the best local guide there could be, taking us from one shop to the next, his friends happily showing us their craftsmanship and their goods. ➡️ For a visual tour of our experience, check out the YouTube video below. With this article, my goal is to share the spiritual and physical impact this experience had on me.

To be honest, I thought the stomachache and overall feeling of unease, sadness and disgust I felt after the tastings would be over by dinnertime. Those of you who know me know how much I love to eat, and that once that empty stomach calls, I’m ready to rumble! But this time was different. As the hours passed after our morning visit, I didn’t feel better. Actually, I felt worse. I felt disgusted. I felt like all that death and suffering I witnessed had crawled beneath my skin and was weighing down my spirit and each and every cell in my body.

In the video you will see the local specialties I tasted during our visit. Watching myself on screen, I can’t help but feel sorry and compassionate for that girl I see, nervously laughing and smiling at the camera when faced with the local dishes proudly presented to her to be immortalized on camera… I see a girl trying to please everyone around her: Jorge’s friends who so generously shared their foods for the video we were shooting + Jorge who was so happy to show us around and have us taste his favorite dishes + even Andy who stood behind the camera – even though he himself looked clueless and disgusted at the dishes I was supposed to taste. A girl stuck in a dilemma between her personal values and other people’s expectations.

You need to know I very rarely eat meat, never ever eat pork and certainly don’t eat any fatty, fried food. Doing so at 7 am on an empty stomach was definitely NOT a great idea. It took me about 20 minutes to finish the first specialty I was presented with. I just kept nibbling on it while we continued strolling along the market lanes, feeling bad about throwing it away. The piece I had been offered was huge… (sigh)! 🙄 Only 15 minutes later I already felt the burden on my stomach. My body was struggling. But the tasting hadn’t ended yet! Our friend Jorge had another very special surprise for me. Before I could say anything, he had already gone to speak with another restaurant owner in the market – a guy selling one of the most expensive specialties… (no pressure!). How could I refuse to taste something (for free) which is considered expensive by locals – including our friend, who only eats this dish as a delicacy at special events?! Oh boy.

Looking back, I seriously don’t know how I did it. But I did. I actually swallowed two small pieces of what was in this broth, under close supervision of the owner who stood right next to me the entire time, enumerating the various ingredients, how this dish is prepared and reminding me how treasured it is by locals. 😳

All I know is I felt worse and worse as time passed. We left the market by noon and at that time I seriously felt like throwing up. Not because the food was bad (I 100% trust my friend on that), but because my body and my soul were having a hard time processing what I had put them through. I had never actually felt so clearly how my body was simply not made to process certain foods. I was both surprised and relieved to see how quickly my body started eliminating what I had forced on it as soon as we got back home. All I was longing for now was a fresh juice, a salad and fruit! I had never been as happy to dig into all that fresh and healthy food at “Punto Verde”, our go-to vegetarian restaurant here in Campeche. I didn’t have any other food for the rest of the day, feeling my body needed time and cleansing from that morning’s extravaganza.

By the evening, I was exhausted. I felt tired, spiritually and physically. Drained from all my energy. I was having a hard time putting one foot in front of the other. I literally fell into bed and into a deep coma, which I woke up from 9 hours later (I usually don’t sleep more than 7 hours).

As I am writing this post, I know my body has now fully eliminated all of yesterday’s remains. Still, I’m surprised by the lasting impact of this experience on my psyche. When our AirBnB host invited me for lunch with his friend at a place where they sell fried chicken, I felt my stomach turn and my heart stop. I’m definitely unable to smell or even imagine any more fried food, let alone meat of any kind!

I’m not sure where this will take me and whether I will go entirely vegetarian from now on, but here’s what I know for sure: