Mel - I hope you found someone to care for the kitties while you are gone...and please have a decent beer for me while you are over there! I agree that Walmart has some ok breads, and some of the fresh breads at Soriana are ok too, they have some with a mix of flours and other added ingredients. I have a breadmaker but have not had any real success here due to lack of decent ingredients (or my lack of patience for hunting for them). Given how sweet the breads are here it's no wonder that half of Mexico has diabetes...
Does anyone know the equivalent of plain flour here. For example in UK you can get plain flour for baking (ie making pastry and sauces) - then self raising flour which has a raising ingrediant for cakes etc. Here I can only see Corn Flour which is not what I want or wheat flour (de trigo). I need plain flour - to make yorkshire pudding (the brits will know what they are). It would be the same flour you would use to make a roux for sauces.
Jen - I think if you look closer at the wheat flour you will find that most of it is regular old white flour. Only some is labeled "integral" which is whole wheat. And I have not seen self-rising flour here. But then you all know that I'm alergic to shopping and am impatient and not careful about looking at everything in the store, I much prefer to whine here when I don't immediately see what I want...
It seems flour is different in each country :roll: As if corn was not the same! It was different in Canada than in France, and here it is different than in the other countries. So maybe you have to try until you succeed. By the way, I find bollitos very good at Walmart.
Self Raising Flour 3 lbs plain flour 8 teaspoons cream of tartar 4 teaspoons salt 4 teaspoons baking soda Sift all the ingredients together in a large bowl, make sure that all ingredients are well sifted. You need to sift the flour mixture 4 times so that it is mixed through properly and all the other ingredients are distributed through the flour. Store in a large air tight container. Use as needed.
Rivergirl, leads us back to our discussion on Mexican food vs Rest of the World, after being here two and half months, I completely agree with you, no wonder there is a problem with diabetes, everything seems to have sugar and even still when they're making a drink like Choco Milk for instance everyone wants to add 4 TABLEspoons of sugar to it, as if it didn't have any!! I made a milkshake the other day with their very sugary ice cream (Nestle I think) and my family tasted it and they all said it needs sugar, milkshake!!! everything is too sweet and it seems if you don't like Coke then there's nothing else available to drink, except Gatorade (which is full of sugar) and some very dodgy fruit drinks!! Apologies for the moan everyone, just want a drink of Orange Squash, at least now i have suitable milk i can drink a cup of tea, still doesn't taste like the tea from home though! Does anyone know of any decent cakes in Cancun, I tried Tres Leches and i didn't really like it, I tried some chocolate cake that had alcohol on the bottom (not what i want in my cake, thanks!) and i also had the most offence bit of what was supposedly "cheescake" in Vips, i only had it because their Pozole was that poor we complained and got it free! The only have decent one i had was a cheesecake i bought for Thanks Giving (which due to family problems I didn't get to go to!) from Sams Club and it was okay but if Sainsburys cheesecake is a 9/10 then this was a 3/10. Phew, i feel better now!
Try Tere Cazola. There are several in town, but I guess the one easist to find is in the shopping center behind the Pemex opposite Wal-Mart. I'm not going to debate the ratings you assigned to Sainsburys cheesecake until you try a New York cheesecake, preferably from Juniors' in Brooklyn, which is considered to be the reference standard of cheesecakes. If you think Sainsbury is 9/10 then Juniors is a 20/10. Sometime this month we'll be in some transport cafe south of London having a proper English Breakfast. I'll hoist a cuppa to you, provided the cup isn't too greasy to hold on to .
Sounds like a decent bakery/fresh bread shop along with some imported basic cooking products is a business that many ex pats would like in Cancun and I'm sure would attract locals also. Ice Cream shop I think would go over good in the hotel zone. But the rent I'm sure would beat the profits out of you. Take n Bake Pizza shops (ie: Papa Murphy's) is a very popular business in the U.S. over the last five to seven years. Most do very well. Not sure of how popular pizza is down there among locals. Sometimes the stupidest ideas on paper turn out to be great businesses. For example a popular new business venture with very little start up money that is becoming more and more popular in the U.S. is a dog waste pick up business. They charge around $20 or so a month and they come by once a week and pick up all your dog poo out of the lawn. Some now are even cleaning litter boxes for cat owners. Like I said sounds stupid but its really catching on in alot of areas in the U.S.. I'm sure down there your clients would be limited to weathly. Good luck in your venture. A well planned/runned business can work anywhere. Nick and Renee
I have had a very different experience, my wife's family eat very well and healthy, lots of veggies, freshly squeezed juices and salads, no coke allowed. Here in Cancun I eat a lot at La Troje, stop by and have an enslalada victoria and a mineral water limonada! And if you want a shake then the bagel place on Labna has beautiful Tequila salmon bagels, and the coco-fresa shake is gorgeous made with real fruit. Bread, there is a great bakery I know - but that's a secret With regards to business ideas, I exported a few handicrafts when I lived in Tlaxcala and it worked well, I only did it on a small scale. But it is something you could do if you have capital on a grand scale, furniture as well, not from Cancun, but other parts of Mexico. Export Tequila to England, it is just starting to get a different press over there as more of a coinsures drink.
Great bread at Europea- but expensive. As for cheescakes - Rivergirl makes fab ones. Cakes- the lightest spongecake I ever tasted was from the small shop behind burger king near pemex - near Walmart. Sorry I cannot remember the name of the shop. When I arrived here my neighbour took me to market 23 where there is a shop dedicated to baking and they have all sorts of flours and baking ingredients. Sam - I miss Ribena. (sad i know, but true) Tracey
