Gerardo Medina runs Taquería Los Amigos, a 24-hour stall at a busy intersection in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood.
As more and more foreign customers ate his tacos, he began to notice similar reactions to his tacos: blushing, sweating, complaints about the spiciness.
So Mr. Medina, 30, eliminated the serrano peppers and left just the tomatoes, onions and cilantro. While he still offers avocado salsa with serrano sauce and red salsa with morita and abol peppers, he hopes to offer non-spicy options for international visitors not accustomed to the heat.
“It attracts more people,” he said.
Chile is the foundation of Mexican cuisine and the foundation of the country’s identity. Mexicans usually serve them in the form of salsa everything: Tacos, seafood, chips, fruit, beer, and yes, even smoothies.
“For most Mexicans, non-spicy food is actually not good food,” said Isaac Palacios, 37, who lives in Mexico City after eating a salsa-stained dish. Said after tacos.
But since the pandemic began, the nation’s capital, a metropolis of 23 million people, a mild climate and rich cultural resources, has become a popular tourist destination and a new home for international transplants who can work remotely , income also comes from international migration. (Americans are the largest group.)
Therefore, in some neighborhoods, gentrification is inevitable.
English is often heard on the streets. Rents are soaring. Boutique and coffee shops are increasingly common.
But another key sign of this international shift — the reduced heat levels of salsa in many of the city’s taco shops — has alarmed Mexicans and sparked a debate about how far to adapt to outsiders. controversy.
What’s good for business may be bad for Mexican psyche.
“This is bad,” said Gustavo Miranda, a 39-year-old Mexico City resident, after finishing tacos with colleagues. “If you don’t want it spicy, don’t use it. If you lower the temperature of the salsa, now it becomes a condiment. It’s not salsa anymore.
The influx of new residents from abroad has been a boon to certain Mexico City neighborhoods like Roma, Condesa, and Polanco, which boast lush, tree-lined streets and vibrant shopping and food scene.
The taco shop has softened its salsa, saying they want to be more welcoming to people with different tolerance levels, not just Americans but Europeans and even customers from other Latin American countries because of the dishes from those countries The calories are not that high.
Jorge Campos, 39, the manager of El Compita, a taco shop that opened in central Rome a year ago, said the taco shop had dialed down the heat on one of the three dishes on the table, a charred tomato Salsa.
He said international customers sometimes send tortillas back because the salsa burns their mouths. Since other salsas are spicier in nature—the red one is made almost entirely from chile apollo peppers, while the green one contains serrano peppers—they tweaked the burnt salsa to make some Easier for diners to eat.
“You give them a range of choices and because they know themselves, they say ‘OK, I’m going to try the medium’,” Mr Campos said.
Some taco shops have even started labeling their salsas with a spice level indicator, in part to help customers who don’t speak Spanish. A red flame means fairly gentle; five red flames means caution.
At Los Juanes, a popular taco stand that sets up every night on the sidewalks of Rome’s northern district, Adolfo Santos Antonio, a 22-year-old worker, said staff had begun lowering three types of salsa Heat level in one of the patties – use more jalapenos and cayenne pepper.
But not all taco joints feel the need to appease multinational taste buds.
Guadalupe Carrillo, 84, is the manager of the Taquería Los Parados restaurant, which has been operating south of Rome for nearly 60 years. The list keeps growing, but the salsa recipes remain the same.
“Foreigners must understand our customs and tastes,” she said. “Like we go there and get a burger or something that’s not spicy.”
Janelle Lee, 46, who recently came to Mexico City from Chicago with her husband, said she simply can’t stand the heat. However, she added that she doesn’t expect taco shops to adjust their salad dressings for people like her.
“They should keep their identity, the culture they have and their food,” she said.
The watering down of Mexico City’s salsa has become a hot topic on social media, adding to concerns about the city’s changing landscape.
Carmen Fuentes León, 29, a Tijuana native, DJ and social media influencer who frequently posts about food and life in San Diego, was in Mexico City this year after a two-week visit There was a stir on social media, where she said she had tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Her conclusion? Some salsas are not heated. The culprit? People from abroad.
“I’m in Mexico City, a victim of gentrification,” she said in a TikTok video criticizing the salsa at El Califa taco chain, which has locations in many affluent areas of the city.
Ms. Fuentes said in colorful language that if Americans didn’t like salsa, they should go home and eat the less spicy food out there.
So far, the video has attracted 2.3 million views and nearly 5,000 comments, many of them supportive.
Ms. Fuentes said in an interview that she recorded the video because she was “very frustrated” that she couldn’t achieve the spiciness she wanted, noting that she had finally found a spicier sauce. — but outside the most exclusive neighborhoods.
Sergio Goyri Álvarez, 41, whose father founded the El Califa chain 30 years ago, said that while the peppers used in the five salsas may vary depending on the harvest, their salsa recipes “have not changed.”
In fact, he said, a fifth salsa was added a while ago and is made with habanero peppers, designed for Mexicans who like spicy food but think the chain’s options aren’t spicy enough.
El California does a few other things to cater to foreigners, though. The chain has started offering an English menu (photo attached) and has added vegetarian tacos (soy, pea protein or grain), which have become popular with customers around the world, Mr. Goiri said.
“We are providing services to these foreigners,” he said, “but we are not changing our ethos or our DNA to try to ride this wave of foreigners.”
Adrián Hernández Cordero, 39, who heads the sociology department at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City and studies gentrification and food, said international influence is The salsa dance debate has received a lot of attention.
Some foods have also become milder over the past decade, as Mexicans, especially in urban areas, have realized that spicy food can cause intestinal problems.
“It’s easy to look for problems in foreigners, especially on social media, when we don’t see that the situation is much more complex,” he said.
Tom Griffey, 34, a Boston native who moved to Mexico City in 2019 and worked as a remote data engineer after becoming fascinated while visiting friends. He said he usually chooses the spiciest salsa and never complains if it burns his mouth.
“I try to blend in as much as possible,” said Mr. Griffey, who speaks Spanish and whose partner is Mexican.
At Taquería Los Amigos, Medina doesn’t speak much English, but he said he at least warns customers by pointing at condiments and saying “spicy” or “not spicy.”
Lately, he’s been experimenting more with the less spicy side, introducing sweeter options like onions caramelized with pineapple juice.
Next? Maybe mango salsa.
