Dinner de Muertos (by G)

My first night in Puebla I headed out to look for something to eat. I saw a crowd congregating down the end of one street and decided to check it out. Turns out it was a fiesta for the last day of Dia de Muertos - awesome. There were some terrifyingly rickety looking rides and side-show alley games, a book stall and food vendors.

I went straight in for some deep-fried tortillas type things stuffed with something savoury that may have been mashed potato - the flavour was good but the amount of oil was a bit overwhelming.

After that I took a wander and found the parade was just starting. I hate parades normally but this one was cool. Giant creepy skeletons, huge crazy looking bugs, groups of people dressed as ghouls and pirates, an almost infinite procession of brass bands playing all sorts of random tunes from the Beatles to the theme from the Flintstones. My favourite float was half a dozen women in street clothes on a small flat-bed truck with a banner saying, ´Gloria´s Hair and Nails', classic.

The parade went on for ages and by the end I was feeling peckish so I got what I thought was a type of potato stew which turned out to be a sweet syrup with chunks of peach and sugarcane in it. I dislike sweet things but I could not see a way to discretely dispose of it so I drank it down.

Later still I summed up the courage to approach one of the old ladies working at a sort of pot with a wide flat rim.  What they do is simmer small tortillas in red and green sauces and a load of grease every now and then sprinkling on some shredded pork. When the tortillas are good and soaked they line them up on the rim and wait for someone to buy them.  They are eaten with the hands, very messy. They were awesome though, lovely grease, an intense reduced pork stewy flavour and the occasional string of pork meat.

I discovered later they are called Chalupas - I highly recommend them.