Gerardo Medina runs Taqueria Los Amigos, a 24-hour stand located at a busy intersection in an upscale neighborhood of Mexico City.
As international customers began trying his tacos, he began to notice similar reactions to them. Pico de gallo: Red face, sweating, complaining about the spiciness.
So Medina, 30, did away with the serrano peppers and kept just the tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Avocado Salsa He served it with Serrano cheese and a red salsa containing Morita chilies and chiles de arbol, hoping to offer a milder option for international tourists who are not used to super-spicy food.
“It attracts more people,” he said.
Chili is the basis of Mexican cuisine and therefore Mexican identity, and Mexicans often use chili in the form of salsas. all: Tacos, seafood, chips, fruit, beer, and of course sherbet.
“Mild food is not really tasty food for the majority of Mexicans,” Isaac Palacios, 37, of Mexico City said after eating tacos smothered in salsa.
But since the pandemic, the nation’s capital, with its metropolitan area of 23 million people, mild climate and rich culture, has become extremely popular not only as a tourist destination but also as a new base for expats (Americans being the largest group), who find the city more affordable, thanks to the ability to work remotely and earn money in dollars and euros.
As a result, gentrification is inevitable in certain areas.
English is commonly heard in the city, rents are rising, and boutiques and coffee shops are proliferating.
But another important sign of this international change — a reduction in the spiciness of salsa in some of the city’s many taquerias — has caused dismay among Mexicans and sparked debate about how far they should go to accommodate foreigners.
What’s good for business isn’t necessarily good for the Mexican psyche.
“It’s disgusting,” said Gustavo Miranda, 39, of Mexico City, after munching down tacos with a coworker. “If you don’t want it spicy, don’t use anything. If you make the salsa less spicy, it becomes a dressing. It’s not salsa anymore.”
The influx of new international residents has been a boon for certain Mexico City neighborhoods, such as Roma, Condesa and Polanco, characterized by lush, tree-lined boulevards and lively shopping and dining venues.
By softening their salsa, taquerias said they hope to be more welcoming to people with different tolerances for heat, including not only Americans but also Europeans and even diners from other Latin American countries where food is less spicy.
Jorge Campos, 39, manager of El Compita, a taqueria that opened a year ago in central Rome, said he has toned down the heat of a charred tomato-based salsa — one of three dishes his place serves — by adding more jalapeños and less habaneros.
He said that international customers have sometimes returned tacos because the salsa burned their mouths, and because the other salsas are naturally spicy (the red salsa is made almost entirely with chiles de arbol and the green salsa with serrano peppers), he tweaked the burnt salsa a bit to make it more palatable for some customers.
“We present them with different options and they say, ‘OK, let’s have it medium,’ because they know their own level of spiciness,” Campos said, adding that waiters usually explain the spiciness to international diners.
To accommodate non-Spanish-speaking customers, some taquerias have begun labeling their salsas with their spiciness level: one red flame means mild, five red flames means extreme heat.
At Los Juanes, a popular taco stand that sets up on the sidewalk of Roma Norte every night, one of its staffers, Adolfo Santos Antonio, 22, said he has started reducing the spiciness of one of its three salsas, adding more jalapeños and avocados and reducing the Serrano peppers after foreign customers complained their food was too spicy.
But not all taco joints feel the need to cater to international tastes.
Guadalupe Carrillo, 84, manager of Taqueria Los Parados, which has been in business in Loma Sur for nearly 60 years, said her salsa recipe has remained the same for 30 years, despite the rise in non-Mexican tourists.
“Foreigners have to learn our customs and tastes,” she said, “just like we go there and eat burgers and non-spicy food.”
Janelle Lee, 46, who was recently visiting Mexico City from Chicago with her husband, said she has a hard time dealing with spicy food, but added that she didn’t expect the taqueria to adapt the salsa for customers like her.
“They should protect their identity, their culture and their food,” she said.
The decline of salsa in Mexico City has become a hot topic on social media, raising concerns about the city’s changes.
Carmen Fuentes Leon, 29, a Tijuana native, DJ, and social media influencer who frequently posts about food and lives in San Diego, caused a social media stir when she said she spent two weeks in Mexico City this year and ate tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Her conclusion? Some of the salsas weren’t spicy enough. The culprit? Foreigners.
“I’m in Mexico City as a victim of gentrification,” she said in the video. On TikTok He criticized Salsa El Khalifa taco chain, which has many locations in wealthy areas of the city.
Fuentes colorfully suggested that if Americans don’t like salsa, they can just go home and eat less spicy food.
The video has so far been viewed 2.3 million times and generated nearly 5,000 comments, many of them supportive.
Fuentes said in an interview that he filmed the video because he was “very frustrated” that he wasn’t getting the level of spiciness he wanted, and that he ultimately found a hotter sauce. — but outside the most gentrified areas.
Sergio Goiri Alvarez, 41, whose father founded the El Khalifa chain 30 years ago, 5 salsas While the spiciness may vary depending on the harvest, the salsa recipe “remains the same,” he said.
In fact, he said, the fifth salsa is made with habaneros and was added just recently to cater to Mexicans who like their food really hot and feel the chain’s menu isn’t spicy enough.
But El Khalifa has also taken other steps to cater to foreigners: Goyri said the chain has started offering English menus (with pictures) and added vegetarian tacos (soy, pea protein and grains), which have become popular among customers from around the world.
“We are serving these foreigners, but we’re not going to change our ethos or our DNA to ride the foreign wave,” he said.
He headed the sociology department at the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico City. Gentrification and foodsaid that international influences have received undue attention in the salsa controversy.
Over the past decade, some foods have become milder in spiciness as Mexicans, especially those living in cities, find that spicy food causes intestinal problems.
“It’s very easy to look for problems with foreigners, especially on social media, but people don’t realise the situation is much more complicated,” he said.
Tom Griffey (34), originally from Boston, was attracted to Mexico City while visiting a friend and moved there in 2019. He now works remotely as a data engineer. Griffey says he always chooses the spiciest salsa, but never complains, even if it burns the inside of his mouth.
“I try to blend in as much as possible,” said Griffey, who speaks Spanish and whose partner is Mexican.
Medina of Taqueria Los Amigos doesn’t speak much English, but he says he at least gets customers’ attention by pointing to the condiments and saying “hot” or “not hot.”
Lately, he’s been experimenting with less spicy dishes and has also incorporated sweeter dishes, such as onions caramelized in pineapple juice.
What’s next? Maybe mango salsa.
