Another Visit to the Meat Market

This morning I was trying to find the Spanish word for “Roast” but could not find it in any of my dictionaries. I wanted to cook a roast in my crock pot with a roasted chilli sauce and serve it on tostadas, normally they grill the meat for tostadas but I do not have a grill (and I’m not smart enough to make one) and I thought it would be good slow cooked as well. I head to the market anyway and this time I took my time and went through the whole nicety routine with the guys, they were all very nice. Then he asked what I needed, I tried to explain I wanted a small roast. He did not get what I wanted; he kept asking me what I wanted to do with it. He asked if I was grilling it, I said no and tried to explain I wanted to put it in a crock pot. Mexicans kitchens are not usually equipped with an oven; they grill all their meat and are certainly not familiar with a crock pot so he couldn’t understand why I would put it in a pot if I was making tostadas. I did however end up going home with a nice little roast and my tostadas were delicious. I already know that there is a lot of food that I am going to get used to having all the time here that I will miss having when I come home.
By the way, speaking of grilling, the other day I walked past a home that had a little taco stand set up in the street and they had built a little fire and then didn’t have a grill so they had put the top part of a fan on the fire (you know, the wire part that keeps kids from sticking their fingers in the blade) they were grilling their meat on that.....how clever is that not? These people are just never stuck.