Showing posts with label Charales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charales. Show all posts

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Charales Fabrica in Chapala

I went down to my old landlord's today in Chapala to get a note about the date I moved from Melaque. I needed it for my upcoming FM3 renewal and we moved the date around to fit the 30 day requirement. 3-4 visits to Immigration to record a move and 2 months later do it again to renew did not make much sense.

His wife was home but he was around the corner doing the books for a business that cooked and sold Charales. He's an accountant known here as a Contador (Accountant/CPA). I was unsure if I'd had Charales before and certainly had not had fresh ones. His wife suggested we go meet him, look at the store and try some. It turned out they bought me a 1/2 kilo which the owner would not accept money for (from his accountant).

Charales are common in most of Mexico's highland lakes.

So anyway, they have spiced, plain and small pieces of a larger fish that looks like Chicharron when cooked. Buy in a fancy basket or by the kilo in a plastic bag. I asked if I could check out the processing plant so took the pictures below. I don't know how they fish these things in Lake Chapala but assume with a fine net similar to the bottom foto from Patzcuaro - but I've never seen anything similar here. Supposedly the fishing is done near Mezcala where the water is cleaner.

What ever you think about eating fish from the polluted lakes of Mexico ... I just thought they were the pure grease they were cooked in. Was suggested to place absorbant napkins at the bottom of a container and let them sit.




The Fancy Plate


Sorting the fish


The kitchen


What they might fish them with
The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.

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