Adventures of An American Chef On The Run in Mexico: American Style Breakfast with Homemade Pancakes

I never understood the true meaning of the phrase "comfort food" until I moved to Mexico, a land void of most of the foods I grew up eating.  Breakfast food here is extremely different, often too spicy and richly flavored for me to handle.  There's nothing like a traditional American style breakfast, complete with breakfast sausage, pancakes and hash browns.  Last night, when at a loss of what to make for dinner, I decided we were going to have breakfast.  I've got a foolproof recipe I've been using for pancakes that I'll share below. 

We lived here for more than 6 months before we found a source of American style breakfast sausage, at Walmart in Coasta Azul.  It's 44 pesos (around 2 dollars, currently) for a pack of 14 links, imported from the states featuring spanish labeling.  This Walmart is also the only place I know of to get authentic italian style sausage, also Johnsonville Brand imported from the states.  Hash browns were an unexpected find here, most grocery stores here carry them in the meat section.  Some stores have a self serve option for these, like Walmart does fish. This allows you to pick how many and which ones you'd like.  They're pretty cheap though, costing around 25 pesos for 10 hash browns. What's crazy to me is that these are available only frozen in the states, I'm not sure I've ever bought hash browns thawed like the ones here are. I prefer it though, they cook much faster and more consistently. 

As always, La Gloria butter is star of the show here. We start by melting some in a frying pan, depending on how many hash browns are being cooked.  I always pan fry them until golden brown on both sides.  As for the sausage, that's pretty simple.  Put in a frying pan with a little water and butter.  Cook until the water is gone and the sausage is browned on the outside.  Cooking with the water ensures that the link is completely cooked, important when dealing with any pork product. 

For the pancakes you'll need: 1 cup of flour, 5 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 egg, 6 ounces milk and 1 tablespoon of melted butter.  You start by combining the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder and sugar.  

Next add the milk, egg and vanilla and stir until combined.  Add the butter in last and stir again.  Heat a griddle or frying pan to medium and melt some butter on the surface.

Pour some pancake batter to make a medium sized cake and turn the heat down to low.  This should be the last time you adjust the temperature.

When the surface of the cake seems pockmarked all over with bubbles, flip the pancake.  It should look like the one above.  Allow to cook another 30 seconds or until the other side is golden brown.  Remove from the heat and butter immediately. This amount of batter should make about 6 medium sized pancakes, so just double or triple it depending on how many you'd like. Add more butter to the pan after removing the pancakes and pour more batter.  Continue until the batter is gone and you have a nice stack of pancakes. 

All together its a little taste of home, here in Mexico.  A good breakfast is underestimated by many in the states, only when immersed in a culture that does something completely different for breakfast will people truly understand the value of the food you were raised eating.  What's interesting is what's comfort food for us here, is just regular food back home.  For all the Mexican's eating tacos in the United States, the reasoning is the same as why I make all the comfort food that I do here.  

This is an example of just how different food here can be.  Yesterday my neighbor showed up with this, which was what he referred to as second breakfast.  He mentioned the broth was the most nutritious ever and that the meat was to be eaten with tortillas, in typical Mexican fashion.  It was just barely too fishy in my opinion, although John loved it.  My neighbor is essentially a chef from the state of Oaxaca, and everything I've tried of hers has been extremely complex and interesting. 

Another beautiful night here in Acapulco.  You can't tell but the city is twinkling more than it ever has here.