The here and now... and what and why

Complacency is a trap. At least that’s what I was thinking when I up and left the comfort of a Yankee prep school gig, where I taught music, amongst other things, for 28 years. There was also that life long career as a composer, musician and artist.

First, it was a year in St. Thomas, USVI, working as a reporter and shooting photography and then, a year in San Agustin Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Time passed.
More time passed and a year back in the Athens of America followed by a hasty return to Oaxaca where it is all happening.
A couple of years in San Sebastian Etla and now, just down the road in San Pablo Etla. Life is good.

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For additional photography please visit my flickr page.
You can find my music on Jango (World & latin - Worldbeat) and at iTunes and most online stores.
¡Soy consciente de todas las tradiciones del Internet!
If you are coming to Oaxaca, please contact me for tours or advice.

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo
The view from Corazon del Pueblo

The hereafter re me

My photo
Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico
Musician, photographer, videographer, reporter, ex-officio teacher, now attempting to be a world traveler

Monday, February 17, 2014

Butter, butter, who's got the butter?

Why does butter taste so much better in Oaxaca?
The butter here seems almost tasteless.  Is it some added flavoring, different processing, different cows?  The Oaxacan butter tastes like... butter.
And don't get me going on the taste, or lack thereof, of chicken here. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally get you!

And when you cook using an electric stove instead of a gas burner you lose some flavor.

but you have the best of two worlds.

Enjoy your trip
K

Anonymous said...

What butter do you use in Oaxaca?
A packaged variety or the fresh "cremería" butter from Etla?

Christopher Stowens said...

I use both, the fresh and the packaged and they both taste better, I use Gloria brand for the packaged. And here I use Cabot's which should be good. Their cheddar cheese is certainly one of my absolute favorites... Seriously Sharp.... and you can't get anything resembling real cheddar in Oaxaca. I always take some back with me.

Anonymous said...

In the mercados, butter is made from raw or unpasteurized cream. That has a very different taste from pasteurized cream to which we are accustomed.
Joan

Anonymous said...

The synthesized form of diacetyl is an artificial butter flavor. Although not stated on the label, I have long suspected Gloria butter's flavor is enhanced with diacetyl. I have in the past purchased Gloria butter and have a few times encountered sticks that were pure white and flavorless, I guess the flavour/color additive were not added to the batch.
Diacetyl is known to cause Alzheimer’s disease. Although less flavorful I would would stick to the pure butter available at the cremerias.

Christopher Stowens said...

Wow, the info on diacetyl is heavy and not in a good way. I am going to try and find out if they put in Gloria and the other popular butters here. Fortunately, I can get the real thing easily in Etla. Taste tests all next week.