Spicy Snacks, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

San Miguel Take-Homes: Spicy Snacks

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You can tell a lot about a culture by its food, especially its snack food – no more so than in Mexico where the snacks combine sweet, spicy and savory flavours in the most scrumptious ways. Naturally, that’s to be expected coming from a culture where its cuisine, rooted in spices, produces a rich, pungent sauce such as mole, generally served with chicken, often comprised of 20 or more ingredients – mostly spices – and sometimes made with chocolate. Yes, chocolate. So a lolly (candy) flavoured with peach and chili makes sense, right?

Shopping San Miguel de Allende’s Mega supermercado was such a delight that we found ourselves lugging home more than the usual amount of bags we’d have to carry after a typical grocery shop. Many of them were filled with ‘research samples’ (well, that’s what I’m calling them, okay?) for my Take-Homes post, so rather than just write the one post that I usually do per destination, for San Miguel I’m giving you a whole series – the first was on Supermarket Souvenirs and this one is on Spicy Snacks.

Spicy Snacks, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.
Spicy Snacks, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Based on my extensive testing, here’s what I suggest you try:
* Pap’s – papas fritas con chile habanero y limon – crunchy potato crisps doused in habanero chili powder and lime that are spicy and tangy and are super washed down with an icy Corona.
* Palepina con chilito – paleta de caramelo savor pina con chile – these lollipops are flavoured with pineapple, chili and caramel, so they are simultaneously sweet, fruity and spicy!
* Comitas enchiladas – my favourite: chewy, chili-flavoured fruit gummies that come in tamarind, watermelon, peach and mango – you know how some of us prefer different flavoured M&Ms or snakes (I always eat the red snakes first), well, with these, they are all delish!
* Sabritas –’sabritas cacahuates cubiertos con queso y sabor a chile’ – these ‘flaming hot’ nuts are covered with cheese, lashings of chili and loads of citrus, and they’re super-spicy and super-addictive! The only problem is that they leave you with red fingers afterwards.
* Tama-Roca – these ‘lollypops’ are, in effect, giant balls of spicy and salty, natural tamarind, rolled into a lollypop shape. They’re unusual and very sweet, but you have to be careful as there are seeds inside – could be dangerous if you don’t know to look out for them.
* Taki’s – ‘fuego pequenas tortillas de maiz enrolladas y freidas sabor chile y limon’ – oh, yum! If you like the covered nuts above, you’ll love these too – little rolled tacos covered in spicy chili powder and lime, better known as taki snacks. They’re fantastic served with a margarita.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

4 thoughts on “San Miguel Take-Homes: Spicy Snacks”

  1. I’m a fiend for salty Mexican snacks. Taki’s are one of my faves — they’re so perfect with a Victoria. Only downside is that after eating them I feel the need to drink 2 liters of water. They’re so salty! But that’s what makes them so good…

  2. Oh boy, these snacks are just tailor-made for beer! When we saw just how many varieties of snacks had things like chili-lime flavour…it’s hard to go to the supermarket without picking up a few to try.
    Wonder if these snacks are owned by the cerveza companies? Hmmmm.

  3. Lara,

    What an epic list! I will keep this one for future trips and treats. The savory-spicy is always my favorite snack.

    Now could you manage an extensive testing of Japanese salty/spicy junk food?

    -Lani

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