A MEXICAN cooking well begins with shopping well

Think of this as a modular cuisine. Mix and match and don’t be afraid to take risks. If you choose your ingredients with care and cook with attention to detail, the results will be better for being uniquely yours.

While cooking well begins with shopping well, it’s not enough just to go to a great market. You need to know how to get the best that the market has to offer, no matter where you shop. This is particularly true when shopping for seafood and essential when buying seafood that you intend to use raw. Make sure to buy sashimi-grade, either caught within the last forty-eight hours or frozen immediately after it was caught. Ask the fishmonger (or whoever is working behind the counter) for the best quality they have, and even ask to sniff it before they wrap it. I know common sense is the least common of senses, but use it to guide you. Is the fish free of any discernible fishy smell? Are the eyes clear and does it look beautiful enough to be attractive when served raw? On your next visit, be sure to give the fishmonger feedback about your last purchase to show you are serious about freshness and quality, because then they will always want to give you the best they have. Especially if you keep coming back.

Shopping sustainably is a challenge. Good ingredients do tend to cost more. It costs more to grow organic produce, raise animals without hormones and antibiotics, and fish ethically in ways that don’t deplete the already depleted sea—  not to mention pay a living wage to the people involved in each of these labors. But it’s money well spent, because it supports the people who make the effort to cultivate good food without harming the planet and it produces food that we would all prefer to eat. Make sure you shop in a way that isn’t wasteful. If you’re treating yourself to a beautiful piece of fish, the rest of your meal might be composed of foods such as rice, beans, and corn, none of which is expensive. While the fish in a ceviche might be expensive, all you need is some lime, onion, cilantro, and chile to complete the dish. I’m also a fan of Mexican classics that are really clever ways to use ingredients before they go bad, such as chilaquiles and huevos con migas, both of which repurpose stale tortillas into delicious breakfast staples.

With chicken for example, for example, instead of buying bits and pieces (who knows how long those chopped thighs have been sitting on their Styrofoam tray?), buy the whole chicken and have it cut into serving-size pieces. You can then use them to create a savory stock and reserve the poached meat for other dishes that call for it. The same applies to fish. Fish stockis a staple in many of my dishes, and it’s so simple to make. When you buy a fish, ask the fishmonger to fillet it but also give you the head, still attached to the spine and tail. If you’re buying from a market where the fish were already filleted, they probably still have heads and bones lying around, and will give them to you for free or sell them inexpensively.

Similarly, instead of buying shrimp that have already been peeled and deveined, buy them whole and save the heads and shells to use in a shrimp stock.

The airlines will take care of your Cancun airport transportation.