When I started to write this headnote, my mouth began to water. West of Mexico City, in the city of Morelia, there is an area in el Centro, the historic district, near the cathedral where gaspacho (yes, it’s spelled with an s) stands line the streets. Young men were working below each gaspacho sign, meticulously and quickly cutting not tomatoes and red bell peppers to make the famously chilled Spanish gazpacho soup but instead mango, jícama, and pineapple into tiny and perfect cubes to make gaspacho, a sweet and salty fruit snack.
By midday, the streets are filled with people carrying large plastic cups mounded with tiny cut fruit and topped with chile and queso Cotija.