Some reflection on our Merida trip - food

George was a little nervous about going to Mexico, primarily as he had picked up a parasite from something he ate in Oaxaca, when we were there 20 years ago.  We were relatively conservative about what we ate because of this. We bought most of our food from either WalMart or the SuperAki grocery store. Some meat we bought at the MaxxCarne which is a chain of butchers shops. We usually bought fruit and vegetables at the market. One of the souvenirs we have bought home is a new found love for mangos, the yellow kind. They are everywhere and from the market or street vendors they are absolutely ripe and ready to eat. At home we ate bananas, melon, avocados and mangos, pork, chicken and fish, onions, carrots and chaya regularly. Things like broccoli and green beans were a little more expensive and eaten occasionally.
We did eat out however. There are lots of North American fast food chain options:

Aside from an ice cream cone from McDonalds, we did not partake. There are lots of Mexican fast food options - small  store fronts that sell tortillas wrapped around meat or vegetables, lots of food carts selling everything from hot dogs to churros and people who just set up a tray on the sidewalk and cut mangos and pineapples up and sell them in a plastic cone.

George was tempted by this food cart. Deep fried potato chips, french fries and  sliced banana.
you could get a combination plate with all three.

Overall we found the Yucatan food sold at "non tourist" restaurants emphasised very thinly sliced meats (poc chuk), refried beans, rice and cabbage salads. They tended to also drink juices with the meal. There was a huge emphasis on Coca Cola (and it wasn't cheap). Tomatoes and avocados were also quite prevalent. Although we were often given the option of very spicy condiments we were always warned first. The food itself was not overly spicy and was quite flavourful. Lime and coriander were usually detectable but I'm not sure what else was used.
Sopa de Lima was always a safe choice and a bowl could fill you up as it was served either on crispy taco chips or with them on the side. The best I had was from the loncharia at the Santiago market and was only about 26M$ ($2.50).
Merida had lots of restaurant possibilities but, aside from the night we went out for Mum's birthday, we tended to eat at a few favourites - Restaurante Mary, Olimpo Cafe and Flor de Santiago.
George had no ill effects from the food in Merida. We did take Activated Charcoal about every other day but I'm not sure we needed to do that.