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La Piña


The Pineapple.  Sweet and juicy.  Delicious grilled as a side dish or part of a healthy dessert.  Also tasty when baked into an upside down cake in a nod to 1950's cuisine.  When mixed with rum, lime juice, coconut milk and crushed ice, it becomes the quintessential Caribbean beach drink of choice.  And here in the Yucatan, it is a required element in tacos al pastor, where thinly sliced, heavily spiced pork is piled onto a vertical spit and rotated in front of a flame to cook it, just like middle eastern gyros.  You will often see a pineapple atop the spit, allowing the juices to continually flavour the meat as it cooks.   The meat is then shaved onto the tortilla, topped with cilantro, onions and, yes, pineapple.  Sometimes, the pineapple is combined with roasted habañero for an amazingly delicious sweet and spicy salsa.  Pineapples originated in South America, but made their way to Mexico and were cultivated by the Mayans.  They grow well here, and I have two plants in my garden.  At the rate they grow, I ought to be able to harvest a fruit in a couple of years!

But I digress.  This is supposed to be about street corners, not street food.  So how did this particular corner become known as La Piña (Calle 74 x 59).  I'm really not sure what to think.  Perhaps the giant pineapple on the roof of the house on the corner explains it.  But who puts a giant pineapple on their roof?  And why?





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Location: Calle 74 487, Barrio de Santiago, Centro, 97000 Centro, Yuc., Mexico

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