I'm a complete neophyte when it comes to cooking Mexican food but
adore consuming hot sauce.
My interest in learning more about them and trying to understand,
categorize or at least differentiate "salsa", "sauce" and
"Pico de Gallo" led me to alt.food.mexican-cooking.

Might I offer an intro URL that might help other newbees like me
properly prepare (lubricating their palates and liberating their
thinking) for the sensational subject of salsas.
In the UK of all places but the first paragraph into "Mexican
Salsa" is the best "beginning" definition I've found and would
have saved me a lot of grief had I understood this earlier in my
salsa safari:
<http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/staffordshire/priti_vishwabham11.htm>
The word "chiltomate" appears there and follows below.

Proper acknowlegement should go to Mr. Ted Samsel whose post here
initiated my Chiltomate quest.
From: tejas )
Subject: What are your favorite bottled hot sauces
Date: 2003-04-26 22:26:16 PST
"Yucatec x-nepec. & Vietnamese Tuong ot shriracha (made of chiles
japones)."

While perusing the Internet I learned, from
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/chefshop/elyucchiphot.html
that the indigent people of the Yucatan Peninsula use yellow and
dark green habañero peppers to prepare homemade sauces called
"xnipec" (pronounced "shnee-pek", in Mayan meaning "nose of the
dog") and "chiltomate".
There's supposed to be a ¿humorous? story behind that "nose of
the dog" thing Mr. Lundberg. Do you know it?

Everything else is incomplete or contradictory.
It's not that I haven't looked.
URLs failing to return anything (meaningful) for "Chiltomate":
http://www.google.com/
http://eat.epicurious.com/dictionary/food/
http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/americas/mexican/
http://www.mexgrocer.com/
http://www.recipezaar.com/
http://cocinamexicana.com.mx/ingles/menu/frame.html
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/recipes/foodindex.html
http://members.lycos.nl/mexicancomida/
http://mexico.udg.mx/cocina/ingles/ingles.html
http://search.allrecipes.com/recipe/default.asp
etc.

Are there any similar sites, with a search engine, oriented
towards Mexican cuisine and recipes that WOULD have returned
successful results?

http://www.recipegal.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=16 and
http://www.belizefirst.com/vol3-2f.html
say chiltomate contains garlic,
<http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/staffordshire/priti_vishwabham11.htm>
says it doesn't.

<http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/staffordshire/priti_vishwabham11.htm>
says chiltomate contains bitter orange juice and epazote,
http://www.recipegal.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=16
says it doesn't.

HEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!
Is it supposed to be salsa cruda, fresca or ranchero?
I guess I am hardheaded after all.
This is a specifically NAMED salsa.
Shouldn't its ingredients be likewise?

Oh, there's supposed to be step-by-step instructions in
"Healthy Mexican Regional Cookery" by Lotte Mendelsohn
from Font & Center Press.
Anyone have it?

Thanks for any insight you nice folks might offer.
Although I'm not much of a cook, I do think I can whip
up some salsa ..... with a recipe!

Disclaimer:
I am not particularly bright (Mr. Wright) and certainly
NOT affiliated with the aforementioned websites.


P.S.
Well much to my chagrin, I guess I'M guilty of bla-bla woof-woof.
Just before posting this I found what Mr. Rick Bayless calls a
chiltomate recipe at
http://table.glass.mpr.org/recipes/s...penosalsa.html
Still, he doesn't mention pumpkin seed (an ingredient I too
forgot earlier) or epazote, especially alarming to me since
some say it tastes like turpentine.
I wonder how, if or when one would incorporate them into this
recipe with the premeditated intention of smothering a
papadzule logjam.
Dang I'm hungry .... gonna have to have summa dat!