Wednesday
i¥m not homesick, but...
even though i am here in veracruz dining daily of soft, white handmade tortillas made with fresh masa. this article in the new york times is making me drool! every once in a while, i used to stop at hot bagels on grand street after i crossed the williamsburg bridge on my bicycle. the real deal oldschool bagel- no schmear needed. i would take these to work and my boss would forgive my tardiness.
Thursday
xmas shopping
...things have definitely been getting interesting around here. i¥m starting to notice that everyone is carrying around gifts, pointsettas, even christmas trees. a few weeks ago the street & market vendors really started to ramp up and are in full swing now. my local mercado san cosme has doubled in size as folks seliing christmas trees, pointsettas and other greens for the nacimientos ring the market. nochebuena beer popped up in the oxxo.
i went to wal mart during lunch today to buy a few things for our trip & could barely get through the aisles. everything from shaving cream to air freshners, cookies, perfumes are packaged as gift sets and piled high in places that you used to be able to push your cart.
and mexicans aren¥t even big present givers! i swear this conglomerate is pushing u.s. influences HARD. the christmas merchandise was up before dia de muertos & there was tons of halloween stuff.
so i did my shopping right in my neighborhood: sanborn¥s & manos que curan
you know i love sanborn¥s (the shop not the food) but man! christmas time it is the bomb! if you need a present fast- they¥ve got it. beautifully packaged european perfumes, cute foto albums, interesting cd compilations, Pupa cosmetics, silver, books, cakes, chocolate shaped like nativity scenes, christmas trees, elf boots or little tiles decorated with nochebuenas for less than U$ 5...
manos que curan is a little soap factory across from my dry cleaners. they make lovely soaps, lotions, fragrant oils and whatnot. cucumber & cactus, amaranth (a very important pre-hispanic grain) milk & honey exfoiliating soap, chamomile for the sun damaged skin soap, cinnamon soap, rosemary for oily skin soap, & that famous coffee- supposed to be great for removing odors soap, and heavenly rose petal soap seconds for about 35 cents! their smelly oils are beautiful, the bottle holds whatever flower or herb scents it and is packaged simply with a cork and sealed with wax.
yes mexico is a great place to shop.
i went to wal mart during lunch today to buy a few things for our trip & could barely get through the aisles. everything from shaving cream to air freshners, cookies, perfumes are packaged as gift sets and piled high in places that you used to be able to push your cart.
and mexicans aren¥t even big present givers! i swear this conglomerate is pushing u.s. influences HARD. the christmas merchandise was up before dia de muertos & there was tons of halloween stuff.
so i did my shopping right in my neighborhood: sanborn¥s & manos que curan
you know i love sanborn¥s (the shop not the food) but man! christmas time it is the bomb! if you need a present fast- they¥ve got it. beautifully packaged european perfumes, cute foto albums, interesting cd compilations, Pupa cosmetics, silver, books, cakes, chocolate shaped like nativity scenes, christmas trees, elf boots or little tiles decorated with nochebuenas for less than U$ 5...
manos que curan is a little soap factory across from my dry cleaners. they make lovely soaps, lotions, fragrant oils and whatnot. cucumber & cactus, amaranth (a very important pre-hispanic grain) milk & honey exfoiliating soap, chamomile for the sun damaged skin soap, cinnamon soap, rosemary for oily skin soap, & that famous coffee- supposed to be great for removing odors soap, and heavenly rose petal soap seconds for about 35 cents! their smelly oils are beautiful, the bottle holds whatever flower or herb scents it and is packaged simply with a cork and sealed with wax.
yes mexico is a great place to shop.
only 2 days until christmas vacation
and i can not wait!
the last few weeks have been super cold here in d.f.- though i just did the converstions to Farenheit- not half as cold as new york city! and i¥ve been giving english classes from 7am to 9pm. so b-o-r-i-n-g. so i¥m heading off to steamy veracruz.
i¥ll be spending the holidays (december 24 & 25 and new years) with jorge¥s relatives in pueblo viejo, veracruz just on this side of tampico, tamaulipas. The rest of the days we¥ll be exploring that region. looking to do very little but eat mariscos, read (i have james michener¥s MEXICO tome) and soak up sun. (note to anyone planning on visiting mexico city in the next few months: ITS COLD!)
The main thing i¥m worried about is not being able to find a decent & inexpensive place to stay. The first time i went to Vercruz was the 5 de mayo long weekend. After spending 1 & 1/2 hours in a taxi, the only place we could find was a hotel de paso (complete with black lights and mirrored ceiling!) which was like $500 pesos ( they normally charge by the hour) and we had to slip more $$ in the revolving door to stay until 10am...the same in catemaco- we ended up staying in a taxi drivers home.
so we are starting our trip in the southern part of the state of veracruz. i want to see what that part of the Gulf is like. I have been researching places like Tecolutla, Nautla, & Tamiahua - La Costa Esmerelda- near Poza Rica, not far from Tampico. so i am afraid it will be too crowded. And I have been researching the beaches *there is also a good hand drawn map about halfway down the page* south of the puerto of Veracruz: the ones that i think you can only get to from Catemaco Playa Escondido, Montepio, La Barra any places near...I imagine there is some sort of local transportation.
we bought our bus tickets today- you have to buy before a big holiday because everybody hits the road. I would have gone sooner, but haven¥t been paid all of my measly salary y. as it was our first 2 destinations were sold out. the only thing available for friday was a 2nd class bus to catemaco (where we went in may)
i wanted to stop in this UNESCO historic town, Tlacotalpan but because there are only 3 or 4 not very cheap hotels - thought we could spend the morning before we push on to the coast. guess not this time... everything i¥ve read says you have to get the transportation to the coast from catemaco & we know that there is a bus station, so its fine to arrive at 5am.
we will definitlely spend a day or 2 in Papantla. buying Vanilla Bean crafts! Does anyone one have 1st or 2nd hand info on these spots or if not we will head up to Tapantla- the home of vanilla & el tajin. or we¥ll go there after christmas & before new years day (another dinner) there are beaches near tampico & also we¥ll take a day trip to las pozas where an english eccentric built a surreal kingdom around these naturals pools.
the last few weeks have been super cold here in d.f.- though i just did the converstions to Farenheit- not half as cold as new york city! and i¥ve been giving english classes from 7am to 9pm. so b-o-r-i-n-g. so i¥m heading off to steamy veracruz.
i¥ll be spending the holidays (december 24 & 25 and new years) with jorge¥s relatives in pueblo viejo, veracruz just on this side of tampico, tamaulipas. The rest of the days we¥ll be exploring that region. looking to do very little but eat mariscos, read (i have james michener¥s MEXICO tome) and soak up sun. (note to anyone planning on visiting mexico city in the next few months: ITS COLD!)
The main thing i¥m worried about is not being able to find a decent & inexpensive place to stay. The first time i went to Vercruz was the 5 de mayo long weekend. After spending 1 & 1/2 hours in a taxi, the only place we could find was a hotel de paso (complete with black lights and mirrored ceiling!) which was like $500 pesos ( they normally charge by the hour) and we had to slip more $$ in the revolving door to stay until 10am...the same in catemaco- we ended up staying in a taxi drivers home.
so we are starting our trip in the southern part of the state of veracruz. i want to see what that part of the Gulf is like. I have been researching places like Tecolutla, Nautla, & Tamiahua - La Costa Esmerelda- near Poza Rica, not far from Tampico. so i am afraid it will be too crowded. And I have been researching the beaches *there is also a good hand drawn map about halfway down the page* south of the puerto of Veracruz: the ones that i think you can only get to from Catemaco Playa Escondido, Montepio, La Barra any places near...I imagine there is some sort of local transportation.
we bought our bus tickets today- you have to buy before a big holiday because everybody hits the road. I would have gone sooner, but haven¥t been paid all of my measly salary y. as it was our first 2 destinations were sold out. the only thing available for friday was a 2nd class bus to catemaco (where we went in may)
i wanted to stop in this UNESCO historic town, Tlacotalpan but because there are only 3 or 4 not very cheap hotels - thought we could spend the morning before we push on to the coast. guess not this time... everything i¥ve read says you have to get the transportation to the coast from catemaco & we know that there is a bus station, so its fine to arrive at 5am.
we will definitlely spend a day or 2 in Papantla. buying Vanilla Bean crafts! Does anyone one have 1st or 2nd hand info on these spots or if not we will head up to Tapantla- the home of vanilla & el tajin. or we¥ll go there after christmas & before new years day (another dinner) there are beaches near tampico & also we¥ll take a day trip to las pozas where an english eccentric built a surreal kingdom around these naturals pools.
Sunday
my first posada
why i love mexican parties:
everybody shares this common background that inevitably comes out in song or playground chants "QUE CANTA ! QUE CANTA !"
there´s always a least a little bit of food. maybe just potato chips or peanuts that are chili coated. or maybe something more elaborate: alahambres cooked on the grill with peppers and onion, sopes, pozole YUM!
someone always takes charge of bartending/distribution of the chelas normally the host or his or her friends
parents are hidden away in the kitchen or in a bedroom
or if its a larger event 3 or 4 generations are present at their respective tables.
everyone takes turn dj-ing and the selection of music often becomes a collective activity.
and best of all they are in mexican homes which I love. the home may be furnished with paintings of the last supper and or la virgen of guadalupe... and other tchotkes.
the party that i went to last night in Colonia Popotla was in a home decorated to the nines by its occupants wiith ceramic animals, dolls made of papier mache, a tea pot shaped like a cat, life-sized stuffed dogs, rubber snakes...a massive nacimiento, a robotic santa server, a miniature santa's village, some super kitsch ashtrays shaped liked dogs...and all shared with a dozen fish, birds, cats, 5 dogs, a snake & a hamster
we busted up a beautiful foil and paper covered, star shaped pinata filled with peanuts, tangerines, jocotes, sugar cane and lollipops...hoisted on a rope by the host juanito standing on the garden wall. one of our english teacher friends crouched in the corner trying to get action shots as everyone else stepped way back
"Extranjero !" several nodded in unision- piñata bashing can be a very dangerous- its considered an extreme sport in these parts! everyone lunged for the candy i collected fruit and stuffed my pockets with peanuts.
Later we were invited back into the house by juanito´s mother for la cena- the dinner. We didn't even have to sing. I was impressed with the meal- tuna with tomatoes, olives and herba ans a sort of fettucine with sliced ham, served with fresh bollios. I think the festive napkins and green plastic plates probably cost more- I love that!
we drank more tequila and squirt or coke and chelas and our collective focus turned to the music while my personal focus turned to the amazing flan that la señora served.
oh my god, when did i start loving flan?
everybody shares this common background that inevitably comes out in song or playground chants "QUE CANTA ! QUE CANTA !"
there´s always a least a little bit of food. maybe just potato chips or peanuts that are chili coated. or maybe something more elaborate: alahambres cooked on the grill with peppers and onion, sopes, pozole YUM!
someone always takes charge of bartending/distribution of the chelas normally the host or his or her friends
parents are hidden away in the kitchen or in a bedroom
or if its a larger event 3 or 4 generations are present at their respective tables.
everyone takes turn dj-ing and the selection of music often becomes a collective activity.
and best of all they are in mexican homes which I love. the home may be furnished with paintings of the last supper and or la virgen of guadalupe... and other tchotkes.
the party that i went to last night in Colonia Popotla was in a home decorated to the nines by its occupants wiith ceramic animals, dolls made of papier mache, a tea pot shaped like a cat, life-sized stuffed dogs, rubber snakes...a massive nacimiento, a robotic santa server, a miniature santa's village, some super kitsch ashtrays shaped liked dogs...and all shared with a dozen fish, birds, cats, 5 dogs, a snake & a hamster
we busted up a beautiful foil and paper covered, star shaped pinata filled with peanuts, tangerines, jocotes, sugar cane and lollipops...hoisted on a rope by the host juanito standing on the garden wall. one of our english teacher friends crouched in the corner trying to get action shots as everyone else stepped way back
"Extranjero !" several nodded in unision- piñata bashing can be a very dangerous- its considered an extreme sport in these parts! everyone lunged for the candy i collected fruit and stuffed my pockets with peanuts.
Later we were invited back into the house by juanito´s mother for la cena- the dinner. We didn't even have to sing. I was impressed with the meal- tuna with tomatoes, olives and herba ans a sort of fettucine with sliced ham, served with fresh bollios. I think the festive napkins and green plastic plates probably cost more- I love that!
we drank more tequila and squirt or coke and chelas and our collective focus turned to the music while my personal focus turned to the amazing flan that la señora served.
oh my god, when did i start loving flan?
Friday
happy virgin of guadalupe day!
pilgrims from all over mexico have come to honor la virgen de tepeyac. some have been walking or riding in trucks for several days and others have set off just today and are walking or riding biciycles together. most have a portrait or sculpture of the virgin strapped to their back. Others walk on their knees, some with cactus strapped to their back for extra suffering.
tonight in the zocalo we see some of the 3.5 million pilgrims taking a break en route to the basilica- many rubbing their sore feet and some sipping tequila. occasionally groups of young men pass on their bicycles, whistling to let the cars know they are coming. There is a group of bicitaxis in the zocalo center. some are carrying passengers, some have beautiful mobile shrines.
the following is paraphrased from a couple of articles in El Universal/Miami Herald
She is still known as Tonantzin Guadalupe-Tonantzin meaning Our Lady in nahuatl.
La Tonantzin or Coatlicue was the wife of the god Quetzalcoatl, Ometeol or Huitzilopochtli. She is the mother of all creation- the sky/heaven & the earth. They had a son-Tonacantecutli- the god of our flesh.
Originally Coatlicue's templo was on top of Tepeyac, she had a huge following. Campesino juan diego, saw la virgen while walking in Tepeyac in 1531. He reported his experience to Spanish Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, who demanded proof of the miracle. Four days later, on December 12 (now, the day of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), while in the presence of the Bishop, the image of the virgin as we know her appeared on Juan Diego's cloak.
Many mexicans contiued the ancient tradition of making a pilgrimage to the goddess Tonantzin- it wasn't so important that her name was changed to the virgen of guadelupe. Some say that the indiginous religion merged with the catholicism- or catholicism stomped it out. Juan Diego was sainted a few years ago.
Mexico comes from nahuatl (the language of the aztecs): metxchico, metxli=moon, chicli=bellybutton, co=in;en el ombligo de la luna= in the bellybutton or center of the moon
The name that they gave la Virgen in nahuatl was "Te Coatlaxopeuh" (she who comes flying from the light) or "Tequantlanopeuh" (she who was born in the tips of shame). Also and more probable:"Te" that wants to say stone; "Coa" signifies serpent and "Xopeuh" that wants to smash: she who smashes the stone serpent. pronounced like:"Tecuatlacupe".
Love y besos
Lindsay
posters on Paseo de Reforma Guadalupe: On my body as in my soul
tonight in the zocalo we see some of the 3.5 million pilgrims taking a break en route to the basilica- many rubbing their sore feet and some sipping tequila. occasionally groups of young men pass on their bicycles, whistling to let the cars know they are coming. There is a group of bicitaxis in the zocalo center. some are carrying passengers, some have beautiful mobile shrines.
the following is paraphrased from a couple of articles in El Universal/Miami Herald
She is still known as Tonantzin Guadalupe-Tonantzin meaning Our Lady in nahuatl.
La Tonantzin or Coatlicue was the wife of the god Quetzalcoatl, Ometeol or Huitzilopochtli. She is the mother of all creation- the sky/heaven & the earth. They had a son-Tonacantecutli- the god of our flesh.
Originally Coatlicue's templo was on top of Tepeyac, she had a huge following. Campesino juan diego, saw la virgen while walking in Tepeyac in 1531. He reported his experience to Spanish Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, who demanded proof of the miracle. Four days later, on December 12 (now, the day of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), while in the presence of the Bishop, the image of the virgin as we know her appeared on Juan Diego's cloak.
Many mexicans contiued the ancient tradition of making a pilgrimage to the goddess Tonantzin- it wasn't so important that her name was changed to the virgen of guadelupe. Some say that the indiginous religion merged with the catholicism- or catholicism stomped it out. Juan Diego was sainted a few years ago.
Mexico comes from nahuatl (the language of the aztecs): metxchico, metxli=moon, chicli=bellybutton, co=in;en el ombligo de la luna= in the bellybutton or center of the moon
The name that they gave la Virgen in nahuatl was "Te Coatlaxopeuh" (she who comes flying from the light) or "Tequantlanopeuh" (she who was born in the tips of shame). Also and more probable:"Te" that wants to say stone; "Coa" signifies serpent and "Xopeuh" that wants to smash: she who smashes the stone serpent. pronounced like:"Tecuatlacupe".
Love y besos
Lindsay
posters on Paseo de Reforma Guadalupe: On my body as in my soul
Thursday
metro tacuba
a clown- and i mean a clown in full clown drag- silver lame sports jacket, red & blue baggy pants with silver lame trim, a blue floppy hat and big red clown shoes with fat silver stars- passes me in the corridor. he is clutching a cardboard jesupainting he back is covered in writing. i wonder what it could be. maybe he is going to a clown funeral ?
last week i heard familiar beats coming out of the speakers lining the corridor of the metro tacuba. the volume was low so i kept stopping at each speaker to make out the music:
WAKAL-you have now idea how perfect that is! the song was terraza mantel that uses a vocal sample of "some in xochmilco, hidalgo market"
For non-chilangos, wakal is a dj/sonic collagist (part of the KONFORT collective) that makes song with bits he has recorded on the streets of mexico city. the calls of the street vendors "peptitas 10 pesos" are looped and layered with other electronic sounds. the result and his new album pop/street sound are amazing!
the cover shows a determined bicitaxi driver and the inside says "thanks: to the people of this city who participated anonimously to this cd." the liner notes read " all urban samples are property of mexico city"
last week i heard familiar beats coming out of the speakers lining the corridor of the metro tacuba. the volume was low so i kept stopping at each speaker to make out the music:
WAKAL-you have now idea how perfect that is! the song was terraza mantel that uses a vocal sample of "some in xochmilco, hidalgo market"
For non-chilangos, wakal is a dj/sonic collagist (part of the KONFORT collective) that makes song with bits he has recorded on the streets of mexico city. the calls of the street vendors "peptitas 10 pesos" are looped and layered with other electronic sounds. the result and his new album pop/street sound are amazing!
the cover shows a determined bicitaxi driver and the inside says "thanks: to the people of this city who participated anonimously to this cd." the liner notes read " all urban samples are property of mexico city"
Saturday
tampico report 2: the food
one of the advantages of living in mexico is getting to leave the big city and try regional specialties. I especially enjoy differnet variations of street foods. The biggest treat is homecooking, always created with the expertise of someone who knows their recipes inside and out, what follows are basically my notes for a deeper investigation i plan to conduct when i return to Pueblo Viejo during christmas vacation.
secrets of mexican grandmothers cooking
salsa: put a handful or 2 of chile arbol, cleaned, stems removed and a couple
of tomatoes in a plastic bag and micreave then toss them into the blender
with some vegetable oil and salt...
lard: can be from pork or beef. the secret that i would like to understand is their soft touch when it comes to using lard and oils...i think it might have something to do with the masa- the dough that is used to make tortillas, tamales, empanadanas, and a specialty of the region- bocoles- this round patty, similar to a gordita- made with a mixture of pork and beef lards and cooked on a comal. then the
corn cake sliced open and filled with fresh cheese and chili salsa. oh my god! I
have eaten my share of masas while eating in mexico and central america
but nothing as rich as these. the texture is super rich- the inside has
openings in the dough like english muffins. In true mexican grandmother
fashion, they kept coming in a non stop flow- 1 or 2 at a time- fresh from the
comal.
this thread on the use of fresh lard on egullet shed some light on the subject.
huevos con camarone
simply shrimp in scrambled eggs. the grandmother had a freezer full of
bags of fresh frozen gulf shrimp- big and pink. they were lightly defrosted
under a trickle of running water while we made the empanadas. then they were cleaned by 2 or 3 pairs of hands while we continued to make empanadas.
and finally they were cooked in a saute pan with some oil and a bunch of
farm fresh eggs. i didn't see the rest of the cooking, but my guess is that
they were stirred very lightlly...because they were incredibly light and fluffy with huge curds.
cascabel chiles
tamales de calabaza con camarone
a filling of pumpkin with dried fresh water shrimp- pulled apart the
night befre while we all sat around the table gossiping after supper. the
heads and tails removed from the bodies and reserved for the stock, the eyes
removed from the heads and tossed out and the bodies of the shrimp for
the pumpkin filling (castilla- yellow-orange) ...cooked to a stew like
consistency, some cascabel chilies, a few green olives, black pepper,
chunks of pumpkin, the shrimp parts...then filled in plaintain leaves smeared
with masa worked with porkard and a little water- wrapped in that special
tamale wrapping technique that i learned this morning and the steamed in a
gigantic tamale steamer.
mole- homemade with the help of the blender
crushed saltines, a fried plaintain, a tablet of chocolate, cascabel
chiles, pepper, salt, seseme seeds, i think peanuts. ..all ground then worked
together with chicken broth a huge cazuela clay pot. so rich every bite with full of chocolate and nutty and the fire of the chile
carne guisado con salsa de cascabel
camarones fried in chili
black beans cooked in a clay pot
the only streetfood that i had a chance to try was a torta de cecina. it tasted so much like the chopped steak cheese burger at aka on the L.E.S. delicious!
cecina recipe
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/rtranks/rttecolutla.html
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/bzm/bzmpaveracruz.html
zarela´s veracruz
secrets of mexican grandmothers cooking
salsa: put a handful or 2 of chile arbol, cleaned, stems removed and a couple
of tomatoes in a plastic bag and micreave then toss them into the blender
with some vegetable oil and salt...
lard: can be from pork or beef. the secret that i would like to understand is their soft touch when it comes to using lard and oils...i think it might have something to do with the masa- the dough that is used to make tortillas, tamales, empanadanas, and a specialty of the region- bocoles- this round patty, similar to a gordita- made with a mixture of pork and beef lards and cooked on a comal. then the
corn cake sliced open and filled with fresh cheese and chili salsa. oh my god! I
have eaten my share of masas while eating in mexico and central america
but nothing as rich as these. the texture is super rich- the inside has
openings in the dough like english muffins. In true mexican grandmother
fashion, they kept coming in a non stop flow- 1 or 2 at a time- fresh from the
comal.
this thread on the use of fresh lard on egullet shed some light on the subject.
huevos con camarone
simply shrimp in scrambled eggs. the grandmother had a freezer full of
bags of fresh frozen gulf shrimp- big and pink. they were lightly defrosted
under a trickle of running water while we made the empanadas. then they were cleaned by 2 or 3 pairs of hands while we continued to make empanadas.
and finally they were cooked in a saute pan with some oil and a bunch of
farm fresh eggs. i didn't see the rest of the cooking, but my guess is that
they were stirred very lightlly...because they were incredibly light and fluffy with huge curds.
cascabel chiles
tamales de calabaza con camarone
a filling of pumpkin with dried fresh water shrimp- pulled apart the
night befre while we all sat around the table gossiping after supper. the
heads and tails removed from the bodies and reserved for the stock, the eyes
removed from the heads and tossed out and the bodies of the shrimp for
the pumpkin filling (castilla- yellow-orange) ...cooked to a stew like
consistency, some cascabel chilies, a few green olives, black pepper,
chunks of pumpkin, the shrimp parts...then filled in plaintain leaves smeared
with masa worked with porkard and a little water- wrapped in that special
tamale wrapping technique that i learned this morning and the steamed in a
gigantic tamale steamer.
mole- homemade with the help of the blender
crushed saltines, a fried plaintain, a tablet of chocolate, cascabel
chiles, pepper, salt, seseme seeds, i think peanuts. ..all ground then worked
together with chicken broth a huge cazuela clay pot. so rich every bite with full of chocolate and nutty and the fire of the chile
carne guisado con salsa de cascabel
camarones fried in chili
black beans cooked in a clay pot
the only streetfood that i had a chance to try was a torta de cecina. it tasted so much like the chopped steak cheese burger at aka on the L.E.S. delicious!
cecina recipe
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/rtranks/rttecolutla.html
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/travel/bzm/bzmpaveracruz.html
zarela´s veracruz
Friday
thanksgiving
Yesterday was thanksgiving. Yesterday was a sad day for me because I love thanksgiving. I love planning for it, shopping for it, cooking for it, eating it, sharing it. But i don't live in the united states. I live in mexico now. in chilangolandia to be exact. Even though some gringos were celebrating, most mexicans think of turkey only for christmas dinner.
yesterday d.f. hosted a massive political demonstration of oh, only about 80,ooo to 100,ooo plus people so unless you are some kind of sadist, there was no reason to be moving around much. One of the major gathering points is the monument of the revolution- just down my street. People were arriving from the provinces as early as tuesday night and by wednesday night every public plaza and parking lot became campgrounds. One of the major arteries of the cities was closed all day, but i made to work and i made it home again. and i made off with a frozen sara lee apple pie.
Jorge and I went to my favorite turkey restaurant La Casa del Pavo (the house of turkey!) located on Motolinea #40, in the lovely centro historico because they have delicious tortas de pavo. Shredded roast turkey on a french bolillo roll with avocado, mayo, salsa buffalo, pickled jalapeño & carrots- who needs cranberry sauce? Perfect with a bohemia beer. And only 54 peso (about U$ 5 ) for 2 of each.
We walked home through the quiet streets of the centro, stopping atSanborns (i now love Sanborns !) to look at the new magazines and the Pupa make-up and buy imported chocolate (toblerone) to eat and talk about the movies we wanted to see.
Maybe i'll roast a turkey on sunday or maybe I won't. There are actually many things to do- like go to the Mutek festival, go to some markets, and plan our holiday trip. I think my homesickness has passed.
yesterday d.f. hosted a massive political demonstration of oh, only about 80,ooo to 100,ooo plus people so unless you are some kind of sadist, there was no reason to be moving around much. One of the major gathering points is the monument of the revolution- just down my street. People were arriving from the provinces as early as tuesday night and by wednesday night every public plaza and parking lot became campgrounds. One of the major arteries of the cities was closed all day, but i made to work and i made it home again. and i made off with a frozen sara lee apple pie.
Jorge and I went to my favorite turkey restaurant La Casa del Pavo (the house of turkey!) located on Motolinea #40, in the lovely centro historico because they have delicious tortas de pavo. Shredded roast turkey on a french bolillo roll with avocado, mayo, salsa buffalo, pickled jalapeño & carrots- who needs cranberry sauce? Perfect with a bohemia beer. And only 54 peso (about U$ 5 ) for 2 of each.
We walked home through the quiet streets of the centro, stopping atSanborns (i now love Sanborns !) to look at the new magazines and the Pupa make-up and buy imported chocolate (toblerone) to eat and talk about the movies we wanted to see.
Maybe i'll roast a turkey on sunday or maybe I won't. There are actually many things to do- like go to the Mutek festival, go to some markets, and plan our holiday trip. I think my homesickness has passed.
Monday
dia de gracias
i spent all day saturday home alone pouring over recipes and suggestions for thanksgiving recipes on the internet.
first i read this discussion your way or their way and thought about the blankness of the faces of my mexican familiy in regards to this tradition, which they see as typical american gluttony- serving a 20 lb turkey, 6 side dishes and 5 deserts on a random thursday in november. and i want to show them how its done- share this tradition of cooking for 16 hours straight every thursday-but i'm afraid its just not feasible on the $100/week i am earning right now. but if i change my mind- these are my menu ideas:
i even cried a little bit when looking at the sweet potatoes recipes on chowhound. Not because i am so sentimental about yams, just that trying to rember if i had made this particular yam recipe and not being able to cook with my mom on thanksgiving. The last few years i have been driving the thanksgiving bus, but she is the one that rescues everything at the last minute- the mashed potaoes, the gravy, one more pie...
a turkey with traditional bread stuffing along with a bit of chorizo, and chili peppers served with mole instead of gravy (my mom always makes the gravy)
maybe a riff on this deborah madisonrecipe of winter squash braised in cider using calabacitas. I'd need a cider substitute, too.
or thisparsnip recipeusing another root vegetable, like...hmm,what?
definitely sweet potatoes. here in mexico city, sweet potatoes are only eaten as sweets called camotes they are candied or you buy them from the camotero the guy who wheels around a mobile coal powered steamer. you know he's coming as the steam whistle gets unbearably louder and louder. the steamed sweet poatoes are 15-20 pesos a piece in my neighborhood and garnished with sweet canned milk, lechera.
and for dessert- a pecan pie would be something novel for my guests. i heard this recipe for a fudge pecan pie is good (i even think we'ver served it before)
and i'm on the fence about pumpkin pie having made homemade pumpkin puree for my birthday cake. but maybe a pumpkin pecan pie
i also found this thread about appetizers to be fascinating. chowhounds are so meticulous ! stilton honey toast recipe and i down loaded this this salmon mousse recipe, too.
and i posted this shrill for barra vieja, a super chill beach about an hour south of acapulco.
and discovered some facts about mexican cheeses and more about mexican cheese which is great because i still have kilos of fresh cheese from veracruz in my fridge.
also this weird cheese recipe
first i read this discussion your way or their way and thought about the blankness of the faces of my mexican familiy in regards to this tradition, which they see as typical american gluttony- serving a 20 lb turkey, 6 side dishes and 5 deserts on a random thursday in november. and i want to show them how its done- share this tradition of cooking for 16 hours straight every thursday-but i'm afraid its just not feasible on the $100/week i am earning right now. but if i change my mind- these are my menu ideas:
i even cried a little bit when looking at the sweet potatoes recipes on chowhound. Not because i am so sentimental about yams, just that trying to rember if i had made this particular yam recipe and not being able to cook with my mom on thanksgiving. The last few years i have been driving the thanksgiving bus, but she is the one that rescues everything at the last minute- the mashed potaoes, the gravy, one more pie...
a turkey with traditional bread stuffing along with a bit of chorizo, and chili peppers served with mole instead of gravy (my mom always makes the gravy)
maybe a riff on this deborah madisonrecipe of winter squash braised in cider using calabacitas. I'd need a cider substitute, too.
or thisparsnip recipeusing another root vegetable, like...hmm,what?
definitely sweet potatoes. here in mexico city, sweet potatoes are only eaten as sweets called camotes they are candied or you buy them from the camotero the guy who wheels around a mobile coal powered steamer. you know he's coming as the steam whistle gets unbearably louder and louder. the steamed sweet poatoes are 15-20 pesos a piece in my neighborhood and garnished with sweet canned milk, lechera.
and for dessert- a pecan pie would be something novel for my guests. i heard this recipe for a fudge pecan pie is good (i even think we'ver served it before)
and i'm on the fence about pumpkin pie having made homemade pumpkin puree for my birthday cake. but maybe a pumpkin pecan pie
i also found this thread about appetizers to be fascinating. chowhounds are so meticulous ! stilton honey toast recipe and i down loaded this this salmon mousse recipe, too.
and i posted this shrill for barra vieja, a super chill beach about an hour south of acapulco.
and discovered some facts about mexican cheeses and more about mexican cheese which is great because i still have kilos of fresh cheese from veracruz in my fridge.
also this weird cheese recipe
behind on my blogging
things to come:
better photo page. the current ones have faults. fotolog is great, but you can only load one photo per day. yahoo is free but it just sucks. please email me if you have suggestions.
archives: the first 6 months! i have loads of emails & journal entries to post. i think those days were more interesting. more moving around oaxaca, chiapas, guatemala, veracruz everything was new and more exciting - thought at least one thing is still new & exciting- daily. maybe that's what i should write about...
i'm almost finished my tampico report. i'll try to finish it up and post tomorrow. I want to read over it one more time, as i'm detailing the first funeral i have attended here in mexico and don't want to be to...irresponsible.
so this weekend is over and i have to say i miss new york city terribly! it subsided the past few weeks and came back stronger these last days. I miss my lady friends! and little bars and little parties and ethnic diversity and mediamediamedia and potato pancakes. i miss cabs you can lie down in! i miss slices of pizza!! and my imac at fluid and my friends at fluid and mochas from balthazar...
enough.
better photo page. the current ones have faults. fotolog is great, but you can only load one photo per day. yahoo is free but it just sucks. please email me if you have suggestions.
archives: the first 6 months! i have loads of emails & journal entries to post. i think those days were more interesting. more moving around oaxaca, chiapas, guatemala, veracruz everything was new and more exciting - thought at least one thing is still new & exciting- daily. maybe that's what i should write about...
i'm almost finished my tampico report. i'll try to finish it up and post tomorrow. I want to read over it one more time, as i'm detailing the first funeral i have attended here in mexico and don't want to be to...irresponsible.
so this weekend is over and i have to say i miss new york city terribly! it subsided the past few weeks and came back stronger these last days. I miss my lady friends! and little bars and little parties and ethnic diversity and mediamediamedia and potato pancakes. i miss cabs you can lie down in! i miss slices of pizza!! and my imac at fluid and my friends at fluid and mochas from balthazar...
enough.
Wednesday
about here, a glossary
d.f. is distrito federal: mexico city, but became its own state a few years ago. All the chilangos call it d.f.-along with all the foreigners trying to sound in the know. The city is divided into 260 plus colonias- we live in tabacalera down the street from monumento de revolucion...coyocan is where frieda kahlo & diego rivera live...polonco is a wealthy neighborhood that i work in & santa fe is another place where the very rich live, roma & condesa are the hip beautiful ones ...tepito is where the thieves market is... the zona rosa is a weird business/entertainment neighborhood...centro historico is where the pyramid was & really really old buildings & museums are...i read the other day that there are an estimated 450,000 americans living in mexico city, but i never see any of them.
diccionario
chilango/a - people from mexico city aka chilaquiles
chido - cool...every other word out of the mouth of young chilangos
combis - the short buses and occasionally vw bus that troll the streets, decorated with stickers of la virgen, jesus & pissing calvins. sometimes customized with leather or painted console, colored light bulbs and always accompanied with loud music aka peseros
güero/a - literally mends blondie, but is used like customer or client by all street vendors
güey - dude...the other every other word out of the mouth of young chilangos
monedero - change purse, a must to avoid handing over your big money in robberies
puesto - literally: post, station, base. refers to the small food stands that line the streets. there are puestos for tacos, tortas, juices and smoothies and small puestos that sell gum, cigarettes, candies and cookies
tiangui - the tarp covered markets all over the city. often lining the sidewalk. you can find socks, stockings, g-strings, batteries, cds, dvds, used pornography, demonic looking baby dolls, books, small tvs, electrical cable, hair gel- almost anyhting in the tianguis...
torta - a mexican hero style sandwich served hot on a french roll granished with avocado, tomato, onion & jalapeño. they are cooked on a flat grill with lots of vegetable oil and you can find a cheap torta almost anywhere
diccionario
chilango/a - people from mexico city aka chilaquiles
chido - cool...every other word out of the mouth of young chilangos
combis - the short buses and occasionally vw bus that troll the streets, decorated with stickers of la virgen, jesus & pissing calvins. sometimes customized with leather or painted console, colored light bulbs and always accompanied with loud music aka peseros
güero/a - literally mends blondie, but is used like customer or client by all street vendors
güey - dude...the other every other word out of the mouth of young chilangos
monedero - change purse, a must to avoid handing over your big money in robberies
puesto - literally: post, station, base. refers to the small food stands that line the streets. there are puestos for tacos, tortas, juices and smoothies and small puestos that sell gum, cigarettes, candies and cookies
tiangui - the tarp covered markets all over the city. often lining the sidewalk. you can find socks, stockings, g-strings, batteries, cds, dvds, used pornography, demonic looking baby dolls, books, small tvs, electrical cable, hair gel- almost anyhting in the tianguis...
torta - a mexican hero style sandwich served hot on a french roll granished with avocado, tomato, onion & jalapeño. they are cooked on a flat grill with lots of vegetable oil and you can find a cheap torta almost anywhere
Tuesday
tampico report: the funeral
thursday night we took the red-eye to Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz- the geographic location responsible for my lover. (jorge´s father & mother come from the same small town)
Jorge´s fathers mother died in her sleep Wednesday night. She was 93 years old and known for her cooking- both the quality and the quantity. She would load every one up with bags of 20 quesadillas and several packs of gum for the bus trip back to mexico. She would be at her comal, preparing a stack of enchiladas for you before you even had a chance to walk all the way into her home. I am so sorry that i didn't have a chance to met doña chavela, but her cooking lives on! She taught all of the women in her life her recipes & methods & they have taught more young women & they are teaching me!
Tampico is in the state of Tamaulipas divided by the Panuco river from the state of Veracruz. To get to Pueblo Viejo, where all the familiares are, you cross this bridge back into Veracruz or you hop a quick ferry from downtown Tampico that will get you straight across for 1 peso (U$ .10) During our stay, I was impressed at how seamless the public transportation worked. All around the Tampico area the colectivo taxis are big Ford Crown Victorias. The ferries run constantly and on both sides of the river there are collectivos ready to leave when they are full with 7 or 8 passengers!
We arrived late friday morning, delayed by the horrific road conditions in parts of Veracruz. Later we found out that many of the areas we passed through had been declared states of emergency because of the tremendous downpour the previous nights. We changed into funeral clothes in the bus station bathroom (2 pesos) and hopped a taxi to the funeral home.
When the taxi driver stopped and pointed across the street, I said "no that's not a funeral home" Stupid gringa! Death is no big deal here in mexico-coffin stores are abundent & open late and funeral parlors blend into the scenery.
The facade was under construction or renovation and a bunch of guys were working on scaffoldings. The inside was full of people and they spilled out on to the sidewalk, but everyone was wearing casual clothes- pemex shirts, jeans, t-shirts. Actually at all the funeral events jorge and i were the only ones wearing anything black and formal. The funeral parlor was holding 3, umm- not sure what you call them- viewings? The coffin, rung by lightbulbs candles, sits in a little parlor with all the floral arrangements that arrive (4 or 5 florists are outside.) friends and family stop by to pay respects and later go to the funeral mass and then the burial altogether. We were there for a few hours, I drank a nescafe and a few cokes, tried to make small talk with the other ladies present, and started to get very very sleepy...
The transportation part of the funeral proceedings was a bit, um, surprising. Some big bellied fellows wearing jeans, boots, and polo shirts opened the door to out parlor and backed a black SUV to the door. After the family moved all the flower arrangements, the coffin was loaded into the black truck. We were instructed to wait for the car out front.
The car wasn't a car but a pesero with afuera de servico sign on the front. We loaded the flowers into the back at rattled off. This wasn't just a pesero, but a stinky rattletrap pesero that had broken windows that didn't open. I tried to think cool clean thoughts while fighting the urge to rip the cowl neck off my black polyester double knit dress.
The church was beautiful. old, big, full of murals- the most impressive directly over the altar of the spanish christians converting the happy natives. i counted 18 virgen marias and stopped. I wanted to have a lock at the temples full of offerings to saints with milagros and written messages, but didn't know if that would be rude. The funeral mass was kind of jumbled. I'm not sure if the priest had a cold or just a bad mike. only 2 people took communion. There was lots of praying, kneeling and some singing.
After we marched out and the coffin was wheeled back to the truck, (the big bellied men sat in the back of the church during the mass) we were told that the pesero had broken down and we would wait for another. I saw an aunt and a cousin going for tortillas. I instictively tagged along (why are stores in small towns and new places so interesting?)
We bought a kilo (2.2 pounds) of fresh tortillas & 2 kilos of fresh masa the corn dropped into the masa machine and mashed before our eyes. The tortillas were wrapped in cloth in a cooler, staying nice and fresh) Tia Elena marveled over how soft and white the masa was. I sampled one of the local fizzy waters. And we went back to the waiting combi.
After driving over the aforementioned bridge under the broiling heat of the sun, we arrived in Pueblo Viejo for the burial. The graveyard was beautiful- all the graves were freshly cleaned & painted (dia de muertos was only 2 weeks past), it was full of tropical foilage and pigs were being killed just over the fence. A woman said a prayer and the coffin was dropped into the grave by some waiting workmen. Everyone intently watched the masons cover the grave with slaps of concrete and seal it with fresh concrete.
When all was finished we walked down the road to Tia Elana & the cousins´ home...
additional reading:
where its at
article about the militarization of the us-mexico border
the weather in Tampico right now It´s hot!
local news
timeline of exploration of the gulf of mexico
Jorge´s fathers mother died in her sleep Wednesday night. She was 93 years old and known for her cooking- both the quality and the quantity. She would load every one up with bags of 20 quesadillas and several packs of gum for the bus trip back to mexico. She would be at her comal, preparing a stack of enchiladas for you before you even had a chance to walk all the way into her home. I am so sorry that i didn't have a chance to met doña chavela, but her cooking lives on! She taught all of the women in her life her recipes & methods & they have taught more young women & they are teaching me!
Tampico is in the state of Tamaulipas divided by the Panuco river from the state of Veracruz. To get to Pueblo Viejo, where all the familiares are, you cross this bridge back into Veracruz or you hop a quick ferry from downtown Tampico that will get you straight across for 1 peso (U$ .10) During our stay, I was impressed at how seamless the public transportation worked. All around the Tampico area the colectivo taxis are big Ford Crown Victorias. The ferries run constantly and on both sides of the river there are collectivos ready to leave when they are full with 7 or 8 passengers!
We arrived late friday morning, delayed by the horrific road conditions in parts of Veracruz. Later we found out that many of the areas we passed through had been declared states of emergency because of the tremendous downpour the previous nights. We changed into funeral clothes in the bus station bathroom (2 pesos) and hopped a taxi to the funeral home.
When the taxi driver stopped and pointed across the street, I said "no that's not a funeral home" Stupid gringa! Death is no big deal here in mexico-coffin stores are abundent & open late and funeral parlors blend into the scenery.
The facade was under construction or renovation and a bunch of guys were working on scaffoldings. The inside was full of people and they spilled out on to the sidewalk, but everyone was wearing casual clothes- pemex shirts, jeans, t-shirts. Actually at all the funeral events jorge and i were the only ones wearing anything black and formal. The funeral parlor was holding 3, umm- not sure what you call them- viewings? The coffin, rung by lightbulbs candles, sits in a little parlor with all the floral arrangements that arrive (4 or 5 florists are outside.) friends and family stop by to pay respects and later go to the funeral mass and then the burial altogether. We were there for a few hours, I drank a nescafe and a few cokes, tried to make small talk with the other ladies present, and started to get very very sleepy...
The transportation part of the funeral proceedings was a bit, um, surprising. Some big bellied fellows wearing jeans, boots, and polo shirts opened the door to out parlor and backed a black SUV to the door. After the family moved all the flower arrangements, the coffin was loaded into the black truck. We were instructed to wait for the car out front.
The car wasn't a car but a pesero with a
The church was beautiful. old, big, full of murals- the most impressive directly over the altar of the spanish christians converting the happy natives. i counted 18 virgen marias and stopped. I wanted to have a lock at the temples full of offerings to saints with milagros and written messages, but didn't know if that would be rude. The funeral mass was kind of jumbled. I'm not sure if the priest had a cold or just a bad mike. only 2 people took communion. There was lots of praying, kneeling and some singing.
After we marched out and the coffin was wheeled back to the truck, (the big bellied men sat in the back of the church during the mass) we were told that the pesero had broken down and we would wait for another. I saw an aunt and a cousin going for tortillas. I instictively tagged along (why are stores in small towns and new places so interesting?)
We bought a kilo (2.2 pounds) of fresh tortillas & 2 kilos of fresh masa the corn dropped into the masa machine and mashed before our eyes. The tortillas were wrapped in cloth in a cooler, staying nice and fresh) Tia Elena marveled over how soft and white the masa was. I sampled one of the local fizzy waters. And we went back to the waiting combi.
After driving over the aforementioned bridge under the broiling heat of the sun, we arrived in Pueblo Viejo for the burial. The graveyard was beautiful- all the graves were freshly cleaned & painted (dia de muertos was only 2 weeks past), it was full of tropical foilage and pigs were being killed just over the fence. A woman said a prayer and the coffin was dropped into the grave by some waiting workmen. Everyone intently watched the masons cover the grave with slaps of concrete and seal it with fresh concrete.
When all was finished we walked down the road to Tia Elana & the cousins´ home...
additional reading:
where its at
article about the militarization of the us-mexico border
the weather in Tampico right now It´s hot!
local news
timeline of exploration of the gulf of mexico
my trip to metepec
in the beginning of october, I dragged my boyfriend (kicking & screaming b/c chilangos think Toluca is ugly and boring) to Metepec, formerly a village, presently a suburb of Toluca for a weekend. I had seen a beautiful arbol de la muerte (tree of death) in a book that was made in Metepec and wanted one for my dia de muertos. It took us a little over an hour to get there (heavy saturday traffic leaving d.f. & we had to truck all the way over to observatorio. From Toluca we took a local pesero out to Metepec passing many shopping malls and movie theatres-gallerias Metepec. I was really scared. but the bus dropped us off by a highway over pass and we walked down a hill to a charming old town.
yes, chill out in Metepec during your week in Toluca. There are lots of interesting old buildings, many have been made into bars, cafes & nightclubs. Its famous for its clay workshops and the town is full of workshops (alfarerias) some more interesting than others. If you are into that kind of thing you could look for the real deal. Some of these shops are really run by artesians and others just and selling factory made items painted on the premises. The mercado de artesanias is interesting, too. Each shop is located in its on little round hut. That´s where i bought my miniature tree of death
When we arrived Saturday night (yes its cold there!) all the action seemed to be in the plaza below the church. There were half a dozen comedores selling tamales, tortas, tacos, flautas, pozole, you know street food. Delicious street food! i had the best pambazo i have ever had in my life. Pambazos are round bread rolls that are fried in adobo spices sliced open and filled- in d.f. they are always filled with potatoes & chorizo- at the puesto we ate at in Metepec- they were filled with any of the taco fillings, topped with lettuce, salsa, crema & a crumble of cheese. i highly recommend you eat at this plaza. Also good tostadas, excellent hot chocolate atole and free entertainment by the 4 color TV's..Oh and the corn in these parts is great too.
further down the street is a 16th century church (cleverly marked with a blue and white church picture sign) and a row of 3 or 4 cafes. We hung out a bit at the La Tlanchana (la sirena de Metepec). They have drinks, snacks and board games & will walk you to their other location across the zocalo when the cafe closes. I played my first ever game of scrabble in spanish! please try the local liquors- there´s a neon green one locally called garañona aka 2 de abril called - made of 12 mysterious herbs.
There was an interesting looking cantina called 2 de abril-about a block from the zocalo. It closes early...
there were also an abundance of outside barbacoa stands (goat slow cooked in a pit lined with banana tree leaves) unfortunately i was too busy shopping to eat at any. Also try the local candies!!! There was a dulceria on the main street of the alfarerias that had free samples & excellent dulce de leche and traditional sweets.
oh and for any one else who happens to visit metepec. there are a couple of hourly motels and one hotel $350 pesos/night by the highway. It would be a great place to open a hostel or guesthouse
links:
carnival of huesitos
article about Toluca
the lonelyplanet thread
yes, chill out in Metepec during your week in Toluca. There are lots of interesting old buildings, many have been made into bars, cafes & nightclubs. Its famous for its clay workshops and the town is full of workshops (alfarerias) some more interesting than others. If you are into that kind of thing you could look for the real deal. Some of these shops are really run by artesians and others just and selling factory made items painted on the premises. The mercado de artesanias is interesting, too. Each shop is located in its on little round hut. That´s where i bought my miniature tree of death
When we arrived Saturday night (yes its cold there!) all the action seemed to be in the plaza below the church. There were half a dozen comedores selling tamales, tortas, tacos, flautas, pozole, you know street food. Delicious street food! i had the best pambazo i have ever had in my life. Pambazos are round bread rolls that are fried in adobo spices sliced open and filled- in d.f. they are always filled with potatoes & chorizo- at the puesto we ate at in Metepec- they were filled with any of the taco fillings, topped with lettuce, salsa, crema & a crumble of cheese. i highly recommend you eat at this plaza. Also good tostadas, excellent hot chocolate atole and free entertainment by the 4 color TV's..Oh and the corn in these parts is great too.
further down the street is a 16th century church (cleverly marked with a blue and white church picture sign) and a row of 3 or 4 cafes. We hung out a bit at the La Tlanchana (la sirena de Metepec). They have drinks, snacks and board games & will walk you to their other location across the zocalo when the cafe closes. I played my first ever game of scrabble in spanish! please try the local liquors- there´s a neon green one locally called garañona aka 2 de abril called - made of 12 mysterious herbs.
There was an interesting looking cantina called 2 de abril-about a block from the zocalo. It closes early...
there were also an abundance of outside barbacoa stands (goat slow cooked in a pit lined with banana tree leaves) unfortunately i was too busy shopping to eat at any. Also try the local candies!!! There was a dulceria on the main street of the alfarerias that had free samples & excellent dulce de leche and traditional sweets.
oh and for any one else who happens to visit metepec. there are a couple of hourly motels and one hotel $350 pesos/night by the highway. It would be a great place to open a hostel or guesthouse
links:
carnival of huesitos
article about Toluca
the lonelyplanet thread
Monday
cheese smuggling*
just came back from Pueblo Viejo, Veracruz- just across the river from Tampico, Tamaulipas loaded down with 6 huge rounds of fresh cheese and 2 grocery bags full of shrimp & pumpkin filled tamales.
over the course of the weekend, we gorged on such gulf coastal delicacies as shrimp in scrambled eggs, tortas de cecina, bocoles filled with homemade cheese, fresh tortillas, and the most kick ass mole i have had to date...
more details manana!
* apparently it's illegal to transport cheeses across state lines
over the course of the weekend, we gorged on such gulf coastal delicacies as shrimp in scrambled eggs, tortas de cecina, bocoles filled with homemade cheese, fresh tortillas, and the most kick ass mole i have had to date...
more details manana!
* apparently it's illegal to transport cheeses across state lines
Wednesday
supermercado SEOUL
yesterday I discovered a new (to me) korean supermarket. I actually noticed it other day when we went to see LTJ Bukem play at the weird club continental. Yesterday being my birthday- a day devoted to delicious-making- I splurged on a taxi to find this place. I knew that one day walking on the edge of the zona rosa in colonia juarez, I saw a lot of korean places and I remember one of the streets nearby...
when I found it I was surprised how large it was. Actually I was thrilled. I had a million questions for the woman working there, but she immediately retreated to the back office. Asian products have been a little to locate here in d.f. though there is a sizeable korean population. I have found tofu and rice noodles and soy sauce here and there, usually they are not in the kind of places that you would want to buy groceries in.
But this place had tons of interesting groceries. I think they cater more to the restaurant trade because there were like 6 freezer stocked with frozen seafood or maybe the mexican-korean shopper buys in bulk. Also I found huge jars of kim chee and chili pastes, rice wines, cheap coconut milk, sesame oil (Finally!), oyster sauce (its so yummy on broccoli or bok choy- which there was an abundance of), assorted noodles including soba. There were many interesting packaged snacks including cuttlefish peanut snacks, pocky-like chocolate dipped cookies shaped like mushrooms and sweet almond rice puffs or some such thing.
At the register there was a vat of homemade tofu in water. I asked the woman in charge if they made it. Now warming up at the sight of my grocery order & insist questions, she replied in broken spanish that a senora made it at her house. I was desperately searching for hoi-sin, a sweet plum-y sauce and there were these jars of a purple sweet smelling paste. I asked in english and spanish if it was made with plum and she told me no its not very spicy. a little spicy. a little sweet. sour sweet maybe. I guess its go chu kang, but it sure kicked up my sauces a notch!!
I made chicken sate with peanut sauce. The marinade for the sate I pulled off a google search, really just made a note of the ingredients and then adapted. For the peanut sauce I used this recipe without reading the directions that it needed to be cooked. oops! It still rocked!
I also made a riff on a mole (added a little coconut milk to the broth) to compare and contrast with the peanut sauce and made bagna calda from Lindsey walkers family recipe, but for some reason I didn't remember that bagna cauda calls for anchovies not sardines until my first bite. We also snacked on cuttlefish peanut snacks and little sweet red bean cakes from super Seoul.
and my birthday present to the world- the best chocolate cake recipe in the world, found last year on my favorite website in the world chowhound, by one!
Valrohna Chocolate Cake
3/4 cup sugar (5 oz.)
3/4 cup brown sugar (4 oz.) (light or dark)
3 eggs (large)
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons of oil (veg or canola)
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour (AP) (6 1/4 oz.)
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder (1 3/4 oz.) (I've used Hershey's, Valrohna and Scharffenberger and like em all)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
Prepare two 8" round cake pans - butter them, line bottoms with parchment, butter and flour. Tap out excess flour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
 
Blend together the sugars, eggs, and oil until smooth and creamy. Sift together the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Lightly fold until almost completely mixed. Add the pumpkin puree and fold thoroughly, but don't over mix.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean (check at 20 minutes.) Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto cardboard cake circles.
Let cool completely then fill and frost with Fudge Frosting or your favorite chocolate frosting. I've used chocolate butter cream, the recipe on the Hershey's cocoa tin and the following.
Fudge Frosting
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I love Scharffenberger, and some upscale markets carry Callebaut unsweetened, which I like too.)
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter (4 oz.)
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (1 lb.)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed
Melt together the butter and the chocolate over a hot (not simmering) water bath. Cool slightly. Mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla and cream (I use a big stainless bowl) Add the melted chocolate and mixture. Beat until smooth and thick. Add a few drops of cream or milk if needed to make the frosting spreadable and smooth. This frosting gets thick fast. I put the bowl over a burner on the stove to loosen it up.............................................
i have made this cake in new york- with all high end ingredients bought from gourmet garage & here in mexico with Hershey's & mexican chocolate & homemade pumpkin puree, baked in my oven with no #s! Delicious! and do not skimp on the frosting!
when I found it I was surprised how large it was. Actually I was thrilled. I had a million questions for the woman working there, but she immediately retreated to the back office. Asian products have been a little to locate here in d.f. though there is a sizeable korean population. I have found tofu and rice noodles and soy sauce here and there, usually they are not in the kind of places that you would want to buy groceries in.
But this place had tons of interesting groceries. I think they cater more to the restaurant trade because there were like 6 freezer stocked with frozen seafood or maybe the mexican-korean shopper buys in bulk. Also I found huge jars of kim chee and chili pastes, rice wines, cheap coconut milk, sesame oil (Finally!), oyster sauce (its so yummy on broccoli or bok choy- which there was an abundance of), assorted noodles including soba. There were many interesting packaged snacks including cuttlefish peanut snacks, pocky-like chocolate dipped cookies shaped like mushrooms and sweet almond rice puffs or some such thing.
At the register there was a vat of homemade tofu in water. I asked the woman in charge if they made it. Now warming up at the sight of my grocery order & insist questions, she replied in broken spanish that a senora made it at her house. I was desperately searching for hoi-sin, a sweet plum-y sauce and there were these jars of a purple sweet smelling paste. I asked in english and spanish if it was made with plum and she told me no its not very spicy. a little spicy. a little sweet. sour sweet maybe. I guess its go chu kang, but it sure kicked up my sauces a notch!!
I made chicken sate with peanut sauce. The marinade for the sate I pulled off a google search, really just made a note of the ingredients and then adapted. For the peanut sauce I used this recipe without reading the directions that it needed to be cooked. oops! It still rocked!
I also made a riff on a mole (added a little coconut milk to the broth) to compare and contrast with the peanut sauce and made bagna calda from Lindsey walkers family recipe, but for some reason I didn't remember that bagna cauda calls for anchovies not sardines until my first bite. We also snacked on cuttlefish peanut snacks and little sweet red bean cakes from super Seoul.
and my birthday present to the world- the best chocolate cake recipe in the world, found last year on my favorite website in the world chowhound, by one!
Valrohna Chocolate Cake
3/4 cup sugar (5 oz.)
3/4 cup brown sugar (4 oz.) (light or dark)
3 eggs (large)
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons of oil (veg or canola)
3/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour (AP) (6 1/4 oz.)
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder (1 3/4 oz.) (I've used Hershey's, Valrohna and Scharffenberger and like em all)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
Prepare two 8" round cake pans - butter them, line bottoms with parchment, butter and flour. Tap out excess flour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
 
Blend together the sugars, eggs, and oil until smooth and creamy. Sift together the dry ingredients. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Lightly fold until almost completely mixed. Add the pumpkin puree and fold thoroughly, but don't over mix.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean (check at 20 minutes.) Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto cardboard cake circles.
Let cool completely then fill and frost with Fudge Frosting or your favorite chocolate frosting. I've used chocolate butter cream, the recipe on the Hershey's cocoa tin and the following.
Fudge Frosting
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I love Scharffenberger, and some upscale markets carry Callebaut unsweetened, which I like too.)
8 Tablespoons unsalted butter (4 oz.)
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (1 lb.)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup heavy cream, warmed
Melt together the butter and the chocolate over a hot (not simmering) water bath. Cool slightly. Mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla and cream (I use a big stainless bowl) Add the melted chocolate and mixture. Beat until smooth and thick. Add a few drops of cream or milk if needed to make the frosting spreadable and smooth. This frosting gets thick fast. I put the bowl over a burner on the stove to loosen it up.............................................
i have made this cake in new york- with all high end ingredients bought from gourmet garage & here in mexico with Hershey's & mexican chocolate & homemade pumpkin puree, baked in my oven with no #s! Delicious! and do not skimp on the frosting!
Tuesday
area bar, hotel habita, polanco
After work we went to the chi-chi hotel habita's rooftop bar, Area. The hotel is beautiful- kind of like an Ian Shrager hotel. The facade is very modern and glassy. The hotel is furished very design-y and minimalist. It so what was cool in the states like 10 years ago. Aura is the restaurant in the lobby which is cool, but too ...lobbyish...we inquired about the menu and asked what was available upstairs. No one could tell us more than pizza and tapas. We went upstairs anyway. There was a little room by the elevator with a table full of art books. Cool!
The roof top bar was so pretty. The walls are glass and the roof is open. Its on the 6th floor and linked by a spiral staircase to the pool just below & overlooks Polanco. There was a super modern fireplace & heat lamps (the gas kind, like in miami) There was a space set up for a dj but no one there (nobody goes out on Monday in mexico) We sat near the side to see the projections on the building across the street (that I pass every night going home)
But I am sorry to say that once again my theory of expensive restaurants in mexico city was proved right.
My theory is that if you splurge on an expensive place, you will be disappointed. Its better to save the splurges for expensive groceries & do it at home or be wildly surprised at the quality of a simple fonda or economical restaurant. So far the only exception I have found to this was Cafe Omei at the Hotel Nikko. We had a pan asain buffet that was $200 pesos per person (not even super expensive considering how much food their was) and it was superb! The service was excellent. We had a great wine & will definitely return.
My problem with Area bar was basically the service. They are known for fancy cocktails which the waiter couldn?t describe. He didn't bring us menus the first time around. When we ordered tapas he didn?t bring us napkins. Later he suggested a cocktail Daniela an I said sure if its vodka based & he brought me this nasty punch tasting beverage that was like tequila with grape juice and something else super sweet. He had said if I didn't like it I could switch so asked for a cosmo- and was brought a martini glass of cold exquisite juice. I was so disappointed! This drink costs $9! also the drinks took like 20 minutes each time and their were maybe 8 people in the bar.
The food was miniature- first we had salmon on toothpicks served in shot glasses of avocado & cilantro salsa. Very cute & delicious. Then we had chicken sate- which was hard and bone dry with a very sour peanut sauce- a little disappointing, but the 3rd tapas were these mini tacos with some fish in kind of a sweet & sour chipotle sauce served with the same avocado & cilantro salsa. MMMMM so yummy!
The food took a while too- they brought it up in the elevator from the restaurant downstairs. When we left we saw a couple eating dinner in front of the fireplace. I wondered why we were not allowed to order from the restaurant but they were?
If we return I think we will stick to wine- the small wine list seemed to have some decent values. We spent $500 pesos on 2 rounds and 3 tapas. If my last drink had been alcoholic I probably would have been happy. You just can?t complain too loudly in mexico- you will always be punished. If you ask a waiter or waitress too hard a question they will just disappear. I guess its because nobody tips. They don?t even hope for repeat business, so they don?t make the effort with their clients. I proably wouldn?t mind if I had more spending money, but as it is, its a tough place for a former new yorker.
more information on hotel habita
the independent
i-escape
The roof top bar was so pretty. The walls are glass and the roof is open. Its on the 6th floor and linked by a spiral staircase to the pool just below & overlooks Polanco. There was a super modern fireplace & heat lamps (the gas kind, like in miami) There was a space set up for a dj but no one there (nobody goes out on Monday in mexico) We sat near the side to see the projections on the building across the street (that I pass every night going home)
But I am sorry to say that once again my theory of expensive restaurants in mexico city was proved right.
My theory is that if you splurge on an expensive place, you will be disappointed. Its better to save the splurges for expensive groceries & do it at home or be wildly surprised at the quality of a simple fonda or economical restaurant. So far the only exception I have found to this was Cafe Omei at the Hotel Nikko. We had a pan asain buffet that was $200 pesos per person (not even super expensive considering how much food their was) and it was superb! The service was excellent. We had a great wine & will definitely return.
My problem with Area bar was basically the service. They are known for fancy cocktails which the waiter couldn?t describe. He didn't bring us menus the first time around. When we ordered tapas he didn?t bring us napkins. Later he suggested a cocktail Daniela an I said sure if its vodka based & he brought me this nasty punch tasting beverage that was like tequila with grape juice and something else super sweet. He had said if I didn't like it I could switch so asked for a cosmo- and was brought a martini glass of cold exquisite juice. I was so disappointed! This drink costs $9! also the drinks took like 20 minutes each time and their were maybe 8 people in the bar.
The food was miniature- first we had salmon on toothpicks served in shot glasses of avocado & cilantro salsa. Very cute & delicious. Then we had chicken sate- which was hard and bone dry with a very sour peanut sauce- a little disappointing, but the 3rd tapas were these mini tacos with some fish in kind of a sweet & sour chipotle sauce served with the same avocado & cilantro salsa. MMMMM so yummy!
The food took a while too- they brought it up in the elevator from the restaurant downstairs. When we left we saw a couple eating dinner in front of the fireplace. I wondered why we were not allowed to order from the restaurant but they were?
If we return I think we will stick to wine- the small wine list seemed to have some decent values. We spent $500 pesos on 2 rounds and 3 tapas. If my last drink had been alcoholic I probably would have been happy. You just can?t complain too loudly in mexico- you will always be punished. If you ask a waiter or waitress too hard a question they will just disappear. I guess its because nobody tips. They don?t even hope for repeat business, so they don?t make the effort with their clients. I proably wouldn?t mind if I had more spending money, but as it is, its a tough place for a former new yorker.
more information on hotel habita
the independent
i-escape
Monday
my first fiesta
what do you think about having a party at our apartment? on the bus friday morning
of course, i said sure, i love house parties. what can i make?
we had our first party last night! it was fantastic! J's birthday is the day before mine and we talked about having a big bash at a bar or other rentable party space, but couldn't realy pull it together. but there is nothing like a spur of the moment party- no time for expectations.
so i went to work and invited all my colleagues, a couple of students & told everyone to bring their friends, because i have so many less friends than J who has lived here all his life. Saturday after work i bought some chick peas, pita bread & these brilliant 5 peso bags of chili-coated peanuts (Cacahuate Cobertura Crujiente con Sabor Chile- gracias a Great Value aka Wal-Mart genetically modified brand) Later J and I cleared all our valueables out of the living room and rolled the rolling rack out of the smaller bedroom to make way for the party space. He even took the door off that i have been begging him to since we moved in.
Every thing went so smoothly. I love mexico! Everyone arrived within minutes of each other, mostly in groups of 3-5 (b/c transportation is such a bitch here). There was nothing broken, nothing stolen, no complaints by the neighbors, plenty of alcohol, enough people that you could spend 5-10 minutes with everyone, nobody stayed too long. I didn't ever have to put on shoes. All my hummus was eaten. Lots of music was played & Santo films were on the tele. I made a couple of new friends & discovered that one of my co-worker's girlfriend worked for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company for 2 years & ate at The Winds (where i worked) every weekend.
Gracias a todos! Muy amable! you are all so cool! Thanks for coming to my party!
of course, i said sure, i love house parties. what can i make?
we had our first party last night! it was fantastic! J's birthday is the day before mine and we talked about having a big bash at a bar or other rentable party space, but couldn't realy pull it together. but there is nothing like a spur of the moment party- no time for expectations.
so i went to work and invited all my colleagues, a couple of students & told everyone to bring their friends, because i have so many less friends than J who has lived here all his life. Saturday after work i bought some chick peas, pita bread & these brilliant 5 peso bags of chili-coated peanuts (Cacahuate Cobertura Crujiente con Sabor Chile- gracias a Great Value aka Wal-Mart genetically modified brand) Later J and I cleared all our valueables out of the living room and rolled the rolling rack out of the smaller bedroom to make way for the party space. He even took the door off that i have been begging him to since we moved in.
Every thing went so smoothly. I love mexico! Everyone arrived within minutes of each other, mostly in groups of 3-5 (b/c transportation is such a bitch here). There was nothing broken, nothing stolen, no complaints by the neighbors, plenty of alcohol, enough people that you could spend 5-10 minutes with everyone, nobody stayed too long. I didn't ever have to put on shoes. All my hummus was eaten. Lots of music was played & Santo films were on the tele. I made a couple of new friends & discovered that one of my co-worker's girlfriend worked for the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company for 2 years & ate at The Winds (where i worked) every weekend.
Gracias a todos! Muy amable! you are all so cool! Thanks for coming to my party!
my great-grandfather was a traveller too
My mom sent me this email this morning:
I have access to Grandtom's history. In 1957 he and Granddot and another couple made a trip to Guatemala and mexico in their Oldsmobile ‘98. They drove it to New Orleans then loaded on freighter to be unloaded in Puerto Barrios.
When they off loaded it the crane went down too fast and it almost bounced. It was then placed on a railroad car and they went to Guatemala City. It took two days and several tips to get the car back and get a permit to drive. Saw the national palace, Chapel Cerro del Carmen and "in the market there were a number of automobiles". Then traveled over fine concrete roads 75 miles to Antigua. Their hotel was on old monestery (Posada Belem). He mentioned cathedrals, weaving plants, hand looms, the "reclining lady" volcano which went off two days aflter they left covering 25 miles with white hot ash & taking the paint off the cars.
Drove a narrow road but on the level to Lake Atitlan (60 miles) "the most beautiful lake, trees all around water clear as crystal and blue sky. Stayed at Casa Contenta, Panajachel -red flowers everywhere.
On Sunday went to Chichicastenango, a rather perilous journey thru mountains. At the market, each place of sale had a tent over it to keep out rain and heat and help preserve the food. There were thousands of natives there. Everyone wore a hat, mostly straw. They were all well covered. There was an very old plain church with steps in front, a big arch in the center and a small tower. Here the dancers performed wearing false faces, terrorizing.
We went back to the hotel. One morning there were a lot of bird cages made of bamboo which an operator was cleaning. I think they were canaries.
We took a boat trip up the lake to the far end where there was a settlement of Indians. This village was called Santiago where natives were weaving on looms. They had a catholic church where they were having a meeting of about 8 men planning to restore the church.
Back in our boat to Solola which was quite imposing..........down the road came some children carrying a small white coffin with older people walking behind (a child's funeral). We met a boy going to market carrying 12 earthenware jugs, each jug was about a gallon. The road was a one way dirt road with places where there was a section cut out to pass and if we met another vehicle one person had to back up for a mile. In lots of places the edge of the road dropped off 4000 feet.
Later heading to pyramids of Zaculeu, Huehuetenango, then Quetzaltenango, into Tapachula, Mexico ......and he goes on mentioning Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico City, shrine of Guadalupe, Cuernavaca, Taxco, Lake Tequesquitengo, Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende, Queretaro, Tamazunchale, Ciudad Victoria, Laredo... all recorded with photographs -including 9' sail fish caught by Grandtom...
I have access to Grandtom's history. In 1957 he and Granddot and another couple made a trip to Guatemala and mexico in their Oldsmobile ‘98. They drove it to New Orleans then loaded on freighter to be unloaded in Puerto Barrios.
When they off loaded it the crane went down too fast and it almost bounced. It was then placed on a railroad car and they went to Guatemala City. It took two days and several tips to get the car back and get a permit to drive. Saw the national palace, Chapel Cerro del Carmen and "in the market there were a number of automobiles". Then traveled over fine concrete roads 75 miles to Antigua. Their hotel was on old monestery (Posada Belem). He mentioned cathedrals, weaving plants, hand looms, the "reclining lady" volcano which went off two days aflter they left covering 25 miles with white hot ash & taking the paint off the cars.
Drove a narrow road but on the level to Lake Atitlan (60 miles) "the most beautiful lake, trees all around water clear as crystal and blue sky. Stayed at Casa Contenta, Panajachel -red flowers everywhere.
On Sunday went to Chichicastenango, a rather perilous journey thru mountains. At the market, each place of sale had a tent over it to keep out rain and heat and help preserve the food. There were thousands of natives there. Everyone wore a hat, mostly straw. They were all well covered. There was an very old plain church with steps in front, a big arch in the center and a small tower. Here the dancers performed wearing false faces, terrorizing.
We went back to the hotel. One morning there were a lot of bird cages made of bamboo which an operator was cleaning. I think they were canaries.
We took a boat trip up the lake to the far end where there was a settlement of Indians. This village was called Santiago where natives were weaving on looms. They had a catholic church where they were having a meeting of about 8 men planning to restore the church.
Back in our boat to Solola which was quite imposing..........down the road came some children carrying a small white coffin with older people walking behind (a child's funeral). We met a boy going to market carrying 12 earthenware jugs, each jug was about a gallon. The road was a one way dirt road with places where there was a section cut out to pass and if we met another vehicle one person had to back up for a mile. In lots of places the edge of the road dropped off 4000 feet.
Later heading to pyramids of Zaculeu, Huehuetenango, then Quetzaltenango, into Tapachula, Mexico ......and he goes on mentioning Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico City, shrine of Guadalupe, Cuernavaca, Taxco, Lake Tequesquitengo, Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende, Queretaro, Tamazunchale, Ciudad Victoria, Laredo... all recorded with photographs -including 9' sail fish caught by Grandtom...
Saturday
crime in mexico
i have lived in d.f. for the past 6 months and these are my brushes:
i was riding a combi from el rosario (great saturday market for cheap used clothing!) on saturday afternoon and 2 kids jumped on- one brandishing a very small pistol & the other a plastic bag for the passengers to empty our belongings in. my boyfriend gave tossed in his empty monedero, i fumbled with the $260 pesos or so i had stuffed in my change purse- and lost all of it including a metro ticket. most of the other passengers were kids- one lost his discman & watch. it was fast and painless as far as muggings go.
my boyfriends wallet was lifted while we were making out on a semi crowded metro. interesting because it was the same wallet he has had his whole life & he's a chilango...This incident made me realize what a target i am, looking different than everyone else.
sitting on a hot parked bus in santa cruz de huatulco. i left my purse on my seat (nest to an open window) and turned to open another window. saw an arm reach in for my pretty party purse at the same time my sister did & we took off running. i was yelling in spanish "stop him! help me! that's my bag"
though i realized later that the short dress i was wearing was flying up around my waist as i ran- distracting would be helpers with views of my pretty pink panties. my sister almost got him & after about 3 blocks he gave up and gave my purse to some taxi drivers who were trying to intercept him. good thing too! i was on my way to guatemala & my bankcard had already been lifted so i need those $4000 pesos & passport & lipstick!!!
so as a former new yorker & miamian, the difference here is that you have to be aware that you are constantly being cased. But i don´t let that stop me. i shop in la lagunilla, teptio, el chopo...i ride taxis, buses, the metro... on public transportation & in crowds i try to stick with the señoras... when you ride taxis do a once over checking that the #s match- i always buy some time by asking how much he thinks the fare will be or how long the trip will take before i get in, lock the door when you get in & be aware of what the driver's doing. if he doesn't seem legit, say gracias and another taxi will be along.
don't let people follow you (i cross the street a lot, stop to look at things- someone is always following me)... keep your coins in a different place than your bills, credit cards in case you are mugged.
have fun in mexico! don't be afraid! (after that michael moore film, we gringos have a reputation)
from a lonelyplanet thread
i was riding a combi from el rosario (great saturday market for cheap used clothing!) on saturday afternoon and 2 kids jumped on- one brandishing a very small pistol & the other a plastic bag for the passengers to empty our belongings in. my boyfriend gave tossed in his empty monedero, i fumbled with the $260 pesos or so i had stuffed in my change purse- and lost all of it including a metro ticket. most of the other passengers were kids- one lost his discman & watch. it was fast and painless as far as muggings go.
my boyfriends wallet was lifted while we were making out on a semi crowded metro. interesting because it was the same wallet he has had his whole life & he's a chilango...This incident made me realize what a target i am, looking different than everyone else.
sitting on a hot parked bus in santa cruz de huatulco. i left my purse on my seat (nest to an open window) and turned to open another window. saw an arm reach in for my pretty party purse at the same time my sister did & we took off running. i was yelling in spanish "stop him! help me! that's my bag"
though i realized later that the short dress i was wearing was flying up around my waist as i ran- distracting would be helpers with views of my pretty pink panties. my sister almost got him & after about 3 blocks he gave up and gave my purse to some taxi drivers who were trying to intercept him. good thing too! i was on my way to guatemala & my bankcard had already been lifted so i need those $4000 pesos & passport & lipstick!!!
so as a former new yorker & miamian, the difference here is that you have to be aware that you are constantly being cased. But i don´t let that stop me. i shop in la lagunilla, teptio, el chopo...i ride taxis, buses, the metro... on public transportation & in crowds i try to stick with the señoras... when you ride taxis do a once over checking that the #s match- i always buy some time by asking how much he thinks the fare will be or how long the trip will take before i get in, lock the door when you get in & be aware of what the driver's doing. if he doesn't seem legit, say gracias and another taxi will be along.
don't let people follow you (i cross the street a lot, stop to look at things- someone is always following me)... keep your coins in a different place than your bills, credit cards in case you are mugged.
have fun in mexico! don't be afraid! (after that michael moore film, we gringos have a reputation)
from a lonelyplanet thread
Tuesday
dia de muertos janitizo & patzcuaro, michoacan
I went to Patzcuaro, Michoacan for the weekend of dia de muertos. It was incredible. And crowded, like the metro.
first of all, the area of Patzcuaro and around is gorgeous- a little mountainy, lots of lakes, super green & misty. It is the center of the tarascan people- now known as the purpecha. They are known for their colorful fusion of their indigenous (& prehispanic) religion with catholicism. This fusion is especially present in the dia de muertos traditions- colorful altars with cempaxutil flowers (golden chrysanthemum or marigolds) 4 cardinal points, candles, copal incense, offerings of food and drink. Altars to the deceased are made in prominent corners of homes & then the nights of november 1 & 2 altars are erected in the cemetery & people stay up visiting their dead. Its all very beautiful & mystical, but the holiday in Patzcuaro attracts partying tourists who outnumber the locals maybe 5 to 1.
we rented a room from a family who maintains rooms for students. The rooms were at the top of steep stone stairs leading up from the street. The view was amazing. It overlooked Patzcuaro and looked at a mountain. It was kind of miraculous that we got rooms through asking at the first posada we saw in the centro. I had called every hotel & casa de huespedes & the tourist offices 2 months ago to make reservations & was told that everything is booked 6 months ahead of time. So I was thinking we would be staying up all night in the cemetery, as is the tradition.
The first place I visited was the large plaza, plaza vasco in the center of town. The buildings that line the plaza are colonial mansions and portals, most of which are restaurants, cafes & hotels. One side was full of tables piled high with chocolate and sugar skulls, pumpkins, tombs & little animals. Some were selling traditional candies (candied pumpkin, figs, sweet potatoes, dulce de leche, cocada, etc) in wheelbarrows and other had baskets of sweet breads shaped like dolls & pan de muertos. The plaza was full of tianguis- tent covered tables of local artesanias. Wooden toys and household items;copper pots and urns;ceramic dishes; clay dishes; woven scarves & linens;embroidered blouses & pillows; knit caps, scarves & gloves; baskets shaped like animals made of reeds; dolls made of papier mache. I spent nearly my entire paycheck. Women were selling fragrant fruit ponche all over the plaza and patzcuaro.
We wandered, visited la casa de once patios, a 17th century convent turned into a kind of workshop mini-mall. The gardens full of flowering pointsetta plants 10 feet tall & magenta bourganvillea. Later I realized that more than half of the artisans from once patios were in the center. We discovered the smaller plaza that was full of fondas. Everyone was eating enchiladas, in a variation I had never seen. There were giant comals cooking chicken, carrots and potatoes served with tortillas dipped in salsa then hot oil and a side salad of shredded cabbage topped with a blender salsa of tomato and chile. Delicious! We wandered a bit more, stopping to buy film in a turn of the century pharmacy & sampling local hot chocolate & pan de muerto.
At maybe 11pm or midnight we headed to the docks for the Island of Janitzo. The traffic and lines to buy ferry tickets were staggering- even for me a former newyorker & present chilanga. After waiting in line 20 minutes we found a shorter line at the ticket office and headed out. Nearly avoiding catastrophe when the boat we were to board didn't work and the small dock was flooded with people. We all fit on one of the long boats and were entertained by a rowdy group of students from Queretero singing futbol cheers.
The island of Janitzo is stunning- its a little mountain in the middle of a lake sprinkled with lights. The population is maybe 2000, but there had to be 10 times that many tourists and revellers. When we arrived from the docks there werefragrantt comals and vendors sending ceramic mugs (including the famous boob shaped mug present in every tourist town) only for this event, you could have your mug filled with michoacan tequila & squirt! Then we saw the crowds- like a subway platform at rush hour, only that the narrow cobblestone streets went straight up! And it had been raining all afternoon so the steep paths were covered with a slick coating of mud !
We chose a winding path that seemed a little less crowded and steep. The paths were lined with things to buy- crafts, beers, food...We stopped a beautiful catholic church that was filled with cempaxutil flowers and copal incense. There was an old woman tending a traditional ofrenda that covered the floor. Jorge saw a drunk tourist knock over one of the candles and said that the sad looking old woman just looked sadder. It was hard to understand.
We talked a lot about how these people feel. This is a sacred holiday and there are drunk people every where, shouting, climbing on things, their garbage everywhere. But many working people we spoke with - taxi drivers, old couples tending shop & selling beers- said this day is once a year & for the money they make they can withstand anything. A woman selling beers at 4 AM said " I´m not tired, I can sleep the rest of the year. Tonight is for business" Even the children who go around collecting pumpkins in their candlelit jack o'lanterns didn't seem to sleep.
We made it back to our rented room around 5:30 AM. The scene at the dock was a bit scary. Thousands of people trying to crowd onto the ferries. Absolutely no order. Lots of pushing & shoving, but miraculously no one seemed to get hurt and i didn't see anyone fall in the water! Things just work differently here...
Sunday we slept late and explored, shopped and ate a little more. We strolled through the food market. I saw a truck full of cempaxutil flowers. We tried a candy made of the fiber of maguey soaked in pilloncillo sugar. We drank warm licuados, ate sweet bread shaped like dolls and also the local version of tamales corunadas-small tamales, some versions filled with beans, pork or cheese, covered with sour cream and salsa. A much more palatable way to eat tamales, which are often so dry, in my opinion.
After visiting the Basí­lica de la Virgen de la Salud, where we couldn't exactly find the famous Virgin of Health, though the posted milagros were interesting Ricardo shot some beautiful video (everywhere but especially in) this semi cheesy new age cafe. We drank spiked cappuccinos while he filmed the candles hung on the lavendar walls in an unremarkable way. The video was remarkable. I hope he puts some stills on his website.
I was really impressed with the Patzcuaro area. I can't wait to return on a mellower weekend. There are a lot of villages nearby that specialize in different crafts. I am glad that i went despite the crowds. Coming from a big city, the lines and traffic jams weren't such a shock to my system. I loved seeing the beautiful altars in homes and businesses and it was amazing to see women carrying bunches of flowers
first of all, the area of Patzcuaro and around is gorgeous- a little mountainy, lots of lakes, super green & misty. It is the center of the tarascan people- now known as the purpecha. They are known for their colorful fusion of their indigenous (& prehispanic) religion with catholicism. This fusion is especially present in the dia de muertos traditions- colorful altars with cempaxutil flowers (golden chrysanthemum or marigolds) 4 cardinal points, candles, copal incense, offerings of food and drink. Altars to the deceased are made in prominent corners of homes & then the nights of november 1 & 2 altars are erected in the cemetery & people stay up visiting their dead. Its all very beautiful & mystical, but the holiday in Patzcuaro attracts partying tourists who outnumber the locals maybe 5 to 1.
we rented a room from a family who maintains rooms for students. The rooms were at the top of steep stone stairs leading up from the street. The view was amazing. It overlooked Patzcuaro and looked at a mountain. It was kind of miraculous that we got rooms through asking at the first posada we saw in the centro. I had called every hotel & casa de huespedes & the tourist offices 2 months ago to make reservations & was told that everything is booked 6 months ahead of time. So I was thinking we would be staying up all night in the cemetery, as is the tradition.
The first place I visited was the large plaza, plaza vasco in the center of town. The buildings that line the plaza are colonial mansions and portals, most of which are restaurants, cafes & hotels. One side was full of tables piled high with chocolate and sugar skulls, pumpkins, tombs & little animals. Some were selling traditional candies (candied pumpkin, figs, sweet potatoes, dulce de leche, cocada, etc) in wheelbarrows and other had baskets of sweet breads shaped like dolls & pan de muertos. The plaza was full of tianguis- tent covered tables of local artesanias. Wooden toys and household items;copper pots and urns;ceramic dishes; clay dishes; woven scarves & linens;embroidered blouses & pillows; knit caps, scarves & gloves; baskets shaped like animals made of reeds; dolls made of papier mache. I spent nearly my entire paycheck. Women were selling fragrant fruit ponche all over the plaza and patzcuaro.
We wandered, visited la casa de once patios, a 17th century convent turned into a kind of workshop mini-mall. The gardens full of flowering pointsetta plants 10 feet tall & magenta bourganvillea. Later I realized that more than half of the artisans from once patios were in the center. We discovered the smaller plaza that was full of fondas. Everyone was eating enchiladas, in a variation I had never seen. There were giant comals cooking chicken, carrots and potatoes served with tortillas dipped in salsa then hot oil and a side salad of shredded cabbage topped with a blender salsa of tomato and chile. Delicious! We wandered a bit more, stopping to buy film in a turn of the century pharmacy & sampling local hot chocolate & pan de muerto.
At maybe 11pm or midnight we headed to the docks for the Island of Janitzo. The traffic and lines to buy ferry tickets were staggering- even for me a former newyorker & present chilanga. After waiting in line 20 minutes we found a shorter line at the ticket office and headed out. Nearly avoiding catastrophe when the boat we were to board didn't work and the small dock was flooded with people. We all fit on one of the long boats and were entertained by a rowdy group of students from Queretero singing futbol cheers.
The island of Janitzo is stunning- its a little mountain in the middle of a lake sprinkled with lights. The population is maybe 2000, but there had to be 10 times that many tourists and revellers. When we arrived from the docks there werefragrantt comals and vendors sending ceramic mugs (including the famous boob shaped mug present in every tourist town) only for this event, you could have your mug filled with michoacan tequila & squirt! Then we saw the crowds- like a subway platform at rush hour, only that the narrow cobblestone streets went straight up! And it had been raining all afternoon so the steep paths were covered with a slick coating of mud !
We chose a winding path that seemed a little less crowded and steep. The paths were lined with things to buy- crafts, beers, food...We stopped a beautiful catholic church that was filled with cempaxutil flowers and copal incense. There was an old woman tending a traditional ofrenda that covered the floor. Jorge saw a drunk tourist knock over one of the candles and said that the sad looking old woman just looked sadder. It was hard to understand.
We talked a lot about how these people feel. This is a sacred holiday and there are drunk people every where, shouting, climbing on things, their garbage everywhere. But many working people we spoke with - taxi drivers, old couples tending shop & selling beers- said this day is once a year & for the money they make they can withstand anything. A woman selling beers at 4 AM said " I´m not tired, I can sleep the rest of the year. Tonight is for business" Even the children who go around collecting pumpkins in their candlelit jack o'lanterns didn't seem to sleep.
We made it back to our rented room around 5:30 AM. The scene at the dock was a bit scary. Thousands of people trying to crowd onto the ferries. Absolutely no order. Lots of pushing & shoving, but miraculously no one seemed to get hurt and i didn't see anyone fall in the water! Things just work differently here...
Sunday we slept late and explored, shopped and ate a little more. We strolled through the food market. I saw a truck full of cempaxutil flowers. We tried a candy made of the fiber of maguey soaked in pilloncillo sugar. We drank warm licuados, ate sweet bread shaped like dolls and also the local version of tamales corunadas-small tamales, some versions filled with beans, pork or cheese, covered with sour cream and salsa. A much more palatable way to eat tamales, which are often so dry, in my opinion.
After visiting the Basí­lica de la Virgen de la Salud, where we couldn't exactly find the famous Virgin of Health, though the posted milagros were interesting Ricardo shot some beautiful video (everywhere but especially in) this semi cheesy new age cafe. We drank spiked cappuccinos while he filmed the candles hung on the lavendar walls in an unremarkable way. The video was remarkable. I hope he puts some stills on his website.
I was really impressed with the Patzcuaro area. I can't wait to return on a mellower weekend. There are a lot of villages nearby that specialize in different crafts. I am glad that i went despite the crowds. Coming from a big city, the lines and traffic jams weren't such a shock to my system. I loved seeing the beautiful altars in homes and businesses and it was amazing to see women carrying bunches of flowers
Thursday
so i finally broke down and did it. after six months of turning up my nose at starbucks in mexico city. i stopped by for a brownie frappaccino (its like a extra charged coffee milkshake with bits of brownies in it!) i also wasn't carrying any cash & have been craving new york city lately, so a visit to the evil starbucks seemed in order.
i was walking home from work in the afternoon sun. that morning one my students said that here in d.f. we have all 4 seasons in one day & its true it was freezing in the morning & sweltering by 1pm.
starbucks angel is in the retail complex of the sheraton, next door to the american embassy. I could see a guy reading newspapers in english. i'm definitely going in. (total news junkie) i greet the plainclothes guard & walk in. looks & smells just like a regular starbucks. Smells like burnt coffee & caramel & muffins. the music is from one of those starbucks samplers, i think its david gray. big hugecomfy chairs. there's a bunch of pasty businessmen. a guy yapping on his cell phone in english with a heavy mexican accent. some ladies drinking lattes. a couple of backpackers with guidebooks, some german looking tourists. students (how can they afford this- my chai latte costs like an hourof teaching.) a bunch of people with clip on ideas mob the cash register. i wonder if they work at the embassy. i feel jealous of them. might be a good idea to hang around here.
yeah they have chai! one iced chai for me please! the medium size costs roughly an hour at my teaching job, but hey I'm a homesick american! I deserve a treat! the guy behind me orders "un-o espresso sol-o por fav-or" I bet he's from georgia.
i take over one of the comfy chairs next to the big guy reading the news in english- he graciously leaves his entire stack of newspapers to me. and i sit for an hour one eye on the newspaper one eye on my surroundings. its all very interesting.
i was walking home from work in the afternoon sun. that morning one my students said that here in d.f. we have all 4 seasons in one day & its true it was freezing in the morning & sweltering by 1pm.
starbucks angel is in the retail complex of the sheraton, next door to the american embassy. I could see a guy reading newspapers in english. i'm definitely going in. (total news junkie) i greet the plainclothes guard & walk in. looks & smells just like a regular starbucks. Smells like burnt coffee & caramel & muffins. the music is from one of those starbucks samplers, i think its david gray. big hugecomfy chairs. there's a bunch of pasty businessmen. a guy yapping on his cell phone in english with a heavy mexican accent. some ladies drinking lattes. a couple of backpackers with guidebooks, some german looking tourists. students (how can they afford this- my chai latte costs like an hourof teaching.) a bunch of people with clip on ideas mob the cash register. i wonder if they work at the embassy. i feel jealous of them. might be a good idea to hang around here.
yeah they have chai! one iced chai for me please! the medium size costs roughly an hour at my teaching job, but hey I'm a homesick american! I deserve a treat! the guy behind me orders "un-o espresso sol-o por fav-or" I bet he's from georgia.
i take over one of the comfy chairs next to the big guy reading the news in english- he graciously leaves his entire stack of newspapers to me. and i sit for an hour one eye on the newspaper one eye on my surroundings. its all very interesting.
Tuesday
day of the dead
i am so excited to be in mexico to witness the dia de los muertos festivities. ever since my 10th grade spanish teacher showed us the crazy skeleton fugures & tableaux, i have wanted to participate in theis pre-hispanic holiday. I have been buying sugar skulls like a mad woman and i soon as i get paid again i will be hitting la ciduela & my local mercado san cosme for paper maiche skeleton & tombs.
Its been interesting to watch the decorations of september mes de patriotismo fall to a mixture of jackolantern and ghosts and skeletons. Actually the pumpkins and halloween things seemed at first to outpopulate the traditional dia de los muertos thigs, but now even the street vendors have skulls made of amaranth &
below is a collection of links of articles & photos i have seen.
cemeteries in mexico city
toluca & metepec
and in spanish also from el universal
i am so excited to be in mexico to witness the dia de los muertos festivities. ever since my 10th grade spanish teacher showed us the crazy skeleton fugures & tableaux, i have wanted to participate in theis pre-hispanic holiday. I have been buying sugar skulls like a mad woman and i soon as i get paid again i will be hitting la ciduela & my local mercado san cosme for paper maiche skeleton & tombs.
Its been interesting to watch the decorations of september mes de patriotismo fall to a mixture of jackolantern and ghosts and skeletons. Actually the pumpkins and halloween things seemed at first to outpopulate the traditional dia de los muertos thigs, but now even the street vendors have skulls made of amaranth &
below is a collection of links of articles & photos i have seen.
cemeteries in mexico city
toluca & metepec
and in spanish also from el universal
wal mart buena vista - mexico, d.f. - 20 october 2003 - 10:45pm
score! a block of parmesean! its from uruguay & you have no idea how happy this made me! We bought barilla gnocci. the first time i had gnocci it was served with a rich 4 cheese sauce in a fancy italian restaurant on ocean drive. there were only like 6 gnoccis and i shared it with 2 other girlfriends, but i'll never forget it! i know that tonight's cena will not come close to that - especially with walmart cheeses, but i want j's first gnocci experience to rock. ((it did. i made a supercheesy pesto with walnuts & there was plenty. the cheap spanish red wasn't too shabby either))
i buy a couple more teeny chocolate skulls (the chocolate ones never make it home. they always break and have to be sacrificed) and find a sugar skull with my dead aunt camilla's name on it. i love dia de muertos. our dining table is covered with skulls & skeletons of candy & clay! I have been eating loads of death bread and little bones- pan de muerto y huesitos !
the other things that made me happy were the organic frozen vegetables- marca: la huerta, a new cheap red wine from spain, a 3 pack of cotton underwear for 15 pesos, a pretty red cabbage, gumdrops & the new issue of df por travesias magazine, and seeing the cost of the groceries in dollars on my bank statement.
The VW bug taxi that took us home has a small tv set rigged below the glove box! I swear mexico has been taken over by television! I saw a police car with the tell tale blue gray glow the other day & every type of sidewalk vendor has one! What were the streets like before cheap tvs?
score! a block of parmesean! its from uruguay & you have no idea how happy this made me! We bought barilla gnocci. the first time i had gnocci it was served with a rich 4 cheese sauce in a fancy italian restaurant on ocean drive. there were only like 6 gnoccis and i shared it with 2 other girlfriends, but i'll never forget it! i know that tonight's cena will not come close to that - especially with walmart cheeses, but i want j's first gnocci experience to rock. ((it did. i made a supercheesy pesto with walnuts & there was plenty. the cheap spanish red wasn't too shabby either))
i buy a couple more teeny chocolate skulls (the chocolate ones never make it home. they always break and have to be sacrificed) and find a sugar skull with my dead aunt camilla's name on it. i love dia de muertos. our dining table is covered with skulls & skeletons of candy & clay! I have been eating loads of death bread and little bones- pan de muerto y huesitos !
the other things that made me happy were the organic frozen vegetables- marca: la huerta, a new cheap red wine from spain, a 3 pack of cotton underwear for 15 pesos, a pretty red cabbage, gumdrops & the new issue of df por travesias magazine, and seeing the cost of the groceries in dollars on my bank statement.
The VW bug taxi that took us home has a small tv set rigged below the glove box! I swear mexico has been taken over by television! I saw a police car with the tell tale blue gray glow the other day & every type of sidewalk vendor has one! What were the streets like before cheap tvs?
Thursday
Have you ever had chiles en nogada?
We spulrged at a historic restaurant the hosteria santo domingo so my sister could sample chiles en nogada- a patriotic dish of stuffed pobalanos (green) with a creamy walnut & almond sauce (white) sprinkled with pomegranate seeds (red). The peppers are stuffed with ground pork/beef, pineapples, pears, peaches, apples, platanos, onion,pine nuts, cinnamon, raisins. Its a little odd & delicious. Though I am always disappointed with the expensive restaurants. I would much rather be blown away by a 25 peso lunch or those fantastic blue corn quesadillas that you can find on the street.- stuffed with prehispanic delicacies like, huitlacoche or nopales or tinga...
I think so many mexican foods are better the second time around. Like obleas, those wafers filled with goats milk caramel & HUITLACOCHE (corn smut) & tequila with squirt (that nytime article)
We spulrged at a historic restaurant the hosteria santo domingo so my sister could sample chiles en nogada- a patriotic dish of stuffed pobalanos (green) with a creamy walnut & almond sauce (white) sprinkled with pomegranate seeds (red). The peppers are stuffed with ground pork/beef, pineapples, pears, peaches, apples, platanos, onion,pine nuts, cinnamon, raisins. Its a little odd & delicious. Though I am always disappointed with the expensive restaurants. I would much rather be blown away by a 25 peso lunch or those fantastic blue corn quesadillas that you can find on the street.- stuffed with prehispanic delicacies like, huitlacoche or nopales or tinga...
I think so many mexican foods are better the second time around. Like obleas, those wafers filled with goats milk caramel & HUITLACOCHE (corn smut) & tequila with squirt (that nytime article)
Saturday
return from guatemala
Guatemala was beautiful. My sister and I rented a lovely little house in San
Pedro de la Laguna, on the shores of Lago Atitlan- this magical crater lake
surrounded by mountains & volcanoes and 13 little pueblos Jorge and my mom and our friend Ricardo from d.f. visited so it was fun and very relaxing. I
had a small kitchen (that was half indoors & half outdoors) so I did a lot
of cooking! and laying in a hammock under a jocote tree!and swimming in the
lake and walking through the corn fields that made up the paths through the
village. I learned a lot about getting by with a little.
I got back into the city last Saturday morning early - an overnight bus from
palenque and 3 nearly full days of rough traveling before that- so tiring!
We left san pedro in the afternoon tuesday b/c we had a lot of food to eat
and didn¥t want to leave. Ricardo was especially sad b/c he befriended about
15 local children. ( he said he felt like Michael Jackson! ) We stayed
tuesday night in panajachel (the most touristy & hip of the 13 villages) &
met some very friendly chinese-guatemalans & other travelers. When we left
Pana we had to take 4 insane chicken buses (at one point the road cutting
through the mountain was not paved)& a taxi to arrive at the border and then
another van to Comitan where we felt as we had arrived in the first world. A
beautiful clean mexican plaza, a pharmacy that made deliveries, public
phones, cable tv- MEXICAN tacos! very very nice. We said bye bye to ricardo
(he had to work Friday!) and made are way very slowly to Bonampak via the
frontier highway- which was wild! Our passports were checked at military
points 10 times in 10 hours! Bonampak was gorgeous. Its a fairly small
sight in the Lancandon jungle- discovered by outsiders only in 1946. There
are 3 small buildings covered with murals on the inside and all the other
temples.. Very impressive. In spots hard to read, but the colors are still
saturated and vibrant.
I am happy to be back in d.f. In my apartment, with a computer and nearly a
kitchen (rental apartments here don’t include stoves & refrigerators!),
parties to got & movies to see... I just get a new 180 day visa and I only
have enough money for another month or so...so I will be working on getting
a job. should I try to get a job with american airlines so I can come to nyc
on the weekends?& maybe they would sponsor my visa- but that would violate my rule of never working for corporations. For the immediate future, I think I will be teaching some english classes. How hard can that be, right?
Pedro de la Laguna, on the shores of Lago Atitlan- this magical crater lake
surrounded by mountains & volcanoes and 13 little pueblos Jorge and my mom and our friend Ricardo from d.f. visited so it was fun and very relaxing. I
had a small kitchen (that was half indoors & half outdoors) so I did a lot
of cooking! and laying in a hammock under a jocote tree!and swimming in the
lake and walking through the corn fields that made up the paths through the
village. I learned a lot about getting by with a little.
I got back into the city last Saturday morning early - an overnight bus from
palenque and 3 nearly full days of rough traveling before that- so tiring!
We left san pedro in the afternoon tuesday b/c we had a lot of food to eat
and didn¥t want to leave. Ricardo was especially sad b/c he befriended about
15 local children. ( he said he felt like Michael Jackson! ) We stayed
tuesday night in panajachel (the most touristy & hip of the 13 villages) &
met some very friendly chinese-guatemalans & other travelers. When we left
Pana we had to take 4 insane chicken buses (at one point the road cutting
through the mountain was not paved)& a taxi to arrive at the border and then
another van to Comitan where we felt as we had arrived in the first world. A
beautiful clean mexican plaza, a pharmacy that made deliveries, public
phones, cable tv- MEXICAN tacos! very very nice. We said bye bye to ricardo
(he had to work Friday!) and made are way very slowly to Bonampak via the
frontier highway- which was wild! Our passports were checked at military
points 10 times in 10 hours! Bonampak was gorgeous. Its a fairly small
sight in the Lancandon jungle- discovered by outsiders only in 1946. There
are 3 small buildings covered with murals on the inside and all the other
temples.. Very impressive. In spots hard to read, but the colors are still
saturated and vibrant.
I am happy to be back in d.f. In my apartment, with a computer and nearly a
kitchen (rental apartments here don’t include stoves & refrigerators!),
parties to got & movies to see... I just get a new 180 day visa and I only
have enough money for another month or so...so I will be working on getting
a job. should I try to get a job with american airlines so I can come to nyc
on the weekends?& maybe they would sponsor my visa- but that would violate my rule of never working for corporations. For the immediate future, I think I will be teaching some english classes. How hard can that be, right?
Friday
Have you ever had chiles en nogada?
We spulrged at a historic restaurant the hosteria santo domingo so my sister could sample chiles en nogada- a patriotic dish of stuffed pobalanos (green) with a creamy walnut & almond sauce (white) sprinkled with pomegranate seeds (red). The peppers are stuffed with ground pork/beef, pineapples, pears, peaches, apples, platanos, onion,pine nuts, cinnamon, raisins. Its a little odd & delicious. Though I am always disappointed with the expensive restaurants. I would much rather be blown away by a 25 peso lunch or those fantastic blue corn quesadillas that you can find on the street.- stuffed with prehispanic delicacies like, huitlacoche or nopales or tinga...
I think so many mexican foods are better the second time around. Like obleas, those wafers filled with goats milk caramel & HUITLACOCHE (corn smut) & tequila with squirt (that nytime article)
We spulrged at a historic restaurant the hosteria santo domingo so my sister could sample chiles en nogada- a patriotic dish of stuffed pobalanos (green) with a creamy walnut & almond sauce (white) sprinkled with pomegranate seeds (red). The peppers are stuffed with ground pork/beef, pineapples, pears, peaches, apples, platanos, onion,pine nuts, cinnamon, raisins. Its a little odd & delicious. Though I am always disappointed with the expensive restaurants. I would much rather be blown away by a 25 peso lunch or those fantastic blue corn quesadillas that you can find on the street.- stuffed with prehispanic delicacies like, huitlacoche or nopales or tinga...
I think so many mexican foods are better the second time around. Like obleas, those wafers filled with goats milk caramel & HUITLACOCHE (corn smut) & tequila with squirt (that nytime article)
Monday
cinco de mayo report
5.12.o3
cuautitlan izcalli
okay, so every time i try to type up the stories of my recent adventures in a hotmail message, i type for 20 minutes and then the message vanishes. this combined with weird mexican keyboards & mice and slow internet connections has caused me to storm out of several cyber cafes. i was so spoiled by my imac and dsl line at fluid. i know!
so i am so sorry i have not written to. here i go again...with yahoo mail and a bit of cut and paste...
the tv just said that it is the hottest spring in mexico in 50 years. i am at jorge's moms house. we just ate mole...soon we will take the 2 hour bus ride back to mexico city...we finally found an agreeable hotel, after staying at 4 different ones in the last 10 days. its perfect: old, a bit rundown with big rooms, walk-in closets & windows overlooking a tranqul park that's behind a 16th century museum.
mexico city is wild! i'll have been here 2 weeks on tuesday and already my new shoes are destroyed! i am constantly tumbling while looking at some beautiful old balcony or trying to identify the aroma of some tropical fruit and not paying attention to the 14 inch drop in the sidewalk...other that that and the never forgiving sun, mexico city is treating me very well.
there were holidays last weekend, so friday afternoon we traveled by bus to Veracruz, this old port city on the gulf known for dirty beaches and amazing seafood.
we arrived close to midnight and it was steamy! like walking into a sauna- and it being a holiday there were no hotel rooms. after an hour in a taxi another driver directed us to a "motel" - like pay by the hour style- it was actually fine, a little expensive but very classy with a mirror above the bed, a/c that sounded like a volkswagen, a place to hide your car, a neon paint job, and black lights (very cool cause I was wearing Day-Glo underwear & that psychedelic pink dress- always dressed for the occasion you know!). we sweated our way through the night and morning (the food: amazing ceviche style seafood salad with tons of chile & avocado, weird fried fish eggs, shrimp in chipotle & lots of cold beer!!)
...and hopped another bus for catemaco- 3 hours south through some mountains to this gorgeous lake. Again no reservations, no hotel room. While calling every hotel in the guide book, this cutie young taxi driver gave us puppy dog eyes and we ignored him...after hanging up the last time, we met Polo -who rented us a room in his house (after confirming that we were married?) and guided us all around in his taxi. Polo was very cool- had lived in texas & d.f. & was related to the whole town. Its so special being able to stay with a local family. You would think it would be awkward- i was a little worried...Polo & his wife had 3 children under the age of 4 and shared the house with their mother and its like 100 degrees with humidity. but no everyone is cool with lots of people under one roof. We were awoken to children playing. Then Polo's mother ran across the street to buy Nescafe for my coffee habit and gave me nata- the cream from the top of the milk on toasted white bread. mmmm.
On cinco de mayo Polo borrowed a cool custom van and got out his cd collection (mostly bass rattling stuff he had picked up in texas) took us to some waterfalls and the whole family to another little town that had a rural spa called a balenario- spring fed swimming pools in the shade of bamboo & mango trees. After seeing the falls, we picnicked with the whole family at the balenario . I felt like the only gringa to have passed through there in a while! Polo's mom made the local specialties: monkey meat (really a bbq pork) & freshwater snails in salsa & drank a giant beer called a caguama- literally a giant turtle, actually a liter of beer. it was so great! they were so generous!
we also stayed a day at a beautiful lakeside ecological reserve called Naciyaga. Home to the most northern tropical rainforest. i highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to chill out in nature. they have 8 or 10 little bungalows with hammocks & screen porches in the jungle on the lake. at night there was hardly anyone around. the only sounds were the singing of 20 million birds and other animals. Swimming in mineral water, a massage, a mud bath & the use of a canoe were included in the price $500 pesos (U$50) ...so far from nyc!!!
cuautitlan izcalli
okay, so every time i try to type up the stories of my recent adventures in a hotmail message, i type for 20 minutes and then the message vanishes. this combined with weird mexican keyboards & mice and slow internet connections has caused me to storm out of several cyber cafes. i was so spoiled by my imac and dsl line at fluid. i know!
so i am so sorry i have not written to. here i go again...with yahoo mail and a bit of cut and paste...
the tv just said that it is the hottest spring in mexico in 50 years. i am at jorge's moms house. we just ate mole...soon we will take the 2 hour bus ride back to mexico city...we finally found an agreeable hotel, after staying at 4 different ones in the last 10 days. its perfect: old, a bit rundown with big rooms, walk-in closets & windows overlooking a tranqul park that's behind a 16th century museum.
mexico city is wild! i'll have been here 2 weeks on tuesday and already my new shoes are destroyed! i am constantly tumbling while looking at some beautiful old balcony or trying to identify the aroma of some tropical fruit and not paying attention to the 14 inch drop in the sidewalk...other that that and the never forgiving sun, mexico city is treating me very well.
there were holidays last weekend, so friday afternoon we traveled by bus to Veracruz, this old port city on the gulf known for dirty beaches and amazing seafood.
we arrived close to midnight and it was steamy! like walking into a sauna- and it being a holiday there were no hotel rooms. after an hour in a taxi another driver directed us to a "motel" - like pay by the hour style- it was actually fine, a little expensive but very classy with a mirror above the bed, a/c that sounded like a volkswagen, a place to hide your car, a neon paint job, and black lights (very cool cause I was wearing Day-Glo underwear & that psychedelic pink dress- always dressed for the occasion you know!). we sweated our way through the night and morning (the food: amazing ceviche style seafood salad with tons of chile & avocado, weird fried fish eggs, shrimp in chipotle & lots of cold beer!!)
...and hopped another bus for catemaco- 3 hours south through some mountains to this gorgeous lake. Again no reservations, no hotel room. While calling every hotel in the guide book, this cutie young taxi driver gave us puppy dog eyes and we ignored him...after hanging up the last time, we met Polo -who rented us a room in his house (after confirming that we were married?) and guided us all around in his taxi. Polo was very cool- had lived in texas & d.f. & was related to the whole town. Its so special being able to stay with a local family. You would think it would be awkward- i was a little worried...Polo & his wife had 3 children under the age of 4 and shared the house with their mother and its like 100 degrees with humidity. but no everyone is cool with lots of people under one roof. We were awoken to children playing. Then Polo's mother ran across the street to buy Nescafe for my coffee habit and gave me nata- the cream from the top of the milk on toasted white bread. mmmm.
On cinco de mayo Polo borrowed a cool custom van and got out his cd collection (mostly bass rattling stuff he had picked up in texas) took us to some waterfalls and the whole family to another little town that had a rural spa called a balenario- spring fed swimming pools in the shade of bamboo & mango trees. After seeing the falls, we picnicked with the whole family at the balenario . I felt like the only gringa to have passed through there in a while! Polo's mom made the local specialties: monkey meat (really a bbq pork) & freshwater snails in salsa & drank a giant beer called a caguama- literally a giant turtle, actually a liter of beer. it was so great! they were so generous!
we also stayed a day at a beautiful lakeside ecological reserve called Naciyaga. Home to the most northern tropical rainforest. i highly recommend this place to anyone who wants to chill out in nature. they have 8 or 10 little bungalows with hammocks & screen porches in the jungle on the lake. at night there was hardly anyone around. the only sounds were the singing of 20 million birds and other animals. Swimming in mineral water, a massage, a mud bath & the use of a canoe were included in the price $500 pesos (U$50) ...so far from nyc!!!
Hello friends,
As you may know I am seizing this opportunity after 2 years of working for the man in nyc to take myself traveling!
After two wonderful vacations this year in mexico & central america, I want to spend some time poking around & maybe understanding these places a little better. Some of the projects that I will be working on over the next 6 months are:
* learn how to make a proper mole pobalano
* brush up on my dancing skills
* eliminating tan lines
* soften the tough skin I have grown over 3 years in nyc
* use my new video camera to make some little movies
* read those books that have been piling up on my nightstand
For more information please contact me at misslindsaydunn@hotmail.com
Love, Lindsay
As you may know I am seizing this opportunity after 2 years of working for the man in nyc to take myself traveling!
After two wonderful vacations this year in mexico & central america, I want to spend some time poking around & maybe understanding these places a little better. Some of the projects that I will be working on over the next 6 months are:
* learn how to make a proper mole pobalano
* brush up on my dancing skills
* eliminating tan lines
* soften the tough skin I have grown over 3 years in nyc
* use my new video camera to make some little movies
* read those books that have been piling up on my nightstand
For more information please contact me at misslindsaydunn@hotmail.com
Love, Lindsay
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