CDMX FOOD

Mexico City, CDMX, DF, Mexico

Probably to the relief of folks following this blog, this is the last of our Mexico City posts!

Did we say Mexico City is HUGE?  (see earlier posts).

And you can find ANY food, in just about any price range.

(Well, except Linda couldn’t find SPAM for sushi on New Year’s Day, but likely just because we didn’t know where to find it.)

Turkeys!

Got amazing fresh tuna here

We stayed near Mercado de San Juan, which is a famous “gourmet” market. It was pretty amazing. They had everything. suckling pigs stacked like cordwood, a deer hanging by its hind legs, every fish known to Mexico. Many edible insects. Amazing produce. Pinatas AND prosciutto!!! We made many trips back to the cured meat booth.

Got your goat!

Pigs, lots of em

 Morels the size of a fist!

Los Tacos! Mark's fav

Mark is a big tacos el pastor fan…marinated pork cooked “gyros style” with a pineapple atop the spit, deftly sliced with a wicked sharp knife into tacos at the speed of light. We probably tried it at 4 different places, Mark’s favorite being the cheapest actually! Five admittedly small tacos for 38 pesos (less than $2 USD).

 

We stopped in at Churreria El Moro, the famous churros place served with thick hot chocolate sauce…fast service, tasty, and nice tilework on the wall.

Christmas / Three Kings Rosca de Reyes cake! This tradition comes from Europe, and is similar to the New Orleans’ King Cake, but Mexico’s version is better! (sorry!) Filled with a creamy filling, light and airy cake.We could eat this year ‘round. Three Kings is also when kids get presents, presumably from Da Kings. In Ajijic, they have 3 king statues which lurk in the central plaza, and slowly creep up (with help) to the creche, arriving on January 6.

Naughty Panque de Nata...Yum!

Panque de Nata Cream sponge cake: we did a LOT of walking CDMX. And often we passed this amazing smelling bakery that usually had a line in front of it, a good sign. Wow, buttery, rich body but not too cloyingly sweet. If you timed it right, you could get a warm one as soon as it come from the oven. Heavenly.

Pujol's famous smoky take on street corn...great

moles -- joven y viejo

Pujol is one of the Top100 restaurants in the world! As most of you know, Linda is a bit food-obsessed and loves to go to creative restaurants. And this one at Mexico prices! (Take THAT, French Laundry!) Known for creative, and fusion approaches to traditional Mexican dishes, Pujol was a very good experience. The service was excellent, the décor high end, simple Danish 60’s modern. Favorite dish: baby corn that was presented in a cloud of smoke in a calabash shell. Very cool. But the Mole Madre that was about 2000 days old and the amazing tortillas were highlights, too.

Hilton Hotel bar drinks: Ok, we know. But across from our apartment was a Hilton with a lobby bar. With lots of gin. Mark misses his good martinis, so this was a treat! The instructions we gave the barkeep were for the martini to be “as dry as the Sonoran Desert,” which he thought was funny. Being a Hilton, they also had a huge Christmas tree in the lobby, which was nice to see since we were living from our suitcases.

Mark with tears in his eyes

Winston Churchill’s: a New Year’s Eve treat for Mark, Linda made a reservation at an English-themed restaurant known for prime rib and yorkshire pudding (superb). And an excellent wine list. Mark was giddy. Our waiter seemed somewhat tickled at how happy Mark was.

Truffle mountain!

What other food-related experiences were most memorable?

• The food included in the chile class (see earlier post).  

• Christmas Eve “linner” at a Roma’s Sartoria Italian restaurant…Great pasta, with tons of truffle shaved over; excellent wine and cocktails, free bubbly and an extra dessert! (Waddled home, though via a nearby traditional bakery.

• 

  A headlamp is a key cooking utensil!

  Attempting to cook holiday season meals in a kitchen the size of a small walkin closet, and outfitted very sparingly (we helped upgrade equipment a bit, and Linda travels with a chef’s roll of utensils).

We’ve seen a lot of press about Mexico City being a hot food destination. We would absolutely agree, (and we only really scratched the surface,) and it doesn’t cost anything near Napa Valley prices!

2018 diciembre / 2019 enero

The Muralistas of Mexico ... and New Hampshire

Mexico and Hanover, New Hampshire

Dartmouth Orozco

While we were at grad school in New England, we discovered there was a well-known, and controversial (at least back when they were made) set of 24 mural panels in Baker Library, created by a Mexican artist named Jose Clemente Orozco (1932-34). They cover a history of Mesoamerica, from the Aztecs to the then-modern industrial society of the 1930s. Even with no training or background in this art, we found them striking – they tell a story you can start to follow, without knowing all the players or facts. Even better that they upset certain folks of the Dartmouth Establishment back when they were created.

We don't have a favorite! (Guadalajara)

We had a brief introduction to Mexican muralists during a tour of Guadalajara, but Mexico City is knee deep in murals from some of, if not THE greatest muralistas ever – Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, Juan O’Gorman, Jose Orozco, and Dr. Atl. So we made it a part of our 3-week sojourn in DF to find many of these public works of art, and to try to learn more about the stories they tell, and the people who created them. 


One thing to consider is that muralistas were also moralistas of a sort. They had a story to tell, based on facts but like any history also imbued with their take on what it all meant.

Diego's version of Posada's Catrina

Mural painting in Mexico started in the 1920s, after the Mexican Revolution, generally with social and political messages. It was supported by the Mexican government as a way to unify the country in post-Revolution times. Even before the Revolution, Jose Guadalupe Posada created the now-famous image of Catrina, which graces much of Dia de Muertos art. Posada was making fun of the European influence on Mexican elites at the turn of the 20th century.

The first modern muralista was Dr. Atl, born Gerardo Murillo Cornado in 1875. Atl, the Nahuatl word for water, believed that Mexican art should reflect Mexican life and values. He convinced President Porfirio Diaz that too many Mexican artists were trained in a classical way which simply mimicked European culture. By putting art large in public spaces on walls of buildings, Mexican artists could be liberated from this approach, while teaching and inspiring the people of Mexico.

Dr. Atl, photo by Tomas Montero Torres

Orozco was from Jalisco

Dr. Atl also did a series of famous paintings (which we were lucky enough to stumble cross in a museum in Morelia) of the 1943 eruption of Paricutin, which literally grew from the earth. He was injured while observing the eruption and his leg was amputated. He was the teacher of another muralista, the aforementioned Orozco, who ironically lost his left hand at age 21 building fireworks. Atl also wrote a short story called La Perla, which inspired a story of similar title from John Steinbeck later, a book which Orozco illustrated. 

Man on Fire

Orozco’s best-known work is a set of 57 murals in the Hospicio Cabanas in Guadalajara. We had a very good tour there, and literally got sore from craning our necks to look at all the works on the ceiling.

Diego's dream of a Sunday afternoon in the Alameda central park

Diego Rivera is probably the best known of the painters. His best known work to us is Sueno de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central. It was originally in a hotel near its present location at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera in Mexico City. The 1985 earthquake destroyed the hotel but miraculously the mural was mostly unscathed, and moved to the Museo. We spent a long time at the “key” to who all the people are in the painting, and if you took the time to place them all, you would have a great start in learning the history of Mexico!

Diego in Palacio Nacional. Amazing.

Rivera was, of course, married (twice!) to Frida Kahlo, and lived for a time in a compound, designed by O’Gorman (another muralista) with Frida and O’Gorman (in 3 separate houses). He has other huge and detailed murals in many places, our favorite aside from Suerte was at the Palacio Nacional on the Zocalo. There is also a huge collection of Rivera murals at the Secretario de Educacion. They are all worth the effort to find them.

Oh boy! O'Gorman!

Juan O’Gorman’s murals in the Chapultepec Castle are vivid, detailed and striking. This is the place from which the Ninos Heroes leapt to their death during the American invasion in 1847. Perhaps his most famous work is the Central Library at Ciudad Universitaria at UNAM. His mosaics cover the 4,000 square meters of the four faces of the building and are made of stones from all corners of Mexico, which O’Gorman traveled extensively to find the colors he wanted. In case you are wondering, his father was Irish (and a painter) and his mother Mexican. It covers pre-Hispanic history all the way to the present, and to see the scale and detail in person is nothing short of jaw-dropping. 

Siqueiros' Torture of Cuauhtémoc (by Cortez of course)

David Siqueiros – He has a definite dramatic style. Interestingly, he fought in Spain against Franco in 1938, and in 1940 he attempted to assist Stalin by assassinating Leon Trotsky, who had been granted asylum in Mexico. Trotsky was a friend of Diego and Frida (and apparently a very good friend of Frida for a while).

Keggy the Keg

So back to Hanover, NH. After the Orozco murals were completed, there was a hue and cry from Dartmouth alumni (the College was all male until 1974) about the controversial nature of the Orozco’s content. It was perceived as critical of institutes of higher learning, and Western civilization.

The "better?" replacement...Hovey 

An alumnus who worked as an illustrator proposed a set of murals, more “Dartmouth in character”, based on an old Dartmouth song, written by Richard Hovey – titled Eleazar Wheelock (founder of Dartmouth in 1769). Among other things, “Eleazar went into the wilderness to teach the Indian…with 500 gallons of New England rum.” The murals, sort of Maxfield Parrish in style, were approved and painted in the faculty dining hall. They are quite interesting, and also basically portray the Indians in ways less than flattering. Dartmouth was known as the Indians until the mid-1970’s when it was replaced officially by the color green, and unofficially by Keggy the Keg. Nowadays, the Hovey Murals are kept on the wall but under wraps except for occasional viewings by the public.

Yes, that's FDR...Pointed commentary, eh? (Orozco)

Why are murals so striking?  Such oversized public pieces of “enduring" art tell a story, even to the illiterate, and make a statement, often controversial, that reflects the times and thinking at that time, while also evoking universal themes: justice, injustice, hopes and dreams. While taking our breath away at the sheer scale of the statement.

2018 diciembre y 2019 enero

Early Days on Bonaire

Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean

[Note: we are not quite done with our Mexico posts, but wanted to post something about Bonaire before we leave!]

After about 15 months in Mexico, we moved on to the Caribbean island of Bonaire in mid-January, to scratch the dive itch. Bonaire is about 50 miles north of Venezuela, one of the ABC Islands along with Aruba and Curacao, and known as one of the best, if not the best shore diving locations in the world. We had vacationed here twice before, in 1997 and 2002. We decided to spend about 4 months here to see if we get tired of diving, when we could dive about any time we wanted to, and for not that much money.

There are about 200 of these identical trucks....

We are renting a dive truck, which is basically a 4-door truck with a wooden pallet in the back, sized for carrying scuba tanks. On the one hand it is about $26 per day, not so bad, on the other hand, over a month that adds up to $800. Tanks cost $8-14 each, so all in still a lot cheaper than boat diving, and more flexible. With the flexibility comes more responsibility. On a boat we generally follow a divemaster on a profile they have used, so don’t have to pay too much attention to navigation, etc.

From the shore, though, you are in charge of everything, set up, break down, navigation, reading surface conditions and current, safe entry and exit. With the ironshore (rough coral and rock) here, miscalculating the exit, even in a pretty calm ocean, can result in some shin and finger damage. Yes, that happened on Day 3. Don’t turn your back on the ocean! There is a reason crabs walk sideways.

We are renting an apartment in a local neighborhood – our landlady, and both neighbors are Bonairians. We have 3 large iguanas that live on the back fence, a tamarind tree which at least on full moons (one so far) is home to some yowling cats (which have had a few buckets of water sent their way at night). 

Lora (from Bonaire Birders website)

There are also many lovely bird songs, and so far we’ve identified a few birds, yellow orioles, saffron finches (yellow with saffron colored eyeliner), mockingbirds, ground doves, and unique to Bonaire – yellow-shouldered Amazon parrots (that hang upside down on the telephone lines – because they can!).

The washing machine on the large back porch is a model of customization, sort of. We fill the main tub with a garden hose, to fit the load, wash, remove laundry to a small side basket, rapid spin to drain, then back in the main tub, more garden hose, for rinsing, then once more in the spinner. Kind of like the run on George Bailey’s bank – use only what you need. The trade winds blow pretty much 24/7, the air is very low humidity, and the back clothesline, where we double down on clothespins due to the wind, dries things wicked fast.

The apartment has no hot water, but due to the warm climate, usually 80s during the day, that is not much of a factor. We also have repurposed a few 1-liter plastic bottles with water, solar heated on the front porch, which make for a nice if brief hot water indulgence after the tepid shower. We’ve also been taking 1-2 bottles on our dives, leaving them on the dashboard in the sun -- free hot water rinse after diving! That and an icy Amstel (not Light, the real kind) is Mark’s happy place.

Why did we wait so long? Life gets in the way if you let it.

The Dutch have a thing for mayonnaise...!?!

Bonaire is a Dutch island, having changed “ownership” multiple times over the past 400 years. The Dutch influence means good cheese, good meat, and good road signs. Unfortunately, it also means (well, not sure about the connection, but…) high prices. We have serious sticker shock after 1+ years in Mexico. Groceries, some are pricey, some not so much. Rum - this is the Caribbean, right? – they have decent choices from Cuba and Venezuela and the DR, but they are expensive. Eating at a restaurant, early days but it is easy to spend $70 US for not that much.

aka topes in Spanish

Bonaire drivers are in general terrible, be they local or Dutch expats. (sorry, but!) Compared to Mexico, supposedly known for crazy behavior…no contest. Bonaire is worse.

Mark vs the mosquitos

We’ve been visited by a few plagues so far. First was mosquitos, which we thought we sorted out but continue to battle, having become quite adept with the electric tennis racquet zapper. Next was what Google said were Indianmeal Moth larvae. Small white inchworms, no idea where they came from (other than mature Indianmeal Moths?) One day and they are now gone. And, of course, ants. They even found our leftovers in our truck and swarmed. Ick. Yay, bug spray! 3 down, 4 to go, if Moses shows up. No cucarachas so far, knock on wood.

Heeere they come!! (cue scary music)

we love carrots!! oh look what just hit me in the nose!

We went to the Bonaire Donkey Sanctuary. It was a hoot. The word in Papiamentu for thank you is danki, a homophone for donkey. Suffice it to say the animals are awesome, if legion (700+), and we laughed a lot. They watched us get out of the truck, but knew the carrots were inside, so surrounded and stared at the truck for 10 minutes while we climbed the observation tower. Reminded us of that movie, Men Who Stare at Goats....but Donkeys Who Stare at Truck may not do as well at the box office. We can also now find our truck in the parking lot thanks to donkey snot on the windows!

There are carrots in there!!

Super aqua man? 

But what about the diving, you say? It is FANTASTIC. Ok, can we tell that there is more damage and algae than our first trip here 22 years ago? Yes. Is it a shame that they now allow cruise ships here? Yes. But for the most part there are lots of fish, quite a bit of good coral and sponges, and lots to look at.

In fact, we got an underwater camera/ flashlight combo which Linda has been playing with to some good results. It takes an extra step or two to process the pictures to tone down the blue in the pictures, but it’s been pretty cool to have pics to show others some of the cool stuff under the water.

We are still trying to sort out what the Marine Park fee accomplishes ($45 per year per person), besides paying the salaries of the rangers (which we never see on the water). Also of note, the cruise ship folks pay no park fee, they hit and run on the reef (often terrible divers,) while the cruise ships are happy to pay the smallish fine if caught dumping off the coast as they leave. It is a very non-ecofriendly operation.

Update: As for the experimental test of diving interest part of the sojourn, at 76 days we’ve done 75 dives. And not bored yet! And we each hit our 400^th dive a couple of weeks back. 

2019 maart / marzo