Food – Page 2 – Boomer Away

Dinner time, hilarity ensues…

Eating in Mexico is so easy. Just walk down any street and you will find foods of all descriptions and nationalities. On Sunday, we walked all of two minutes from our hotel to the mercado (outdoor market). There we found an area with tables and benches, with cooks in chef’s jackets waiting to serve their Sunday Special, Super order of Chicken. As my Spanish is limited (Si, No, Gracias, blinking or vacant stares for anything else), Deb asked about the Special, and enquired about the price. The chef stated the price (noventa y cinco or 95 pesos) and Deb relayed it to me as sentena y cinco or 75 pesos. The chef immediately said “95” in English. With the price now verified, we ordered the dish, along with a couple of beers.

This is a big platter. Enchiladas with a potato stuffing on the left, fried potatoes on the right, chicken leg and wing in the middle, and cole slaw in the front. Also, at the top, a large pickled jalapeno pepper. Now, notice the yellow peppers. They were on top of the slaw and I moved them to their current position. This is a safety measure you need to adopt if you travel to Mexico. You never know what you’re getting in the way of heat.

I thought about eating healthy, so I tried the slaw first. Pretty spicy for just cabbage with a light dressing. I told Deb about the heat in the slaw, so she could avoid the heat. We continued trying various parts of the dish when it happened.

I looked at Deb and I realized she seems to be panting. She looked like she was in labor. Then I noticed she is growing red in the face. I mean really red. Her eyes start watering. I was about to ask her if she tried the slaw when she points to the yellow pepper rings. Remember those? The peppers that were on top of the slaw? She tried a pepper ring, thinking it was like a bell pepper. Wrong.

20160218_112405 — Pepper from Catalina’s pepper tree.

Notice the above. This is a pepper from a garden of one of our Couchsurfing friends. When I say pepper tree, I meant it. This plant was over six feet tall. Our Couchsurfing friend pronounced these as “muy caliente” or very hot. This is what was on top of the slaw. Deb is still gasping and sweating (not “glowing”). I try to help. I eat a pepper ring in sympathy. And it’s really hot. Drink some beer, I offer. Eat some more food to counter the inferno. Don’t blame me, I hope. All you can do is wait it out. And we learned a lesson: Let Matt try it first.

This morning’s breakfast

This morning we woke up to a dwindling assortment of food that we’ve acquired in the mercado. We’re using up some of the leftovers while I stretch and get ready for the new day.

In the market I asked a vendor what these were, and she promptly broke one open with her thumbnail and pushed it into my hands. It’s a granada china, she said, and she made motions to say: you reach in and grab the entire seed packet, scoop it out and chew it up. The seeds come out in one gooey stuck-together glob. I didn’t want to be rude, even though it felt gross and looked kind of disgusting, so I reluctantly plopped it in my mouth. To my surprise it was lightly sweet and the texture of the seeds was slightly crispy. I gave her 10 pesos (55 cents) and she gave me a bag of 9 pieces of fruit. Granada china translates to Chinese pomegranate, but the resemblance is minimal. After some further digging on the Internet I find that it is a variant of the passion fruit, the product of a passion flower vine. It has antioxidants and sedative properties, and it provides vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, B9, C, E and K; and minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium and Zinc.

Next we have lima beans. I hate lima beans, one of the few vegetables I really can’t want. But here they are roasted and salted with a touch of lime flavor, and they are a delightful snack.

Our new friend Jennifer from Morelia told us that people can take classes here on how to make decorative flower jello molds. I couldn’t picture this, but then we found them in the streetside market along the secondary plaza here in Patzcuaro. They are beautiful, and completely made of gelatin, no hidden plastic components. It’s created upside down in a disposable plastic cup, so the artist must have quite a job to make one. I bought one for 13 pesos (75 cents) and the seller helped me take some photos of her wares.

Gelatin flower, scooped out so you can see the insides

Lastly, there are the mandarin oranges and “regular” oranges which are sold from the back of a pickup truck a few doors down from our hotel.

Oranges cost 20 pesos ($1.10) for 5 kilos (11 pounds.) Mandarin oranges are 15 pesos (75 cents) for 2 kilos (4.4 pounds.)

Can we do that in Mexican now?

(a story of how you do a birthday party, in 3 cultures and multiple generations.)

This is Chava. Happy birthday Chava! We introduced him to you in our prior blog on Couchsurfing, the organization we both belong to. His sister spilled the beans on the fact that this is his nickname.

Urbandictionary.com definition: “Chava is the born-nickname given to people in Mexico whose real name is Salvador. This nickname was set on stone when you were named Salvador.”

From my prior conversations with friends here in Mexico I hear that there is a widespread fascination with slang words that begin with CH. For example, a person who was born in Mexico City is a Chilango. (Just yesterday I saw a street argument between car drivers, where one called the other a Chilango. Back home we have our own terms, for Chicagoans; but I digress.) There are books devoted to this; for example check out El Chingonario on Facebook.

After we met him he invited us to his birthday party. It was hosted and cooked for by (our new friend) Loretta from Florida, who moved to Juriquilla in July. Here is Loretta preparing the awesome barbeque:

Juriquilla was a small exclusive suburb north of Queretaro, centered around a gorgeous lake. Over the last few years it has morphed into a larger subdivision, with rolling hills studded with gated communities, all of which are painted white. There is a stark contrast between life in Juriquilla and life in downtown Q. In Juriquilla your home is new, your streets are new, you are snugly enfolded inside of a gated town. You have a car, and you drive to the stores. It feels very much like life in the States. In downtown Q, you may choose not to have a car; if so you walk a lot (5 miles a day, for us.) Your home is old, centuries old, and there is always something that needs a bit of fixing. You buy your things from small bodegas and/or from the ancient mercado/market. (Occasionally you run to Costco, where you will see your friends from Juriquilla. Most of us love Costco.) You can fall sideways into a cheap “comida corrida” (food on the run) restaurant, and spend $3.50 for a complete meal. But you run the constant risk of twisting an ankle on the cobblestone streets and sidewalks, and there is always the doggie doo-doo to watch out for. Moving between Juriquilla and downtown is like moving between countries, there is a big difference.

Salvador’s family and friends were there when we arrived, and they greeted us warmly. After drinks and conversation the food was ready and so were we. The spread of meats and salads was fantastic, and we all chatted away merrily.

dinner

At Chava’s party we sang Happy Birthday 4 different ways. First, there was the traditional USA way. Next, we sang the old traditional Mexican version, Cumpleaños Feliz.

After that we sang Las Mañanitas, a beautiful song that played on the radio station 90.9 FM every morning at 7 AM as my coworker Monica and I rolled into the workplace here in Q. Here are the translated words from Wikipedia:

This is the morning song that King David used to sing.
Today being the day of your saint, we sing it to you.

Wake up my dearest, wake up, see now that the day has dawned
the sparrows are singing, the moon has finally set.

How lovely is this morning, when I come to greet you
we all come with joy and pleasure to congratulate you.

The very day you were born all the flowers first bloomed
and in the baptismal font all the nightingales sang.

The dawn has come my darling, and the sunlight is here for us.
Rise up and shine with the morning and you’ll see that here’s the dawn.

Then we did the African-American version. Who knew? Not me. Check it out, move up to the 1:32 mark for a snippet:

After that we relocated the furniture out to the walls and started line dancing. First, party dances led by our African American friends: Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide, etc. Then, Matt and I taught 2 line dances from our dance group: Uptown Funk, and Shut Up & Dance. Last, our Mexican friends broke out a line dance that was so energetic I had to stop to catch my breath. What an awesome exchange that was!

When the karaoke started I was tempted to join in, but it was time to call in an Uber driver and make our way back downtown. How very fortunate we are to find such warm, loving people who have opened their homes and hearts for us!

Breakfast fit for a Marquis

We got up late and decided to hit the streets for a non-standard breakfast. After weeks of fruit we were looking for something HOT, something eggy, something slightly… sinful. We found it at Casa de la Marquesa, a historic building originally built for the mistress of the marquès in the 1700s. It is now a luxury hotel, but not too pricey at $140 per night, cheaper via some online sites.

This is the experience you would be seeking in historic Spain, and you would pay dearly for it. But in Queretaro, this is accessible and oh so good.

the Marquesa's dining room — the Marquesa’s dining room

Everything is handmade, right down to the colors on the wall, which appear to be painted or stained; no wallpaper here.

Note the intricate stonework from the 1700s

St. Michael weighs souls and fights demons, while we enjoy breakfast

My breakfast was a different and tasty take on Eggs Benedict. There are no English muffins, instead a piece of toast is the base, with crust removed. Smoked salmon is nestled under eggs, tangy sauce, and parmesan cheese. A bit of vegetables provide color and crunch.

Total cost in this historic hotel for 2 breakfasts, 2 coffees, and tip: $19.33 US. If or when we make it back to Europe I don’t know how I will stop comparing the prices there vs. the incredible deals we get here.

On the way out we noted some intricate woodwork and brass. Delights for the eyes, everywhere.

Ahh… Saturday morning brunch

One of the delights of living in Queretaro is the abundance of restaurants that have an all-inclusive brunch on Saturday and/or Sunday. Most of them run about $8.28 US (150 pesos). We decided to try our first one today, and happened upon La Patio de la Abuela, “Grandma’s Patio”.

The chef’s station prepared eggs to your liking, enchiladas, and fresh bacon at our request, since the bacon in the steam tray wasn’t very crispy. One special treat was the huitlacoche and cheese: a mushroom-like fungus that grows on corn. Huitlacoche can’t be cultivated, it appears when it wants to. I haven’t seen it in the States, so this was a real treat. It was served with a roasted tomato and pepper sauce that nicely complemented the mushroomy goodness.

Huitlacoche, roasted tomato sauce and Oaxaca hot chocolate

The taxonomic classification for the cacao tree is theobroma cacao, or Elixir of the Gods. Hot chocolate here in Mexico is slightly more like the original theobroma that Moctezuma reportedly drank all day to preserve his god-like health (50 small golden cups of it, so they say.) It has less milk and more water than our American counterpart, and it is lightly sweetened. And oh, the aroma and taste! I asked the waiter how it is made, and he explained: water, milk, and Oaxaca chocolate. I asked if I could see this, and he smiled and just brought me another cup.

We sampled all of the Mexican foods on the hot trays: costilla (short ribs) with cactus strips; potatoes with rajas (pepper strips) and house-made cheese; shredded chicken in a light red sauce; and a number of other dishes. As the morning wore on the patio started to lose its morning coolness, and the Spanish love songs and the food coma took effect. Time to go out into the day and enjoy.