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Bienvenidos

Jan 13, 2020

Today is my dad's Birthday, in 1932. How many wooden Spanish colonial chairs and tables and stuff were made by his students in all the years in Costilla, Questa, and Encino. Lots of woodcraft through the years. I am reminded of him as I walk through places where artisanal work is on display. His own travels were mostly in Germany and Amsterdam.

In my own travels today I walked around town exploring. I found the ADO Bus Terminal and a couple of neighborhoods, barrios, within the city not too far from the city center and Zocalo areas. I have seen signs of and heard of the McD's, KFC, a couple of Walmarts, and a Sams Club. Mostly I avoid those places. My preference is to support local working people, people that smile when you walk into the store or tent or stall in the Mercados. They say Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes, Buenas Noches. Being polite is a big thing in much of Latin America. If someone walks out of a cafe and you are waiting for food or eating, they nod and say Buen Provecho. If someone leaves your table, of course it includes the requisite, Con Permiso. It isn't stiff and formal but pleasant. A bit more sophisticated than: Later Gator, or Hay te Guacho. The human touch, I guess... we forget as we rush through life.

I have been to the open air markets a few times for fruit and today I found the Mercado La Merced. You can buy Queso Fresco in a very sanitary environment, the fruit is fresh picked. The variety of fruit is not as great here as in Ecuador but what is available, mandarin oranges, toronjos, bananas, berries, mangos, papayas, is ripened on the plant and the flavor is "Wow". I don't have a place to cook but the availability of meat; beef, pork, and chicken is very large. I have yet to try the salchichones but soon enough. I had fresh squeezed orange juice this morning and it was oh so smooth and sweet.

Oaxaca is known as La Tierra de los Siete Moles. On my trip to Hierve de Agua the tour stopped at a buffet place, where all the tour buses stop, that had three distinct moles. (The rest of the food was great too.) Some people might call it chili. To me, it is like a non-chili, more a sauce yet more than a marinate. The dark mole included chocolate in the ingredients. There was also a medium brownish red and a lighter yellow one, none of then too spicy but all full of flavor. They are presented in large ceramic charolas. Grilled chicken drumsticks are added in and marinated/soaked in it after both ingredients are fully cooked. Bastante rico. When in Rome! They deserve a picture to better represent Los Moles de Oaxaca. You can buy Mole paste in the mercado and water it down to your needs and serve it with any meat.

Jan 14

I took an hour long walk this morning after breakfast. Along the way, I finally found una iglesia vieja con una fachada que vale la pena. Maybe the name was San Felipe de Neri. Aunque fuera solamente la fachada, me impresiono. This church was completed on 1620, making it 400 years old this year. 

Quite a beautiful facade on the church

I walked through the mercado by the Zocalo then went west on Calle Morelos to the other mercado. 

Entrance wall to the Mercado

When I got to the Mercado de la Merced, an old lady, probably my age and 4’4”, jumped out of the cab and the taxi driver unloaded three "very" huge sacks of freshly cooked 12” corn tortillas out of the taxi. She bent over and strapped one on her back along with a smaller sack, all tied on with a large bandana kind of sheet that then comes around to her forehead and the bottom around the waist. The two other sacks the driver them placed on the sidewalk. I offered to help and could barely carry one, maybe 75lbs. I followed her with my load and she kept looking back to see if I was keeping up. We eventually got to her stall and I asked her to follow me to get the other one so I wouldn’t get lost. I got the last one and followed her again. This one was 80lbs, ala maquina. Lots of Thank you’s and smiles. Without her pack of tortillas you could see the muscles in her shoulders and legs. I am impressed. And here I had felt sorry for her. Como dicen, me dejo en el polvo o por los suelos. Que verguensa, but a new friend and a good deed done. Que me costo?

Lunch was at a Spanish Bistro. Quite the combination. A half-Ham and Cheese, Gaspacho (soup), Egg Salad (different), a Black IPA (really good), and a bent fork to keep the napkins from blowing away. The wood piece mounted to the wall was so cool as a table. Look Ma, no legs.

Gypsy Lunch at the Gourmand

It isn't all hoofing it and being a tourist. This afternoon after a quick nap I have started reading an Ernest Hemingway book I have never seen, "Across the River and Into the Trees".

Jan 15

An easy day today. After a breakfast of melon, papaya, a bread roll called un Bolio, OJ, and Coffee, I went to the doctor to see about a possible ear infection. The quick way is to go to a Farmacia and ask to see a doctor, they give you a tab/number and you go next door to wait for the Medico/Medica. I was patient #2 for the day and  got to see the Doc in a couple of minutes. She makes a quick diagnosis, and walks me back to the Farmacia with the scripts. Anti inflammatory and antibiotics, about $15 US... so I ask, ahem, how much for the doctor visit? "Nothing, it is included in our service. That Arabic phrase "Allah Dude" almost escaped me. "You can leave her a tip" the Pharmacy Tech told me, so I left her another $15US. No seas barato, don't be cheap. I know where to find her when I need her or one of her peers when I need help, 1/2 a block away. They have Nationalized medicine here too, a few different levels of service but it is relatively cheap and available. There is even a free hospital, if necessary.

From the Farmacia, I went to research an upcoming bus ride to some ruins just outside of town called Mont Albán, I will post pictures for that as it looks interesting in the research I have done.

It was an easy day, as I said, so I headed over to the Museo de Culturas de Oaxaca. It was kind of boring but as you may have already noticed, I enjoy building materials and architecture and this building fit the bill. If we had built Costilla and Amalia with stone instead of adobe, it might still be there. I mean, some of these buildings are hundreds of years old and some of the pre-hispanic is much older.

Vaulted ceilings just rock my boat.
When I find a flying buttress, I drool.
Arches are pretty amazing too.

One of the courtyards in the Cultural museum.
The floor around the fountain is river gravel, very smooth.

This is not part of the museum but you can see old doors and windows (upper right corner) closed off.
I saw this wall on the way to have lunch.

And here is La Entrada, 1st course from the Menu del Día.
The chips, almost paper thin and the salsa, different but I am getting used to it.
Soup or Chicken Broth.
The main course came later Pescado Dorado or Mahi Mahi in Hawaiian.
And then postre.
Cost: $100 Pesos Mexicanos ($5.00 US)

I did learn something interesting at the museum gift shop. They had a calendar for sale that displayed about 200 "Quelites". I thought to myself, what is up with that??? Well, here it is.

• Quelite (del náhuatl "quílitil", que designa a las hierbas de follaje comestible): se aplica este nombre común en la parte central de "México", sobre todo a varias especies de hierbas silvestres, comestibles cuando aún son tiernas

i.e. Several genus and species of wild plants with edible plant leaves eaten while they are soft. There you go, is that proof that a few words of our "Spanish" language came from Mexico's Náhuatl language. Given that we are also part Arabic and have legacy words to go with that heritage, we harvest words and drag them from region to region as we have moved around the world, genetically speaking. On having Arab ancestry, call them Moors or Berbers, keep in mind that they were in Spain for 600 years before Christian crusaders did their own version of what they did. It isn't too far a stretch to say, you might be muslim if... in those 600 years... Well, muslim is a religion and not a race but maybe indoctrination and all that does modify cultural (ways and mores) beliefs and genetics. Think about it next time you say, "Allah mano, te digo la verdad."

Well, on my ToDo list is a cooking class. I hope to learn about these salsas.

Jan 18

Where have I been the last two or three days? Well, never one to sit around too much, it was busy with a few things.

Today was a Saturday, I updated some meds at the Farmacia. There was also a brass band I listened to in the Parque del Llano.

And a truck outside my house: If you double-click on the images you can get a closer look.

Not really a "guy" thing for me, I just like old things that withstand the test of time. 

Two years ago I had a crown installed on a lower molar. Last year that tooth started to die so I had a root canal done on it in Albuquerque. Two problems with that... First it consumed all of my retiree dental care for last year. Second, they dug out two of the roots. It turns out that it had three roots. Well, I went to see a dentist here yesterday and he took an X-Ray. Sure enough, this guy found the problem and took out the pith of the 3rd root. Discomfort/pain is now gone, and my filling on the crown goes in on Monday. After that, I can have my teeth cleaned and any other work that needs to be done.

Oh, by the way, Root Canal - $100 USD. That probably paid for my whole vacation down here.

Okay, a couple of more personal things then on to an adventure.

I was reading something last night and found a quote I want to share.

• "Happiness is a Moveable Feast" 
• To me that speaks volumes - it is a choice, and a reflection about how we choose to interpret what life gives us. Si pasas tu vida con la jeta colgando, your problem. (Google translate does not do this coloquial expression much good. I suggest you "call a friend".)

Monte Albán

A couple of days ago I went to this prehistoric ruin. I was of course impressed by the architecture, but this is also one of those cultures where the women ruled the roost. I think the ratio was something like 3:1. Also, they seemed to be the Gods/Queens/decision makers, etc. In one picture below you can see how an elderly woman, who was removed from a tomb (of which there are many), looks today. She was buried with her subordinate women who were also well preserved and must have taken care of her in the afterlife. Frankly, she is a babe to my eyes. Check her out. Genetically she was probably 5'6" tall or taller and of course Zapoteca. It seems that there was a smaller non-zapoteca community here, Olmec, I believe, and I think they are from the coastal areas and influenced many other cultures that followed. Visiting guests or slaves, I don't know. Given their influence, I will call the Olmecs "Consultants".

Check out these long legs.

The Zapotecas were an advanced culture. Like many of the big names like Azteca, Maya, and Inca (of which these people may have been) they were connected with Astronomy, they were polytheistic (multiple gods), they knew math, and had a written type language.

Of particular interest to me, they were very advanced in medicine. Have you ever had a headache, a really bad one? Well, there is evidence of their abilities in solving this problem! It is no joke, really. It is a cerebral exercise.

Look at how perfectly those holes were drilled. Their tools must have been amazing. Oh sure, the guy is dead now but can you imagine the headaches he had before the surgery, and the relief after? This was a thousand years before root canals. I can definitely relate. Ah, no Dremel tools, no drilling dies. The were pretty good with medicinal herbs so maybe even anesthetics, antibiotics, and post surgery pain killers. Too bad they can't talk.

Okay, now some of the architecture. I kept saying, okay, only one more pic, only one more, and I ended up with 43 images that I kept and I am sharing about 10. You can probably see more on facebook or Google Images.

This ruins are on a solitary mountain about 1,800 meters above the city of Oaxaca in the Oaxaca Valley. The area gets rain about 6-months of the year, during the growing season. They may have used cisterns to store collected water since there were technologically advanced. Other than that, en la espalda, I guess. Lots of people lived here. I heard numbers of 25,000 in the surrounding area. I can see lots of people hauling water and crops up the mountain to sustain those women living up on top.

Stela, Stella, Stele, Stelae

One of the few pyramids still visible

Ball court and more pyramids

You too Stella - This was a sun dial to tell time.  She even wears a halo.  You might say she left her ephemeral mark every day of the year, for 1,000 years. I wonder what mark I will leave... 

Unas Tumbas

Huge rocks? No, temples!

Pyramids everywhere up here. There is still so much to be explored the piles and stone and earth.

Several tombs under here

Puerta del Sol
That is a serious header beam. How do you get that rock up the mountain?

At least 10 Columns. Pretty and nicely finished on the outside. The inside is all hand laid rock, not just loose fill.
They made their own mortar. Each seam on all the building has 1" inlaid stones.
This was meant to last forever, it certainly outlived them, and to be a work of art.

Well, needless to say, I am wholly impressed. With the design, the forethought, the work, and the evidence of an advanced culture.

Several years ago I went to Teotihuacán, north of Mexico City, to the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon. This one had so much more feeling to it. This one really touched me. Some days are like that, some places are like that. Not spiritual but more as if this place has real and lasting meaning. A problem is that we may not be advanced enough to understand it.

Jan 19

Today was a relatively random day. I was waiting on the housekeeper to let me know if she could arrange a ride for me to do some sightseeing. I was being slow getting started after some insomnia and in she walks with her husband and son, Miguel and Adrian. "Cuando estes listo nos vamos". Whenever you are ready she says, these guys will take you to the Mercado. On Sunday the weekly mercado was in Tlacolula.

Mercado Tlacolula de Matamoros, Nochixtlán

There is a Mercado every day of the week in many surrounding towns and villages. But in some towns, on a designated day of the week, there is a bigger market day. Here they call it "El Tianguis". Another Náhuatil word ("tianguis), I know I have heard that word used at home in a slightly different context, something like "Tenemos un tiangal en la dispensa".

Anyway, it was your basic Mercado just huge, maybe 5-blocks by 4-blocks, maybe more. We stopped to eat once inside the mercado that on this day was spread out onto the streets and I tried their Barbacoa de Chivo. Good flavor though a bit stronger than I expected. the market didn't have the farm animals but more of the usual clothes, tools, fruit, and a million other things. I double checked the statistics on the size of the market and it seems that covers about 1.5 square miles. Much larger than I estimated. Yes, it took a long time to walk through only the part we saw.

Carved Gourds - Dibujados, impressive hand work

Live Turkeys For Sale - Surprisingly docile. Here they are called "Guajalotes" there were also a few Ducks

Here is a hand made 'estufa' for cooking in an open air market stall and the accompanying charcoal grill.
Definitely not a Weber grill but that is okay. Certainly more flavor.
It reminds me of consumerism and 1st World Problems, as an antithesis. 

Jan 20: Technical and a bit Random

Sitting here drinking Green Tea.

Have you ever had a day when you are just craving something? Something traditional? Something really good like my mom or Grama used to make? Well, I keep researching and looking for solutions to achieve that standard or work to make it better. 

Don't you hate it when you buy a "Non-Stick" pan and it isn't? They work for what, a month, 3-months, until the warranty is over? Even a cast iron skillet can be a pain if you don't baby it.

Don't you hate it when you are invited to someone's house and they offer "fried potatoes" and you end up eating soggy mushy white starchy stuff that is cooked in a frying pan but is nowhere like being fried? Oops, there go the 65 dinner invitations I get a year. Just a consummate researcher my friend, don't take it personal.

By now you know that I use Wikipedia for language or geography research, YouTube for some technical ideas that I want to understand, and either starting on what I find there or branching off on my own and start trial and error replications to see what I can do.

Well, some findings are accidental, and I am not taking credit for it but being able to integrate the results into something, well that is where I am on this theme. Oh, did I mention I have INSOMNIA?

Well, my long time friend Urmila Yalamanchili will be proud of this one I think.

Some years ago I bought some pretty good frying pans and yes, they failed. Everything I tried to fry in them burns.

I have since switched to an Induction Cooktop and these pans don't work on Induction cooktops which need ferrous pots and pans but that isn't the point. I digress so Back on point.

Late one night I was up searching for something to make my bread baking better and I saw something called "Liquid Gold". Not one for "get rich quick" schemes, and in the YouTube food section, I clicked the button. After a few minutes I see that this is something called "Clarified Butter". After a couple of clips one came up called Ghee, basically the same just a bit more processing time involved, as I understand it. This is the East Indian version. 

It turns out that when you fry almost anything in Clarified Butter or Ghee, even if the pan is ruined or not a non-stick pan, it basically does not stick. (Usually)

Technically, Ghee or Clarified butter has a very high boil point. So the magic is that the burning point of this is about 486*F. Regular butter is about 100* less. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is just up from 350*F and regular Olive Oil is up just over 390*F. With these other plant and vegetable oils the oil burns first then everything burns, it sticks and smokes and makes a mess.

When you make the clarified butter, you are removing any remaining whey and separating out any butter fat that burns at a very low temperature. 

What do people do? You either get Charred potatoes or people "fry" them so slowly that the result is soggy white potatoes. Or even hard potatoes not completely cooked. You have to use low temp to avoid burning the food or the pan. Don't you just hate soggy "calabacitas" with corn? If you don't create some umami flavors with a bit of a sear, you miss the mark of greatness. (IMO) 

Here is my answer. Slice the potatoes, peeled or not, and rinse them out twice to wash out extra starch. Use good red potatoes, not the powdery Russet Potatoes que no valen cuetes except for baking. Start frying the potatoes in Clarified Butter, turn them off to soften up for a bit while you add Chile, Cebolla, Meat (diced Coronado Bologna), then continue frying and if you remember, an egg, maybe two just before you are ready to serve them. Add some hot fresh tortillas, maybe some yellow mustard, and there you have it. 

Is it healthy for you? Who cares, Life is Too Short. Get off your butt and walk it off. 

At the moment I am sitting here in the kitchen in Oaxaca, Mexico listening to online radio - KANW-89.1. They have a Native Music Hour(s) on Monday night after the Norteño music and NM news goes away. They have great stuff tonight and as I am wrapping this random thought up, some traditional (Indigenous) music came on. It was from Otavalo  or Ibarra Ecuador. I have been to these places. It surprised me at first but it is Native. And, America is not just the US.  The Americas do run from the tip of North America all the way down through Central America and down to the tip of South America. They were and are the First Nation, as they are referred to in Canada. They don't teach that stuff in schools. Now, we are all Americans and I think that is good to know.

Anyway, back to papitas fritas:

Papas Fritas - there are more crispy ones underneath, trust me, and nothing burned.
I didn't add eggs, darn it.
But, there were still quite good

If you try to buy Clarified Butter it is available at most grocery stores. But it is Pricey. Maybe $12 for 16 ounces. So much cheaper to make your own, just get a couple of sticks or a pound of butter and try it out. As Mikayla's mom, Toni says, get good butter, it isn't all the same.

Check it out the topic on YouTube or your favorite place for research.

The rest of this week - learning to live life

Well, the week was lots of little stuff and ending with a class about food. When I take too long to update the blog, we lose some of the detail but maybe that part bores you a bit. Somebody said, "Shut Up and Post Pictures/Images". I spent time walking about including out discovering more good places to eat unique Oaxacan food, buying some more fruit at the Mercado. Yesterday I found fresh Albaricoque or Albarcoque or Apricots. And I found some seedless oranges which I had not seen here.

On one of my walks I found this piece of wall art:

It speaks for itself. It was in an alleyway. Sometimes you have to take your eyes off your cellphone and see what the world has to offer. 

On Thursday a massage. My dentist was sick and in bed so it was a day off and more time to recover. The masseuse was a woman about my height and and strong. She came to my house, her nephew bringing the massage bed in a few hours before the treatment. She followed a bit later with a large bag of sheets, oil, and other Voodoo magic. Her preference for a massage was touching your bones without breaking anything. Easy on the joints and hard on the muscles as I told George. While her fingers were strong, her elbows were amazing. She also seemed to use a lot of incense, and mists in the air to cleanse the space throughout the 1-hour and 15-minutes. So that was part of the mysticism, and you have to keep an open mind here. As she finished with each part of the spine or arm or leg, she would use her fingers to sort of tap out bad spirits lingering in the body and work them out to my extremities then shoosh (definitely not swoosh) the bad spirits off to the vapors and smoke of that other space in the ether. Sometime later after she left I told the housekeeper that I was going to shower to go out to find some food. NO, NO, NO! Let your body finish processing the massage. Take a shower in the morning. The next day I was a bit sore and still in quite a happy state. El masaje me quito todo lo malo menos lo feo!

Well, thusly "Mash sauged", I went in search of something to eat and that is truly what is required of any visitor to Oaxaca, Tlayudas.

The placed recommended to me was a place called "Tlayudas del Negro". In the menu pic below, you will see an ingredient that I have not tried yet. "Chapulines" (grasshoppers). They are usually ground up and mixed with a red chili powder.

Here is basically what a Tlayuda is and how it is built. As I may have mentioned before, I don't make food, I build it. You start with a very large white corn tortilla. You coat it with rendered pork fat, (manteca) or for sensitive types, bacon grease. That helps bring out the flavor of the tortilla. On top of that you add a layer of black refried beans. On top of that some diced cabbage, and some string cheese. Fold it over and heat each side on the griddle to melt the cheese. When it is ready, add your meat of choice on top. Tonight I chose "Asada" because I have been wanting some beef.

If ever in Oaxaca, I think you may like to try this. 

Carne and of course the salsas.

This is the first time while here that I drank a Corona. While I was at Del Negro and after I was finished eating, it was time for some dancers to perform some regional cultural dances. They are young and pretty skilled. It reminded me of when Adam was at Adams State and had joined a dance group called something like Semillas de la Tierra. That was about 10 or 12-years ago maybe. 

Regional dress

A table of turistas in the background

Keeping up the tradition

Friday - A Oaxacan Cooking Class

Part of understanding a culture is through their food. What better way to understand food than to make it. I decided to take a class. My own interest is to see what tools, equipment, and materials are used. Our class included six students comprised of a family from Canada, a lady from Tennessee who lives in Mexico City and whose husband works for Nissan, a young professional couple from Korea, and a Norteño that I didn't recognize. 

We met near the center of town and all jumped into an SUV kind of car owned by our Chef and drove a short distance to a Mercado where we came upon the first decision of our day. What will be the menu? The instructor, a youngish Alfonso Lopez (28), gave us several choices for la Entrada, la Segunda, and el Postre. Once we made that decision was made we went from stall to stall buying various chili, veggies, queso, masa, and a few other things.

The large wooden spoon on the wall used to hold up the tools was cool.
Check out that hefty 6-burner stovetop.

"El Refri" and decorative cositas on the wall

Art is a form of expression, even in the kitchen

If you break a pot, we have more

A close-up of my favorite spoon.
We used one of the ceramic pots on the stove to reduce the Red Mole we made.
I didn't think you could get these ceramic bowls that hot - on an open flame. 

With this "Classroom" setting the stage, was started laying out the ingredients. All of this, of course, was based on our menu decision in the Mercado.

• Memelas, like small Tlayudas, but open faced

• A couple of salsas, red and green, to go with the Memelas (memelitas)

• Plus some guacamole with garlic and cilantro - a few small green chiles 

• Then a red Mole and chicken thighs (dark meat)

• Finally some Flan. 

Not too surprising, we made everything from scratch. Well, except some cooking oil and some cans of milk for the Flan (and the masa).

This was not a lecture class, it was fully experiential. Me being the knife nerd, I didn't think the edge of these knives was up to my standards. Other than that, this was a pretty awesome class. You dice, I dice, I grind, you pulverize, you stir, everyone stirs. Alfonso was like a conductor leading us through harmony, melody, rhythm, beat, and with all that, his mom and dad were there helping out, making this a true Oaxacan family experience.

So here is the story on Alfonso, puro Zapoteco. He is 28-years old and fluent in Zapotec, Spanish, and English. He moved to Oaxaca from the southern part of the state to take a cooking course. He finished that in two years then went on to university where he learned English. He ended up with a degree to teach Spanish. He likes music, enjoys a good drink with friends, works hard to stay fit and to avoid the Fat Chef Syndrome. He started teaching cooking classes when at University. A classmate from the states (US) asked him if he could teach her how to prepare a typical meal. It went well so a couple of other friends from school asked him, Hey, can you teach a class for a few of us. As you can imagine, it took off from there. It helped pay his way through school and set him on a path that who know where it will go. He started in his parent's garage, he told us as we were driving toward the house. Of course, in my mind I thought, oh oh... cooking in a garage? Well, we pulled into the garage and were met by a lot of barking from the security dogs in a pen. more Oh Oh. I felt tension from everyone in the car, maybe it was my own tension filling the space. From there, he walks us up a stairway above the house and into the classroom. Whew, wow, he had me going. I mean I had researched the reviews and everyone was 4's and 5's out of 5. Well, he definitely met and exceeded the standard. His mom is 51 and her husband is almost 17-years older than her is 67. Both are retired and have a wonderful spirit. His dad hugged me like a long lost brother. "Tu eres uno de nosotros, bien venido". Sure, I am okay with that. By now I have family in a lot of countries around the world.

Okay and so all of this Welcome before we even start to slice and dice. Did I mention Mezcal? Surely you can't come to Oaxaca and not be in the Mezcal world. We were served a shot, some took several but I refrained, for the record.

Before - During - After

Before

I think the pics will describe better than I the process to get from ingredients to "Pansa Llena, Corazon Contento". I only had to mention the first two words of this universal phrase before "Mom" got a twinkle in her eye and finished the phrase.

There is a puela reserved for making salsa. Because of the acidity of the tomatoes and tomatillo, you might ruin other pans.
This one is a well seasoned cast iron skillet. Burner On! y Vamos
The tomatoes are specific for this salsa, called tomate riñon because they look like a kidney.
Garlic, tomatillo, hot peppers - no water added, just natural juices.

 I learned that for this, you leave the garlic skins on while the salsa is cooking so that they cook more slowly than if they were peeled.

Here are the bulk of the spices. You grind and grind and grind them in a Molcajete until they are
pulverized powder.

Molcajete is smaller and the hand held grinding stone is called the Tejolote. The Metates are the larger grinders.

And here it begins. 

During

Did I mention Mezcal

Salsa in progress

El Mero Jefe - Alfonso Lopez

How many hands in this pot? 

Frying Platanos - mostly to hold us over while we prepare the food

Salsa in progress - don't rush it, breath

On the upper left, the Red Mole. It will be reduced to 1/5th of this volume
The Memelas served with a male squash blossom on each one
The chicken with a bit of onion, water, and salt in the glass covered pot on the left
The Flan on a double boiler under the foil.

After - Time to Eat

Memelas dressed up with cheese and salsa
Chips/Totopos with Guacamole
"La Entrada" - A meal in itself

A cooked chicken thigh, recooked in the red Mole, with cheese sprinkled on top
Rice with Veggies
More Plantains and a sample of a darker red Mole, and a tortilla that we pressed and cooked
"Segunda"

Dessert/Postre

Flan coming out of the pan

It all starts with caramelizing sugar to hold the Flan

Our Flan

Presentation - a nice touch

Homemade Cacao "Ice Cream" and granola crumbles on top of the flan

La Gavilla - Our class

Natural Cacao Homemade Ice Cream

Ice Cream Tasting

The Flan is Served Show 

Team Effort

Happy People

Happy People from around the world

Lunch Is Served

So, how are you? How is life? Enjoying every moment? Happiness is a moveable feast!

Travel well, tomorrow is another Blog Page, you make it up as you go. Buen Camino.

Jan 25

It was Saturday morning and I didn't have much planned for the day. I went to the Oaxaca Lending Library mid-morning to join an Intercambio group. It is where people from the community and tourists go to meet people and practice their English and Spanish. My partner was a man named Urbano, a lawyer by profession, a musician by trade, and a Mixe (Mi Je) by race. When he spoke in his mother tongue, its sounded like the Taos Pueblo language (Tiwa/Tegua/ Tigua). Today was a Fiesta day in his home village of Tlahuitoltepec and after class he was going to take his family to his village about 1-1/2 hours away to join his elderly parents in the celebrations. After class I stopped for a snack to try a wet taco. There is a place called El Pipe that I go to for "Almuerzo" a few times a week for their Menu del Dia. Today the menu included two chicken tacos served in a bowl of chicken broth. 

Wet tacos, chicken broth, a sliced boiled egg and a slice of Avocado.
Cafe Americano con leche entera

Almost every cafe, restaurant, taqueria is a new place for me to try. On Saturday night I decided to try a place Urbano had recommended for supper called Tacos Alvaro. It was much less touristic and slightly off the beaten path and it had good food. I ordered a single Taco Al Pastor as well as a medium bowl of Posole Rojo con carne mixta. (pork and beef). Everything with cilantro and lime juice. Good enough and no complaints.

On my walk back home I ran into a group of indigenous dancers performing in a small park performing a traditional dance. Everything is a short walk or a walk or sometimes a long walk. I am not losing weight but walking is pleasant in this town. 

Jardin de Niños

Jan 26 - En donde no me emboco, me asomo 

( Where I don't enter, I at least take a peek - the life of a curious soul)

Sunday, I thought, was going to be a slow day, resting, reading, and taking it easy. Martha (Marta) the housekeeper stopped by on her way to work at the Hotel Boutique and asked about my plans for the day. She thought I looked bored ("te ves poco aburrido") she says. Her husband Miguel was working today and she called him up to see where he was and asked him if he would mind showing me what he does for a living. He is a truck driver, delivering domestic (non-potable) water to various places. We walked down the street to meet him and he was unloading his 3rd load of water for the day to a hotel. The don't have enough rain in this season and some places need to buy water from these Trocas de Pipa. When he finished emptying his tank into their cistern, I helped him roll up the delivery hoses, las pipas, and we drove up to their well several miles away to refill the tank for my second delivery. The next deliver was on the north side of town to a residence.

Well house in the background above la troca de pipa.

Gravity feeding the water into the tank, 11,000 Litros
10-11 minutes to fill.

The neighborhood where we loaded water

Delivery to a free standing house in a rural village called San Pablo de Etla, one of the areas where he had taken me to tour last Sunday.

After the residence drop to fill their cistern, we made one more refill and headed to a "subdivision" called Colonia La Reforma. This delivery was to a City Tax Office, a multistoried building where business and individuals come to pay their property and business taxes. I was impressed with his ability to back into tight alleyways to deliver water. In this place, only accessible on a Sunday because otherwise there is too much traffic.

Miguel dropped me off on his way home and I took a leisurely stroll back toward the Avenida Turistica. Looking up a side street I saw an old roman style wall built by some of the early Spaniards that came through here to build their churches. The wall is now called Los Arquitos  or Arquitos de Xochimilco and it runs most of a block in length, about 300-yards. The walls are about 5-6 feet thick. Originally it was part of an aqueduct taking water to the city center.

Once, while in a castle in a village south of Barcelona, I learned that arches can be passage ways but as often they can be a structural support to hold up a wall and you can sometimes see them filled in and they can hold a very heavy weight. Nope, not a patch for a closed off door or window but a vertical reinforcement brace. This wall has stood maybe 5-600 years, I would guess.

Word of the Day

In my reading last night I came upon another word used commonly at home that has an Arabic origin:

Ojala: Insha’llah,  or wa sha allah , or law sha allah, "If the lord wills it".

And another one:

Zanahoria: 'isfanāriyya "Carrot"

It reminds me of a travelers mantra: Look left and right, you might learn something that a horse with blinders may not see. Y, Ojala que no me trampe el Tren!

Another good day in the land of Siete (7) Moles. Buen Camino.