Mexico was good
times. It's a good thing I decided to spend a full week in Mexico city (at it
turned out 6 full days and two halves), as I really needed all that time to see
all of the things I wanted to (even after having covered the pyramids on an
earlier trip). The city really is enormous, and there are plenty of things
worth visiting. There's plenty of stuff to see related to the pre-Columbian
history, at least a dozen different art museums of note, and much other art
en-situ (because murals are so big in Mexican art), and tons of great
architecture and charming colonial buildings with noticeable tilts created over
centuries as they sink into the swampy soil. I think the best architecture of
all was in some of the high-walled, pimped-out houses I saw in San Angel, which
I'm sure I'd never be able to afford.
However, as is
usually the case, the markets were probably the most interesting thing for me.
My very first day I went to the sprawling Merced Market, the biggest in the
city. Got myself a bowl of caldo de gallina (laying hen? soup) and a quesadilla
with cheese and squash blossoms. I think it was the squash blossoms that left
my shitting my guts out for the next three mornings. It's just as well, I
guess, as it was going to happen sooner or later, so might as well get it out
of the way immediately. I should have known I was in trouble when I realized
that she wasn't putting a layer of plastic on top of the reusable plates as is
common, and saw here just wiping them off with a damp rag between customers.
While the Merced was
the monster, the Mercado San Juan was definitely my favorite. This is
a higher-end market where many of the city's top restaurants procure goods. And
while is had lots of high-end product like fancy olive oils and very expensive
exotic mushrooms like morels and chanterelles, it was still awfully grungy.
You'd see four foot high pallets of dead rabbits being carted around, heads,
fur, and all, and then see them one-by-one thrown up on a hook to hang while
the butcher cleans them and breaks them down. There was a whole deer handing
upside down, neck and head sprawled out on the dirty floor because it was too
tall. There were also plenty of chaupulines (crickets), huge ants that I
actually at first thought were dried bees or wasps because they were so big,
and eggs, and maguey worms, with some pre-prepared tapenades for tostadas, if
that's your thing:
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One interesting
thing that I hadn't seen before is that the huge piles of dead and cleaned
animals had had their edible organs left in place. Many of the pigs, rabbits,
and goats would have their liver, kidneys, and another yummy bit or two just
dangling out of them while laying in a pile.
The runner-up in
interesting markets in the city was the Xochimilco market. Seemed pretty
standard, but it had a few things I hadn't seen before: cows' pancreas and
lungs, as well as fresh shark, often dangling from the hook in a fishmongers
stall, and huge, 2x4 foot pieces of deep fried chicharron. I also got some good
lamb barbacoa tacos and an amazing elote tamale while there. 2nd runner up was
Mercado Jamaica, which is the city's main distribution point for flowers. With
the day of the dead that week, is was interesting to see huge truckloads full
of carnations emptying out in the parking lot.
Taxco was very
charming and beautiful. And old silver mining town, it’s incredibly hilly and
has lots of atmospheric back alleys to explore. It's definitely a busy place,
though, with swarms of people in the old town and tons of the small combi buses
and old white Volkswagen beetle taxis with front passenger side seat ripped out
constantly zipping all over town.
There's a huge cave
nearby that I visited on the afternoon while there. I think it tops the one
from Slovenia as the most impressive I've seen, and makes a nice two-hour
stroll. You have to go on a guided tour, during which the guide is constantly
pointing out things that the different rock formations look like. He kind of
damaged his credibility up front when he pointed out a 15 foot tall stalagmite
and described it as an "asparagus". I wonder if there weren't kids on
the tour if he would have called it like it is and stated the obvious, that it
was a giant, erect penis.
Cuernavaca was also
interesting, although the city itself doesn't have the charm of Taxco, I really
enjoyed myself there. While walking home from dinner, I passed by a bar that
looked pretty lively, so I decided to stop in. Within 20 minutes I was chatting
it up with the locals. After another hour the karaoke machine came out. And
thus it went.
I similarly had some
good fortune making friends in Pátzcuaro. I met a couple guys in a bar that
invited me to join them and their crew of about 15 or so people (14 dudes and
one woman, an arrangement of architects, physicians, international businessmen,
and other fancy-pants types from Guadalajara in town for the festivities that
weekend) to watch the concert in the main square. Afterwards there were many
mezcals.
The other highlight
of Pátzcuaro was the noche de los muertos activities. Photos here: XXXXXX
The honor role of
food items eaten on this trip include:
-Absolutely
anything I put in my mouth in the ostionería I found in Mercado Medellín
-mojarra
al mojo de ajo (deep fried fish with garlic sauce)
-aguachiles
(a kind of very spice, soupy ceviche)
-cocteles
de mariscos (seafood cocktails)
-pulpo
diabla (deviled octopus)
-the
mind-numingly good black mole with chicken I picked up to go from a dumpy
little fonda and ate in
the bus station on
the way to Taxco
-tripe
tacos
-the
bright orange, grilled marinated chicken in Tsintsuntsan
-the
birria de borrego (mutton stew) and tortas (sandwiches) in the market in
Pátzcuaro
-corundas
(a Miometchoacana regional variation on a tamale cooked in a banana leaf) from
the main square in Pátzcuaro
-atole
(another Michoacan thing, a soupy, sweet, corn-based drink)
-chiles
en nogada (something I actually got in a real restaurant)
-tamal
de elote (sweetened corn tamale) from the Mercado Xochimilco
-tostadas
in Mercado Coyoacan
-steamed
borrego (mutton) barbacoa at the market in Taxco, as well as the roasted
version I got in Mercado Xochimilco
Hands-down winner,
though, was the deep fried fish from the Ostionería la Morenita in Mercado
Medellín in Mexico city. So much so that I went there two days in a row at the
end of my trip, and stuffed myself silly both times. I don't know why we can't
get Mexican seafood like this in Chicago. Well, Rick Bayless does almost
equally good seafood at Xoco, but I don't know why are mom-and-pops lag so far
behind what is available in Mexico. I think on a future trip I'm going to need
to find the owner of one of these places and join them as a business partner to
open up a Chicago location. I think we'd be printing money.
