Monday, April 21, 2008

Volume I Episode IX









First and foremost, the Saints schedule for next year is out. Feel free to meet me in New Orleans for Saints-Niners (Sept 28), Saints-Vikings (Oct 6th-Monday night) or Saints-Raiders (October 12th) before they go on an epic road trip for a month and a half.

Ok, now that we have taken care of the business matters, back to the blogging. So, after the Sabor Festival, I pretty much hopped on the first bus I could possibly find out of town and headed to the beach. Los Troncones, to be exact where I met up with my cousins, Kimberly and Mike, and their daughter Kailani aka Kaiboo, their friends Stewart and Lauira as well as their kids Emma and Lucy and our friends Stowe and Caroline. They had rented a super sweet beach house, which according to the owners description was meant to look like an Italian villa, but looked more to me like a big old gringo beach house with some nice gardens, lots of hired help and a pool looking over the ocean. Anyway, you can be the judge, but we definitely enjoyed it and it was a perfect vacation spot for a bunch of kids (note to friends who are about to have kids.... Dont try to take vacations that involve culture and big cities and crazy exotic locales. Rent a house, on the beach preferably, with a pool, and let them run around and go crazy. It will be easier and more pleasant for you and much more fun for them. Trust me). There isnt much to do in Troncones other than surf, eat a lot, walk on the beach, swim and fish and or sail if you have the means. I stuck to the middle three plus a few magazines and very moderate attempts at bodysurfing which mostly left me looking like a beached whale.
Unfortunately, on the way home from Troncones, a not completely unpleasant 8 -12 hour bus ride, depending on how many layovers/transfers you have to make (I had 2) and how much really bad Jorge Negrete movies annoy you, I lost/had my wallet stolen. It wasnt totally clear because I passed out on the last bus (the old 1 am departure from Queretaro) and when I got in the cab in San Miguel, the old walleto was not in the bosillo. Anyway, as you can imagine that causes a little annoyance. Not exactly easy to get a new drivers license, ATM, insurance card etc when you are in Mexico where the mail service is less than 100% completely reliable, and the good old US of A is such a paranoid police state that nothing can be done without 23 types of certified, magnetized, government monitored and documented identification.
The rest of March was pretty quiet I guess. We did an almost complete menu change, changing all of our appetizers except the mixed green salad, all of our desserts and several of our entrees. It was about time....I had been peeing red for a month. We had a beet salad on our original menu which involved cutting roasted beets with a ring mold thus sacrificing a good part of the outside rings. These would then end up in our family meals pretty much every day. Beet salad- 22 ways, beet soups, beet liquados and even an occasional meat and beef goulash type a thing. Anyway, as many of you know who enjoy the glory of the reddest veg, it tends to make your peepee red (as Cynthia's dad told me).
Another highlight of the month involved helping out on a cooking demo with the great Diana Kennedy. For anyone who has been sleeping the last 50 years, she brought Mexican cooking out from the shadows and into the light. She came here in the 1950s with her husband and wrote the original Mexican cookbook...the Cuisines of Mexico, originally published the year I was born, 1972. She has traveled all over this country from the smallest hilltop villages, to the beach pueblos to the taquerias of Mexico City studying the cuisine, asking people for their recipes and assessing the ingredients, their history and their usages. And whatever ripe age she is up to today, she still spits hot fire. First thing she said to me, after I had been introduced to her as the writer of a local blog about the opening of the Restaurant (where she has already dined 3 or 4 times) is....I hate blogs. Some bloggers were in here yesterday taking my class. Sitting here typing every word I spoke. I dont give this away. Its not free. You wanna take my class, you gotta pay for it. Don't post what I say up on the internet. Im a writer and a teacher. If you give my words away for free, what do I have left. I can't just change careers at my age......Anyway, you get the point. She went on to give a great cooking demo. We made Flor de Calabaza (zucchini flower) Tamales, some sort of marble potato dish that I forget the name of and Chicken in Green Mole which I had to stir while it bubbled and spattered all over my jacket and which she told me I could not turn down. She was cool. She told us that all of the little red Mexican potatoes are dyed red (which I knew by the fact that they always leave pink water when they are washed), that the fresh cooked garbonzo beans that you buy in the market are often dyed green, and to watch out for packaged farmers cheese, its usually made with low grade milk and almost no fat. Anyway, it was a great learning experience and a great opportunity to meet an idol. Thanks to the people at Sazon (the host of the cooking demo), and particularly Kristin West, for giving me this chance.
Tod, a friend from Barcelona came to visit. He took a lot of pictures of the Botanical Gardens. He also spent a full day waiting for the gas guys to show up and they never did. Until Saturday morning, the day before Easter, when they both came at 7am (even though they had both been called for Thursday). Nice.
My uncle Mike and Larry came to visit from New Orleans. They stayed at a really sweet B&B called Sussuro that I highly recommend to anyone coming to San Miguel. For some reason it reminded me of the French Quarter in New Orleans with its hidden back yard and lots of cool decorative ironwork. Place was dope and the breakfasts were bad ass. I had some poblano chilis stuffed with eggs that were professional restaurant tight and delicious.
Berwin's visit was pretty well documented. Great visit to the Pulque ranch, and good to know that even an observant Kosher maniac, can survive and even enjoy 36 hours in San Miguel (let alone crash a wedding).
Dude is still missing. If anyone sees a hyper miniature German Shephard with the cutest face around, grab him and bring him into the Restaurant. Free meal on the house.

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