Pozole on dia de la Independencia

Back in 2008 I did a restaurant review of Las Cazuelas de Atocpan.

It was then, and still is a fabulous restaurant. They are only open in the evenings, typically opening between 7:30 and 8pm.

 

 

They have a fabulous variety of foods, although my favorite is the jalisco style pozole.

 

 

Every year, on 15 September they open for a Special lunch service. And every year we have gone, well for the last 3 years. With this year being #4. And we always get the pozole, and we always go with friends Lida y Diana.

I have made pozole before, jalisco(ala gringa) style.

 

 

You may be wondering what that means -

well jalisco style pozole is typically made with a pigs head.

 

 

click here to go to Mexico Cooks blog on making Tradional Jalisco Pozole.

 

 

Which explains why in all the small markets there are/well were pigs heads. guacala.

 

 

Not for me! I just use pork shoulder.

 

 

What I really love about dona Glorias pozole is it is not covered with a layer of rendered fat, AND you can get your bowl meciza (this is most likely spelled wrong), which means meat only, no fat.

 

 

Here is our pozole table!

condiments

OMG, Yummy!

always fun!

One thing different at dona Glorias for dia de la Independencia,- Normally restaurant service is in the front, open air, facing the street.  But on 15 September the front is set up for the take out service and  they open this air conditioned back room for eat in service. 

 

 

 

One other bit of info - they have several rooms full of ceramics for sale; some sculpture type stuff, the barro table ware like they serve on, beautiful blue and white ceramic ware, odd colorful chatchki things.  Some really cool stuff!

 

 

There are a number of very tradional foods for dia de la Indepencia, Pozole being one, Chiles en Nogada being another, and anything mole.

Oh but I do love this annual tradition, lunch at dona glorias with Lida y Diana!

 

 

for a map click here

Stuff with Lida and Diana

I post with some infrequency about some of the things we do with friends Lida and Diana.

This past Wednesday was Lida's 3rd 29th birthday.

So I made a special lunch and had them over;

they also brought with them their friend Vanessa who owns a ScrapBook Crafts Store here in Merida. Scrapbooking and Crafting are passions for Lida and Diana, as are their rescue pets. You can read a great story about their rescue pets at yucatanliving.com.  And you can check out their own blog about the animals here.

So, back to my story - There is a big crafts fair at the convention center this weekend; Lida and Diana are working there at Vanessa's booth for her store ScrapBook It. We went to see them on Friday morning. L y D also have a corner of their cat and dog theme crafts available for sale to help them with the expenses of all their beloved beasties. Of course I picked up a few things.

We strolled around a bit and then on our way out we noticed another fair in another of the big salas and stepped in. There were items from states all over Mexico. I was drawn to a display of absolutely gorgeous tropical birds.

And just couldn't help myself - I now have 2 pairs of Zebra Finches.  

We have a large cage that we used in a display on the patio; it is now being made bird ready so for a day they will need to live in this little jaulita, which by the way resides in the trunk of the car, because you just never know when you might need to transport a bird or 2 or 4.

While living in Colorado I always had finches and canaries.  Tom would build me fabulous flight cages and I would breed and sell the birds.   I see a new project for Tom in the very near future.   I already have a few ideas for small flight cages; 

What do you think of this?  I could be sure it is wide enough to wheel inside in case of storm/tormento/huricane...

Angélica Balado

Once again the cultural activities here are amazing. We went to an orchestral event a few nights ago, gratis of course. As part of the distributed program was a flyer for a concert to be given by Angélica Balado to be held at the Teatro Peon Contreras. We absolutely love the music of Angélica and percussionist partner Melina Ruz. These two perform regularly at Amaro (a local downtown restaurant), and frequently as part of the lineup of musicians performing on street stages during the regular Saturday nights activities. Angélica and Melina have also performed at a number of other venues around town and we always try to go.

Angélica is a contemporary 'Trova' style singer/songwriter with a beautiful smoky voice; she plays guitar, sings, and is most often accompanied by the percussions and voice of Melina.

Last nights performance was sponsored by Instituto de Cultura de Yucatán. It was an acknowledgement and recognition of Angélica's 30 years in the music field here in Merída. The performance was indeed a treat as Angélica was backed up by a band of eight talented musicians one of whom was of course Melina Ruz. There was also a brief photo homenaje of Angélica's musical career which was very enjoyable.

The repertoire this evening was of new works by Angélica that haven't been widely heard yet. And they were great. There was also one costume change.

At the end of the evening Angélica was presented a plaque recognizing her 30 years in the local musical community, and unfortunately my spanish isn't what it should be, and my knowledge of local dignitaries also is severely lacking so I don't know who the 'guy' was that made the presentation. He was however recognized by the crowd who were pleased and enthusiastic at his entry to the stage. A number of flower offerings were also presented, and then we had a lovely encore (otra) performance.

Another bonus to the evening - we didn't realize you could get tickets before hand, so showed up at the box office 30 minutes before the doors open. The ticket agent and I were making our way through the seating chart, starting of course at stage level and moving ever higher; we were at the 3rd level when a man walked up and sort of pushed past me to reach a hand under the window partition to hand the woman 5 tickets that had been returned. We got 2 of these tickets at sat Row 3, stage front. WOO HOO! We could look Angélica in the eye, and she saw us as well. Also in attendance were friends Lida and Diana who were able to join us in Row 3 after the performance started.

Cultural Note Here! It is not uncommon here to say Yes to an invitation and then not show up. This is true for events at theaters like this and equally as common for invitations given and accepted for activities at your home. There is a lot of speculation about this phenomena but no clear consensus on the why's! Therefore, even though the seating chart indicated ALL the seats were taken when I was at the box office, the theater had plenty of open seats once the performance started

If you GOOGLE, or Search the internet for Angelica Balado you will get lots of 'hits', some of them are even vids of performances on YouTube. I could stick one in here, but which one - so if you want to see/here Angélica you can do it for yourself.

Should I list the band members that performed? Sure, Why Not!
Victor Lopez (Bateria)
Jorge Julian Gomez (Teclados)
Pepe Rivera (Bajo Electrico)
Melina Ruz (Percisiones y coros)
Jonathon Rojas (Guitarras y Direccion Musical)
Roman (Piano)
Lenny Sanchez y Victor Martinez (coros)

Road Trip to Becal Campeche

We decided to go to Becal in the state of Campeche today.

Who cares that Tropical Storm Arthur (Arturo) is also expected there. We checked with the National Hurricane Center for the storm forecast, and felt safe we wouldn't be in harms way.

So we took off this morning at 7:30, yes AM, to pick up Lida y Diana. First order of business was to get to Uman for breakfast. Uman has a GREAT market. It is really clean and full of beautiful produce, flowers, dead animal stuff; you know chicken, pork, beef, etc. They also have lots of household stuff for sale, and great food stalls. We had an assortment of salbutes and tacos, as well as agua frescas. YUM YUM!

Once sated and after a quick stroll, we were off to Becal.

Becal is just across the state border between Yucatan and Campeche.
Becal is famous for its jipijapa hats; aka Panama Hats. The artisans work in caves/cuevas, because of the humidity which keeps the palm fibers moist and supple.
We found an artisan don Baldonado (I can't remember exactly what his name is). He was a very pleasant, soft spoken fellow,
and gave us a demonstration of his weaving skills. Unfortunately Tom's head is a tad bigger than he seems to have anticipated in a potential purchaser and none of the hats could accomodate Tom's gargantuan noggin! I can't complain cuz you know what they say about the size of a man's head; oh wait that's feet, the size of a man's feet - Never Mind!

Well we checked out a few artesanal exhibitions (stores), and then headed over to Holochó, back in Yucatan, where they were having a street fair. We were hoping to find hand crafted baskets here, but alas not a basket was found. We did have a good wander around, and gave most of the locals something interesting to see and talk about for later. Gringos are not typical at their local Sunday markets I guess.

Once we had seen what we came to see and it was time to blaze a trail we decided to head back to Merida.

We were all getting hungry again by this time and decided to head to Tommy's Cockteleria for lunch. Tommy's does great seafood without having to go to the shore.

sidenote for Merida locals - Tommy's has 2 or 3 locations, but the one we've been to is in Fracc Chenku, calle 11 x46y48.

We had a great day, visited fun new places, with good friends, and enjoyed yummy seafood.

missing L y D

Friend Lida, who is a wild and crazy crafty type gal did a post on how she goes about making a craft project. The project in her post is about friends, and Tom and I are featured on the front of the project. You can see her blog here

I feel guilty, and sad because we seem to see them (Lida and SO) less and less. It's not that we want it that way, but they work and are busy, and have lots of obligations, and I am un poquito flojo (a little lazy), and don't call them often enough to arrange play dates. Maybe it's other stuff...

Maybe that will change - maybe I'll just pick up the phone right, now, maybe I'll finish this post first, then maybe I'll get some breakfast cause I'm really hungry, ... See that's what happens, then the next thing you know it's tomorrow and I think to myself, 'Oh NO! I meant to call L y D yesterday, well I'll do it later, after I know they are at work, but shhhhh, don't tell the boss!

sidenote to L y D - we love you guys, we miss you guys, we think of you ALOT! I'll call - soon - I promise - I will, really, right after I feed the cat...

Restaurant Review - Las Cazuelas, Merida

Friend Theresa has a cooking blog, maybe I should start a restaurant review blog; we seem to be eating out a lot lately. Probably because we are out and about a lot lately, but still...

Anyway, we've mentioned Las Cazuelas to a number of people in the past two years. We've been there quite a few times, always on a Friday or Saturday night when they offer Jalisco style pozole. We were there again last night, which is why today you get to read all about it!
We've tried pozole at other places and really feel like dona Gloria's is the the best. dona Gloria is the owner, and chief cook. Las Cazuelas is clean, tidy,

and everything is always fresh, at least when we've been there.
We go most often with friends Lida y Diana; Diana, Tom, and I always get the pozole, Lida switches up and orders a variety of different things.Las Cazuelas is located in Residential Pensiones, at the corner of calles 7 y 68. Friday and Saturday night they offer the jalisco style pozole, They typically open between 7 and 7:30PM.

which is what we go for; ask for pozole con mescisa (only white meat), or else you get chunks of fat and skin which is preferred by many, but not us.

In addition to the standard compliment of condiments the pozole is served with tostada chips, hard crunchy. If you want tortillas ask for tortillas de masa, these are fresh made on site, in fact right before your eyes. If you ask for tortillas de harina they come from a plastic bag. And sometimes, not always you get a bowl cebollas cambray asado (grilled small onions), so yummy!

Tetanus and Immigration

So back in November while enjoying the Fair at Xmatkuil with friends Lida y Diana we came across a City Government (Ayunamiento)expo, among other things, they were offering, free of charge, vaccinations for Tetanus. We took advantage of this offer. After we received our vaccination we found out that we needed a second injection, in two months.

Well today was the day. We made plans to go with Lida y Diana to IMSS which is a local medical facility for our second Tetanus injection, then to reward ourselves for good preventative health care we would go for sushi.


Also, back on January 7 we took in all our paperwork to renew our FM3's which are the documents that allow us to live in Mexico. We had all our paperwork in order and it was all accepted and we were told to return in 5 business days. We returned in about 7 business days; unfortunately the official that needed to sign all the documents was away in Mexico City We were at lkeast given the paperwork to be able to go to the bank and make our payments. Here, a nnumber of businesses don't accept direct payment for services; You take a paper with the account info to the bank, make the payment, then return with your receipt. Done deal. Well once we recived our account info we went to the bank and were told to return the next Monday, which was this past Monday. So we decided to return today. We signed in, got our number, waited about 7 minutes, got our FM3's, checked em over and were out in less than 30 minutes. Now we're legal for another year. We have always had tremendous good luck with our Immigration experiences. We hear stories from people about how horrible it is, the wait, they can't speak english, unorganized... Well I think it has a lot to do with attitude and outlook. We don't wait till the last minute, or go in with a hurry up and get it done attitude, and I have enough Spanish for them to at least realize I am making an effort, AND we don't get an attitude when things don't go our way. We save all that for after we get home then we drink ourselves stupid, and have a big cry! Just kidding, I'm checking to see if you are really reading this stuff!