Hey y'all....... from the Wandering Berkmans!
Coming to you from rainy Atlanta for a 2 week stopover before we head back to Spain. Neither of us have ever spent a significant amount of time in Atlanta and we were curious. We have to say the weather hasn't been helping us get out and about so our experiences have been few so far (how we miss the guaranteed sunny days of Mexico City!). More on Atlanta next time.
Our last month in Mexico City was filled with great visits from family and friends. Dear friend Page of "wedding crashed" fame (see this post from 2019) made the trek to see us and explore CDMX for her first time. Then she stayed at our place on her own while Don and I headed stateside to visit family. We were proud of Page- she took on this new city like a trouper, went on tours and met new people along the way. And even ate chapulines (grasshoppers)-- but that's her daring story to tell.
Below, Page and Juan cut a rug while the traveling mariachis serenaded us. Juan later insisted that I take a picture of him with his wonderful dance partner.
The meeting of the family! Zach joins us for a delicious Korean lunch with his "Aunt Page" and later to scout out where to buy some tasty kimchi for home.
¡Hasta la proxima visita, Page!
Leaving Page to take on the city, Don and I headed out separately to visit our families. Don and his mom Pat toured Tucson for her customary birthday celebration there, seeing shows, taking in international cuisine and overall being pampered by Don-- what's not to like??
Happy bday, Patsy Tran!
Meanwhile, I braved the winter to visit my family in Wisconsin and Ohio. They all kindly provided me with appropriate winter clothing (which I no longer own!) and were great hosts. It was a week of terrific times, sharing family stories, connecting, and making a meal around the powdered mole I smuggled in from Mexico shhhhhh. And singing along to the soundtrack of Heathers (you know who you are.)
The Wisconsin Crew (camera shy--- Ohio Crew)
Back to Mexico City just in time to meet up with our niece Cecelia and her friend Cassandra, visiting for the week from New York state. Add along their friends staying in the city for a year on sabbatical and we had a special afternoon outside of Parque Mexico that started with a serenade by some talented strolling minstrels, sampling carajillo (a tasty spin on espresso), and dissecting NYC politics.
A mezcal tasting event brought us to the community space and gardens that make up Huerto Roma Verde. What better venue to meet up with Betzi and David, family of our good friends Carle and Andy of Spoleto fame (featured in this post). While David and I sampled (how can this mezcal taste like vanilla??), we all were fascinated by this creative and environmentally-sound space. We will definitely be checking out the event calendar for upcoming visits (did we mention we already rebooked our Airbnb for next November-January? ¡Feliz Navidad!)
Casa Frida is a wonderful organization that offers refuge and services for LGBTQ+ people (usually teenagers) who don't feel safe or welcome in their homes. After volunteering with them last year, we wanted to visit again with a generous nail polish donation from Seattle-based Ne1. The most popular colors with our group-- black and green, with the hope that a sparkly color is upcoming on the Ne1 production line.
It was a first time visit to Mexico City for Don's brother Budd and his partner Kris and we're happy to report-- they were smitten! The parks! The trees! The pyramids! The veg tacos! The always awe-inspiring experience that is choosing bread and pastries, armed with pinchers and tray, at Lecaroz in Coyoacan!
Zach served as local guide for our visit to the pyramid site of Xochicalco (from AD 700!). About an hour and a half outside the city by car, it's one of the few sites where you can still climb some of the pyramids. Don-- "It amazes me that someone carved this stone over a thousand years ago!"
These are the hoops used in the Mayan "no hands, no feet" game of Pok-ta-pok. There were 4 different ball fields on this site-- beats the Met Life Stadium!
A must for our veg family members-- a visit to the Meso-American restaurant El Cuatecomate in nearby Tepotzlan. What a taste sensation! Most of the menu only uses ingredients available in Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish in the 1400's, like amaranth, quinoa, cactus and sesame seeds. The combination of flavors in the patties they make and the sauces available blew our minds. Spanish speakers---make sure to check out this portion of the menu. Non-spanish speakers--- it's worth the 30 minutes on Google translate!
And for dessert- a fritter of yucca, pear, apple and coconut with a berry sauce we finished off with a spoon. The fritter on the bottom was a delicious medley of banana, berries, sesame seeds and amaranth. They made us forget about chocolate for a couple of minutes.
And it wouldn't be a get together with Budd and Don if they didn't play some ball, this time sweeter as they took on some local kids just getting out of school. The battered Berkman Boys would come out of it later saying the 8 year olds had home-field advantage.
And finally, Kris couldn't bid "hasta luego" to CDMX without sampling chapulines, the infamous cooked and seasoned grasshopper. With hours to go before her flight, we hit the local open market and she took it on.... with success! (as you can tell by the look on her face). Will Kris now be sprinkling them on her morning yogurt? Who's to say? No judgement here-- we'll all be eating bugs in the future.
Thanks for a great visit, Kris and Budd-- until next year!
Not all of our eating was bug-based. More culinary delicousness included---
A little more drenched in mole than I would have liked but still tasty enchiladas. But this! Mole on grilled nopal (cactus)-- yes!
And just in case you thought mole is a "one hit wonder", here are but a few of the possible mole iterations one could find at our local market. You could spend 2 weeks in Mexico trying a new mole each day! (Goals....)
Don is always on the search for lactose-free deserts, the poor thing, and water-based frozen treats are his go-to but the choices can be limited. Until this! The ripe black zapote fruit frozen puree looks so much like dark chocolate that amazingly, it kinda even tastes like dark chocolate! Cue "the snozberries taste like snozberries!"
The tlayuda shown here (left) was a tasty plate of bean, cheese and cactus goodness on a thin, crunchy blue corn base. On the right, choose your salsa! The habanero was shown the most love in our group but the tomatillo was a worthy second.
Our flight on Thursday has us heading into Sevilla for two months, with a couple of visits to Madrid for ongoing dental work (Oh, Invisalign, you fickle beast). We're excited to continue our "friends and family" visits, with Navaz/Sam and Carle/Andy joining in on our adventures.
Until then, here's one more SOL (slice of life) from our CDMX visit. The scene-- I see Don and Budd half hanging out the window of our apartment, calling down to someone and attempting to throw bills out the window. Just another day with those two until I notice the recipient of this scene-- the talented musician serenading via trumpet from the street below. The Brothers Berkman weren't the only ones charmed by his melodies, as seen in this video.
Be well and thanks for following along!
Don and Monica
You guys were BUSY! Not surprising that you had a cast of thousands wanting to enjoy Mexico the Berkman Way (TM).
ReplyDeleteWow! Good on ya for trying and surviving a full day without eating some sentient being-- okay, maybe we'll work on eating grasshoppers, but for now, well done!
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