Mexican Food

Thus far with respect to Mexico City, I’ve written primarily about the places I went and the things that I saw. In this entry, I think I want to talk about food and some other passing thoughts regarding Mexico City.

As I write this, I have been in Mexico for a week. Thus far, I can say with pride that I haven’t eaten anything but Mexican food. I almost broke down today and grabbed a hamburger because I was extremely hungover and needed some greasy comfort food, but instead I grabbed an omlette with chorizo and refried beans. I’m getting ahead of myself, though.

I heard a lot of talk before I came here about how authentic Mexican food was very different from the Tex-Mex stuff that I get in the United States. I have to say that I have found that to be very true. There are not very many of the ground beef and cheddar dishes that are common at Taco Bell here in Mexico that I’ve seen. I have had a lot of tacos here in Mexico City. Some look similar to what I’m used to, meat and toppings in a folded-over corn tortilla. (I’ve seen a thousand tortillas in Mexico thus far and I don’t think I’ve seen a flour one – all corn. The smell of frying corn tortillas is everywhere in Mexico City.) Other tacos have been wrapped up like a mini-burrito but with the same fillings as the others.

My favorite tacos so far have been Tacos de Arranchera, which is tacos with flank steak. The meat has been marinated and the typical toppings provided have been pico de gallo and onions as well as a white cheese that I don’t find too flavorful, but the cheese flavor isn’t necessary with all of the other flavors going on in the food.

I also tried mole, I believe for the first time. Mole is probably the most famous of the Mexican dishes and there are several varieties that are found all over the country. The primary ingredients are chiles and chocolate, but it’s not necessarily either very spicy or sweet. The most famous is Mole Poblano, which is mole from Puebla, but I’ll write about that when I get to the Puebla entries. In Mexico City, I tried enchiladas with mole negro. This was my first experience with mole and I found that the mole that I tried was a little sweeter than I liked. Specifically, the chocolate flavor was a little too obvious.

I tried a few other Mexican dishes as well. I must admit, though, that the majority of the meals that I had in Mexico City were pretty generic because of where I ate them. In Mexico City, there are two restaurant chains that are on almost every corner – VIPS and Sanborn’s. I ate at VIPS twice in Mexico City and Sanborn’s once. These chain restaurants are sort of Mexican versions of Denny’s and Chili’s. They are a step above the fast food joints but not places in which you would expect to find fine cuisine, either. I ate at these places while I was travelling alone, figuring that I would have better meals when somebody with some local experience directed me towards more authentic cuisine. Even after that happened, though, I have to say that nothing I ate in Mexico City blew me away. I still expect that to happen, though, before I leave Mexico and enter Belize.

Depending on who you ask, Mexico City is either the largest or second-largest city in the world and the largest city that I’ve ever visited. That becomes obvious when I look at all of the places that I visited and the things that I saw in and around the city and realize that I saw only a very small fraction of the city. In the north, there is much poverty and I know there are some dangerous parts of the city. I didn’t see any of that. I think that five days in Mexico City probably were enough for me, but I’d definitely recommend paying it a visit. Now, it’s on to Puebla.

Mexico City - Finally to Teotihuacan

On Saturday, I met the group with which I would be travelling through Mexico. I could tell right off that this could be a fun group. It consists of people from several countries around the world and varies widely in age. As I write this, I’ve witnessed everybody drink at least a little bit after only two days, so I have high hopes. On our final day in Mexico City, we did a lot of sightseeing so I think I’ll just talk about that in this entry.

We hopped on a bus early in the morning with a local guide to visit the Basilica de Guadalupe. I’ve read that this is the holiest religious site in North America and it houses the shroud of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I won’t go into the whole story about the Mexican man who became a saint in 2002 (I think) but one of the miracles involved in his story (I believe from the 16^th century) involves the Virgin Mary casting her likeness onto a shroud that is displayed in the Basilica de Guadalupe. There also are several statues and posters of Pope John Paul II, who visited the Basilica in 2002.

Since it was Sunday when we visited, mass was being held at the site. There actually are two churches at the site, the original one which Mary requested to be built in the 16^th century and a more recent one which I believe dates back to the 1970s. I’m not really one who goes in for all of the religious history or mythology, depending on your views, but witnessing people to react to something that is supremely important to them is always a very humbling experience.

Later in the day, we went to Teotihuacan, which is outside of Mexico City, about an hour drive to the north. Teotihuacan is best known as the site of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. I found these to be much more interesting than the pyramids in Egypt that I visited around this time last year. One reason for this likely is that you are permitted to climb the Pyramid of the Sun, which we did. On a difficulty level, with ten being walking along the towers of the Great Wall of China, I’d place this around a six. It was a little steep, but not too bad. The lower part was probably more difficult than the higher part, but I made it to the top in about fifteen minutes and took some photos of the Teotihuacan site from there.

From the Pyramid of the Sun, we went to the Pyramid of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Moon is smaller than the Sun, but also impressive. Having climbed to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, I didn’t feel the need to prove myself by climbing the Pyramid of the Moon, and you’re not allowed to climb to the top anyway, so I just stood at the base and marveled at the structure from there.

Finally, at night, we went back (for me) to Plaza Garibaldi-Mariachi in order to get some dinner and listen to mariachi music. The whole atmosphere was pretty mild, I suppose because it was a Sunday night, and the food was good enough. It’s one of those things that you have to do in Mexico City when you’re here, but I can’t say that it’s necessarily my cup of tea.

That’s pretty much it for what I did in Mexico City. I think I’ll have another entry about the food and some passing thoughts before moving on to writing about Puebla.

Still Running Around The Same Barrio In Mexico City

After sightseeing in the morning of my first day in Mexico City, I went to get something to eat. As I normally do, I have been going to get something to eat quite frequently. I think I’ll talk about food in another entry, though, so I’ll skip past that for now.

The rest of my first day wasn’t particularly exciting. On Saturday, I transfer to another hotel and meet people with whom I will be travelling. Since I was anticipating a hike across town, dragging eight weeks worth of baggage with me, I decided to locate my destination early. I looked it up on Google Maps and as fate would have it, my new hotel is only about 3/8 of a mile away from my current hotel. ¡Que suerte! Later on, I got some food, but again, I’ll talk about that later.

Upon doing a little research, I found that there were still plenty of sightseeing opportunities in my general vicinity. I wanted to take a few photos of Torre Latinamericano, a famous skyscraper in Mexico City, so I went back out into the neighborhood in which I was the previous day. On my way there, however, my eyes were caught by some older structures on Avenida Hidalgo, so I went in that direction and took some photos. Once I walked a little further, I realized that I had gotten close to Plaza Garibaldi-Mariachi, a famous square that is full of mariachi groups on weekend evenings. Even though this was a Friday morning, I decided to head over to the Plaza just in case I didn’t get another chance. I saw a lot of mariachi performers sitting around with their instruments, but as I expected, nothing much was going on.

I turned around and headed back towards Torre Latinamericano. On my way, just before I got to the Palacio de Bellas Artes that I wrote about in an earlier post, I found a pedestrian street with lots of stores and street vendors and I felt the need to check it out. It wasn’t as bustling as, say, Avenida Florida in Buenos Aires, but again, this was a Friday morning, so I wasn’t expecting it to be going full blast. I walked down about five or six blocks and I saw that the street let out at the Plaza de la Constitución. How did I miss this the previous day? I must have walked right by it. No problem, though. I walked back down the pedestrian street and I was able to get my photos of Torre Latinamerico from there.

I returned towards my hotel down the Paseo de la Reforma but when I got to the street on which my hotel was located, I kept going. I had discovered that further down the Paseo de la Reforma was one of the main icons of Mexico City, the Angel de la Independencia, or “El Angel.” It was only about a fifteen-minute walk from where I had eaten dinner the night before, but at that time I hadn’t realized that I was so close. By the time I got to it, I was hungry so I stopped and had my first (though far from my last) tacos in Mexico. At El Angel, I took some photos, but because of the strength of the sun right overhead, the pictures are a little dark. I hope to return at night and take some better photos when it is lit up.

Okay, that’s it for now. As I write this, it’s Saturday and I’m getting ready to check out of one hotel and walk to another. Then, some more sightseeing this afternoon before meeting people at the new hotel this evening. I’ll be back.

Seeing The Sights In Mexico City

On my first morning in Mexico City, I started out by consulting an online Mexico City tourist map to try and determine where my hotel was located in relation to the bigger tourist attractions in Mexico City. It turned out I was pretty darn close.

I could see the Paseo de la Reforma from my hotel room window. The Paseo de la Reforma is pretty famous in its own right but, more importantly for me, it links to many of the attractions that I wanted to see. During my first walk down the Paseo de la Reforma, however, I was on a quest. I needed some coffee. Fortunately, there are as many Starbucks in Mexico City as there are in Washington, D.C. At the point where the Paseo de la Reforma meets Avenida Juarez, I stopped at a Starbucks for some coffee and to leer at the architecture in the neighborhood. I have to say that I am really impressed with the architecture in this city.

I knew that if I turned right onto Avenida Juarez, I would eventually end up at the Plaza de la Constitución or Zócalo. Even though that was my primary goal of the morning, I saw a structure down the left side down Avenida Juarez and I went in that direction instead. The structure that I saw turned out to be the Museo de la Revelución. I didn’t go in, thinking that I may get back to it later but there were other things that I wanted to see. Nevertheless, I found the building in which it was housed to be fascinating.

After strolling around for a while and taking some photos, I turned around and headed towards the Zócalo, knowing full well that there would be other things to see on the way. Not too long after re-crossing the Paseo de la Reforma and heading down Avenida Juarez, I came across a little park. I don’t know the name of it, but there were numerous little statues throughout the park and several vendors selling touristic goods. (When I walked back through the park in the afternoon, the number of vendors had quadrupled.) As I walked through the park, I discovered even more interesting architecture and statues. It was a great place to sit and rest for fifteen minutes before heading on down the Avenida.

A little beyond the park is the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), which is yet another example of the brilliant architecture in this part of the city. I took some photos of the façade, but I don’t know if there’s enough room in this entry to post all of the photos that I’d like to add. Make sure to check out my Mexico City photo update on Facebook whenever I get around to updating it.

Eventually, I made my way down to the Zócalo. The Zócalo is one of the largest public squares in the world. It was pretty deserted while I was there, so I kind of felt like I was walking around in a large, empty parking lot. The Zócalo is bounded by La Catedral (Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary), the oldest and largest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere, and the Palacio Nacional, the executive seat of power in Mexico. The entire areas brought back memories of Tiananmen Square, even though I was in Tiananmen Square on National Day so there were about a million less people in the Zócalo while I was there.

Adding to the majesty of the experience was the fact that the weather was absolutely perfect. The temperature was in the mid-70s and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I have no idea how this will compare to the rest of my trip in Mexico City, but I am really enjoying the start.

On The Road To Mexico City

It’s been a few months, but I guess it’s about time to get this going again. I’m on the road, so I might as well get back into the swing. (By the way this first entry is about the flight to Mexico City and there are no accompanying photos. I’ll put up some random Mexico City photos to make up for it.)

This trip started just like all of the others – by getting on a plane. I was flying from Raleigh to Orlando to Mexico City. While I was waiting for my flight in Raleigh, we had a little bit of excitement – or I guess it was silence, the opposite of excitement. There was a ceremony outside in which the body of a soldier killed in Afghanistan was presented to the soldier’s brother for the funeral. It drew quite a crowd over to the windows and the entire terminal was silent in his honor. Otherwise, the trip to Orlando was rather routine.

In Orlando, I couldn’t find my flight on the Delta screens even though my flight had a Delta flight number. I looked for a while and then went to get some help. Delta Dude acknowledged that my flight did indeed have a Delta flight number, but he told me that it wasn’t a Delta flight. He told me that it likely was an Aero Mexico flight and that I should check out the Aero Mexico gates. Since Aero Mexico just has the one gate, it shouldn’t have been too difficult to figure out. I got to the Aero Mexico gate and my flight was posted on the board. At least, I assumed it was my flight since it had the same departure time, same departure airport and same destination as my own flight. All I had to do was ask the person at the counter, right? Well, nobody was at the counter, but my flight wasn’t for three hours, so I waited. A few hours later, there still was nobody at the counter. Now, I was starting to get a little concerned. Forty-five minutes before my plane was supposed to depart, the sign at the gate said that the plane was boarding. Nevertheless, I held on to my faith that I was in the right place. About five minutes later, somebody finally came to the counter. I went to make sure I was at the right place, and I was. Whew!!! I checked in and the lady behind the counter told me that I may or may not have luggage when I get off the plane in Mexico City because I checked in so late. In my mind, I cursed her because the only reason I checked in so late is because the stupid airline had left the gate counter unattended until just before the flight. From my mouth, though, came the word “gracias.”

Aero Mexico isn’t the frilliest of airlines, but it got me to Mexico City more or less on time. I went to baggage claim to see if my bag was there. The one thing I had going in my favor is that I knew that if my luggage was there, it would be out quickly because it would have been one of the last bags on the plane. Unbelievably, because my luck with luggage almost never runs this way, my bag came right off and I was able to leave the airport without trying to come up with enough Spanish to file a baggage claim (though I was able to do it when my luggage was lost in Madrid).

Immigration and customs were easy. I went to the taxi counter and purchased a ticket for a cab to my hotel. I got in the cab and the cab driver and I spoke with each other in Spanglish (about 80% Spanish) throughout the 30-minute trip. It was my first time in a Spanish-speaking country since July and I was pretty happy that still I was able to communicate. My teachers in Argentina and Spain would have been proud.

That’s it for now. In the next entry, I’ll write about Mexico City, itself.