mmm-yoso!!!

Mexico City (2022) - Pasillo de Humo and Tout Chocolat Revisited and Coffee from La Catrina (Coyoacan)

As we headed into fall of 2021, things were looking pretty good. The Missus and I, fully vaccinated were looking to take care of the vacancy that not being able to travel internationally had created. So, we decided to "dip our toes" into the pool so to speak and not go too crazy......and go to one of our favorite destinations; Mexico City. The Missus also had another destination in mind and I worked out the logistics. Of course, along came Omicron, but by that time we both had gotten our boosters and when it was time for our trip, we decided to go ahead with it.

In some ways, it was good to start things off with CDMX as we had felt welcome and comfortable there from the first time we set foot in the city. We'd be staying at the same accommodations as our previous trips and was familiar with the area. It would also be interesting to see if things had changed over time.

We did the CBX thing and flew out of TJ.....

 We had a morning flight and were served breakfast. I quickly noticed the new "required accessory" that came along with breakfast.

We landed and found our transport to Condesa and checked into our hotel.

Things initially felt a bit strange, but once in the comfortable and familiar confines of the area, things started feeling normal....just like in the "old days".

Having arrived late in the afternoon, I had made reservations at a place I've posted on twice, so I'm mainly just putting up photos. We had decided to have dinner at Pasillo de Humo because we've always enjoyed the food, atmosphere, and service.

There was one interesting Covid precaution when entering the restaurant which is on the second floor of a food hall. You went thru a device that misted vinegar on you! You smelled pickled before you even had your first cocktail! 

And that Memelitas de Cerdo, the pork cheek memelitas were so good, we had a second order!

   Then the Missus had Her dessert....while I had, ahem, mine.

This was of course, the place where I first had Ojo de Tigre....from the modified hand truck with like 30 bottles of Mezcal on it. These days everything is based on QR codes. I spoke to our wonderful Server about Ojo de Tigre and was told they don't serve that here anymore. The reason? 

"Too many Ojo de Tigre!"

I'm guessing that Ojo de Tigre production is hitting mainstream and is now easily available. So I had him pick something "mui fumar" (smoky) for me, which he did.

It was really good!

Pasillo de Humo
Av Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

After dinner we took a short walk to another regular stop, Tout Chocolate. We've been here on every visit to CDMX; but strangely, I couldn't find a post on the place. This place has been a stop for us since our good friend "Alle" recommended it to us several years back.

Part cafe, part chocolate/confection shop....you know what the Missus was after, right?

She acquired a nice variety of chocolates.

Tout Chocolat
Amsterdam 154
6100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Then we decided to call it a night. It had been a wonderful evening for us....it just seemed so comforting.

The next morning we had tickets and reservations for Museo Frida Kahlo and decided to get there before our 10 am entrance time and grab some coffee. Uber is amazing in Mexico, very affordable and very safe since all cars are tracked. We got to Coyoacan an hour before our designated time. So we headed off to get our caffeine fix. I had initially planned on getting some coffee from Café El Jarocho a pioneer in the CDMX coffee scene, established back in 1953 eventually  spawning 8 other locations in CDMX.

But the lines were long and even though everyone (just like elsewhere in Mexico during our visit) wore masks, it was just too crowded with little seating.

We decided on the shop across the street named La Catrina.

The young lady working was very sweet. And they had al fresco tables and seating.....

And here we came across one of those "memorable" moments. A sweet young lady came up to the window. She seemed a regular customer as the folks working knew her. Her companion and "bodyguard" was a tiny, three legged Chihuahua. I say bodyguard because this little one had some personality and was quite protective of the young lady! The pooch would ignore the smaller poodles and such that walked by.....but oh, when the larger dogs passed by, be it a Rottweiler or Pit Bull, the little fellow would start growling! Which is probably how he ended up with three legs! We started calling him "Tripod".....and no one messes with Tripod, no one! I regret not taking a photo of this Bada$$! 

As often happens when enjoying oneself, time flew by. Soon it was time to head on over to Museo Frida Kahlo. I went and took our cups back to the counter which brought a smile and a "gracias" from the young lady working. Meanwhile, Tripod let me pet him and scratch his ears and his owner smiled and told us "have a fun vacation!" I guess it was obvious that we were tourists.

Such nice folks.......though you don't mess with Tripod!

La Catrina
Ignacio Allende 45
04000 Coyoacán, CDMX, Mexico

Up next Museo Frida Kahlo

Where in the World Were We?

Man, when was the last time I typed that out? Well, it had been quite a long time since we "really" travelled, I mean the domestic road trips were fun, but we missed travelling internationally. So, back in November, when it looked like Delta was waning, we started making plans....nothing too far mind you; in fact we planned to visit the last place we visited outside the US, back in February of 2020.....man, it seems like a decade ago.

And then Omicron came along.......sigh. So, we had a decision to make......

In the end, with both the Missus and I fully vaccinated and boosted, having no pre-existing conditions, we decided to go ahead. I had also heard from our good friend "Alle" that folks in Mexico were really compliant with regards to wearing masks....and she wasn't kidding....almost everyone wore KN95s too! They even wore the masks outdoors.......the only folks not wearing masks were....well.....you know from where. We had temperature checks before entering most shops; were asked to sanitize....there were a few exceptions and I'll note my observations in future posts. In fact, when entering one of the restaurants were were misted with........vinegar!?!?! 

Anyway, we really enjoyed our trip. 

We got to revisit some favorites of ours.....

And are slowly working our way thru the "list" of places we want to check out.....

We hired a private driver for take us to our next destination......where checking out at least one rooftop restaurant/bar is a must. And you can clearly see why.

And such colorful streets.....

We were the only folks staying at our 6 room B&B, which we really enjoyed.

And had some pretty darn good food as well.

Our third and final stop was our favorite......

We actually took a private walking tour which was the highlight of our trip. 

Where we learned some history about this fine city.......

And our favorite restaurant of this trip was here as well......we loved it so much that we returned on our last evening.......

The overall travelling experience felt somewhat surreal at times; though we appreciated the warm and friendly people and the Covid precautions as well. We felt safe during our stay.

Yes, "Viva la Vida"....but also care about your fellow man, have compassion, respect........

Hope everyone is doing well! Take care!

Mexico City (Before Covid) - The Two Day Taco Crawl and Other "Stuffs"

**** Just summing up our last trip before the pandemic to CDMX.

It was quite apparent that during our visits to CDMX we hadn't addressed one important "food group".....tacos! And so, before our trip I set about trying to create a nice "taco crawl" of sorts...which ended up stretching into two days. So here's a brief summary.

We started off at the farthest stretches from where we were staying....to an interesting (at that time) concept called El Auténtico Pato Manila.

The place was quite busy....though we were both amused and confused by the name and what was on the menu.

On one hand you had the name..."Manila"...on the other hand; you had a statue of Chairman Mao.....

And the place was known for their "pato" - duck tacos served in a flour tortilla, in place of the usual pancake....

With hoisin sauce to say the least......not quite sure.....but this really didn't hit the spot. The proteins were dry....not sure what I expected; but it wasn't this.

El Auténtico Pato Manila
Culiacan 91
06100 Ciudad de México

Next we moved up a couple of blocks and got an outside table at Taquería El Califa. 

Which seemed quite popular.

This would end up being our favorite for the evening...great service and heck, they don't mess around when you order a side of avocado.

The Al Pastor was crisp and flavorful and I ordered the bistek "campechano" which came topped with chicharrons......

Our favorite place by far.

Taquería El Califa
Altata 22
06170 Ciudad de México

The next stop I picked because of it supposed "historical" significance....you see; El Tizoncito claims to have invented Tacos Al Pastor....it sure is quite busy to say the least.

We sat next to an amazing young man (like 6 years old) and his dad.....the kid was game for anything and I admired him....for he was from the Midwest US but was just willing to try it all!

The Al Pastor was disappointing though; tough and lacking in caramelization and quite bland overall.

El Tizoncito
Tamaulipas 122
06140 Ciudad de México

Our last stop was one that I'd read much about, Taqueria el Greco.....which served what they call "Arab-style" tacos. It's quite popular as you can see in the photos, though we did fins a table inside the small restaurant.

The Missus went with a typical taco of grilled steak...i.e. carne asada; while I went with a "Doneraky" (spit roasted) style taco in Arabian Bread (sort of like a pita).

 The Missus's taco fared better than mine; which I thought was quite bland, overshadowed by the cheese and avocado.

Taqueria El Greco
Michoacán 54
06100 Ciudad de México

From here we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

The next morning we headed out to stretch our legs...coming across a "bike day" on Avenida Mazatlan.

After taking care of a couple of things; we headed off to a taco shop a couple of blocks from where we were staying......Tacos Don Juan

 We had passed this place during one of our walks in the area and I wanted to check them out.

Both the Arrachera-Tocino and the Chuleta Ahumada were quite good. Very solid, delicious tacos.

A solid no frills neighborhood spot - we'll be back.

Tacos Don Juan
Calle Juan Escutia 35
06140 Ciudad de México

From here we walked on over to Parque Mexico....it's always a fun walk and on this day they had a dog adoption program going on.

After which we stopped at Volador Café for a caffeine fix.

They sure love their pooches in CDMX.

Volador Café
Amsterdam 135
06100 Ciudad de México

As I often have said; there's something about his area in CDMX that reminds me of Europe.

When dinner time arrived; I had yet another taco shop in mind....but first we returned to a place close by; Temporal, for a Suerte de Dragon (Lucky Dragon) and some Gulf Crab Sopes.....just so we'd have enough energy to make it to dinner...right?

Restaurante Temporal
Saltillo 1
06140 Ciudad de México

It was a bit of a walk to to El Farolito, which I had seen the night before.

The place seemed quite popular with the locals.....

Maybe because the Al Pastor is roasting right in the dining area?

We sat at the counter and had some cerveza and al pastor and buche tacos......which were quite good.,

El Farolito
Altata 19
06100 Ciudad de México

Funny thing is.....El Califa is right across the street....hmmm....maybe next time....

And then we had a nice stroll back to our room....we had an early flight the next day. We thought we'd be back to CDMX in no time at all and then the pandemic hit.....so, until we're back again!

Thanks for hanging in there for this rather onerous post!

Mexico City (Before Covid) - La Casa de Toño, Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela, Mercado de San Juan, Museo del Calzado, Pastelería Ideal, and Cafe Jekemir

Here's another (hopefully) quick post (abbreviated) on our last trip before Covid struck from back in February, 2020.

The Missus decided that She wanted to do some "exploring" the day after visiting visiting Teotihuacan, so of course I had to plan something out. Of course I wanted to start out with something to eat, so we headed to La Casa de Toño.....because the Missus wanted some Pozole at the Zona Rosa location.

So, basically, I'll equate this to something like a Denny's....a chain that's very popular. The Missus wasn't enamored with the pozole....there are several choices in terms of meat available....She stayed safe with Maciza....while I went full "cabeza de cerdo" (pig's head) which turned out to be the better choice.

 This was pretty mild in terms of porkiness...at least it made the Missus appreciate the pozole I make.

La Casa de Toño (Many locations in CDMX)
Londres 144
06600 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

From here we headed to our next stop.....

The Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela.

Which...my goodness, had a huge selection of items you never knew you needed....

 Man, there sprawling alleyways and shops......I ended up needing a break after a while.

Luckily we found a cafe....and a cafe de olla came to the rescue.

Lest you think this marketplace is for tourists, I've been told that many local come here to shop for various items though I never did ask what those items specifically were.

We also took a walk thru Ciudadela Park across the street.

And saw this group practicing ballroom style dancing.

It was so sweet and charming. Notice the fellow dancing by himself? I'm wondering what the story might be behind that?

We enjoyed the green spaces in the city.

The next stop was purely for me....the Mercado de San Juan.

I always enjoy visiting these markets when I travel. There's always something interesting.

The "Chinatown" street, Dolores (which I've posted on before) is just a about a block away, so we headed up the street.

From here, I had an interesting place I wanted the Missus to see....the Museo del Calzado....yep, the footwear museum.

Up a discreet stairway is an interesting collection of footwear...from the historic...to, well, the famous.

   It's a fun stop whether you have a "foot/shoe" fetish or not.

Museo del Calzado"The Borcegui"
Calle de Bolívar 27
Mexico City, 06000 Mexico

Right down the block was another interesting sight....an Ottoman Clock - the Reloj Otomano.

You can read more about it at Atlas Obscura.

CDMX is indeed an international city!

And full of surprises.

The next stop was a recommendation of an acquaintance who said it was his favorite "bakery in the world".

Pastelería Ideal is located a few blocks away and is easy to identify.....just look for the towering cakes in the window.

You can't  miss it! And the throngs of folks shopping for their favorite pastry. Everyone is in sugar heaven!

I was instructed to head to the second floor.....

 Where there was a "showroom" of sorts for cakes. I cracked up as each cake was labeled with how much it weighed? Just in case you wanted that 10 kilogram panda cake!

Pastelería Ideal
República de Uruguay 74
06000 Ciudad de México

Boy, after inhaling all that sugar. I needed something to wake me up! Luckily, I had a cafe on my "list" that was just a few blocks away named Cafe Jekemir.

Which proved to be just what we needed.

Cafe Jekemir
Calle Regina 7
Mexico City 06000 Mexico

In spite of the caffeine I was bushed....so we called an Uber and headed back to Condesa for a short nap....which would come in handy since we'd end up walking quite a bit for the dinner I had planned.

Thanks for stopping by!

Clearing Out the Memory Card - Teotihuacan, Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a Revisit to Pasillo de Humo (CDMX)

Well, the Missus keeps insisting that we had only one trip this year; our recent roadtrip. I reminded Her that we did two trips early in the year, San Francisco and Mexico City. I went ahead and started showing Her our photos. Honestly, I don't blame Her for thinking those trips didn't happen this year....January and February just seem so long ago now.

Anyway, while I was looking at some of my photos; I thought I'd better get me act together and start doing posts. I'm going to try to limit my verbiage from this point on and let you enjoy the photos, though I think I'm not going to be very successful.

Before our trip to CDMX, I contacted a Driver named Aaron Cruz that came highly recommended by a couple of the Missus's coworkers and heck is even the subject of this thread in TripAdvisor. Anyway, contacting and arranging was easy. And on the day of pick-up, I went out and quickly picked up some croissants from our favorite bakery down the street.

Aaron was on time and got us to Teotihuacan in no time at all. Both the Missus and I had read about this amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site and were excited about our visit. Needless to say; it delivered.

Entering from the Southwest entrance, the first thing you come upon is La Cuidadela (the Citadel), which is theorized to be the main square of the city.  Within the walls is the Templo de Quetzalcoatl ("Temple of the Feathered Serpent") which is said to be the last of the three pyramid built at Teotihuacan. There are six levels of the pyramid each of which is decorated with the sculptured heads of Fire and Feathered Serpents. Discoveries are still being made to this day around and under the temple.

The main street that lead past the Pyramid of the Sun and ends at the Pyramid of the Moon is called Calzada de los Muertos ("Avenue of the Dead") currently runs for about 2 kilometers and is thought to have been even longer during the height of Teotihuacan's existence.

There are what appears to be former dwellings and structures along the west side of the avenue and there's quite a bit to see here as well.

Right across the way is the very impressive Pirámide del Sol ("Pyramid of the Sun") which stands at 216 feet (65 1/2 meters) tall.

It's a fairly steep climb to the top, but totally worth it.

The views from the top are amazing.

We celebrated making it to the top by having our croissants...

While enjoying a wonderful view of Pirámide de la Luna ("Pyramid of the Moon").

You notice the photos of dogs above......they all seemed well behaved and really mellow. The most impressive dog was the one that was sleeping at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun! Man, to think this pooch climbed up all those steep stairs!

We headed back down and made our way to the Pyramid of the Moon. It's not just all huge structures at Teotihuacan. There are some interesting murals; like this one of a Puma.

And then we made it to the end of Avenue of the Dead.

And soon enough the Missus had me climbing up the Pyramid of the Moon; which for some reason seemed even steeper than the Pyramid of the Sun!

And the views from here were no less outstanding. The area in front of the pyramid is known as the "Plaza of the Moon" and the part of it with the central altar is known as the "Teotihuacan Cross".

After carefully working my way down the pyramid; we headed toward the Northwest Entrance where we'd be meeting Aaron and took some time to visit the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl to take in the wonderful carvings and bas-reliefs.

And soon enough; it was time to be on our way.

Aaron mentioned that we still had some time and recommended visiting the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. So naturally, we said "of course".

We parked on a side street; under the altar and headed up Calz de Guadalupe. There are actually two Basilica's here. The "Old" Basilica.

Which was finished in 1709. Because of unstable ground the church started sinking and; if look at it from an angle it is actually leaning.

Because of this; a "New" Basilica was completed in 1976, which looks very modern.

The Old Basilica was closed and went under repairs for many years and had just recently been reopened; so we got to check it out.

The entire complex called Villa de Guadalupe is composed of several churches, chapels and is where Juan Diego saw the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary) on December 12th, 1531.

At the top of the hill is Capilla del Cerrito.

Along with other structures like "Las Velas del Marino", which from what I was told is an offering of gratitude for being saved from at shipwreck in the 18th century. It was rebuilt in the 20th Century.

There is much to see here; like La Ofrenda by Aurelio G.D. Mendoza.

And while exploring the various temples and churches, whether it's on an fault line and slowly separating from it's foundation; yet still standing upright due to "the will". Quite interesting to say the least.

Or perhaps the oldest church on this site, dating back to 1649...the Antigua Parroquia de Indios, it's all quite amazing to see. Faith plays out everyday here.

And then to end things off, we visited the "New Basilica" to end our visit here.

This was quite an amazing day and frankly we were bushed. Luckily, I had reservations at a place right down the street that we enjoyed on our previous visit, Pasillo de Humo. I'm not going into detail here, you can read my previous post. I will say, service was great and, at least for us, doing the appetizer thing might be the best way to go here.

And when picking from the Mezcal "trolley", my favorite is the "Ojo de Tigre".....

This was just as good as the last time we visited.

Pasillo de Humo
Av Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Mexico City - Pujol

Yes, we were back in Mexico City. We had enjoyed our last trip so much; that we decided to head on back during the President's Day weekend.  And while this trip was not without some hiccups....more on that later; the linchpin of this trip was reservations at Pujol; considered by many to be the best restaurant in Mexico City; if not Latin America. so, we headed back on the Thursday before the long weekend. The drill was the same as before; though leaving before the long weekend was a blessing as CBX was a breeze. what wasn't a breeze was having had AeroMexico mess up our flight reservations. We made it across the bridge; only to be told that we had to go to the AeroMexico ticket counter because we had multiple reservations for the same flight. How that happened; I'll never know, but we'd lost our Business Class seats on flights going to, and returning from Mexico City. So, we ended up having to spend an extra hour at the AeroMexico ticket counter at the airport. I will say that dealing with the counter staff was amazing as they worked hard to straighten things out. and in the end, all was well, we had our seats going, and a flight change on the return flight.

Like on our previous trip; we got out of the plane, through all the gates, to our hotel transfer....and then had the six mile; forty minute drive to our hotel. We decided to stay at the same hotel as on our previous visit. We really enjoyed staying in the La Condesa neighborhood....and much like Paris, returning here felt much like coming "home".

The Missus decided that we'd walk from La Condesa to Pujol, which is located in upscale Polanco, which was about three miles and change, so about an hour-and-a-half before our dinner reservation we headed out. We'd never really been into Polanco before, so it was an interesting walk; many bars and restaurants; but the area seemed to lack the character of the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods.

We headed down one of the main streets that goes thru Polanco; Avenida Presidente Masaryk, which had me wondering why such a main thoroughfare in the area known as "Mexico City's Beverly Hills", would be named after the first President of Czechoslovakia. Here's a statue of him in one of the roundabouts on the avenue.

This statue was given to CDMX as a gift from Prague in 1999. As for the background on the naming of the street, you can find an interesting article here.

About five block further down the street, you take a turn on Tennyson and end up at the rather discreet entrance to Pujol. We had arrived about 30 minutes early for our reservation, which was no problem since our table was ready. We had a wonderful, discreet corner table, which we loved.

Service during our meal was excellent, very attentive, but not over-bearing. The pacing was a bit off, with some rather long waits between dishes near the end of the meal. But great service overall.

I started with a Mezcal Negroni which I really enjoyed; the Mezcal really tempered the sometimes overwhelming flavor of the Campari. The Missus who really doesn't care for Negroni, even in Florence, actually enjoyed this.

The Missus ordered something interesting from the drinks menu; a Junmai Gingo from Nami, the first Sake producer in Mexico. The sake had a light fruity nose, very clean finish, definitely not a Daigingo Junmai, but I thought this would go really well with our dinner. The only problem was it as served at almost room temperature. We both ended up ordering a second round and asked that the sake be put on ice, which fixed things up nicely.

So here's the part in the post where I need to apologize for the quality of photos. We loved our cozy corner table, but the lighting gave me fits....and sorry, but I'm not one of those folks who fiddles around waaaay to much before taking a photo with a gigantic DSLR. I prefer not to draw attention to myself. My point-and-shoot usually has excellent low light capabilities, but this was not one of those days.

There were two tasting menus available and we decided to get one of each, after all we share tastes. The Missus got the "Maiz" (corn) and I chose the "Mar" (sea).

Things started off with two lovely "Street Snacks". First, a wonderful, mini-sope topped with a lovely, mildly sweet butternut squash....great corn flavors shone thru.

Next, a smoking gourd arrived at the table.

This contained one of Pujol's signature dishes; a baby corn version of the ubiquitous street corn dish Elote. I can see why folks rave about this item. The baby corn has the wonderful, slightly sweet, maiz flavor, the slightly fruity, rich, costeno chile aioli, with nutty crunch provided by Chicatanas (flying ants). A wonderful, complex combination of flavors. Definitely delici-yoso!

The Missus's first item; a Tlayuda, topped with black beans, tomato, wonderfully mildly peppery-citrusy-bitter baby papalo leaf, and crunchy chapulines (grasshopper).

A wonderfully bold, but balanced dish....maiz-good acidity-slightly sweet, nutty......amazing.

Which over shadowed my well made Chayote and Scallop Pico, making it seem ordinary.

There was a bit too much acidity for me from the pico de piñata. The pickled chayote was amazing, but the scallops were sorely overshadowed by all the assertive flavors.

The Missus's favorite dish of the night included two of Her favorite items; Huitlacoche with Black Truffle.

Served with blue corn tortillas; this was fungi heaven; the earthy, but almost sweet flavor of huitlacoche, combined with fragrant black truffle....not much I can say about this other than....wow....

Our sake, nicely placed on ice arrived at this time. A really nice gentleman, I believe one of the dining room managers arrived and asked us about our serving preference and we explained that for us, this type of sake is best served between 6 to 8 degrees Celsius to really bring out the flavors and clean finish....really nice guy...he even took out a book and wrote down some notes.

My dish was the Kanpachi Ceviche.

The texture of the Kanpachi was perfect, just a slight toothsomeness. The cacahuazintle (nixtamalized corn) juice, celery, and yuzu made up the ceviche sauce. The hoja santa leaves added a bit of a herbaceous; slight anise-minty-peppery touch to the dish. The only downside was that this was a bit too salty.

The Missus Earthy-Smokey Eggplant "Tamal" with Swiss Chard was a simple, yet perfect combination of flavors. It was quite wonderful.

I loved the texture of the pulpo in the Octopus Chintextle with Pickled Carrot.

The pulpo was beyond fork tender.....just perfect. The various Oaxacan Herbs added a different touch to each bite. The Chintextle; a Oaxacan chili paste was kind of strange to my palate as it had an almost bitter, turmeric flavor....the paste almost came across as a pseudo-curry. The Missus loved the octopus, but hated the sauce.

The Missus loved Her Wild Herb Open Papadzul.

So many amazing flavors; the chiltomate salsa had a wonderful tangy-mild sweetness, with a hint of heat from habaneros. The quail eggs were amazing; the texture, they must be sous vide...it was like eating butter.  This was simply amazing.

The skin on my Striped Bass was so wonderfully crisp. It was a tad overcooked and a tad too salty though.

The fried fava beans were absolutely delicious, as was the mole verde.

The last main was the signature "Mole Madre" and "Mole Nuevo", an amazing dish with regards to contrasts in textures and flavor.

Chef Enrique Olvera's Mole Madre is aged like a mother sauce and fed when the quantity falls below 10 liters. At the time of our meal it had been aged 2,779 days....yes, that's over 7 1/2 years! Needless to say, there's a lot going on here; it's not spicy, but quite thick, slightly sweet, with a pleasant bitterness.....I've mentioned the Chinese suan-tian-ku-la-xian (sour-sweet-bitter-spicy-salty) metaphor for a flavorful, yet balanced dish the Chinese use. This was it. The Mole Nuevo, was more in your face, in terms of sweetness, spice, like a typical mole. what a wonderful, interesting dish.

Then we were provided with something to refresh our palates.

Before dessert......

Which is usually the Missus's department. Though I have to say; I loved the churros, light crunch, then melting away in your mouth. Not overly sweet, slight salt tones.....

In the end, this was an absolutely fabulous meal, perhaps one of our all time favorites. We loved the flavors, how the dishes were composed; it just suited us. In our Uber on the way back to our room, the Missus and I discussed our dinner. I think we've dined at some fairly notable places over the years. And in looking at one of those rankings things; I quickly noticed that we indeed preferred Pujol over that dinner at a place that has been ostensibly the best restaurant in the world and the place named the best restaurant in Latin America. Pujol, like our favorite restaurant just suits us.

And I'm sure we'll be returning......

Pujol
Calle Tennyson 133 Polanco
Mexico City 11560 Mexico

Thanks for dropping by and putting up with my lousy photos!

Mexico City - Our Last Morning; Panadería Almuerzos and Cafe Toscano (Mercado Condesa)

As we were walking back after dinner at Temporal, it started pouring again. We decided to quickly duck under the awning of one of the taco shops that lined the streets.

There was a group of musicians also using the little shop as shelter from the rain. One of the guys saw us; waved us in.....and they started playing! Just for the other seated customer and us. It was a blast!

Sorry to say I didn't get the name of the taco shop...I tried to give the band a couple of pesos, but they declined.

So, the least I could do was to buy a couple of tacos....to go.

You gotta love CDMX...…..

The next morning was our last in Mexico City. Our flight didn't leave until 1245. So we decided to check out the bakery that was right across the street from where we were staying. It was quite discreet, but we always saw a line and decided to check it out.

This was Panaderia Almuerzos and the breads and pastries looked so fresh.

So, of course we got......

Croissant, which was surprisingly decent; flakey, good butter, light sweetness....light and fluffy inside....and still warm!

Panadería Almuerzos
Av. Vicente Suárez 64A
Colonia Condesa, CDMX, Mexico

We took our croissant to the next block over; the Mercado Condesa.

And we got our caffeine fix.

All while taking in the neighborhood, like all those amazing dog walkers.

Cafe Toscano
Calle Michoacan sn Mercado Condesa
Hipódromo Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Soon enough we had to head on over to the airport. We even had an ok sandwich on our flight.

We had really enjoyed Mexico City. Our experiences, the people, the food had exceeded our expectations.

I'm sure we'll return soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mexico City - Dinner at Temporal

After a fun, but quite busy day enjoying Mexico City; I thought we'd have a nice dinner fairly close to where we were staying. I'd heard good things about Temporal and the modern, seasonal cuisine that was being served and thought it would be a nice dinner for our last night in CDMX. I made dinner reservations for the fairly early (in Mexico City) time of 7pm. The bar was doing some good business but we were seated in the restaurant upstairs which was quiet.

As we found the norm in CDMX; service was excellent, gracious, efficient, warm......

And of course we started with a Cocktail. I had what is named Suerte de Dragon....the "Lucky Dragon"!

Man, this combo of Mezcal, Celery Salt, Lime, Beer, and some really sneaky chili was so good! Not overly sweet, refreshing, smoky-savory, all the things I like in a cocktail. I had two! The Missus really enjoyed Her Old Fashion with Cardamom.

The bread served was wonderful; especially with the salsa verde which had perfect acidity.

The Marinated Octopus Tacos (160 $MX about $8.50/US) were solid.

We didn't care much for the tortillas which were strangely brittle; the rub used on the adequately tender octopus was excellent, nice smoky-lightly spiced-good acidity. What's up with the avocados in Mexico? They always seem to be perfectly creamy, mildly sweet..... The scallion-onion relish really went well adding a bit of mildly sweet pungency and along with the avocado added some really great textural contrast.

The Gulf Crab Sopes (140 $MX - about $7.50/US) were the highlight of the meal.

The crab cakes were moist, tender, full of sweet-savory-briney crab. The sopes added a nice nutty-maiz to the dish. The "raw green salsa" was a perfect foil as was the creamy-milky goat cheese. Just a wonderful dish from start to finish.

The Roasted Cauliflower (130 $ MX - about $7/US) was interesting.

It had a definite salty-savoriness to it. I later found out it was from the Anchovy Cream.

The Cilantro Soup (140 $MX - about $7.50/US) was very smooth and creamy.

Mildly pungent, sweet garlic tones, and perhaps a bit too much citrus in this for our taste.

The Missus and I shared one main; the Braised Shoulder of Lamb (290 $MX - approx. $15.50/US).

Super tender, deliciously gamey; that "flavor of the pasture" coming thru; nicely seasoned, the jus had a bit of a "kick" to it. The cauliflower puree was nice and creamy.

We had fun watching the street below us during our meal. The weather here in CDMX during our stay (early July) was sunny and warm during the day; with folks going about their business.

Then just like on our first night, the skies would open up, we'd be treated with thunder, lightning, with rain coming down in buckets.

Which lasted about 20 minutes....then all was clear.

We really enjoyed our meal at Temporal; like I mentioned earlier, the service was excellent, the prices reasonable, and the food quite good.

Restaurante Temporal
Saltillo 1, Hipódromo, Cuauhtémoc
06140 CDMX, Mexico

Mexico City - Centro Histórico and Cafe de Tacuba

After taking in the wonderful view from Don Porfirio Caffe from the 8th Floor of Sears, we headed to where Avenida Juárez becomes pedestrian only Avenida Francisco I. Madero. There's quite a bit to see here; along with crowds to match. We stopped by the Convent of San Francisco to take a peek.....

This church with a very ornate façade, resides down a sunken courtyard and is all that remains of what was once a large complex that covered 8 acres in the area. This was part of what was the headquarters of the "12 Apostles of Mexico" who were tasked with converting the residents of New Spain to Christianity. The complex was built on the site of Moctezuma II’s Zoo. Yes, he had zoo!

The altars are quite ornate and quite stunning.

On the way to the Zócalo, the Missus wanted to stop at Dulcería de Celaya a famous sweet shop which was established in 1874. Man, this place was quite popular. The Missus bought a box of various confections to bring back to the US. In what was a fairly humorous moment, the box was opened at the airport in Mexico City by one of the security personnel and each piece was brought out and the guy actually sniffed it! He kept saying "no bueno….no bueno!!" Until one of the senior officers came by and told him to put it all back in the box!

After we arrived home, the Missus tasted the sweets and really didn't care for them.....so I kidded Her by saying "no bueno….no bueno!"

Dulcería de Celaya
Avenida Cinco de Mayo 39
06000 Ciudad de México
Mexico City

A few blocks down was the Zócalo (Plaza de la Constitución), the city's main square. In fact, this area has been the heart of the city since the time of the Aztecs.

The impressive Cathedral lines the north side of the square.

We had fully intended on exploring the area around the square and Centro Historical.

But came across an very popular and colorful exhibition....which seemed more like a festival dedicated to Frida Kahlo.

This celebration was called The Colors of Frida and it was indeed quite colorful. It was held to celebrate the famous artist's 112th birthday. And we lucked out to have been able to see this.

The most powerful scene is that of Frida dressed in colorful attire lying in bed. Having contracted polio at the age of six, she spent 9 months in bed. In 1925 she was in a terrible accident; she was "impailed by a steel handrail through the hip" and also fracture three vertebrae. It was during this time that Frida stared painting. she would have health problems for the rest of her life.  In 1953 Frida had her first solo exhibition in Mexico City, but was in bad health. She famously attended the ceremony lying in a bed set-up for her in the gallery.

There were of course, the Conchero Dancers performing.

And those having Limpias (spiritual cleansing) performed on them.

It's also a great place to people, and pooch watch as well.

Nearby is the Museo de Templo Mayor, which was the temple of the people who inhabited Tenochtitlan. The ruins were quite stunning; though we were in need of a break by this time....we'll visit the next time we're in the area.

Plus, it was starting to get even more crowded.

We did decide to duck into the Cathedral Metropolitana for a quick look.

The Missus and I found the Pendulum inside the Cathedral quite fascinating.

Apparently it is in place to check on seismic movement.

The Missus and I needed a break and something light and small to eat. I'd read about a restaurant that had quite a history named Café de Tacuba.

Opened in 1912; this wonderful slice of history not only feeds the body; but the charming layout and décor feeds the soul as well.

Not feeling especially hungry; the Missus and I got our caffeine fix and ordered the Nopales….something which the Missus could not get enough of it seems....

The chips were crisp, the nopales decent, but nothing special, the avocado....like all we had in CDMX was creamy and wonderful. The staff was professional and accommodating. And the décor was wonderful. This was a nice little break for us.

Café de Tacuba
Calle de Tacuba 28
06010 Ciudad de México
Mexico City

We walked up Calle de Tacuba past the Museo Nacional de Arte (the National Art Museum).

That statue in front of the structure is of Charles IV of Spain by Manuel Tolsá; a Spanish born Sculptor and Architect.

Who is much revered for the prodigious amount of work he contributed to New Spain. In fact, the square the statue is on is named after him.

This eye catching garden is named the Garden of the Triple Alliance.

So, we could have kept on going....there is so much to see here if you desire.

For us; well, we'd done quite a bit of walking already on this day. We decided to Uber it back to our B&B and rest up for dinner......

Which turned out to be pretty good....that's coming up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mexico City - Morning Coffee at Delirio Mónica Patiño, Breakfast at Los Tamales de la Roma, Walking Paseo de la Reforma, and Caffeine with a View at Don Porfirio Caffe

Our second full day in CDMX was another; surprise, fairly walking intense day. The morning in Condesa was quite lovely.

On this day, the Missus wanted to check out Centro Histórico….getting there by foot of course. So I devised a plan...we'd start in Roma, have a breakfast of sorts, then head down Paseo de la Reforma, Alameda Central, before arriving in the Historical Center of Mexico City.

So we headed out, past Parque España, taking a right onto Álvaro Obregón, crossing Insurgentes Sur we came upon a place I had to have a bit of caffeine; a gourmet shop owned by Chef and Television Personality Monica Patiño, named Delirio. I had kept the option open to grab something from this shop, but the Missus just wasn't inspired, so we just sat outside had a nice cup of coffee.

Delirio Mónica Patiño
Monterrey 116
Roma Norte, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

So, for a bite to eat, I went with plan B. The Missus really wanted to have some tamales during this trip, so two blocks away we took a left and arrived at one of the many places I had on my "list". A little shop named Los Tamales de la Roma.

We were greeted by the nicest, sweetest, young man, and we had a seat outside....it was such a nice morning!

When the young man brought over the menus, he explained that they did "two style of tamales.....the typical maiz, and those that use plantanos", he told us to please ask any questions we have; "I want you to have the best time possible"! My goodness...… So we had him recommend something.....after chatting with the Missus a bit, he recommended the "Ratatouille", which he said was done in Plantain leaves and had good vegetables and is so healthy. I ordered the Chicharron en Salsa Verde.

The tamal de chicharron was delicious, porky, great corn flavor, a hint of smokiness, nice tangy acidity from the salsa verde.

The Ratatouille was less so for us; fairly bland, in need of more flavor....but very moist.

You know, based on the service, it's very hard to complain about 2 tamales and bottled water that came out to less than $3/US!

This was more than enough for a light breakfast.

Los Tamales de la Roma
Jalapa 99
Roma Norte, 06700 Ciudad de Mexico, CDMX, Mexico

The Missus really wants to check out Tamales Doña Emi next we visit.

From Jalapa, it was pretty much a straight shot to Glorieta Insurgentes, right before the roundabout, we saw a nice church and decided to duck in for a quick look. This was Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia (Parish of Sagrada Familia).

A few blocks later we were standing on the wide and bright Paseo de la Reforma, staring at the Angel of Independence.

This iconic landmark was built to commemorate Mexico's independence from Spain and was completed in time to celebrate Mexico's 100th anniversary of it's independence in 1910. One interesting fact about the structure is that it contains a mausoleum at its base where heroes of the fight for independence are interred, including Leona Vicario.

The avenue is wide and there's much to see in terms of art pieces; like the kind of whimsical, slightly strange Cocodrilo by artist Leonora Carrington.

More on Cocodrilo here.

To the more serious and dignified, like the Monumento a Cuauhtémoc.

And of course, people (and pooch) watch.

That's El Caballito above.

At this point, we took a right turn at the fountain.....

Onto Avenida Juarez and headed to Alameda Central, which was established in 1592; making it the oldest park in the Americas.

We enjoyed the lovely paths.....

Statues....

And fountains., like the "Fountain of Virgin".

There was of course, way more than one could see while walking through the area.

There's even a Barrio Chino on Dolores Street.

The most popular attraction in the area is undoubtedly the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts) with its distinctive dome.

And, the Missus had read that if you'd like to get a really great view of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, you can get it from the Sears across the street.

Well, actually from the Don Porfirio Café on the 8th floor of Sears. You'll need to first wait behind a rope if no seat are available...we had no problem since it was rather early and there were seats with great views. And of course, you need to order some coffee, tea, or other beverage as well.

But that view...….well, we think it's worth it.

For at least once...….

Don't you think?

Don Porfirio Caffe
Avenida Juarez 14 (On the 8th Floor of Sears)
Mexico City, Mexico

On our way down the elevator, and older gentleman, who I believe is perhaps one of the Sears managers smiled and said "Buenos Dias"....then asked us where we were from. We told him "San Diego"; and he told us "it is a beautiful city.....there is Sea World. Welcome to our city....it is pretty beautiful too, no?"

Yes, it is quite beautiful too......

Thanks for stopping by!