Yesterday, the food tour. It turned out NOT to be street food which was JUST FINE BY ME. I had pictured that we would be wandering around eating standing up - I was very happy that we visited restaurants and got to sit down.
Stop #1 - a glass of horchata, which I actually liked much better than the stuff I tried in Spain. Maybe it was sweeter. A chicken enchilada in mole sauce (she gave a little talk about the mole tradition). And three big platters of chilaquiles for the eight of us to share.
Stop #2 - guacamole with fresh made chips, and a taco al pastor. We walked by the pork being grilled on a rotating spit at the entrance to the restaurant, similar to how shawarma is cooked. It didn’t look appetizing but it tasted great in the taco. Oh, and a choice between a beer or a hibiscus drink - I chose the latter.
Stop #3 - a fresh churro with dulce de leche filling. OMG SO GOOD! it is possible I’ll walk back to that place before I leave Mexico City.
Stop #4 - an iconic bakery, Pastelería Ideal. I actually tried to visit the previous afternoon and struck out - they were completely sold out of individual pastries so my only option would have been to buy a full cake. They had boxes and boxes of king cakes piled up on tables. Anyhoo the guide bought a muffin for each of us in a bag to eat later. It turned out to only be so-so but apparently the locals love this bakery.
Serendipity- the tour, which started a mile away from my hotel, had wound its way around and finished only a couple blocks from the hotel. So I was able to go put my feet up and digest a bit before I went out again.
My next goal was the National Palace - home of the president. I had read that it had beautiful murals not to be missed. The only entrance I could find was barricaded off and guarded by soldiers. One of them directed me to another building across the street, where fortunately there was an employee with excellent English. He kindly explained that the only way to see the inside of the palace was on a guided tour, and there were no more tours that day. AND that there was no way to sign up for a tour in advance - one had to show up at 10 am (or even line up before then) and would be assigned a time. If the time is 2 pm I guess you have to go kill time somewhere for four hours? 🤷♀️ Anyway, I don’t think this is gonna happen on this trip.
I made a nice recovery though. In desperation I pulled up the Notes app on my phone where I had jotted down a bunch of different ideas of things to do and discovered the Education Department building which also has murals, was just a few blocks away. The building doesn’t look like much from the outside and the entrance was barely marked. Signage doesn’t seem to be a strong point here.
Once inside, it was a gorgeous building with two large courtyards with trees. There were three floors with covered balconies overlooking the courtyard and those had murals - there were a LOT of them. Most by Diego Rivera (I’m officially Diego’d out now). There were different sections - one representing the different kinds of working people, another representing fiestas, another depicting the revolution, a section of Mexican heroes, another one with grotesque depictions of capitalists (Diego was quite the socialist, he even signed his work with a hammer and sickle, see below).
So here is a very small selection.
Corn farmers:
Day of the Dead fiesta:
Emiliano Zapata:
Revolutionaries:
The Capitalist Dinner (look at the lower left lady. Maybe the 1920’s version of Mar-A-Lago face):
Fraternity:
Today, National Archeology Museum and Chapultepec Castle, but I’ve run on long enough for one post.
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19 comments
Awesome! Can't go wrong with fresh bread and yummy chocolates! 😁
I went back and bought a small assortment - my souvenir gift for HWD (astounding that I haven’t succumbed to temptation and eaten them yet! 😂 ).
Great pics! I did a food tour of the Merced Market. Wonderful!
Thanks!
Food tours are great. They go to places one would never find.
Agreed. None of the three restaurants were on my radar.
Thanks for sharing the pics.
The pictures are amazing.
Thank you!
I like the idea of a food tour as an intro to a place. I would imagine that most if not all of the places were local favorites as opposed to places tourists would look to go. Either way, sounds yummy.
Yes - if I were planning this again I would probably do the food tour on the first full day here. 😊 She even messaged us a PDF with some further recommendations of places to go.
Yummy! I love anything hibiscus and find it funny it's called "Jamaica." What a fun trip!
Agreed, Jamaica is confusing! 😊 I feel like I’m just figuring out some of this stuff and tomorrow I’ll be leaving for the yoga retreat (which I expect to be much easier).
I'm curious whether you've encountered any anti-American sentiment while in Mexico given Trump's stance towards the country.
When I visited Mexico in the 1980s, my Mexican friends warned that I may be mistaken forf an American and taught me this phrase, 'No soy Gringo, soy Británico'!
Hm, nothing overt. I did catch a bit of attitude from a museum employee when I was trying to pay. It was a small admission fee, 21 pesos, and I was hoping to break one of my large bills. She wasn’t having any of it. 😊 Aside from that, interactions have been pretty smooth.
There are not a lot of white visitors here and some of those are German or French. So perhaps they don’t have as much exposure to “ugly Americans” compared to more touristy destinations like Cancun.
Wonderful
You’re seeing a lot. Has everything been pretty straightforward for you as a U.S. visitor?
Yes, I would say so. It’s been very convenient to be able to take Ubers to places that are too far to walk, so I haven’t had to figure out the bus/metro system. Most people aren’t fluent in English but between my very minimal Spanish and their minimal English we’ve made it work.
The food sounds amazing. And filling, hehehe.
Hugs!!
Sounds like a lot of walking, and a lot of eating. Good combination I guess.
Yesterday was a little over 12,000 steps. I’ve done that in the past without too much of an issue, but I have to admit, those last few blocks back to my hotel my feet and legs were aching. Either I brought the wrong shoes or I’m getting old.
@smartasswoman No comment on that last thought. Were it me, I'd blame the altitude and the bad air for me being worn out.
@CleavageFan4U it’s not like “out of breath” tired, it’s achy feet (to the point where I wondered last night if I had a stress fracture, but it feels ok this morning).
Actually , yesterday when I climbed to Chapultepec Castle, that was also out if breath tired! And I did partially blame it on the altitude.
I like the Day of the Dead skeleton with his big mustachio.
(If we're talking Mar-a-lago face ... shouldn't that be the crying baby)
Definitely a major league handlebar mustache !
I would love to see the Diego treatment on Rump, Vance, and Stephen Miller. 😊
Have you tried fried ants? My granddaughter introduced me to them while we were touring Queretaro. Queretaro is the “Philadelphia “ of the Mexican Revolution. A truly colonial town with many historic places and beautiful buildings and culture.
I just read something that said right now is not the season for insects (aside from chapulines, apparently those are ok to eat year round). And I was relieved that I wouldn’t be put in a position of feeling like I “should” try them. 🤣
I know that insects are one of the most environmentally responsible forms of protein, and supposedly taste good, but I think I’ll be reserving that for the zombie apocalypse.
@smartasswoman I was there in summer. My teenage granddaughter loved them — gobbling them up. I tasted them. Covered with spice, crunchy, otherwise unnoteable except for the gag reflex that I had to overcome. Glad you were spared the decision.
@Darby655 could you feel the legs when you popped them in your mouth? I think that would definitely be a gag reflex moment for me.
@smartasswoman no, I couldn’t feel or taste the legs. Just the idea of what I was eating. And they were so small, that only the spices were tasted.