our weekend, calorically speaking

recap: mexico city, august 18-21.

in thinking back on my weekend with celene, anne and abbe, the food and drink in which we liberally partook seem to define most of our time spent together. we consistently relied on a just-in-case plan B for food options since the places i most wanted to take them for good mexican eats keep strange hours. well, not strange, but mexican. and i still haven't totally adjusted to the fact that it can be quite a challenge to find something tasty to eat anytime after 5pm, since mexicans apparently subsist only on hot chocolate, corn on the cob, and churros (glorified - but justifiably so - donut sticks) in the evening hours.

the run down of what we ate and drank serves as a pretty good starting point to paint a pretty thorough picture of all that we did with three days in the mexican capital.

i went to meet the girls at the mexico city airport on friday afternoon. my plan to find celene, in from chicago, at the freedom restaurant worked perfectly, though she was left to read her book for awhile since i was an hour late... my morning meeting ran late and taking the metro to the airport (three different trains!) was an even slower prospect that i had anticipated. but we settled in at the restaurant to await anne and abbe, who would arrive a couple of hours later from seattle.

we shared a few victoria beers and ate really, really junky and totally un-mexican nachos that were really gooey and good. anne and abbe found us there and joined us with for aztec soup and desperately needed bottled water. we then found a really expensive - but safe - cab to coyoacan, and after suffering through some friday evening traffic, arrived at my house to unload bags and relax for a few minutes. we were just lounging around - conchita had engineered a complicated furniture removal/cot-corner situation in my room to fit all of us, nice and cozy - when the golden girl herself came in to inquire about our weekend plans and suggest that i take them out to show them around... since when she is on vacation, the last thing she likes to do is stay cooped up, not seeing anything. now that's an idea...

so we headed out, and before long found ourselves seeking out - surprise! - somewhere to eat. we stuck with a taco restaurant i had been to with my sister - since neither of us got violently ill, i figured they had earned my repeat business - and sipped mango agua fresca alongside various types of tacos - abbe and anne both tried two mexico city specialities, huitlacoche (for better or worse, corn mold) and squash flower - and celene orded up a yummy looking huarache. i still haven't fully understood what those are, but the name means "sandal" which appeals to me for some reason. while we were at dinner, it started doing the usual evening downpour thing, so we stayed put and got caught up on everything that has been going on this summer... anne's upcoming move to portland, celene's newlywed-dom and abbe's dating escapades.

when the rain started to let up we stopped at cafe jarocho... my usual coffee spot and a coyoacan institution... for a night cap of cinnamony hot chocolate. we hit the sack soon after, since the ladies had been up since 3am and 5am, and, well, i am always ready for bed. we had planned an excursion for the next day for teotihuacan, which meant a relatively early morning and we all wanted to be well rested for climbing those pyramids.

the next day, we got ourselvess some mochas and hot tea from another of coyoacan's jarocho spots. ate a breakfast of cereal, yogurt and fruit, and then ordered up some sandwiches to take on the road - my parents, sister and i had learned a painful lesson in the quality and prices of food available at teotihuacan - and waited for our cab driver to come get us... there was some confusion about my address, since it was going to be a driver that i hadn't had before coming to get us (i had used this company a lot when my family was here), but i called to clarify and soon enough an unmarked car came peeling down my one-way street the wrong way. i suspected that it was our cab, and indeed it was. that sure bodes well!

and it was indeed a taste of things to come, as we almost lost our lives a number of times as we made our way through mexico city, from south to north before getting on the highway to teotihuacan. we somehow arrived there in one piece - though anne pointed out that after riding in mexico city cabs she now understands why she saw an inordinate number of people in neck braces here - and got a presentation (briefer than the one i got with my parents, who presumably had more money to spend on the over-priced souvenirs at the conclusion of the presentations than our mid-20s crew) on the wonders of the agave plant, the carving of obsidian and how blankets are woven on a loom... we finished it off with the requisite taste of pulque and tequila and went on our way to climb the pyramids. we were there on the early side, and did our best to beat the crowds to the pyramid of the sun -- we made it to the top (with some difficulty) and then scrambled up the smaller pyramid of the moon, no problem.

we strapped ourselves in for another heart-racing ride back to mexico city. our driver had a serious weight problem, and did a lot of heavy breathing, and it turns out that we were all convinced he might drop dead at the wheel from a heart attack and/or TB complication at any moment. after fighting lots of city traffic, we were very happy to be back on solid ground when he dropped us at san angel. we browsed around the saturday market, grabbed anne's first mango of the weekend, and then started on the scenic walk back to coyoacan.

we headed to the market, with visions of quesadillas dancing in our heads, but no such luck... they were shutting down for the day so we gorged ourselves on ceviche, tuna, chicken and crab leg tostadas, pinapple and guava agua fresca and fresh-squeezed orange juice, as fuel for our one and only big night out. we got ready to head to plaza garibaldi, the square just north of the historic center famed for being the birthplace of mariachi music, and grabbed a cab to whisk us there. we hit up a (lemon-lime soda) squirt-infused margarita booth first thing, and made better beverage decisions as the night wore on. we had our share of tequila and beer - served ingenously from a cup with the rim rubbed with lime - with quesadillas and corn on the cob mixed in for good blood alcohol level measure. we called a cab around 2:30 and were out cold by about 4am... though celene was sure to get in a little early dawn crossword-ing first.

we were up and out by about noon the next day... too late for my tamale man, but in plenty of time for another round of 9 peso jarocho mochas and lattes, and waiting for an hour or more to be served at the quesadilla place at the market that we had tried the day before. the wait was long and arduous, but dang did the squash flower, hot pepper, sausage and potato, quesadillas taste good. with our mouths suitably on fire from the innocuous-looking peppers, we set off for chapultepec park and its castle. we took the metro and then settled into a long climb to the castle up on the hill, where we learned a little something about mexico's history and took in some nice views over mexico city... it was an unusually clear day which i have learned to take full advantage of, since they are few and far between.

we hydrated ourselves with water, apple soda and coke afterwards and then hopped back on the metro to check out the historic center. it was a sunday, and there are still AMLO supporter tents set up everywhere, and the place was dead. it felt like a ghost town... but we popped into zara - a vice i first discovered in france with celene and anne - for a little shopping and then walked through the alameda park to get back on the metro and head home.

back at my house, it started to - ! - rain, so we snacked on some chips and guacamole while we waited it out. eventually it let up, so we strolled around coyoacan's weekend market so the ladies could stock up on some goodies to take back. we ended the night with more aztec soup, praise-worthy margaritas (sans squirt) and cajeta-filled churros and some dessert that i think is called ponche that i had always assumed to be pork rinds in a different form (which, in general, is a pretty safe assumption here) but celene informed me otherwise. high on sugar and strong margaritas, we had an extensive cot-based photo shoot back at my house and then turned in.

celene was up and out by 5am, with anne, abbe and i finally getting some coveted tamales from coyoacan's best tamale man before heading into the city for a last souvenir stop at a big craft market called la ciudadela. we topped off our shopping trip with mango and papaya and then went back to coyoacan. they got there things together, and were off before i knew it.

a very full weekend, with very full bellies. it seems appropriate that when i told me coworker mariana about our weekend in our language exchange last week, at the end of it her response was something along the lines of "if nothing else, it certainly sounds like you ate and drank well." i guess she's right.