Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
A brief excursion to Chandni Chowk
Sunday is quieter at the Chandni Chowk. Mind, quieter is a relative term. It is still the largest market of India. Most shops take the day off. Only the food shops are open. The chor bazaar is open as well. We walked the mile of Chandni Chowk, recently made a pedestrian thoroughfare with allowances for cycle rickshaws. Our destination was Kake di Hatti where we had a sit down meal on Chur chur naan, Amritsari naan and Amritsari chole (chickpea stew). On our way, we sampled fresh baked crispy nankhatai on Parathewali Gali, cauliflower samosa, and bedmi puri with curried chole on the main Chandi Chowk road. Kake the Hatti is located next to the spice market on Khari Baoli road and I found myself looking longingly at massive bags of puffed lotus seeds. Post meal, we hopped on a rickshaw and made our way back to Parathewali Gali and meandered about the narrow alleys.
Narrow is relative too. Sometimes, when you look up, the buildings on two sides touch and you can’t see the sky. It is cool and quiet. The narrow Gali Anar, translated “pomegranate alley”, leading to Haveli Dharampura could not be wider than 3 ft. Some of the old buildings of the haveli complexes were empty, one abandoned courtyard was overrun by young peepul trees. On some of these narrow alleys, you could have stepped into 17th century were it not for the overhead tangle of cables.
Read the rest of this entry »Zoppé Circus in Redwood City
I am really glad that the Zoppé Italian Family Circus has been coming to Redwood City since 2008. It is charming and old school. The photos below are from 2017 when they performed at the Red Morton Community Park.
Finding new in the familiar, Edgewood, Oct 2022
I wouldn’t recognize a Blueschist or Franciscan greenstone or Greywacke or Serpentinite, but Edgewood has them. I can only see colors and shapes in a rock pile. The blues and greens and sparkles of minerals do look beautiful, don’t they?
Read the rest of this entry »Upper Wunderlich trails, Sep 2022
We had intended to hike the Alambique trail, but Wunderlich parking lot was full. So, we decided to hike the Skyline ridge and Alambique loop starting at the lower end of Skyline trail at the intersection of Ranch/Stadler Roads. The trailhead is in a residential area outside the boundaries of the park, so there was no formal parking lot, nor crowd. The first intersection is the crossroads from where we walked the skyline trail service road to the trailhead intersection on Highway 35 and then walked back on Alambique. It was about 5 miles with a gentle grade, perhaps 200-300 ft of climb.
The entire five miles is almost entirely shaded, and occasionally, the clearings through trees offer views of the Bay. The skyline portion of the trail has the aroma of bay leaves. Alambique nearer the skyline intersection catches fog drip and presents an understory of ferns. These portions of Skyline ridge and Alambique trails are service roads and therefore, wide and easy to walk on. A few sections on skyline offer hairpin switchbacks and steep mountain sides, adding to the visual interest. While there was a big crowd at the base of the park, the trails here were quiet. We came across no more than half a dozen hikers along the way. You do hear the traffic noise from Highway 35 from time to time.
Read the rest of this entry »Skyline Ridge trail in Sanborn County Park, Sep 2022
Starting from Sunnyvale Mountain trailhead, this portion of Skyline trail goes to Indian Rock trail and back. Estimated length is approximately 6 miles. For most of the hike, the trail hugs Highway 35 but it wasn’t particularly noisy this particular weekend. We had just come off a major heat wave during the Labor Day weekend. The trail is almost entirely shaded and this particular day, it was rather windy. The treetops danced around creating a gush of sound, but the forest floor was not windy. The trail is mostly packed dirt but stretches of it are quite rocky. One does need to share the trail with bikers. The short Indian Rock trail portion is totally worth it and yes, it is an excellent spot to picnic while watching climbers. On our way back, heavy fog rolled in and we enjoyed the occasional fog drip, after the heat wave, it felt particularly soothing.
Read the rest of this entry »Skyline Ridge OSP, a trail through two ponds, Aug 2022
From Russian Ridge parking lot on Alpine Road, this 4 mile hike starts by the Alpine pond, takes the Ipiwa trail at David Daniels Nature Center, to Sunny Jim trail, to Horseshoe Loop trail around the Horseshoe Lake to Sunny Jim trail and back on the Ipiwa trail. Had read about the hike, thanks to Jane Huber. The trail is along top of the ridge at about 2200 ft, but the climb and descent is only a couple of hundred feet. Much of the Ipiwa trail needs attention, it is a bit rocky and exposed and the spectacular west views are giddying at times. When the fog lifts, you can see the Pacific Ocean. We noticed deer, turkey and rabbits. The Horseshoe loop between Lambert Creek trail and Tree Farm trail is pretty as a picture. During right times of the year, the ponds offer migratory bird watching opportunities. There are a lot of trail intersections and all well marked.
Read the rest of this entry »Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Aug 2022
A heat wave passed by during our time in the Humboldt county. Myer’s Flat clocked over 100F. We thought we would spend the hot day walking under the redwood giants. We stopped by the visitor center to pick up a map. We had intended a 8 mile hike through alluvial flats starting from Rockefeller grove – Bull Creek flats south to Big Trees Trail to Bull Creek flats north. First, we nearly missed Rockefeller Grove. Later, after crossing the Bull Creek footbridge, we got off the trail early on, meandered around the forest floor for a mile, hit a dead end and headed back out. On our way back, we stopped by Founder’s Grove. The 2.5 mile walkabout under the redwoods – Rockefeller and Founder’s Grove – had registered 90F.
Read the rest of this entry »Bear Creek Redwoods, Aug 2022
We followed the POST recommendation for the Bear Creek Redwoods hike. There is a short wheelchair accessible Upper Loop trail near the parking lot that circumnavigates a pond called Upper Lake – there are a number of benches to sit and have lunch afterwards, although none of the benches are shaded. The first mile of the Alma trail and the Madrone Knoll trail are the steepest climbs. The trail is well marked, shaded, broad and well traversed. The last bit of Alma and Madrone Knoll trail are close enough to highways to hear the cars going past. For most part of the hike, the air is fragrant with the smell of bay leaves. We estimated 7.4 miles and 1200 ft in net elevation gain.
Read the rest of this entry »Inspired by something I heard on “the 11th” – An attempt at exhausting a photo
To tell you this story, I have to go back a few weeks. I heard this podcast titled Exhausting A Place, on “the 11th”, and it got me thinking about possibilities of a place. In this episode, three people spend several hours just sitting in one place, observing and recording. A cemetery in Virginia, a cafe in New York and a plaza in Mexico. The episode is inspired by the book An Attempt At Exhausting A Place in Paris, “what happens,” as the author Georges Perec puts it, “when nothing happens.” While I found the idea intriguing, I could not convince myself that I knew how to exhaust a place, not even my little 12×12 patio with a single maple tree and two loungers. Then nothing happened.
Then a few days later, on a busy weekend afternoon at my grocery store parking lot, I noticed a sign I would normally not notice. On top of a familiar sign that threatens towing all unauthorized vehicles, I noticed some stickers. Anthony Bourdain’s face was one of them and it was he who grabbed my attention. I took a photo because I could not make sense of the collection of stickers. And that started a journey. A journey that I am calling An attempt at exhausting a photo.
Aside from Anthony Bourdain’s photo, it had three stickers, one was partially covered up. One said, “FIND SOMETHING YOU LOVE AND LET IT KILL YOU.” Another said, “ATTENTION DEFICIT ORDER PODCAST” and the final one that was partially covered up, read, “A FEELING OF SADNESS THAT ONLY BUS STATIONS HAVE”. I did find myself curious. Were they related in any way to each other? Were they related to Bourdain’s photo? If the owners of the stickers were saying something, what was it? This was my neighborhood grocery store, so chances were, these are my neighbors. As I take root, I find myself increasingly fascinated by those who are around me.
Read the rest of this entry »Adapting to the pandemic
The year 2020 can be best described as being stunned – the political, and social turmoil were bad enough but then a war with the virus started. The year 2021 has been about settling in for the long haul. Now that we are approaching 2022, omicron has raised its ugly head. There is no adapting to the multitude of losses that has happened and will continue to happen. Instead, I wanted to take a moment to remember the good moments.
We were six months into remodeling when the pandemic started. Despite all the challenges, our team brought us to the finish line in a timely manner and we were glad to be back in our own space. The new facets of the old house kept us occupied for most of 2020.
Read the rest of this entry »
A Californian saag-paneer
This saag-paneer recipe is unapologetically Californian. The only thing Indian about this is my homeland. The inspiration came from watching and then making Rick Martinez’s Pozole Verde. If you don’t have access to tomatillo or poblano, or you look at kale with trepidation, I recommend that you look for some other recipe. Like the “Thousand and One Nights”, there are a thousand variations of saag-paneer to dive into.
In this version, we are combining the bitterness, sweetness, savoriness and tartness of the components, to try and create a whole that is bigger than the sum of its parts, like a complex mole sauce. There are two distinct stages here, that are independent. The first is making of the fragrant paneer, and once made, you can use it in other recipes. The second is the green sauce, built from roasted vegetables and slow braised leafy vegetables. The sauce needs to be paired with a rich protein source, like the paneer or a slow cooked pork. The final stage is putting it together.
Following makes 4-6 servings.
Stage 1: The paneer
Making paneer is like making fresh ricotta. Essentially, you scald the milk, add acid and take the resulting casein protein coagulate and make that into blocks that you can subsequently cut up. Here are what we are going to need:
- 2 gallons of whole milk
- Crushed cardamom seeds, remove the husk and use mortal and pestle to crush
- Half teaspoon of turmeric powder, you can tell it is fresh from its aroma
- 2 fat limes, zest and juice, keep separate
- Salt
You can use any normal whole milk, but I am going to pay homage to Alexandre Milk (6% fat) – the first one I used to make this recipe. I mix the milk with a tsp of salt, zest of a lime or two, a half tsp of turmeric, a half tsp of crushed cardamom pods. Once it reaches boiling point, you put just enough lime juice to curdle the milk and get a clear whey. Then drain the coagulants away from the whey. The whey can be re-purposed if you are not lactose sensitive, it contains whey protein and is traditionally used in lentil soups. The coagulant can be pressed into a block, cooled and chopped into blocks.
I love the yellow paneer blocks in my green saag. Cardamom is a super spice. Its sweet tones go well with complex roasted flavors of the vegetables that will follow in the sauce. Once you make the paneer, you can stash it away for a few days.
Stage 2: Roasting the greens
Before we start, here is what we will need:
- 2 medium or large poblano peppers
- 1 head of garlic, wrapped in a foil with a teaspoon of water
- 2 leeks
- 6 tomatillo
In a pre-heated 400F oven, shove in poblano, tomatillos, whole head of garlic and leeks for 25-30 minutes. The leeks should be carefully rinsed to remove any dirt, the green parts separated from the whites, the whites cut into half longitudinally for better browning. The poblano peppers can be left whole or cut in half. The tomatillos skin should be taken off and the tomatillo rinsed, but otherwise left intact.
Once done roasting, cool and removed skins from poblanos and tomatillos.
Stage 3: Putting it together
Before you start, here is what you will need:
- A large bunch of fresh tender spinach leaves, washed
- A large bunch of fresh tender lacinato kale, washed, separate any hardy stems
- Stems of a large bunch of cilantro, reserve the leaves for another use
- 1-2 dried red chili
- 4 tbsp butter or ghee (aka clarified butter)
- Salt
- Previous roasted vegetables from stage 2
- Paneer from stage 1
Take the roasted leek greens and kale stems, add 6 cups of water and boil gently for 30 minutes. Strain the broth. Add spinach and cook for 30 minutes. If you are not sensitive to the oxalic acid in spinach, you can cook for a shorter time. Add kale and cook for another 15 minutes.
Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cloves and blend together with roasted leek whites, poblano peppers, spinach, kale, cilantro stems. Add as much broth as you would need to make a thick cake batter like consistency for the puree. Add 4 of the tomatillos and taste the puree. Add the remaining two tomatillos if their sourness is not overwhelming. You may want to adjust salt at this stage.
In a large pot, melt 4 tbsp of butter/ghee, break the red chili peppers and toast them lightly. It is possible to modulate their heat down by nicking them instead of breaking them. Add the green puree. Cook for 10-12 minutes to blend the flavors. Add the chopped paneer blocks. Adjust salt to taste. You can keep this for a day or two.
Serving
Serve with cooked parboiled rice. I like to cook my rice like pasta – plenty of water and then draining the water out. This makes for perfectly cooked rice every time. To round this out, you can put together a plate of salad with fresh cucumbers, sliced red onions, and tomatoes. The red onions balance out the rich saag-paneer dish. Sprinkle with lime juice and flaky salt. Also toast some pappadam.
2019, the year that flew away
2019 is the year that I learned that orchids can bloom for an year. It was a seemingly ordinary orchid from the neighborhood Whole Foods. I had brought it home right before mom and dad’s trip in Sep 2018. The photo on the left below, in full bloom, is from Nov 2018, and the one to the right, with a single remaining flower, is from July 2019. Alas, I don’t have the skill to re-bloom my orchid.
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We started a remodel of our home this year, and a large part of the design has revolved around maximizing the view of our neighbor’s majestic oak. To me, the process of remodel feels like trimming a tree and grafting new branches. New spaces will presumably create new possibilities.
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Prior to the start of the remodel, we snuck in a quick trip to Philo in Anderson Valley. Nothing special, just a get away from the internet. It reminded me of the trip to Tokyo, the trees around the cottage were buzzing with the sound of cicadas. Those of us who live in California are spoiled by our microclimates. We go away for an hour or two, and we might as well be thousands of miles away. The first week that we had moved into our temporary abode, a mere mile from home, we were graced with visit from a curious deer family who live in the abutting hills.
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The remodel is a mental tether, so travel is limited. We managed to squeeze in a quick trip to India at the peak of summer heat when mangoes are at their sweetest. My husband enjoyed his first taste of palm fruit, aka Talshansh in Bengal. He has always enjoyed the Bengali mishti version of the fruit called Nolen gurer Jalbhora Sandesh with fresh jaggery liquid on the inside and soft fresh cheese on the outside.
My grandmother’s home has been turned into a vocational training school. Over the last 5 decades, many wonderful memories have been created there. I remember the rangoon creeper (Madhumalati in Bengali) that surrounded the windows of the guest bedroom on the second floor. The intensely scented flowers attracted honey bees by the day and fireflies danced around the bed at night. Intense thunderstorms during monsoon nights were mesmerizing. Grandma would light sandalwood incense, kindled by coconut coir, in a genie lamp and walk about the house in the evening to shoo off mosquitoes. The mosquitoes inevitably came back, but the smell of incense lingered late into the evenings.
Many decades ago, the surrounding land was a charming small village abundant with ponds and trees. The house was surrounded by beetle nut and coconut trees. And grandma would invariably ask someone to harvest while we were visiting and we would watch with our pounding hearts as the harvesters would free climb the tall trees. Ladies of the house would gather around the freshly harvested beetle nuts and indulge in their addiction before starting coconut grating marathons that would eventually turn into sweets for the kids. The rooftops had their own dedicated activities, from drying clothes to sunning pillows to drying lentil wadis. I remember my mother and grandmother, both drying their long abundant hair in the warm afternoon sun during winters.
I particularly remember the polished cement floor of her master bedroom. It was a seamless geometric pattern in pink and cream. I try to imagine the skill and patience it would have taken to put together a continuous seamless block of cement with a wonderful geometric pattern. The end product was a floor that was buttery to touch and on hot summer days, we would lie down on the floor and listen to radio plays. We have been eyeing some of the handmade tiles from Heath and Fireclay for our home and I am grateful that these artisan tiles are still around.
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When we left for India, we had a lot of green unripe fruits on the plum tree and came back to ripe ones. Based on a recipe from The Noma Guide to Fermentation, husband salt fermented the plums. We put these plums in everywhere we could think of, they turned out to be delightful in sauces – pasta with a hint of warmed and crushed black walnuts, thinly sliced fermented plums, tossed with garlic-y olive oil or truffle oil and lightly showered with lemon zest.
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2019 was also special in that we were transported for a day to France. De Young museum organized an exhibition of nearly 50 paintings by Claude Monet, the final phase of his career when he was inspired by his own garden at Giverny. It was nearly as spectacular as a visit to Musée de l’Orangerie. Alas, thinking about Paris reminds me that there will be no more sunsets from the top of Notre Dame.
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In 2019, we discovered food from Mexico City at our doorsteps! Since the first tentative taco, we have tried Huarache and Gordita. If you are in Redwood City, don’t forget to pay Los Carnalitos a visit and get cuitlacoche if it is on the menu.
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Welcome 2020. I hope it doesn’t fly away like 2019 did.
Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze
Casteel is an accidental finding. A recent trip to Cantor, where I go for a quick fix when the right half of my brain needs nourishment, revealed the young artist, Jordan Casteel. Cantor is staging her west coast debut and first solo museum show. The collection is eye catching with its larger than life canvases and their vibrant colors. But then you start seeing the loving details in portraits of everyday people. Here are couple of my favorites from the collection.
Fatima 2018
Galen 2 2014
Fruits of Japan
 A single bunch of grapes = $100 USD (approximate) |
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Onden Ippo in Harajuku
 Smooth jazz and eclectic “bar meet spa” decor are what you notice when you climb down to this basement restaurant. |
 Pickled cucumbers, and pickled bamboo shoots as appetizers. |
 Salad of cabbage, bitter greens, and a pretty little cherry tomato in a tangy mayo sauce. |
 Grilled mackerel. |
 Sashimi with sisho buds |
The grilled mackerel is where my chopstick skills met its match. The fish was grilled crisp. If I were a cat, I could have just picked it up with my paws and munched it down head, spine and tail! I asked for a fork. To assemble, I picked up some of the grated daikon on my rice bowl and topped with some of the mackerel flakes before adding a dash of soy. Oh, it made me want grilled eel.
The customer next to me had ordered the mackerel as well. He was a dapper looking gentleman, and carried with him at least seventy five years of chopstick wielding experience. I was just a little embarrassed eating mackerel with fork, chopsticks and fingers. But I shouldn’t have been. The demolished mackerel on our respective plates looked nearly identical. And I noted that both of us used fingers in coordination with our implements.
Sound of summer at the Yoyogi park
 Trees of Yoyogi park |
 Ikebana at Meiji Shrine |
Jetlag in tokyo – Tsukiji market or Yoyogi park. In the end, the park won. It was closer. We headed out from our temporary home in Harujuku towards Meiji shrine. Tokyo has a delightful gadget called pocket wi-fi. So you can boldly go walkabout through narrow lanes without worrying about not leaving breadcrumb trails for the journey back home.
Tokyo is quiet for a big city. Early mornings should have been delightfully devoid of sound except for an occasional cat prowling about. Instead, we were immersed in an inorganic buzzing sound. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was, the sound was localized around trees. Yet, no number of birds can create that racket. And when the sound got amplified in Yoyogi park, I remembered the cicadas. We were indeed hearing the sound of Japanese summer, the cacophony of cicadas. Early in the summer morning, the park wraps you in a wet warm blanket. You notice your breathing because it takes a tad extra effort in that viscous air. The lack of sunlight on the wet musty ground lends a sense of suspense. The wide variety of vegetation brings a wondrous quality to the perambulation. Yoyogi park casts a spell like Hayao Miyazaki’s world aided by the cicadas who drown out all thoughts with their cacophony.
Benu in San Francisco
San Franciscans are smitten by Benu. Multiple Michelin stars decorate Benu’s crown. When we went to Restaurant Sant Pau a few years ago, Carme Ruscadella said good things about Benu. So we decided to make this the celebration spot for the 25th year of our partnership. It turned out to be a 20 course meal with 23 independent plates – almost one for every year!
Cold starter – chicken jelly (at the bottom) with lime peels in whipped cream layer served with pine-y mountain caviar (cypress pods braised in pork broth)
A few scattered moments …
Life in Centro Historico.
A clockwork of traffic crossing opposite Bellas Artes – the traffic lights are like dams and when they burst at their seams, a turbulent river of people make across the road.
Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the flyers) in Chapultapec park, opposite Museum of Anthropology – one playing the flute. An incredible ceremonial performance.
A walk down La Condesa neighborhood.
Tianguis Condesa (Tuesday Condesa Market) on Calle Pachuca.
A lazy afternoon watching bubbles
In search of grasshopper salt
We knew we would be able to source good Mezcal (e.g. Amaras Espadin) in California. But we were also certain that there would be no easy access to grasshopper salt. We were lucky to be living right opposite, Tlapaleria Gastronomica in Roma neighborhood, that sold artisanal food products made in Mexico. And what respectable gourmet shop in Mexico City won’t have grasshopper salt amongst its wares!
Tlapaleria Gastronomica, a gastronomic hardware show in Roma, right next door to El Parnita.
Various varieties of Mexican chili in oil.
More combinations of various chillies.
Finally, chapulin (grasshopper) salt.
View of a rooftop
Following murals are from rooftop of Museo Del Juguete Antiguo. This was a bit of a pleasant surprise, no one had really mentioned that the local artists had adopted the rooftop. We just noticed someone walking up, above the topmost floor of the museum, followed them and found the collection.
Dulceria de Celaya in Mexico City
Dulceria de Celaya, founded in 1874, is a traditional sweet shop in Centro Historico district.
Fried and glistening with syrup.
Various sweetened fruits. Reminded me of “Petha” from Agra, the translucent sweet candy made from a variety of white pumpkin. The pumpkin is soaked in chemical lime before cooking in syrup. Sounds strange when described but tastes like Pâte de fruit.
Doughnuts
Almond milk and coconut concoction and guava Pâte de fruit.
Almond and coconut pâte de fruit, in a sugar cooked lime.
Best steak at Mercado de Medellin
Los Canarios at Mercado de Medellin was a recommendation from New York Times from “36 Hours in Mexico City”. Since 1968, Los Canarios has been serving grilled meats, like sliced filet mignon at price of a plate of taco!
Medellin is a vibrant colorful non-touristy marketplace with a neighborhood vibe.
Tasty black beans.
Steak with cactus and onions.
Trio of stunning salsas.
Backdrop of sizzling meats and chopping action.
El Cardenal in Centro Histórico
Be prepared for a 40-60 min wait or even longer. It would have been wonderful to try out all their dishes to find a few personal favorites. In our sampling, the mole sauce turned out to be stunning.
Fresh Oxacan cheese sauteed in butter, wrapped in zucchini blossoms, onions and strips of green chili and baked in banana leaves. Served with tacos. The fresh cheese is lightly salted, crumbly and not unlike taste of Indian paneer. Zucchini blossoms do not have a strong taste but they add prettiness to the dish. Served with an excellent green salsa and fresh made corn tortilla. Overall, a refreshing start of the meal. We had sufficient leftover that we brought back and had for breakfast the next day.
A stunning mole sauce with chicken leg. Mole had several varieties of chili, chocolate, spices, and peanuts. Chicken was cooked separately and mole was ladled on top.
Fall off the bone beef shank cooked in traditional spices. This was tasty but not unusual like the mole. Perhaps my own familiarity with south Asian spices made this particular dish less unusual. Again there was sufficient leftover that we brought back and had as part of breakfast tacos!
Los Danzantes in Coyoacán
Los Donzantes came after the visit to Casa Azul. Along with excellent food, this was our first experience with Mezcal. It turns out that Donzantes brand is one of the more popular mezcal brands. Mezcal is a whisky like alcohol made exclusively from agave cacti. It is almost always smoky. The variety of agave results in other particular flavors. Smoothness depends on the distillation and maturation process. It is sipped like a good brandy and between sips, you can cleanse your palate with salt – typically you get sliced sweet limes to suck down the salt. Grasshopper salt is traditional but not served as default. I would have to guess that the price of mezcal is proportional to the wildness of the agave variety (hence hard to produce in large batches) and romance around the brand is based on the remoteness of the distillery.
Up until Donzantes, my familiarity with agave was the grand flowering process. Near our old home, our neighbor’s agave, which was nearly as tall as me, bloomed over course of an year. My best guess is that it was Agave Americana variety, the flowering stalk was as tall as a telephone pole. The plant died after the flowering process (their reproductive fate) and gave birth to a dozen small ones. I have always loved cacti, but after tasting mezcal, I am elevating my love for agave to the same level as my love for elephants. And please don’t head towards extinction, I promise I will drink wild mezcal in moderation.
Los Donzantes happens to be next to the beautiful Fuente de Los Coyotes in Jardin Centenario. So, in addition to their excellent Mezcal, al fresco dining without smoke and gasoline to flavor your meal is actually feasible here.
Fuente de Los Coyotes in Jardin Centenario
Early start to Mezcal, this is one of Donzantes reposado house brand.
Early finish to Mezcal!
Real tamales in Mexico City
Monasterio Tamales is a small food stall a few blocks from Frida Kahlo Museum. Perfect place to lunch before queuing up for the museum visit. And oh, these are the genuine article – fluffiness that can’t be brought about by “healthy” fats. A lunch that cost us a grand total of USD $4 for four tamales.
Savory tamales
Sweet tamales? I didn’t know this concept existed. But it makes perfect sense in hindsight.
We had ordered shrimp but I think they either ran out of shrimp that day or gave us a vegetarian option.
Cuitlacoche – famous tar-like corn fungus. We had our first taste of this fungus at a hole in the wall in LA. Since then, we have ordered Cuitlacoche anywhere we have seen it on the menu.
Mole
Guava (Guayaba) – this was surprisingly yummy. They had basically taken the guava pulp and discarded the seeds.
Locomotoring 