Month: March 2016

by

News From Home

Just got this from my friend and neighbour Caroline at Haven:

Hi Rae,

I know how you love food so I thought that I’d tempt your taste buds by telling you about my latest experiment.  Montreal Smoked Meat.  I love the stuff and can’t buy it here very often (almost never).  On Smoking Meat Forums, I requested a recipe and received several – one that swears that its as good as Schwartz’s or Smoke Meat Pete’s. I paid $50.00 CND for the brisket at Mitch’s Meats and then go totally hosed at Co-op for the 125 grams of coriander ($25.86). Put the rub on the meat and flipped it twice a day for 10 days. Washed it, soaked it for 3 hours, patted it dry, put on another rub of coriander and coarse black pepper for 24 hours. Today it is in the smoker.  Maple smoke at 250F for 4 hours, then in the oven for another 5 hours.  Tomorrow, I will steam it for 3 hours and serve it on fresh rye bread with mustard.

All of my previous experiments have turned out well.  The cured & smoked pork chops are heavenly.

I don’t know if you check our weather here, but we have had a silly mild winter.  Its headed into the teens again today and I fear that the plum tree will bloom and be frosted again, hence no fruit.

We started our summer supply of wine, have 180 bottles in various stages of fermentation.

If you wish, you can share this with your blog readers,  some may be interested in Haven.

Miss you

Love Charles & Caroline

Is anyone else drooling? Caroline is am amazing cook and she makes everything from scratch. Charles hunts and butchers a lot of their meat and most of the rest comes from Mitch’s Meats, a butcher with high quality products, not the crap you get at supermarkets. She didn’t say it in the email, but I’m pretty sure she made the rye bread herself because you can’t get decent rye bread out west. Being a Montreal gal, I’m drooling. You just can’t get decent smoked meat outside of Montreal, although I did have some that passable enough for a desperate person right here in Mazatlán last year!

The news on the weather is really good. I am going to keep monitoring as it means I may be able to get home early this year. With the impending trip to Europe, I just don’t want to spend a lot of money in the U.S. this spring and made be willing to do a cannonball run north similar to the one I did going south so I can land and make some money ahead of jetting off.

As for wine, I imagine I’ll have time for a few nights of rolling down the street to home quite tipsy after a delicious dinner! 😀

I love these updates as I find that they ground me. No matter how much I’m planning to be on the move, they remind me that when I get tired, I have a place to land.

by

Mercuriality

It was incredibly windy yesterday, with huge waves breaking on the beach and a storm warning for today. It made for a very dramatic ride.

I woke up really early this morning and when the sun finally rose, it wasn’t sure what it was doing. It would shine for a moment and then be blocked out by heavy grey clouds that would spit angrily. This went on all day.

Because I had worried about losing power if there was a storm, I only had a very light load of work that I was able to complete by about 10:00 this morning, and that included an unexpected proofing project that had dropped into my inbox around 7:00. I puttered all through the rest of the morning and into afternoon, then decided to go out.

Even though there was more blue sky than cloud cover, it was still spitting and quite cool as I reached the nearly deserted beach. Semana Santa is coming up fast, so I might as well savour these quiet beach days while I have them. No restaurants had seating set up on the beach and some were cleaning up palmas from their palapas. So the beach saw some action that I missed in the last 26 hours.

I came off the beach at the Goat Island causeway and headed towards home. The empanada guy was coming out of someone’s yard as I did so and I called him over to see what he had left. It’s a good thing I don’t run into him often because I cannot resist his fruity flaky treats! His empanadas are basically a folded over circle of pie crust with a jammy filling. Today, I went for strawberry. They taste best with a cold beer, so I stopped off at the Mercado Isla de la Piedra, a tiny shop kitty corner from the butcher shop, to get a few Tecate Light. They don’t carry Pacifico, but otherwise have a good selection of beers for such a small shop, including XX in cans.

Here’s a map of my world (and my walk today — click to embiggen):

map

by

A New Dress and Lunch at El Fish Market

I went back to town today in search of my friend’s elusive publication as I had finally ascertained that it was going on sale today. I left around 11:30 after doing some work.

The embarcadero on the Maz side has had a new ramp since I got back from Mérida. Was very pleased to see that since the old one was starting to get scary.

IMG_0969

The lady who works the deli counter at the City Deli was on the lancha with me and asked if I wanted to split a pulmonía. I was tempted, but I really did want the walk so I declined. She was taken aback by the fact that I was going to the Mercado on foot and said, “In this heat?!” I replied, “It’s just normal heat…” “Well, you’re strong!” I’m not the only “walker” I know who has no trouble doing so in this weather. Just stay on the shady side of the street if possible and hydrate!

I got to the Mercado and asked a few vendors about the publication, but no one had heard of it, unfortunately. I know that it’s a European newspaper with an online American edition, so it’s probably like getting a UK newspaper in Canada where you can only find one at specialty shops in larger cities. Hopefully, I’ll have better luck with a digital edition.

Next stop was a dress vendor. I really love my pink dress and always get so many compliments about it. It is a very flattering style on me and I have been thinking for weeks of trying to find another one that is very similar. Here’s the pink one:

IMG_0971

It has some really nice embroidery at the bottom:

IMG_0976

And the bodice has some gorgeous detailing.

IMG_0977

I sort of remembered where I bought the pink one and started in that corner of the Mercado. A vendor immediately zeroed in on me. I said I was looking for a dress like the one I was wearing, only in dark turquoise or dark blue. She said, “¡No problema!” and pulled this out. Seriously.

IMG_0972

It is very, very similar to the pink one, but has some differences. The hem embroidery has hearts:

IMG_0973

The bodice has embroidery instead of the lacy panel insert and cords:

IMG_0974

But the sleeves are fancy and have the same type of insert as the bodice on the pink one:

IMG_0975

Here it is on me with my huge Mérida hat! By the way, I look like a tourist dressed like this! Mexican ladies might do a lot of makeup, heals, and fancy hairdos, but they are still usually in just jeans and a nice top.

IMG_0970

I asked the lady how much and she said $380. I had driven a really hard bargain to get the pink one for $330, so I countered the $380 with that number. The lady immediately said yes. So either she was conceding that I knew what the dress was worth or I could have gotten a better deal. Who knows. But I’m happy with the price! A couple of weeks ago, it would have been a 28CAD dress, but today it’s just 25CAD! 🙂

Next stop was lunch. Contessa has raved many times about both grilled dorado (mahi-mahi) and the restaurant El Fish Market, so with her having been to the restaurant recently, it was on my mind. It helps that I’m still “meated out” from Mérida and only in the mood for fish, seafood, and beans. So I decided to go check out the restaurant. I requested the Spanish menu after being handed the English one. It’s a bit more work, but it’s good vocabulary practice. I was surprised that the prices were as reasonable as they are. There were lots of choices under $100 and I think the most expensive platter, a whole grilled octopus, was $200. Beer was $22.

Everything looked delicious and it took quite a bit of time to decide on the grilled dorado. I was really tempted by octopus, but the most appealing way they offered it was in a taco, which wasn’t what I was in the mood for. Plus, I’ve heard so much about the dang dorado that I really needed to see what the fuss was all about!

The dorado was $150 and a very generous portion came lightly seasoned with soy sauce over a bed of romaine lettuce with chipotle coleslaw and potato wedges. The fish was absolutely perfect, so flaky and juicy, with a nicely caramelised bottom. I’m always nervous about creamy coleslaw because of mayonnaise, but this one was too good not to take a chance on. It got spicier and spicier the more I ate it. The potatoes were disappointing, though, as they are the stock frozen McCain seasoned wedges that I’ve seen at many stops between northern Yukon and the Yucatán. I had one bite of them and that was it. Had this meal had a nice rice pilaf it would have been a 6/5 (really), but the potatoes put it at a 4/5. I am very likely going to have this meal again one more time and I will ask for it without potatoes but with a couple of corn tortillas instead.

IMG_0966

Yummy lunch with a view!

IMG_0967

My bill was a mere $172! I really hadn’t expected El Fish Market to be this affordable for this type of restaurant. Service was really good, too, closer to what you get NOB, with the server being very attentive and checking in on you. I gave him $200 and he came back with a pile of change for me to make it easier for me to sort out a tip (smart kid). I told him to keep it all and he was obviously very happy with that. It was about a 16% tip, not great for back home, but very good for down here as 10% is the recommended amount. I usually tip around the 15% mark unless the service was particularly bad.

For the trip home, I ended up getting a seat on the fancy lancha with a bathroom. For this one, the captain sits at the front and has a wheel and a throttle (I’m not a boater, so excuse me for getting the terms wrong). It was a lot more work to navigate than just using an outboard motor and docking was difficult.

IMG_0968

It was another great day in Centro, days that are numbered, I’m afraid… The urge to have a cold beer on the Malecón will not be ignored from this point forward as who knows when, and if, I will get a chance to do that again once I leave next month…

by

Caught in the Act

Running dangerously low on coffee, I put in a good morning of work and then headed out just after 12:30. I walked to the Fisherman’s Monument to grab a bus and as I did, a group of six tourists passed me sounding very unsure of how to get back to their hotel and nervous that they hadn’t seen an auriga (pickup truck taxi) in some time. I asked where they were going and it was near the marina, so I told them they should just get on the bus. They replied that that’s actually what they wanted to do, but couldn’t remember which one or where to grab it.

I ask if they were looking for the Camarón-Sábalo bus and they said yes. Then were very happy to learn they were at the right place to catch it and that they’d be saving at least 40 if not 60 pesos, on top of having an adventure for the grandkids about taking a city bus in Mexico. I waved the bus down for them, helped them buy tickets, and told them to hang on to their tickets in case an inspector came on board. They met other people from their hotel on the bus, so they were fine from that point on. I wish I’d thought to ask people about the bus a lot sooner than I did last year as I wasted a lot of money taking taxis to and from the Golden Zone!

I got off in front of the Santander bank almost next to Mary’s, which is almost next to Rico’s. Thankfully, Rico’s had Veracruz dark roast so my long journey had not been in vain.

Next stop was supposed to be the Thai restaurant, but they’re on my barred list now as well because they are rarely open when they say they will be open. 🙁 It’s twice now that I’ve purposely arrived 1.5 hours after they are suppose to open and they weren’t. Friends of mine here on Isla have made the trip there multiple times to have the same thing happen to them. Shame because the food is so good. I regretted organising my schedule around theirs today because there I was at almost 3:00 p.m., ravenous, and not near any other really affordable food except for the taco place. I actually wasn’t in the mood for tacos, but went there anyway and had their “huarache loco al pastor,” which was a soft maize base topped with beans, al pastor meat, and cheese, serve with avocado and lettuce (and a bunch of salsas). It was about three times as big as I would have expected for the price, so I didn’t come close to finishing it. Al pastor meat is different in Maz than what I’ve tried in Durango and Mérida and I like this version best!

Since I was in the area, I stopped in at Mega in the hope of finding hummus. And did I! They had just stocked up and they had dozens of tubs of all sorts of flavours all with an expiry date of a couple of days past when I need to be out of the country next month! I grabbed six giant tubs (four plain, two roasted red pepper) as well as a huge packet of pita and headed for the checkout. As I was waiting patiently for the person in front of me to pay, I heard behind me, “What is that?!” in Spanish.

I turned and burst out laughing when I saw my server from Ta’Loco! I explained that it’s hummus, an Arabic snack or spread (untable) and gave the list of ingredients. He said it looked like ice cream and I laughed and said no, it’s salty. I gave him tips on how to eat it and said that I love it for breakfast. His reply, “I learn something new every day. But I don’t like new foods!”

I was still chuckling as I headed out of Mega. I mean, what are the odds that someone I know would be in line behind me while I’m buying enough hummus to get me through the apocalypse?!

Having an errand to run around the Mercado, I caught the bus back to Centro. It was standing room only most of the way and I was glad to get there. First stop was the agua fresca vendor I favour and I asked if she had smaller sizes than a litre. Yes! The smaller glass wasn’t as good value, but it made more sense. Thirst quenched (and guayaba craving satisfied), I visited several magazine vendors looking for something for a friend, but struck out. I did get a nice pair of earrings from my favourite vendor. She hadn’t had anything I liked in a while, so I was pleased about that. She recognised that I was wearing one of her pairs. At $10 a pair (yes, pesos!), they’re fantastic value.

Nearly done in, I schlepped to my last stop of the day, Ley, and had to resist buying out all their pineapple coconut yoghurt since it was half price! What a deal!

I found this at Ley:

IMGP3229

Looks like a spiny chayote? Anyone know what it was? I asked a guy, but he was too busy laughing at me poking at it to see if it was spiny like a cactus (almost) to be of any help!

My bags were pretty heavy by this point, so I decided to treat myself to a pulmonía since there was one right there. It would have been cheaper to take one on this side instead, but the walk on this side doesn’t have hills!

Oh, and if anyone is paying attention to what I said in my last post, I came home without headphones. 🙁 The brand Croft directed me too is too cheap for me to take a chance on. Soriana and Mega’s electronic departments had nothing. I think it may be easier (and cheaper) to find someone capable of fixing them than to buy another pair. Very frustrating.

I think I’ll call today a draw since I came home with hummus, coffee, and earrings, but without Pad Thai, a magazine, or headphones!

by

A Fool’s Errand

It was not a good return to work this morning. My brand new headphones were malfunctioning (sound only coming out of one ear) and a key piece of software I use to transcribe was disabled. I could work with my earbuds, but not without the software. So I spent a bit of time finding a potential replacement before going to town. With the current CAD/MXN exchange rate being as good as it is, I wanted to make a large withdrawal. Since there is a Scotiabank right next to Office Depot, where I bought the headphones, it made sense to go all the way out to Rafael Buelna in the hopes of getting a refund or replacement on my headphones. My receipt said they will do refunds within 60 days as long as you have the original packing and receipt, so I figured I had at least a fighting chance.

I saw a rather unique lancha when I got to Maz. It had a bathroom!

IMG_0963

Since I didn’t have much time today to go clear across town and back, I had a first — taking a pulmonía both ways on my own! This was my best ride ever. The driver only charged me $60 and took me on a super convoluted traffic-avoiding route by the outskirts of Juárez and down Insurgentes. When we got to the corner of Insurgents and Carretera Internacional, the driver asked if I was lost. Nope, I told him, the other Scotiabank is about 3KM to our left. He was suitably impressed and asked why I didn’t go to that one. Then, we ended up chatting the rest of the drive to the bank (Insurgentes becoming Marina, and then we turned left on Rafael Buelna). The red in this is roughly the route we took to get to Marina (we did a lot more turns), and the grey and orange are the most direct route. It’s probably not that much more mileage, but it’s a whole other Maz.

map

I was able to make the withdrawal I wanted to make by splitting it up into increments of $6,000. I then went in and had my $500 bills turned into $100s, $50s, and $20s, plus a bit of change. The counting machines make this job very easy and quick, but the lady still manually recounted everything, the first time I’ve had a teller do that.

Then, I went next door to Sole Mare to grab a bite to eat. I won’t be having lunch there again; the food is too much like the average fare you get at any chain restaurant up north. My “piña colada” iced tea was an interesting red colour, but tasted good. The sandwich was pretty lackluster though, just a very thin slice of processed turkey with lots of black olives (yes, I eat such things now and they’re the reason I picked that sandwich!), romaine, tomato, onion, avocado, and melted gouda on a bland bun. I asked for no mushrooms and the cook subbed chiles curtidos for them. Rather funny, but I’m always happy not to be treated like a Gringo when it comes to spicy stuff now. 🙂

Office Depot was hopping when I got there. They were having some sort of sale or promotion and it was a mad house. I always feel like I don’t speak a lick of Spanish when I go there because they make no effort at meeting me halfway speech speed-wise and today was no exception. It took ages for me to get to the head of the line of the customer service desk and then I was ignored for a bit until they were ready to deal with me. The clerk called the manager and she sneered at me and said that there is no refund on electronics past seven days! It’s not on the receipt, but it is on the wall behind the customer service desk. And then, she told me to leave/not make a fuss because they were busy. I found my Spanish again and told her that was fine and that I’ll never shop there again. That I’m leaving Maz next month for good is neither here nor there. I’d find another place to buy my office goods since I’ve always disliked shopping there.

Next stop was Soriana and they didn’t have much on my list. Between that and this being my third time in a row where I had a hard time finding a taxi upon exiting, I wouldn’t be shopping at that store anymore also. Knowing the buses the way I do now, I’d do the Insurgentes Soriana instead. At least when I did find a taxi, he only charged me $60. It’s normally $70 home from Soriana. I did well on my rides today! This driver took the more direct route that I would have taken last year when driving, Marina to Carretera Internacional becoming Ejército Mexicano becoming Juan Carrasco, then left on Gutiérrez-Najera, then the jog to the embarcadero. There was so much traffic and the drive took ages!

The lancha was packed like a sardine, with me being the last to board and grateful that I barely had anything and what I did have that was bulky was flexible (paper goods)! I didn’t need a taxi on this side.

When I got in, I promptly put the rent together and went to see if my landlady was home. She was a bit startled by the huge pile of bills I gave her and I explained that I have a hard time spending $500s, so I have them changed at the bank now. She was very grateful for that. I tend to give her a mix of bills most months, but usually pay in mostly $200s and $500s. So a stack of 55 $100s was rather impressive!

I came back home and decided to see if Sony could help me with my headphones issue. Sony Mexico claimed that my headphones were only supposed to be sold in Canada (!) and so they couldn’t help me. Sony Canada said that since I bought them in Mexico, they can’t help me. So I’m out about 30CAD and I have to start the process of finding a new set all over again. Croft gave me a tip for a Mexican brand that has a storefront on Zaragoza, so I’ll pop over there tomorrow or Thursday and see what they have. Office Depot and Sony both lost a customer today. And I learned that while Mexico may have many of the same stores as the Canada and the U.S., it obviously does not have the same consumer protections at those stores. I’m going to have to research this before I start making any expensive purchases in Mexico, including appliances.