Yesterday was a bear of a day because I got a very last minute very rush request to transcribe the final cut of a movie for broadcast when I already had a full queue of work. I finished the movie job around eight P.M. and had to give up on other work around nine as I was starting to see double. So I got up super early today to finish work due by ten, at which point I took a long break to meet my coffee group at a new-to-me joint that specialises in delicious brownies. They are only 1.5KM from me, so thank goodness the brownies are expensive enough to not be a huge temptation!
I got in and did the other short job due today and decided that I was done. I retired to the couch with Bonita and promptly fell asleep. LOL! I had a garbage crew scheduled for 1:30, but they kept getting delayed because of rain and didn’t arrive until close to four. By the time they were done, I just wanted to go back to bed, which would have been nuts. So I headed north to the Siglo XXI Expo Feria del Comercio (Commerce Fair Expo).
This wound up being a massive event! Imagine three or four Costco-sized areas full of booths! There was a bit of everything, from food to clothing, cars to jewelry. The theme was Yucatecan pride and most products were of Yucatecan origin.
Vendors seemed reticent to engage a possibly non-Spanish speaker, so that made it possible to browse at my leisure. When a few vendors did engage me, I let them give me their spiel and in most cases, bought something!
There was these folks selling chile-based jams. I bought this jalapeño-based one that will be wonderful spread on a bit of cheese. They served it on Ritz crackers, which was really good too!
I sampled quite a bit of this anise, local herbs, and honey liqueur at different booth and bought this one because it tasted more like honey than anise. I can imagine it would be delicious added to coffee or ice cream!
There was a young gal enthusiastically selling creams made with essential oils. She had a great sales pitch and one of the creams had a similar composition to a popular commercial cream meant for sore joints, so I told her I’d buy one. She was so surprised (and happy!) to make a sale!
We chatted a bit and when I told her I’m Canadian, she switched to perfect English and told me she had just got back from Montreal and is saving up money to go back as an exchange student!!!! If I hadn’t already paid her for the cream, that would cinched it!
Another stand had all the El Yucateco salsas out for folks to taste. I apparently killed my taste buds recently and have developed a surprising tolerance for spicy foods. I’ve been having beans and hot sauce on tostadas for breakfast most mornings and was ready to move away from Valentina and Cholula. I tried three or four of the El Yucateco sauces and the green habenero was my favourite. I really am a green sauce aficionado more than red!
Brownies were the theme of the day when I found booth with a young guy selling some. His were actually better than the one I had this morning and I bought a cheesecake one to enjoy right then.
Finally, I picked up these “amber” earrings. I have that in quotation marks because I’m pretty sure they’re plastic. But they weren’t expensive and I love how they are not a matching pair.
After all that spiciness, sugar, and booze, I need protein for dinner. So I took advantage of the fact that I’d driven to pop into Pollo Feliz for a whole chicken, which will give me leftovers for the weekend, since, you guessed it, I have a full weekend of work ahead! But, hey, I got last Saturday off!
