Restaurants

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Finding the Shortcut

Lazy Saturday here in Maz.

I had the first massage of my life yesterday and between that and a giant glass of wine, I got to bed early and slept almost ten straight hours! The massage was fantastic, with the guy obviously knowing what he was doing because he applied just enough pressure to loosen the muscles without causing me pain. I was warned that I’d be sore today but other than feeling it a little in the neck, I just feel better today. I’ve had a bad kink in my back for ages and he got rid of it. Needless to say, I’ve booked him again! I like that he comes to your house with everything he needs, including a fresh set of sheets for each of his clients that day. My riding pals recommended him and now I know why.

It was very cold by tropical standards this morning, only +10C, so I wasn’t in any hurry to get up and only did so when the call of coffee was too loud to ignore. My house was like an igloo, so I bundled up before getting the water on. I love these cooler mornings because they are super quiet. I didn’t even hear the water guys, but I know they passed since there was a new bottle waiting for me at the curb. I don’t bother waiting for them like I did last year, instead putting my $10 on the bottle and setting both on the curb before going to bed. The other day, I only had a $20 bill so I taped it to the bottle and when I went to get my new one the next morning, there were two $5 coins sitting by it. I love that the honour system works here.

After coffee, I got dressed (including a cardigan even though it was already starting to warm up!) and went to the bakery to get a breakfast treat. I got in and promptly made another coffee to go with the pastries! Chris, Juan, and Mike got me some Veracruz coffee beans when they were here and I started on those since I was running low on my Rico beans (I would have done a run for those today had I not had this extra half pound the guys got me!). I normally buy the dark roast Veracruz and these were a lighter roast, but they still had tons of flavour and made a really good cup of coffee!

I spent some time doing bookkeeping and other online tasks, then decided to go for a walk in Maz since I haven’t been across in a week. There was absolutely no purpose to the trip other than to get exercise, so I decided that I would try to find the shortcut from Gutiérrez Nájera to Ejército Mexicano and then continue on to the aquarium to check out something in that area.

The shortcut isn’t spectacular, but it would save me ten minutes roundtrip when I go to Scotiabank and there are days when I need those ten minutes. Plus, the shortcut is through a quiet residential area rather than super busy avenues. I’ve tried to find it before, but none of the streets are marked, so I missed my turnoff. I still got to Ejército Mexicano, but through a more meandering route. The first turnoff, that from Gutiérrez Nájera was easy (it’s right across from the Red Cross (Cruz roja) building), but the first left wasn’t. On Google Maps, it really looked like turn left just before the street I’m on takes a sharp right.

So when I got to that corner, I looked around for landmarks before reaching for my phone when a lady asked me what I was looking for. I replied that it was a street called Josefa (it actually has a much longer name, but that was the first part of it). She told me it was a little further ahead. I continued another block or so and came to another fairy large cross street, so I figured I was there. Nope, the lady was behind me and said one more! There wound up being a little mercado on the corner, so I’ve got a good landmark. That brought me exactly where I expected to be, on Ejército Mexicano at the Instituto Mexicano de Gastronomía (Mexico culinary institute), so I’ve got a good landmark for the trip back.

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I crossed Ejército Mexico and continued on Ángela Peralta, which terminates at Avenida Rotarismo. I crossed that road and was then on Calle Rio Baluarte, which would take me all the way to the aquarium while paralleling Avenida del Mar. I’ve done this route many, many, many times in taxis!

So here’s a map of what would end up being my 10KM walk:

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I went around the block at the aquarium to check out the Bosque de la ciudad (city forest), known as the lung of Mazatlán. It butts up against a lagoon and there are major development plans for the area. It boasts kilometres of walking trails but, really, right now there isn’t much there.

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Many things are forbidden, including walking your pets:

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It’s a good thing I read the papers here or I would have wondered what these guys were doing with that Christmas tree!

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As it turns out, this is where Maz residents drop off their trees after the holidays. They are turned into mulch!

The lagoon is rather pretty:

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Lots of trees, sand, and children’s play structures.

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I read an article in the paper the other day about how there is a jaguar living in the Bosque de la ciudad. I didn’t see it and am glad of it since the article made mention of how its living conditions are ‘not ideal’, although it is treated with dignity and provided with care and adequate food.

After a bit of poking around, I headed out to Avenida del Mar in search of lunch. It was my third time looking for food before 1PM in that part of town and my third time having a very hard time of it. I turned towards the Golden Zone and walked for a bit before giving up and deciding to walk back towards Centro until it got to 1:15 (it was 12:50 when I turned around) and then get on a bus for a part of town where I knew I could get a meal at that hour.

I had no sooner passed Avenida de los deportes (on which is located the aquarium), when I found an open restaurant… which just happened to serve sushi! I think the walking gods were looking out for me. 😀 I can’t remember the last time I had sushi!

They were doing a brisk takeout business, so I knew I was in a good spot. I ordered iced tea, which had an unusual and delicious flavour (and came American-style with free refills), and sat to peruse the very huge and intimidating menu.

I started with an order of two octopus nigiri. They were only $35, so I knew I wasn’t going to get much octopus on them. They wound up being a giant ball of rice with cream cheese (what is it with Mexicans and putting cream cheese on everything?!) and very thin slices of super tender and fresh octopus. Perfectly adequate for the price, but, like all sushi restaurants in Maz that I’ve been to, I could have done with some real soy sauce to dip them in. I don’t know why sushi restaurants don’t have real soy sauce when it’s such a common and easily obtainable ingredient.

As my main, I decided to forgo any attempt at finding an authentic Japanese item and went with the ‘Miami roll.’ The eel sauce (not made from eels, but meant to be served on an eel roll!) that came drizzled over top was a disappointing flavourless syrup, but the rest of the roll was fantastic. The centre was cream cheese (LOL), avocado, cucumber, and real crab (not that fake crab-stick crap), and the outside had mango slices and both dark and light sesame seeds. Again, I could have done with a little real soy sauce to cut the sweetness (or at least some pickled ginger), but it was still very yummy!

Total for lunch with a tip was a very reasonable $150. I’d go to this place again, but with a bottle of soy sauce stuck in my purse! Get this, though, I didn’t make a note of the name and I can’t find it online! Thankfully, I know it’s just a little ‘south’ of Avenida de los deportes, so I’ll be able to locate it again.

I then headed home, going back to Rio de Baluarte and retracing my steps from there to firmly cement the shortcut (pitiful as it is) in my mind.

My favourite part of living on Isla is the lancha ride. I always enjoy it. Sometimes, I find the bit from the embarcadero in Maz to wherever I’m going is a bit of a drag and wish it had better bus options, but I never mind the boat part of the commute.

So that was my Saturday. Hope you had a good one as well!

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Lunch in Town

I had a bit of a homey morning, doing laundry and catching up on some chores and bookkeeping. Around 1:00, I decided it was too nice of a day to spend on the computer so I put on my new dress and a new scarf and headed off for lunch on the Malecón.

On the way, I stopped in at the Mercado with the hope of finding a very lightweight dressing gown, something I’ve been wanting for quite some time. I struck out at the thrift shops back home and I didn’t like the selection in stores. I just wanted a pretty cover-up to wear over my skimpy jammies so I can have my coffee outside or run out to get the water without having to get dressed first.

I went up two aisles in the Mercado when I spotted something on a dummy. I had it taken off for me to examine more closely and was surprised that it was absolutely perfect:

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It’s almost like a kimono, so it has a very ample cut. The length is perfect, not so long as to get tangled in it, but long enough to be modest. It will make a good beach/swimming pool cover up as well. I was quoted $250, countered with $200, and was told that the best price was $230, which seemed fair to me so I happily forked over the money.

I then headed to the Malecón to have lunch at El Shrimp Bucket, a chain of shrimp restaurants. I was wary about eating there, but read several reviews that left me intrigued. I knew it would be a pricy meal, but haven’t had a really nice meal out in ages. I ordered a Pacifico, which came with a frosty mug, and hemmed and hawed over the menu. Everything looked good! I ended up having the “camarones a la suiza” (Swiss-style shrimp) because it had tomatillo (green tomato) sauce, which I love.

Shrimp-wise, the meal was worth its hefty $212 price tag. The portion of plump charbroiled shrimp was generous and perfectly cooked. But the dish could have stood a few minutes under a broiler to properly melt and even char the Chihuahua cheese. The roasted vegetables (zucchini, carrot, and eggplant (!)) were sparse, but very tasty. I was surprised that the rice was of the plain old white variety since rice tends to be so flavourful in Mexico. But it wound up being the perfect base for consuming a very tasty red sauce. There was also a sweet salsa that I’m pretty sure had real maple syrup in it (!). It was great for dipping the veggies in and even complemented the green sauce. Oh, and I had a bun, which I used to mop up every last drop of that yummy green sauce. All the salsas were just spicy enough for my tastes. The only one I didn’t try was what appeared to be a tartar sauce, since that’s made with mayo.

The meal was good enough that I’d go back to El Shrimp Bucket to try their much more reasonably priced shrimp, bacon, and avocado tacos! Their beer is the same price as everywhere else on the Malecón, so the frosty mug alone makes a return trip inevitable!

There’s a raspado (shaved ice) shop almost right next door, so I popped in for a dessert that would be much lighter than an ice cream and more refreshing on a super hot day. They had a gazillion flavours and I opted for piña colada. I want to go back and try some others!

I got in to discover that the plumbing faery came by in my absence! I have hot water AND pressure in my shower!

Am I glad I did my housekeeping before heading out, though! 😀

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Sometimes, Even the Dictionary Can’t Help

Today was the day to go pick up my new scarves and dress, so the plan was to do lunch, pick them up, then do a big shop for groceries.

For lunch, I went to Tony’s Burgers in the mercado to have one of their beef burgers. It wound up being quite good since it was made with real beef, but the patty was really thin and there was too much bun. I would rather pay more (it was $37) and have a better meat to bun ratio. Next time, I’ll ask if I can have two patties and I’m sure I’ll still come in at less than I would pay for a burger at Beach Burger. I even found Tony’s burger better than the super pricy ones at Mary’s in the Golden Zone, even if those have more meat. I still can’t believe it took me this long to discover Tony’s!

My things were ready for me when I arrived some time later at the seamstress. I hadn’t double checked my receipt when I went in last time and didn’t realise that her sister had put down seven scarves instead of eight. I paid for the eighth one and will have my friend Janet pick it up sometime next week and bring it to me on a Monday when she comes to Isla to ride.

Here’s my finished dress:

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I look forward to being able to wear this one in Maz.  I’ve been wearing it around Isla without the straps, but I’m too much of a lady to go to town dressed like that. It’s a really flattering style and I’m happy to now have two dresses in that cut and fabric.

Here’s the first batch of scarves:

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The colours are a bit off because of the weird lighting in the house. The far left one is actually a really deep brown, the middle one is steel-coloured, and the one on the right is a very dark purple. They’ll make nice neutrals.

Here are the more fun ones, with their colours being more reflective of reality:

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The one on the far left is blue and white, then there’s a dark pink with white splotches, then a lighter pink with white flowers, then a mint green with purple flowers. The eighth scarf also had a bit of a tropical vibe and is similar to the one on the right.

The seamstress wasn’t pleased with the fabric I bought since it’s not super great quality and warned me that I shouldn’t be surprised if I snag a scarf and the fabric starts to run. I expected this. Modatelas (literally fashion fabrics), a higher quality fabric store, just opened by the Mercado to compete with Parisina and I’ll go there and look for better fabric, preferably a stretchy cotton, since the seamstress is available to make me more!

I then hiked a couple of blocks to Alemán and waited a few minutes for the Sábalo bus. On it, I met a Colombian hotelier who made me promise to go check out Colombia someday, something a colleague of mine has also told me. They both said the same thing: Colombia is a cleaner, better organised, safer, and cheaper Mexico that is currently a really well-kept secret since most of the world hasn’t figured out yet that Colombia is no longer the terrifying place it was 20 years ago. One day. 🙂

I really didn’t feel like going all the way up to Soriana, so I decided to do my shop at the big Ley. The bus was extremely crowded and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get off. So as soon as I saw the Domino’s in the distance, with the turnoff to go to the big Ley only a block or two past there, I beeped the button. Sure enough, it took so long for people to let me through that the bus driver got impatient and drove off, only stopping again when I made it to the rear exit door and beeped again. That was fine as it brought me about a block closer to Ley. I hopped off and walked the three or four blocks to the store.

Ley had everything on my list, including hummus, but I got a little frustrated that all their beef was labeled “beef flesh.” I have no idea what I bought, but I’m hoping it’s similar to the “sirloin” stuff Soriana sells that I like. I really stocked up on meat for once since they had some good prices.

There was a woman promoting a product’s two-for-one sale. I had her hand me one and realised that it was a competitor brand for Tajín, the fruit seasoning (salt+chile+lime) I’m not nuts about, but which is strangely addictive. I’ve been wanting to try this other brand, La fina, so I put two bottles in my cart (for a grand total of $14).

The veggie section surprised me when I found kale. It wasn’t labeled and there was no price, but it was very fresh and there was so little of it that I grabbed it all, about the equivalent of two bundles’ worth at a supermarket in Canada.

The cashier asked me what the kale was and, of course, I completely blanked out. I pulled it up in the dictionary on my phone and told him to look up “col rizado” (spelling it out) or “repollo rizado.” Neither one came up. The produce manager came over and asked me where I had found the kale because he had no memory of it coming in. He went to look and confirmed that there was no label for it.

Finally, he said, “How much would you pay for this in Canada?” I did some math and figured about $40 (3CAD). His eyes went wide and he said, “That’s crazy!” He scrolled through the produce prices list a bit more and said, “It looks like fancy parsley. How does $14 sound?” SOLD. Then I told him I bought it all and he wouldn’t have to go through this again, which is where the accumulated crowd just lost it and doubled over laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

I then grabbed a pulmonía for the embarcadero (had a nice conversation with the driver), struggled to get my bags to the lancha because the package carrier guy wasn’t around, and accepted help on this side to get them into a pulmonía. I had to share it with a family going to the beach and as soon as we turned off the paved road and started to weave through the alleys to get to my house, the patriarch of the family asked where the hell we were going because he knew the beach was “that” way. I interjected and said that he was dropping me off at my house, which surprised him. Where the heck did he think I was going laden down with toilet paper, laundry detergent, and tons of food?! 😀

It never ceases to amaze me how a mundane day of running errands is so special down here!

Now, to figure out what I’m doing for dinner with all that kale!

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Off to The Beer Company, Mazatlán

Finishing at 2:00 continues to be worth the 5:30 a.m. wakeup time! I can go have an adventure, explore unfamiliar parts of Maz, get some exercise, and be home in three hours flat before dark!

Wandering Mike, Chris, and Juan went off gallivanting on Sunday, with their main destination being a place that Mike discovered in Guanajuato, a chain of stores called The Beer Company, which features beers from all over the world as well as tons of Mexican craft beers. Lovely souls that they are, they returned with a Mexican stout and some Veracruz coffee beans for me!

I couldn’t believe that I’d never heard of this place and when I discovered just how easy it is to get to (walking distance, even!) I decided to go check it out this week. The store is on Avenida del Mar, between Lola Beltrán and the turn for the bus depot, and only 6.4KM roundtrip from the embarcadero.

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It was a lovely hot and sunny day until I left at 2:00, when clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. It was very chilly crossing over to Maz on a choppy channel and the lancha’s engine cut off partway. What else was there to do but take in the scenery of a shrimp boat coming into port?

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We eventually got underway again and once I reached the other side, I decided to take Ejército Mexicano part of the way north so that I could do a withdrawal at Scotiabank. The bank was really busy today! There were two people ahead of me at the ATM and at least a dozen ahead of me in the queue inside. Needless to say, I was there a lot longer than I had planned on. I guess everyone was doing their end of the month stuff because it’s normally very quiet around that time.

Next stop was the Rin Rin pizza by the big Ley. It’s not as good as the one at Mega, but it’s a bit cheaper and you get a drink, all for just $25.

I then turned towards the water, turned right on Avenida del Mar, and very shortly thereafter, saw the bus turnoff sign:

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Which is when I figured out why I’ve passed The Beer Company so many times and never noticed it. There is just one sign and it is quite high up, to be seen from a distance. It wouldn’t be particularly visible from a bus seat.

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It’s a bar as well as a store, so you can sit out with a beer. I was tempted, but I wanted to get home before dark so I stuck to shopping.

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There are several fridges with dozens of different beers, including nearly two full of only Mexican beers. A very attentive clerk came to give me a hand. I first had him narrow the selection down to Mexican beers, then asked for something similar to Pacifico, ie. a crisp easy drinking lager. He handed me two, including one called Olas Altas that he says is the original recipe for Pacifico.

As a contrast, I wanted a stout and told him that my friends had bought me a very dark beer with a skull on the lid (not knowing how to say cap). He went, “AH!” and pulled out the correct beer. I asked for something similar and he recommended two.

I bought all four beers for a total of $281 (about 24CAD). The four-pack of beer just barely fit in my purse and was pretty heavy to drag home! Here’s my lineup with Sunday’s Imperial Stout on the far left.

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Here’s the “skull lid.” 🙂

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I’m drinking the Olas Altas now and it’s definitely hoppier/more bitter than Pacifico, but still very smooth. I’m optimistic about the others!

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So I Finally Had a Shrimp Burger at Tony’s…

Today was another very full day! I got my work done ahead of the deadline and waited for my client to confirm that he had received it, which he normally does promptly. Half an hour later, I got an email asking where the work was. I had successfully sent it, so I went to downdetector.com and learned that Gmail was having serious issues. So nothing I could do about it other than slip the job into a shared FTP folder on my server, Skype my client to let him know where to find the file, and to wish him luck with his email issues.

The not fun part of the day done, I had a late breakfast and then greeted Janet around 10:30. It was just the two of us again today for riding, but we didn’t go out on our own. Daniel was in a feisty mood, with today’s Spanish lesson being fall of naughty words! That Monday morning hour and a bit is so special and magical. As if riding on a beautiful tropical beach wasn’t enough, we get the linguistic lesson thrown in as a bonus. I really treasure my Monday morning ride.

I got in around 12:30 and put together a few things so I could run a very specific errand in town. First stop on the other side was lunch! I’ve been hearing so much about the shrimp burger at Tony’s in the mercado from several unrelated sources, including Chris and Juan, that it was time to have it even if the last thing I needed after all that holiday food was a burger!

This is what I got for $60:

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I like how they avoid having to wash dishes…

It’s pretty clear from the picture that the burger is all about the bun. There were barely any shrimp (related, I’m sure, to the shrimp fishermen having a hard time this winter), but what was there was perfectly grilled and fresh, so points for that! There was also lettuce, tomato, and crema. I found that it was missing something and I was about halfway through when I realised that all reports of the shrimp burger had it with avocado on top. What was there was delicious. I like how the bread was toasted and there were definitely some spices or seasoning, plus the veggies were very fresh. I’ll have to try again on a day when Tony himself is cooking because while it was good, I was underwhelmed after all the hype.

Next stops were the two Parisinas (fabric stores) near the Mercado. One has more fabric, the other has more notions. I was looking for fabric for head scarves. I was a bit disappointed by the selection of fabric at hand, not finding any stretchy cotton, only polyester, but I came out with enough satisfactory material for eight scarves for just $120 between the two stores. I’ll have three in solid colours and five with patterns.

I was carrying a rather heavy bag with a scarf pattern; sample scarf; and two dresses, one of which I was hoping I could add to my order (hemming and straps) and the other being the model, so I didn’t do any other shopping and instead headed straight for the seamstress. It’s not my fault that my favourite nieve de garrafa vendor was on that route… 🙂 I haven’t been there much this year and I was still recognised! The owner told his helper to give me two scoops of prune and one each of my two other choices even before I had ordered! So that was four scoops for the price of three. They are small! Four scoops is less than a standard scoop of ice cream, and not nearly as rich since there’s no cream in them. I sat on a bench in the Plazuela Machado for a break to eat my treat.

From there, it was a few blocks to the Costura Express on Carnaval. The lady I had spoken to last week wasn’t there, but her sister was. Between my Spanish and her limited English, we figured out what I wanted and she even called her sister to confirm my order and find out if she could do the dress, too. Yes, for $80, which puts that dress at the same price I would have paid if I had bought it finished. Perfect! I really understood their conversation, including where she bargained the dress price down for me since I had the fabric for the straps. I will get to pick up my order on Saturday! I’m so excited since I’ve been wearing the same three scarves for ages. The new scarves will be $70 each, plus $15 each for the fabric, for a total of $85 each, 5USD at the current exchange rate. I paid 30USD each for my current scarves! It will be nice to have that dress finished, too. I’ve worn it strapless around Isla, but it’s way too casual to wear into Maz.

I then headed back to the mercado to pick up some fruits and veggies, stopping at a few vendors until I got most of what I wanted. I was ready to drop by this point, but still stopped in at the Ley on Melchor Ocampo, which has been totally revamped! I got some more fruits and veggies (half each of a cabbage and pineapple) and meat.

Thankfully, my friend Sue was on the lancha coming home, so we were able to walk a good part of the way home together, giving me something besides my exhaustion and heavy bags to focus on! 🙂 I got in, had a break, then made a ginormous veggie and beef stir fry for dinner. I really like how the beef is sold in such thin strips here since it marinates in no time. I just threw it in a bowl for about 20 minutes with a minced clove of garlic, the juice of two (tiny) limes, soy sauce, and sushi vinegar and it came out so tender and flavourful!

No map of my day, sorry, since Google Maps aren’t cooperating. It was about a 5KM excursion.

Now, time to unwind so I can get to bed on time and be up and at ’em for 5:30. It is going to be a tough day tomorrow because there will be no power on the whole Isla after a transformer blew up in the Colonia yesterday (a guy who lives two doors from where that happened told me all about that on the lancha coming home). Needless to say, I’m worried about work. Hopefully, TelCel will work well enough for me to get through my day. I am also going to try plugging my modem into my inverter to see if my TelMex connection could work that way (the only reason it would be down, I’m told, is for lack of power, so…). My truck battery has a full charge, so I’ll have enough power, even if I have to charge my laptop for a bit. There’s no sense fretting about this until power actually goes down tomorrow. I’ve been told the outage will officially be 6AM to 2PM (my entire shift!), but that, in fact, it shouldn’t take more than three to four hours. We shall see!