Maíz

I apologise for my lack of posts. Truth be told, I've been working a lot lately, finally - bien! But its making me pretty tired, I even turned down a sushi making lesson I'm so tired. Not cool. Anyway, before work upped my hours, I did manage to get half a photo project started and this is what I mean to share with you now. Those of you who know me well will not be entirely surprised at its agricultural and food theme.

I'll start with my inspiration (if you can call it such a grand name). The 174 bus has become a trusted friend to Ellie and I. It reliably takes us to the centre of town and back on a regular basis, it's just a lovely thing. Part of its route takes you past a market and every morning and indeed all day long, one may observe the row of about 8 almost identical corn workshops. The corn arrives in truck-loads and is sorted and prepared for sale by a group of ever so friendly workers. White corn is perhaps the most important Mexican staple, along with frijoles and chili of course! You only have to spend one day in this country to learn its importance: tacos, totopos, tortillas, pozole, tejuino (yuk!).... . Today we even accidentally made a corn-custard (don't ask), so we ate it with a faux-fruit cake, Merry Mexican Christmas! The Mexicans love their corn so much they include a picture it of the $100 peso note. Anyway, the point of all this is that it was at the corn workshops I decided to begin my impossibly exciting corn project. So Wednesday the 7th December (Happy Birthday Mum) my dear camera and I headed out on the 174...

Mexicans are friendly people, so Nacho and José were more than happy to spend some time explaining to me what they do. Each workshop belongs to a different worker (although a couple are shared), the different workshops do slightly different things but mainly they sort and prepare the corns for sale to the public. The corn is sold either whole (found offered by street vendors with the ever present cream and cheese - it's good!) or in grains (for Pozole, a  corn based soup, haven't tried it yet, will keep you updated). Some of the workshops made a corn mass for fresh tamales de elote (oh tamales!).

I'm going to assume my blog readers are not that interested in Mexican White Corn, those who wish may skip to the last paragraph before perusing and complimenting me on the photographs in the comments box (oh go on!).

Mexican white corn is the corn used in torillas and every day food. White corn is not the only available colour but its the corn local to Jalisco. Head down to Michocán and you can find blue, red, black and purple corn - fancy tortillas! The corn in this season comes from Sinaloa (famous for its powerful drugs cartel). In the rainy season I was told Jalisco is covered in corn but it hasn't rained for over 3 months now so my corny friends have to source from further aflield (oh!). I don't know much about corn farming in Sinaloa, but José and I did spend a while talking about the hardships of agriculture in modern Mexico. Basically, it's hard. Farmers are forced to buy expensive fertilisers, chemicals and one-life seeds and sell at wholesale prices. It's not difficult to see the lack of logic here. One would think that corn farmers in Mexico would be revered as kings, but alas, not so.


Every part of the cob is made use of by the men in the workshops. The leaves are used to wrap and cook tamales in. Alberto had come especially to get leaves for his home tamales company. The grains, well, they are found in everything; from computers to alcohol to many, many foodstuffs. The centres are used in chinese cooking I was told, and there are an abundance of chinese restaurants in Guadalajara. Anything left over gets thrown on a massive pile to be sent off as animal feed. And that my friends, is how we should do things, 0% food waste here!

After spending a good couple of hours chatting with and photographing my new pals, Ernesto led me to the tamales. Anyone who leads me to tamales is a hero in my books. At the end of the row of corn-workshops is Consuela, bless her, who uses the corn and leaves of te men to make little nuggets of pure ambrosia. God I love tamales de elote. And so I went on my way with my tamal and a couple of reels of film. I don't know if/ how to continue this project - I'm not about to shoot off to Sinaloa. Any feedback would me most welcome, but yes I know, the stupid flash was an issue on some of the pictures )-:

Enjoy!

HaMmock Adventures.

I spent a wonderful 24 hours in Sayulita. Seems a while ago now, but I haven't forgotten the other 5 traumatic days, thanks typhoid taco. I will be avoiding all street food in our upcoming trip to the Yucatán. Nothing will spoil the Caribbean, Mayan ruins and the world’s 2^nd largest coral reef for me – NOTHING. Anyway here’s some pretty pictures from my one day in Sayulita, Nayarit:

Casual.

Ellie and a taco.

Yeah it was alright I guess.

 

Pacifico in hand.

The road our hostel was on. And the doctors...

View of the main beach, complete with animals.



A dead pufferfish. This one is for you Laura, you know why.

Craig and the margarita that was bigger than his head. I was surprised he didn't spend the next 5 days in bed too.

K

Coco loco

So Katy and I went on 5 day beach break to the beautiful Sayulita, an hour north of Puerto Vallarta. Katy ate a typhoid taco on our second night, and spent the rest of the trip in bed. Thus the majority of this blog post is about me having a nice time, sans my other half.

Our journey there, we travelled by bus first to Puerto Vallarta (watched 2 ½ films, nothing happened in any of them; free cheese and ham sandwich, more plastic than cheese though really, but I’m not complaining, honest). We only visited the tourist centre of Puerto Vallarta, for a quick lunch, but it seemed very Americanised, fake, rich and horrible. So we skeddadled outta there pretty sharpish and made our way by bus to Sayulita (bus driver playing Banda music, my favourite is called ‘Very Good’, where they say ‘very good’ repeatedly in a strong Mexican accent).

Sayulita is an interesting place, it is a big surfing spot (I never saw any big waves, but the sea was lovely, quite warm sometimes, and some little waves), and there are a lot of Americans, which meant food wasn’t as cheap as we’ve been used to. But this also meant we could find some good non-Mexican or mixture food (breakfasts especially). The beach is bright white sand, dotted with huge palm trees. Our first full day (Katy’s only day) we walked far, far, far down the beach to escape everyone, which was perfect. That is, until we were hungry, we then realised we were very far away from everything; who’d’ve seen that coming?! There was a great little fruit stall on the beach, selling coconut water in a coconut and other fruit cups. The fruit and veg is so tasty (especially the avocados, not sure if they count as a fruit or vegetable?), I think Sayulita has something like 360 days of sun a year. After having finished the coconut water, they break it open for you and scoop out all the jelly for you to chow down on.

Margaritas are big business in Sayulita, what with all the local tequila production, so we thought it only apt to drink a fair few. One night, an American friend had a large Margarita, I think it had 7 shots in it, and the glass was bigger than his head. He fell off his chair a few times after drinking that.

We stayed in a really nice hostel, met an interesting bunch of people, some nice people from Colorado and from India. Met a man from Canada, who seemed to be an exaggeration of himself, he was so overly cheerful! None of us dealt too well with his insane enthusiasm and loud voice. He was just so damn happy!

The best morning was the snorkelling trip. Two guys from the hostel, a Mexican and I went early in the morning to Punta Mita, and got a boat from there 20 minutes into the ocean to two islands called Las Islas Marietas. These are bird sanctuaries, and fiercely protected, there are birds there (blue- and yellow-footed boobies) that live only there and in the Galapagos! Because we were early, no one else was there either. We got kicked off the boat with our snorkels and flippers, made our way through a cold, dark cave and found a little beach. The fish were incredible, and not scared of us, but also not expecting food, they were just hanging out having a nice time (as was I). Then we went to the second island, to the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen, the water was completely clear, and there were all these caves I crawled around in (pretending I was alone, on a deserted island, because I’m mature like that) full of hermit crabs. My chest genuinely hurt, it was so beautiful, I just wish Katy could’ve been there too (awww). On our journey home (I tried very hard pretending I couldn’t see it was time to leave) we noticed a whale watching boat. What ho, let’s go see what they’re looking at… WHALES!!! There was a mummy and a baby, and they did the water spout thing, and then tail in the air to dive, and it was the most incredible thing. They really are gentle giants.

And that’s about it, I swam around in the sea (and cut my legs on rocks because I’m stubborn and didn’t want to swim where all the other people were, and hence where the rocks weren’t), ate a lot of fruit and vegetables and guacamole, and drank strawberry margaritas. Oh, and made friends with a man who plays guitar, who then wouldn’t leave Katy and I alone, and kept declaring his undying love.

E

La Banda Max

 There have been quite a few demonstrations recently here in Guadalajara, craftspeople demanding work, anti-government protests and of course some in support of "Occupy Wall Street". The Kiosko in Plaza de las Armas is currently covered in protest material. The various signs here say "No More Blood" - one of the main slogans against the drugs violence and government reaction, over the blood "PAN" has been written, the PAN are President Calderon's right-wing party currently in governement here who have been since 2000. Another says "Enough of social repression, we are all Temaca". Temaca is a small village in Jalisco (where we are) which the National Water Comission, using federal expropriation power, plan to flood along with a couple of other villages in order to build a dam. Clearly the people of Temaca are none too happy with the decision to flood their homes and livelihoods and are protesting with the support of many. The last is a protest in favour of a national pension. A friend recently described the politics of Mexico to me as "Kafka-esque" and the more I learn, the more I see his point.
 This is a view from not too far from our home, near the football stadium.

 A street seller in Zapopan, one of the largest of the 4 "districts" that make up Guadalajara city. It's also the most affluent, although this is said to be due to community development paid for by drugs barons living in the area. Guadalajara itself is a relatively drugs-violence free zone, but the drugs war is affecting this country in its entirety.

 More of the same.

Sorry that it's dotty and out of focus. But here's a photo of Ellie eating Mole and Flautas in one of our favourite mexican restaurants, La Birreria Las Nueve Esquinas.

K.

Pan de Muerto

 Day of the Dead is the traditional celebration of the dead on the 2nd November. It's actually not as popular any more, at least not in a big city like Guadalajara but still, Ellie and I searched out the skeletons, altars and yummy Pan de Muerto. In the centre of town, day of the dead skeletons were dressed as sportpeople, inkeeping with the ever present Panamerican Games (now over). Traditionally each family builds an altar to dead relatives, which is decorated with food and things that the relatives used to like, a guitar for example. One of the common foods related with the Day of the Dead is small (and large!) skulls made of sugar and decorated in lovely colours. On the day itself, families flock to the cemetary where they take marigolds en masse to decorate the graves of loved one with. Here are some pictoral representations, yes I finally got some film developed!

K

Las Muchachas de Arriba

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have had our first real Mexican Tequila drinking experience. I know everyone’s been waiting for this, you can now breathe easy. Friday evening Katy and I met with three Mexican friends for a night of walking, walking, walking, weird food and tequila. One friend knows a lot of GDL history, so took us for a bit of a tour, we then went to a parque with a great day of the dead market. One amigo ate possibly the most disgusting thing I’ve ever witnessed someone eating, mmm trotters tortilla. We then walked for a long time trying to find a famous cantina, which was a fantastic old style saloon bar. Katy and I were ordered a glass (of several shots, I’m sure) of tequila each, which comes with a little bowl of limes on top of salt. You sip the tequila then suck on the lime, if you want you put the lime in the salt first, but other than that you don’t really use the salt. It tasted very different to “tequila” in England, it was quite nice, very strong. Also in pubs you often get snacks with your drinks, so yay for free potatoes, cucumber and peanuts. The musical entertainment at the saloon was abysmal, the “band” was a woman who couldn’t sing and a man with a keyboard set to “80s awesomeness” playing traditional songs which included happy birthday. So that was interesting.

After another period of extended walking, we proceeded to a friend’s house, where we drank a fair amount of his very fancy, special edition tequila. His family has two dogs, both of which are ex-strays, and neither of which named, this is great. Tongue twisters, lindy hop and stupid youtube videos ensued (eh marine!).

More walking. Upon realizing we were all starving we entered an OXXO shop, which is basically Londis. We requested chorizo sandwiches, and then the fun really began. In the backroom/kitchen (kitchen? At Londis?) the lovely ladies working that night cooked us some chorizo sausages, heated up some tortillas, and opened up a pot of salsa. Four chairs materialized in the centre of the shop floor, the till became a buffet, and we chowed down on our bizarre 2am snack. It was brilliant and bizarre, I’ll try and put up a photo. And after a little more walking, that was then end of our first tequila adventure.

Ciao for now, E

Our run in with The Law.

A lovely Friday spent in the nearby (larger than expected) city of Zapopan. Following a fantastic fish lunch, fan-tas-tic, we paid a visit to the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, an art museum with a surprisingly large police presence at reception.  We sauntered in a cultural manner around the two downstairs exhibitions, predominantly filled with portraits of patients in a psychiatric hospital, and of dead bodies in a morgue. We proceeded up a very fancy, black staircase to the open second floor exhibition space which was dominated but a strange wooden contraption: a pulley system leading to a crate of coconuts at the top from which extended a long, winding and somewhat unstable slide that appeared to lead to the end of the second floor and out. There was a long explanation in Spanish of what it was meant to represent, but we were too hot to be bothered to read it. But what’s this, some instructions on the wall on how to work this large wooden coconut playground, well, don’t mind if I do. 1) Take a coconut from the bag on the floor and place in the wooden box, 2) pull rope to lift wooden box up to crate at the top (box tilts, enters top crate), 3) watch as this pushes another coconut from the crate into the chute.

We did as we were told and unsurprisingly the second coconut began its long winding journey along the chute, shooting out from the second floor to the police-ridden reception. Good. We cautiously approach the edge to see what has become of our round brown friend. Needless to say he is in pieces. The receptionist and various policemen are staring up at us from a coconut smattered floor. One policeman looks at us and says, in a not slightly accusatory tone, “did you smash this coconut?”, we later discover our reaction to this question had been entirely opposed. Well done team. We fairly quickly vacated the coconut guillotine area in search of more “art”, there wasn’t any. Katy answered a call and Ellie attempted to go down an empty passageway. We were taken aback at the sudden appearance of a suspicious policeman at the end of the passage, he rather insistently requested we accompany him back in the direction of the nameless coconut device. Katy: “Sorry Jonathan, got to go, small problem with the police” – hangs up. We follow him feeling like naughty school girls, trying VERY hard not to laugh, unsure of how seriously to take the situation. We would never have guessed what happened next. He had painstakingly re-set up the contraption 1) Take a coconut from the bag on the floor and place in the wooden box, 2) pull rope to lift wooden box up to crate at the top (box tilts, enters top crate), 3) watch as this pushes another coconut from the crate into the chute. Except somehow he had stopped the second suicidal fruit in its path – the obvious police reaction in suicide situations – he sent us to the edge of the chute to watch the chaos unfurl.  Upon removing his hand, the poor fruit tumbled to join the first casualty, coconut milk puddles abounded.

It took a while for what had happened to sink in – our reaction was to laugh in disbelief, we do not remember if we thanked him. Not got much going on for the police in the SAFEST CITY IN MEXICO (MUM). It seems their time is taken up with showing tourists how coconuts smash onto reception floors. In the future, when sending fruit down a chute, we will run to the end to survey the outcome. Thanks for the lesson.

K and E. Bless em.

Lupita - Me encanta la Birerria!

Just a keeping you guys up to date this time, a post absent from astute observations and the like - more a round robin.... We haven’t been that busy this week, just bobbing along, getting used to it all. Its hurricane season here so today we’re sheltering inside from the rain. We went to the Cathedral and a great art museum which had some wonderful Orozco murals – I’m very much looking forward to visiting the Orozco house and museum to learn more. His murals are like nothing I’ve seen before, totally arresting – miserable and violent . Also intriguing that as far as I can tell he had some interesting views on the Mexican conquest/ revolution i.e. he didn’t see the conquest as entirely a terrible affair. We spent a considerable amount of time in a bookshop this weekend, which was frustrating and useful at the same time – but the books were all wrapped in plastic! The idea you can’t look in a book before deciding to buy it is beyond my comprehension. Still I found a good book on Mexico’s history and a not so good book on the revolution. Ellie found a good book about gender relations in Mexico which is all lovely (not the gender relations, that she found a good book). Other than that we’ve been doing life-admin, eating lots, getting confused by the bus system (apparently if a bus says its going somewhere on the front, that’s sometimes just a massive lie). We found a great restaurant, Mexican again, with a lovely homely feel and delicious Mole, the cocoa based sauce the Mexicans eat with meat – YUM! Annoyingly whilst we were there they were filming a puppet based comedy show so grating voices repeating the same un-funny lines was the background to an otherwise perfect lunch. I start my course on Monday, which I am looking forward to, although these couple of weeks of not doing much have been great, I think I will be suddenly overwhelmed and will feel like I have very little free time, we’ll see.

K

Park and Taco Critics

On the quest for a nice walk, we strolled to the "lovely" park around the corner. This park is rubbish and small and full of kissing couples. In fact, a large part of the Mexican population seems to be made up of overly affectionate couples. Further down the road, we stumbled (literally, the pavements are very uneven and broken up, looking around whilst walking can prove dangerous) on amazing park. It is a large outdoor sports arena I suppose, fenced in, around 20p to enter, but it is fan-tas-tic. Football, basketball, running track, picnic benches, trees, pond, ducks, more ducks, grass - super.

Upon my arrival in Mexico (about 4 hours before Katy's severely delayed flight) I was taken for Tacos by the family picking us up. It pleases me to say that my first meal in Mexico was Tacos (excluding aeroplane food, which I am indeed excluding). They weren't very nice, but hey, TACOS! Tacos in Mexico are small fajitas, about the size of the palm of your hand, with meat (so many variations) and onions and sauce etc. piled on in the middle, eaten with your fingers. However, never fear, it was not long till my bad taco experience was corrected. Tuesday night Katy and I went to a taco/quesadilla/and everything else stand nearby and had, yes that's right, delicious tacos. Our stay here seems to be fairly cullinary based, but I am quite alright with that.

We'll try to update regularly with our adventures, so come back. Soon. We miss you already.
E

Bienvenidos a Guadalajara.

Everyone, but everyone has been welcoming us to Guadalajara with open arms. We feel the most welcome one could possibly feel. Our little flat in Jardines Alcalce in 20 minutes north of the centre suits us perfectly and we are lucky to be living above the most friendly family who offer us food, advice, anything we could possibly need. So far so good. That's not to say its all been going smoothly, the bus system here is confusing to say the least (there's no timetables/ bus route guides!) and everything tastes different. One observation Ellie made yesterday is that EVERYTHING is made form corn. This nugget of golden corn came to her after Jesús downstairs kindly took us to the next neighbourhood along, keen we should try the Jalisco specialty Tejuino drink. It's a beverage based on fermented corn, with lemon, salt and snow (crushed ice). We only had a small cup but it was extremely filling as we felt the need to drink it up out of politeness although the thought of the taste is not a happy memory. We're hoping a ride on the Tequila Express in the near future will prove that Jalisco has better drinks to offer. In fact we know it does as the other day Jesús and co invited us for Rompope, a delicious creamy rum drink served in intricate little cups, apparently its similar to the american egg-nog. Lovely stuff. After that it seems we had been lured into a false sense of security by our drinks serving hosts and we were ripe to be hit with the tejuino awakener. Hopefully this explains the name our of blog, in which we hope to keep you all up to date with our various taste bud and other adventures....


K