Chilanga & Churros

It happened. I was walking down a major street today, and a family, a Mexican family, stopped me to ask for directions. I was asked for directions? Is it not obvious I'm not from here? Apparently it's not obvious, but more importantly I knew the answer. Ha! This ironic incident occured on my way to a little cafe that supposedly serves organic food and desserts. I was more interested in the desserts since I had already eaten a mediocre lunch of chicken in mole poblano, and wanted a nice pastry to make up for it. The place was really small and cute, and had hipster young folk making the food. They served me their green tea cake, with frosting that looked like avocado but was just cream cheese with green tea and somehow very green in color. It was awesome. I ended up talking to the owner about organic produce and where he sources stuff. He spoke to me in both English and Spanish because he actually has a degree in English Literature and teaches at the university. Go figure. They try to source as much as possible locally but most of their dairy comes from... the U.S.. Dairy? They import dairy? Yes, they import organic valley cream cheese and butter, and probably some other stuff too. Hmm. So much for local food.

So you, as friends and family, might be alarmed at my consumption of fried foods here in Mexico. Churros, fried quesadillas, tostadas, churros, I mean, it's really good. The churros place down the street from my house is famous and you can get them any time of day, warm and sugary... So in order to be healthy I just walk the 4 blocks over to Viveros, the city's tree nursery, and go for a jog. Or this morning I walked the whole thing to get to the subway. It's a park filled with trails that are actually like little streets with street signs and everything. And you can run or walk or jog, with or without ipod, or do what's most commonly done, make out (see note below). There's a picture above of some rows of trees inside Viveros. It's amazing that right here in the city you have a beautiful park-like environment that also serves as source for city greenery and is right down the street from where I live.

Note about making out: For those that have not spent time in Latin America, it is quite common to see intense making out all the time, on street corners, in buses, in line for the movies, in the parks, EVERYWHERE. This is probably a result of a conservative catholic environment (and you know what they say about catholic school girls) plus people living at home for a long time, including in college, so there is very little privacy. At dusk yesterday in the park there were definitely more young folk necking than running.