Seasons

There is some sort of fall here in Mexico City. Apart from rainy season moving into a bit of a colder place, there are different seasonal fruits and vegetables that accompany the rain. The most popular and prominent in this region is Huitlacoche/Cuitlacoche which is a fungus that grows on corn cobs, usually thought of as a pest in northern Mexico/rest of world. Here in the center of Mexico it is a delicacy and people love to eat the stuff, and it is usually sauteed with onions, garlic, corn kernals, and put into quesadillas or stuffed into enchiladas or made into sauces. It's a very interesting flavor, definitely worth trying. It's a truffle at a whole new level. Also in season are pomegranates, pears, corn on the cob (versus corn used for tortillas), various types of wild mushrooms, walnuts, and a green prickly cactus fruit called tuna (the red are more common and also good but are in season at a different time of year). Mangos are slowly going out of season, although I've heard you can find them all year long here. Most other veggies stay the same, but look a lot nicer with the rain. I took a picture of some I had here in my kitchen.

It is also getting close to independence day, which is actually September 15 instead of the more commonly thought of May 5 (cinco de mayo). The 16th is a crazy time, with lots of festivities and faires in the central plazas. A popular dish that is eaten all year long but particurlarly at this time is pozole (a brothy spicy soup with hominy corn, shredded pork, topped with shredded lettuce or cabbage, radishes, onions, cilantro, powdered oregano, and sometimes cream, also served with whole fried tortillas) and chiles en nogadas (large pepper stuffed with a mix of ground meat, dried fruits like raisins, apricots, prunes, chopped nuts, cinnamon, then the whole thing is covered with a walnut cream and topped with pomegranate seeds - they look really pretty but it's not my favorite thing). See picture of pozole that I indulged in last weekend. It's my favorite! I will definitely have some updates later on after the 15th.

Another great thing I've been seeing lately is public display of affection for Michael Jackson. Last weekend while wandering the Monument to the Revolution there was a dance class with the young and old learning the moves to thriller! It was fabulous. See picture to the right.

That's Sooo Mexican

I've been back here 9 days and have been in the throws of work and, well, Mexico. Last weekend I attended a going away party for a friend from the US who has been here 2 years doing a post-doc, and is returning to the US. Her party was equipped with tacos de guisados and mariachis. So Mexican... I forgot my camera to take a picture of the tacos, but they are one version of many types of tacos. These have yummy stewed fillings to put inside, mix and match, and of course you cover them in salsa and onion and cilantro and guacamole (guisado means stewed, so there are bowls of many different types of stewed meats/vegetables). Other types of tacos are tacos de canasta or tacos sudados ("basket tacos" or "sweaty tacos", they are pre-filled and steamed and sold out of a basket on the back of a bike on the street), tacos al carbon (grilled meat, usually pretty simple steak or chicken), carnitas (pork boiled in lard... my favorite!), and the most famous of Mexico City, tacos al pastor (marinated pork roasted on a spit like the middle-eastern schwarma, along with a roasted pineapple, and both cut thin in a tortilla. Comes from Lebanese influence and almost exclusively found in Mexico City). I love tacos! What's not to love?

In the middle of the week of course the US played Mexico in soccer, which was very important for Mexican pride. I went to a bar in the middle of the day on Wednesday with some friends to watch the match, which was pretty entertaining. Whenever Mexico scores a goal the crowd goes wild, and chants "Mexico! Mexico!" I think they deserved to win just for national soccer pride alone. A picture shows some of the folks at our table mesmerised by the game.

This week I also had several meetings, one with the director of the peasant activist organization ANEC which is an interview for my dissertation. I met with him briefly to introduce myself and reschedule for next week: stay tuned for an update. I also met with some geographers at the National University's Geography Institute (UNAM Geografia) that are doing work similar to mine and want to collaborate! Cool people, 3 researchers/professors in the department that are studying the urban-rural interface. And friday, I also went to Toluca which is the city central to the region I'm studying, to meet with the director of the UN sponsored Toluca Urban Observatory which does studies related to urban growth in the region. They are interested in having me be a research associate, which means that I can get access to their resources and will publish something with them. It was a great meeting. Afterwards on my way to the bus station I asked the taxi driver where to eat near the station that was good, and he took me to a place where a foreigner has never set foot, but that had really good food. I had meatballs in a chipotle sauce, which was SPICY!! But really good. I used a lot of napkins cleaning my eyes from the tears, but it was worth it.

Later that evening I went some lady friends to a restaurant near my house that has sort of hip Mexican cuisine with traditional ingredients. I finally got my chance to try chapulines, which are a local traditional food. And are... grasshoppers! They were actually really good, and sauteed in garlic and chile and lime, served with a farmer-type white cheese and crunchy tortilla. Pictures show the dish, me eating them, and a picture of my friends Laura, Genoveva, and me.

Note: Chapulin also refers to El Chapulin Colorado (The Red Grasshopper), which was a famous character in a Mexican TV series of the same name in the 70s and is sort of a cult classic in Latin America. It's very silly and there are reruns all the time still. If you ever get a chance...it's worth at least a view minutes of viewing (youtube works as well). El Chapulin is REALLY Mexican.

SummahTime

Since being back from Peru I have realized that it's official summer break for Mexicans. The end of July-beginning of August is the most common time for Mexican holiday, as for most of the western hemisphere. This did not preculde me and my advisor Hallie from doing interviews with farmers and other officials in Culiacan, Sinaloa at the end of July. Maize production in Sinaloa is part of the larger NSF project I'm working on with my advisors and professors in Mexico and so I accompanied my advisor to check it out. The state of Sinaloa is also known for hosting heavy narcotrafficing, so were were skeptical. Turned out to be a good time and one group of producers even took us out to lunch! It's a coastal region so we indulged in shrimp, marlin, and a gigantic scallop that they call callo (in english I think it's called lion's paw scallop). We also had interviews with seed giants Pioneer (owned by Dupont) and Monsanto (no introduction needed) and discussed the history of industrial maize production in the state. Picture to the right shows the Pioneer facility where they store the hybrid seeds they sell to farmers.

When we returned Hallie and her husband Luis and new 3-month-old baby Ian hosted a gathering at their weekend house in industrial Cuautla, south of Mexico City. The house was an inheritance to Luis and he invited his whole family and other friends of theirs. It was an old motel so has little cabins and a pool for full relax. The best part was that they hired these local ladies to be there all day making quesadillas and picadas (open faced tortilla with salsa and cheese, eaten mostly in Cuautla). Imagine: all day long being able to eat fresh corn yumminess... it was amazing. I kept asking the ladies what they did to make such wonderful tortillas. "Es solo maiz," they answered. It's just corn.

The week after I had a weeklong California adventure, attending a wedding in Santa Cruz of some college friends, a birthday dinner for my friend Marion in Berkeley (good friend from UCSB), running errands in Santa Barbara, and seeing good friends and parents in Long Beach. Phew! I will pay special homage to Marion's birthday dinner, because besides being with some of my favorite friends, it was also my first meal at the famous Chez Panisse! We had an amazing 3-course meal which included purslane salad with halibut stuffed roasted peppers, roasted goat on fresh stewed cannelinni beans and sauteed eggplant, and a ricotta and almond ice cream "bombe" with sauced blackberries and yummy almond cookie. And the folks working there were so nice! They gave us an extensive kitchen tour and encouraged us to use their ingredients for picture props!

After all this vacationing it is definitely time to get to work. But I arrived just in time for the weekend!