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!