Dinner in Jalapa

On numerous occasions on this blog you have met my friend Irma.  She was born in Jalapa, Mexico, but has lived most of her life in Ohio.  She was the wife of one of my Spanish professors at Baldwin Wallace College, so I have known her for more than fifty years.  She still has family in Mexico, and frequently returns to Jalapa, where stays with her nephew Javier and his wife who live in the old family home in which Irma grew up.  

Four years ago, this month, one of my trips to Mexico City coincided with her stay in Jalapa, and Alejandro and I took a weekend trip to visit.  This year Irma and I are both in Mexico at the same time once again, and Alejandro and I made another trip to Jalapa.

Four years ago we had dinner at an historic restaurant in downtown Jalapa.  Being August, the restaurant was featuring "chiles en nogada".  They were exceptionally good, almost as good as those served at "Angelopolitano", our favorite restaurant here in Mexico City.  So when I talked to Irma on the phone to arrange our visit, I told her that I wanted to invite them to dinner at the same place.

After Alejandro and I visited the Anthropology Museum of Jalapa last Saturday, we went downtown to meet Irma, her nephew and his wife, at the restaurant.  The place is called "La Casona" (The Big House), and you can see the banner advertising "chiles en nogada".

Our waiter took a picture of us all.  He actually stood on a chair to take this photo.

We all ordered "chiles en nogada", and they were just as delicious as they were four years ago!  As I have said many times before, I consider the dish to be the masterpiece of Mexican cuisine.

After dinner, we decided to take a short walk.  We went a couple blocks to "Parque Juárez", downtown Jalapa's central park.

 

From the park you can appreciate the hilliness of this city built at the foot of the mountains.

Because of Jalapa's location between the gulf coast and the Sierra Madre Mountains, by late afternoon, the warm, humid air piles up as clouds against the mountains.  It is often misty in Jalapa, and the city receives about sixty inches of rain per year.  A brief shower interrupted our walk.

In the distance, through the clouds, you can barely make out Mexico's highest mountain, Pico de Orizaba, forty three miles to the southwest.