Earlier this month I celebrated my birthday. In the morning we went to one of the restaurants where we always go for breakfast on the weekends. We have been there so many times that the waitstaff all know us. Alejandro let it slip that it was my birthday. As we were finishing our coffee, out came the staff with a slice of flan, and they sang the Mexican birthday song, "Las Mañanitas".
A couple days ago, I wrote about the set menu of "chile en nogada" at "El Cardenal" at the downtown Hilton Hotel. The appetizer was an enchilada filled with "cuitlacoche", a type of truffle that is known in the U.S. as corn smut. The enchilada was delicious, and I wrote that I could eat a whole plate of them as a main dish.
You may recall that there is a branch of "El Cardenal" near our apartment. The place is extremely popular for breakfast. Usually on weekends there is a long line waiting for a table. Last Saturday when we headed out for breakfast, there was no line. "Let's take advantage of the situation," I said, and we were immediately seated.
As we perused the menu, we saw that one of the main dishes for breakfast was "enchiladas de cuitlacoche". That is what we both ordered.
After a dinner of "chiles en nogada" at the "El Cardenal" restaurant in the Hilton Hotel, as we passed through the lobby, we noticed that they had set of a series of boards with holes for the face. We couldn't resist taking photos.
Here Alejandro is a Mexican guitarist in a broad sombrero.
The rest of the cut-outs were derived from the traditional Mexican game of "lotería". The game is similar to bingo, but the players' boards have sixteen pictures of objects and people instead of numbers. The caller shuffles a deck of 54 picture cards, and then draws out cards and calls out the name of the picture. The first player to fill in a pattern on the board wins.
"El Valiente" - The Brave Man
"El Diablito" - The Little Devil
The season for my favorite Mexican dish, "chiles en nogada", is in full swing and will continue through September. Alejandro and I were downtown last Saturday, and we had our third "chile" of the season. We were going to go back once again to one of our favorite restaurants, "Testal". However, there was a long wait for a table. We decided to go to another one of our favorites, a branch of "El Cardenal" located just a few blocks away in the Hilton Hotel. "El Cardenal" was also busy, but we only had to wait a minute for a table.
This time of year, "El Cardenal" has a special menu featuring "chile en nogada". Without any hesitation, that's what we ordered.
The meal began with an appetizer of a "cuitlacoche" enchilada. "Cuitlacoche", also spelled "huitlacoche" is a fungus that grows on corn... known as "corn smut" north of the border. While farmers in the U.S. consider it a blight, in Mexico the fungus is a delicacy. If the idea of eating "corn smut" sounds repulsive, remember that is it is simply a type of mushroom similar to truffles. The enchilada, which was garnished with avocado, red onion, cheese and herbs, and covered with green sauce, was wonderful. I could eat a whole plate of them as a main course.
Then came the main event... the "chile en nogada". "El Cardenal" serves a very good "chile".
For dessert there was a sorbet of "tuna" (the fruit of the prickly pear cactus) with mezcal. I don't care for the taste of mezcal, so I asked the waiter not to add it to the sorbet.
You have read the continuing story of my orchid plant which, in spite of my efforts, has refused to rebloom. The last chapter of the orchid saga was when I took it to a nursery to be repotted. The fellow said that I was overwatering it, even though I was only watering it once a week, and the water drained immediately from the pot filled with bark. "No more than 250 ml of water (about one cup) per week," he said.
That was in mid-July, and since then I have been hoping that the ministrations by the orchid expert would yield results. Last Saturday morning, I was looking at my plants, and I noticed a sprout coming out of the orchid.
On Saturdays I usually go to "Cielito Querido", a Mexican coffee shop chain that is a competitor of Starbucks, to buy a cappuccino for our cleaning lady. Last weekend I noticed that they already had "muertitos" in their case.
We have seven weeks until Day of the Dead. Let's at least get through Mexican Independence Day (September 16th) before pushing Day of the Dead!
One museum that I have still not visited is the "Centro de la Imágen" which is devoted to photographic exhibits. I passed by the building last week, but it was closed at the time. However, they always have a display of photographs on the fence outside. At the moment, most of the photos are from small towns and villages, primarily in the states of Oaxaca and Michoacán.
Here are some of the photographs that I saw as I was walking down Balderas Avenue...
