Food of the Gods

It's that time of year again when restaurants throughout the city offer that most wonderful of Mexican dishes..."chiles en nogada".  I have written many times on this blog about it, but for those who are not familiar with it, a "chile en nogada" is a poblano pepper stuffed with a mixture of meat, fruit and nuts, covered with a cream walnut sauce, and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.  It is the traditional dish for Mexican Independence Day (September 16th) because its colors (green pepper, white sauce, and red pomegranate seeds) are the colors of the Mexican flag.  Generally, it is only served during the months of August and September.

Last Saturday, Alejandro and I went to our favorite restaurant "Testal" for our first "chile en nogada" of the season.  We think that theirs is the best, and we have eaten the dish in quite a few restaurants.

However, before digging into the "chiles", we ordered starters.  Alejandro had lima bean soup.

I ordered what is known as a "sopa seca" or dry soup, a pasta or rice dish.  I had "fideo seco".  "Fideos" are thin noodles.  They are usually served with chipotle sauce.  These, however, had a sauce made from fried "pasilla" peppers and were served on a bed of black beans.  They were garnished with "cotija" cheese and avocado.  They were the best "fideos" that I have ever had.

Then came the main event... the "chile en nogada".  They come with a little numbered ticket.  Ours were the 780th and 781st "chiles" to be served this season.

As you can see, Testal is very generous with the amount of walnut sauce.  Some restaurants are quite stingy with the sauce.

For dessert we shared an "uchepo", a sweet tamal from the state of Michoacán. It was served with caramel popcorn.  With it we ordered Mexican hot chocolate.

It was a delicious meal from beginning to end!

Touristic Mexico (Part 2)

More from the National Museum of Art's special exhibit "Mexico - Route and Destination" which deals with the rise of tourism in Mexico in the 20th century...

A portion of the exhibit deals with some of the Mexican cities that became popular tourist draws.

Of course, Mexico City, the nation's capital and largest city is a major destination.

Travel poster for Mexico City from the Mexican Tourism Department, 1945

 Vintage postages of Mexico City

I'm pretty sure that I had that second card from one of my early trips to Mexico.

"From My Window", oil painting by Angelina Beloff, 1965  (Beloff was Diego Rivera's first wife.)

"Hidalgo Avenue", oil painting by Angelina Beloff, 1949

Poolside at the Hotel Alameda, 1964

When it opened in 1961, the Hotel Alameda was one of the most luxurious hotels in the city.  During the earthquake of 1985, all of the guests were safely evacuated.  However the building suffered serious structural damage.  The swimming pool cracked, and the rooms in the floors below suffered water damage.  Demolition began in 1994 but was not completed until 2004.

The Hotel Regis, 1930

Opened in 1918, the Hotel Regis was one of the city's first luxury hotels.  The hotel collapsed in the 1985 earthquake, and 136 corpses were found in the wreckage.  Today the site is a park called the Plaza of Solidarity which honors the victims of the quake.

Another town which became a popular tourist destination was Taxco.  Taxco was an important silver mining town during the colonial period, but by the beginning of the 20th century, mining had decreased, and the town became a picturesque backwater.  Then in the 1920s, William Spratling, an architect and silversmith from the U.S., moved here.  He opened a silver shop and trained Mexicans in the art of silversmithing.  His students went on to open their own shops, and Taxco emerged as an important tourist destination, not just for its colonial atmosphere, but for its high quality silver work.  (I still own a few sterling silver rings that I bought in Taxco on early trips to Mexico.)

"View of Taxco and of the Church of Santa Prisca" by Guillermo Gómez Mayorga

The Spratling silver shop, 1944

Vintage silver jewelry from Taxco

In between Mexico City and Taxco, is the city of Cuernavaca.  Because it is several thousand feet lower in elevation than Mexico City, its climate is warmer.  It is called the "City of Eternal Spring".  It became a popular place for wealthy Mexico City families to build weekend homes.  Then, investors built hotels.  (I have to say, that today Cuernavaca is a big city that has lost much of its charm.)

 "Souvenir of Cuernavaca" by Juan O'Gorman

 Tourist map of Cuernavaca from the mid 20th century

Long before there was a Cancún, Acapulco was the "in" beach resort with jet setters.  Hollywood movie stars built homes along its bays.  Although today, its reputation has been tarnished by cartel violence and the devastation of Hurricane Otis in 2023, it remains an important vacation destination.

"On Vacation"  oil painting for a calendar illustration by Luis Améndolla

  

Club de Pesca Hotel in 1953

Hotel Presidente in 1958

Vintage postcard of one of the famous cliff divers

(I think I once had this postcard also.)

The exhibit ends with a large mural that was saved from the Hotel del Prado in Mexico City.  It was yet another hotel that was seriously damaged in the 1985 earthquake. (Today the Hilton Hotel stands on the site.)

Hotel del Prado in 1950

The hotel contained one of Diego Rivera's most famous murals, "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central".  The mural survived the quake, and a small museum was built nearby to house the painting.  However, I did not know that the hotel also had two murals by Miguel Covarrubias.  One of them, a cultural map of Mexico, is now in the Museum of Popular Arts.  I have seen that mural many times without realizing where is was originally located.  The other work by Covarrubias was an illustrated map, measuring over 450 square feet, showing Mexico's natural resources and lines of communication.  It suffered serious damage and has been in storage for 41 years.  In a laborious process that took two years, it was restored and presented to the National Museum of Art.  This exhibit is the first time the mural has been on public display since 1985.

A detail of the mural

Touristic Mexico

Now that I am back in Mexico, I have resumed my almost weekly habit of visiting a special exhibit at one of the city's many museums.

My first week back I visited a rather unusual exhibit at the National Museum of Art.  It was called "Mexico - Route and Destination", and it dealt with how Mexico emerged as a major tourist destination in the 20th century.

In the 19th century Mexico was viewed as a remote, unstable and exotic destination.  However, even then adventurous travelers came to Mexico and recorded their impressions in paintings and photographs. The country's archaeological sites, many unexcavated and hidden in forests, were a mysterious and romantic draw for foreigners who ventured to Mexico.

An oil painting of the ruins of Centla in Veracruz

by German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas, 1831

The Palace of the Governor in the Mayan city of Uxmal as photographed

by Frenchman Desire Charney in 1859.

Besides the archaeological zones, Mexico was viewed by outsiders as a picturesque country of colonial architecture and a land where people still wore traditional attire and produced a rich variety of handicrafts.

Church of La Profesa in Mexico City

photograph by Guillermo Kahlo (Frida's father), 1905

Vendor of Talavera pottery

oil painting by Fernando Best Portones, 1920

Pottery seller

watercolor by Leandro Izaguirre, 1920

Lacquerware tray

In the twentieth century, as the nation stabilized after the Mexican Revolution, and  infrastructure, such as the construction of highways linking different parts of the country, improved, Mexico became a more attractive vacation option, especially for visitors from the bordering United States.

Construction of the Mexico City - Acapulco highway around 1930

A new gas station, around 1960

"Nuevos caminos"... New Roads

An illustration comparing motoring in 1953 with 1910

A highway map published by Goodyear in 1952, illustrated by artist Miguel Covarrubias

A booklet published by the Mexican Tourism Department in 1948 of motor trip itineraries.

A bilingual publication entitled "Mexican Folkways" from 1930

The cover illustration was done by Diego Rivera.

A photo taken around 1950 of a handicraft store in Tonalá, Jalisco

Several vintage travel posters

Printed by the Mexican Tourism Department around 1955

Printed by the National Railways of Mexico around 1950 (back in the days when you could take a train from Texas to Mexico City)

Mexico is being promoted as not only nearby, but mysterious, colorful, and exotic.

Published by the Department of Tourism in 1942

More from this exhibit in the next post...

Returning to the House Plants

When we returned from our trip, I found some big changes to a couple of my houseplants.

As you may remember, I have been rooting an avocado pit by suspending it in a glass of water.  Shortly before we left, a tall stalk had sprouted from the pit.  Upon returning, I discovered that the stalk had sprouted leaves.

 Although you can't see it in the photo, the stalk has several tiny leaves along its length.  I am wondering if these will develop into branches.  Next week I am going to put the plant into a pot.  Obviously, within the confines of the apartment it will not reach the size in which it bears fruit.  It perhaps will be an attractive houseplant, although I am not sure if it will get enough direct sunlight.

Before leaving on the trip I cut my poinsettia back.  When I returned it too was sprouting leaves.

The poinsettia will be four years old this autumn.  Each year it has produced red leaves, although the timing is usually off for it to bloom for Christmas.

The Hills Are Alive

Upon our return from Europe, we saw signs here in Mexico City advertising a stage production of "The Sound of Music".  In Spanish the musical is known as "La Novicia Rebelde" (The Rebel Novice).

(image taken from the internet)

The show will have a limited run at the "Centro Cultural Cuauhtémoc" located on the avenue of the same name and easily accessible by Metrobus.  Last Sunday we went to the theatre box office and bought tickets.

I found it odd that the production is in English with subtitles projected on a screen.  Then I found out that it is part of a North American tour that has been visiting numerous U.S. cities since September of last year.  I guess Mexico City is the tour's last stop.

I wonder if the production will adhere to the original Broadway show that premiered in 1959 and which has numerous differences from the 1965 film.  Even though the motion picture version is perhaps the best loved movie musical of all time, many critics accused it as being too saccharine. The Broadway version has a couple of songs that never made it to the film, including one very cynical song, called "No Way to Stop It", in which Captain Von Trapp argues with the Baroness and Max about the imminent Nazi takeover of Austria.  In the stage play, it is the Baroness's political indifference which leads the Captain to break off the engagement with her.

"The Sound of Music" was the very first stage play I ever saw.  Way back when I was in the seventh grade, I saw a performance at Musicarnival, a tent theater in the round in the suburbs of Cleveland.  The show made a big impression on me.  Decades later I saw another road show production at one of the theaters of Playhouse Square in downtown Cleveland.

So, this will be my third time seeing a stage production of the Rogers and Hammerstein hit.  

It's August

The year is flying by, and it's time to turn the page on the calendar to August.  This month's picture on the calendar that I had made with photos from trips to Germany is of the Bishop's Palace (known as the Residenz) in the Bavarian city of Würzburg.

A couple years ago, when I spent a few days in Frankfurt, I was looking for some nearby places that would be good day trips.  Cologne and Heidelberg were obvious choices.  Würzburg, however, is not as well known as a tourist destination.  When I read about the Residenz, a baroque 18th century palace that rivals Versailles, I decided to add that city to my itinerary.

The bishop of Würzburg was also the absolute ruler of that city.  Bishop Johann Phillipp Franz von Schönborn felt that his position required an imposing residence.  Construction was begun in 1720.  The structure was completed in 1744, but the interior was not finished until 1780 (many bishops later). 

Perhaps the most impressive part of this opulent palace is the grand staircase.  The vault above the stairs, a construction masterpiece, is an enormous expanse measuring 59 by 109 feet.  The fresco on the ceiling, the largest in the world, was done by the Venetian painter Giovanni Tiepolo, one of the greatest decorative painters of 18th century Europe. 

You have to shake your head in disbelief that a clergyman should live in such an extravagant place. 

 

Great Since 1291

During this summer's World Cup, the President of Switzerland attended the match between Algeria and the Swiss national team.  He caused a buzz when he arrived wearing a red cap which said, "Switzerland - Great Since 1291".  Obviously, it was a subtle dig at a cap which is popular with a certain segment of the population in the U.S.A.

There was an explosion of interest in the cap, and it must be special-ordered from a Swiss company.  (At a cost of 30 Swiss francs... 37 U.S. dollars... it's rather expensive for a baseball cap.)

(image taken from the internet)

While we were staying with Walter and Helen, she bought me a cap and with a marker added the word "great".