Strange but Interesting

Last weekend Alejandro and I saw a strange but interesting movie. But, then again, the subject matter of the film was quite unusual.  The movie was "The Testament of Ann Lee", and it deals with the founder of the religious group commonly known as the Shakers.

(image taken from the internet)

The Shakers were an offshoot of the Quaker church.  The group began in England under the leadership of Ann Lee in the late 18th century.  She and her followers moved to Massachusetts, and established numerous communities throughout New England and beyond.  They came to be called Shakers because their worship services were characterized by ecstatic shaking and dancing.  At their peak in the mid-19th century there may have been as many as 4000 followers.  The Shakers were rather progressive in that they believed in gender and racial equality. However, their faith also believed in absolute celibacy, so they depended on converts to maintain their numbers.  As of today, there are only three members of the sect remaining.  The subject was of special interest to me, since there was once a Shaker colony in Ohio at the location of the present-day Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

At times the movie was a bit slow, but the acting and direction were quite good.  The Shaker services included a lot of singing, and the movie included numerous songs, some of them genuine Shaker hymns as well as music written for the film.  Alejandro joked that the title should have been "Shakers - the Musical".

Teachers' Protest

When I told Alejandro that I was planning on going downtown yesterday, he advised that I shouldn't.  The CNTE, a militant teachers' union with a Marxist bent, was staging protests on Thursday and Friday.  Their demands are a 100% increase in salary and the abolition of the 2013 educational reform act which requires the testing of teachers.  They are opposed to the government expenditures for the World Cup games this summer at the expense of public sector salaries.  This union is known for its disruptive protests, and last May they occupied the main plaza of Mexico City and blocked major thoroughfares for days.

I took a look at the "Webcams de México" website to see what was going on downtown.   The teachers had set up tents in the Zócalo, although there were not as many during last year's protest.  There was no traffic along the Paseo de la Reforma, so the union had obviously blockaded that boulevard.  

However, looking at the other webcams, everything seemed normal.  I decided to go ahead and go downtown.  Because of the blockade on Reforma, the Metrobus along Insurgentes Avenue only went so far.  I got off and then took the subway.   I got off a couple of stops later and walked the rest of the way.  Granted, I didn't go anywhere near the Zócalo, but everything seemed perfectly normal.  I had planned to visit a special exhibit at one of the museums, and I had no problem.  If it were not for the disruption to public transportation, I would have never known that anything out of the ordinary was going on.

This afternoon, I took another look at the webcams.  There were still tents on the Zócalo, but fewer than yesterday.

 It would appear that traffic is once again flowing along the Paseo de la Reforma.

Even though I was a teacher (and even participated in a lengthy teachers' strike), their disruptive tactics and their Marxist ideology turn me off.  I can't muster much sympathy for these protesters.

New to the Neighborhood

Recently a number of new businesses have appeared in the neighborhood.

"De Costa a Costa" has long been a regular breakfast spot for us.  It's a seafood restaurant, but they serve very good breakfasts.  A month or so ago, they started doing construction work at the entrance to the restaurant.  We thought that perhaps they were doing an expansion, but a couple weekends ago they had the grand opening of a small bakery called "Le  Croton". 

 It would seem that the bakery is operated by "De Costa a Costa".  Last weekend when we were having breakfast, we were given a coupon for 50% off at the bakery.  The baked goods are rather expensive, so Alejandro took advantage of the discount and bought some pastries to take to the house.  The name of "De Costa a Costa" appeared on the receipt.

Just down the street we discovered another new place.  A "Hard Rock Cafe" has just opened in a nearby Wyndham Hotel.

I have never been to a Hard Rock Cafe.  In fact, I didn't know that they still existed.  The early reviews are very mixed, from excellent to terrible.  It is open until 1 AM, so sometime when Alejandro arrives late at the apartment on a Friday night, we will have to give it a try.

Still farther down the street was a restaurant that we used to like called "El Boludo".  Then, quite suddenly, the quality of the food and service went dramatically downhill.  It wasn't a surprise when the restaurant closed a few months ago.  In its place a new "taquería" called "Taco 'n Ganas" opened.

It bills itself as a "taquería regia".  The adjective "regia", which means royal, it used to describe people from the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.  We tried the place once, and we really liked their "tacos de gaonera" made with beef tenderloin.

Across the street, the sign for another new "taquería" appeared about the same time.

                        However, "Tacos El Siete" has yet to open its door for business.

Guacamole

Frequently I make a very simple version of guacamole by simply mashing an avocado with some salt and pepper, the juice of half a lime, and some salsa or ground chipotle pepper.  However, my salsa cookbook has an entire chapter of guacamole recipes.  (Technically, guacamole is a salsa... "mole" comes from the Aztec word "molli", meaning sauce.)

I decided to make a recipe for guacamole with cooked "tomatillos", the Mexican fruit which looks like a green tomato covered with a husk.  They are used to make "salsa verde" (green sauce).

The recipe calls for 2 ripe Hass avocados, one serrano pepper, 6 husked "tomatillos", 1/4 cup of chopped onion, and salt.  I did not put in chopped cilantro leaves, not because I dislike cilantro, but because it seems a waste to buy a bunch of cilantro when the recipe only calls for 2 tablespoons.

The flesh of the avocados is coarsely mashed with some salt.

The "tomatillos" and the Serrano pepper (which has been stemmed, seeded and deveined) are cooked in water.

The "tomatillos", pepper and chopped onion are ground into a paste in a "molcajete" (a volcanic stone mortar).

The mashed avocados are then combined with the "tomatillo" paste.

If I were ever to make this recipe again, I would use half the "tomatillos" and perhaps more avocado.  The tartness of the "tomatillos" overwhelmed the avocados, and it tasted more like green sauce than guacamole.  I will just stick to my quick and simple version of guacamole.

Auf Wiedersehen

Sunday was Christoph and Sabrina's last day in Mexico City.  After breakfast, Alejandro and I took them to see some of the sights in the "Historic Center".

We went in the Metropolitan Cathedral, but unfortunately the most impressive of the church's altarpieces, the Altar of the Kings, was covered with scaffolding.  As with many places in the city, it would appear that it too is being spruced up in anticipation of the crowds of tourists that will arrive for the World Cup this summer.

Next to the Cathedral is the archaeological site where the foundations of the main Aztec temple were uncovered.  Christoph was keen to see that, so we wandered through the excavations and visited the adjoining museum that contains the thousands of artifacts discovered on the site.

That evening we invited them to a farewell dinner at Bellini, the revolving restaurant on the 45th floor of the World Trade Center.  It is the largest revolving restaurant in the world, and in the course of 1 hour, 45 minutes, makes a complete revolution, offering a 360 degree view of the city.

We were joined by our friend Andrés who was visiting the city for the weekend.  We arrived  around 6 PM hoping to get a good view of the sunset.  Unfortunately, the sky was overcast, and we only had a brief glimpse of the setting sun.  However, we were able to see the vast city below us by day and by night.

Early the next morning, our visitors left on the next leg of their journey through Mexico, a bus ride to Oaxaca.  It was a pleasure to host our Swiss guests and to show them some of the sights.  In three days they only scratched the surface of what there is to see here.  We hope that they enjoyed their stay as much as we enjoyed hosting them and that they will return in the future to see more of this great city.

Auf wiedersehen!

 

A Night at the Ballet

Last Saturday, our guests from Switzerland had a day on their own.  They had booked a sunrise flight in a hot air balloon over the pyramids of Teotihuacan.  They had to leave the apartment in the wee hours of the morning to be taken to the archaeological site located 25 miles to the north of Mexico City.  They booked with the same company that Alejandro and I used last year, except that they booked an entire package.  After the balloon ride, they had breakfast, and then time to explore the ruins.  They returned in the afternoon and said that it was a wonderful experience.

Alejandro and I had our own plans on Saturday.  Long before we knew that Christoph and Sabrina were going to visit, I had bought tickets for a performance of Swan Lake at the historic  Metropolitan Theater in downtown Mexico City.  The building opened in 1943 as a movie theater, and is one of the few opulent movie houses from the era to survive.  It was abandoned in the 1990s, but in 1996 it was bought by a production company and refurbished.  It is now the venue for all sorts of musical performances, usually concerts by Mexican and international pop stars.

(image taken from the internet)

When we saw that Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" was going to be performed at the theater, I went ahead and purchased tickets.  I must say that I am not really a fan of classical ballet... prima ballerinas in tutus dancing on tiptoes.   The only ballet that I have ever seen is "The Nutcracker".  However, I do love the music of Tchaikovsky, and I figured that the Kiev Ballet must be a top-notch troupe.

(image taken from the internet)

As it turned out, the music was recorded and not performed by a live orchestra.  The volume of the recording was a bit to loud.  Furthermore, the "Kiev Ballet" is a touring group that was founded in 2017... not a dance company of long-standing tradition.  Since I am not a ballet buff, I really cannot fairly judge the quality of the performance.  However, it seemed to me that the dancers did a competent, but not spectacular job.  Both Alejandro and I nodded of a couple of times.  All in all, the evening did not inspire us to rush out and see more ballet (except, of course, for the Ballet Folklórico de México, which is an entirely different kind of experience).

(photo taken by Alejandro)

 

Playing Tour Guide

On Friday, I spent the day with my Swiss visitors, Christoph and Sabrina.  They are vegans, so I thought that they would have a difficult time in carnivorous Mexico to find places to eat.  Surprisingly, Sabrina found a number of vegan restaurants online.  So we headed by Metrobus to the Condesa neighborhood for breakfast at a place called "Mora Mora". 

Both Christoph and I ordered vegan chilaquiles.  They were not like traditional chilaquiles, but I must say they were quite tasty.  And the salsa that they used was excellent.

We then walked through the leafy Condesa neighborhood, including the lovely "Parque México".  We got back on the Metrobus to go to our destination for the day... the National Museum of Anthropology.

We arrived just in time to see the "Voladores" (Flyers) performing a ceremony which dates back to pre-Hispanic times.

As I had written in an earlier post, I had prepared a highlights tour of the enormous museum that I hoped would take about two hours.  They both seemed to enjoy their tour and were impressed with the museum.

The impressive fountain in the museum courtyard

We had to laugh at the policeman who was frequently blowing his whistle when people would stand under the cascading water.

The famous Aztec Sun Stone, perhaps the most famous piece in the museum.

Our tour ended up lasting more than two hours, and by the time we were done our jet-lagged travelers were growing weary.  I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before, so I also was also tired.  We agreed to return to the apartment rather than seeing the special exhibit at the nearby Museum of Modern Art.

After resting awhile, Sabrina found a "taquería" nearby that had a number of vegan taco options.  So they were able to stick to their vegan diet, while I had regular tacos with meat.

It was a great but tiring day!