LarsTheo

If you had homemade ice cream in Nantucket, why aren't you making homemade ice cream here? It's extremely easy to make, once you have made the creme anglaise, to which you can add whatever flavorings you want and then freeze it. I'm guessing that one of your friends made your ice cream for you, but you should not be afraid to make it yourself as well. I seldom eat ice cream, being lactose intolerant, but I do like Charly Temmel on the boardwalk in Venice, and the gelato at Massimo's on Abbot Kinney. What I really prefer, however, is the Italian ice at J.J. Chill on Windward Ave at the beach in Venice, although my all time favorite ice cream experience has to be the fresh coconut ice cream I've had on beaches in Mexico. Have you tried Tropical Zone Juice & Ice Cream at Grand Central Market?

If they don't sell capons at San Juan market, they appear to sell everything else, including rattlesnakes and armadillos (which must be cooked thoroughly, the same as pork), among other things that I was unable to identify, although my brother took pictures of some of the signs. Some of the animal names are not translatable and may refer to animals that only live in Mexico. While in Mexico, I stayed with my friend Michelle, and one of her maids cooked almost all of our meals for us. Michelle fixed a couple herself, with assistance from the maids, and all the food we had at her condo in Mexico City and house in Oaxtepec were extremely good. Here's a picture of one course to a meal, which included a black zapote dessert - made with negro zapote and orange juice. Near the San Juan market is a store that has a wonderful selection of moles in both powder and paste form. We bought the powder form because the maid prefers to make her own mole, and I had her make me a green mole with reduced sugar/sweetener, and I liked it tremendously, although I am not a fan of mole. However, when the sugar is reduced, the mole tastes much better to me, although Michelle told me that it is not mole if it is not sweet. I'll post more pictures later - we just got back and have lots to sort through. We had an excellent dinner at Ligaya in Col. Condesa, which was our only dinner not at home. Shopping at the market was a lot of fun!

I was in Cuernavaca briefly a couple of weeks ago on my way to Taxco, and I noticed that the bus station was next door to a Pizza Hut and a KFC, neither of which I would recommend, however. Do NOT drink the water, and do not use tap water for brushing your teeth. If you do get sick, you can get some Bactrim at the local farmacia, but this kills good and bad bacteria and should be very rarely. I avoided all tap water on my trip and did not get sick at all. Be careful about salads, as the lettuce may be washed in tap water, and this can also cause a problem. Also avoid ice, unless you know for sure that it is made from purified water. Be careful with licuados and aguas, as these can be made with tap water or have ice made from tap water. However, many locals avoid tap water themselves, and so they will only use ice from purified water, which is readily available. If you buy bottled water, make sure the cap is sealed and has not been replaced. The only restaurant I've been to in Cuernava is Las Mananitas, but that is worth checking out, if only for its garden setting. Check this site for a few more restaurant reviews. For me Cuernavaca was simply where I had to change transportation from Oaxtepec to Taxco.

Last one: French Market Café (Venice), down the street from my house, for brunch before that: Wharo Korean Barbeque, which was for my birthday before that: New Concept Restaurant in Monterey Park, which was two weeks ago by now. I cook a lot more than I eat out, but I like to go to restaurants for ideas of things to make. I'll be in Mexico City tomorrow, and I'll be eating out a lot more there.

I'll be in D.F. in a week, and I spoke to one of my friends there yesterday, who wanted to take me to her favorite seafood restaurant (I forget the name at the moment, but will ask her when I speak to her again), but I believe she said it is open only for lunch. She said it has the best seafood in D.F., and I think it is either in Polanco or Condesa. I might go there on my own, since I won't be available on a Saturday to go with my friend. The friends I do have in D.F. really appreciate having new varieties of food available to them. I don't think that the traditional style is in danger of disappearing, since it is so prevalent. My friend Michelle took me to a traditional upper class family restaurant in Col. Roma last time, and I found it a bit bland and boring, but there were plenty of very Spanish/European looking families dining there. There is no reason IMO that Mexican food should remain static and that it should not continue to evolve and diversify. In the more remote regions of Mexico, the traditional methods will survive and probably change very little. You have to expect a huge city to be able to support more variety and still not endanger the traditional ways. There's plenty of room for all, I think. The upper class will remain fickle.

I like Meals by Genet on Fairfax for good Ethiopean food, if you're feeling a bit adventurous. For lunch, I always like to consider places where you can sit outside, and the Cat & the Fiddle is one of my favorites for that. There are several good places for lunch at Sunset Plaza, such as Le Dome, Cravings, Clafoutis, Cafe Med, and Le Petit Four, although I think these are more popular on week-ends. There is a large parking lot there also. Tommy Tang's on Melrose is also open for lunch.

I guess the recipe I made for pozole (which I spelled posole was an anglicized version. I thought perhaps it was Brazilian, since I bought the hominy at a Brazilian market. I've since collected several Mexican cookbooks, and I noticed that none of the pozole recipes are very similar to mine, which is vegetarian, but still tasty.

I see that you can't edit posts here, or else I would do that. I wanted to add a link to a photo of me taken in a D.F. restaurant. I forget which floor the patio was on, but you can see the main cathedral behind me. The restaurant overlooks the zocalo, and I went there mainly for the view. Since it was over 20 years ago, I don't remember the food.

I like La Dijonaise in Culver City. It's close to Surfa's restaurant supply and some interesting shops on a side street/alley - one that has very interesting Japanese antiques. It's not much for atmosphere (very casual), but the food is very good, and they bake their own bread.

I asked this on another thread, but it is actually more appropriate to this one: If a quesadilla does not have cheese, is it still a quesadilla? I'm talking about fresh masa that is flattened into a circle, filled with huitlachoche or meat, and then deep fried. To me, this is more like an empanada, except that it is made with corn instead of wheat. Isn't "queso" an essential ingredient in a quesadilla? Of course I always thought that okra was an essential ingredient for gumbo, since gumbo is the African word for okra, but people in So. Louisiana make what they call "okra gumbo", which to me would be like saying "cheese quesadilla", but they seem to have lost the African meaning of gumbo and often omit okra.

I love cochinita pibil! I have a quesadilla question. If you make a quesadilla with fresh masa and have a filling with only huitlacoche or only meat and no cheese, is it still a quesadilla? I've been calling them empanadas, even though they are made with masa instead of flour. I always deep fry them, whereas quesadillas I generally sauté in very little oil.

I love tortilla soup - I made a note to myself to look for the restaurant at the Hilton. I've also been to a good ice cream place in the mall at the River Walk, but I can't remember the name of it. A friend that was there with me insisted on speaking German with me so that others would not understand us, but I can never be sure... I have noticed that Germans are particularly bad about speaking German, thinking that others will not understand, but of course we do.

Someone else recommended grapefruit to me, and I think that might be a good idea for getting the tartness. As for achiote paste, you can buy it on line from mexgrocer.com. If you have the annatto seeds and want to make your own paste, here is a recipe from allrecipes.com: http://sidedish.allrecipes.com/az/70629.asp

Thanks for the cookbook recommendations - the Marge Poore book looks like one I would be interested in getting. Here's a link to pictures from my last trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca, but unfortunately there are no food pics. I stayed at a B&B in Tlalixtoc, and so I had breakfast there every day (I was in Oaxaca for about a week). Some days I would go to Teotitlan to shop for rugs and on other days I revisited Monte Alban, and I visit Yagul for the first time. When I got there, I was the only person there, except for the guard, and so it was a bit spooky. I took digital video of the grave entrances, and when I viewed the video, there appeared to be a veil in the front of some of the graves, composed of orbs of various sizes that floated up from the ground at varying rates. Some of the graves had stronger veils than others, but I don't remember seeing this veil in person - it only showed up on the video. I generally took a torta with me to the ruins and a can or two of juice - usually mango or guanabana. I'd like to find a recipe for guanabana sorbet - I can get fresh guanabana here without a problem. I'll definitely post new pictures when I get back and will make a point to take pictures of food!

I think I posted this link to Mexican food glossary, but I'll include it again because it has a definition of pibil: "Word for the barbacoa pit used in the Yucatan." I guess one of the reasons I liked Yucatecan food was that it was not sweet, like the moles of Oaxaca. I also don't like any barbeque sauce that is sweet, and perhaps the sour Seville oranges used in Yucatan cut some of the sweetness. Unfortunely, the orange tree I have in my back yard is a Valencia variety and now makes very sweet oranges, although when I first planted it, the fruit was tart. I read in one book that you can mix lemon juice with orange juice if it is too sweet in order to get the necessary tart effect of Seville oranges. I have a Meyer lemon tree, however, and the lemons are almost sweet, but my lime tree makes very tart limes, which I may have to use instead of lemons. I doubt I could find Seville oranges in the market.

In my own travels in Mexico, I found food names to change with regions and that the areas of Chiapas and Tabasco had different meanings for empanadas than states further north. However, it appears that what I was used to calling empanadas is actually called quesadillas in the more northern states. I found this site, which is a glossary of Spanish and Mexican food terms, which will be very helpful for me to understand the new cookbooks I just got, two of which are in Spanish. If you look under Antojitos, you will find quesadillas, with several versions of cooking methods. I also found a recipe for deep fried quesadillas in the book Cocina tradicional mexicana by Blanca Nieto in the Oaxacan section. (She also has a recipe for Chalupas in the Morelos section that is very similar to a quesadilla.) I just got off the phone with a friend in D.F., but she was not feeling well, and so I didn't bother her with questions about this. When I go to D.F. in two weeks, I'll ask more people there and see what they say. I doubt there will be a consensus, however!

Actually, I use the prepared Achiote paste, which does have ingredients other than annato seeds. I buy "La Perla" brand, and it seems to be mostly annato. As for the soup base, I generally buy the "Better than bouillon" brand or else something at the restaurant supply store. I try to avoid the dry cubes, although I do like Telma kosher cubes. Knorr makes some soup bases - I use their crab soup base. I'm not really Mex-centric - I'm just on this kick at the moment, possibly because I'm going to Mexico City on March 5, and so I'm watching the local Spanish tv channels (we have about 5 or 6) and have been practicing on some of my Mexican-inspired recipes. I'm hoping to get some new inspiration in D.F., and I also hope to get some good photos! I used to go to Mexico every year, but that was when I lived in San Francisco, where the winters are cold and wet. Here (L.A.) the winters are pretty much identical to D.F., and so I don't notice much difference going between here and there. Also, you can get by in L.A. with only Spanish. Thanks for the welcome!!

When I poach the chicken, I add orange and lemon slices to the broth, and this helps with getting the citrus flavor. Last night I defrosted a batch of these enchiladas that I had made before, and they reheated well. If you haven't started using achiote, you are missing out on a fantastic treat! I have a reasonably large orange tree in my back yard, and so I have more oranges than I can use. My lemon tree is smaller, and I manage to use all my lemons, and I'm still waiting for my lime tree to get bigger, although I get excellent lime - just not enough of them yet. Here's how I poach my chicken Poached Chicken Ingredients: 1 chicken 4-6 cups water (enough to almost cover the chicken) 2 lemons, sliced 2 oranges, sliced (optional) 1 onion, coarsely choped 8 cloves garlic 3-4 stalks of celery, coarsely chopped 2-3 Serrano peppers (optional), coarsely chopped, seeds removed 3 tbsp chili powder 1 tbsp oregano Directions: Wash the chicken and leave whole. Place the some lemon and orange slices inside the chicken cavity and place in stockpot. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the oregano, and bring to a boil on high heat. Put the oregano in a teaball or bouquet garni and add to the pot. Reduce the heat to simmer and allow to cook covered for one hour. After one hour, turn off heat and allow the pot to stand covered for about 30 minutes more while the chicken continues to cook. Strain off the liquid and reserve. When the chicken is cool enough (you can refrigerate it at this point), remove all the meat for future use. Save the bones and discard all the rest. The bones can be returned to the stock and boiled for another hour with a new onion and more celery, if desired, to intensify the flavor. I generally cut the large bones in half before doing this.

I found a copy of Gente & Casa from March 2003, and it had restaurant review for the following: Salute – Pardo Norte 125, Lomas de Chapultepec (Jamaican) La Bouchon – Julio Verne esq. Vergilio, Polanco (French) CafÉ – Monte Líbano 246, Lomas de Chapultepec (Contemporary) Ici – Tennyson 102, Polanco (Mediterranean, Spanish) Landó – Emlio Castelar 121, Polanco (Grill/Bistro) It also had ads for the following restaurants: Additional restaurants advertising: Grotto (Oyster & Prime Sushi Bar) Bristro Cibeles (Mediterranean) Il Fornaio (Italian) Altamira (Spanish) El Discreto Encanto de Comer (French) Estoril Sofia (Italian) Bice (Italian) I found reviews for some of them at Virtual Tourist I realize that the magazine is old, but some of ther restaurants may still be there.

The best ones I've had were from a street vendor in Mexico City (Col. Condesa) that were deep fried, made with fresh masa, and filled with huitlacoche (and some cheese, I think). The woman who made them fried them in a wok, and sat in from of the panaderia on Juan de la Barrera and Matehuala. That was more than 20 years ago, however. She called them empanadas.

The best Afghan restaurant I've been to, Khyber Pass, is in San Diego in the Hillcrest District, which also has a high concentration of restaurants. The other neighborhood I recommend is La Jolla, where you can get excellent food and a stunning ocean view from the high cliffs. La Jolla Restaurant Guide has some good recommendations, but I can' remember what my favorites were. I pretty much avoid Old Town, especially at night - it gets a bit rowdy IMO. You'll find hidden gems in Hillcrest (a counterculture neighborhood) and high end dining in La Jolla. Those are the only two places in San Diego where I've had good experiences.

As requested, here is more info on how I make Yucatecan style enchiladas. It's not based on any existing recipes - just a combination of flavors that I like and that remind me of Mérida. Yucatecan Style Chicken Enchiladas Ingredients: 3/4 pound cooked (preferably poached) chicken or turkey meat, chopped 2 tbsp chicken fat (or combination of chicken fat, butter, olive oil) 1/4 cup flour 1/2 onion, finely chopped 2-3 serrano peppers, minced (some seeds removed) 1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes 2 tbsp cumin 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp vegetable soup base 1 tsp chicken soup base 2 tbsp achiote paste (ground annato seeds) 1/2 – 1 cup chicken stock (or water), as needed 12 corn tortillas Directions: If you have poached your chicken meat, you will have a nice broth to use for thinning the sauce later, and you will probably have chicken fat that you can use for the roux. I poach the chicken the day before and save the broth separately and extract the fat from the top of the broth. Chop the meat and set aside. If you have bones, you can add them to the broth and simmer for an hour or so. Melt the fat (or butter and oil) in a large saucepan, and add the flour to make a roux. When the roux is a pale brown, add the minced onion and cook a bit more so that the onion will become soft and the roux turns a light brown. Then add the peppers and stir to combine. Add the canned tomatoes, including all the liquid, and blend. Add the cumin, chili powder, oregano, soup bases (in place of salt), and achiote paste. Stir until blended. Reduce the heat and add sufficient chicken stock or water to make a thick sauce. Using a stick blender, purée until fairly smooth, or at least until tomato pieces are fully incorporated – you may have some onion pieces that do not get puréed, but this is okay. Remove about 1/3 of the sauce to reserve and add the chopped chicken or turkey meat to the rest of the sauce. Spoon about 2-3 tbsp of the reserved sauce into a 6”x10” (or similar size) baking dish, and spread fairly evenly, along the bottom and sides. Heat the tortillas on a covered plate in the microwave, 20 seconds at a time, turning them and restacking them so that the center ones are top and bottom. I do this about three times to get them soft enough for folding, but it will depend on how fresh they are. Once they are soft, spoon a bit of chicken filling into a single tortilla, roll it into shape, and place it in the baking dish. You can stack them tightly or else make two loose layers. If you make two layers, put a bit of reserved sauce in between the layers. At the end, add all remaining sauce to the top and spread evenly. Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes, or until they are hot. Yield: 12 enchiladas, or about 4 servings *Note: I usually poach the chicken with garlic, onion, celery, and chili powder, in a method similar to Ropa Vieja, except with chicken.

I really like Capra's Italian Ristorante 204 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, but also agree that the Blue Coyote is great for southwestern food, although there is not much in the way of Mexican dishes. I asked for tamales and was told they had been taken off the menu for lack of interest. We ate at Las Casita on Palm Canyon Drive once, and I ordered a grilled fish that was supposed to have adobo sauce on it. Instead, they served it to me with a very sweet barbeque sauce. I asked the waiter was on my fish, and he admitted it was barbeque sauce, at which point I told him that the menu specified adobo sauce. As it turns out, they didn't have adobo sauce, but he took my plate back and added hot sauce to the barbeque sauce to pretend it was adobo. I make my own adobo sauce, and so I know how it's supposed to taste, but I guess they expected most of their patrons to be ignorant. I won't go back there. Capra's has a really interesting atmosphere - like going back to the 1960s, and there are photos of Frank Sinatra, et al. Actually the food was very good when I was there. I had a swordfish steak, which was grilled properly and therefore not dry. It has a traditional menu, but it's prepared well.

I'm going to be in San Antonio also, but only for a day. I'll be arriving from Mexico City and will meet my sister in San Antonio for lunch and we will stay for dinner. She lives in Austin but has business in S.A. in the preceding days, and there are no direct flights to Austin from Mexico City, and so we thought the drive trom S.A. was the best alternative. I remember having good Cajun food in S.A., but I can't remember where. Also, a good Mexican or Tex-Mex rec would be good, especially on the River Walk.

I can't remember who said this, but I don't think the Mayans made it back to Oaxaca. I associate mole with Zapotecs and Chichimecs - not Mayans. I love Mayan food and the food from Yucatan, but I seldom find a mole I can stomach. I've travelled to Oaxaca more than any other state (for business), and I often had a very hard time finding a restaurant that I could stand. Of course when I first started going to Oaxaca (Jan 1978, I believe), they were having guerilla warfare and soldiers filled the zocalo, causing me to have to dodge bayonets crossing the street. In those days, I did not bother to read newspapers or keep up with the news (I had no TV), and so I was unaware of the war that was going on. I did notice that there were lots and lots of soldiers, but I just assumed that Oaxaca City was a military town/post. The hotels were very cheap and always had plenty of rooms, and I could buy tapetes at a good price, which I then sold in San Francisco (where I lived at the time). I continued to return to Oaxaca for shopping (not the food), and absolutely loved the scenery and the ruins, etc, and then one year when I returned, the soldiers were gone. I asked someone what had happened to all the soldiers, and they told me, "The guerilla warfare is over." Of course I said, "What gurerilla warfare??" and that's how I learned about the war. Anyway, they weren't at war with me, and so I didn't feel that I needed to be concerned. When I travelled from Belize to Guatemala (also in 1978, I think), there was a border dispute between the two countries, and there were thousands of Guatemalan soldiers at the Belize border. However, since I did not have a British passport (no British people were allowed in), I did not consider that a problem either.I've done extensive travelling on trains throughout Mexico - unfortunately that is no longer an option, and I really miss the overnight train that used to run between D.F. and Oaxaca. The last time I went, I had to take a bus , and it was not as much fun, although they tried to make the bus like an airplane or train, with drinks in the back and on-board movies. When I travelled during the day by train, I made a point to travel second class because the windows would not open in first class, and I wanted to be able to buy food through the windows. I got some great snacks that way, and I remember getting pineapple empanadas travelling through the state of Tabasco. Also, on Segunda Classe, vendors would be allowed to board the train, and I could buy food directly from them. On the train between Guadalajara and Tepic, Nayarit, we went through a Tequila producing area, and vendors came on board selling quarts of tequila for 60 cents. Then troubadors got on and serenaded everyone and collected change. It was definitely a party train, but this activity was not allowed in first class. Actually, in some cases, first class was stifling hot because the windows would not work, and air conditioning was available only in Primera Especial. However, I did like the Dormitorios, which functioned as a moving hotel for me. Once I stayed at a remote town in Chiapas on the coast called Puerto Arista, I think in 1979. I was travelling with friends from D.F. that I had met in Guatemala. They wanted to go to San Cristobal, but I convinced them that we needed to go to the beach instead. To get to Puerto Arista, we had to take a taxi from Tonola because there was only one bus a day, and it had already run. To select a hotel, we went all the way down the beach to the last hotel because the price got lower and lower the further we went. When we got to the last one, the price was $1.60 per day, and so we decided to stay for a week. There were almost no tourists in town, as this was a resort for Mexican tourists who went there primarily on Mexican holidays only. My friend José decided to occupy his time by helping some of the fishermen, and they rewarded him by giving him a large fish, which we took to a woman's house (she had a makeshift restaurant in her yard), and she cooked it for us. The fish was excellent, and cost practially nothing. Unforunately, at night we only had Mescal to drink that tasted like gasoline. For some reason, we drank it anyway. I was invited to a wedding reception in San Blas in 1976 - actually everyone who happened to be in town that evening was invited, and for drinks, we had ginevra with coconut water from freshly picked coconuts. That was a lovely drink, but I found the local girls were too shy to dance with me, and so I had to sit out the dancing part. Picture of me in Vera Cruz circa 1979