caroline

Your quick filet of beef looks like a delicious quick main course. We have made a similar-looking dish with shrimp and ancho chiles, but I imagine that salsa morita (or the chipotle equivalent) would substitute nicely. I am enjoying this very much, and you have inspired me to dig up a map of Mexico to better follow along. ← Thanks Bruce. Mexico is such a huge country. And I just love maps. You'll see that our commute is just a smidgen of the territory. We do find driving even with toll roads a good bit more tiring than in the US, Rachel

Is this is a specific type of cake? The other day, I bumped into the father from the Mexican family who lives upstairs, carrying a gorgeous cake up the stairs, with "feliz cumpleaños" written on it in frosting. (He said it translates as happy celebration, but I'm assuming it was a birthday cake.) Later his two little kids came down in party hats with peices for me and my BF. It was a very wet milky cake, which I'm assuming is tres leches. Is that kind of cake specifically traditional for birthday celebrations? I'm really enjoying your blog. I spent 10 days in Zihuatanejo last year, and haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Your pictures, especially the markets and all the vibrant colors, are making me feel something a little like homesickness (if one can feel that way for a place that's never been home). ← Feliz cumpleanos is happy birthday. And this does sound like tres leches. I called the cake "celebration cake" off my own bat. Cakes are very important in Mexico for all kinds of celebrations. Few people make them at home. this is not an oven society. They go to the neighbor who specializes in cakes, to the cake store (pasteleria), to Costco. They are very important for weddings, birthdays, etc. For all that, I think that most cakes here are not very good. My American husband has liked very, very few bought cakes in Mexico. Cakes are one of the gifts of the US and England to the world. I think! My Mexican neighbors frequently ask me for brownie or cake recipes. Incredibly difficult to translate given different measuring systems, different ingredients, the high altitude, the different sized pans, and so on. I have the general opinion that sweets and sweet dishes translate much less well from one country to another than savory dishes. What do you think? Rachel Rachel

No, you just have to just common sense. A cholera scare in Mexico about a decade ago plus the availability of purified water and purified ice cubes (which were not available then), plus a good bit of public education mean that the purified water message has reached everywhere. In fact there are probably many places where "agua de la calle" mains water is perfectly good to drink if heavily chlorinated. We have special problems in Guanajuato because the reservoirs from which the city draws its water for much of the year are in old silver and gold mining districts which mean that apart from microbiological life and piedritas (little stones) and mud that can be filtered out, there are a lot of not particularly nice minerals in solution that you can do nothing about. At the end of the dry season, in April, May and June, the city switches over to water from deep wells. This is pure and drinkable. At least it is if you are in the right place. Where we are on a hill, there is a kind of back wash from downtown at certain times of day. The pipes are ancient. Ironically it means that some of the villages with least water actually get better drinking water. A "pipa" that is a tanker goes round to these villages full of well water every few days and people line up with buckets and pans for their share. It's nice and clean but not very much when you have to use it for everything. The father of the girl who works for me bought a pick up so he could go and fill up several drums full for the family at one time. There's also the problem of water rationing. This is done by turning off the "agua de la calle" for a certain number of days a week. This is one reason why houses in Mexico have round black plastic "tinacos" on the flat roof. The other is that the tinaco also creates enough pressure (just about) for showers and so on (though it can be hard to run a washing machine or a dishwasher). Rambling on, here in Guanajuato, even if you change the filters on the entry pipe every couple of months, the tinaco has to be cleaned out every six months or so to get rid of the deposit of mud and piedritas in the bottom. Well-to-do houses have cisternas, usually under the garage, that are the size of small swimming pools. Ours is about 8 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet. These also have be to cleaned out. You've no idea how long it took me to figure out the ins and outs of water in Mexico! Rachel

I'm always a day behind it seems. Here we are packed up and ready to go yesterday. Snacks, water and soft drinks for the drive, my coffee mug ready to fill, remnants of wine in the basket. The soft-sided cooler has spent the night in the fridge so that remaining eggs, butter, cheese, the vegetables for Guanajuato are all nice and chilled. We pulled out of the apartment this morning at 8 on the button, tore up the Mexico City ring road, out of the toll booth at the north of the city forty minutes late. How I wish I could have had all of you with me. A glorious day, a day to make the heart sing with the mountains standing out like cutouts, even the volcanos visible in the distance. As we sailed up through the state of Hidalgo, the end of rainy season flowers were at their most gorgeous, fields of nail-polish colored pinky purple cosmos, banks of marigolds and sunflowers and the marble sized golden globes of the tejocote (a species of hawthorn, much used for food in Mexico) littering the edges of the road. It's four to six lane highway all the way from two blocks from our Mexico City apartment until the entrance to Guanajuato so we sail along chatting or listening to satellite radio. For two hours it's a straight shot north. In San Juan del Rio we stop to pick up dinner. Barbacoa. San Juan is just north of the state of Hidalgo, much of which is too mountainous for crops. So they raise sheep and make barbacoa in pits. We are taken to see the lamb that has been cooked in maguey leaves in a pit. The sun was blindingly bright behind me but you can just make out the young man picking out a nice piece of meat before folding the penques (leaves of maguey) back and topping it with a sheet of steel. Here's the young lady wrapping up our barbacoa, tortillas, and separate plastic bags of salsa roja, chopped cilantro, chopped onions, and limes cut in half. We could have eaten in the restaurant. There are at least thirty barbacoa places along this stretch of road and I certainly under-counted. On we go, turning off the road north at the prosperous town of Queretaro, heading west across the Bajio, some of the richest agricultural land in the country. The sorghum and maize for animal feed is ripe and brown or tan depending. In between are fields of garlic, broccoli, and other vegetables for the export market, each with their porta potties in one corner. This area is booming and we sail past the towns of Celaya (famous for cajeta or dulce de leche), Irapuato (famous for strawberries) until we come to Silao (famous for GM suburbans). Only twenty minutes now. The Bajio (low country) is at 6000 feet low only compared to the Sierra. We are heading into a crack in the Sierra. We turn the corner and there's the Bufa that overlooks the city. Guanajuato got its wealth from some of the richest silver mines in the world. It's in such a constricted space that much of the traffic goes underground. Here's the first tunnel. You can see the add for the Festival Cervantino, the largest in Latin America. It goes on for three weeks with top ranked performers from all over the world. But we are sliding past the city center to go up above the city. We'll go through the tunnels you see in the middle of this photo. And we've greeted the dog, I've taken Juanita home, and here's the barbacoa chopped and ready to go. And here's everything on the talble. And here's my taco. Verdict. The lamb's excellent as always, the tortillas are so so, the salsa is a tad on the picante side for us so we just use a bit less with the onions, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. Worth waiting for, Rachel

Not naive at all. No you don't use purified to wash dishes or countertops. You do let them dry before using them. And you do wash in the regular water. Cripes, think of the cost if you had to use purified water. But again you dry before, say, putting your hands in your mouth. I'll say more about water later. Rachel

I'd wanted to sing the joys of the Mexican countryside as we whizzed thorough it today, the wonderful barbacoa we picked up to serve as combined breakfast, lunch and dinner, and offer shots of all the lovely purchases in Mexico City. Is it Telmex or is it Image gullet. No idea. But no way to upload photos at the moment. So I'll leave you for today with two menus. These are from Juanita who house sits for us when we are gone. She comes from a big pottery making family in Dolores Hidalgo thirty miles away, is a divorced mother, finishing her degree in French at the University here. Menu for daughter's birthday shower yesterday (birthday showers are big news in Mexico) Russian salad Elbow macaroni with ham and mayonnaise Celebration cake Horchata or soft drinks Lest you fear that Mexican traditions are being lost. Menu for her 50th birthday party next week Mole con pollo Arroz A special Dolores dish of garbanzos, cabbage, potato, carrot and onion served hot Cake Agua de jamaica or soft drinks Rachel

Oh and Sandy, hand over that left arm and maybe we can arrange one of those conversations! Rachel

I'd kill for a lunchtime chat like the one you had in Sanborns, mediocre food and all. But I wouldn't even have the faintest idea who Mayán's son is. Edited to add a comment about English-language names in the Spanish language: I cannot resist a chuckle whenever I see references to things like "Avenida O'Higgins" in a South American country (after one of South America's great liberator heroes, Bernardo O'Higgins) or the Mexican department store chain Liverpool. Something about these people and place references just seems...wrong...no matter how appropriate they may be -- more out of place, in fact, than the English-language words the Académie française fights assiduously to keep out of the language. OTOH, I guess this just goes to show that globalization is really nothing new. ←

You are not allowed to answer questions until you come back to the ferry plaza But back to Mexico. Rachel, are limas eaten often? Fresh or always dried. You know I'd have to ask you more about the beans! ← Sorry, I was sloppy. These are habas, not limas. I don't think limas are eaten here. Sopa de habas (dried habas) is one of the great Lenten dishes in Mexico though how long fasting dishes will survive now after the dismantling by John Paul of most of the fasting requirements is not clear. It's much discussed among my walking companions. Fresh habas are obviously used too but I've not heard them talked about much. I adore them and prepare them English style with parsley sauce, Rachel

Yes, and it was rightly much written up and a source of great pride among foodies here. The connection between a series of books and biodiversity was a bit obscure, but never mind that, Rachel

Suzi, I wish I had something definitive to say. No doubt that Sephardic Jews came in numbers to New Spain. Clearly there were some things they did not eat that Christians did, such as pork. But did they have specific dishes. That's so much harder to answer. Some people up on the border with the US suggest semitas, a slightly sweetened bread. I spent some time looking in to this and you can find more than you ever wanted to know on my regular blog under Food History Articles. The answer, in a few words, is that undoubtedly Jews, like everyone else in New Spain as Mexico ws then called, ate semitas (or cemitas). But they were not specifically Jewish. The term Semite as a code word for Jews did not appear until well into the nineteenth century. The word semita comes from seed (like semen or semilla in Spanish). And everyone in the Spanish world ate semitas. So clearly the Sephardic Jews, like the Moors, the Italians, the people from the Netherlands, and all the other people from Europe and North Africa who arrived here made a contribution. But sorting out who contributed what is simply not known at the moment, Rachel

Saturday night dinner. Quick and dirty. We have lots of lovely vegetables from the market that will be a treat with good bread, salt and a bit of butter. So, first disinfect your veg. This is a new disinfectant to me and I hate it because it has to be rinsed. No wonder I need so much purified water. Here is the first batch soaking. And here's everything with the bread. But my husband didn't have a tamal for lunch, so he needs something. I boil some fideos, tiny noodles, kind of like short angel hair spaghetti. This is not what you normally do with them in Mexico, but they turn out OK and they are quick. We are at 7000 feet and everything thing boiled takes a long time here. Then I chop that that lovely bit of filet into finger tip sized cubes. Turn it in a frying pan for a few minutes until it is colored and nearly cooked. Then add a bit of bought salsa morita (rather like chipotle, smoked) and a spoonful of crema (I prefere Aguascalientes to Lala but it wasn't in Superama). Stir Y ya. And there you are. And the tiny avocados have an intense flavor. Some people eat them skin and all but even scooped out, as we are eating them, they have a lovely anisey taste.

OK I'm on my way out now. Time to pack for the early departure tomorrow. If we leave by 8am, we can get out of the city in forty minutes, in Guanajuato by noon. An hour or so later and the traffic is impossible. The car is loaded with everything I've purchased and I'll settle down to photograph it and cook with it on our return. And I know there are still unanswered questions. Rachel

Whoops, problems with image gullet again. I'm posting this so I can save at least the text. I'll try to fix the pics tomorrow. OK. A light lunch. The National University of Mexico is incredibly lucky that Ricardo Muñoz, one of Mexico's leading chefs and author of the absolutely incredible sDiccionario Enciclopédico de Gastronomía Mexicana has two restaurants on the campus. I'm even luckier that we are so close. So here's the approach to the main one in the Cultural Center of the University. The University is a pretty amazing place. It ha about 400,000 undergraduate and graduate students. No I have not added an extra zero. The Campus must be five miles by five miles, perhaps more. Turns out a play's being performed today and lots of people are gathered to watch. Mexico City is a bit short on green spaces and the huge University City, as it's called, turns into a park with people bicycling, walking their dogs, playing with their children. Turn your back on the play and you can see the restaurant above a bookshop and behind a fountain. There's also an outdoor terrace and that's where I'm going to perch. The building in the background is a new art museum. The menu. Starters Salads Pastas Main dishes I order a horchata and a tamalito de acelga and sit in the sun enjoying the world. Here's my horchata, one of my favorite drinks. I love that slightly sweetened thin pureed rice with cinnamon. Here's the tamal, which is for those who are not familiar with Mexican food, a kind of maize dumpling. There are hundreds of different kinds, different fillings and so on. One of the foundation stones of Mexican cuisine. The salsa is a slightly piquante tomato sauce. Here I've cut into the tamal and you can see the flecks of spinach and slight green coloring. It melts in the mouth and the salsa just adds that extra touch. I pay the bill which with tip comes to about $5 and stroll back towards the car. Wow. It's not such a bad life.

This morning I went to the tianguis (weekly street market) about half a mile down the street. It's a big one, three or four blocks long with four lines of stalls. You could spend the whole day poking around there, leaving with you "Vuitton," and "Eddie Bauer," second hand clothes from the US, CDs, plastic bowls, blender replacement parts, you name it. I'll just post a few food photos. They are all red because of the red awning stretched over all the stands. Stall owner from the State of Michoacan who sells specialties from there. I bought a tamal with small fish, bread, cookies, and a few other things I'll try to photograph later. Large eating area, The best kind of fried pork skin (chicharron) with carnitas, bits of meat, attached. I bought the left hand piece. The butcher preparing a nice piece of pork filet for me. The lady from the State of Hidalgo who sells heavenly nata (clotted cream). I nearly walked off without paying but all was forgiven. The vegetable lady weighing out my radishes, spring onions, nopales, watercress, spinach and green beans. The young girl who walks around selling shelled green peas, habas (broad or lima beans) and sometimes corn. "Para una crema," she says, "para una sopa" (for a cream soup or for rice). "Will her photo appear in a magazine, " she asks. "No, on the web," I reply. I'll try to make sure I take her a copy next time I go. Now I need sustenance, so decide to swing by Ricardo Muñoz's restaurant which is about half a mile away on the university campus. That later, Rachel

I'm going to have to run out on some errands in a moment. So I'll post replies to these queries and photos of the Mexican confectionery when I get back. Breakfast was simply coffee, excellent toast made with bread from one of Mexico City's best artisan bakeries, and butter. And dinner last night was great. There'd been a conference in town that we had not been able to go to. So our friends Mario and Susannah invited us and a group of friends who were at the conference: a couple from Puebla, two Argentinians (Cordoba and Buenos Aires) and a Basque. The conversation and the food were good, the photos are terrible because if you are not with a group of foodies you can hardly call everyone to order, ask that the lights be turned up, and set about snapping the dishes. Here are the pre-dinner drinks and snacks. Choice of tequila (in the small glass) with lime and salt or wine. Warm fresh cheese with epazote and jalapeño to spoon on totopos (tortilla chips). No it wasn't pink and I'm going to have to confront my market men when we're back in Mexico City. But this cheese as you can tell is fashionable right now. Chapulines al mojo de ajo. They're the brown things in the bowl. Chapulines are grasshoppers. To make anything al mojo de ajo style is to fry chopped garlic until brown and crispy, then fry the fish, chapulines or whatever, and then add the garlic. I asked Mario whether he had cooked them but no. He's bought them ready prepared in the Mercado San Juan, where else? Here's the main course. Really superb Argentinian wine. Most people serve Argentinian, Spanish or Chilean wine as good Mexican wine is very expensive comparatively. Salmon which they had marinaded in a little mustard and honey for an hour, then baked in a closed dish with a little white wine. It was good. You could not detect the mustard and honey as separate flavors. Good Mexican rolls. Not visible. Mexican white rice (that is first fried and then cooked in broth). Perfectly cooked with the grains just right. Salad. Mixed greens, grated carrots, sliced almonds and dried cranberries (the latter two almost certainly from Costco and the cranberries very fashionable). Dessert Pastries which Susana had purchased at a nearby bakery (there are good bakeries in their part of town near San Angel which was an area where a lot of Germans settled). or A selection of Lebanese pastries. The Lebanese are a strong presence in Mexico (think Carlos Slim and Salma Hayek) and Lebanese foodstuffs are widely available in both grocery stores, Lebanese coffee shops and Lebanese specialty stores in Mexico City. Plus coffee and brandy.

Hi, I certainly will chat more about salsas. But can you hang on until Monday or Tuesday because I'm better able to illustrate that in Guanajuato than here in Mexico. The big garafons are picked up when the new ones are dropped off. They are refilled. The smaller Mexico City ones go in the trash. That does not mean for one moment that they are not recycled. In fact the recycling of trash is almost frightening, if not on the American model. Leave aside the picking over done by maids, passersby and the like. Trash trucks have not only a government employee usually the driver but a whole bunch of unpaid extras, usually relatives. Every bag of trash is opened and picked over for anything that can be sold. Then when the trash gets to the dump there are families who live there and have final pick over rights. In Guanajuato we have trash pickup 364 days a year, but then we live in a well-to-do neighborhood. Remind me to post a picture of the trash basket. A hydraulic engineer once told me that the money spent on bottled water in Mexico would be enough to set up purification plants across the country. There's a bottleneck here. Well, here we're back in the international world. Good old Schweppes tonic water to go in my husband's gin and tonic.

OK. Try, try again. Here's José (Pepe) Iturriaga. Handsome, urbane, charming, a prolific author, degrees in history and economics, on umpteen international committees. Years ago he wrote the book on the street food of Mexico City. I can't remember the title right now as my copy is in Guanajuato. Then he became director of Conaculta, which is rather like (for Americans) the National Endowment for the Arts and for the Humanities combined. Not quite the right analogy but it will do. There he organized the publication of 54, yes that's right, 54 books, some of them cookbooks, some of them not, on the indigenous and popular (everyday/lower class) cuisines of Mexico. Unbelievable. They come in between 3 and 6 bucks a book and are indispensable. I'll post my review of them on my personal blog. As if that were not enough there are another 14 books, publications of original manuscripts and cookbooks from eighteenth and nineteenth century Mexico. Apart from José Lusi's book, I also picked up a copy of one of Iturriaga's latest, Pasión a Fuego Lento: Erotismo en la Cocina Mexicana. Fuego lento means slow fire. You can translate the rest. But surprise, no brindis, no drinks and snacks, perhaps because of the time of day. Well, I'm just a few blocks from Mexico's most famous street shop so I grab a taxi and off I go. I'm not sure I will get to post on that today, but tomorrow for sure.

I've arrived at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in the Historic Center of the City. This is where the presentation of José Luis's book on Mexican sweet making is to take place. This is the main patio. It was formerly the Convent of San Jeronimo, famous in the eighteenth and nineteenth century as the source of the best sweets in Mexico. What a thrill. José Luis founded the gastronomy program here. It's one of the best in Mexico City and noted for its emphasis on learning the Mexican culinary tradition. Today the students are competing for the best interpretations of nogadas (walnut sauces) and pipians (pumpkin seed sauces). In one of the rooms upstairs we assemble for the presentation. Here's a slightly blurred José Luis. He's a modest but pretty incredible person. He was trained as a chemical engineer and then worked in the large-scale commercial sweet and maize syrup industries. Then he started giving classes on traditional small-scale confectionary with copper pans and wooden spoons. To his surprise not only housewives and culinary students but industry people attended to learn. Oh and he is a wonderful scholar on Mexican culinary history. His book on the cuisine of the ViceRegal Court in Mexico is an absolute gem. He's been a wonderful friend to me for which I am really grateful. Right now, he is the force behind a group of about half a dozen of us (Spaniards, Mexicans and Peruvians) who are trying to get some kind of comparative history of the cuisine of the Spanish Empire going. The book is great. It has historical recipes from the Baghdad cookbook, Sent Sovi, Rupert de Nola and other classic Spanish texts from the sixteenth century and seventeenth centuries, Nostrodamus, and then the eighteenth and nineteenth century Mexican recipes. Plus it has an understandable account of sugar chemistry, the technology of sweet making, and detailed modern recipes for all the classic Mexican sweets (candies, that is). Here's José Iturriaga giving one of the recognitions. Whoops. Upgrade problems again, so wait for the next hours exciting installment because José Iturriaga is another incredible mover and shaker in Mexican Cuisine. Edited for a bit more about José Luis.

On on to Friday. Breakfast, a repeat of yesterday except that I had coffee instead of tea. Lunch leftovers. Right now a nice cup of tea with a chocolate digestive biscuit. Now I'll upload pictures of Mexican sweets. Tonight we've been invited to dinner with friends. Judging by past experience, I'd say there's about a 50/50 chance it will be Mexican. What is clear that the invitation is for 9pm. This hour for dinner just kills me so I'll be taking a nap before going. Rachel

Here's how the scratch dinner turned out. Just sitting down to the first course, the crema of asparagus. It doesn't look quite as good as it should. Moral, don't photograph green soup in a celadon colored soup bowl. Not that I have a second set! This could actually be a Mexican dish. I would guess in the middle class, comida (the main meal of the day between 2 and 4) starts with a crema four days of the week, with a chicken broth the others. An exaggeration of course. You don't see many recipes for cremas (perhaps with the exception of squash flower crema) for the same reason in the US you don't see many recipes for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Every one knows how to make them. Soften a little onion in butter or oil, add the vegetables of your choice (usually everyday ones like carrot or chayote or calabaza) and simmer until tender. Whirl in the blender. Serve. There is usually no cream in a crema, the word refers to the texture. Salads for the main course. Self explanatory. Trifle for dessert For me, since I don't have a sweet tooth, cheese instead. The Camembert which is meltingly lovely was made by Quesos Villa Nolasco in the state of Puebla. And then there was coffee. Edited for soup color.

OK, one quickie before I go off. Here I'm preparing pre-dinner drinks yesterday. Note the bottled water. I use Ciel which is made by Coca Cola on the grounds that Coke would not want the law suits that would result if there turned out to be trouble with this water. Everyone in Mexico that I know of uses bottled water. A few perhaps still boil but there are lots of disincentives. When we arrived in our apartment this week, there was a sign saying Pemex, the national oil company, had not delivered the required gas and please do not boil your water. In Guanajuato the water man comes twice a week with big garafons. For some reason, there is not delivery here so I am relieved that Superama delivers groceries as we go through one these smaller garafons every day. Rachel

Here's a photo just because it amuses me. This is the window of a Chinese restaurant in front of the San Angel market. Bisquets para Llevar means biscuits for take out. The story is, and I've never had a chance to check it, that some Chinese moved from American to Mexican railroad construction and with them biscuits. Anyway, traditionally if a family wanted coffee and biscuits, they went to a Chinese restaurant. Chinese food of a vaguely Cantonese style is very popular in Mexico. To my taste, shaped by time in Hawaii where you could get excellent Chinese food, it is unappealing.

Thanks for so many interesting comments, many of which are worthy of whole essays. Let me give at least some quick responses and then I'll post the rest of yesterdays photos. First though the first event for today is one I am excited about. At noon in Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in th historic center, there will be the presentation of José Luis Curiel's new book La dulcería mexicana: historia, ciencia y tecnología, that is, the history, technology and science of Mexican sweets. The presentation is a nice Mexican custom-a couple of people stand up and explain the contribution of the book, the author responds. You get a chance to buy the book, which you grab because book distribution in Mexico does not exist. You get a chance to catch up with everyone of like interests. And I would be very surprised if there isn't food--so I'm within the constraints of this blog. José Luis is a great food lover, a very fine historian of the cuisine of the colonial period in Mexico (indeed of Mexican cuisine in general), and an engineer so I can't wait to get my hands on his book. More about him and the event later. Mark, thanks for the kind comments about the mole article. There will be more coming as this is still a topic I am still thinking about. Adam, yes, dead right. Turkey. Well, actually guajalote, the mean lean Mexican turkey not the fat American kind. I assume they have the same properties as hen's eggs but then I'd have assume that about duck and geese eggs if I didn't know better. And now I've lost my chance to find out. In ten years in Mexico I've never seen them on sale. I assume most get eaten in the villages where the guajalote is still raised. This vendor, given the tiny pile, must be raising them in her backyard or a relative's and bringing them in for a bit of extra cash. No sugar. The sugar sculptures (alfenique) for Day of the Dead are not sold in regular markets but in doorways or special markets set up for the occasion. Families who make alfenique prepare it throughout the year. But it doesn't usually go on sale until about a week before. tm. Well Sanborns is owned by something mega but it's not a corporation, it's Carlos Slim whom I'm sure everyone knows is the world's richest man. Walk through any shopping mall in Mexico and you are in Slim-land: Sears (Say-ars); MixUp/TowerRecords/Sanborns/El Globo, a revered bakery that has been going up and down in quality over the past few years. All Slim. Not to mention the phone company. And Erin, sorry you had such a lousy experience in Sanborns. If you every venture back (and it's hard to avoid in Mexico for the restrooms if nothing else) try the chicken soup. It's usually reliable. But then I thought that about the molletes. And they did give the world enchiladas suizas. You'd dead right to call the Mexican cuisine in California, Californian. I think that what really differentiates the American Mexican cuisines is that they never have the kind of salsas that make Mexican cuisine what it is. Bruce, yes, the cooking in Mexico is regional. And you can get regional foods in Mexico City. I think there have been lists on the Mexico board. I can't say that I have traveled to many parts of Mexico, so I'd never pass myself off as an expert on this. Just the state of Guanajuato and Mexico City have provided a surfeit of culinary experiences. But I'll make comments when I can on this topic.

OK, we've all been fed, I'll post photos tomorrow, and my husband and Godfrey are busy dissecting the criminal justice system worldwide so I can do a flash back. Next stop. A Sanborns. Sanborns, founded in 1903 by Americans, is a Mexican institution. You want Elle or the Harvard Business Review. Off to Sanborns. You want an unusual medicine, a good tobacco, a fancy watch, Sanborns. It was the first place in the last century where nice women could eat away from home. The model was a soda fountain with sandwiches, hamburgers, milk shakes etc. Today it's where ladies lunch, where businessmen hook up to the internet and have their meetings. Really, the social and business life of Mexico might grind to a halt without the Sanborns scattered across Mexico City and the provinces. Anyone want to guess who now owns Sanborns? But it's here I am to meet Mayán. Often we meet at an academic seminar or at a nice restaurant such as San Angel Inn (sananjeleeen as it's pronounced). This was the place that inspired Tom Gilliland to open Fonda San Miguel in Austin. But we're both busy this week so she suggests Sanborns. Here she is. If she looks great in this photo, she is even more stunningly beautiful in real life. She's not going to eat. She will eat with her husband mid afternoon and her cook is at work preparing the meal. I'm in need of second breakfast so I order molletes, rolls with a smear of beans and a bit of melted cheese and a salsa of chopped tomato, onion and chile serrano on the side. Here it is on the signature willow pattern china. Bad molletes, worse coffee. But nobody goes for Sanborns for the food even though the usual roundup of trendy chefs are designing special dishes for Sanborns (think who owns it). So Mayán and I settle down for a good chat: the family, the problems with research in Mexico, politics (always at the top of the agenda here), and above all Mexican food. She thinks I've chosen the wrong mole for my thesis that mole is Islamic. Within seconds we are happily arguing about diffusion or independent invention, the role of ideas in cooking, how you made salsas before the invention of metates, the wonderful talk she arranged that I went to by the head of research at the Nutrition Institute in Mexico , the visit of the food historian Massimo Montanari to Mexico City, the gossip of the culinary world in Mexico City. It's 2 o'clock and we've hardly begun. She returns a bunch of books I'd lent her and adds some journal articles that she thinks I should read. The usual protestations about who will pay and where we will meet next to resolve our differences about mole, how to think about grinding beans, what is the strategy about obesity in Mexico. Pure delight for me. And off to the next stop but I don't think I will get to that until tomorrow. Anyone want to guess who her son is? Rachel