I cooked my dinner tonight in my little kitchen; I thought I would just have something simple like eggs. I started with onions in a pan of butter, two eggs fried with mexican salsa added to get warm, then a bunch of broken up nortena tostados thrown into it with some wonderful mexican sour cream, stir it up, then squeeze lime in, a little more salsa, and there you have it: I don't know what to call it, but it was damned good. I don't think I could just eat boring old eggs again. Am I turning mexican?
I worry that in canada, I won't be able to find even a good salsa, never mind any good tostados as wonderful as these. It was hard enough in Californina to get them.
I had molé for the first time the other night; it was fantastic. The more I find out about mexican cooking, the longer I want to stay so I can get a chance to eat it all. Sam, my manager, even though he is a sexual pig, like most men here (who gladly admit to it) is a great food lover - gordito that he is. He talked at great length the other night, while I was eating my dinner in front of him at the end of my shift, about al the different molés, and what's in them and where they come from. I love to hear him talk about food. My eyes glaze over and I feel like I"m being hypnotised. Way better than the story of his failed marriage, but I listen to him no matter what because when he talks about something sort of important, he is not being silly or inappropriate with me, and it is a nice change. He likes to talk and I like to listen, although it's not often we hang out and do that.
Today at lunch in the back of the courtyard hanging with the kitchen and wait staff having our daily meal, we all were talking about different dishes from the regions we're all from; fantasizing about a sharing-together-of-dishes sort of party. The only thing that sucks here, is that we only get one day off (the norm in mexico) so nobody can all get together at once. How stupid is that? Luisa is from Oaxaca and was going on about some of the dishes she could make. Everybody loves food here. I watched Luisa eat her chicken tostados and it was something else. She had a whole ritual of things she did and stuff she added, and I don't know how she stays so skinny, the way she digs into her food.
The cool chef, Ernesto, got shipped to Puebla, so that's too bad. He and I were buddies and he was just starting to ask me what I wanted to eat (special treatment) - damn.
I have been sick the last two days, and it's a bit better today but I"m cautious. No capacity to hold food down. Five others at work were sort of the same, but I think I had it worse. I keep hoping I lose weight but somehow my tummy is not as flat as it used to be.
Since I got stood up on my after work date, I was all the happier to go shopping; I found some new nice flip flop type sandals today, next door to the resto. Then I looked at some other shops and found one, sort of grimy but full of cool tops, jeans & dresses on my own street, Juarez.. I tried on 3 pair of pants and got one pair of black stretch that help my butt look good but are a little tight in the legs. For 26 bucks i think they're great.
There's something weird about peeling on and off clothes over sweaty skin in a tiny change room with dusty mirrors. It's exhausting and no, there's no air conditioning. Are you kidding? I see many humungous butts here and I don't know where those women find pants to fit them, because I chose a large and it just fit me. If I'm a large, then what are they? One day I'll find the store of my dreams that make pants to fit my body. Apparently the style in jeans now is skin tight and also tight all the way down the leg. I can't fit my calves into those ones. It's too much trouble shopping, so today I wimped out and wore my sarong. NObody wears a sarong here, and I think they are all the crazier for it. Mine has been my best friend in mexico, acting as emergency table cloth, window covering, towel, beach blanket, shade cover, after shower house dress, belly dance veil, night gown, night shawl and sheet. Pretty versatile huh?
I rewired a lamp that was broken in my furnished apartment I was quite proud and also proud of the side table I made upon which to put it; a mop pail with a large 20 gallon water jug upside down in it, covered with a scarf. It works.
It's still hot. Like a sauna outside and inside my apartment. A spray bottle of water and a fan are what keeps me sane, barely. Photos are of me in my new clothes, pics of my apartment and pics of my favourite mexican foods. Papaya, Tajin, salt & lime snacks and of course it's not a food, but the rose scented Virgin Mary candle is the finishing touch to dinner.
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