Friendly Weekend

It has been a weekend of friends and good food. Friday night Ned met me in town after I got had my hair cut. The clouds were gathering and it looked like rain but we walked over to a gallery opening and enjoyed the photographs as well as visiting with some friends. And would you believe they introduced me to someone who said, "Oh, I read your blog." This never ceases to amaze me. We didn't stay at the gallery very long because we wanted to get to the restaurant before the rain started. Sure enough just after we got into the restaurant we had a good hard rain so we lingered there eating and talking. By the time we left the rain had stopped and we walked home.

On Saturday morning I met Mari, another photographer that I know from the internet who was in San Miguel for a few days. We had breakfast at the Parroquia Cafe. We talked about our work and I was very interested to learn more about her work in Mexico and Cuba. Mari lives part of the year in Oaxaca and she told me that things are relatively quiet in Oaxaca now although you can feel the tension. She also said that the number of restaurants that are open have been reduced by 50% since the Teacher's strike and the political unrest.

Saturday night we went to some friend's casa who live in the country. They had pozole made by the grandmother of some of their employees. It was wonderful and we loaded it with lettuce, chopped radishes, onion and chilis. They also had marvelous tamales. The tamales here are different than what we get in Texas. Here the masa is light with a texture more like couscous while in Texas the masa is denser and more like a dough. The filling in the tamales was absolutely wonderful, just the right combination of filling to masa. Some might say that this was simple food, but really it was quite complex in tastes and very labor intensive to make. It is food made with love. The conversation included Mexican travel tales and Mexico City restaurant reviews. I think I need a Mexico City fix since we haven't been in a while. Back out to the country on Sunday. Joan and Steve have built a house on a bluff over looking the Rio Laja. It is a comfortable country house with a deep portico where you can sit and watch the traffic of cows and goats along the rio. Our friends are great cooks and so we had a delicious leisurely comida sitting on the portico, talking and gazing across the countryside.

It was a really wonderful weekend of good friends and good food.