Saturday, January 24, 2015

Oaxaca Sojourn— Part 12: Leftovers

I'm near the end of my story, but there were a few other eateries that we visited, both in Oaxaca and then in Mexico City.

On Friday a week ago, we went to Parque Júarez/El Llano in Oaxaca for the weekly tianguis. (Temporary market, usually outdoors.) About one third of the long rectangular park is given over to food stands. Much of the food offered seemed to be Argentine style sausages or carnitas, the latter of which might be good. But since we live 20 minutes from Quiroga, Michoacán, generally acknowledged as the Carnitas Capital of the World, we looked instead for barbacoa. We found what we were looking for at a nameless stand toward the end of the food pavilion at the west side of the park. Both barbacoa de borrego (sheep) and barbacoa de chivo  (goat) were offered. My scant earlier experiences with barbacoa de chivo had left me with  negative memories, so we chose borrego.


Barbacoa de borrego en su consomé
Some considerable confusion and some consternation ensued when mi querida esposa mistakenly ate my order of barbacoa en su consomé. I recovered but it was then an uphill struggle to get our waiter to understand what I wanted. The kind but misguided señores eating across from us added to the confusion by telling the waiter that what I wanted was "Un cuarto kilo de carne." (That's a bit over a half pound.)

But I persisted, and finally, got a foam cup full of consome. I was shocked at the first sip to find that it was at a near boiling temperature.

Un cuarto kilo de la carne
Eventually the consomé cooled enough to eat, and about half the leftover meat was wrapped to take to our hotel, so all was well again. My mouth did not suffer much from the scalding because of my quick reflexes.

On returning to Mexico City on Thursday, we had a mostly mediocre supper at Bisquits, Bisquits Obregón. But it was easy and uncomplicated, and we appreciate the geezer discount that they give.
Soups are usually good. I like the Sopa de Ajo con huevo.

Ensalada del Chef Bisquits Obregón. Yawn ...
Friday morning, I walked one block westward on Calle Puebla, to the great little stand of Super Tacos de Guisados. I ate four plump tacos generously filled with freshly made guisados (prepared, seasoned or sauced foods). I got a juice from the Super Jugos Curativos stand next door. It was the perfect breakfast.

Super tacos de guisados: 1.pollo, 2.rajas, 3.milanesa
After a long rest, in the afternoon we met our Mexico City amiga, Sra. LMS, at Macellería Roma, which I reviewed earlier. This time we shared a Pizza Vegetariana. Then the women both had Ensaladas de Betabeles while I had an Ensalada de Endivias. Macelleria's salads are magnificent.

Pizza Vegetariana at Macelleria
Ensalada de betabeles Macelleria
Ensalada de Endivias Macelleria
Our amiga then had a rich Berenjena a la Parmesana (eggplant parmesan) and Sra. Cuevas got Pappardelle con Hongos de la Temporada, an excellent dish.

I enjoyed a few spoonfuls of my wife's wild mushroom pappardelle and I was satisfied.

We passed up dessert but had some decent coffee and very good limoncello, on the house.

Macelleria Roma remains on my "A" list despite one disappointing meal one Sunday evening over a year ago. The only negative are the excessively high prices for wines and liquors. A glass of the cheapest wine, a domestic, is $90 MXP. (True, the menú del día offers a supplementary glass of "house wine" for $40 MXP)

That's all for now, dear readers.

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