• Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Uña de gato/Cat’s Claw

    A neighbor has a vine hanging over the sidewalk in front of her house. Last week I noticed fruit covering the plant, unusual fruit. I can’t recall other fruit similar to this as it has leaves growing directly from the skin of the fruit. Of course, I asked what it was. 

    “Uña de gato/Cat’s Claw,” my neighbor said.

    I googled Cat’s Claw and found it is an important Traditional/Ethnobotanical medicinal plant reputed to be effective for curing cancer.

    Today, Cat’s Claw and its extract, Samento, a supplement containing pentacyclic oxindole alkaloids extracted from the Cat’s Claw plant, is used as a dietary supplement for a variety of health conditions. including viral infections (such as herpes, shingles, and HIV), Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, arthritis, diverticulitis, peptic ulcers, colitis, gastritis, hemorrhoids, parasites, and leaky bowel syndrome. Whoa!

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food

    Frambuesas/Raspberries

    Oaxaca de Juárez Lake Chapala

    We looked across Lake Chapala and saw white patches standing out against the green of the surrounding hillsides. Arranged in geometric patterns, they lay at odd angles to each other.

    What is this we’re seeing?

    Curious, we asked that question to people walking along Chapala’s malecón, the lakeside promenade lined with food and souvenir vendors. Everyone we asked gave us a polite answer. However, all the answers were different. The replies that seemed most probable revolved around some agricultural practice.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food

    Time to Rise

    http://blumberger.net/wp-json/wp/v2/pages/23 Chicharrónes

    The temperature in Puerto Vallarta has finally moderated, it’s still hot but not oppressive. The changes from Daylight Savings Time in Mexico and the US  have settled up. Mexico and the US change on different dates. Things are sort of normal.

    It’s 7:00 AM and the sun is still behind the mountains to the east of our apartment. I can smell pork cooking at Antonio’s Carnitas. I think Antonio’s serves the best carnitas in Puerto Vallarta.

    As Antonio and his son pull out the chicharrónes, cracklin’s, to drain from their big cauldron, the sweet aroma wafts my way—from a block and a half away.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Food,  Uncategorized

    ¿Pistachee?

     

    There is a row of beautiful trees lining Avenida Mexico in front of Parque Hidalgo here in Puerto Vallarta. I walk by these trees several times each week and right now they are heavy with a fruit I mistook for olives.

    I asked an old man sitting in the park what kind of tree this was—“¿Qué  tipo de árbol es este?

    Arrayan,” he replied.

    I thought he was wrong. So I took a couple of pictures and pulled down a high branch to examine the fruit.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    A Taste of Vanilla

    Layer-cake Pyramid of the Niches at El Tajin

    When visiting the archeological wonders at El Tajin in the state of Veracruz, we also explored the nearby city of Papantla. There we found many vendors selling vanilla on the streets in centro, downtown. The price of dried and cured vanilla beans was low—a pleasant surprise. Vanilla is very expensive in the US.

    On many occasions we have found something we wanted in Mexico, deferred buying it and later when we returned to make the purchase, it was no longer available. So we try to be more opportunistic. We stocked up. Although it’s been several years since we were in Papantla, we still have a few vanilla beans from there in our larder.

    Dried and Cured Vanilla Beans from Papantla

    ***

    To our great happiness we found vanilla orchids here in Puerto Vallarta growing at the Jardin Botanico Vallarta. In addition to their display of several varieties of vanilla orchids, they also sell cuttings and give workshops on their care.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch

    Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

    – Charles R. Swindoll

    I suppose my first grade teacher deposited this one.

     

    My son recently sent me a note with a couple of photos he took of Pawpaws he picked “in the wild” from an island in the Potomac River near Washington, DC.

    When I looked at his pictures, a flood of memories from the public elementary school I attended hit me. And this song we sang magically reappeared:

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Camarones Gigantes

    “The term Jumbo Shrimp has always amazed me. What is a Jumbo Shrimp? I mean, it’s like Military Intelligence – the words don’t go together, man.”      George Carlin

     

    Driving east from Papantla, we first hit the Gulf of Mexico at the Veracruz beach town of Tecolutla. It was an early summertime Friday and it seemed as if everyone in eastern Mexico had the same idea—let’s go to the beach. We found a small hotel and quickly joined the crowds cooling themselves in the soft breezes and inviting waters.

    ***

    The following day we wanted to see more of the seaside village. So we walked over to the riverfront where the mouth of the Rio Tecolutla enters the Gulf  and defines the southeast corner of the town.

  • Creative Non-fiction,  Essays,  Food,  Uncategorized

    Chickens in Mexico

    hen-with-chicks-2-fs

    On my first visit to our little neighborhood grocery, tienda de comestibles, I carefully requested in Spanish, “Quisiera una docena de huevos, por favor.” I believed this to mean, I would like a dozen eggs, please. I was surprised by the reply, “¿Te gusta blanco o rojo? Rojo? I was stumped. I thought rojo was red. It is, of course. Yet, it took me a minute to realize the patient shopkeeper referred to what I have always called brown eggs.

    When it comes to chickens, Mexicans have viewpoints different from most US citizens. Actual contact with chickens for most in the US generally consists of buying chicken parts wrapped in plastic. Mexicans, on the other hand, are not fazed when a flock of hens and biddies strut down a public street—even in the middle of a city. They don’t find it unusual if roving chickens poach a couple of bugs from their gardens, or if a rooster crows at any time of day or night.

  • Food,  Uncategorized

    Chorizo Almendrado

    As a trained lifetime recreational eater as opposed to a refueler (you know the type), I like to eat, drink, record recipes for food I enjoy, and poke fun at food pretension.

    chorizo-almendrado-fs

     

    A chorizo is a fat spicy Mexican pork sausage. There are many variations to the spicing mix. Most feature a lot of paprika.

    When we were living in Ciudad de Guanajuato, Alice taught English to school teachers in the nearby city of Silao. During that time, we had an opportunity to get to know that beautiful city. It is about the same size as Guanajuato, around 150,000 people, but there are some major differences.

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