Frambuesas/Raspberries
buy provigil from uk 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.
Time to Rise
http://thelittersitter.com/templates/beez3/ALFA_DATA 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.
¿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.
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:
Tamales, tamales, tamales….
Un tamal rojo y un tamal verde
Every night around seven, an old truck rumbles down our street in colonia Emiliano Zapata in Puerto Vallarta. The truck’s makeshift sound system blares, “tamales, tamales, tamales…tamales rojo, tamales verde, tamales d’elote…tamales, tamales.”
It is a song I love to hear. The chant and rhythm remind me of seafood vendors I heard in coastal North Carolina when I was young.
The word tamal derives from the Nahuatl, one of the core indigenous languages of Mexico, word for wrapper. Tamales is the plural form.
Chickens in Mexico
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.
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.
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.
