#2980, Thursday, January 26, 2023: Gnoshing my way through Oaxaca

Post 2980

- 13 years and 26 days since I started this blog -

At Pig&fish La Cochería, January 24, 2023

Journal

(written January 26, 2023)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 12 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent. 

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling, except for food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

In the last week since I wrote, I've found some rhythm, things have gotten good, no, great.

Without much music going on, it's been about the food and architecture.

I plan out (hah!) my day around where I'll be eating. Two meals a day. Intermittent fasting, although the quantity of food means I don't expect to lose weight.

But if I do, it'll be because I walked it off. A lot of walking happening, and that's been a special pleasure for me, because this year's trip, for the first time in many years, I am walking without pain. I suffer from arthritis in my knees (long-term),  and in my hips (more recent), and some circulation issues that cause my right calf to cramp up. Or at least, these are the problems I've been suffering until this past summer. On ths trip, I had one brief flair-up of the calf problem in Chiang Mai, and nothing since.

Walking without pain is a blessing. And it enables me to enjoy longer walks, and be more involved with my surroundings (as opposed to being strictly destination-oriented, when I'm walking with pain).  

The food has been, meal after excellent meal, completely wonderful.

I've established myself at a coupe of places where I'm recognized as a repeat customer, and one wonderful place, Pig&fish, where I am an honored guest - announced as El Viejo. Okay, not my favorite nickname, but I don't have a say.

So, lots of walking, mostly in my neighborhood, which is Centro, the city center. We'll get to walking around pics, but first: I walked down past Oaxaca's big, beautiful town square, to one of Oaxaca's most famous mercados, Mercado Benito Juarez. Here's the pics:

The market is vast, and has, seemingly, everything. Pictured above is a fraction of what is available. I purchased some artisanal chocolate, which I chose from a sampler of six varieties. Locally, chocolate that  is turned into bars (most chocolate is served as a drink in these parts), ground - but not to a flour - almonds are added to give it a slightly more granular texture or mouth-feel. Anyway, delicious. There were a lot of things I couldn't get a good photo of - pet shops, food stalls, shoe stores, toy stores, and on and on. I did have an indigenous drink called tlayuda, which was delicious in a weird, never tasted anything like it way. And I had a breakfast of an egg-and-grasshopper memele, which was good, although, with the egg and sauce, I couldn't identify any taste of grasshopper.

Before i start showing my walking-around shots, I'd like to talk about my pot experiences this trip. I've already mentioned that in Chiang Mai, they've done a one-eighty on cannabis prohibition, there are pot stores everywhere you look, and people are smoking in the streets.

Mexico is different. Pot has been decriminalized, but not legalized. Oaxaca, however, has taken explicit steps in that regard, publishing a policy that specifies that the police will not harass pot smokers. My friends put me in touch with a dealer, He sent me his product list and prices on WhatsApp, I chose, ordered, and.my pot was delivered by Joel the taxista. Some of the best pot I've smoked in quite a while. And, unlike Chiang Mai, it was cheap, by any standards - about two bucks a gram, delivered.

Joel the taxista and I have become friends.

So, like in LA and Chiang Mai, (and home), I'm spending a lot of time stoned here. That's a good thing. 

Here, then, are my walking-around pics for this session: 

I had a couple of wonderful evenings walking around the Zócalo, Oaxaca's central square.

I'm only going to be in Oaxaca five more days. I have a street food tour planned (should have done that thee weeks ago, but I was hurtin'),  a birthday party, and a lot of eating to do between now and then. I'll post again on the 31st. 

Food Comment

Huevos Oaxacana - eggs with black beans and quesillo, in redl mole.

Eggs with smoked salmon toast, chorizo, fresh salad.

From new breakfast favorite Casa Chepiche, huevos la Huerta - eggs with avocado, on a bed of mixed vegetables with whole grain toast.

I've been back to Pig & fish La Cochera a bunch of times since I wrote about it in the last post. The first time I went back, there was no question but I was going to have the taco tasting. Here it is, and all I can say is the tacos were all awesome. My favorites were the shrimp, fish and California, which are the middle three. But the sauces, seen at the top of the frame, are the real stars at P&f.

From La Terraza, chicken stuffed with mushrooms in yellow mole and vegetables. Those bulbous purple things are what the locals call jamaica.

Special octopus section. The first time I ever ate octopus (pulpo in Spanish and Portuguese) was when I was nineteen years old, on my way to Tangiers, Morocco via the coast of Spain. I stopped at a roadhouse on the road somewhere between Almería and Valencia. They had seafood soup, the only thing on the menu I could make out. When it arrived, little baby octopus tentacles were the only identifiable seafood. everything else was just pieces of fish. All it took was my hunger and the fact that the dish smelled so good to get me over my momentary hesitation over the alien food in my bowl. Since then, I've been an adventurous eater. Almost fifty years later, I was in Portugal's Algarve, and feasted for days on the best octopus ever. But both the dishes above, two different presentations from two different restaurants, were different than, but as good as, anything I ate then. Up top, from Casa Taviche, pulpo served with a traditional Oaxacan cream and corn mole, greens and Oaxacan-style potato salad. Below, from Tr3s 3istro Oyster Bar, simple grilled pulpo on roasted potatoes.

 Please leave a comment when you visit my blog.
Thank you!