Tuesday, February 27, 2024

#3167: Tuesday, February 27, 2024: Eating Oaxaca

Post 3167
- 13 years and 58 days since I started this blog -
February 21, 2024. Bistro Yaku, Cuenca, Ecuador.
Journal
(written February 27, 2024)
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 13 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.
My last night in Cuenca, I had a nice hang with a lot of my Cuenca friends mostly - but not entirely - expats. The majority of Cuencano friends sent apologies the next day.
Up top, here I am, having dinner in Bistro Yaku's courtyard smoking section, and trying to look inviting. Below, Anthony and me - Anthony had to be a Big Man. LOL. At bottom, Anthony, BFF Felipe, me and Claudia.
The next morning, Joel the taxista picked me up at 6am and brought me to the airport. Thanks to the previous Sunday's mountain-climbing adventure, I have been in increasing pain (right knee) for the last couple of days. No, it didn't start to bother me until the next day, and the pain was mild. It was worse, and very painful, the next day, and it was at its worst (to that point) when I got out of the cab to the airport.

I limped to the Avianca check-in counter, and got boarding passes for my flight to Quito, to Bógota, Colombia, and to Mexico City. I'm changing airlines for the Mexico City-to-Oaxaca flight, so I'll have to get that ticket there. 

I limped to the departure gate. I've been limping every since. 

The flight from Cuenca to Quito was easy. I met a Canadian dude, Steve, who had seen me play a few times at Bistro Yaku, and was also on the same flight to Bógota. I had a little breakfast at the Quito airport during the layover, and the Bógota was easy, too.

We got to Bógota at 11:30am. My Mexico City flight took off at 4:25pm. Steve patiently walked with me about a mile to my gate, although the gate for his 2:30pm flight to Toronto was much closer. The next day, he messaged me that he had underestimated the distance we'd come, and got to his flight in the nick of time.

I hung out a bit after lunch and at around 3pm, I ambled over to my gate. By then, my flight had taken off an hour ago.

Turns out, I had misread my ticket. My flight departed at 14:25, not 4:25. I had misread it no fewer than three times.

With no flights to Mexico City before 11pm, I had to completely re-ticket from Bógota to Oaxaca. No discounts for last-minute buyers, either.

And, of course, the new departure gate is all the way on the other side of the airport. Moving slow, limping and in pain all the way, it took almost a half-hour to make that trip. 

I got to Oaxaca almost eighteen hours later than I'd originally expected, sleepless for over two days, and checked into my AirBnB. I slept twenty-two of my first forty-eight hours here.
When you walk through the door of my AirBnB, you walk past a carport, down an open alley, past the main residence, and find yourself at the threshold of a beautiful courtyard (top photo). My apartment is on the 2nd floor at the back of the courtyard, 3rd apartment from the left/stairs. The bottom photo is of the way I walked in - I just turned around 180º and snapped it. The main residence is on the left, the carport is under the yellow apartment, the entrance door is behind the car.
I love this peculiar, 12-foot-tall cactus. It sits near my favorite seat on my balcony patio, where we enjoy each other's company while I smoke my weed. 
Last year, I walked a lot, every day. I am close, about three blocks away, from where I stayed last year, although I like this place better in every way, including its location.

This year, so far, I cannot walk so much due to the pain in my knee, an obstacle to the kind of walks and exploration that was my principal entertainment on my previous (and first) visit here thirteen months ago. Also, it is 15-20º hotter, in the 90s from around Noon to 5pm. 

So, bear with me, not as many wandering photos this year.
Luckily, there is a restaurant next door to my AirBnB. Even luckier, Restauránte Taniperla is top-rated on Google, and rated the #1 restaurant in Oaxaca by TripAdvisor! (So far, I rate it highly, but far from #1, based on last year). But the food is definitely very good, and the service and ambiance is excellent. I will be trying more of their food (the menu is not extensive, or, seemingly adventurous, but the quality has certainly been there so far). As long as walking hurts, I am going to take advantage of this stroke of luck, a great restaurant next to my front door.
Although not much, I haven't done no walking around. Above, random shots while I walked. Oaxaca is gorgeous, maybe the most visually attractive and provocative place in all my travels. Around every corner is something that knocks your eyes out.
Speaking of a new visually arresting scene around every corner, I turned a corner and encountered this neon signage. If you've ever had a conversation with me, about me, you know why seeing this stopped me in my tracks. To say it resonated with me is as understated as I will ever be.
My first - and second - stop after arrival (and a little sleep) was to Pig&Fish Food Truck, a restaurant I went to a lot last visit. Tavo, the owner, was the first Oaxacan friend I made last year. We keep up with each other via FaceBook when I'm home. Oh, and the food still blows my mind. I got to have a little lunch with him on the second day, when, in addition to a flight of tacos and a couple of Coronas, he provided a generous number of shots of his house mezcal. I hadn't gotten drunk so far this trip - not my drug of choice - but I will admit it was a pleasant changeup.
I got to visit with Melissa and Roger in their amazing new home a short taxi ride North of Centro. It was a real treat for me to have a fully 'normal' day, by which I mean a day of smoking weed, playing bass, eating, and avoiding unnecessary drama. This is what happened. There was music, it was all quite fun, and I'm going to leave it at that.
Food Comment
From the Del Jardin Café a fruit plate with yogurt and granola (watermelon, mango, papaya and pineapple) and a vegetable juice.
Chepiche Café's huevos divorciados (half red/half green molés) was as good as I remembered. I remembered it as one of my favorite breakfasts, and so it remains. The fruit bowl with yogurt and granola was almost too much, but I managed.
It's not just the photo. The molé Oaxacana was so rich and dark, it was hard to see the enchiladas it covered. Restauránte Taniperla, the restaurant next door, served this dish, enchiladas with molé Oaxacana, and it was pretty amazing. Oaxacana seems to be the derivation of molé Poblano, the first molé I ever tried, some fifty years ago. It's a sauce whose primary taste points are the chilis and cacao. It was the first savory, not sweet, chocolate-flavored food I ever ate, and I liked it a lot. This was a pretty spectacular molé, that totally stole the show from the mix of fresh cheese and chicken enchiladas. 
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3 comments:

  1. Take care of that leg K2!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Food looks amazing but the colors in this town…wow! I could live there!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow. The place looks great as well as all the food. Can't wait for another post.
    Harmonica Ken.

    ReplyDelete