04 Oct 2013 10 Comments
in On the Road, Recipes, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Boca de Tomatlan, bonito, Casa Tres Coronitas, crudo, Jalisco, Mario's Fishing & Snorkeling Tours, Mexican cooking, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, Yelapa
El pescado y yo
“What would you like for dinner?” the house chef, Marilu, asked us in Spanish. And we stood puzzling at her, since our Spanish is not that good.
Eventually we figured it out, and I suggested carne asada — grilled steak. It had clearly been sometime since any houseguests had requested this, since the grill was in an advanced state of rust decomposition, and much of the staff’s time that afternoon was spent scrubbing, soaking and scouring it. More
01 Oct 2013 4 Comments
in Humor, On the Road, Recipes Tags: Casa Tres Coronitas, chiles relleno, food, huevos rancheros, humor, Jalisco, Mexican cooking, Mexico, mosquitos, Puerto Vallarta
Down here, south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where there are iguanas on the rooftops and butterflies in the house, where flowers and rubber trees grow from rock walls and rain gutters and cobblestone streets, where that chirping call you hear from the trees at night is not birds but geckos, where moths are the size of your hand and walls transitory, time takes on a drowsy quality and you get into the rhythm of the tropics and the realities that entails. Some of those realities, like the lush beauty and balmy waters, are lovely. Some, like the mosquitos, are not.
Baja from 30,000 feet
The last time I contemplated myself as meal on this blog was a post I did from Lake Tahoe reflecting on the Donner party. But after our first night of our now annual fall trip to Casa Tres Coronitas in which I received some 15 to 20 bites inside the mosquito netting that surrounded our bed (while my daughter, outside the netting, got that many on her face alone), I find myself considering it again. More
03 May 2013 9 Comments
in Food, Humor, Recipes Tags: Baja California, Bri Winkler, Cinco de Mayo, machaca, margaritas, Mexican cooking, Mexico, Oaxaca, queso fundido, Yucatan
My friends and family (and probably quite a few of my blog readers) know that when it comes to food, I’m a theme-and-holiday geek. Oftentimes as a holiday approaches, various people will reach out to me. “So,” they’ll say, “What are you guys up to for St. Patrick’s Day?” They know full well what we’re up to, and are angling for an invitation.
The stuff Cinco de Mayo dreams are made of.
One of my favorite “reason-to-cook-and-drink-ethnic” holidays is upon us — Cinco de Mayo. Much like St. Patrick’s Day, it’s a holiday that’s more popular with Yankees than it is back in the home country. It’s the day everyone is Mexican! Also like St. Patrick’s Day, it’s a convenient excuse for those who would drink in excess to head for their favorite watering hole. For us, Cinco de Mayo — again, like St. Patrick’s Day — is an opportunity to celebrate the food and drink of the holiday’s culture. If we drink too much, it’s not on purpose. More
08 Mar 2013 5 Comments
in Food, Humor, Recipes Tags: Baja California, cochinita pibil, machaca, margarita, Mexican cooking, Mexico, Milton Brook, Nayarit, Sonora, tacos
Unless you’re a drug runner, things in Mexico generally move pretty slowly. I remember watching an entire construction crew working on a resort collapse in the heat and humidity of the late morning in Nayarit, and nap on site until the mid afternoon.
Machaca, mid-mash
A lot of the foods of Mexico are slow, too. In the Yucatan, for example, they wrap pigs in banana leaves and bury them in the ground to cook for a day. Nobody’s setting timers or watching the clock. And in the cowboy cattle country of the desert north, they hang strips of beef in the sun to dry out in the blazing sun. Up there, they call it machaca. More
09 Oct 2012 12 Comments
in On the Road, Recipes, Video Tags: Baja California, food, huachinango, Mexican cooking, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, recipes, salsa, Sea of Cortez
I did finally get my sea urchin. It was our last full day in Mexico, the water was calm, so I dove down into the rocky crevices off la playa de Conchas Chinas, and returned with a spiny prize.
It was the biggest one I could find. Yet, it looked smaller than I had thought once I got it onshore. I’d been talking about the erisos for a few days, still Marilu looked surprised when I brought the creature into the kitchen. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 