BOB'S DETERMINATION

About a week or so ago, our hosts, Gerardo and Marielena, bought a new Mexican style BBQ grill. Bob has been dying to BBQ some pork and chicken. He spoke with Marielena and she said we could use their new grill. They also had purchased a big bag of charcoal (Mexican style called “carbon”). There was one small problem. The grill didn’t have a grate.

We really didn’t have any plans for that day (Thursday), but guess what? We were on a mission to find a grate. Marielena called a tienda and they said they had one. We got the directions and were off in search of a grate. We found the store. It was very nice. The lower level had all kinds of children’s toys and upstairs was full of household goods for the kitchen. The prize was near. They did have a BBQ grill available but we couldn’t buy just a grate. We went to several stores. We also went into Mercado Benito Juarez thinking they sell everything. We spoke to a man who was very nice. In our best Spanish we told him what we were looking to purchase. He directed us to another tienda. We finally purchased something from this store. It wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but what are you going to do. It is actually a part that is used in a pot of boiling water to steam tamales.

By the time we got home, we were exhausted. We were on the hunt for over three hours, maneuvering through a lot of people and traffic. We couldn’t believe how busy it was on a Thursday. Many people were out Christmas shopping. Bob wasn’t thrilled with his find but thought he could make it work.

After a quick lunch, we were off in search of all the ingredients for dinner. Bob really wanted to do BBQ chicken. He wanted to go back to the same tienda where we purchased the chicken milanesa. It’s the best chicken store. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed. So Dora and Roberto (the owners of the carniceria) gave us another polleria (chicken store) recommendation. Then we purchased our fruits and vegetables from our friends. It’s so nice to go there and chat with them.

When we finally arrived home, we had been on the go walking for over four hours. Who wanted to make dinner…not Sam? She just wanted her cama (bed). Bob was really excited about BBQing. He got everything ready; it took about 45 minutes to get the fire going. Sam never did her nap. We first cooked the red and yellow bell peppers on the grill, along with some green onions. The peppers weren’t getting very charred so Sam brought them in the kitchen and finished charring them on the gas burner. Bob put the chicken on the grill.

Dinner was finally ready. The peppers were sweet and the onions were good but the chicken was some of the worst chicken we have ever made. It was rubbery and not very tasty. We also made a refried bean side dish. Bob had about three helpings and said it was the best he has ever had…he must have been hungry!!

Beforehand, as we sat and waited for our chicken to finish cooking, Sam noticed a large insect headed our way. She quickly moved in for a closer look as Bob strongly advised her to be careful. As you can see, our uninvited guest was a scorpion! Our "guest" didn’t survive the evening but was the subject of some interesting conversation with our housekeeper the next morning after she discovered the body we hid under a tin can.

After dinner, Marielena’s three nieces stopped by for their English lesson with Gerardo. Sam had copied some of the worksheets she has used in San Miguel de Allende at Los Ricos. The worksheets had to do with “food”. The girls are really good. We told them about Rosetta Stone (it is a language program). We have both the English and Spanish versions. We loaded the English version on the computer for the girls. We couldn’t believe it…they had no problems with any of the levels. We finally went to the last level and they “aced it”. We wish we could be half as good with our Spanish.

After the girls left, Gerardo invited us to have dinner together on Friday evening. He saw how Bob had used the grill. He had a large piece of lamb in the freezer that he has been dying to try. You see, Marielena, is a vegetarian while Gerardo is a carnivore. He cherishes every opportunity he can get to eat meat. Gerardo was going to thaw the lamb overnight and we would make a plan in the morning.

We finally got to bed about 11:00 p.m. This is late for us. Just as we were ready to doze off, the neighbors started to party at midnight. The music was very loud. This continued until about 3:00 a.m. At 4:00 a.m., the fireworks started for one of the biggest celebrations in Oaxaca; it is the celebration of the Virgin of Soledad…Oaxaca’s patron saint. Needless to say, we were very tired on Friday morning and now we needed to shop for the big lamb dinner, prepare the food and entertain our guests. Stay tuned!