OUR FIRST POSADA

Last evening, Marielena, Gerardo, and Mateo invited us to join them at the local parish church, Parroquia de San Matias Jalatlaco, for a Christmas carol concert. The concert was to begin at 7:00 p.m. We arrived about two minutes before seven and the church was almost empty. Gerardo inquired and was informed that the choir had been there, didn’t see any people, so they left. That is a first in Mexico for us. Normally, events never start on time. What is one to do? We walked home.

Marielena remembered that there was a “Posada” nearby. A “Posada” is a Christmas festival originating in Latin America that dramatizes the search of Joseph and Mary for lodging. The first posada was on December 16th. There are eight posadas at homes and the ninth is Christmas Eve. It was only a couple blocks from the house. The posada actually started at 7:00 p.m., so we were late. However, we weren’t the only late arrivals. When we came in, everyone gave us a friendly greeting. They were just finishing up some prayer services. We were each handed a little candle, a long sparkler, and a whistle. Of course, everything they were saying (prayers and songs) were in Spanish.

We all proceeded up the street about a block. Leading the procession were two young men carrying a decorated table with statues of Mary and Joseph on top. Everyone was singing, praying, blowing their whistles, lighting their sparklers and candles. When we arrived to the next home, the leaders knocked on the door and said some prayers. There were people on the other side of the door answering back in prayer. This went on back and forth for a few minutes. Then the doors were opened and everyone was invited in. There were about 30 people in total.

Once everyone arrived, more prayers were said. A man also read from the bible. Afterwards, they talked about the meaning of the readings. They also said, “Lord, hear our prayers”. A few people verbalized their prayers. It was truly amazing to take part in this celebration.

After the services, the hostess served punch, juice, and sandwiches…fellowship time.

HOSTESS

As we left for home, we were invited to tomorrow night’s posada and every guest received a “goodie bag”that said, “Happy Birthday”. Happy Birthday is for the celebration of Jesus. Each bag contained a lot of goodies. The people are very generous and friendly.

                            

There was a beautiful Nativity set displayed on the floor of the room.

During the services, both of us noticed a picture on the wall that reminded us of Aunt Maryann.

It was a simple but memorable occasion.

HUITACOCHE

We had a much needed relaxing Saturday morning and afternoon. We decided to go out to dinner at Los Danzantes. Sam did some research and found they served “huitacoche”. So we were off to another adventure.


We had a nice stroll to the restaurant. This is the first Saturday night that we had been in centro. The town looks very different at night with all the lights and people. We ate outside in the courtyard at Los Danzantes. We had a nice bottle of Mexican merlot. For an appetizer we had: Tostadas de Venado (venison) con Salsa Xnipec de Chile Habanero y Quesco Fresco. It was very good.

Bob’s plato fuerte was: Linguini con Hongos (mushrooms) de la Region, Queso Fresco, Arugula y Salsa de Chintextle. He enjoyed it very much.

Sam had: Ravioles de Huitacoche con Salsa de Quesos. Huitacoche…you may be wonder what this is? It is a blue corn fungus. That’s right…another local cuisine. It was surprisingly very mild and good.

After dinner, Sam wanted to try another place she had read about. Oaxaca has wonderful chocolate. So we each had a cup of chocolate con leche (hot chocolate milk). It hit the spot. Now with full bellies, we started our stroll home.

Well…as you know we always find a good party. On our way home, there were a lot of people in the street in front of the Santo Domingo church. There were musicians, dancers, etc. It was a “quincenera”…this is the big celebration when a girl turns 15 years old. When she came out of the church, she looked like a bride. There was a big white limo waiting for her. Then the party began.

Straw sombreros were given away to the hombres and Bob even got one.

We stayed and watched the festivities for almost 30 minutes. Just a typical Saturday night in Oaxaca!

FIESTA EN LA CASA

On Friday morning, Gerardo came down a little after 10:00 a.m., to show us the piece of lamb he thawed. Gerardo and Bob unwrapped it in the kitchen; Gerardo hadn’t seen the meat when he bought it because it was frozen. Well, the meat was very interesting; it was all bones with only a little meat.

Now we needed to make a plan. Gerardo said he needed to go to Sam’s Club. He wanted to look at their lamb and also possibly purchase a live Christmas tree. We left around 10:30 a.m. If we told you that the traffic and the drivers in Oaxaca are loco (crazy), it would be an understatement. We will never again complain about traffic in Michigan. One must be a very aggressive driver; nice people don’t get anywhere.

Well, back to Sam’s Club. First we had to go pick up Marielena’s sister, Maricela. She has the Sam’s Club membership. Gerardo also invited her to dinner and she accepted. When we got to Sam’s Club, the lamb was in thin slices. Here the style is called Chuletas or chops, like pork chop style. We think it was a shoulder cut. That’s all they had so we purchased two packages. Gerardo really wanted lamb chops with our special marinade for the BBQ grill. Going down the main aisle, Bob spotted Franzia box wine…he is now in heaven! It doesn’t take much to make him happy. Costco didn’t have any real trees.

Now, we were off to Soriana’s, it’s a grocery store. We bought several items; however, the produce didn’t look as good as at the Mercado. We looked and looked for arborio rice to make risotto. Sam finally spotted it. It’s not easy to find the ingredients we are used to in the US. We dropped Maricela off at her jugoeria or juice store. She has a small tienda that sells fresh juices and sandwiches. We maneuvered our way through all the traffic and finally found a parking spot at Mercado Hidalgo. We introduced Gerardo to Dora and Roberto and also to Lucy, Carmen, Orlando, and Isaias. We bought the rest of our produce. Bob spotted a fresh Christmas tree for Gerardo. Gerardo spoke to the young man; however, he wanted 900 pesos. Instead, he purchased a small manager.

By the time we got home, it was 1:40 p.m. It’s an all day affair just to do a little grocery shopping. We had a little lunch and Bob wanted to take a nap before we started preparing all of the food. About 3:30 p.m., we got started. Marielena came down and helped us. Gerardo was feeding Mateo lunch and came down later.

Here’s the menu:

Lamb bones with little meat – we placed them in the oven with some spices and onions, and about half a can of beer. Covered it with foil and cooked it for about 2 ½ hours. Afterwards, we put it on the grill with Bob’s homemade BBQ sauce. The best part was the BBQ sauce.

Lamb chuletas – marinated with garlic, rosemary, thyme, mint, and olive oil. Cooked on the grill…dry...not like our juicy lamb chops.

Oven risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, and spinach…very tasty.

Salad – tender lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, red onion, celery, cucumber carrot, and blue cheese with a homemade balsamic dressing…delicious.

Grilled veggies:  onions and red and yellow peppers…very good.

Dessert – Hagan Daz ice cream with caramel sauce. We also had roasted chestnuts on the open fire. They were delicious. This is the first time Sam has had them. Gerardo had purchased them at the Mercado.

Believe it or not…it took us about 5 hours (four of us) to prepare this dinner. We had a lot of fun spending time with our new friends. The funniest part was the comments Bob made when the lamb with bones was on the grill. He said, “Huesos sin carne”, “Huesos sin carne”…”Bones without meat”, “Bones without meat”. Mateo thought that was very funny and he kept singing it over and over.

All in all we had a great day. It was busy but very memorable. Remember, the night before we didn’t get any sleep. We collapsed in our bed and hoped for a good night’s sleep.

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!

OKAY, OKAY...IT WAS OVERCAST!

Yesterday was an overcast day but a very enjoyable one. Some days have been really hot walking around the city. So having a cloudy day was greatly appreciated.


For lunch we had tasty shrimp cocktails near Mercado Hidalgo. We decided to have pollo milanesa, rice with black beans, broccoli, mushrooms, and salad for dinner. We went back to Carniceria Miguelito’s and talked with Dora and her husband, Roberto. We also met their daughter, Doris. She is 19 years old and attending a university in Mexico City studying geo-physics. Her English was very good. We asked for the best tienda to purchase pollo. They told us which one; we went there and purchased four pieces of pounded chicken breasts for pollo milanesa.

Now we had to purchase our fruits and vegetables. We saw our amigos and they assisted us. Sam wanted to purchase some pomegranate seeds to eat, so we did. After spending four hours walking around today, we headed home with very tired feet.

Every night, Bob tries to watch FOX News with Bret Baier. Last night was no exception. After the news, we began cooking. If you haven’t noticed, it is one of our favorite pastimes here in Oaxaca. Bob decided we would need a sauce for our pollo milanesa; he took some of the pomegranate seeds and blended them in a small food processor, added some mango nectar, and a little sugar. It was delicious with the pollo. It was kind of like cranberry sauce.

After dinner we watched the Discovery Channel and decided to go to bed. Buenas Noches!

SOMEHOW THE LAST PART OF OUR POST DIDN'T PUBLISH!!

MAESTRO OBED

We continued our walk in search for the Basilica de la Soledad. It is the most important religious site in the entire state of Oaxaca and located right here in the city of Oaxaca. Here is some information I found in the Internet.

The Basilica de la Soledad in Oaxaca City is the most important religious site in the entire state of Oaxaca. Architecturally, it is notable for its 24-m (79-ft) high Baroque facade and its heavily gilded interior.


The basilica was built between 1682 and 1690 to house the holy image of the Virgin of Solitude (Soledad), Oaxaca's patron saint. The statue stands inside the church, decorated with 600 diamonds and topped with a 4-lb gold crown. Her vestments are encrusted with pearls.


In the 1980s robbers removed her jewel-studded crown; she now has a replica of the original and stands in a glass-covered shrine. Many locals come to pray before the image, as she is believed to have the power to heal and work miracles. A major festival on December 18 honors the Virgin, attracting the faithful from all over Oaxaca.


According to legend, the image of the Virgin was found in the pack of a mule that sat down on an outcropping of rock and refused to get up. When the image was discovered, the Virgin appeared, and a basilica was constructed to commemorate the event. The outcropping of rock is surrounded by a cage of iron bars immediately to your right along the wall as you enter the church.

The concave facade of the Basilica de la Soledad, projecting forward from the building, is unique in Mexico's religious architecture. The way the top is rounded and the tiers are divided suggests an imitation in stone of the traditional carved wooden retablos (folding altarpieces) common in Mexican churches.


Attached to the church is a former convent with a small religious museum in back. The museum is charming, and contains a curious blend of pieces; some museum-quality, others mere trinkets.


When visiting the Basílica, it is traditional to eat ice cream; there are vendors in the lower plaza in front of the church.

While we were at the church, we visited its small religious museum and had some traditional ice cream, more like iced milk, combined with a snow ice topping. We tried, “Leche Quemada con Tuna”. It was plain ice milk with snow ice flavored with the fruit of a cactus called “tuna”. The fruit is very red. It was refreshing.

This weekend, December 18th, is the big celebration. We are sure the city will be very busy. The church was already full of fresh flowers being delivered by a variety of florists and local people. A truly amazing sight.

We walked to the Zocalo and purchased a torta from a vendor under the bandstand. In a previous post we referred to it as the fountain…sorry for the mistake. We made sure we gave our business to the other vendor…we wanted to keep our promise. The vendor immediately recognized us and asked if we wanted the ham torta we had last week with the vendor next to him. It’s amazing he even remembered us with all of the people coming and going. Today we tried the “pierna”, “pork leg” torta. It was great.

Tonight’s dinner was leftovers…spaghetti, meat loaf, and beef vegetable soup. It was really good.

ESCALERAS DEL FORTIN

Today our destination was, “Escaleras del Fortin”, “Stairs to the Small Fort”. We are getting pretty good at navigating the city especially if we map it out before we leave home. Taking a leisurely walk, it took us about 30 minutes to get to the Escaleras del Fortin. The view was amazing. We walked all the way to the top of the stairs. It was about two hundred steps and it took us about 10 minutes. When we got to the top, there was a young man doing pushups. We asked if there were more steps to the top and he said, “Si”. He told us to go through the tunnel and then take the steps to the top to the Auditorio Guelaguetza. It took us about 5 minutes more to get to the very top. The views were amazing.

We walked around the auditorio and then back down. On our way down, a young man, Obed, stopped Sam and asked if she spoke Spanish. She said, “Poco”. He is a maestro, teacher, for the 9th grade. He asked if we could translate some Spanish into English so he could teach his students. Here is the Spanish: “Feliz Navidad y una Prospero Nuevo Ano 2010 con paz reign en su hogar”… “Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2010 and may peace reign in your home.” He was very pleased that we took the time to help him. It felt great to be of assistance since so many of the locals have been so nice to us.