July 14, 2016 Breakfast – Machaca with Mexican eggs. Lunch – Tio Luca
Today we had Machaca made from beef jerky. The cook did not rehydrate it completely and it was a little tough, but that is a small point. The big point is that when we mentioned it they went shopping for it and bought it and prepared it to please us. I loved it. It had that tough feel of real ranch food. The eggs were scrambled with onion, tomato, jalapeño chili and beef jerky.
At 10:00 Jennifer and her two children arrived. We left for Canada de Virgen. We dove for about thirty minutes in the direction of Guanajato and arrived at a parking lot, ticket office and museum that was nine miles from the site. Canada de Virgen is thought to be an Otomi peoples’ ceremonial site built and inhabited between 500 B.C. to 1000 A.D., so it predates the Aztecs and only the Olmec culture in the Veracruz area is older. The name Canada refers to the fact that the hill on which the site was built is completely surrounded by deep canyons. The reference to the Virgin is derived from the fact that a geode was found on the site that had an image in it resembling the Virgin Mary.
We bought tickets and boarded a bus and were driven to a point about one mile away from the site. We were told that this was a far as the landowner whose land the site is on would allow buses to drive, so we walked the rest of the way on foot. This turned out to be more impactful because it made us walk on the same ceremonial pathway that was used by the original inhabitants to approach the site. The site is on a hill top that may have been slightly flattened. Not all of the site has been excavated. Excavation started in 1995 and ended in 2013. The site was officially discovered in 1985, but it took until 1995 to convince the landowners, a German family, to donate the 32 acre site under threat of condemnation.
About 30 to 40% of the site has been excavated. Here are some pictures.
The siting of the pyramid has astronomical significance. The sunset on March 4 casts a shadow through the center of the elevated house at the top of the other side of the pyramid, which our guide told us was the beginning of the Otomi’s planting season. There are also features aligned with the spring and winter solar Equinox and the moon’s rising points, so this yet another astronomically attuned ceremonial site dating back 2500 years.
We were shown garden areas used by the occupants at the site. The stairs leading to the highest point in the pyramid is decorated with a snake like other pyramids.
After viewing the site and visiting the museum we drove back to San Miguel at around 2:00. Jennifer recommended Tio Lucas for lunch and said it was rated number 15 of the over 300 restaurants in San Miguel and had great steaks. We drove around downtown until we found a parking spot on Canal about four blocks from the restaurant and walked back the four blocks to the restaurant at the corner of Mesones and Hidalgo.
The restaurant was lovely and well appointed with white table clothes and waiters in uniforms befitting a fine dining restaurant. Mthe owner, who I assume was Tio Luca, was present and greeted us warmly. As this was the third time Jennifer had eaten at Tio Luca’s in the last week, her presence was noted with approval.
Jennifer ordered beef Tips in a Mexican tomato sauce and ordered spaghetti for her daughter, Antonia. Her son, Eden?, ordered a roast beef sandwich. Suzette and I decided to split a watercress salad and a filet Mignon, which we ordered medium rare. There was a misunderstanding on which salad we ordered that was corrected and the watercress salad was made table side by one of our waiters. I counted three.
The salad contained both beef and ham slices besides the watercress, regular lettuce, red onion threads, and tomatoes. It was a hardy salad, but we both devoured it after our morning of exercise and four block mostly uphill hike to the restaurant.
Then the filet with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach was served with two additional plates. I split the dish with Suzette. The steak was bacon wrapped and was the best I have tasted in years. It may have been grilled with butter and was at least 12 oz. and cost 228 pesos ($13.00). We loved every bite and considered it a real bargain.
Wine was expensive, so we drank Negra Modelo beer with the meal.
Jennifer recommended the flan, so we ordered two of those. One for the children and Jennifer and one for Suzette and me. I asked To Luca if he ever served Chongos. He said, “It is difficult to make, but I love it and I buy it at Bonanza.” I told him I had first eaten Chongos at Las Hadas in 1976 and he spoke rhapsodically about Las Hadas in the 70’s. Las Hadas was one of, if not, the most luxurious hotel in Mexico in the 70’s, built by a South American silver baron just north of Manzanillo with its own marina, golf carts to chauffeur guests around and private swimming pools for many rooms built in a moorish style by a Spanish architect. The movie “10” was filmed there with Bo Derek and Dudley Moore, if I recall correctly.
After lunch we walked back to the car by way of Bonanza, where Jennifer bought a few things, including sea salt and I picked a bottle of Torres Reserva red wine for her and I bought a can of Chongos.
We then walked to the best wine store in town, where I bought a bottle of French Sauvignon Blanc produced by Nicolas for 96 pesos. We said goodbye and drove Back to the Posada at around 5:30. We had just eaten the largest meal of our trip and were not hungry. We watched the NewsHour on PBS and then an amazing interview with President Obama and a live TV audience on CNN regarding race relations and gun violence. It was an incredible one on one experience between the audience and the President. If he continues to do shows like this for his last five months in office and beyond, it will surely make a difference.
We opened the bottle of 2009 Silverado Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that Ioana and Rick gave me for my birthday and enjoyed its smoothness very much.
Bon Appetit
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