July 15, 2016 Breakfast Chicken Mole Enchiladas La Gruta Hot Springs dinner at Second Annual San Miguel Wine and Food Festival
We got to breakfast around 9:00 after watching some of the Tour de France time trial.
The breakfast menu was dark mole on chicken filled enchiladas with a dab of refried beans. We loved this dish. It seemed that the cook used a San Miguel form of mole which is sweeter and less bitter than the more usual Oaxacan form of mole. We then went to Actinver to try to straighten out our bank accounts until noon.
We decided to go to La Gruta Hot Springs for the afternoon. We drove the short 7 miles and found La Gruta at the bottom of the hill below Escondida Springs. La Gruta was more appealing to us because it had more foliage, many flowers, tropical plants and a real grotto, plus more swimming pools and lots of deck chairs for resting and relaxing. We took two lounge chairs and after soaking in the warm waters for a while to loosen our joints, we lay down and read until 3:45 or 4:00.
We got dressed and drove to Rancho Picacho on the other side of San Miguel where a wine and food event was in full swing. We negotiated for a ticket for the day by paying for a three day pass for 480 pesos.
There was the usual assortment of winery's, some tasting, but others not. There were also commercial vendors selling books, jewelry, and other items. The food was mostly for sale. We met a food tour guide from San Diego who has come with a friend who was a photographer for the event. Since her friend was busy photographing the special chef’s table meal, we joined forces and went around tasting the wines.
It quickly became apparent that the Valley of Guadalupe in Baja California is Mexico’s best developed wine district. There were also good wines from Argentina and Spain represented. The other huge component of beverages available for tasting were the new Mescals coming onto the market. We tried a few but I wanted to walk out on my own two legs, so avoided most of them. What we did like was the rompopes, which is an eggnog like drink made from caramelized milk and rum and usually flavored. We each bought a bottle of macadamia nut flavored rompope.
After an hour we got hungry and started looking at the food vendors. We soon found a vendor selling seafood paella with mussels, clams, shrimp, chicken and pork flavored with real saffron. We bought two plates of paella for 150 pesos each and Elena went and bought a bottle of a Sauvignon Blanc and chardonnay blend and we had a lovely meal near the band platform where a local band was playing music. During dinner elena’s friend came over after the chef’s table meal ended and they went off after we finished the paella. Suzette and I walked the grounds and then decided to split a crème brûlée at a vendor that made the sugar coating in front of you and then topped the dessert with fresh lavender. We shared one that was quite nice and then we left for town at dusk and drove to 12 Garza to watch the subset on the roof with Patty, Rags, Holly, Cynthia, Ricardo, Mike and Jamie. We took the Silverado 2009 Estate Bottled Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa.
After the sun set we watched old photos of all the folks and their kids for awhile and then went back to the Posada and bed.
Another full day of activity, although much of it involved quiet time.
Bon Appetit
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