Today we had a fascinating day. We went to Monte Alban at 10:30 the trip is only about 8 km. but most of the trip is in Oaxaca and it's suburbs the road keeps climbing and Monte Alan sits at the summit of a mountain overlooking the Central Valley where Oaxaca is located and two other valleys. It is an extensive site that sits at the top of what was the religious world before the Conquest. I do not know all the statistics but it must be one of the largest archeological zones in Mesoamerica.
We finally figured out the bus system and avoided the tourist games. We took a city bus for 14 pesos to the hotel where the bus service originates. I ran to an ATM one block away and withdrew 2000 pesos from my account (about $125.00). Then I returned an we bordered the bus and were driven twenty to twenty-five minutes to the archeological zone. The cost of the ticket for the transportation round trip was 60 pesos and entrance to the ruins was 70 pesos. We walked the northern ¼ the site and saw everything we wanted to see in 1 ½ hour. The main avenue must be at least a mile long wth courtyards and pyramids on all sides. The site seemed to be much more restored than I recall twenty years ago.
The good mole tamale cooked in
Banana leaf
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We saw the museum, which appeared to be relatively new and drank a coke so I could replenish my energy and the walked back to the parking lot and found a driver from the transportation service, who drove us down the hill to Oaxaca. We arrived at around 1:00. We initially thought to go eat at the Mercado, but I suggested we go back to Mayordomo. That turned out to be a mistake because we ordered different things that were not as interesting as the tlayuda smothered in red mole we ate the other day. I ordered a mole tamale and a raja tamale. The mole tamale was wrapped in a plantain leaf, but was just red mole wrapped with masa. The Rajas tamale was even worse. It was strips (rajas) of shredded chicken and chiles wrapped a thick layer of masa. There was no sauce or cheese the moisten and flavor the tamale. We did not eat it. Suzette ordered the fish filet cooked with hoja santa. It was served in crimped aluminum foil just the way we prepare it, chopped tomato, onion, shrimp, and several hoja santa leaves, very ordinary. I did get the Chocomio and enjoyed the cool milkshake with cream of mezcal and coffee tremendously (25 pesos).
After lunch we took the bus north to Marguia and walked back to the hotel. I napped and then we swam until 6:00 when we got dressed to go out.
We walked to the government building that has been renovated where the Oaxacan choral program was scheduled. The chairs were hard and we gave up listening after the first of three segments of Handel’s Messiah that was principally soloists.
We then walked toward the Zocalo on Independencia. At the end of the street we came to the opera house. There was a musical event, so we went in and sat in the refurbished seats. Unfortunately the music ended almost as soon as we sat down and a long boring Q and A session began, so we walked on the Alcala Where a parade of musicians a whirling globes was forming. We walked up Alcala, the walking street, with the parade following us until we reached a small plaza two blocks below the big plaza at Santo Domingo Church. Suzette wanted a cocktail and I was interested in food so we walked to 5th of May and up the two blocks to Destilado. We ordered cocktails and began looking at the menu. Suzette ordered a Mezcal de la Rosa with mezcal, pomegranate juice, egg white , and a touch of grenadine. I ordered my usual, chilebana with mezcal, rum, ginger beer, and dried ginger flakes.
We decided to order a octopus salad and Huihchotlate raviolis. The octopus dish was amazing, a long skinny pile of chopped carrots, potatoes, and celery in a light mayonnaise sauce garnished with grilled pieces of octopus covered with a sauce that combines elements of Vietnamese chopped peanut sauce and black mole. There were also some of the curved slices of radish we had been served previously at Destilado on Wednesday and baby nasturtium leaves . The octopus dish was very spicy to me, which is just a little spicy by Oaxacan standards. Suzette loved it.
The huihcholote filled ravioli were revelatory. The first thing I noticed was that the ravioli dough was fresh and the ravioli were almost undercooked, but cooked enough to be edible and still fresh tasting. There was a huihchlote sauce over the ravioli and the ravioli were dusted with queso Fresca and chopped parsley, they were very traditional from both an Italian cuisine viewpoint, but used a very traditional Mexican ingredient.
The next dish we ordered was grilled Broccolini, which turned out to be a less successful dish. Fresh broccoli was grilled and drizzled with a chipotle hollandaise and queso Fresca. There were three problems with this dish. The broccolini was cooked at the tips but hard at the lower stalks, the chipotle hollandaise was way too picante for me, and the grilling left an unpleasant residual smokiness. I was able to adjust for the last two problems by asking for a small amount of olive oil. We poured olive over the broccolini which masked the overtly smoky favor and softened the piquantness of the chipotle hollandaise.
We had wanted to try a dessert this evening. When both the bartender and our waiter recommended the chocolate tres leeches cake, we ordered it. Again I was struck at the cross cultural design of the dish. In this case French, American, and Mexican. The form of the dessert was a sponge cake of the kind made for Mexican tres leches cake, but instead of soaking the cake with evaporated milk, condensed milk and half and half and topping it with whipped cream, this cake was saturated with a rich chocolate sauce and instead of whipped cream it was topped with a scoop of homemade peanut butter and ginger ice cream, a scoop of chocolate ice cream, and a granola made with amaranth seeds and bits of candied walnut and pecan; a very tasty Oaxacan, French, and American blend of techniques and ingredients on a traditional Mexican tres leches cake. My comment on the glazed nuts, granola and chocolate sauce was, “nutty buddy”, which made Suzette laugh and then say, “ I think they put ginger with the nuts in nutty buddys.”
After a fun evening of drinking and eating some exciting food and soaking up local culture, we went back to the room.
Bob Appetit
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