April 8, 2022 Breakfast - Yogurt with fresh raspberries. Lunch/ Dinner - Cafe Traditional in Uruapan
This was the strangest day of the trip so far.
We awakened around 8:00 and packed and showered and dressed.
I ate a bowl of passion fruit yogurt with fresh raspberries and a bolillo toasted with butter and smeared with pineapple jam with a cup of mint tea.
Suzette had a bad food reaction to last night’s dinner and stayed up much of the night running to the bathroom, so she did not eat today until our late lunch.
We left the lake house at 10:30 and I drove continuously across the scrub brush of Jalisco along Lake Chapala into the high forests of Michoacán until we arrived at the deep valley where Uruapan is located. I can not describe how poorly maintained the roads of Central Mexico are. Some are new, but other sections are filled with chug holes that require swerving around that slows you down. Luckily most contain a 2/3 width apron so passing is usually possible except on mountainous curves, of which there are many. As we drove through a myriad of small towns bouncing over their topes, a thought we were really on a pilgrimage to a foreign land, and we were, except it was in Mexico.
After our daunting 4 hour road trip it took 1/2 hour for us to thread our way through the bumper to bumper traffic of downtown Uruapan including backing up 1 1/2 blocks because the streets at the center were blocked making it impossible to reach the Hotel Mi Solar parking lot 1 1/2 blocks from the central church and Casa de Cultura directly.
We were hungry when we arrived so we asked for the name of a restaurant and were directed to the Cafe Traditional a block on the other side of the church.
We walked there and a pleasant waiter who spoke English helped us order.
Suzette ordered Enchiladas Suizos, which is what I wanted to order, so I ordered enchiladas emmoladas with dried beef. The dried beef turned out to be fried beef jerky, which I had never had before, but is apparently traditional to Michoacán.
But the enchiladas emmoladas I have had before and love. They are the same style of preparation as I used to love as prepared by Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth. The tortillas are sautéed in a beef or chicken broth until tender and then stuffed with onions and cheese and cooked in an oven until they soften and collapse into a pastry like consistency. I love them prepared this way and that is what I was served today. Suzette’s enchiladas were also prepared in the same manner but they were stuffed with chicken meat and sauced with dark mole sauce.
We also ordered an order of guacamole since Uruapan is the avocado capital of the world and two Negra Modelos.
We could not eat everything. I ate my four enchiladas and one of Suzette’s and half of the beef. We could not eat much of the generous mound of creamy guacamole, although it was the best I have ever tasted.
We knew that the Casa de Cultura closed at 5:00, so at 4:30 we paid for our meal and walked the two blocks back to the Casa Cultura, where the winning judged crafts were displayed. We soon realized they were all for sale, at mostly elevated prices. I tried on a beautifully embroidered shirt that was too small for me at $75.00 but Suzette found a lovely embroidered blouse for $160.00 that fit that she bought.
We saw most of the objects, but were astonished by the prices. A nicely designed copper bowl was $1500.00.
Of course, the winners were not even available because they had already been bought by Pemex for its collection.
We left a few minutes after 5:00 as the doors were being closed and returned to the hotel where we collapsed into our lovely bed in our lovely room high on the third floor above much of the street noise except for several persistent barking dogs. Suzette tells me MI Solar is the oldest and finest hotel in Uruapan. I believe her. We chose it because it is one block from the main plaza and the Casa Cultura where the craft fair is being held. There are over 1400 entrants in this year’s craft fair, which I think is the largest in Mexico. Uruapan is built on a series of hills with 100 foot deep valleys in between which makes it nearly impossible to navigate except for the plateau in the center where we are staying.
Suzette slept until 10:00 and showered and went back to bed.
I showered and went to bed at 11:30.
I felt like I was at a real hotel. When we entered at 5:20 I asked the front desk attendant to send up two glasses with ice and soon after I arrived at the room the valet brought two glasses filled with ice. I enjoyed a glass of Penefiel limon flavored mineral water as I finished reading my selection for the book club with a tear in my eye.
The book is Gateway to the Moon by Mary Morris. It is fiction with a huge dose of historical fact that centers on the history of crypto Jews fleeing the Inquisition and the settlement by some in northern New Mexico.
I loved the book and hope the book club members enjoy reading it.
Bon Appetit
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