DINING OUT
The breakfast menu at our hotel is a straightforward one built around eggs. Eggs Mexican style, scrambled eggs with various add-ones, a variety of omelet choices, and chilaquiles, pieces of fried tortilla cooked in red sauce and topped with cheese and often eggs or chicken. All the egg dishes come with a side of black beans. Besides a medley of cut up melon and pineapple, the only totally non-egg dish is hot cakes made with mascarpone and lemon.
Last night we dined at Limosneros, an attractive and innovative restaurant serving a wide variety of tacos and appetizers plus entrees. We were told that fashionable dining in Mexico happens after 7:30 pm and often later, but we’ve discovered that the two restaurants we’ve gone to for dinner could take us as early as 6:30, and we weren’t the only diners, by long shot. Probably because these two establishments open for lunch at 1:30 and stay open through dinner.
At Limosneros we shared the crispy hibiscus tacos (wrapped up tight taquito style) stuck in a mound of guacamole and salsa; burnt chilies, a board of red, green and yellow sweet peppers blistered and served with pineapple and wedges of Brie; Oaxaca croquettes with a spicy dipping sauce; and a pork-stuffed pasilla pepper glued to a mini purple tortilla with a thin layer of peanut sauce. The Chief Penguin tried a featured cocktail made with a corn liquor while I sipped a glass of Albariño. Lots of different tastes and textures in these dishes!
SIGHTSEEING
Before dinner last evening, we took an Uber (in plentiful supply) to Alameda Central, a lovely oasis in the heart of the business district and home to the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The park itself has lots of ornate wrought iron benches and formally laid out paths along with tall stately trees and several fountains and sculptures. It’s a fine place to sit and observe the world.
The Palacio de Bellas Artes was started in 1894 and completed about 1930 and is stunning with a beautiful golden cupola. We saw it in the soft evening light before sunset and then hurried down to view the Catedral Metropolitana in the same yellow light.
This cathedral is the one of, if not the largest, in North America. With its twin bell towers, it faces and looms over the Zocalo or public square.
We wandered a bit more and made our way to Limosneros; our total step count for the day was nearly 19,000 or seven miles!
Today’s activity was a guided tour of some of the sights of historic Mexico City. Guide Mercedes is a warm and enthusiastic older woman full of knowledge of the history of her country. A former teacher who came from wealth, she wanted to be and do more than she was doing as a wife and mother. She was adamant that I hear about the various ethnic groups that lived and flourished in Mexico over the centuries and gave a very thorough overview. She said I needed the context before seeing the Diego Rivera murals in the Palacio Nacional, the seat of the government.
This Palacio is striking on the outside, but the murals lining the stairwell walls between the main floor and the second floor are truly amazing.
So much history conveyed visually and so fresh looking even though they were created more than 50 years ago! Also on the second floor are more Rivera paintings of other aspects of Mexican life.
The central post office building was a surprising gem with inside an impressive double staircase and very lavish detailing. With its church-like aura, hard to believe its business was the mundane one of selling stamps! On this outing, we also went inside the cathedral and admired the altar of the kings and then went on to the archaeological site called Templo Mayor. This is an excavation of a portion of a pyramid that existed under and near the current cathedral. Its location was only re-discovered in 1978 when electric workers uncovered a monolith. The site keeps getting developed and there is a lot of information posted about what this settlement probably looked like.
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).
