it's a long one

I'm back!!!!!

There are so many things I want to say about Mexico City! Do not be afraid of Mexico City! OK, well Gbomb did puke out of her nose so be kind of afraid, but then she got medical care for two dollars so don't be very afraid!

It is crazy. It is huugggeeeee and so crammed with people you cannot believe it. If you are going, email me and I will set you up with suggestions. Go there! It is so cheap. Hotel rooms for 15 bucks?!?! Meals for like 4.

I'll just plunge into the pictures. Who knew that I would be so into Mexican sweets? These gelatin bunnies are from a place called Pasteleria Ideal. It's been around since 1927. We went because we were hanging out on this street and started to notice that EVERYONE who passed was carrying the same kind of pastry box.

It's a mob scene inside. They have a dumbwaiter, and people lurk by it waiting for the next cart of fresh-baked goods. When it comes out they start PUSHING to get entire trays. I got one of the fresh baked sweet rolls and I would push down anyone who got between me and one of them, too. And of course they are like a 25 each. Everything I got from there was delicious.

This was a guy being tough, doing pullups, next to his three poodles in sweaters. People would kind of bundle up, and bundle up their dogs because it's "cold" (actually about 75 degrees and sunny every day).

We went to a Yucatecan restaurant and the food was hella good. This is a cochinita pibil torta. That's pig cooked in banana leaves.
This is roasted chicken cooked in banana leaves. That's habanero salsa in the front. I think this was the only time I saw habanero anything, so it must be a Southern Mexico thing.
I was stoked to find this place because I read about it in a Diana Kennedy book that was published in the 8os. But since it was founded in 1874 I figured it would probably still be there.

It has lots of fancy candy and I especially like the candied fruit. On the front left are hollowed out, candied orange peels. Gbomb liked those the best. I'm partial to the candied lime peels stuffed with coconut.
We ate a LOT of street food. I hadn't expected there to be such an insane variety of it. How about for breakfast I'll just have the best tamale I've ever eaten-with coarse ground masa-that costs about 80 cents? OK, sounds good. Coffee that is not Nescafe (or even that is Nescafe) is pretty hard to come by, but if you like sweet drinks, most tamale vendors sell cups of atole (hot sweet cornstarch drink, sometimes with chocolate) or hot horchata-like stuff.
How cool would it be if we had corner carts that made any kind of juice to order? Such a healthy breakfast. Grapefruit, lime, guava, papaya, orange, strawberry, you name it.
Coayacan is a ritzy neighborhood south of the city that is very picturesque. It's a nice break from the hectic streets.

This guy was selling one of my favorite street snacks, FRESH FRIED potato chips that you can top with hot sauce, lime, and salt
This lady was selling one of my other favorite street snacks.
This is the close up. It's roasted corn with butter, hot peppers, and sometimes little herbs or spinachy greens.
This is the central market in Coayacan.
This was some ceviche I ate there. Octopus and shrimp. It was really tasty, but because Mexico City is landlocked I didn't especially seek out the ceviche.
Beautiful art for sale.
This was a little fonda right near our hotel. This is the meat case out front.
A close-up. Can you see the teeth? The "carnitas" torta here had high quality pork that tasted kind of a like a slow-barbecued pork chop, but did not seem to be carnitas in the traditional sense.
This wonderful man cooked me one of the best tacos I had. He's at the Chapultepec metro stop outside the giant park
Chorizo and potatoes and nopal taco for breakfast!
This is a skyline view at dusk.
We went back to Pasteleria Ideal to check out the cake displays upstairs. They have an El Chavo cake!
Some of the cakes were about 7 feet tall.
This is the courtyard of the anthropology museum. Great architecture. That column is also a fountain. The museum is so huge that I saw probably one fourth of it in 3 hours. I mostly checked out the Mayan and Aztec stuff.
This is food from a Oaxacan restaurant. That's a fried pasilla chili (so fruity and spicy!) stuffed with chicken, almonds, and raisins.
Of course I found my favorite neighborhood on the last day! Roma Norte is chill and yes, kind of hipstery. This was the day of ice cream. That's mamey ice cream that a lady was selling from iced down tubs at a flea market.
These are lucha libre dudes posing with stoked kids.
Check out the chihuahua.
Here's the Saturday flea market in Roma Norte. Some pretty good shit but prices were pretty high. Tons of Cool Ray sunglasses, some deadstock from the 60s. Pretty good 70s era furniture.
Here's a spot that's on the main drag in Roma Norte.
I got the arrachera, which is skirt steak marinated in lime and grilled. This platter came with salsa, grilled nopal and onions, hand made tortillas, and ranchero beans (whole pintos with bacon and sometimes chili strips), all for about 4.50.
I figure if a place has a neon sign advertising a certain dish, you should order it there. While I was there they were playing a music video of wacky and terrible Spanish-language cover of "I want you to want me". Since everything is on the internet, you can see it here if you care to torture your ears.
Here's a nice park in Roma Norte. That's David, I guess.
Here's some more ice cream. Check the crazy flavors. Beer? Tequila and lime? Mmm...cajeta. I didn't notice that one or I probably would have gotten that.
This is fig and mezcal. It was fucking delicious. And boozy. Booze-soaked figs.
The fashion in the D.F. is pretty conservative, but this park gets all the subcultures. The skinny kid had awesome hair. The short guy has a sponge bob squarepants backpack. Not a good look.
Here's some smiley goths.
A bunch of gothic lolitas trooped by, too.
We stayed in the gown district. I made Gballs promise to wear a gown like this some day.
Window after window of gowns like this.
Phew! Sorry that was so long! I'll post about Guanajuato tomorrow.