Out For Lunch

No, not out to lunch; although at times I am that; but out for lunch.

Being Sunday I went on a cooking strike and suggested that we go out for lunch to an actual food truck, just like they have up north.  It is called Los Yucas  and they advertise that it is Yucatan cuisine on wheels.

This food truck is fairly new here in town. One of our friends/acquaintances had posted that he had eaten there and how good it was and then he was surprised to see that it was an old school friend running it whom he had not seen for years.  A pleasant surprise for him.

So, off we went for lunch.  The truck specializes in Cochinita Pibil which is a pork dish.   It is prepared with Achiote paste, etc.,wrapped in banana leaves and cooked slowly.  Very tasty.  We both like this dish and we were excited to try this new option here.

 They have signs all over with a picture of a cell phone with a line through it and each table has a little wooden box on it that says "Put your cell phone here".  I love this, I hate going out to eat and having cell phones constantly ringing and people yelling into them.  They also advertise free WiFi, we did NOT take our laptop with us so I don't know how well it works.

When we arrived, rather than ordering at the window of the truck a waitress told us, in English, to be seated and then handed us menus.  She returned shortly to take our order of tortas and it quickly arrived.  She then showed us the salsa table and even explained the different heats of salsas as she assumed I couldn't speak Spanish.  Quite comical; but I  gave her an A+ for customer service.  If you couldn't speak any Spanish her explanation would have been very good.

We both enjoyed our tortas of Cochinita Pibil along with a coke each.  They have take out of 1/2 kilos and whole kilos of the meat with tortillas, onions, salsas, etc. for reasonable prices along with different packages for 55 pesos each.

Neither one of us could finish our tortas, they had quite a lot of meat in them and we don't eat as much as we used to; but they were really good.  We will return again.

Foods I Grew Up Eating

Some interesting comments on the blog and Facebook about eating baked beans on toast.  It seems that the Canadians and the people from the UK are accustomed to eating this; whereas the people commenting from the USA are not.  Interesting.

I got curious and so hunted around on the internet and found way more information about baked beans on toast than I ever imagined.  I found it hilarious that there are actually videos showing how to make it, seriously.

Wikipedia  tells me that the dish is actually good for lowering our cholesterol.  The BBC Sport Academy   also says they are healthy for us.

All that is nice to know; but where did the concept of baked beans on toast come from?   Wikipedia tells me that the beans used are native to North America and that the French made a  dish similar to baked beans, they have the idea that these recipes coalesced in the USA to turn into the baked beans we are familiar with.

The canned baked beans were apparently our first "fast food" and were made popular by USA companies exporting them to the UK.
The Heinz  company tells me the following on their website:
">In 1927, a Heinz executive was thinking about ways to sell more baked beans and created a national dish— Beans on Toast, introducing the idea of having beans for breakfast as well as dinner. It's a tradition that has stood the test of time in the U.K."

Anyway for whatever reason, I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada eating baked beans on toast and continue to do so.  I am thinking that perhaps because 3 of my 4 grandparents immigrated to Canada as young people, (the 4th grandparent was actually born in Canada after his parents had immigrated), from England that they continued to eat what they were used to.  That idea falls apart though as they immigrated long before baked beans in a tin were ever made.  Who knows?

Some of the other delicacies? I ate as a child were poached eggs on toast, sardines on toast, melted cheddar cheese on toast, blue cheese on toast, chicken haddie in a bechamel sauce on toast, fresh cucumber and cress sandwiches, shepherds pie and potato pancakes.  Mom also made Christmas pudding with caramel sauce and fruit cake, as well as mince pies and tarts. Quite likely there are a lot more that I am not remembering at the moment.

Did any of you eat these things growing up and do you still?

  The majority of what we ate was grown and raised right on our family farm.  Lots of fresh veggies from the garden in the summer also canned and in later years frozen, for the winter meals.  Chicken, beef, pork, eggs, whole milk, heavy cream, butter, berries tame and native, etc..  We ate very, very well, along with being very tasty, it was heavy, stick to your ribs type of food.  How can you not love a sweet cob of corn cooked straight from the garden and dripping  butter down your chin?

On the other hand we never had grits, Okra, eggplant, catfish and a whole lot of other things that are very common for other people.

Ok time to go, getting hungry!!

Lunch Out

We finally went out for lunch yesterday.  The small restaurant has been open for almost a year and we had still not tried it out.  It is in an easy to find location and I had heard good things about it.
I am cautious about what I order the first time at a restaurant.  One of the ways I grade a place is on how tasty they can make a hamburger, as hamburgers here were usually not that good.  When we first moved here we tried a few and got the thinnest, driest, most tasteless frozen patties imaginable.  So now I figure if they can make a decent burger then their other stuff might be edible also.  This is probably crazy; but that's how I do it.
I ordered mine with bacon, 2 cheeses, lettuce, tomato, onion, etc., the usual loaded burger.  Roy decided to order one with Poblano chili on it and he pronounced it good.  Mine was also tasty.  The burgers come either with fries or salad, normally I would have had a salad; but I wanted to see if the french fries were crispy or soggy and greasy.  Nice and crispy.
All in all a decent lunch, (neither one of us quite finished it all), good prices, great service, and an interesting conversation with the gentlemen at the next table.  Sadly, they only serve Pepsi and not the good Coke stuff.
The young man running the place says he worked in Canada for 4 years; but worked mostly with Latinos so he says his English is not that good.  I thought he did pretty well when he spoke it.  He attended  a school of gastronomy in Toronto he said.

We will return another time and try something more interesting than a burger.

Today I had my online art class which went from 4 hours to around 5 1/2 hrs., so we didn't have a hot lunch.  I later made a sort of sloppy joe mixture which we ate over mashed potatoes.  Fall type food.
I now have a crock pot full of pork and beans bubbling away.  I have a small crock pot so it can only hold about 1 lb. of beans at a time.  We like the NOB type baked beans, which we can't get here unless I go to the import store and then it is the American brands only, plus I feel guilty paying those kind of prices for beans.   The flavour of the ones I make are kind of like the Heinz baked beans, (Roy says better) that we get in Canada or a better version of Bushs baked beans in the USA, the only brand I have found there that is remotely edible, (just my opinion).  I use lots of bacon in them and some molasses and dry mustard among other things.
I freeze them and then we can take them out for a fast, quick meal of beans on toast some days when I am being lazy.  Does anyone else like beans on toast?  It is something that we ate when we were children at home.
Ok, I am being even more boring that usual and rambling so time to stop.

Bye Bye Storm

Well, the storm Octave went further south than we are.  We did get a nice slow rainfall out of it for a day or so.  Nothing that caused any damages, just slowly came down and soaked in, so it should be green for a while now.  It was pretty much a non event here.  Alamos got much more rain than we did; but I haven't heard of any damages there either.  I haven't read anything from the Baja about how they fared.

This morning I went and got a haircut as I am feeling a bit better.  Oh it feels so good to have that done.  My throat feels back to normal; whether the infection will come back or not I don't know as I had to stop taking the medicine after 3 days instead of 6 or 7 days.  My mouth is still very sore and have to get to the store for some yoghurt with active ingredients in it so bolster up what the antibiotics killed off.

So my good intentions are to go to art class this evening if I am still awake.  It was 2 a.m. when I got to sleep last night and up as usual at 6 a.m. so may fade later.  I think I may have a siesta this afternoon.  Tough life isn't it?  Watch a movie until late and then have a siesta in the afternoon, too funny this retirement gig.

Tropical Storms Octave and Priscilla

Tropical storms Octave and Priscilla are both out in the sea; but we are not expecting any major effects from them, according to NOAA.
Octave is heading toward the Baja Peninsula and parts of it are under a Tropical Storm Warning.  We have been receiving some rain off and on all day; but not heavy enough to cause problems as of yet.  A nice soaking in rain at this point, hopefully this is how it will continue and we will avoid the heavy stuff and flooding.
Octave is forecast to diminish and dissipate in a day or so, hopefully they are correct.
Priscilla is far enough from land that she is not posing any threat to anyone on land and is expected to turn west and dissipate also.
So, according to NOAA right now we should be fine and I am hoping that everyone on the Baja Peninsula fares well also.  I will update if things change.
These storms have been known to make liars out of the forecasters so I always keep an eye on them while they are active.

On the throat infection problem, I have had to stop taking the curing? medicines as I am having a reaction to them so will have to head back to the Dr. and see what he decides to do.  No wonder I hate taking medicines, they cause as many problems as the illnesses they have been created to treat do. UGH

Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL MY FELLOW CANADIANS.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

The Big Reveal, Part 1 ??

 John over on the blog Viva Veracruz & Viva Puerto Escondido has been asking fellow bloggers to post photos of their living arrangements.  So far I believe he has posted his photos of laundry area, computer area and kitchen area and requested other bloggers to do so also.  Normally I don't take up quests such as these; but seeing as we started blogging around the same time and I have been reading his blog all that time I decided I would take him up on it.

First a bit of background.  We have lived in our area of Mexico, Guaymas, Sonora since October of 2005.  We started out renting from our landlord who had built a couple of tiny apartments right onto his own home and that is where we still are.  The first winter we lived in the one on the ground level and then the next summer moved into the one upstairs when they finished building it and changing a few walls around for us.  We were the first people to live in both places which was nice.

 We love the neighbourhood, it is fairly quiet; although dusty as we have gravel and cobblestone streets around us and we love our landlords and their family.  Their grandchildren freely visit us and we are invited to a lot more parties than we actually attend.  We have the usual free ranging chickens, roosters, dogs and cats that can be seen in any Mexican neighbourhood.

The only drawback to the apartment is that is it very small, which can be both good and bad.  Good in that there is not much housecleaning to be done, which I like, bad in that we live in a pretty confined space of around 425 square feet in the apartment and a patio of the same size.  If you are wondering about the very dark curtains hanging behind the regular curtains, there is a good reason for that.  In the summer it is very hot here, so I made those to keep some of the heat out and they work well.  We raise and lower them depending on where the sun is at the time.  All of the artwork on the walls is my fault, what hasn't been sold yet or gifted ends up on our walls.
We have no desire whatsoever to own a house again.

So, onto the challenge.

First of all our laundry area.  Our washer is located outside on the patio as most are where we live and naturally our clothes dryer is outside also.

Next up, our computer set ups, plural because we both have our own simple areas.  We have high speed internet, cable TV and a landline phone through the cable company here called Megacable.  We have had good service from them; although I know that in other areas of the country people really complain about their service.  We use Skype for our long distance calls.
I have a PC, old style monitor, (which I am hoping dies soon as I want a bigger, flat screen; but am too cheap to buy one until this one dies), All in one scanner, printer, copier, modem, etc. at my desk.  Roy has his laptop and various other things at his desk.  As you will see we are both set up in a corner with our own recliners in between.  Naturally, both desk areas have their own cups of coffee at them in the mornings.

First 2 photos of are my desk and the 3 rd is of Roys.

On to the next area, which is our kitchen area.  We elected to buy movable counters rather than regular kitchen cupboards in case we ever decided to move as we can just pick them up and leave.  The usual things reside in our kitchen, stove, sink (double one), frig., and a small microwave which I seldom use.  The movable counters have shelves, baskets, water jug holder, etc. on them and we have a pantry cupboard and a few other shelves to put things on.  I don't like a lot of stuff on my counter tops, frig. top, etc., so I try to put things away when I am done using them.  So the empty counter top is normal, not cleaned up just for company.
I am not so paranoid about keeping my art table neat and tidy as you can see in the foreground.  I do clean it off enough to eat at though.  We do have bar chairs that we used to use at the back side of the counter to eat; but it was not that comfortable and we decided to stop using that and put the long table there instead and just wheel our office chairs over to it when we eat there.

Kitchen side view of the movable counters.

Pantry cupboard and assorted shelves.  Door leads into the bedroom and bathroom.


So, that pretty much covers it.  Hope you now have a sense of where we reside and how we live.

An Afternoon To Remember, (Una Tarde para Recordar)

My horrible cold seemed to have gotten better so on Saturday evening we went downtown to one of the plazas.  A group had organised an event for senior citizens called Una Tarde para Recordar.  This was I think the third event that they have held; but we haven't gone to one before. We know some of the members of the group organizing the event  and also some of the members of one of the bands participating, so decided to go and see what was going on.  It was a lovely evening and we sat outside at a restaurant overlooking the plaza and had dinner before heading into the plaza to watch.

They had gotten donations from businesses and private citizens and were giving out cookies, soda, coffee, water,sweet pastries, etc..  The Culture organisation was also supporting it in some capacity.

There were a lot of seniors there along with their families, the plaza was buzzing.  They had closed off one of the streets and had tables and chairs set up along with a stage for the performers.

 The organizers recognized the people they knew of who had birthdays in the month with a little gift.  There were some members of the group going through the crowd and asking people if their birthdays were in the month also, so they must have thought there would be more than there was.
Shortly after the gift giving the birthday people were served tamales.

A nice evening.

Yesterday I began to feel rotten again and looking in the mirror saw that my throat was covered with white spots.  I am not sure if this is holdover from the cold I had or if my immunity is down because of that; but I decided it was time to go to the Dr..  So off I went to Farmacia Similares to see the medico.
(I usually don't go to a Dr. for things I think I can fight off myself as I hate taking antibiotics unless it is absolutely necessary.)
The Dr. looked in my throat, said it was inflamed and infected and prescribed antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory and a cough syrup.  So 30 pesos,($2.38 CAD) for the Dr., 160 pesos,($12.71 CAD) for the medicine and a half hour later I was back home.  Hopefully I will be back to normal in a few days.
It seems like I have been sick off and on since we returned from up north, unusual for me.