Ron's Big Dinner

Milestone birthdays are a bit strange. What makes it a milestone? Every year is the only year we'll be that particular age, so why is one year any different from the others? I think it's a legitimate question and yet, I acknowledge that we still mark certain ages as more noteworthy than others.

Wicked tall wine glasses are gifts

We were supposed to be travelling in South East Asia this year, as we've got a whole host of "important" dates...we like to call it our "big year", but then we relocated to New Brunswick and there's the whole COVID-19 thing happening, so here we are in Moncton, watching our hair grow and the grass get greener and generally contemplating our navel lint. It seems that our big year is going to be a big bust, but I refuse to surrender...yet.

Masks from friends

Because I have so much time on my hands, and one of the way's I show love is to cook, I started imagining Ron's perfect dinner, not his death row meal, but a meal that would incorporate as much of his favourite foods as possible and how to make it all special. The result? Ron's Almost Perfect 8 Course Dinner.

What was the craziest part? I decided I'd actually execute it. I don't think a general has ever gone into a battle more prepared than I, to tackle this challenge. And I actually pulled it off. Was everything perfect? Heaven's no, but it was all really good, the plating was attractive and the hot food was hot and the cold food not. (Yes, I'm giving myself a bit of a pat on the back.) I think he enjoyed it, as did our friends and we certainly enjoyed having a bit of company, now that some of the restrictions have been lifted.

Without further ado, the meal (missing is the cheese plate as we just forgot to take the picture):

Roasted pepper and smoked gouda

Smoked salmon with capers

Pan seared scallops with crispy onion and
lemon chicken broth

Red pepper bisque

Spring salad with  caramelized onion dressing

Mango sorbet

Roast lamb with mash and roast veg

Lemon tart, chocolate pate and
raspberry mousse

Most of it came off really well, and the few problems were dealt with and no one was the wiser. Did I mention we did wine pairings? Oh, hell yes. (I lost my mind, somewhere in the planning, but except for one wine, (a rose with the salad I switched from a citrus dressing to onion and apple cider vinegar...oops) it was paired fairly nicely. I might try it again, but no time soon. The planning took well over a month, but that's why "self-isolation" worked, in this case. So, happy birthday, dearest. Glad you enjoyed the culinary adventure.

For the Love of CDMX (Mexico City)

You hear a lot of things about Mexico, some good, some bad and some that are the stuff of nightmares. We mostly take most of that kind of information with a grain of salt, especially having visited South America, which also has a wild reputation that is rarely lived up to.

All that being said, I was a bit leery of running around a city as large and populated as Mexico City. If you include the environs, there are almost 22 million souls that call CDMX home. (Short for Ciudad de Mexico, if you're curious. This is a fairly new moniker, as the government has rezoned the entire city and renamed the city centre.) Perhaps I've watched too many movies with kidnappings and ridiculous Latino stereotypes.

We love Mexico City. We love the people, the food, the huge green spaces and museums. There are art galleries and promenades, Spanish Colonial and modern architecture to marvel at. This city can hold its head high against any of the best cities in the world. If you come to CDMX for the food, you may never leave. It didn't seem to matter whether we were at a high end restaurant or a taqueria on the roadside. These folks know food and flavours in a way that I find inexplicable. Nothing is hot, unless you want it to be.That doesn't mean that your taste buds won't thank you for the adventure. The video has a bit of fun music, so turn up the volume.

We stayed at a lovely boutique B&B called Casa Comtesse, in the barrio of La Condesa. It's a beautiful old building close to many amenities, with charming staff and restful terraces. The price was also right, especially considering it included breakfast as it came in around $120 Canadian. For a major city in a convenient area, that's pretty good in our books. What threw it over the top were the breakfasts. They don't just offer breads, cereal and fruit, no. Everyday they have a new local specialty along with those, to get you through your busy day of touristing. (Yes, I've made that a verb.) Our first morning we had a slow cooked pork in a delicious warm salsa of mild chili peppers. (I never determined the type, I slipped into a food coma, not long afterwards and never thought to ask.) We had Mexican style eggs another morning, tuna ceviche on the third and finished up with a crispy torta of vegetables, served in a cream sauce and topped with a poached egg. The breakfasts lasted us well into the afternoon, an experience we've never had except for eating Ron's most delicious oatmeal.  If you have the opportunity, stay at this little gem. We can't recommend it enough.   

Our first day, a Sunday, was spent enjoying Parque Chapultepec, a large green space (bigger then Central Park in NYC) that also houses the Modern Art Museum and the Tamayo museum. Both were happily free on Sunday, but they will confiscate your water bottle. We did a crap job at taking pictures of both the park and the galleries; apologies.

Huge installation in the Modern Art Gallery

We then proceeded to have a mindblowingly delicious late lunch at Contramar. Go there, bring lots of money and die happy. (Of course, we have pictures of that, most of the dishes were half eaten before we remembered to take photos!)
 

Margaritas and salsa verde

Trout sashimi

Pulpo Gallega (octopus with potates)

Ensalate verde (green salad)

Tostadas de atun (Tuna on crisp tortillas)

Strawberry meringue cake

Cafe especial (specialty coffee) with mezcal

Day two had us on the hop on/hop off tourist bus. (We opted for Turibus, as it had a stop fairly close to the hotel.) It took us through the heart of the city to the old town, where we disembarked and enjoyed the vibrant city life of the downtown core. Go up el Torre Latinamerino to really understand how big this city is and to cherry pick some sights. We ate churros at the original El Moro. They've been in the churro making business since 1935, so it was well worth a stop, even though our breakfast was not yet digested.
 

Lots of art in the streets

Impressive architecture

 

Green spaces galore

Endless city

 

The most colour Ron's worn in years

We rejoined the bus tour and headed off to El Polanco (the shishi district) that is home to the Soumaya Museum. It's a private museum that houses things of interest for the Slim family. Carlos Slim, the founder, offers up this experience without fee. They will confiscate your umbrella AND water bottle, but they gave us back the umbrella when we left. The top floor was our favourite, with tons of Rodin (originals and replicas) and original art from many of the great painters (Senor Slim seems to have a passion for Degas). There was also a large pocket watch collection, examples of various types of Mexican currency, a carved ivory display. The detail was truly mind boggling, but it mostly made me sad. (All I could see was dead elephants.) The outside of the building is pretty spectacular and worth a visit just for the architecture.

Our third day took us out to Teotihuacan, a site with pyramids (non-Mayan or Aztec) and the Basilica of Guadalupe, but I think that's for another blog.

We really didn't spend enough time in the city. I can't begin to estimate the amount of time required to enjoy all that it has to offer. If you come, plan to stay at least a week, if not two. You still won't get to see everything, but you should be able to make a pretty good dent in what CDMX has to offer. 

Out on the Ledge - More Hiking Adventures

Our hosting duties finally ran their course and we were free to get back out into the wilds of rural Cuenca. Our friend, Ric, planned an outing to a town called Baguanchi and from there to the parroquia of Paccha. There is a "mirador" there at the top of a mountain ridge that was worth checking out.

After days of unsatisfying weather, we had a gorgeous day, so spirits were high. As usual, the bus driver was completely insane, but we reached our destination with white knuckles and mild nausea. 

It was an easy climb, for the most part, with only one ridge that seemed more dangerous than it actually was. Though our leader has never done the full loop, we decided to follow a small path that lead down another ridge to the farms below. It wasn't until we'd gotten to the bottom and consulted one of the locals that we were told we shouldn't have taken the "dangerous"  route down the hill. We traversed a small corn field and made it back to the road.

We finished off our day by heading to a new brewery, specializing in Czech beer. This was, of course, accompanied by meat, potatoes and hearty bread.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

You could also call this blog post "Desperation is the Mother of How-Hard-Can-It-Be?"

I think it started when we had the Bed and Breakfast, or maybe even earlier, in Home Ec  class; the idea that you can make stuff from scratch. I had time on my hands, as it was hard to find work in the Comox Valley and who doesn't love home made baked goods? I thought it would give my little B&B an edge. Of course, making cookies was old hat by then, but then I tackled bread. Yup, for many of you this is a no brainer, but for the city dwelling "if it doesn't exist in the supermarket it doesn't exist" variety of people (like myself) this was a huge leap.

Homemade chicken pot pie

 

When we relocated to Prince Edward Island, it turned into a small specialty cake business, that was both rewarding and terrifying in equal measure. Being responsible for someone's wedding or major anniversary cake is a pretty big deal. I even tried my hand at pasta and was getting pretty good at making candy.

From the "hell yeah, I made that" files

Then we found ourselves in Ecuador; land of rice, potatoes and unaged beef. Not to say that the food isn't good here, but many of my "go to" things aren't available, or if they are, they're ridiculously expensive. Case in point peanut butter. When we first arrived it was $5.89 for 500mL. Currently it is over $10 for the same bottle due to increases in import taxes. So, what to do? We found that the mercados carried pasta de mani (peanut paste - just ground up , lightly roasted peanuts) and I started tweaking it with a bit of extra oil and some salt. This was a much less expensive option as I could buy the paste for $2 a pound. Fast forward to our last grocery outing. As I'm perusing the aisles of SuperMaxi I espy a 1lb. bag of raw (shelled) peanuts for $1.27. What if I roasted them myself, removed the skins and ground them up? This is where the "how hard can it be?" came in. Into the cart went the bag and proceeded to sit in the cupboard for several days. Then I noticed the peanut butter was getting low.

Stashed in an old Schullo peanut butter jar
(That's the $10 per bottle brand!)

So, I did it. I roasted them, and removed the skins as best I could. (Apparently a salad spinner works marvelously, but we don't have one.) Then into the food processor they went with a bit of oil. Grainy and dry. More oil, more blending and VOILA, peanut butter. Here's the learning curve part. The oil doesn't really release from the peanuts until they're creamed, so I have slightly runnier than normal peanut butter, but it has a gorgeous roasted flavour that is lacking in the pasta de mani. Was all the work worth it? We shall see.

Home roasted, hand mixed peanut butter

So I've now made, due to lack of (or price of) frozen processed crap here: pizza dough, focaccia, peanut butter, tomato sauce, ginger ale, hot chocolate, add to that Ron's pancakes and waffles from scratch and the regular gamut  of things I make from scratch and we're almost back to the good old days of "if you don't make it, you don't have it". Heck, I never buy salad dressing anymore, I just whip up a small batch as needed.  Who knows what's next, maybe mayo, perhaps fresh mozzarella, and I also have a recipe for Dijon mustard just waiting for when my stash runs out.

Pizza...again, homemade

 

Now, if we could only set up a garden and grow our own fruit and vegetables, we'd be ready for the apocalypse, assuming there was still electricity. (Ha ha.)