Our Last Week in Oaxaca

Most of our time since B&G left has been spent focusing on our work and getting our car ready for travel, but that was all during the day. In the evenings—the food, was the highlight of this week, with one exception.

Our food saga started on the 24^th, when we walked for two hours around Oaxaca trying to find an open restaurant. Our first choice was closed, second choice, third and fourth choices were also closed. By the time we got to our ultimate destination, we were so relieved to find an open restaurant … ! We ended up at “Los Danzantes”, a pretty fancy restaurant with an archeological theme (Los Danzantes are carved figures from Monte Alban, originally thought to be dancers, now believed to be sacrificial victims—genital mutilation, ughhh). Nice atmosphere, really interesting food, but the portions were too small after a two-hour walk.

On Tuesday, we went back to one of the restaurants that had been closed the previous night, La Teca. La Teca is a restaurant run by a family from the isthmus of Tuantepec. Oaxaca is part of that region, but the food of the Istmo is really more coastally influenced. So, naturally, they have a menu of special foods to the region: Garanaches (small appetizer tortillas), fried plantains (platanos—a savory banana), Arroz Mexicana, a spicy mashed potato mix, Tamales de Elote (corn), and great crispy handmade tortillas. Not only was the food delicious, but the mother/cook came out and taught us about the food. When she heard I was making a list of tortilla species, she gave me her own list—complete with Tuantepec specialties and Zapoteco names. If we had time to go back to one restaurant here, I would go back there.

Here are the definitions given to me by the mother/cook at La Teca, Deyanira Esperanza:

There are three types of tortillas that are served for lunch (remember that lunch is the big meal of the day, eaten mid-afternoon). These three types of tortillas are made from the same type of corn (a special corn to the region), the difference is the temperature at which they were cooked and some of the other preparations.

The three tortillas:

1. regular tortillas

2. Totopos are round, hard tortillas with holes poked in them. The corn grains to make them are washed well for an hour, until they are uniformly white. Then the corn is ground with squash seeds. Instead of Totopos being pressed in a Tortilla press, they are shaped by hand. That is when the holes get poked in them.

3. Memelas are a type of Huarache (see previous food entry). The dough is made the same way as for Totopos. Memelas are also formed by hand. There are different types of Memelas too, but I will describe those later.

To cook the tortillas:

First the oven is made really, really, really hot. The tortillas are put in first, but an important step is to get your whole arm wet, or else it will be burned when you put the tortillas in the oven. You place the tortillas against the curved inside surface of hot oven. When the oven is cooler, the Memelas are put in. After two hours from when the tortillas first went in, the oven has cooled sufficiently for the Totopos.

Zapoteco names plus definitions:

- Gueta = Tortillas

- Guetabiade = Tlayuda tortillas

- Guetabicuuni = Memela tortillas

- Guetabicuuni bola = round Memelas

- Guetabicuuni yul’la = oval Memela

- Guetabiguii = Totopos

- Guetaadxa = Blandas tortillas made in a comal

Notice how all the tortilla variations have the same root of “Gueta”? And that all the Memelas tortillas have the same middle “bicuuni”?

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The biggest exceptions this week of “interesting nights but boring days” were Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon: Daddy and I played violin at the Center for Street Children of Oaxaca. The Center for Street Children is a program for the children of the working poor. Their clients range in age from pre-school to 27. The children are not orphans, they have a family. They may live in cardboard shacks and their parents may earn minimum wage, but the children still have a family—which makes all the difference (compared to kids in orphanages, of which there are many). The Center for Street Children takes care of kids from those families who would otherwise be roaming the streets. The center gives the children meals and puts them though school. Their website and brochures describe amazing stories of kids who are the first in their families to finish school—going to university and breaking out of the cycle of poverty and lack of education.

We were there in the morning, playing for the kids in kindergarten. Actually, most were younger than five. They were the most appreciative audience we had! In fact, they were better behaved than the older kids. The kids listened with big smiles and gave us all of their attention. After we were done playing and they got to try the violins, their smiles stretched even wider than before–if that was possible. We have played in three classes of varying ages, but none has been so enthusiastic at trying the violin as these guys. Every single one of them came up to try the violin, and some weren’t much bigger than the fiddle! I loved playing for the kids—their smiles were so jubilant!

When we went back to play again on Thursday at lunch, very few people were paying any attention. But the few who were paying attention were really paying attention. While they was not as gratifying an audience to play for, I had fun playing things as fast as I could. One of the guys having his lunch there was Gabriel. He was listening intently to the music and talked with us afterward. He plays guitar and is studying architecture at the university!

After we came home from the shelter on Thursday, everyone scrambled into overdrive—preparing our last truly Mexican meal in Oaxaca. In our first couple of days in Oaxaca, we had bought Posole corn. Posole is a Mexican soup made with huge kernels of corn (they have the consistency of mashed potato globs) usually made with meat. We made vegetarian (mushroom) Posole. It turned out delicious, even though we were anxious about why the Posole was still gummy, and whether the amount of chile was right. The second part of the meal was prawns cooked in a mole chile sauce over rice. That part was truly fantastically mouth-watering. When my father retires, he should become a chef, musician and painter.

This morning, the 26^th, we are going on our last visit tour organic market in Oaxaca. For tomorrow, we are leaving Oaxaca! We will drive up to through Mexico City and then out to the coast. On Wednesday, we will take an overnight ferry Mazatlan to La Paz on the Baja Peninsula. Then we will drive up, up and up, until we get to Canada. I am not sure how remote we will be in the Baja, but I will probably post less frequently than I am now.

After the organic market today we are going to do some last minute shopping in the artisan’s market, and then we will spend the rest of the day packing.