the stories that I'm telling.

Tag: ciudad de mexico

  • The Museum of the Object of Objects!

    The Museum of the Object of Objects!

    After lunch at the San Angel Inn and a quick visit to the Museum of the House/Studio of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, we headed to another interestingly named museum, the Museo del Objecto del Objecto. It translates to ‘the museum of the purpose (or object) of the object’.

    This is how Wikipedia describes it:

    The Museo del Objeto del Objeto (Museum of the Object [purpose] of the Object [item]), or MODO, is a museum in Mexico City and the first museum in Mexico dedicated to design and communications. It was opened in 2010 based on a collection of commercial packaging, advertising, graphic arts, common devices and many other objects dating back to 1810 collected by Bruno Newman over more than forty years. The museum is dedicated to the preservation of its collection of more than 30,000 items from two centuries, and it is dedicated to the research in the history of design and communications, as well as the promotion of collecting in general. The museum offers workshops, seminars, conferences and other activities intended to promote design and communication.

    I love the concept of this museum, which essentially centres on exploring the cultural value of everyday objects. If the current exhibit had been around anything other than soccer, it might have been one of my favourite spots on our trip. As it was, we were able to see a wide collection of soccer-related memorabilia and we learned a fair bit about how the sport’s equipment has evolved with technology.

    However, I’d have much preferred a collection of 200+ pieces of equipment from any non-sports related theme. This museum is definitely on the list again for my next trip to Mexico City.

    It takes about 30 minutes to see the whole exhibit and the price of the entry ticket was quite reasonable. I definitely recommend this museum, but check the exhibits listing beforehand.

    Afterwards we headed across the street for a snack and more wine at a rooftop patio. It was one of my favourite meals from the trip, so I definitely recommend visiting Meroma if you get the chance!

    Check out our photos below from MODO and Meroma:

     

    Rooftop early dinner at Meroma – tartare!
    Rooftop early dinner at Meroma
    Rooftop early dinner at Meroma – ceviche!
    Rooftop early dinner at Meroma – dessert!
  • Visiting the Museum of the House/Studio of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo

    Visiting the Museum of the House/Studio of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo

    After we enjoyed art shopping at El Bazaar Sabado and lunch (with a bottle of cava) at the San Angel Inn, we ventured across the street to visit the shared home and studio of the famous Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

    We’d heard that the Frida Kahlo museum was famed for its long lines, so we opted instead to visit this less busy site. It was also conveniently close to the Bazaar. There were many more items on our to-do list for this trip than we were able to accomplish, partly because the city is just so big and there is so much to do. We had to adapt our plans and just do our best to see sites clustered within areas we visited.

    This blog post does a good job of summarizing the history and significance of the studio-house. Built in a neighbourhood dominated by Spanish colonial architecture, Diego commissioned a friend to built the house in a new, functionalist style, in contrast to its surroundings. This was following the Mexican Revolution, when there was a movement in the country to use art and design to foster national identity.

    Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo are two of the most important and famous artists of the 20th century, and it’s not possible to visit Mexico City without thinking about them. The influence of their artwork was felt worldwide, but it’s especially poignant in their hometown.

    Even if you don’t know much about Kaho and Rivera, the museum is an interesting an inexpensive site to visit. Throughout the house/studio you can see different exhibits of their work and/of work that was influenced by them. It seemed as those these exhibits were rotated somewhat often.

    Below you can see photos of what we saw while we were visiting, including Diego Rivera’s studio and a variety of work related to his travels and political engagements.

     

    The house is painted brightly and is surrounded by these delightful cacti
    inside the studio of Diego Rivera
    on the rooftop between the two houses
    walking down the stairs in Diego’s section of the house
    these giant plants are everywhere!
    chilling with Diego.
  • Adventure with our Toronto neighbours in Mexico City!

    Adventure with our Toronto neighbours in Mexico City!

    In Toronto our neighbours, Greg and Adrienne, also happen to be old friends of ours. Greg and I attended high school together, and so we were all delighted to find out we were living in the same building, on the same floor.

    To keep the coincidences coming, a week after we booked our trip to Mexico City we realized that Greg and Adrienne were also going and that our trips would overlap!

    We didn’t plan it that way, but it worked out to be a lot of fun because went spent 2 nights partying together in Mexico City. Bonus: Greg & Adrienne both work in the Toronto restaurant industry and so we got to tag along to the trendy places that their colleagues had recommended.

    Greg and Adrienne arrived a few days after us and we met up with them for a ‘taco and mezcal crawl’ that Greg had planned. It was a Sunday night so many places were closed. It was also the first time that we realized there was a major discrepancy between the posted business hours on Google Maps vs reality.

    On the day before they left we had lunch in the same restaurant (Pujol, more on that later), though not together. Before leaving we made plans to meet up for dinner and more drinking. The evening ended in a local fast food joint at 4am, so I’d say it was a successful night on the town.

    So, where did we go? I honestly couldn’t tell you from memory because Greg directed us to each place and I rarely knew what anything was called. But Google is a handy thing, so I’ve put together a list (and photos are included below):

    Sunday night taco & mezcal crawl

    • El Huequito: the first stop on our taco crawl, this place showed what was really possible with under-highway space, as the restaurant was located on a large sidewalk under a highway underpass. Great tacos, great service, great mezcal.
    • Taqueria Los Parados: This was a quick little counter service taco place. Delicious tacos made on the grill in front of you.
    • Paramos: This place was très trendy and almost felt like being in Toronto, and wow the mezcal margaritas were great. When we arrived we headed upstairs to get a table but the wait was over an hour. So we drank margaritas while sitting on couches in their lobby and waited! Once seated at our table, the service was rather slow but again those margaritas balanced it all out. The food was good and the ambiance was cool. It’ worth noting that by this point in the night I was full and could no longer eat much anyways. The highlight was, again, the mezcal margaritas, which were the best I had all week.
    • The next 2 places on our list ended up closing early, so we called it a night and headed home to bed.

    Wednesday night rager:

    • Comedor Jacinta: I’m not sure why we went for dinner because we were all so full from lunch anyways. But Comedor Jacinta had good service and good mezcal margaritas. Food was hit or miss. We ordered some kind of shrimp ceviche that wasn’t good, but some of the smaller guacamole & chips type dishes were great. The service was good though, and they kept the drinks coming. After a few rounds we’d gotten to some personal truths about each other and were ready to move to the next place.
    • Le Tachinomi Desu: This place was very trendy and cool, which normally means there’s a catch, but in this case there wasn’t. The wine and sake selections were unreal, and the service was great. It was the coolest place we went all week and we had a great time. It was the perfect spot for simply standing, drinking, and enjoying each other’s company. We were here until nearly 4 in the morning and we weren’t even the last people to leave. The place is run by a Japanese Mexican man and this place imports some really interesting sakes and wines. At one point they suggested we try a bottle so rare that there were less than 10 in the country. Sounds obnoxious, but it was worth the hype. Again, unreal. After being so full (from lunch still!) that I could hardly walk, it turns out that drinking sake until 4am was the cure. We also met some pretty interested characters to round out the night.
    • La Casa de Toño, Zona Rosa: This is a local chain that’s open late and basically serves whatever you could want to eat, but fried. This late at night they’d stopped serving beer, which was probably for the best or we’d have been there for hours. As it was, we ordered, ate, and went home to bed.

    It’s always fun to see familiar faces in a foreign city, and this was no different. Our trip to Mexico City was incredible throughout, but spending a couple of nights with Greg and Adrienne made it even better.

    On the way to El Huequito
    Bike share beside the taco place!
    El Huequito – With Greg & Adrienne at El Huequito
    El Huequito -Mezcal time…
    Onto the next: Taqueria Los Parados
    Watching them cook at Taqueria Los Parados
    Selfie outside!
    Hanging out at Paramos
    Paramo – Waiting in style
    Paramo – Cool mezcal shot glasses at Paramos
    street art?
    Trying to get to the Bar at the Four Seasons but sadly it was closed
    Taking in the gardens at the Four Seasons
    Bottle #1 at Le Tachinomi Desu. Unique and delish.
    Le Tachinomi Desu – the place is about as big as you can see. they had a lovely and clean washroom though!
    Le Tachinomi Desu – We had to try the sashimi, and it was delicious
    sake
    sake
    sake
    Le Tachinomi Desu – winding down the night
    sake
    La Casa de Toño – ending our rager with classless late night eats.
  • Airbnb Experience: “Discover street food with a local”

    Airbnb Experience: “Discover street food with a local”

    When Kevin and I went to Amsterdam we kicked off our trip with a food tour, which was both a unique culinary experience and a great walking tour with a local guide. We were introduced to the food tour via Booking.com but since we didn’t use them for our trip this time around we decided to try a new source of fun: Airbnb “experiences”.

    We participated in 2 different experiences during our trip, and the first was called “discover street food with a local“. We did this on Tuesday, and it was one of the highlights of our trip!

    We started off in the morning outside of El Templo Mayor where we met our guide, Pili. She gave us a brief history of the temple and market square and church nearby. From there, we hopped on the subway and went to explore a local market. This particular market served as a distribution hub for fresh flowers, so it was quite beautiful.

    Near the market was a type of food court, and we went there to learn how to cook a traditional Mexican dish, huaraches. They’re typically quite large but since we were novices, we made smaller huaraches – a corn flower dough, with a bean paste in the middle. The technique was kind of like making a perogie: flatten a small ball of dough, add in the filling, then pull the tough tight around it and pinch it sealed. However, then you also flatten out the dough and fry it.

    Huaraches are served with a pile of toppings, and we also made those! Toppings included tomatillo salsa, cactus, and huitlacoche. This was pretty exciting because huitlacoche is a delicacy that originated in Aztec cuisine and is unlike anything we’d ever eat in Canada.

    The English term for huitlacoche is “corn smut”. Huitlacoche is a type of corn fungus, which is why it’s rarely found north of Mexico. As we expected, it’s delicious!

    After we ate our huaraches, Pili and our chef host, Evelyn, made us quesadillas as well. From there we need an energy boost, so Pili took us back to city centre to visit a market famed for its traditional coffee. I had a chocolate drink that was incredible and Kevin enjoyed an espresso.

    To wrap up the day we visited a stall that sells insects as cuisine! The other couple in our group (shout out to Landon and Jerusalem!) were brave enough to try, but I was too full/afraid.

    The whole “experience” lasted approximately 4 hours and was jam-packed with learning and fun. Pili was a great host and she showed us a great time. She was fun and friendly, very knowledgeable, and open to answering any questions we had. Spending the day with her was like hanging out with a friend, and I would absolutely recommend her tours to anyone.

    If you’re looking for a great half-day experience in Mexico City then I definitely recommend you take her tour!

    See below for the many photos of our adventure with Pili!

     

    When the Spanish colonizers came to Mexico City they had locals build their churches. And often locals worked their own traditional arts (like the snakes on this cross) into the final product
    subway map!
    Arriving at our destination
    Exploring the flower market!
    huitlacoche before cooking
    there’s Pili, teaching us about peppers!
    mole paste!
    Huaraches Ramoncita – our lunch spot!
    huitlacoche before we’ve cooked it!
    cactus, chopped by Kevin.
    look at us go!
    salsa at the beginning
    there are our huaraches!
    and the finished product!
    And here’s Evelyn cooking the huitlacoche for us
    the finished product!
    and a quesadilla for good measure!
    for dessert, a Mamey – tastes like the product of an avocado and a sweet potato!
    coffee in the market!
    my chocolate drink
    pit stop to eat bugs!
  • El Bazaar Sábado

    El Bazaar Sábado

    Our first full day in Mexico City fell on a Saturday. Our Airbnb host recommended that we take this opportunity to visit “El Bazaar Sábado” (aka the Saturday Bazaar) as it’s a unique event that only happens once per week. And so on Saturday morning we took an Uber south into the historic neighbourhood of San Angel.

    The bazaar has 2 parts: a variety of kiosk stalls in a market, and a wide variety of artists exhibiting their work in the park.

    We started in the stalls of the market and were quickly impressed with the range and quality of the goods available. From there we wandered over to the park to start shopping for art! Again, we were quite impressed.

    Kevin and I spend a lot of time visiting artisan markets in Toronto, and we were amazed (again) by the range and quality of the work available. We had heard that Mexico City had a great arts scene, and this was certainly the first of many days/events that proved it to be true. We ended up buying a bunch of art and souvenirs, though the best part of the day was simply walking around in the sun.

    After the market, we walked to the San Angel Inn to try some of their famous margaritas. They were worth the hype, and while the rest of the food/service were just okay, overall the San Angel Inn kept us entertained as we watched upper middle class people wandering in and putting on their airs.

    After lunch we visited Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, the home where the famous Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego River lived together. There’s more to come on that one later. For now, check out the below photos of our adventures in San Angel!

    Restaurante San Angel Inn
    Restaurante San Angel Inn – cocktails
    Restaurante San Angel Inn
    Restaurante San Angel Inn – Yes, that’s the dessert cart.
    Restaurante San Angel Inn – dessert. looks better than it tasted.
  • We made it to Mexico City! (Just in time for an earthquake)

    We made it to Mexico City! (Just in time for an earthquake)

    For the next week we are in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico and the most populous city in the Americas (fighting neck and neck with Sao Paulo for the top listing). We arrived yesterday, and so far we are having a great time!

    Of course, if you’ve been reading the news you also know that Mexico City suffered from an earthquake earlier yesterday afternoon. You can get all the details here but essentially there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake off the southern coast of Mexico, which was felt across a wide area of the country, including Mexico City.

    It was a significant event as the city is still suffering the physical and emotional after-effects of a deadly and destructive earthquake in September 2017.

    Our flight arrived around 2pm and we were picked up at the airport by a driver, all arranged by our AirBnB host. We are currently staying at the world’s greatest AirBnB and our host, Leonore, is wonderful. She arranged for us to be picked up at the airport and then met us at our apartment. In fact, 10 minutes ago she dropped in to make sure we were okay following the earthquake (her cat and dog dropped in too! Photos to come later).

    So, we arrived at our apartment for the week, chatted with Leonore about different sites to see, and then headed off in search of tacos.

    We walked to a nearby taqueria, El Pescadito Condesa (highly recommend!). We loaded up our plates with delicious shrimp and fish tacos and settled in to watch the street life while we enjoyed tacos and beers.

    Around 20 minutes into eating, everyone sitting near the windows jumped up and ran outside into the streets. Kevin and I hesitated for a few seconds until the restaurant manager gave a stern look and directions to get moving. And so we stood in the street in a crowd of distressed people and we felt the earth moving under our feet.

    As it turns out, Mexico has an early warning system for earthquakes, the Mexican Seismic Alert System. It was this system that started the flood of people into the streets. And sure enough, as we joined the crowd we could hear the alert system and a few seconds later we felt the earthquake.

    I’ve lived most of my life in Ontario, where there are few earthquakes and fewer reasons for people to worry about emergency preparedness. So when I felt the earthquake today I was definitely taken aback. It was unlike anything I’d previously experienced (obviously Kevin has experienced earthquakes in both Canada and Portugal, so I guess I’m behind the times). I am 100% okay, but it was pretty scary. Despite their well-founded distress and fear, the people of Mexico City proceeded with a calm and orderliness that was quite impressive. I have a lot to learn on this front.

    That said, the event completely changed the tone of the city and the people around us. For the rest of the day we could tell that everyone was on their phones trying to get in touch with loved ones and confirm they were okay. The sombre emotions and stress were palpable as we walked around exploring the city for the next 3 hours. It should be interesting to see how this manifests throughout the rest of our trip.

    Photos below from our first few hours in Mexico City!

    arriving in style
    outside our airbnb
    @ El Pescadito – tacos!
    Loving love at El Pescadito
    outside just after the earthquake…
    walking around the city
    their freedom/independence monument