Eric & Autumn's World Roll Up

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Food & Wine Festival: Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo

This weekend we took the quick 45-minute flight to Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo for the first ever Food & Wine (magazine) festival in Mexico. The cities and beaches were beautiful, and the events were amazing. Celebrity chef, Rick Bayless, winner of Top Chef Masters on Bravo, owner of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and XOCO in Chicago, and star of Mexico: One Plate at a Time on PBS was the headliner and one of our main reasons for going...although do you really need a good reason to go to a tropical beach resort to be stuffed with delicious wine and Mexican food?

We had dinner on a stone terrace built into the hillside overlook the Pacific Ocean when we arrived at the hotel (Las Brisas, which we highly recommend for any would be visitors), and it was spectacular.

The next morning with headed off to our cooking class, Market to Table, with Rick (yes, we're on a first name basis!) haha, if only... Anyway, the class was very fun and informative. We learned all about making red chile sauce and a bunch of recipes to develop from the same base sauce for shrimp and lobster, and a few other tips and tricks. The food looked amazing, and we had a little bite afterward.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the beach, drinking out of coconuts and swimming before we headed to La Perla for dinner.

The dinner was called 32 Tastes of Mexico (note: there are 32 states in Mexico, hence the punny name)! It featured chefs from local restaurants that each prepared one or two tasting plates, so we grabbed little bites and glasses of wine and munched our way through the evening. They had tables set up on the beach and there was another cooking demonstration with Rick. The mayor of Ixtapa, and some other government / tourist officials were there too! After dinner we got a cookbook signed and chatted it up with some non-work related Americans (for once!). Overall, it was a really fun evening, and I am looking forward to our next FWF ...that's Food & Wine Festival....I just can't help giving a three letter acronym to everything...it's one of my many new government skills.

The view from our room at dawn...we were too excited to sleep!

Sleepy hammock time!

Cooking class with Rick...yes he's holding a lobster!

Spiny lobster with tomatoes and "mojo de ajo" sauce aka the "bath of garlic"

Buenos dias!

A little bite of a sweet corn tamale and a bean and cream tostada...YUM!

View from the class

Las Brisas hotel! Wonderful!

Autumn finally got her "Coco Loco"

Camarones en mojo de ajo! Shrimp in a garlic bath!

It's hard to tell, but that's about an eight foot high wave!

Oops! Too close!

Sunset

32 Tastes of Mexico on the beach at La Perla

This was the best thing we ate all night...
it was a spicy-sweet octopus wonton with an egg-y cake thing.

I was just a bit taller than the rest of the people in line for the book signing!

Autumn and her "playin' it cool" hands with Rick!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Bienvenidos a El Salvador!

Early in the week of March 12th, I was asked to go work for 12 days in San Salvador, El Salvador. This was very short notice, but, always up for an adventure, I said yes! I met some really great people, and had a wonderful experience there. We worked hard, so I didn't get a chance for a lot of sight-seeing, but here a few pics I did manage to get.

This is the San Salvador Volcano as seen from my hotel room...

More of San Salvador. My room had a beautiful view!

This is traditional Salvadoran food. Pupusas, fried yucca and a Pilsener, my favorite Salvadoran beer. The pupusas were delicious...it was great to have the pupusa experience in their native land, rather than out of a truck in Virginia!

Finally, after all the work was done, my section took me to dinner at a beautiful restaurant on a volcano. These gorgeous exotic flowers were in the courtyard.

This is a view of San Salvador from the volcano. Note: The haze is not/not pollution! I asked one of my new Salvadoran friends who passionately explained to me that it was mist and clouds, definitely not pollution!

San Salvador by night. Que bonita!

Overall, I had a great experience! Look for another entry soon, as Eric and I are planning a lovely beach weekend!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Icy Washington

This week I flew back to Kettle Falls for a week of rest / security guard duties while my mom recovered from an operation. My job inspiration: Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest! Haha, just kidding! I was nice, but I did have to force my mom to stay home, take her pills and rest.

The trip up was uneventful, but when I looked out my airplane window when the captain announced that we had crossed over into the US, there was nothing but an endless plain of snow. I felt like the ridiculous claims of our local news in Mexico City that the US is a vast frozen wasteland were a little bit more justified. This claim was reconfirmed again, when I landed in Snowkane with 3 feet of snow and below 0 temperatures.

Over the week, I caught up on some technical manuals from work...yawn! and watched approximately 3,000 hours of Law & Order with a few hundred episodes of House Hunters on HGTV. Oh well, at least it was all in English, and it was great to see my mom and Rich.

I headed back to Mexico City on Saturday, just in time for Autumn to abandon me to head out to El Salvador for two weeks! Oh whoa to me!

View from my mom's cell...I mean recovery room!

The Kettle Falls River...of ice and doom!!

More proof that the US is covered in ice for half the year. I'm sending this one in to Primero Noticias!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

That's Not My Name!!

After reading this funny article, I got to thinking about my many Starbucks names...and really my name in general here in Mexico. See, in Spanish and in Mexican culture, my name makes no sense. Reading my name phonetically, Mexicans call me something like "Ah-ooh-tomb-n"with a puzzled look, if they even make the attempt at all. My staff just call me "la jefa" (the boss), and leave it at that. When I try to explain the meaning of my name, they get even more confused. In Spanish-speaking cultures, people are only named names. Maria, Juana, Jose, Jorge...they're all names with no additional meaning. As a Spanish teacher once told Eric, "Autumn is her name? No, that is illegal in Spain."

In the States, Autumn is unique but not entirely uncommon. There was another Autumn in my graduating class...I worked for an Autumn once ("Hi, I'd like to introduce you to Autumn and her assistant Autumn"). It's no Mary, but it's certainly no Moonbeam either.

In Mexico, people do not name their children Otoño (Spanish for Autumn). So, this brings me back to my many Starbucks names. I've thought about naming myself Maria for Starbucks purposes, but something tells me I wouldn't be able to pull it off. It would imply a much higher level of Spanish and cultural understanding than I actually have. I like it that Mexicans speak to me slowly and loudly...I really can understand the Spanish better that way. So, this leaves me with 2 options when the barista asks for my name: Autumn or Otoño. No matter which one I use, I get the same scared, horrified look, and it is never right on the cup. That's right Señorita, I am a foreigner. Can I please have my mocha now?

I used Otoño this day. Look for more Starbucks names coming soon...

Guadalajara 2

For our second day in Guadalajara, we took the Turibus from Centro Historico out to Tlaquepaque, another section of the old town. It was filled with pretty typical squares, churches, arts and crafts shops, restaurants and tequilarias! Tequila comes from the city of Tequila in the state of Jalisco of which Guadalajara is the capital. After a bit of touring around, we stopped at El Parian for lunch. Allegedly, this is the world's biggest bar, and it's about the size of one city block with a big open courtyard in the middle. We had tortas ahogadas, which are a regional specialty sandwich of pulled pork on a french roll drenched in red chile sauce and are delicious!

Afterward we headed back to the house and went out to our faux-Valentine's day dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant. It was Superbowl Sunday and I couldn't believe how packed the bars were with football fans! Our morning news sports is typically filled with wrestling and soccer, so I was under the impression the most Mexicans didn't watch football.

Nuestra Virgen de la Soledad

Main square in Tlaquepaque

El Parian - World's Biggest Bar?

Luckily, no Moctezuma's Revenge for us after eating at Moctezuma Restaurant & Bar!

Torta ahogada and margaritas!

El Parian courtyard

That's a lot of cotton candy and balloons!

Guadalajara

Autumn had a temporary assignment for the last 3 weeks in Guadalajara, so I went to visit her over a long weekend. Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico, but it kind of felt like a small town compared to Mexico City. I had an interesting time getting to Guadalajara. I somehow confused my departure time and left work with only ONE HOUR to get to the airport, through security, and on the flight. Traffic was horrible as usual, but I somehow made it exactly as they started boarding. I arrived at the airport in Guadalajara with cash in hand for a cab to her house, but was short by 15 pesos! I always forget how expensive cabs are outside of Mexico City, so I had to make a deal with the cab company to pay when we got to Autumn's place. Luckily she had money to pay! By the time we got settled in, it was dark, so we decided to order pizza. This is always an adventure what with the over the phone Spanish. We asked the guard for a recommendation, and he told us that the pizza was horrible and we wouldn't like it, but gave us the number anyway. We decided to take his recommendation and ordered from a tostada place instead, and they were delicious paired with walnut and pinenut paletas (handmade popsicles) from La Michoacana!

The next day, we spent the morning getting to know Autumn's temporary neighborhood...finding Starbucks for internet, grocery store for supplies, etc. then ventured out to the Centro Historico where we toured the churches, squares and just wandered around. We were going to get tickets for the Tequila Train, but the ticket office wasn't open on the weekend, so we had to settle for pizza and beer back at the house.