Super trooper

Poor Kyusik and Acadian had the runs last night that also continued today. We suspect it may have been the pork pizza roll because I ate a lot less then they did. The morning of my birthday, we got chicken soup with rice, garbanzos, and fresh corn tortillas. We celebrated my birthday at Entremar, the sister restaurant to a famous seafood place called Contramar, where we couldn't get reservations. Unfortunately, it was quite disappointing: not only was it the most expensive, but it was also the worst-tasting meal we've had here. We got a mediocre ceviche, some tuna "carnitas" which we didn't finish, and the special whole fish with green and red salsas. The fish was cooked well, and the red salsa was much better than the green one. We've been trying to get paletas (popsicles) for a couple days and decided to cut our losses, skipping dessert at the restaurant, in order to rush to a place with ice cream and paletas before it closed at 9 pm. Acadian got strawberry with cream, Kyusik got strawberry with mint, and I got mint. 

This morning we rushed to a restaurant to have breakfast with Kyusik before Acadian and I had to get to a tour of Merced Market at 10 am. My chilaquiles were good, but Kyusik's eggs with zucchini blossoms were rather lackluster. Acadian barely ate his concha and croissant and couldn't even finish his hot chocolate because his stomach hurt so much. He threw up for the first time at the restaurant. After breakfast, Kyusik headed back to the flat to work. On our way to the metro, Acadian threw up for a second time on the street. Despite giving ourselves at least 45 minutes to make the 20 minute trip, we ended up being 30 minutes late. When we got on the metro, we were going in the right direction but then a few stops later, Acadian realized it had switched directions on us. So we got off, and went in the other direction, only to have it stop and then switch directions again. I realized that they were doing construction and that we would have to switch to the bus to get to our destination. So I opted for an Uber, which then took a long time to get to us due to the traffic. As we got closer to the cafe where we were supposed to meet up with the tour, the driver couldn't make the turn because the streets were closed off. I thought we would need to forfeit the tour and was trying to see if we could join another one later or the next day when Acadian threw up again all over the floor. I told the driver I would give him a big tip so that he could clean his car and apologized profusely. Luckily the guide and two other clients, a couple from Denver, were willing to wait for us. 

The tour itself was very informative, and our tour guide Clara was incredibly knowledgable. We booked through a company called Eat Mexico. All of their guides need to have a culinary background. She had graduated from a culinary school and had also worked in restaurants. We started out with a taco with French fries, then followed that with atole, a hot maize drink in 3 flavors: guava, cinnamon, and blue corn, as well as a fried tamale. Our next stop was for suadero (brisket) and sausage tacos, which we ate with an herb called pápalo. Then we stopped for sweets at a stand, where Clara bought us some lime peels stuffed with coconut among other treats. After getting some aguas frescas (lime for me and strawberry with cream that Acadian couldn't finish), we got to sample a bunch of insects (ants and grasshoppers), larva, and fish, all of which were eaten with lime squeezed on top. We tried a bunch of different moles from a stand where they make it all from scratch, starting with roasting the seeds, nuts, and peppers. Not all moles contain chocolate. I bought two powdered forms, one with chocolate and the other one called pipian that was tan and contained pepitas. The next stop was for antojitos: a huitlacoche (corn fungus) quesadilla and then a huarache (flat corn snack stuffed with beans and topped with cheese and nopales or cactus.) We ended the tour at a lovely restaurant where I had cafe de olla and guacamole made with chili and lime and orange juices that was made tableside. We then topped it with some chapulines or grasshoppers and ate the guacamole on top of tostadas. Tonight we are going to dinner at a place called Botanico. I've been pretty miserable all day with a runny nose that started last night and then got stuff in my eye, mostly likely from all of the particulate matter in the air. 

This is a fantastic time to visit Mexico City because the jacarandas are in bloom. With their purple flowers, they are our favorite tree. They also remind me of Zimbabwe. Coincidentally, the NYT just published an article about the origins of jacarandas in CDMX. 

When Acadian and I rode the metro both yesterday and this morning, we took advantage of the specially designated cars just for women and kids under 12. Apparently sexual harassment is quite common here on public transportation. It is also cool how each stop has a symbol, which I’m assuming is for low literacy riders.