Please, sir... May I have some more?

Well, I've been eating again as we all must, and, as you can imagine, I've been eating some interesting stuff. Mexico city is big enough that it attracts healthy amounts of people from all over the country so as the people here say, "What happens in Mexico, happens in Mexico City!" In many ways this is true despite the many people outside of DF who may despise such elitist urban chants from the snobs in the big city. It does seem that you can get almost anything you can get and experience almost anything you can experience in Mexico in Mexico City albeit with a twist; ie: there's someone stealing your rear view mirrors and smog everywhere. Foodwise this is doubly true.



There is a kind of soup called Pozole here that is very popular. There are even franchises dedicated to Pozole. It's basically kind of like a corn stew with pork strips in a broth. There are huge chewy pieces of a large variety of corn inside. This is a type of Pozole they make in Guererro state that we bought from a restaurant called Casa Licha; a hole in the wall nestled in a unassuming, almost hidden neighborhood street. My friend Bernie somehow came into knowledge of this place and takes us there sometimes as there is really no way I could ever navigate to this place without full knowledge of the city to say the least. Casa Licha serves food from Guererro. There is a green herb oil on the surface (maybe oregano?) which makes this type "verde". People eat pozole as a snack or as a whole meal and this place seems to be very popular on the weekends. It's one of those places that is known to have good pozole, but is not located in a popular neighborhood. As far as I can tell there are quite a few places to eat in DF that serve very good authentic food that can't be found easily, yet people go the distance to ferret out these places as many Mexicans seem to be pretty discerning when it comes to local fare. The pozole here is very good. I've had street market Pozole and while it fills the stomach it was full of dubious meat pieces and hard bits that were a bit too, uh, "rustic" for my taste, but I've had good stuff now and I can say I like it maybe almost as much as your average Chilango- if there is such a thing.



These are chalupitas, or small Guererro versions of the chalupa. It's basically a hard little cup shaped tortilla with pork strips on top again with some chile, onion and light seasoning smothered in a sweetish sauce. They are appetizers and super delish.



these are Tortas Ahogadas we got at a popular restaurant that serves food from Guadalajara. Guadalajara is in Jalisco state and the second biggest city in Mexico. I've heard it's a nice city and it must be full of people with iron stomachs because this dish was hands down the hottest dish I've eaten in Mexico so far. It's basically a torta (usually elaborate Mexican sandwich made from a Kaiser Roll, but in this case the bread is French style) floating in a very very hot salsa. It's messy and the salsa is so hot they give you a plastic glove! This is so you don't damage your manicure or heaven forbid have the salsa seep into a hangnail or something. I'm not kidding. I used the glove even though I felt like an employee of Subway.

When Ale, Bernie, and Josefina and I sat down to eat I was pre-occupied talking or something. As we ordered our Tortas Ahogadas I made the mistake of not paying attention to how the others were ordering. Josefina is from Australia and ordered "no ahogada" Bernie and Ale are Mexicans and ordered "half ahogada". I wasn't paying attention and just said, "No, I'll take it as it comes..." Suffice to say that while it tasted delicious and good, plastic glove aside, it was basically inedible to me. I had to rescue the thing from the pool of lava salsa it was bathing in and revert to the "no ahogada" setting. However, I've been back since and ordered it with Half ahogada which is the best compromise. No ahogada was slightly boring like a sandwich sitting in a pool of watered down Heinz, but full force... I dunno- You'd have to be a serious eater of hot food to pass that without uh... Repercussions to put it mildly. Still I highly recommend these foods as they are not only delicious, but, well, never mind... They're delicious- what more does a food need on it's resume?