You can't buy guacamole in México

First of all, it's not totally true, but almost.

Tuesday afternoon I was having a couple I met over for drinks. So naturally I wanted to put out some botanas [snacks]. In México, that means at the least guacamole, salsa, and tacitos - taco chips. Now while my apartment is very nice, the kitchen is utensil challenged. No good knife, no cutting board, certainly no molcajete. OK, no problem. I walked to Superlake market [3 K] and first had some wonderful pork tacos at Tony's.

There were actually three but something happened to one of them.

Having appeased my appetite I went to the supermarket and found taco chips, potato chips and chicharones. When I asked if they had any guacamole I got a blank look. You know, I said, like in a container...  No, she said and led me over to the avocados. No one buys guacamole in México - they don't sell it. Salsa the same. You don't buy it, you make it. Luckily, I remembered that Tony's where I ate lunch sells both, so I was set.

The renuión was very nice, and we're doing it again. Turns out we live about 100 meters from each other.


TODAY

My dear friend Andrew is coming for a visit. He was booking his flight from México City [DF] to Guadalajara an a small airline, Vivaaerobus, but turns out they don't take Canadian Visa cards. Ergo, I had to take a bus to Chapala, find a Bank called Banamex and pay for the ticket. They also would not take my Canadian Visa or debit card, so I was instructed to go to the cajero [ATM] where, of course, I used my Canadian debit card to get enough cash to pay. Es México.

Since I was in Chapala I walked to the malecon, after first visiting the local mercado. Small but sweet.

 At the east end of the malecon I had fish tacos at the Restaurant Cozumel, a popular fish place. They were delicious.

Home again I worked for awhile. Finally had a fabulous chicken mole at Los Telares.  A good mole sauce has between 20 and 30 ingredients, but the base is always Mexican chocolate and chiles. The sauce I had tonight was thick and rich with a great complexity and perfect level of picante [heat]. The chicken was slices of breast grilled and served with rice and friend plantain, the whole drenched in the mole. Yum.