Mexico City: First Explorations

ARRIVING IN MEXICO

On Thursday we were up at 4:15 to get to SRQ for our 7:30 am Atlanta flight and then on to Mexico City. Relatively smooth flights with no delays, even arrived early. The immigration line was quite long, but kept moving and after half an hour we had been admitted to Mexico. We claimed our bags which were already unloaded and then connected with our driver and his compatriot for the 40 minute drive to our hotel. Along the way, many jacaranda trees in bloom, such a lovely shade of purple, and plenty of concrete buildings with plain fronts painted in one solid color—everything from mustard yellow to midnight blue to bright turquoise and even some pinks and magentas.

The Wild Oscar is a small boutique hotel with a slightly funky vibe and so discreetly located, across the street from an elementary school, that you don’t know it’s there until you go down the half hidden steps and see the sign just at the entrance. Furnishings are mostly contemporary in dark woods and black trim and black stone.

Lobby and dining area at the Wild Oscar

We have a smallish room with a balcony and all the usual accoutrements, but only one desk chair inside and one outside chair on the balcony. The hotel is named for Oscar Wilde and I need to inquire why. Each elevator has a quote from Wilde done in cursive in bright paint on the floor, one yellow and one blue. One quote is “Life is too important to be taken seriously,” and the other something like, be yourself because everyone else is taken.

We took a short walk around the neighborhood, Polanco, admiring the upscale shops, the many restaurants and cafes, a small park, and the numerous banks. Traffic is lively and even in a crosswalk you need to exercise great care! There are no stop signs or lights at most intersections . Reminds me a bit of taking your life in your hands crossing the main streets in Hanoi.

We walked to our dinner restaurant, Comedar Jacinta, for a bit of Mexican comfort food. It’s 2 hours earlier here so by 6:30 pm, we were hungry and tired. We ate outside and were a prime target for the rose peddlers, the man with kids’ toys and other street vendors, but being seated there meant we could watch the street scene. After sunset, a gusty wind led to the unfurling of plastic sheets and we were cozy. The beef barbecue and the mixture of beef strips, cubes of cheese and guacamole with cactus served with tortillas were delicious and our two waiters most helpful.

FRIDAY ROAMING

This morning we left the hotel before 9:00 and walked a few blocks and through a small park to the Museo Nacional de Anthropologie. It’s a large and gorgeous modern building with an expansive plaza off of which there are a series of galleries covering the history of Mexico through its various cultures and customs. You could easily spend an entire day here so we were pleased when the woman at the Information Desk pointed out which galleries were the ones not to miss.

We learned about Teotihuacan (AD 100-700) and its influence far beyond its own region. (On Sunday we will visit the pyramids at Teotihuacan). And spent time in the Mexica Hall (or more familiarly known to us as the Aztec empire, AD1200-1521) and then the Maya Hall where we re-appreciated how sophisticated the Mayans were in their development of writing and their use of mathematics. Lastly, we checked out one of the Ethnography Halls on the upper floor. It is an impressive and very well laid out museum. Introductory and some explanatory panels are in English and Spanish, while individual item labels are only in Spanish.

Umbrella shower outside the museum galleries

Our feet were tired and our bodies said it was later than it was so we relaxed on the café terrace with tea and pastry. Our next foray was to walk farther on in the Bosque de Chapultepec, a quiet, pleasant woodland park with winding paths, to locate the Museo de Arte Moderne.

It was a bit farther than we realized and this museum somewhat disappointing. Several small galleries in the main building plus a number of outdoor sculptures seemed to be the bulk of the collection on display.

Having covered a fair bit of ground, we then meandered back through Chapultepec to a main thoroughfare and then to the street with our hotel. We paused on the corner for a relaxing lunch at Saks.

This restaurant has seating inside and on a semicircular terrace which is raised above the traffic. Knowing we would eat Mexican at dinner time, we opted for a bowl of corn chowder, guacamole and chips, and country style chicken cubes over linguini. The box of breads and chips with three saucers of dips was a welcome bonus.

We took an afternoon break at our hotel before going out again. Those activities will be in my next blog post.

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Tidy Tidbits: Eating Around

FORMAL DINING

Back in the day, as they say, both my grandmothers set a formal table.  Particularly for dinner.  Starched white linen tablecloths were the norm along with starched napkins and a napkin ring.  Using the ring meant that the napkin could be identified as yours and re-used several times.  Flatware was real silver and there were silver salt and pepper shakers, or, in the case of my maternal grandmother’s setting, little salt cellars with tiny spoons.  They were such fun to toy with—despite my mother disapproving look.  

When I was growing up, my mother had standards for her dinner table as well.  We ate in the dining room together, all six of us, almost every night. The highly polished blonde wood table wore a tablecloth (a color or patterned) or placemats, and we used my parents’ wedding silverware.  In a concession to modern times and four kids, the napkins were usually paper except on holidays and special occasions.  One cardinal rule was that you never cleared the table (and we kids took turns doing this) until everyone had finished eating.  This was drilled into us, probably more than any other dictum—except “get your elbows off the table, just as fast as you are able.”

Today’s restaurant staff seem never to have learned to wait until everyone is finished—or have conveniently forgotten.  Is a shortage of clean dishes in the kitchen prompting this snatching of plates before everyone is done?  It is rude and makes the lone eaters feel rushed and singled out.  In my recent dining experiences, even better restaurants aspiring to fine dining are guilty.  Whenever possible, I put a halt to the early removal of plates, but more restaurants should slow down their wait staff and let the meal play out in a more leisurely fashion.

ELEGANT ITALIAN DINING IN SARASOTA

Friends introduced us to CasAntica in downtown Sarasota which we had probably passed many times, but never really noticed.  The restaurant is in an historic house with an outside patio, small dining rooms throughout, and a rooftop garden.  We ate in a quiet alcove near the bar which happened to be unoccupied except for the bartender.  The menu includes homemade pasta dishes, veal, chicken and fish entrees, and a selection of salads and other appetizers.  The salads are large so sharing a tricolore (arugula, cherry tomatoes and shaved Parmesan) was the right move.  The Chief Penguin and I ordered veal preparations, veal piccata and veal saltimbocca, and both were luscious. The best veal we’ve had in this area.  Our friends ordered the salmon and were equally pleased with their choice. Definitely a place to return!!

Salmon Piccata at A Casa Tua

ITALIAN FARE IN OUR BACKYARD

Since its move farther up Cortez Road, A Casa Tua, is practically next door.  This unprepossessing Italian restaurant is family owned and has just seven tables, so reservations are recommended.  The menu offers a nice selection of pastas, chicken and salmon entrees as well as a rack of lamb, along with appetizers and salads.  The Chief Penguin and I snagged a table the other evening and really enjoyed the salmon piccata and the ravioli of the day stuffed with broccoli and sausage in a thick tomato sauce.  The C.P. also sampled and was wowed by the special appetizer of three long plump sardines baked with lemon Mediterranean style.  And the Caesar salad was a most generous portion with plenty of shaved Parmesan.  Overall, a welcome addition to the local dining scene!

SARASOTA FAVORITE

Burrata Salad

We have dined at Bijou Cafe in downtown Sarasota near the opera house several times recently. It’s always excellent and is one of our longtime favorites. I usually order the chicken cutlet with sautéed spinach or the Carolina trout with almonds and veggies. This time I tried a new salad of burrata, heirloom tomatoes and strawberries which was colorful and delicious!

Note: Photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo is the ravioli of the day at A Casa Tua.

Tidy Tidbits: Books & Culture

WHAT I’M READING NOW

I have two books going currently.  One is a book of essays by Janet Malcolm, a staff writer for The New Yorker, called Nobody’s Looking at You.  The other is Kate Atkinson’s latest novel, Transcription.  Several years ago I read her Life After Life which was excellent. 

Our island book group will be discussing Atkinson’s new novel shortly, and I’m really enjoying it.  Juliet, the main character who has been recruited to work for MI5 in 1940s London, is a delightful mix of innocence and wry humor.  Her job is to transcribe conversations being held by a group of fifth columnists.  We see her again in 1950 when she has a somewhat tedious job working on children’s programming for the BBC, but gets the sense that her past is re-visiting her.  I guess I’ll find out if it is or if she is imagining it.

Malcolm’s essays, often based on interviews, are easy and flowing and come across as simply put together. She is an excellent crafter of casual transitions which make the reader feel as if no work was involved.  Based on reading “Three Sisters,” I must visit the Argosy Bookshop, and “The Storyteller,” an extended piece about Rachel Maddow, helped me appreciate her reputation, even though I’ve never watched her TV show.  I have several more essays yet to read and when done will feel that I’ve spent time with this great storyteller. (~JWFarrington)

CULTURAL SCENE

I have always admired Caroline Kennedy.  She has escaped some of the foibles and missteps of others of the Kennedy family and has kept her life as private as possible for someone with her name.  Kennedy was the featured guest this week at the Town Hall lecture series, and I enjoyed her presentation. 

 She is not a particularly polished public speaker, but she came across with warmth and genuineness.  Her stories of being a child in the White House and her father’s reaching out to the Japanese captain responsible for the damage and death on the PT-109 were heartfelt.  As the U.S. ambassador to Japan, she was warmly welcomed there both because of her father and for being the daughter of a Pacific War veteran.  Most of us didn’t realize how delicate and fraught with tension President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima was.  

Aside from her family recollections, Kennedy’s message was about reconciliation and history and reaching across generational divides. She claimed that her grandmother, Rose Kennedy, was hands down the best politician in the family.  Overall, her talk was a soothing balm counteracting today’s rough political waters.  

Arthur Miller wrote his play, The Crucible,during the McCarthy era.  But, as numerous critics have stated, it seems relevant in whatever time period it is staged.  The Asolo Theater has done its usual superb job presenting this dark and tortuous piece of theater.  The set is dimly lit and stark with austere wooden tables and benches.  How young girls dancing in the woods get labeled as witches and how this spreads to accusations against other upstanding wives and mothers is both chilling and a strong reminder how “fake news” can too quickly become viewed as truth. Definitely a play for our time too.

Peggy Roeder as Rebecca Nurse (Asolo Rep)

Note: Atkinson photo from the Irish Times; Malcolm photo from the New York Times.

Tidy Tidbits: Music & Newport

UNUSUAL INSTRUMENT

For many of us, our first response when you mention an accordion is an oompah band or the Lawrence Welk show and Myron Floren.  This week we had the distinct and unexpected pleasure of hearing a young Chinese woman demonstrate her virtuosity playing classical accordion.  Her accordion is both heavy and elaborate.  It weighs 45 pounds and has a keyboard on the left side and a whole series of buttons on the right.  Hanzhi Wang played a selection of classical pieces by Bach and Grieg among others that had been arranged for accordion;  if you didn’t see her, you would not have guessed you were hearing an accordion.  

 Wang earned music degrees in Beijing and Copenhagen.  Based in Copenhagen, she tours the world performing and has given master classes at the Manhattan School of Music. Hearing her was truly special!

RECENT READING

NEWPORT THROUGH THE CENTURIES

The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith

I’ll start by stating that I loved this novel!  What Mr. Smith has done using Newport, Rhode Island, as the venue and presenting five different stories from five different perspectives in five different time periods is simply amazing.  Sandy Allison is a tennis pro in 2011 involved with three women, none of whom he initially sees as a partner for the long term.  Franklin Drexel, a gay blade in all senses of the term, aspires to marry a wealthy widow in 1896 Newport, although he has no desire for women.  

At just 20, Henry James is spending time in Newport (1863) and observing the scene and the people.  He develops a friendship with a young woman named Alice (same name as his sister) and keeps a journal recording his experiences.  A British officer, Major Ballard, is stationed in Newport during the American Revolution and is obsessed with his attraction to a young Jewess. 

Lastly, there is Prudence Selwyn, a young Quaker of 15 whose mother is dead and her father likely lost at sea. It is 1692, she has one slave, and she must figure out how to live her life and support the two of them.  Three of the stories are presented as diaries while the other two, Sandy’s and Franklin’s, are in the third person.  

Themes of love, lust, betrayal, and duplicity, along with how we present ourselves to the world and each other, echo in each individual’s life.  Windermere is modeled on an old mansion, but the physical aspects of Newport such as Doubling Point and the Jewish cemetery which recur down the years are historically true.  I found all the characters fascinating with the British officer being the least likable and least sympathetic.  

The novel is summed up, I think, in the last letter Henry James writes to Alice Taylor:

“…this sense I have that the hundreds of millions of us who breathe upon the earth are each a unique flame, that we are each uniquely composed within the caskets of our bodies and our minds, that each has an experience of the world as different as that of a fishwife’s from a foundryman’s, and yet we all live the same life (millionaire, artist, soldier, slave), we each of us strive to understand who we are why we are here, to love and be loved, and that, for all that striving, we are each of us lost in the mystery of our own heart.”

Gregory Blake Smith was not an author I was familiar with, but this novel came to my attention from a publisher’s e-mail.  Subsequently, I learned it was one of the Washington Post’sten best books of 2018.  For more on the creation of this work, here is a link to an interview with Smith from the Literary Hub.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is Chateau-sur-mer in Newport from visitrhodeisland.com. Hanzhi Wang photo from opening nights.fsu.edu and book cover image from the publisher.