Last weekend, Azul and I ventured over to Real de Montes, a small stop in the state of Hidalgo, just north of Mexico City. It's only a 1.5-hour drive away, but we took the 3-hour local bus. The city is beautiful, and it's really nothing more than that; quiet streets, friendly residents and walls painted varying shades of yellow, pink, red, orange, blue, green and purple, the windowpanes painted a bold white or covered with curling wrought iron. There must be some kind of city ordinance that requires all walls be incredibly pretty to look at.I creeped Azul out when I blogged about our trip to Taxco, she was disturbed by how much detail I remembered and penned down. So Azul, this is for you!
Once we hopped off the bus, we headed for fuel: hot, spiced café de olla and "sopes," a thick tortilla disk filled with a multitude of toppings, or, if you're vegetarian, with just mushrooms and/or cheese. We climbed up and down the undulating city streets, taking vanity shots of ourselves against the aforementioned beautiful walls. Azul
is a professonial photographer, that's at least how we justified the endless series of self portraits. She also climbed a VW Beetle in a quest to grab some crabapples down from an orchard tree sticking out over a brick wall.We came across a pair of raisin-faced ladies selling snacks at a little stand and started chatting them up. One of them guided us up the path to a small chapel, where she showed us a very morbid Jesus statue completely covered in blood and topped with real human hair. It's her duty to clean the one-room chapel once a week, which I assume means sweeping the floor, clearing away dead flowers on the altar and giving Jesucristo a nice polish.
We bid our lady friend farewell and continued wandering around Real, a colorful dot of a town surrounded by giant, pine-covered hills in the distance. Snack time brought yummy strawberries-and-cream bars from the ice cream lady and a 10-peso bag of gummy worms from a candy vendor in the city's central square.
Our next food stop was at a nice restaurant where a TV loudly blasted scenes from a Cantinflas film (he's Mexico's Charlie Chaplin or something like that). I ordered a plate of cucumber slices covered in lime juice and chile sauce, a simple, typical dish here.Our last culinary excursion brought us "pastes," which, as indicated by obsessive signage, is Real de Monte's gastronomic pride. The fried, flaky dough presents itself much like an empanada, and I'm not really sure what the difference is between the two. I bought one stuffed with rice pudding and a "hawaina" stuffed with ham, pineapple and cheese for Matt.
Speaking of food yet again, this Saturday Matt and I ambled along the Culturas Amigas festival on Paseo de la Reforma, the city's main thoroughfare. I ruined our fun by deciding to take pictures for a 2-page photo spread in this week's Embassy Row supplement, so what would've been a relaxing afternoon was more like me getting in everyone's way to get decent angles with my unprofessional camera.
But we did enjoy a fried plantain patty from the Colombia booth, spicy rice noodles from Tailandia and a small bottle of white wine from South Africa.The last was a delicious and nostalgic treat for me: tortilla patata (potato and egg) on top of a crusty piece of baguette and topped with a single roasted red pepper, from the Spain booth of course. It took my back to my Spanish host mom's house, where she often made me these starch sandwiches to take along on my weekend excursions. I also scored a free cup of Honduran fruit juice, the server anticipating some wonderful publicity for his restaurant in my photo spread (note: yes, I can be bought).
Well, today is Sunday, meaning all fun has ended for the week! Have a great one yourself!
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