Birthday Celebration

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

For Tony's birthday this year we couldn't break the tradition of eating his favorite dish: pizza. Family and friends joined us at 50 Friends, a hip neighborhood spot in Condesa known for the quality of its pies. We had some great food and company and Tony was very happy. For an extra special treat he had a chocolate soufflé in addition to the yummy Nutella fruit pizza we all shared.

From the restaurant we walked to the Malafama pool hall to shoot some pool and continue the laughs. It was tons of fun and a late night for a Tuesday!

Pictures of Mexican Food

I've always been obsessed with taking pictures of food. Everywhere I go, I snap before I eat. I literally have hundreds and hundreds of pictures of food. At some point, I though of making a picture diary of everything I ate, but then found out someone had already done it!

Yesterday I got a picture message from my friend's daughter, who's 6. She knows how much I like pictures of food and decided to photograph her chicken tacos and send me the pic. It made me think about all my pictures of food buried in my picture folders. I went back and really enjoyed finding some collages I had made of food from China and Australia.

Then I went through my Mexico folders and made the collage above, a small sampling of my food fetish: no, I haven't taken to eating carnitas, but I still enjoy photographing them!!!!! Also of notice is the candied rose petals cake my cousin had at her bridal shower, a real piece of art, and the candied carrots we saw at a market in Toluca.

If you click on the picture you can see it bigger to really "appreciate" each dish!

Bon Appetit!
iti

Oaxaca Escape

(To view our trip's album click on the picture above.)

Last December we had a wonderful trip in the state of Oaxaca. We visited tons of sites. At Santa María del Tule we paid a visit to the largest tree in the world (36.2m trunk circunference). At Hierbe el Agua, we saw the beautiful petrified waterfalls. We explored the zapotec ruins of Mitla and Monte Albán. Finally we shopped for local crafts at several markets in little towns and also hung out in Oaxaca city where we visited the amazing Santo Domingo complex.

We had a great stay and sampled lots of specialties of the amazing Oaxacan food. My favorite experiences were tasting six different mole varieties at Los Pacos and making our own chocolate mix at the mill of the Mayordomo chocolate company.

Check out our trip's pictures and see for yourselves...

Cyber-Iti having a blast!

I couldn't resist making this cool fun version of "me"! Too bad I'm sitting at my desk in front of the computer and not at a yoga studio right this moment!

Holidays NOT On Ice

December 2007 VS December 2008

(To view our trip's album click on either of the pictures above.)

This holiday season, Tony's mom and sisters came down to visit us and escape from Chicago's crazy weather. After spending one evening in DF having great food, courtesy of my dad, we drove down to Cocoyoc, where my mom's friend Olga had rented us a house for the week-end. We visited the nearby colonial towns of Tlayacapan and Tepoztlán and enjoyed the garden, the pool, the grill, etc... The Chicago Chicas really enjoyed leaving their coats and boots at home and hanging out by the pool in 80 degree (Farenheit) weather!

After Cocoyoc we spent two days in Taxco, where we had also rented a pretty colonial house. The town's incredibly steep and narrow cobbled streets and crazy drivers proved somewhat of a challenge, but the allure of the town and its infinite amount of silver shops made it all worth it!

We returned to DF tired but happy to enjoy two days of parties: first for Michelle's birthday, then for New Year's Eve. Michelle, my dad and some assistants (my uncle Dany, cousin Galia and I) prepared a monumental paella for the whole family on that day.

A weird stomach flu attacked Tony and his three sisters at the end of the trip, which was a real bummer, but overall we all keep great memories of this warm weather holiday trip.

Latest news say the weather is awful in most of the US... you could be here instead, sipping a cold beverage by the pool, and enjoying our company! Check out our pictures if you're still not convinced...

The Impossible Quest For Free Water

Every restaurant in Mexico has to provide, by law, purified water to the customers. Now, that doesn't mean it's easy to get it: restaurants, the nicer the worst, try by all means to get you to pay for bottled water. I hate that!

Our last experience illustrates how far waiters will go to NOT give you free water. We went into a really nice restaurant and I asked for "a glass of water from your filter", not a bottle of water, not just vague "water". The waiter asked if I wanted it with ice or not, I said with. A couple of minutes later he comes by while we're focused on the menus, quickly opens a bottle of water and pours both Tony and I glasses before retreating.

I call him and ask why he didn't give me filtered water. He says they're out. I ask if that means they're cooking our dinner with unfiltered water! He reassures me that the kitchen has plenty of filtered water and that our food will be made according to the "highest hygiene standards", with pristine purified water. I ask why I cannot get some of that great hygienic water. He says normally they have special filtered water for customers but they just happened to run out that minute so he decided to give us the bottled kind since he didn't want us to go thirsty . He assures me filtered water will be available within minutes.

As announced, as soon as I finished my (expensive) glass of water he came over with an oversized pitcher of filtered water, which had apparently magically appeared. The quest for free water was successful... until the next restaurant visit!

Thanksgiving in a Bikini

(To view our trip's album click on the picture above.)

When we bought our car we got with it a free trip to any Fiesta Americana hotel in Mexico. We decided to use it over Thanksgiving and head to Puerto Vallarta. It was Tony's first time there and a great chance to relax and lay by the ocean.

We had a great time, sleeping in, taking it slow, and having some great food.

Thursday night, for "Thanksgiving", we went to Teatro Limón, a truly unique place. This "restaurant" is in a Canadian's chef's house, where him, his wife, a sous-chef and a waiter are the whole "show". The tables (about 8 of them, laid in the old living and dining rooms of the house) are around a nicely equiped kitchen, and you get to watch the whole process of your meal being made. The fun part is chef Bruce goes around all night chatting and figuring out what you'd like to eat. The food was absolutely amazing, all 5 courses of it, and we were pretty much forced to walk back to the hotel we were so full! The next day we didn't eat anything until 7PM!!!!

Friday we lazied at the hotel pool and beach most of the day and took a long nice sunset walk along the boardwalk so it was a nice, slow, relaxing day, not something we've gotten too much of lately!

On Saturday, one of my parents' friend, Greta, took us around. She's a really cool lady and I hadn't seen her in over ten years so we caught up on our lives and remembered "the old days" but also did some great sight-seeing. She took us to Nuevo Vallarta for lunch, then we drove down a beautiful road, with tropical trees forming a canopy above it, to Sayulita, a surfers' town in the state of Nayarit (Puerto Vallarta is in Jalisco). In the evening we went to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, where Greta lives, to check out her diggs (pretty nice, can't wait to crash there next time!!!!) then went back to Vallarta for drinks.

Nicely replenished in energy we flew back to DF on Sunday afternoon, ready for whatever might come...