Food and Fireworks

Sunday morning begins with fireworks!  Yup, in the pre-dawn darkness of 6am, large booming noises woke me up and up to the rooftop I went.  Every 5 minutes or so a half dozen of those flash-bang fireworks would light up the sky up the hill behind one of the churches in town.  The 5 minute interval pretty much guarantees that I at least will not be able to get to sleep.  Jake did manage to sleep through it of course.  Is this to make sure that they get good church attendance on Sunday morning?

As a consequence of lack of sleep maybe we went out for breakfast to Cafe La Parroquia.  They have a large lovely courtyard, a little too chilly for a winter morning, but also a smaller indoor area that was moderately warmer.  We had huevos rancheros topped with red sauce and huevos Oaxquenos topped with mole.  The mole was a little sweet for our taste but the huevos rancheros were pretty good. The coffee was good too.

Wedding car with fried pigskin vendor in foreground.  The bride and groom looked so young.  She was wearing an elaborate white gown with a gold lace overlay on the skirt and the groom was accompanied by 5 young guys in shiny grey suits.  There didn't seem to be any bridesmaids but maybe they were in the church.

Later in the morning we attempted to go to a charrera (like a rodeo) that had been advertised around town, but both the tourist office and the bus driver thought it was at a sporting grounds a little outside of town, and there was nothing going on there.  We think maybe it was further out of town at a private ranch after reviewing the information we could find about it again.  The bus ride was interesting as they usually are in Latin America.  This one went through 2 small towns just outside of San Miguel.  The second town was all dirt roads and the bus pitched and rocked going a few miles/hour.  Even these towns seemed relatively prosperous, lots of new building going on anyway and no real slums to be seen.  The bus itself had a thick grey cloth patterned in diamonds over the top half of the front window making it difficult to see out the front as a passenger.  Both mirrors were outlined in fake grey fur.  And of course the obligatory cross hung between the mirrors with a second one behind the driver's seat.

We walked down to visit our favorite fruit and vegetable vendor at the market before lunch and picked up a bunch of fruits for a fruit salad.  We had that with some good whole grain bread we had gotten at the Saturday morning organic market.  The organic market has a wide selection of handmade products from soaps to solar vegetable dryers to woven scarves.  There are also a couple of food vendors selling tacos and tamales.  The market appeared to be mostly frequented by the expat community. It is held in the courtyard of a building in the San Antonio neighborhood.  Just down the street is a weekend artisans market with some more interesting crafts that what you see in the daily craft market in town.

In the afternoon we attempted to find the monthly flea market which we thought was near the scenic overlook above town, but once again failed to find it as there appeared to be no 145 Salida a Queretaro.  But it was a nice walk and afterwards we sat in the plaza and watched some folkloric dances while chatting with a retiree from Salem, OR who has a house here.   He was holding a cup of iced coffee from Starbucks and said his wife was there with a bunch of other women who get together each week to knit hats for poor kids.

Photo from the Toy Museum in town

Aztec dancer

It takes a bold man to wear these costumes

Since we had eaten such a healthy lunch, we went out for dinner to Bugambilia near the theatre.  It had the reputation for best "chiles en nogada", a dish that we love from Los Potrillos in Santa Fe and had been wanting to try here. It is most often served in San Miguel in September though, so it is harder to find the rest of the year.  The chiles were delicious although a little different from the ones we'd had in Santa Fe.  The filling had finer pieces of meat and dried fruits and a sweeter red sauce.  The pepper had also been brined first which I don't remember from Santa Fe.  The waiter gave us a nice description of how the peppers are prepared  (Since there was only one table of customers besides us he had plenty of time to explain).  The peppers are roasted and peeled then soaked in a brine with herbs like thyme, marjoram, bay leaf and black pepper for about three days. They are then rinsed off and placed in a lighter brine until ready for use.   The filling has several varieties of dried fruits including raisins, dried peaches and apricots as well as almonds or walnuts.  The meat and fruits are cooked slowly and stirred vigorously to produce a fairly smooth filling.  The chiles are presented on the plate with a wide ribbon of cream sauce that has finely chopped walnuts mixed in and pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top.  The red, white, and green colors represent the colors of the Mexican flag.  I can also recommend the margarita at Bugambilias.