Sunday, January 22, 2006

And as a side dish . . .

We are back in Cuyutlán after 10 days away to San Miguel de Allende and Patzcuaro. Weather there warm and lovely during the day, very cold at night. Especially in Patzcuaro where there was no heat in the hotel, the walls were thick adobe which never get warm in the winter but stay cool in the summer. But this is winter, so . . .

This is the third anniversary of the severe earthquake that hit our village, all the towns around us, and the capital city of Colima. There was enormous damage, especially to the historic areas of Colima where the original adobe buildings were located. Cuyutlan also suffered much admage from which it has not yet recovered.

Tonight being Sunday, dinner comes from the vendors up at the jardin. As usual, it is five or six tacitos, some beans, a bit of salad and a grilled onion. At this particular wagon, our favorite, Mama is cooking, sister is putting the take-away plates together, and the younger brother, about 14 or so, is sitting behind the wagon, being generally 14 and bored. The wagon has florescent lights over the cooking area, which is a big wok-style cooking pan in which the meat and the onions are deep-fried. There are some sort of large bugs swarming around the lights. The kid picks up one of the Styrofoam plates, swats at a bug, and tosses it into the bubbling fat. Mama lets it sizzle a moment, then fishes it out and puts it up on the edge of the cooking pot. He does it a couple more times. So does she. What happens to these tasty, toasty morsels I do not want to know.

Buen provecho!

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