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Hound Dog

May 15, 2010, 6:45 AM

Post #26 of 32 (4260 views)

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Re: [Manuel Dexterity] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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think I remember a compliment or two about the chiles en nogada at Casa Fuerte in Tlaquepaque which shows you know as much about chiles as a square head from Fargo.

Now, that was below the belt, Manuelito. Do not forget that it was Bubba, not Dawg who praised the chiles en nogada in Tlaquepaque some years ago upon having first tried this dish and Dawg wishes to emphasize that Bubba was new to Mexico and trying really hard to like the food in Metro Guadalajara. Bubba, as you will recall, has been banned from posting on this forum and another forum of lesser stature and rightly so. Dawg is his more mature and less hostile successor.

Dawg has been insulted by the best but the "square head from Fargo" was exquisitely painful for an old Alabama redneck. I am honored to be the recipient of such a well placed blow. Usually, verbal sparring matches are of little interest on internet forums and tend to become contentious rather that entertaining.

By the way, I did note the insult to my favored and cherished Yucatecan cuisine by that other poster and, you are correct, I let it slide. What the hell; I grew up eating bland hominy grits, tasteless fried eggs, bacon and Wonder Bread (known in Alabama as "reglar" bread) along with insipid American "sock juice" coffee. Who am I to criticize what other folks eat? I will say that one of the the first fine breakfasts I ever had was the "huevos monteleños" at a hotel in central Mèrida. ¨

For your information, Dawg is the chile king of all time. If I had a choice of one last meal I´d fly to what they used to call Madras (now Chennai) and feast on the spiciest and most complex cooking on earth. A fine way to go out.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on May 15, 2010, 6:54 AM)

tashby

May 15, 2010, 9:23 AM

Post #27 of 32 (4233 views)

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Re: [Peter] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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Morelia, which, despite its many praiseworthy features and attractions, has no restaurant I have found yet that I could rate better than merely "passable"

Psssst. If you haven't already tried it, find your way to Fonda Marceva. I'm no food expert but I think they specialize in dishes from the Tierra Caliente, so many of the dishes - but not all - are muy picante. Believe it's on Abasolo, maybe 4-5 blocks south of the Plaza de Armas.

It makes me cry it's so good.

Regarding Oaxaca restaurants. Meh. I've already posted about my disappointment, but I've only been there once on a very short trip so I'm not ready to write off the entire scene. Yet.

Hound Dog

May 15, 2010, 1:58 PM

Post #28 of 32 (4212 views)

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Re: [tashby] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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I must say it pleases me to see people giving fair disregard for the cuisines of Morelia and Oaxaca and (my own contribution) San Cristóbal de Las Casas, all isolated towns fawned over by folks with lackluster expectations. I am reminded of when I moved to the second city of Alabama of Mobile in the 1960s and those shrimpcatchers (no more) were so pleased with that two-bit symphony orchestra they had supported and the first task as a young banker I had was to charge off the loan the First National Bank of Mobile had made to support that civic conceit and not one of those rich Mobilians came forward to honor their personal guarantees when that phony enterprise in a town thinking itself sophisicated and in reality, a bayou backwater, tanked.

These Americans bring their regional podunk boosterism down here and pronounce isolated towns to be of significant human merit but the only thing Dawg has seen in either Morelia or Oaxaca or, for that matter, Puebla or Queretaro or, forgive me for saying so , the ancient Gulf Coast colonial city of Mobile, is a generation of humans undeserving of the splendid architecture and/or preservation of beautiful plant life left to them by ancestors long dead. What the hell has the current generation done for these places except stare at them and exclaim their uniqueness. What edifice of architectural significance has been built in Morelia or Oaxaca or Guadalajara (where they disgraced their own colonial heritage in the 1960s) in the last 200 years?

When I was living in that magnificent old city of Mobile in the 1960s, I swear to god they cut down a thousand year old live oak on the beautiful live oak and mansion lined Government Street corridor to build a Mr. Steak franchise to sell crap to crapeaters. This generation does not deserve its heritage. Greedy. Constructing charmless highrises and concentrating on extracting finite mineral resources from the land witthout even a thought to future generations or the destruction of the environment. Paying compensation in the millions of dollars to cheap thieves posing as oil company executives with not the least bit of personal integrity.

It´s not just Mobile by the way. Walk down the famous Paseo Montejo in Mérida, once that city´s most spendid boulevard graced by magnificent trees and fine old mansions and be prepared to weep at the desecration of this splendid urban asset reduced to cheesy tiendas and marginal commercial establishments. The present generation seems destined to turn the entire North American continent into Burger King.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on May 15, 2010, 2:07 PM)

Mexconnectuser13

May 15, 2010, 3:54 PM

Post #29 of 32 (4198 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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When I was living in that magnificent old city of Mobile in the 1960s, I swear to god they cut down a thousand year old live oak on the beautiful live oak and mansion lined Government Street corridor to build a Mr. Steak franchise to sell crap to crapeaters. This generation does not deserve its heritage. Greedy. Constructing charmless highrises and concentrating on extracting finite mineral resources from the land witthout even a thought to future generations or the destruction of the environment. Paying compensation in the millions of dollars to cheap thieves posing as oil company executives with not the least bit of personal integrity.

It´s not just Mobile by the way. Walk down the famous Paseo Montejo in Mérida, once that city´s most spendid boulevard graced by magnificent trees and fine old mansions and be prepared to weep at the desecration of this splendid urban asset reduced to cheesy tiendas and marginal commercial establishments. The present generation seems destined to turn the entire North American continent into Burger King.

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The most sensible thing you have said. Slowly, the world is becoming homogenized into one big strip mall. Increasingly as I travel, things are looking more and more the same wherever I go. Everybody wears western clothes, listens to western music and has western values. Unique forms of dress, living, and even thinking are disappearing. What a boring place the world is becoming.

The best places to travel these days are the ones that do not have a single golden arch or are considered "bad" by the USA.

Hound Dog

May 15, 2010, 4:17 PM

Post #30 of 32 (4188 views)

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Re: [Memo] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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Increasingly as I travel, things are looking more and more the same wherever I go. Everybody wears western clothes, listens to western music and has western values. Unique forms of dress, living, and even thinking are disappearing. What a boring place the world is becoming.

Well put, Memo.That may be one of the reasons we were attracted to San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Every time we venture from our home there to the historic plaza in the center of town we are treated to countless people dressed in their unique indigenous garb and the walk is always an adventure. The streets in the colonial center are endlessly attractive and filled with colonial treasures there just for us.

In Mobile, most financially able to do so , black and white, started leaving the beautiful old city in the 1960s and moved to the western suburbs with their ticky-tacky housing and strip malls reminiscent of suburban Cleveland or Kansas City and I could never figure out how one could be so lucky as to live in a splendid old town like Mobile and have so little class that one would trade that gorgeous old port town´s ancient beauty for the dregs of suburban Cleveland.

Lowest common denominator I guess.

I should mention that San Cristóbal has both a Burger King and a McDonald´s but they ain´t no golden arches and the Burger King is on the Andador just up from the plaza keeping entirely within the colonial plan of the city. There also used to be a Subway but the owner could not convince locals to eat there so he went broke. Damn!

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on May 15, 2010, 4:44 PM)

Peter

May 16, 2010, 10:59 AM

Post #31 of 32 (4130 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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There also used to be a Subway but the owner could not convince locals to eat there so he went broke. Damn!
___________

Does the Mexican Subway have the usual US Subway offerings? I am trying to get an answer about pastrami in particular.

About a week ago I had a powerful enough desire for pastrami, having failed to find any in the local deli's, and set out for a Subway shop downtown but found it was no longer there.

I will add that the former Subway and a Burger King, still in operation, are both located in the Portales across from Plaza de las Armas adjacent to the Cathedral, so there is no assault on the architecture by those franchises in the Centro. There are other locations for Burger King, McDonalds, and possibly other Subways that haven't yet gone under that are housed in their typical franchise building design and colors.

McDonalds, sans golden arches or otherwise, has not been permitted to invade the Centro Historico. That might be considered akin to spraypainting graffiti on the Acueducto, where the perpetrator and his mis-deeds would swiftly cease to exist without fanfare. There is no public apathy here about defacing that civic symbol.

Hound Dog

May 16, 2010, 11:41 AM

Post #32 of 32 (4116 views)

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Re: [Peter] A Fine Restaurant in an Overrated Restaurant Town

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I must say, Peter, that, while I personally find the city of Morelia to be an unattractive place, the historic center there is an architectural treasure. Magnificent. Extraordinary. I also must admit, since I have no shame, that Dawg eats at the Burger King in the historic center whenever I go there and the Burger King in that location is unobtrusive and does not vulgarize the neighborhood. It is extremely popular among locals as are many Burger Kings across Mexico. These are not foreigner´s enclaves. The same is true of the Burger King on the Andador a couple of blocks off the principal plaza in San Cristóbal de Las Casas which is in an historic building and honors its location with modest signage. Of course, there is probably no question that neither Burger King nor McDonalds would be allowed to open a franchise outlet in either of those cities unless it agreed to meet local building codes. I can tell you from our having refurbished a ruin in a residential section of San Cristóbal that INAH (the national institute governing building design in the city´s historic center down to the paint one can use) is fiercly protective of the city´s heritage and rightly so.

When I see the vulgarization of Guadalajara´s historic center that seems to have taken place in the 1950s and 1960s, I thank god that Morelia and San Cristóbal were neither in any sort of "progressive" growth mode in those days when developers interspersed magnificent old structures in Guadalajara´s centro with the vulgar architecture of those days thinking, no doubt, that they were improving things. This also happened in spades in many parts of France and it´s a shame.

Oops! I forgot to talk about Subway. I happen to be a big Subway sandwich fan (especially that Italian thingy)and there is one just off of the principal plaza in San Cristóbal. When we are there, that is one of our favorite take-out places and, as far as I can tell, the ingredients are more-or-less the same as back in California. The Subway owner in San Cristóbal always bitches to me when we are there that Mexiacns are so "narrow minded" (his words) that they won´t try his sandwiches. That is probably more true of Coletos than most Mexicans but he manages to stay in business ina high-volume tourist area. I hope he is still there when we return next winter.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on May 16, 2010, 11:48 AM)

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