On Tuesday, the third annual Mesamérica festival begins at the Blackberry Auditorium in the Colonia Condesa. It's a three-day international foodie event, where speakers from Mexico and around the world will talk about such diverse topics as cannibalism, cocktails and -- this one intrigues me -- "meat as a verb". The theme this year is "street food, urban expressions, what we eat in big cities and why."

Among the better-known speakers will be Alice Waters and Mario Batali from the U.S., David Thompson from Thailand, and Renzo Garibaldi, Peru's most accomplished butcher. Opening up the event on Tuesday morning, one of Mexico's best living writers, Juan Villoro, will talk about Moctezuma's Revenge. I will be talking about Mexico City cantinas on Wednesday at 12:30 pm. Information about the event, and how to aquire tickets, is on the Mesamérica website.