Mexico City
This triple tiered junk heap was shot in Iztapalapa, from the vantage point of the bridge that connects the metro to the street. A local lawyer named Hernandez took advantage of the pedestrian traffic getting on and off the metro to post a sign offering his services. For the Spanish impaired, he promises that he is experienced, honorable and reasonably priced.
When I previously posted aboutIoan Grillo's new book about the failed "war on drugs" in Mexico, I had only just begun to read it. Now that I have finished it I can only commend Grillo for its excellence. The research (much of it among unsavory people in dangerous places) is impeccable, the information surprising and often tragic, but overall, it's written with a sense of humor. If you care about what is happening -- on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border -- due to misguided policy, you must read this book.
For East Coast friends: Grillo will be talking about El Narco in New York on Monday, November 28, at the Half King Bar, 505 West 23 Street, at 7 pm. On Thursday, December 1st, at 11 am he will be in D.C. at the Washington Office on Latin America, 1666 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 400.
At Metro Chapultepec, the closest station stop to where I live, people can go to this "cibercentro" and connect to the internet free. You can't get on line in every metro stop, but you can at several, and as such, some people -- who likely cannot afford internet service, let alone a personal computer -- are able to stay connected. Let's give credit where it's due: cibercenters on the subway were an impulse of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.
Ebrard had presidential aspirations, but last Tuesday, the PRD, Ebrard's party, announced that it chose Andrés Manuel López Obrador for its presidential candidate next year. Again. The good news (if you can cull any good news out of the decision) is that Ebrard will complete his term as mayor. According to Mexican law, he is only allowed to serve one term. Pity: I was hoping he would somehow find a way to become mayor for life, like a dictator from the Middle East. In all seriousness, I think he is the best mayor Mexico City has had since 1990, when I moved here. When his term ends, I'll miss him.
I don't tend to have very high expectations when I am invited to contribute to a new magazine -- even if it is edited by someone I respect, like my friend J.M. Servín. But after reading the premiere issue of Cuaderno Gonzo from cover to cover, I was pleasantly surprised. It's a magazine of long-form narrative journalism, much of it in the first person. I liked each and every story, but among the highlights are a piece about child prostitutes in Acapulco by Alejandro Almazán, another (improbably funny) story about surviving a stroke by Miguel Ángel Chávez Díaz, and a third about the selling of Omnilife -- a sort of a Mary Kay-style empire of products that are supposedly healthy -- written by Daniela Rea.
The magazine is available in El Péndulo, Gandhi and other fine bookstores across Mexico City. If you have nothing else to do on Thursday night, November 17, come to Pulquería Los Insurgentes (Insurgentes 228, between Calle Colima and Calle Durango, Colonia Roma) at 8 pm. Sr. Servín, Sr. Almazán and I will be there. The name of the magazine is a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson, the journalist who turned "gonzo" into a household word -- at least in some households, albeit not the ones with the most traditional family values. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't invent the word. I will be talking about the gonzos that came before Thompson.
A long time ago I posted about my favorite Chinese restaurant in Mexico City, and the strange way I had found it. It was a great relief to find a good Chinese restaurant here -- I have also posted about how terrible most Chinese food is in the city.
When my foodie friend Nick Gilman told me he had found another excellent Chinese placee, I felt as if I were, pardon the expression, in pig heaven. With two Chinese restaurants to choose from, the city feels like a veritable embarrassment of riches. This other place is called Restaurante Dalian, and it's on Calle Humboldt #56, at the corner of Calle Artículo 123, in the Colonia Juárez. You can walk in through a furniture store on the corner, or through a hallway at the above entrance on Calle Humboldt, which marks the Chinese Center of Commerce.
From Monday through Saturday, the restaurant serves a buffet for only 65 pesos per person. I'm tempted to give it a try, although I have had pretty bad luck with Chinese buffets in the city. Meanwhile, I have only been there on Sundays, so have always ordered a la carte and had mostly very good luck.
You have to be a little adventurous when you order, because the dishes are not exactly as they are described on the menu. This is eggplant in a sweet and sour sauce. However, there is nothing either sweet or sour about it. It has that lovely squishy eggplant texture, and is sauteed in soy and chile.
This is a dish of scallops in what was described as a tomato sauce. Nothing even vaguely resembling tomato is in its flavor, but the combination of scallops and asparagus is delightful.
With lamb sauteed in cumin, what you see is what you get -- and a little too much of it, in my estimation. It tasted as if the chef put in about a half a jar of cumin into the dish, which was also heavy on the chile. It wasn't bad but was far outshined by the other two dishes, which were outstanding. I will be returning here frequently.
Restaurante Dalian is around the corner from El Palacio Chino, a former movie palace inspired by Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Like most movie palaces, it has been remodeled and subdivided into a multiplex with a dozen tiny theatres, each of which shows the latest Hollywood pablum. These days, El Palacio Chino is most remarkable for the way that, during the quiet moments of the film you are watching, you can hear the soundtrack from the theatre next door.