Visitantes. Dia Uno.

I'm always thinking about Mexico City, all the time. It's always buzzing around in my head, I'm always thinking of a way or reason to get down there except for just going, which seems too easy. Earlier this year I had thought I'd go there to celebrate my birthday, but I didn't get around to it. But a month-ish ago I realized the 20th anniversary of the end of my mission was coming right up and thought to ask Mom if she wanted to go down to celebrate the milestone. I thought I had a good chance of getting her on board because I had seen Southwest now flies to Mexico City. 

Flash forward to two Wednesdays ago, and here we are on our way to catch an early morning flight from Chicago to Houston.

Here's Houston. A thing about Mexico City is it's not very far away. (Geographically.) It was a two something hour flight to Houston and then just an hour and a half down to Mexico City. And there's direct flights! Southwest is still working on that.

As we approached Mexico City it was covered in clouds, but as they parted, I saw this hill covered in antennas that I had forgotten about seeing every day down in Mexico and it was like a bolt of lightning striking me. It was unbelievable, but rather believable, to finally be back and to get a great look at the city as we were coming in.

Here's a view of part of Chapultapec Park. On the north side of that road is Los Pinos, the Presidential residence. On the south side of the road is La Feria, Chapultapec Park's amusement park. It looks like they've added a new roller coaster since I last went. 

And here we are, at the airport. By following something I glimpsed up an escalator out of the corner of my eye I found (after a false start) the customs area I arrived through 21 years ago when I first arrived in Mexico. We looked down on it from the terrace that I remembered looking up at people on while my suitcases were being searched through.

Here's just some airport food. I was tempted to just go taco crazy right then. Maybe I should've? More on that in my fifth post.

Here's a tip for Mexico City: Just Uber. Uber all around. Uber everywhere. Uber is the way to do it. And I say this as a person who had only hired two Ubers before this trip (as practice to make sure I could do it). It would've been cool if I had taken a portrait of each driver we had, they were a varied but consistently professional bunch. I bet Mom can remember each one to you if you wanted. Our first driver needed to stop for gas, there was only one more hiccup after that, I'll tell you about it in the Day Two post. Here are views of heading from the airport to the Historic Center of the city.

Mom found us a great Hampton Inn to stay at. The service and facilities were top notch and the ceiling was beautiful. We stayed on the sixth floor ABOVE the beautiful ceiling. It turns out you really can have it all in this world!

Settled into our room we wasted no time getting right down to the adventures and headed straight for Polanco, one of Mexico City's fanciest neighborhoods. Because adventures don't always have to be dangerous, they can be nice, too. 

Two pictures from our drive over. Our driver for this drive wore a tie and had classic music playing on his radio. Mom thought he was great. And he really helped me break in my Spanish, which I had been keeping in a guilty dusty box off to the side, but not quite hidden, in my brain.

Our first destination in Polanco was Museo Somaya, which shares a plaza with, among other things, the Jumex Museum, a mall, and a Costco.

Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men, built the Soumaya Museum to house his 60,000 piece art collection. And as shiny and modern as it is on the outside of this building (designed by his son in law), it's mostly old stuff on the inside. We took an elevator to the top and worked our way down.

Then we dipped into the Jumex Museum. All the exhibits were being installed or uninstalled that day, but they did have a video installation playing in the basement and very impressive bathrooms.

Then we walked down the street and across the street and through another mall and then down another street. See that curved apartment building? It has a helipad on top!

We passed a Chinese buffet that was handing out samples. These samples would be the first food I ate back in Mexico City. Not bad!

Our next destination was Parque Lincoln, a nice, nice-sized park running through Polanco with beautiful old manor buildings around its perimeter. And a statue of Abraham Lincoln. And a statue of Martin Luther King (with very big hands). 

A little more Polanco walking passing, among other things, an Aston Martin dealership and a MAGNOLIA BAKERY. Wow. That one did me a surprise.

And then, our keynote Polanco activity: Dinner at Pujol, Enrique Olvera's first restaurant. It's been sitting in the Top 50 for a long time and, being a big Cosme fan and a mixed-feelings Atla fan, I was very very pleased to have snagged reservations for the trip. Although there is no menu-overlap, the food is very similar to Cosme's but the restaurant itself is worlds beyond anything you could hope to build in New York and the clientele made for extremely good people watching. It's a five course dinner where you have a selection of selections to choose from for each course, Mom and I did a good job of not ordering the same thing ever, so we were able to sample a wide-range of Pujol food. 

Now, the food. 
To begin, a pair of street snacks. A tiny little wagyu beef gordita and little elotes serves in a gourd full of smoking corn husks.

Next course: Mom had the sea bass with cacahuatzintle juice and celery, I had octobus with habanero ink, ayocote, and veracruzana sauce.

Next: Mom had the cauliflower with almond salsa macha and chile de arbol, I had the lobster sope.

Next: Mom had the pork chop with red chichilo and nixtamalized butternut squash. I had lamb with mint mole, lime and baby potato.

The next course: Pujol's famed Mole Madre, which at this date had been stewing for 1400 days, served with a dollop of one day old mole in the center. The new mole tasted fresh and bright, the nearly four year old mole tasted impossibly deep and ashen, primeval, almost. And I don't mean to be too dramatic, it was only 1400 days old, which for most things isn't very old. But I have not eaten many things that have been cooking for that long. Please allow me the hyperbolic moment!

Finally, dessert. Mom had the avocado, coconut, lime and macadamia dessert. I had the chocolate, pennyroyal, pinole and caramalized banana. Oh! And we were both served a charred orange ice cream with guajillo pepper palate cleanser. And a little pinwheel of churro showed up just as we were finishing up.

All in all: Excellent meal, exceptional service, extremely beautiful space. Highly recommend, worth the trouble.

Back out into Polanco we went with one last destination in mind, Taqueria Turix, renowned for its cochinita pibil. Also: check out the synagogue across the street from Pujol. And other Polanco night street sights.

On this trip we mostly ate at places that were on lists, and Turix was on all the lists. I found it to be quite list-worthy and tasty, a great way to finish up the night. Cochinita pibil is a slow-cooked pork dish from the Yucitan, Turix serves it with a spicy onion/habañero mix and, for an American, it was absolutely thrilling to watch the taquero fish my serving out of the tray of wet pork with his bare hands that had just been roasting and chopping peppers and plop it onto my tortilla. Bare hands!

Late night taco eating at the side of the street, that's the life for me.
Then one more Uber took us back to the hotel, safe and satisfied, our first half day in Mexico City a tremendous success.

Visitors.

Like I said in the last post, it seemed like time to get back to New York because it sounded like a lot of people would be in town. And I had tickets to do a few things.

First up, on Saturday Jeff and Caitlin were in town and were kind enough to meet up with my at Made Nice, my favorite 0 star restaurant.

And that night I had tickets to go see Interpol with Broek on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the release of their first album, Turn on the Bright Lights. The thing about the show was they were going to be playing Turn on the Bright Lights in its entirety. And another thing about the show is, honestly, I like Interpol a whole lot and Turn on the Bright Lights is an album I would listen to all the way through, when it was brand new, when driving late at night. It's the perfect late night driving record! I saw Interpol twice my first year in the city and hadn't seen them since. I'm glad we checked in with each other.

The show was at the Forest Hills Stadium, a tennis stadium where they held the US Open until the late 70's and also the site, as you'll see below, of Richie Tennenbaum's worst game of tennis. Also: Forest Hills is some kind of Disneyland Fantasyland wonderland, who knew?

Here's just some plants

Tuesday night last week I, among many, had tickets to see the Empire Strikes Back accompanied by the New York Symphony. A gimmick, but fun. Nice to be with a big full audience of people clapping and cheering along to all the big moments and lines.

Later that week Brittany was in town from Utah and we grabbed big American hamburgers and then tiny French hamburgers.

THEN Cory had been in town all week but we were finally able to grab dinner the night before he left. First he showed me the big Adobe cube as it was being taken down (I guess it's not a cube but whatever) and then I took him to Tacos No 1 to try out their cheese shell tacos. I received notice a few days later that he was at work cracking the recipe in Highland, just as he did Oiji's honey butter potato chips.  

Then, while she's not a visitor, the next day I took advantage of the opportunity to grab dinner with Patricia at Jajaja, a new vegan Mexican restaurant near Andy's house that is clearly poised to take over the city. Prominent location, great space, good food, everyone else give up! We had sikil pak, carrot tinga tostadas, chile en nogada, and a chorizo burrito (not real chorizo, obviously). And Patricia had a coconut horchata with a rose straw.

Here's some walking around pictures, look how popular that dog is!

Saturday Tara was in town from Salt Lake and, well, we got Tacos No 1. I took a break from the queso shell taco and had a meat-stuffed deep-fried quesadilla for the first time in a while.

And then Sunday Mary was in town, who I hadn't seen for, uh, 5 years? We grabbed Underwest Donuts by the river and then, err, wound up at Tacos No 1? So, yes, 6 visitors in just over 7 days and 3 trips to Tacos No 1. What can I say? Their Midtown location is convenient!

We also ran into a Pulaski Day celebration...I guess New York celebrates Casimir's death date, not birth? Anyway. See also this Polish family and then me saying Polish families are #1. I just like being on my own blog, that's all.

Visitor.

(This may seem like a post with a ton of photos, but if you read it, you'll be surprised by how many things I didn't get pictures of)

I felt restless a few weeks ago so I flew out to Los Angeles, as I sometimes do.

I arrived the same time that our friend Cher was getting in from Shanghai or Singapore and caught a ride with her to Los Feliz. A few hours later we got dinner at Mexicali with Greg and he drove me to Grandma's. That's a good way to get home! Mexicali was just delicious, probably the best new thing I ate on the trip. Excellent use of grilled meats and melty cheeses.

My first morning in San Marino there were a bunch of praying manti on the screen of Grandma's living room windows. I was taking their pictures through the window when she said "You know they're not scary" so we went around back and Grandma picked the biggest one up with a screwdriver and then things got real.

For my first lunch of the trip, Grandma took me down to the edge of Skid Row to eat at the headquarters of Homeboys Industries, a charity that helps LA gang members become ex-gang members. The restaurant's food was very good and you couldn't imagine a staff more ready to bend over backwards for you. I was tickled to see my grandma interact with so many people with face tattoos.

That afternoon I helped get Greg and Becky to LAX and then and a very nice time hanging out with the Paugh's, but didn't get any photos. But I'm sure you believe me when I say it was great? I mean, had beef noodle soup and fried chicken! And then Collin turned up and we went over to his house to hang out with Mallory for a bit.

The next day a bunch of balloons had landed in Grandma's backyard. Sometimes it's peacocks in the backyard, sometimes coyotes, and sometimes it's a bunch of mylar balloons. Although, with her birthday just a few days away, I wonder if it was just a very clever delivery. 

That night I went with Katie to Jitlada for dinner. It's an infamously spicy Thai restaurant in Hollywood. We didn't even order from the "spicy" section of the menu but you see that curry? It was an extremely cruel face melter! I was in heaven. It's so great to find a restaurant where the spicy food is spicy. Also note the wall of Matt Groenig originals. Not Pictured: Becky, from the final two seasons of FNL, was in the house.

After dinner we went to Chris Black's birthday party on the roof of the Downtown Ace Hotel where Jason Stewart was dj'ing. It was a good hang and I was so glad no one was dancing to all the great dance music.

The next day I got lunch at Pepe's with Grandma.

And then, something you might find quite unexpected: I doubled down on my California trip and drove up to San Francisco. Greg and Becky had generously let me borrow their Prius for the trip as, between their two automobiles and Grandma's two, it was the car most likely to survive the trip. Plus it was the only one with Bluetooth connectivity and keyless driving, so it really felt like I was living in 2015 driving that thing.

That first evening I hung out with our friend Kim who had just taken a job at Google two weeks before. And it's very odd, but I didn't take a single photo? I must have been real worn out from the drive. But imagine me admiring her suburban neighborhood, her spacious and well-appointed apartment and then us eating Hawaiian meats just a few blocks from her home.

The next day I drove into the city where Diana was in town on business and we went to the Walt Disney Museum at the Presidio, a great museum about the life and work of Walt Disney. Man. What a great museum, if you visit it, set aside a LOT more time than we did to be able to read every single bit of wall text...and I mean, we were there for probably more than 3 hours. There's a lot to see and learn! One of the most impressive sites is a model of pre-1980 Disneyland build by the people at Lucasfilm. That's something you can stare at for a long long time.

Oh, and that's not my Mickey sandwich but I wish it was.

Then we went to Golden Gate Park to see the bison paddock. While we were there, looking at all the bison off in the distance, some maniac hopped the fence and went out and tried to make friends. For a few minutes it got a little tense as the bison appeared to be ready to rush him, but he made it out. THEN we went to the Mission and ate burritos at El Farolito and my eyes have begun to open to what all the fuss is about. I am glad my palate has developed the sophistication to appreciate the intricacies of a giant burrito.

I'd like to note that we also saw these droids:

Good visit to SF. I'll catch you next time, Derek and Rebecca, when everyone is in the country and off their death beds.

Back in San Marino, Grandma reminded me of the value of Southern California with a lunch at Twohey's. She had a coupon for a birthday sundae with I got to help her out with.

I'm not the glutton I used to be and my clam chowder, cheeseburger, onion rings and portion of the sundae nearly did me in. I tried to work it off (and re-vitalize myself) with a late afternoon walk to the CalTech turtle ponds and through San Marino/Pasadena. I counted 24 turtles in the lower pond that afternoon! It looked like if I fell in the pond I wouldn't have gotten wet, I would've just landed on turtles.

The next morning I drove Grandma and Louise to LAX so they could fly to Chicago. I avoided the empty home I'd be returning to by grabbing lunch with Collin at Disney and taking advantage of the opportunity to disparage Zootopia. During our meal the directors of Zootopia actually walked past our table but Collin didn't say anything because he was worried I'd throw my lunch at them. 
What a garbage movie. Worse than Lego Batman!

That night I caught a comedy show at the UCB with Cher and then we went to the Pacific Dining Car to take advantage of their late night menu. I could not have been more satisfied with my meal, the service, the space or the ambiance and couldn't be more more excited to return.

I'd like to add that by now I had a VERY bad cold, maybe it was the flu? I blew my nose through a roll and a half of toilet paper and spent my sleeping hours in stuffed up misery. It affected my activities a little. 

Still, I did my best to enjoy the presence of the Kogi truck in Pasadena the next day and grabbing dinner at DogHaus with Collin that night.

The next day the only picture I took was of this otter fountain by Pasadena City Hall. Clear that I had squeezed all the juice from this trip and catching wind of visitors coming to New York, I made my way back to the City and discovered that sometimes you DO still get food on domestic flights. For better or worse.

Coming Soon (once I see all of them): Visitors!!