Mexico!

In Guadalajara, Mexico, a man assembles a taco al pastor.

Ah, I distinctly remember my first street taco in Mexico. Already I am nostalgic for a moment that occurred only last week!

Allow me to reminisce.

Last week, my friends and my husband and I, joyous yet ravenous upon our arrival into the new country, stood in a dorky circle on a cobblestone street in Guadalajara. We smiled at each other through our tacos and joyfully proclaimed our meal’s magnificence in between sloppy bites of crispy al pastor goodness. Even though salsa was occasionally missing my mouth and splattering all over the sidewalk and my toes, I do believe that it was my favorite taco experience ever. When I am eighty years old and someone asks me to please list the top ten taco highlights of my life, there is no doubt that this one will remain my favorite taco experience for all eternity.

shaving pork from a spit for a delicious taco al pastor

When people travel abroad, they often learn things about themselves. One thing I learned about myself while I was in Mexico is that I would be perfectly happy if I could stay in Mexico for the rest of my life, but only on the condition that I could also eat eat a taco al pastor every single day of that life, and that the taco would have to be purchased from one of the many taco vendors that line Guadalajara’s streets and plazas. For my daily taco, I would like to watch the man above shave the pork off of a steaming spit, grill it into little, crispy, wonderful bits, shovel it into a soft, warm, corn tortilla, and smother it with onions, cilantro, and salsa.

garnishes for the wonderful tacos
(chopping block and various meats in the background)

I apologize for not having a picture of the glorious tacos themselves, but seriously, once you get one of those babies in your hands, there is no desire to take a pretty picture of it. There exists only the overwhelming urge to put it in your mouth. (For a picture of a similar-looking taco made at a restaurant in Chicago, see this post).

Taqueria de Los Faroles, one of our taco al pastor stops,
conveniently located across the street from the hotel.

If you ever have the chance to visit Mexico, be sure to shell out five pesos (a little less than fifty cents!) for a delightful taco al pastor, or five of them if you're hungry. It just might be your favorite meal of the entire trip.

a taco making a taco

Some other highlights of our visit, some food related and some not at all:

Metropolitan Cathedral in downtown Guadalajara

so many beautiful sights to take in while walking down the city streets!

Metropolitan Cathedral from a different angle

This is the inside of Mercado Libertad, an enormous three-story market with restaurants, produce, groceries, clothing, and many many many other items. There, I ate goat for the first time. You will not see a picture I took of the goat stew (called birria), because if you see the picture, you will probably never want to try goat meat ever. Fatty and bony, and lit by fluorescent lights, the birria did not look appetizing at all.
But it tasted wonderful!

maracas in the Mercado Libertad

piggies at the market

a pretty building I should know the name of but I don't but I don't care because it's pretty

Papel Picado (a Mexican art form of cutting paper) hanging in a courtyard in Tlaquepaque

A Huichol Indian woman selling her crafts in Tlaquepaque.

Street musician

Cobblestone streets

Tequila...mmmm..........

At the Jose Cuervo Factory in Tequila, these are piñas, the hearts of agave plants. They are waiting to be put into ovens, where their starches will be transformed into sugars. After steaming in the ovens for quite some time, the piñas are cooled, milled into small pieces, and pressed. The pressed juices are then fermented, distilled, and sometimes aged. We sampled tequila at each stage of the process, from the roasted piñas themselves to 100% tequila that had been aged in oak barrels.

an agave plant just outside of the town of Tequila

The church in the town center of Tequila (if you look closely, you can see a man on top of the church) .

Driving from Guadalajara towards the coast. What a beautiful country!



More driving. Not a bad view at all!

A beautiful morning at the Banderas Bay on the west coast of Mexico. I hope I can return
soon to this amazing country.