MexicaChica packages imaginative high-end tours for small groups of women here in Yucatan. The educational but fun trips have a multi-disciplinary approach.
“For instance,” explains the owner, Claudette Elizondo, “our fantastic collage workshop takes us on a day trip to the Uxmal ruins, where a professional actress helps us reenact Maya legends. We photograph the reenactments [...]
Restaurant Reviews and Food
MexicaChica Tours – a fine, new concept
Korean Food in Merida
Younghee Moser is an excellent cook. She sells things at the Slow Food Market on Saturdays – like kim chee, “Korean pancakes,” spicy soybeans, quail egg salad, etc. She also makes a variety of other dishes that you can order from her.
Mandu – the staple of all Korean meals, like a pot sticker but better [...]
Slow Food Market Continues to Thrive
Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1. I try never to miss it. The multi-vendor nearly-organic market on the grounds of Monique Duval’s bakery is a hit. I go there regularly for eggs and for Korean food, among other things. This place is on the way to being a Merida institution. If they’d only have tables, [...]
Restaurant Review: OneBurger
Merida has needed a good hamburger. Welcome OneBurger!!!! It’s part of a chain out of Miami and the local franchisee has done an excellent job. I went there recently for take-out for a group of four on a lazy afternoon. The other three wanted the simplest burger, no cheese, no nothing. I had an open [...]
Cafe Cairo, Merida
Cafe Cairo is a good place for film aficionados. They rent movies that you won’t see elsewhere, many of them in English. They serve baguette sandwiches which are better than most and a variety of coffees, teas and fruit smoothies. It’s a small, immaculate, pleasant independently owned place that we’ll make a regular stop.
The Cafe [...]
Curries – from Indochine Restaurant, Tacoma WA. By Russel and Ly, Indochine
Tantalizing Curries!
Who doesn’t love to learn!! Our learning capabilities are in fact a crowning joy of our humanity. In this section of Friends of Indochine we will delve a little deeper into a topic of great interest to all Friends of Indochine. This week, Curry!
Have you ever wondered what goes into your recent mouth [...]
Indochine, Tacoma WA
Tacoma is an unlikely location for high-end Thai/Vietnamese/French cuisine, but that’s what Indochine is. It’s on Pacific Avenue, across from the museums, on a strip full of hip bars and restaurants.
The place is beautiful. It’s another example of the love and creativity that can be put into a business if it is individually owned and [...]
Independently Owned Restaurants and Shops
When the name of a restaurant or store is preceded by the pronoun, “a,” I try not to patronize it.
“Oh look! There’s a Chili’s!”
“Let’s find a Safeway.”
“There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts right up the street.”
“Look! It’s an Ace Hardware!”
Here in Merida, many of us love Home Depot, Costco, Vips, Bennigan’s, Office Max, etc. And it isn’t [...]
Restaurant Review: Caspar’s Southern Cuisine, Seattle
Judy and I turned into the north Seattle strip mall to have lunch at the Old Korean Village restaurant. Vegetables, rice noodles, fish, very healthy. We cruised around and parked – and then we saw it. Caspar’s. It was new, just opened last month. We immediately gave up our saintly food goals and wheeled around [...]
Slow Food Market
Slow Food Yucatan has put together a group of organic food producers and they had their debut Friday market yesterday. It was quite crowded, and some vendors ran out of products. There was great stuff available for sale – chimichurri, peanut butter, bread and muffins, fruits and vegetables, granola, etc. The market, located in front [...]
Recipe: Yucatan Yenta Manna Bread
Manna bread isn’t really bread as we know it. It’s a mixture of germinated whole wheat seeds and water, cooked slowly for a long time. Because the the seed is sprouted when you use it, manna bread is not a simple carbohydrate. It is a complex one, packed with vitamins and fiber. It also tastes [...]
Restaurant Review: Hotel and Restaurant Indigo, Hacienda Misne
We had spur-of-the-moment breakfast there today on our way back from somewhere else. It was a good stop. This hacienda is within the Merida city limits, slightly east of town. It’s owned, according to an employee, by the Millet family of Merida.They’ve been in business for two years.
We turned off the noisy main street toward [...]
Yucatan Yentas Dine in Splendor
The yentas are often hungry. It’s their nature. And when they’re hungry, they eat. What to do, what to do, a couple of days ago when we were in a remote part of town, far from our customary Italliani’s salad when hunger struck. A desperate situation. But then – we noticed the orange signs. Pollo [...]
Restaurant Review: Ca’ D’Oro
This excellent restaurant takes its name from a 15th century palace on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. The owner of the restaurant is from Venice and he’s brought some classy skills to our local restaurant scene.
This is the best Italian food I’ve experienced in Merida. This place could hold its own anywhere. Some things [...]
Restaurants – Acitron and Salads
With Ka’a Pej closed, there are two other restaurants on this little row, one block north of Circuito on the Paseo (just past the glorieta with the fountain), on your right going north.
Salads
The name of the restaurant is Salads. It’s just under the closed Ka’aPej. A pleasant, immaculate little place with a trillion salad choices. [...]
Restaurant Review: Namaste Grill, Merida
Although I don’t like to write negative things about family-owned places, I must suggest that if you want Indian food, you either learn to prepare it yourself or buy it from Aruna Gupta, Merida resident and excellent cook. I’ve had some dishes she made that are sold through Monique Duval’s bakery and they are great.
The [...]
Restaurant Review: La Playita, Celestun Yucatan
As most of you know, Celestun is still the best place to go for a boat tour to see large groupings of pink flamingos. After the two-hour cruise, you have to eat.
About a kilometer up the road from the boat launch, is the town of Celesturn. There are a number of restaurants there, all offering [...]
The 6th Worldwide Chile Convention
Bill and I talked our way into the display section of this trade show, without paying the $2500 pesos, promising not to go into the lecture hall. We saw paintings, exhibits, artifacts, etc. all related to different chile peppers. Exhibitors were from all over Mexico and included companies selling agricultural equipment and insect control systems.
There [...]
Yucatan Yenta Restaurant Reviews- Italianni’s and Elio’s al Mare
The yentas give candid opinions, not necessarily gastronomical in nature, on two local eateries.