Tacos de Lengua

**Part of the reason why it has taken so long to post this is because Justin has been on our computer like mad working on his dissertation and an article to get published. Sorry for the delays.**

Last Saturday, Ariana and I went to the market, Mercado San Angel, to pick up the cow tongue she ordered on Wednesday. It was pretty huge and surreal seeing it in person. The cow was butchered that morning. That was also surreal. We picked up some more fruit and vegetables from the same lady that we have been going to. She gives us free fruit now, which is cool. Her, as well as, her helpers are very friendly and helpful and we always go to her now. We also discovered these two guys who sale grains and such and they sell an awesome granola mixture that I am now addicted to. It has oats, pumkin seeds, raisins, pecans, peanuts, coconut, almonds and this other type of grain that looks like birdseed. I think they toast the oats in honey. It is bomb. I've been eating it with Lala Natural Yoghurt and a piece of fruit for breakfast. Sometimes as a afternoon snack too.

Back home, Ariana gets the tongue prepared. It takes quite a while to cook, around 6 hours, and it was around 3pm when we finally got back. So no wasting time, but first I had to get some photos of it beforehand. I mean, how often does one bring a cow tongue home to eat? Exactly.

Ariana with the tongue.

Me with the tongue.

Olivia didn't know what to think and she would not touch it. Needless to say, she didn't eat any of it either.

More photos of the lengua before it goes in the pot.



The lengua in the pot of water with some salt and two cloves of garlic ready to boil, covered, for the next six hours. If you don't use a lot of water, don't put a lot of salt. Lots of water = lots of salt.

So, what to do while that is cooking? You make some salsa verde, oh yeah.

You will need: onion, tomatillos, jalapeños, serranos and cilantro.

Ariana did cut up three onions but most of it went towards condiment for the tacos.

 She used 25 tomatillos, 5 jalapeños and 7 serranos with some salt. Place these in a pot of water and boil on low heat for about an hour.

While that is boiling, cut the onions. Three ended up being too much. Two would have been plenty but Justin encouraged for three. He loves onion. The next day it was gone so it didn't go to waste.

Next, chop up the cilantro. I love cilantro! It is beyond awesome.

Alright, those peppers and tomatillos are ready.

Put them in a blender and blend unti smooth.

Then get a bowl and put some of the cut onion and cilantro in it. Next, pour the blended mixture into the bowl and stir. I accidently saved this photo super small. Sorry :( 

Voila! Salsa verde. Simple and fairly quick to make and super delicious.



Okay, so 6pm rolls around and we're getting hungry and the tongue still isn't done. What to do? Cut up some papaya and make a fruit tray! We added some cantaloupe and mini bananas as well.

The table spread thus far. There are some limes thrown in there too. You gotta have limes.

Still waiting for the tongue so we played a couple rounds of Uno.

Alas, the tongue is finally soft enough to cut.

You have to peel the tough outer skin off to get to the soft meat inside.

Remnants

It's a process of peeling and cutting. Ariana hard at work.

Houston, we have lift off! We are ready with the meat.

The final product with some tasty beans.

Enjoy with a nice bottle of red wine and some good friends.

I have a new appreciation for tacos de lengua. There is a lot of work involved in making these and they really are delicious. If you get a chance to try them, you should. Venture out of the box and live a little. I have a new appreciation for Ariana too. She is an awesome cook and it has been a pleasure living with her. I've been learning a lot from her and will learn even more. You rock Ariana!

Next blog: Museo de Frida Kahlo

Museo Nacional de la Acuarela y Fonoteca Nacional

Took a stroll down Avenida Sosa again about two weeks ago. I was with Olivia and Ariana. It was nice and sunny. Didn't get caught in the rain. Off of Avenida Sosa is a museum with a lot of watercolor paintings. It is free so we checked it out. Photography was not allowed inside but I have some shots of the outside.

The museum is a somewhat small, two story house set in a lovely garden

There were some cool sculptures in the garden

A close up of one of the sculptures. There is abalone shell embedded into it. There were quite a few of the sculptures with abalone shell.

Ariana and Olivia admiring one of the sculptures.

Olivia, she has been into posing for the camera lately. Sometimes she'll ask me to take her picture. She did at this particular moment.

Olivia started throwing a fit because I wouldn't pick her up. She couldn't walk. Boo. I eventually picked her up just to shut her up. If you know Olivia, she can scream pretty loud. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with it.

Very close by is the Fonoteca Nacional, which is located in the Casa Alvarado (mentioned in a previous post-Avenida Francisco Sosa) Fortunately, Olivia calmed down so we were able to check it out. It is free to enter as well. They have an archive here that Ariana wanted to check out. Not really sure what all is available here but there were some cool displays of musical instruments and a very nice, large garden to stroll around. There's also a cafe.

One of the instruments

Some nice tile work

Shots of the garden

Olivia standing in the courtyard



Next blog: Tacos de lengua - yes, that would be tongue and Ariana made them and they were delicious

Trip to Toluca Part II

In my last post, I left you with an image of Iglesia del Carmen. Here are a few more.

A shot of some of the homes up in the hills.

Catedral de San José de Toluca

While walking around in this plaza, there was a group of people starting to gather around the flagpole. They started chanting, "Mexico es amor, regala abrazos" Some sort of protest that we never quite got why or who they were.

They started giving hugs to people. They were saying, "Mexico is love, give hugs"

Here's Ariana getting one of many hugs.

I received my fair share too. Here's some guys running towards me to give me hugs.

I saw these guards/police people walking towards the group of huggers and thought, uh oh, are they going to break this up? I didn't see why since it was so peaceful and loving.

Nope! They're getting hugs too! But what are they doing?

We'll find out in a minute. More huggers came our way.

Oh, they were taking the flag down. That's pretty cool to capture.

Okay, I've had my fill of hugging people I don't know. We ventured over to the cathedral. We were there on a sunday, they were having mass. One of the sessions had just ended and a ton people were leaving. It was kind of difficult to go inside so we wandered around outside. We saw these older ladies folding up banners. Ariana went and talked with them. In my last post, I said they were about to embark on a pilgrimage but I got that wrong. They were on a pilgrimage to the church, which makes more sense, from their home of San Cristóbal Huichochitlan. I asked if I could take their picture and they were more then delighted to oblige.

Here's a colorful church. The Templo de la Santa Veracruz.

Ariana got some corn.

There was a man feeding the birds. Ariana went over and talked to him for a little while. He feeds the birds because they are malnourished. Some people do not like him feeding them because of the buildings ( ya know, all the bird poop)

The kids like to chase after the birds to get them to fly around.

Downtown Toluca

Overall, I really enjoyed our daytrip to Toluca. There were some nice unexpected surprises. I will end with this photo of some wonderful texture. There is so much of what I call "texture" and "street art" all over Mexico. By the end of my stay I could make a book out of just that alone.



Next blog: Museo Nacional de la Acuarela and Fonoteca Nacional