Mexico City - Day 6: Xochimilco & Ballet Folklorico

Today our morning activity was a family photoshoot -- I was quite impressed with how professional the setup was - our photographer even had a second assistant who carried around the portable light umbrella. I can't wait to see the results! Here's one preview:

I thought an hour would be way too long but it actually went by pretty quickly. So many combinations to get through. 😆 

We rewarded ourselves with some more churros afterwards. This time in ice cream sandwich form!

It was almost noon so we decided to do some street tacos as well. The tacos here were all coated in the meat oil so they were more like wet burritos. Conclusion: not as good as some of the others we've had. Not bad certainly, but not one of our favorites.

Today's afternoon activity was boat rides in Xochimilco. All of the boats were so colorful. Watch out if you're coming that 1) it's quite a long ways away, in hindsight we should have come earlier in the day to avoid traffic. 2) the motorcycle touts trying to convince you that the dock is under construction and you can only go with them to a different dock are incessant. You have to just instruct your Uber driver very firmly to ignore them (they will stay with your car for like 10-15 min trying to convince you). 

Maybe also check that you're going to Embarcadero Nativitas...not Xochimilco downtown. One of our ubers may have been sent to Xochimilco city by mistake...but moving on!

L, R, and Jiuma were kind of obsessed with the dogs running along the banks. Here's a photo to remember them by:

Xochimilco is a UNESCO national heritage site for the chinampas that remain from the historical times. We didn't visit the heritage ecological section though -- we were told that would take a good 4 hours to get to. Instead, we did the party boat version: beers, quesadillas, and elote. Happy to report this street corn was MUCH better than the Coyoacan attempt. 

Armed with some snacks and a bucket of beer, we were off on our 1.5 hour float!

We passed by a lot of locals, some of whom were large groups that booked multiple boats and tied them together. Here is a group of 6 boats with a mariachi band in the middle for entertainment. 

It started raining a bit while we were out but the little raindrops were actually kind of nice...creating a lilies on the water painting kind of vibe. 

We didn't have enough time to go to the real Island of the Dolls but we did pass by this miniature one. Even this was enough to give off spooky haunted vibes. 

There were lots of the normal taco and elote floating vendors, but we also saw flower vendors, pulque vendors, and an eagle and his keeper as well - 150 pesos to pose with the eagle!

 

All in all, we enjoyed the boat ride experience, but wish it hadn't taken so long to get there/back. I think for other travelers, you should really strongly strongly consider adding it combined with something else (like a trip to Puebla or Coyoacan). Since we could only fit it in here, it was fun, but felt the drive "cost" was a little high. We went straight from the boat ride to our dinner reservation at Masala y Maiz -- our fourth Michelin experience of the trip. It was a little bit odd because their kitchen actually closes at 6, so we were a little rushed in the ordering. But since they offered to choose our menu for us, that worked out okay. 

Here are the appetizers -- an heirloom tomato and cucumber salad. Very good, though after so many days of heavy meals, we may have been overly biased towards a dish of vegetables.

Peel and eat shrimp - this was very very good. I liked the sweet and buttery dipping sauce too. 

Twist on tuna tartare - you break the tortilla chip on top and then scoop up the fish underneath with them. I enjoyed this, but as before, it's hard to make a tartare I don't enjoy. 

This was the potato fritter, with some peas mixed in the base and lamb on top. I recall thinking it was okay, but not extremely memorable. 

And of course no Indian fusion meal could happen without a twist on a samosa. I thought the beef version was quite good, would recommend. 

And they started us off with these boiled peanuts. Laoye always enjoys a good boiled peanut but they weren't as flavorful as the ones we are used to in China.

Moving onto the mains - this was their Chile Relleno -- we were a little torn on whether the pepper skin was meant to be eaten. It came with tortillas to be made into burritos. I personally didn't care for this dish, it was a little bitter and not very flavorful otherwise. 

The chicken on the other hand I really enjoyed. I wish we had gotten a third order. The dipping sauce was also quite good. And the orange sauce underneath was also super yummy with the included bread popovers. 

This is how R looked when we were forcing her to try some new things.

This is what the expression was specifically caused by, some very tasty mussels. Not as good as the Quintonil mussel dish, but still decent.

We also got two desserts -- neither of these were favorites for anyone. The chocolate was too bitter and the rice pudding like dish was a bit bland. 

After dinner, the more cultured of us had tickets to go see the Ballet Folklorico. We walked about 10 min from the restaurant over to the Palace of Fine Arts for the performance. Along the way, there was a night market of sorts where L and R finally got to pick up some Spanish books. 

It was nice being able to see the Palace lit up at night against the dark sky. 

Even before the show started, there was a pretty cool light show using the glass curtain -- I'm told it's made of thousands of Tiffany pieces!

I regret not taking a photo of the drummers and almost Hawaiian or Taiwanese-like first dance performance. It was a pretty cool way to start. Definitely did NOT seem like classic Mexico folklorico dancing. But most of the other acts were more traditional. The staging and lighting and so on were top notch.

I must admit I lost the plot a bit not being Mexican. At first there were nods to revolutionaries which I sort of got. But then at some point these folks with crazy heads came out...as well as a devil? And a she-devil? And then there was a deer-like animal being chased and killed...

At the end it went back to traditional dancing. Such amazing colors!

I didn't expect so much of the show to be focused on the musicians -- the singers had several pieces focused just on their singing and the musician/orchestra/band also had quite a few numbers where they were the stars. I think my favorite act all night was the dueling harps! Who knew that was even a thing!

Grand finale where everyone was taking their bows. Only the front two rows are dancers. The next two rows are the choir/vocal performers, and then the last row are the orchestra/band performers.

I'd recommend visitors coming to Mexico City to see the show once -- I do kind of wish it had been about 10-20 min shorter at the end (90 min, no intermission) but we were all highly entertained.

 

It was quite late by the time we got home. Immediately to bed -- tomorrow is our Puebla day!

Mexico City - Day 5: Google / MNA / Chapultepec / Quintonil

Today we had quite a long list of things to potentially hit...starting with what has become a bit of a tradition for us...find the local Google office to visit! Our rental was actually only a 10 minute walk away from the Google Mexico City office so it really did seem like a shame if we did NOT badge in. Jiujiu and Jiuma were out for their long run (she's training for a marathon so she was happy we had some nice running paths close to the house), so the rest of us packed up for a walk to Google for breakfast. We actually are SUPER close as the crow flies...but there happens to be a highway in that path. So most of the walk was to get to the underground walkway to cross that street. Kind of interesting to see - wasn't expecting a whole series of food stalls down here!

Before long, the Google logo came into view:

Turns out social visitors are only allowed on Mondays and Fridays (today is a Tuesday, oops), but the office receptionists and security folks were super kind to give us an exception. They even gave us some Mexico City stickers!

So...in our minds, this was us looking fierce to match the Lucre Libre Mexican wrestling backdrop...and the resulting expressions are proof that we are not built for the theater business. 

L did much better in her YouTube creator environment:

Baba was just happy to finally get a decent cup of coffee. He said it was the best one yet of the trip!

We also picked up some Mexico micro kitchen goodies -- plane snacks! -- before heading back. There was no way L could pass up this photo op. If you know, you know. 

After a brief stop at home, it was off to the main attraction of the day: the National Museum of Anthropology! (Commonly known as the MNA). 

There was a bit of a line to get tickets -- we haven't been very successful at the QR code online purchases so we waited in line at the machine kiosks. Children under 13 are free! Good thing we came this year! 😆 We started off with a family shot at the outdoor courtyard of El Paraguas ("The Umbrella"), likely the most iconic image of the MNA. 

The MNA is very very large with an enormous number of rooms organized by period of history. We were told to just pick a few and focus on those. So we decided to hit the big three: Teotihuacan, Aztec, and Mayan. First off: Teotihuacan. Remember that feather serpent temple I really liked? They created a full size replica here so that you could really get up close to examine the details. 

Here was another reproduction of what the murals (remember the jaguars?) would have looked like in their original glory. 

This is one of the Mayan stone Lintels that kings would commission to tell of their great accomplishments. This one is a replica of something found at Tikal but it allegedly describes the relationship between the Teotihuacan and Mayan kingdoms. 

R being adequately impressed with one of the original Teotihuacan sacrificial group tombs -- they are positioned so because their hands had been tied behind their backs...

Here's a necklace offering from Quetzalcoatl -- these are real human teeth that were used to make the necklace!

A shot of workers doing some maintenance on one of the relics. Thought it was interesting because you never actually see this when you're in museums. 

Here's a Chacmool from Teotihuacan -- these statues were used for offerings -- the plate on his stomach is where you would place the things being offered up for sacrifice...gold, jewelry...or human hearts.

A pretty cool outdoor model of the Teotihuacan city.

After about 30 min or so, we moved on to the next room of focus, and arguably the highlight of the entire museum, the Mexica or Aztec room. At the entrance, there were these displays of a game that looked an awful lot like quidditch to me...but L and R said it was from the Aztecs, you hit balls using your hips...and apparently the people who lost would be killed. Killings seems to be a theme there...

View from the entrance of the Aztec room -- clearly the Aztec sun stone was the highlight. 

It is often incorrectly referred to as a calendar stone, bit it actually depicts various Aztec beliefs re: cosmetology and history, so it has more of an anthropological significance. Very impressive how large it is, especially given all the intricate carvings!

I took this picture in the "history of the importance of corn" section -- it is pretty notable how much of Mexican cuisine revolves around corn. Even in Aztec times, they would make sculptures focused on their primary food staple. 

And the Mayan room is also where we found Montezuma's headdress - well, at least a replica of it. The original is apparently in a museum in Vienna...kind of odd? I think it suits L well though!

And these are some more Lintels - these I believe are the actual originals. Though the most famous Lintels (depicting a kind of brutal ritual sacrifice where the queen is actually pulling a rope knotted with thorns through her tongue for bloodletting, yeah, ugh!) are actually housed at the British Museum in London. 

This is a...halfway original at least -- tomb of Pakal the Great. The coffin lid is a replica and the tomb itself is a replica (the originals in this case are still buried deep where the were found), but the jewelry, skirt and jade death mask are the originals. 

Here's a painting showing you what it would have looked like when he was buried. The jade death mask actually matches the skull they found to an almost perfect 1:1 - impressive for not having 3D scanning and printing back in the Mayan ages.

Outside the Mayan room they also had some replicas of Mayan murals. Such vivid colors!

And the had live sized replicas of famous stone ruins.

Finally - an original! This is the actual Chac-mool found at Chichén Itzá. I read somewhere that the archeologist who found it tried to take it away but they confiscated it at the border. 

After we finished the Mayan room, some of us were done with museums and went in search of tacos instead. Those of us who continued on visited a couple other rooms -- here's one of the famous basalt heads from the Olmec civilization. 

R took full advantage of every reading nook opportunity. 

We even visited the upstairs galleries, where I enjoyed the textile exhibit in particular. All in all, a great morning of historical and cultural learning!

The museum was right in the middle of Chapultepec Park, so we just crossed the street and headed towards the Castle. Some lovely views of the lake as well, with paddle boat rentals (the line was HUGE! Good thing twins had outgrown this sort of thing by now). 

Turns out the castle was free for kids under 13 as well as senior citizens...I was not really feeling more walking around so I decided to save the $15 and catch up on blog entries while twins and Laolao/Laoye toured the castle. Verdict: good...but really great when admission is free. 😆 

After the castle, I was feeling recharged from my sitting out so I rallied part of the troops for a Chapultepec zoo detour. What other zoo has capybaras and axolotls? So exciting! Sadly...the stars did not align on this one. Not only did we miss the axolotls by about 15 minutes (exhibit closes at 3:30), but it also started to POUR, thunder and all. 

We tried to wait it out...but let's just say there were some hot baths and changes of clothes needed when we got back. Though the change of clothes would have been necessary regardless because we were headed to Quintonil for dinner, Michelin 2 star restaurant ranked No. 3 on the world's top restaurant list. I made reservations for this months in advance.  In hindsight, the napkin should have been a clear clue to the theme of the evening, but I didn't pick up on it at the time at all. 

We did NOT opt for the pairing and instead ordered cocktails to start - not bad, but also not amazing, I thought.

The first food item was this one bite poke crispy taco. I thought it was quite good. 

Next up was a mussel tart. Baba and I were BIG fans. I've never had mussels with these flavors. They managed to combine the salt sea flavor of the mussel with some other things that really packed a huge umami punch. The plate was also kind of cool. 

This was a plantain fritter in a tomato-y sauce with honey cream. Jiuma LOVED it, I thought it might be a little too tart for me, but still very good. 

This was their herb salad that they actually recommend you use your fingers to eat by dipping the leaves in the sauce. We tried that, but quickly switched over to the fork. I really enjoyed the pumpkin seed dressing - never had anything like it before. Given what it is, it was very well done. And so pretty!

This was a cerviche-y like dish -- I can't recall now the fish, maybe a kampachi? I think I liked it, but it might have been a little tart again. I think I recall liking the shrimp crudo better compared to this from Esquina Comun. Still very good though!

This was a trout from Baja California, with figs and mushrooms underneath. I recall thinking the sauce overpowered a bit here (and I'm not a big trout person). 

This was our palate cleanser between the appetizers and mains. Made of cactus and limes -- it was definitely palate cleansing! 😆 

This was a tamale under a corn cream that honestly tasted like cheese. It was very very yummy.  It also had this bee honey sauce incorporated for sweetness. Up there with the mussels for me. 

The next was the "entree" course - where you picked between a duck and a rib eye option. Here's the duck, it came with a mole sauce that I really liked. Makes me excited for our mole lunch in Puebla!

The ribeye entree came with some mini quesadillas and a bean sauce. Both were okay, but not my favorites. 

The ribeye itself was a little on the small side 😆 -- it was very good, but it wasn't wagyu levels of OMG I want another ounce good. I think between the two entrees I would have picked the duck. 

For dessert, this was a mango and yogurt with seaweed sprinkled on top. It wasn't my favorite dessert -- I think the yogurt part was actually better than the mango. Maybe I like my mangoes sweeter?

Slightly out of order, these were the petit fours to end. I really liked the guava tarts at the very top -- not at all overly sweet, very light and creamy. The chocolate was good and the caramel truffle was actually not bad for a person who doesn't like the caramel/butterscotch family. The little jellies were a surprise. We think they were salt covered. More like a palate cleanser for the chocolate. 😆 

This was my favorite dessert -- it was a combo of passion fruit at the bottom and then a creamy ice cream but topped with caviar. I assumed it would taste a little too intentional (trying to work in a high priced ingredient) but it worked together really well. I normally always find caviar unnecessary, but here it really added to the flavor combo. 

I forgot to say that our wine, Don Juan I think was the name of the bottle, a cab and Shiraz blend, was a surprising hit for me. I wasn't planning on having as much of the wine as I did. Group photo! Great food and company!

So the photo was taken before they showed us the hidden highlight of the meal...bugs were incorporated into many of the dishes! I thought this was actually pretty amazing, some of my dining companions were a little grossed out, but by the next day, we were all happy to have experienced this truly one-of-a-kind meal. Here are examples of the actual bugs they used (spoiler: some of my favorite dishes were the ones that incorporated the bugs the most). 

They did bring me a personalized menu at the end so I could look up all of the precise bugs used in each dish as well. What was also impressive is that they listed the precise time each dish was served to us, I guess this is the level of attentiveness and pacing that helps them achieve their Michelin stars!

By now, it was past our bedtimes, so we walked home (very convenient that it was walkable from the rental house) and went to bed. Gotta rest up to look our best for the family photo shoot tomorrow!