North America,  Mexico,  Travel,  Food

Guanajuato Week 2 Routine

January 20, 2023 /

From the place where I live, I can see the hills in the distance. The French landlord sister said that I can walk there in less than half an hour. I went to climb the mountain early on Monday morning, all the way up the slope, I couldn't breathe when I got to the top, but it was very quiet and the scenery was beautiful.

The first sofa owner here is a keen social welfare activist. Since he moved to the United States, he has joined the neighborhood committee of his community and has made a lot of contributions to improving the community environment and public security. He asked me if I had time to help him paint the wall in the alley near his house on Monday because there are a lot of messy graffiti on it. I promised him to go, but one hour before I went, I told me that he had something to do temporarily, and he didn't have time to paint. Can you help him pick up the trash. Ha, it's a big difference, but it doesn't matter to me, and I've promised him. In their alley, a house was demolished and turned into an abandoned site, full of garbage. He brought a few big bags, gave me work gloves, put on a mask, and we started sorting and picking up trash. Except that the elementary school red scarf squad picked up trash when they organized community activities, but I don’t remember picking up trash afterwards. The trash is like a hill, filled with old clothes, plastic items, glass bottles and other everyday trash. We picked it up for more than half an hour, because he had something to do later. When the collection was almost finished, an old lady stuck out her head from the window next to the alley to greet us. My sofa owner said that he and volunteers would pick up garbage near here every Saturday morning. By the way, I appealed to her for environmental protection. The old lady said the following The next Saturday you came to call her, and she came down to help. When it was over, the owner of the sofa told me: It doesn’t take long to volunteer to pick up trash, as long as everyone can make a little contribution, a small act of one person can affect the people around him. I was recycling and reusing plastic bags for days after picking up the trash. There is simply too much garbage generated by human activities.

On Monday night, I went to participate in the most tourist event in the area: callejoneada, a group of tourists followed a small band in the alley, listening to them play local music while walking. They have different routes, some suitable for families with children, some suitable for young people, drinking while walking, and telling jokes that are not suitable for children. The music is very cheerful and nice.

I passed by a small shop a week ago and saw that the proprietress inside was an Asian. I went in curiously and took a look. She is Japanese and has moved to Mexico for ten years. There was also another Japanese couple in the shop buying plates and decorations. Chatting with them, I learned that they moved to Guanajuato from Tokyo five years ago and have been living here. Opened a Japanese family restaurant a month ago and I decided to go there in a few days after Mark on the map. Went to their small store on Wednesday, the store is small, family-style small kitchen, the menu is very simple, there are only three fixed choices, plus a special of the day. When the proprietress was cooking, I chatted with the boss and learned that he went to Vancouver, Canada to study high school when he was a teenager, and returned to Japan to work after graduating from university. After working for several years, I found it boring. A Mexican friend I met when I was studying in Canada invited him to travel to Mexico and live in his family’s house. So he came to Mexico and lived in his friend’s house for half a year, and then moved here. His girlfriend is also here. They bought a house and rented it to receive international students, especially to help international students from Japan, providing them with language, culture, visa application and other assistance. He said that there are many Japanese in Leon, a big city nearby, because there are many Japanese companies there. There are several Japanese restaurants here, but he doesn't think they are authentic. They don't sell sushi or ramen, but they sell home-style bento. He said that many ingredients for cooking are difficult to find locally and are all shipped from Mexico City. 

I went to the cinema and watched the three-hour English version of "Avatar 2", the picture is really beautiful!

Was in Guanajuato the other day for a birthday with some friends on couchsurfers, which also happened to be my last night here. Unexpectedly, the French landlord sister even gave me a small scarf as a birthday present. It is really heart-warming when it is cold in the morning and evening. I found a Korean restaurant that I happened to pass by last week for a dinner. This restaurant is full of posters of Korean groups such as TBS. When I came here, I found out that there will be a small dessert for free on my birthday. Most of them have never eaten Korean food, and they quite like it. At the checkout they wouldn't let me pay, saying people with birthdays in Mexico can't pay. After eating, I went to a bar again.

The food in Guanajuato has no local characteristics, and it is simply incomparable with the previous San Cristóbal, Oaxaca and Puebla. There are no delicious tacos, tamales, and even the bread sold in the bakery is not very delicious. The only local specialty here is called enchilada minera (Figure 1-1), which is ordinary enchilada topped with minced chicken, potatoes and carrots, which is really not very delicious. It is said that it was a dish that the miners here used to eat every day when mining. Another specialty (but also available in nearby cities) is guacamaya (Figure 2-3), which is a torta with avocado slices in bread, layers of fried crispy pork skin, and a very spicy hot sauce. Guacamaya is the name of a particularly brightly colored macaw because the food is also red and green. If you see this kind of stall on the street, it sells guacamaya. In the basket of this old man's stall, there are two large pieces of fried crispy pork skin with avocado and hot sauce in the middle. When he made it, he just broke off the fried crispy pork skin and stuffed it in the bread, which was very interesting. Although the local Mexican food was rather disappointing, I tried some foreign dishes: falafel Middle Eastern hummus roll (Figure 1-2), totally unauthentic but not bad banh mi Vietnamese sandwich (1-7), Japanese Ramen (Picture 1-9), Japanese Chicken Oyako Rice (Picture 2-4), Korean Rice Cake Spicy Noodles (Picture 2-8). The last surprise was that I ate here the best chilaquiles I have ever eaten in Mexico (Figure 2-7). It is a small restaurant hidden in an alley that was recommended by a local friend a few months ago. I went there two times before. I didn't eat it once, because if the ingredients run out, the store will close early. I finally ate it, and I was really not disappointed.

1
2

You May Also Like

Week 4 in Oaxaca

November 27, 2022

Guadalajara (1)

April 3, 2021

San Cristóbal de las Casas (2)

July 22, 2022

283 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

en_USEnglish
Powered by TranslatePress
en_USEnglish zh_CN简体中文