moonlight serenade

Yesterday was the anniversary of my arrival on this planet. In honor of such an auspicious occasion, Mr. C took me to lunch up in Suchitlán. We went to our favorite place ~ favorite not only up there but almost anywhere around here ~ Los Portales de Suchitlán. The restaurant is in an old coffee plantation and the tables are set under a canopy of tall trees that affords a lovely dappled sunlight. It's a very popular place; several families with kids were there yesterday, all enjoying the warm weather and splendid food.


The place is famous for its hand-made tortillas and two dishes in particular, neither of which was on the menu yesterday; both appear only on Sunday. One is birria de chivo (goat stew); the other is conejo (rabbit). Since yesterday was Tuesday, we made other choices. But first, some thin, crisp tostadas and two salsas, one green (hot), the other red (HOT).

Mr. C ordered chiles rellenos picadillo (good, but not as good as Chuy's), and I had birria de res y cerdo (beef and pork stew). You eat it by piling shreds of meat on a soft tortilla, sprinkle the top with finely diced onions, spoon on some of the hot (or HOT) sauce, squeeze a bit of lime juice over everything, roll up and eat.

Then I spooned up the remaining rich, flavorful juice and enjoyed that, too. We both had left-overs which we brought home and added to soup and enjoyed it all again.

Around 9:30 last night someone rang our bell. I went out to the balcony and looked down into the street by the front door. There were four musicians standing there, holding their guitars, and as soon as he saw me, Fernando called up. Then the musicians struck up the Mexican Happy Birthday and played on for about 15 minutes. One of the guitarists also played the Pan pipes and one of the songs had that echo-y, haunting Andean flavor. It was an absolutely perfect end to the day. I heard from my two daughters, my two grandchildren ~ Andrew via a Skype that kept cutting out, but never mind ~ and an assortment of friends. Makes me glad my parents met.