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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 5:38:08 GMT
More wandering, as we penetrate deeper into the organized chaos of the less sedate but more typical shopping area of the type so often to be found in Mexican cities just steps away from the groomed main square ~ |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 5:46:27 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 5:52:29 GMT
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Post by bjd on Nov 18, 2016 6:55:23 GMT
Okay, I admit I'm a lousy tourist but I really do enjoy these more "local" areas than the groomed and organized central ones. I'm not sure that I would be tempted to buy much -- there is such an overwhelming amount of everything, usually duplicated in one stand after another, but the colours and life on the streets look great.
I do wonder about the Iberian influence on the churches. Latin America was obviously so heavily influenced by the Spanish style of over-the-top decoration. Spanish and Portuguese churches are the only ones I have seen with that kind of decoration. It does leave me rather gasping for air, like Kerouac.
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Post by gabriele on Nov 18, 2016 7:48:10 GMT
Bixa, The red color in the chorizos comes from the Achiote (in Spanish) or Annato. There are wonderful little packets of spice mixes from two companies, Sazon Goya and Sazon Knorr used for everything from rice ('Spanish rice') to anything needing a touch of color and bit of spice. The mixtures vary; some include achiote, some include azafran (false saffron) which gives a nice yellow color). Here's the achiote info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bixa_orellana (don't you love the name?) www.mexgrocer.com/9618.html?gclid=CK2F487gsdACFUlNfgodcFsL3Q (Azafran en Flor - Safflower) I have at least four different blends in small foil packets in my cupboard down...some with achiote, some with onion or cilantro or garlic or oregano with variations on those. I often use on when making a version of pilaf but adding filini to the rice, broth and some sazon. Not necessarily 'Mexican' but definitely easy to like. Achiote by itself is often sold in little blocks of 4 oz. Very easy to add too much so I avoid that (and I usually buy in bulk). For those who don't know the mixes but have friends who like to try new condiments, consider them a traveler's gift; I'm sure you'll find them in the markets. Do an image search for sazon knorr to get an idea of the choices. When my friend lived in Amsterdam that was what he's want from the US. Those market places make me very happy with their wonderful colors and every hungry with all the foods. Speaking of foods...over 25 tons of fresh produce crossed the Mexico-US border in a two day period this month...(probably up to triple that in the high growing season), and there are crossing every day of the year.. Who is the US says we don't need Mexico and Mexicans? [2266 truckloads (40,000# each). Avocados and tomatoes and fresh lettuce and corn and so much more.] Thank you Mexico! |
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Post by questa on Nov 18, 2016 8:23:57 GMT
Holy Moly...the colours...just look! Bixa and K2 know how I love bright, clashing and vivid colours, and there are plenty here. The fabrics hanging in the market, fruits and sweets on display, brilliant flowers and the buildings also in full colour. Inside the cathedral, lovely domes, arches and mighty pillars...my favourite architectural style,
Outside the colour continues as the people ready for marches. What is it about Mexico that the people seem to have so many parades and ceremonies?
It is great fun travelling with you...and such an interesting and colourful to explore.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 18, 2016 12:22:43 GMT
I have no idea how a guy who owns hotels, casinos and such could say the US doesn't need Mexicans (and Central Americans nowadays). Guess he doesn't visit the kitchens or the night cleaning brigade much, does he. Not only a bigot but a lazy businessman.
Yes, lots of Baroque in your church photos, and the last one was positively rococo.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 12:36:30 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 12:43:37 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Nov 18, 2016 15:34:41 GMT
Fascinating photos. I must say, "Jesus on the lav" is not part of the usual iconography in the traditions I was brought up in! My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam" |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 15:46:39 GMT
This brings us to a major cultural discovery -- one of many on this trip -- but also the most unexpected one. I even researched it a bit since it fascinated me. So let's go back to the 1950's and take a look at the joyous reign of Marshal Josip Tito in Yugoslavia. Some of you will remember that he was really quite popular, and the rest of the world appreciated him for bringing unity to the six Yugoslav nations and also as being the only Communist leader with the balls to break away from the Cominform, even though he was one of the founding members. After doing this, Tito had to look for new entertainment for his people since he no longer had access to all of the very well organised and rather fabulous cultural programmes provided by the Soviet Union. And so he promoted Mexican music, which became very popular throughout Yugoslavia. After all, both cultures have a great fondness for accordions, brass instruments, moustaches and hard liquor. While the rest of us were wrapped up in our own new obsessions such as rock'n'roll or jazz, Balkan mariachi music was all the rage in Yugoslavia. The Balkan countries are still full of salsa clubs and other Latin music. Fast forward 50 or so years, when Mexico in turn discovered such rising stars as Goran Bregović or Emir Kusturica who became popular all over the world with what was to us a completely new sound -- but not to everybody. They grew up with the Balkan mariachi music to which their parents listened, and it is quite easy to recognise some of the Mexican influence in their compositions. Well, the young Mexican public fell in love with this immediately and were inspired by it. In the early 2000's new Mexi-Balkan fusion groups sprang up in Mexico City. Well, one of them was playing in Puebla while we were there as part of the 9th La Muerte es un Sueño festival, sponsored by the Alliance Française and the various local cultural authorities. And thus I discovered a totally new (to me) sound and will seek it out in the future. Naturally the sound quality on my video is not at all great, but you can find La Internacional Sonora Balkanera on YouTube or Spotify. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 18:24:06 GMT
gabriele , with respect ~ I chose the recipe linked in my reply to onlyMark based on those given me by my local pork butchers. If you google chorizo on US Google, you'll get quite a few recipes calling for achiote. However, if you go to Mexico Google, the recipes will not have achiote. Achiote/annatto -- botanical name Bixa orellana -- is mostly used in the cooking of the three states in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. That said, it's a lovely and subtle flavoring and I hope everyone will take your suggestion of finding ways to incorporate it in their cooking. (Incidentally, I should have specified that the sausage in the photo is technically longaniza, essentially chorizo not tied off into balls or short links.) Scrambling here to keep up with Kerouac, but I need to take a minute to say how fabulous his pictures are & also to say thanks for capturing that truly amazing band. I could have listened to it all night! Anyway, here is an entire post dedicated to Santo Domingo church's Chapel of the Rosary, which should at least make questa happy.  The church is from the early 17th century and the chapel from the latter part of that century. I was amazed when I looked at Kerouac's photos to see the little dog with the matchstick in his mouth. Damned if the same pooch didn't show up in mine! This link isn't terribly informative, but I include it for the interactive map, in case any of you want to trace the steps of your intrepid trio of anyport reporters.  www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/puebla-santo-domingo
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 18, 2016 19:01:58 GMT
Bixa, thanks for all the answers and digging them out for me. It is appreciated. I am still waiting for the food to be delivered though. Maybe a trip to Mexico would be a better idea. One day............
K2, just a footnote as regards the Balkan/Mexican music, I have it on very good authority (Mrs M) from someone that grew up in the 70's and early 80's in the far north of the old Yugoslavia, in Slovenia, that that style never reached that far. She was very interested but said she'd never heard it there in her time. She suggests that as Slovenes never really considered themselves as Balkans and as it is geographically and culturally mixed with its close surrounding countries, the music was more influenced by them rather than further south.
She does remember Boney M, though that isn't saying much.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 19:11:53 GMT
Hanging around the zócalo again ~ So ~ there we were, standing around the zócalo with hundreds of other people waiting for the parade. Finally, mostly out of boredom, we moved toward a corner of the zócalo and there came the parade from a side street. Lucky us, as there weren't many people on that street ~ |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 19:20:57 GMT
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Post by breeze on Nov 18, 2016 19:24:25 GMT
That chapel is unbelievable. I don't think I've ever seen anything so encrusted in gold. How can the ceiling hold up its weight?
Totally unexpected music, kerouac! I love those tricky eastern European rhythms.
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Post by breeze on Nov 18, 2016 19:26:40 GMT
Louie Louie has international appeal because nobody understands the lyrics.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 19:43:20 GMT
K2, just a footnote as regards the Balkan/Mexican music, I have it on very good authority (Mrs M) from someone that grew up in the 70's and early 80's in the far north of the old Yugoslavia, in Slovenia, that that style never reached that far. She was very interested but said she'd never heard it there in her time. She suggests that as Slovenes never really considered themselves as Balkans and as it is geographically and culturally mixed with its close surrounding countries. I don't think anybody else ever considered Slovenia to be a real part of Yugoslavia, which is why it separated itself from Yugoslavia in 1990 with practically no opposition. It has always been a sort of detached province of Austria. If Mrs. M wants to create a sensation, perhaps she can suggest to Melania Trump to hire the Internacional Sonora Balkaner to play at the inaugural ball before the wall is built. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 20:00:00 GMT
I love comparing our photos, but there is no doubt in my mind that Bixa is the absolutely queen of church interiors. I just sort of go into a daze in those places and snap a few pictures before I need to rush outside again. Bixa then shows me all of the things that I missed. |
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 18, 2016 21:26:50 GMT
I don't think anybody else ever considered Slovenia to be a real part of Yugoslavia, which is why it separated itself from Yugoslavia in 1990 with practically no opposition. Officially independent on 25th June 1991 at the same time as Croatia. The ten day war soon ended but resulted in 60 or so deaths. Certainly less problems than the rest of the States had. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 21:44:32 GMT
Just to reiterate ~ watch Kerouac's video in #40! Okay, it has to be admitted that in our zeal to get photos during the parade, we all lost sight of each other. I returned to the hotel, confabbed with the trip comrade I found there, and was dispatched out to find the other one (who turned out to have been in the hotel all along). Obviously this was a fool's errand, especially because of the sea of people in the zócalo, but it paid off in a discovery I made. That was the dazzling display put on in the municipal palace. I won't show it now since I returned there the next evening, but here is a teaser: I was trapped on the wrong side of the street as another parade went by -- a parade with fire dancers, including a guy jumping through a flaming hoop. Here are the pictures I got  ~   *sigh* Oh well, there was still plenty to do, so two of us returned to the streets for food seeking and sight-seeing ~    I noted and reported on this artistically-challenged statue on my first visit to Puebla. It's still ugly, front and backside both ~   As we near the zócalo, we see yet another beautiful church beautifully placed on a small plaza ~ |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 18, 2016 21:58:54 GMT
And here we are in front of the big stage, enjoying the music of La Internacional Sonora Balkanera ~ |
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Post by mossie on Nov 18, 2016 22:10:11 GMT
The churches really are something else, I didn't know so much gold leaf had ever been produced.
And Kerouac's Balkan music when it started sounded as if someone was bashing a saucepan with a spoon.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 22:28:23 GMT
That's what your generation has always said about the next generation's music.  |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2016 6:43:34 GMT
Now it's the next morning and we finally get some bright blue sky. A quick stop at the tourist office, and then we're off to explore ~ |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2016 6:53:08 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2016 7:10:38 GMT
We're on a slow amble towards the market right now, taking in the sights along the way ~ |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 13:18:54 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 15:01:47 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 19, 2016 15:30:16 GMT
It's really fun to see our different takes on the same scenes. Also, I realize that because I've been to Puebla twice before, I spaced out taking pictures of some important things this time around. I'm very glad to see that you nicely captured the shopping street plus some great representative photos of the famous Puebla pottery. That picture looking out the door of the little restaurant is so lovely and says "essence of Mexico" to me.
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