Friday afternoon we were off to Mérida. We stayed at the Holiday Inn, I know, not very exciting. It was the weekend after Carnaval though and everything was booked. It was a nice room, across the street from our real estate office, had free wifi and free parking and it was walking distance to the Plaza de Toros where the Vicente Fernandez concert was Saturday night.
We got there around 8pm and Mimi decided to take a nap. She didn't wake up until the next day at noon, and then I woke her up! Well, somewhere around 1am a wedding party down the block started setting off fireworks and I went outside on the deck to watch and she woke up for about 5 minutes, but that was it. I was starving, I did walk down to the lobby bar and get a couple rum and cokes but the only food open was a sit down restaurant-buffet and I didn't feel like doing that. I scrounged around and found some gummi cherries in the suitcase and that was dinner and lunch too. I could have taken the jeep and gone out for food but it was too much hassle, it's not like I'm going to waste away!
The next day I was ready for food and the world delivered. We gagged through some of the coffee in the room and then went to the Cafe Habana in the centro. We'd enjoyed this place before and it was just as good. It's an old Cuban style coffee house with lots of men in guayaberas, business people and a table of Mexican queens listening to their mp3 phones and gossiping.
The coffee was exquisite! I ordered a lechero and it came separate, a cup of really rich, really strong espresso, a glass with hot milk - you pour them together and mmmmmm! I also had a fruit cocktail of fresh pineapple, mango, papaya and cantaloupe. Then I ordered breakfast! All this at 1pm, so civilized.
We then met up with our friends and real estate agents, Nelio and Pati. They took us to a botana bar we had not tried.
Have I told you, internet, about botanas? Oh! There are bars that serve small dishes of food constantly as long as you order drinks. Some are so-so and some, like D'Pilón, are incredible. They seem to be more common in some parts of Mexico and not so common in others, I have no idea how that works. Here in Mérida, they are common. There is a famous one here with about 6 branches, Eladio's, that also has live music and is very busy. We stopped at one of those but it was so crowded and so loud that we went on.
D'Pilón is owned by a school friend of Nelio's and is in his neighborhood. We sat down and order a round of drinks and immediately a dozen small plates were delivered.
I can't begin to remember all that was in that first round. The small tortillas with black sauce were chilmole with chicken and boiled egg on top, there was ceviche, sopa de limón, small slices of a local huge tamale called Abrazos de Reina, chicharrones in tomato sauce, small enchiladas rojas, poc chuc, potato salad, cucumbers in vinegar, sopa de albondigas, a wonderful pumpkin seed sauce that I forget the name of, and that was just the first round!
We had just eaten this huge breakfast a couple hours before and wished we were hungrier. We sat and talked for hours, had a couple rounds of drinks and the plates never stopped coming. We finally had to tell them no more and then we got the flan pie and ice cream! I am so going back there to spend a whole afternoon without eating beforehand.
It was good to spend time talking with Pati and Nelio, we are really fond of them and know they will be long time friends. We talked about anything and everything and a little about this house we are buying. We couldn't get the key this weekend so we didn't get into the house. I did tell them that my son and his wife and friends are coming to Mérida the first week in April and Nelio and Pati are excited to meet them and I'm sure they will have a good time. It will be Nelio's birthday the night before Dupre gets there and he says he will wait to party with them. Oh boy!
We went back to the hotel to take a nap before the concert at 10pm. I'll post separately about that but here's a teaser pic of the grand old man himself.
**here's the address of D'Pilón. Colonia Jesús Carranza, Calle 36 #455 X Calle 27
We got there around 8pm and Mimi decided to take a nap. She didn't wake up until the next day at noon, and then I woke her up! Well, somewhere around 1am a wedding party down the block started setting off fireworks and I went outside on the deck to watch and she woke up for about 5 minutes, but that was it. I was starving, I did walk down to the lobby bar and get a couple rum and cokes but the only food open was a sit down restaurant-buffet and I didn't feel like doing that. I scrounged around and found some gummi cherries in the suitcase and that was dinner and lunch too. I could have taken the jeep and gone out for food but it was too much hassle, it's not like I'm going to waste away!
The next day I was ready for food and the world delivered. We gagged through some of the coffee in the room and then went to the Cafe Habana in the centro. We'd enjoyed this place before and it was just as good. It's an old Cuban style coffee house with lots of men in guayaberas, business people and a table of Mexican queens listening to their mp3 phones and gossiping.The coffee was exquisite! I ordered a lechero and it came separate, a cup of really rich, really strong espresso, a glass with hot milk - you pour them together and mmmmmm! I also had a fruit cocktail of fresh pineapple, mango, papaya and cantaloupe. Then I ordered breakfast! All this at 1pm, so civilized.
We then met up with our friends and real estate agents, Nelio and Pati. They took us to a botana bar we had not tried.
Have I told you, internet, about botanas? Oh! There are bars that serve small dishes of food constantly as long as you order drinks. Some are so-so and some, like D'Pilón, are incredible. They seem to be more common in some parts of Mexico and not so common in others, I have no idea how that works. Here in Mérida, they are common. There is a famous one here with about 6 branches, Eladio's, that also has live music and is very busy. We stopped at one of those but it was so crowded and so loud that we went on.
D'Pilón is owned by a school friend of Nelio's and is in his neighborhood. We sat down and order a round of drinks and immediately a dozen small plates were delivered. I can't begin to remember all that was in that first round. The small tortillas with black sauce were chilmole with chicken and boiled egg on top, there was ceviche, sopa de limón, small slices of a local huge tamale called Abrazos de Reina, chicharrones in tomato sauce, small enchiladas rojas, poc chuc, potato salad, cucumbers in vinegar, sopa de albondigas, a wonderful pumpkin seed sauce that I forget the name of, and that was just the first round!
We had just eaten this huge breakfast a couple hours before and wished we were hungrier. We sat and talked for hours, had a couple rounds of drinks and the plates never stopped coming. We finally had to tell them no more and then we got the flan pie and ice cream! I am so going back there to spend a whole afternoon without eating beforehand.
It was good to spend time talking with Pati and Nelio, we are really fond of them and know they will be long time friends. We talked about anything and everything and a little about this house we are buying. We couldn't get the key this weekend so we didn't get into the house. I did tell them that my son and his wife and friends are coming to Mérida the first week in April and Nelio and Pati are excited to meet them and I'm sure they will have a good time. It will be Nelio's birthday the night before Dupre gets there and he says he will wait to party with them. Oh boy!
We went back to the hotel to take a nap before the concert at 10pm. I'll post separately about that but here's a teaser pic of the grand old man himself.**here's the address of D'Pilón. Colonia Jesús Carranza, Calle 36 #455 X Calle 27
posted by Jonna at 4:47 PM
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