Santo Domingo Ethno-Botanic Garden and Casa Oaxaca
A Two-Hour Tour
Yesterday I took a 2-hour tour of the botanic garden in English.
When I got there, they told me I was too late - they only took 20 people on the tour and I was number 21. I stayed anyway, knowing how things go in Mexico. I knew better.
By the time we got under way, there were 25 or so in the group - one couple thought they were "on the list" without signing it because they called the day before, and others had signed only on one line though there were two of them...Anyway, as I knew we would, we all got to go.
Ethno=botanic garden tour
The tour was led by a very matter-of-fact woman originally from the East Coast of the US. The plants in the garden are all native, and many of them are plants that were used for food, dye or fiber.
That is the "ethno" in "ethnobotanic." Lots of agaves and cactuses too.
She showed us the copal tree, famous for both incense from its sap and from the alebrijes - fantastic psychedelic animals - carved from its wood.
We also got to see cochineal, the little scale-like insect that feeds on prickly pear cactus (the Zapotecs developed a spineless variety) and provides a red dye that is stable and can be used to create almost any red or purple color.
After the tour, I was HOT and went to get a nieves de tuna (cactus sorbet).
There is a place right across from the botanic garden that is pretty fancy and caters to tourists. I was eating for about 2 seconds, reading my book, when a Mexican guy started talking to me. Being the friendly type that I am, I tried ignoring him but that didn't work. He kept talking, and fortunately was pretty interesting.
He was a teacher from a little village called Tuxtapec, in the north of the state. He was in town representing his indigenous people's organization. We talked politics and corn and wages. He said he makes about $8 a day, teaching primary school with 38 kids in his class. He said he had considered going to the US for work - $5 an hour for washing dishes sounds like an amazing amount of wealth to him.
He had picked up a flyer from the health spa next door offering massages for 300 pesos (about $30). He was just amazed at that, and was going to take the flyer home to Tuxtapec to show his family and friends for a laugh.
He asked me to go out with him. I declined, saying it wouldn't look well for a married woman to be out with another man. He understood, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and quickly took his leave.
Gourmet Lunch
I went to Casa Oaxaca for a really nice lunch. It is a touristy place right across the way from Santo Domingo.
I had heard about their food from several people, even back in the States.
It was really pretty, an interior courtyard, very white and modern, with a little slot-shaped fountain in the floor of the place, running all the way across the room, strewn with flowers floating on the water.
The meal began with an amuse bouche (that's French, not Spanish, and means a palate teaser) of a squash blossom stuffed with cheese and herbs, served with a little bit of oily vinaigrette - oh how much I have missed vinegar while I have been here! It isn’t an ingredient in Oaxacan food. It was delicious.
I had a salad of three piles of shredded vegetables - a "arco de iris" (rainbow) salad - apples mixed with pineapple, beets and walnuts, and cucumbers with lime juice, interspersed with orange segments and melon balls, surrounded by drips of orange pepper sauce. Pretty.
I also had a cold cream of avocado soup with more melon balls and slices of cheese.
The food was more beautiful than tasty, but it was pretty good and a nice change from routine.
I think they are still developing a cuisine different from their traditional foods, which they do to perfection.
So I ended up spending $17 on lunch. That seems like a terrible amount in a country where a school teacher makes $8 a day.
It was a treat for me, but would have been unimaginable to the guy I met in the nieves parlor. It would have been twice that much in California - I guess that's how I can justify it.
Mexico Lindo y Querido, the song says (Beautiful and dear Mexico). It is such a dizzying place.
It is like a dream, sometimes good, sometimes nightmarish. The good parts are the big white clouds, the flowers cascading over walls, the women in beautiful handwoven clothing making a river of color...
the bad dream is the sewer stench, the sick skinny children, the blind beggars and starving dogs.
Yesterday I took a 2-hour tour of the botanic garden in English.
When I got there, they told me I was too late - they only took 20 people on the tour and I was number 21. I stayed anyway, knowing how things go in Mexico. I knew better.
By the time we got under way, there were 25 or so in the group - one couple thought they were "on the list" without signing it because they called the day before, and others had signed only on one line though there were two of them...Anyway, as I knew we would, we all got to go.
Ethno=botanic garden tour
The tour was led by a very matter-of-fact woman originally from the East Coast of the US. The plants in the garden are all native, and many of them are plants that were used for food, dye or fiber.
That is the "ethno" in "ethnobotanic." Lots of agaves and cactuses too.
She showed us the copal tree, famous for both incense from its sap and from the alebrijes - fantastic psychedelic animals - carved from its wood.
We also got to see cochineal, the little scale-like insect that feeds on prickly pear cactus (the Zapotecs developed a spineless variety) and provides a red dye that is stable and can be used to create almost any red or purple color.
After the tour, I was HOT and went to get a nieves de tuna (cactus sorbet).
There is a place right across from the botanic garden that is pretty fancy and caters to tourists. I was eating for about 2 seconds, reading my book, when a Mexican guy started talking to me. Being the friendly type that I am, I tried ignoring him but that didn't work. He kept talking, and fortunately was pretty interesting.
He was a teacher from a little village called Tuxtapec, in the north of the state. He was in town representing his indigenous people's organization. We talked politics and corn and wages. He said he makes about $8 a day, teaching primary school with 38 kids in his class. He said he had considered going to the US for work - $5 an hour for washing dishes sounds like an amazing amount of wealth to him.
He had picked up a flyer from the health spa next door offering massages for 300 pesos (about $30). He was just amazed at that, and was going to take the flyer home to Tuxtapec to show his family and friends for a laugh.
He asked me to go out with him. I declined, saying it wouldn't look well for a married woman to be out with another man. He understood, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and quickly took his leave.
Gourmet Lunch
I went to Casa Oaxaca for a really nice lunch. It is a touristy place right across the way from Santo Domingo.
I had heard about their food from several people, even back in the States.
It was really pretty, an interior courtyard, very white and modern, with a little slot-shaped fountain in the floor of the place, running all the way across the room, strewn with flowers floating on the water.
The meal began with an amuse bouche (that's French, not Spanish, and means a palate teaser) of a squash blossom stuffed with cheese and herbs, served with a little bit of oily vinaigrette - oh how much I have missed vinegar while I have been here! It isn’t an ingredient in Oaxacan food. It was delicious.
I had a salad of three piles of shredded vegetables - a "arco de iris" (rainbow) salad - apples mixed with pineapple, beets and walnuts, and cucumbers with lime juice, interspersed with orange segments and melon balls, surrounded by drips of orange pepper sauce. Pretty.
I also had a cold cream of avocado soup with more melon balls and slices of cheese.
The food was more beautiful than tasty, but it was pretty good and a nice change from routine.
I think they are still developing a cuisine different from their traditional foods, which they do to perfection.
So I ended up spending $17 on lunch. That seems like a terrible amount in a country where a school teacher makes $8 a day.
It was a treat for me, but would have been unimaginable to the guy I met in the nieves parlor. It would have been twice that much in California - I guess that's how I can justify it.
Mexico Lindo y Querido, the song says (Beautiful and dear Mexico). It is such a dizzying place.
It is like a dream, sometimes good, sometimes nightmarish. The good parts are the big white clouds, the flowers cascading over walls, the women in beautiful handwoven clothing making a river of color...
the bad dream is the sewer stench, the sick skinny children, the blind beggars and starving dogs.
posted by Suebob at 4:11 PM
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