After a very long work day, of which I will have two more in a row, but which was broken up by a brief wade in the ocean, I set off to find dinner. I headed ‘downtown’ and I had no sooner turned onto Calle Principal when I heard “Señora! Señora!” I know the world doesn’t revolve around me, but there was no else around, so I turned around and who do I see? Patricia, the owner of Patty’s defunct restaurant that I miss so much!
As it turns out, she had to close the restaurant because the rent was too high. 🙁 BUT she’s back in business with a smaller menu cooking right out of her house! Her hours aren’t as convenient in that she’s closed when I get off work at 2:00, but she is open for an early lunch on my days off and she’s open for an early dinner, too. Plus, she does things I actually eat for breakfast, like enchiladas. No burgers and fries, though.
Needless to say, my plans to troll the stands downtown for dinner were cancelled and I followed her into the front room of her house (cement bunker, essentially), where she had a few tables set up and two customers were eating. I asked her what a ‘gordita’ is and she explained that it’s a small fat tortilla topped with meat, lettuce, onion, tomato, beans, cheese, and crema, and served with caldo. Did I know what caldo is? I said yes, it’s soup juice (broth) and she burst out laughing. I agreed to have two of those and made myself comfortable watching the soap that was playing on TV! I saw a commercial for the Sin Fronteras TelCel plan and that confirmed that it includes Canada even if I can’t find any confirmation on the website yet. This is very exciting news. More on this when I have something to link to.
In between her managing the kitchen (I believe her daughter does the actual cooking or at least assembly of the food) and lighting mosquito coils, we caught up a bit. The gentleman customer left and the lady customer who was left, and who was eating a gordita (I took mental notes on her technique), suddenly opened up and started chatting with me, too. I’ll be honest and admit that I was mentally beat and wasn’t really up for company tonight or fighting another language, but this was too wonderful an opportunity to pass up to get my foot in the door of the real Mexico. I’m glad I made the effort!
My food eventually came out. I was passed a bowl of salsa and told ‘picante.’ I smiled and added a generous amount to my food. Then, I did like the lady had done, pouring the hot caldo over my gorditas, and dug in with my fingers. Dang it was messy, but so good! Last year, I rather ‘got bored’ with Mexican food because it’s basically all the same ingredients in different combinations, but I completely missed the fact that the variations and true flavour are mostly in the sauces. I told Patricia how my tastebuds have changed and I can handle the spice now, so I’m not as afraid to try new things. She said that she doesn’t like things too spicy either, but with just enough to add flavour. I think I can trust her food not to kill me, then. 😀
The gorditas were just $14 each! All her prices are very low, so, as she said, I should come and eat at her house every day. We’ll see. 🙂
For those favouring a more traditional breakfast, she does eggs as you like them with all manner of sides, like ham or chorizo, with ‘coffee’ (instant) or orange juice for just $40. She buys her food fresh every day. And she has wifi! Look for her on Calle Principal just past where the road curves towards ‘downtown’ after the basketball court. She has fluorescent green handwritten cardboard signs with her menu right by the road. That should have been my clue that she was still around!
Neat experience!
It was! Authentic Mexico!
Can you ask Pati if her mother’s name was Malinda and has a brother Pedro. If so, tell her I said hello! BTW, I have been following your blog lately. It helps me feel in touch with the Isla where I spent a lot of time, but that was over 40 years ago. ….thanks
I will ask her!
Dang! I’m hungry!!
😀
I have to say, I really admire your ability/desire to do everything in Spanish as much as you can. As I’m sure you’re aware, there are plenty of Gringos who have lived in Mexico for years who speak much worse Spanish than you do.
At some level I feel sorry for them, because even though they live there, they don’t really understand Mexico. I had one such expatriot who has years and years of experience with Mexico and has lived there at least ten years note in a comment on my blog that she had never heard the word “moreno.”
So, kudos!!!
Y saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where we think it’d be a difficult and mysterious place to live if we didn’t speak English.
I spent *years* learning Spanish, both at school and in private lessons (that cost a fortune). Now, my investment is paying off!
It does help that my mother tongue is French because a lot of the Spanish grammar and syntax is close to that. I don’t have the trouble native English speakers have with gender and the conjugations. Plus, of course, a lot of Spanish words sound like their equivalent in French.
What I really need now is to get some Mexican friends and practice conversational Spanish to improve my ear (I rarely understand anything when two Mexicans speak to each other) and to get more of the colloquial language.
Mexicans are very generous with their patience with my stumbling Spanish. Most would rather have me muddle along than switch to English themselves. My landlady’s English is much better than my Spanish and we do everything in Spanish. That’s incredibly encouraging. I will actually pretend to not speak French to avoid dealing with a European French person because they tend to be such snobs about their terrible anglicised language being superior to the much purer québécois French!
Hola Rae! I’ll let you in on a little secret that will *dramatically* improve your ability to understand spoken Spanish. Find some Mexican/Spanish music you like. Do your best to transcribe the lyrics. After you’ve done your best, look them up online (letras de …) and then finish your transcription. (By the way, you’ll also be amazed at the transcription errors you find online, but they won’t be the same as yours.) After that, sing the lyrics along with the song until you memorize them. Keep listening to the song and singing along. After you’ve done that with a half dozen or so songs, you’ll find your oral comprehension takes LEAPS forward.
I did this and then sang these songs in the shower every morning. And when I got back to Mexico, my ex BF claimed that my accent had disappeared too.
Saludos!
KG
in B.
P.S. I consider having learned Spanish to be a terrific investment. There’s roughly a half-billion people in the world who speak it, and it allows you to travel all over Latin America, save for Brazil, though I suspect it’d help even there as one can more or less read Portuguese if one can read Spanish.
That’s a great tip and I will try it. Thank you!
Speaking French, English, and Spanish means that I can travel the bulk of the world and be likely to find someone who can understand me. It also means mutual intelligibility with other languages — I can understand Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian quite well, as well as a smattering of German and Dutch.
Can’t believe I have super fast free wifi at a Pemex. Loved gorditas in Acapulco but they did not come with caldo.
FYI, we call it the village and when one goes into Mazatlan it is called going to town 🙂
Yay for random free wifi! The gorditas in Sinaloa are unique to this state and not like gorditas in the rest of Mexico. According to my research.
Duly noted. I think also think of going to Maz as going to town, but since I actually live in the village, going ‘downtown’ feels more natural to me. 😉