Everything Tastes Better Wrapped in Bacon
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2007
1
30
47
Trip End
Nov 13, 2007
Oaxaca,
Mexico
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Tomorrow is the last day of Spanish school for my Dad and I and then we're off to parts south. Palenque and then Guatemala. We've been over two weeks here in Oaxaca and I can officially proclaim it a very nice place. It certainly isn't overpowering of awe-inspiring. It lacks the grandeur of Guanajuato or the beauty of Zacatecas, in fact it's kinda squat and normal-looking. Oaxaca does have one thing that no other city I have visited in Mexico can claim to have, and that is excellent street food.
Now, as some of you know, street food is very important to me
Evening at the Creperie, Oaxaca Mexico
. It is one of the most important ways in which I judge a place. My love of street food is closely tied to my love of SE Asia (the Shangrila of street food). Street food is the one category where New York truly kicks Chicago's ass (more than kicks it, it vaporizes Chicago's ass). Oaxaca also kicks Chicago's ass, and maybe even reaches the vaporization level. Street food here is prevalent and varied. In addition to a dozen different types of tacos, all of which are equally unidentifiable and delicious, there are tortas and tostadas and flautes and pozole (popcorn soup, don't knock it till you try it, preferably around 8PM outside the central market), and in addition to the Mexican food there is more local, Zapotec treats like roasted grasshopper (don't knock it till you try it, then you can join me in pronouncing it terrible) and lots of stalls selling hamburgers and hot dogs. Hot dogs? In Mexico? Yep, and of course I had to try one. Which brings me to the title of this post. Why has no one outside of Oaxaca yet thought to wrap a hot dog in bacon? It's brilliant and it's very tasty (the giant pile of peppers and onions on top helped, too).Unfortunately, Oaxaca is not just street food and Spanish lessons. It's a much more complicated than that. Last year, for several months, the local Teachers Union drove out the governor (along with the police and the rest of the government) and took over the town
Giant Puppets
. They repulsed several attempts by the State of Oaxaca to retake the city and it wasn't till federal troops were sent in that the governor was reinstalled in Oaxaca. During those months of Disturbance (as the locals now refer to it) several people were killed, including an American reporter. That report was a friend of a good friend of mine. She reminded me of what had happened here soon after I arrived. It certainly put a new spin on all the political protests that I've seen here, as well as the overwhelming police presence in the city. Last Sunday they had the first elections here since The Disturbance. I was half-expecting riots and chaos but last Sunday was the quietest, calmest day I've experienced anywhere in Mexico. Nevertheless, I don't think this city is quite as calm and peaceful as it seems on the surface.Well, that's it from Oaxaca. This is probably it from Mexico. I don't expect much internet access until I've crossed over into Guatemala. Central America, HERE I COME!!!
Comments
Buenos Dias... o noches.
Hey,
Been followin your trip, its is awesome. I am a permanent shad of green, especially now that Chicago winter is creeping in. You get to ride in the warm wonderful lands of South America, I get to ride the cold, windy, bumpy roads of Chicago. Es vive.
Congrats on the spanish conversation! Rootin for ya from the north!
Greg