Oaxaca...

Oaxaca...

We came, we saw, we stuffed our faces, and I became an expert in Oaxacan banos...

Our last three days in Mexico were spent in this beautiful colonial town - a place so well preserved and rich in heritage it still looks the same as it did 300 years ago. Complete with 16th century cathedral and a lively town square that seems to hold a party each night of the week, whether it be for politics, food, or public displays of affection, Oaxaca is a colourful jewel in Mexico's poorest state. Each building celebrates the colours for which Mexico is so famous for - hues of blue, green, turquoise, red and yellow, making the whole town resemble an architectural patchwork quilt.

After checking into our hostel and realising that our fellow dorm-mates were really boring (seriously, who sleeps in a dorm in a thong, but also travels with an umbrella?), we charged ourselves with coffee and set out to explore the town and soak up the Oaxacan atmosphere. Beautiful it certainly is, and I'm sure the below pictures don't do the place justice. The town is rich enough in culture to keep any history buff content, but after wandering around in the Mexican heat for a couple of hours we commenced our main objective for visiting this place - the search for Oaxacan cuisine. Famous throughout Mexico and further afield (the English restaurant chain, Wahaca - phonetically spelt to help dum westerners - should be ashamed at lending its name to this region's cuisine), Oaxacan food is both quintessentially Mexican and completely unique in its own right. 

Everyone drives a beetle in Oaxaca.

Cathedral santo Domingo

Mexico has the best bunting!

Ais started off our culinary experience with a pork taco from a hawker stall that was quote/unquote the best. fucking. taco. ever. So much so, she went back for a second (and why wouldn't you at 60 cents a pop?), while I hungrily looked on, dutifully photographing the taco of wonder in all its spec(taco)ular (sorry, couldn't resist) glory. 

Sadly Oaxacan street tacos don't lend themselves to vegetarians, so I had to wait until dinner. And what a dinner it was... Housed in an open-air courtyard we sipped cervesas and devoured:

Tortilla horns stuffed with hibiscus flowers and chipotle

Ceviche

Four cheese soup with crisp-fried tortillas

Zucchini flowers stuffed with queso fresco

Jealous? You should be.

Bear in mind these were just entrees and we literally had to be rolled out the door... With our bellies full we stumbled into our beds, ready for the next day's gluttony.

Unfortunately the rich food and ice (of the non-crystal meth variety) had clearly taken their toll, and I woke up with the gut from hell. Now, I don't mean to over share (and you all know how much I love talking about poo - Therese where are you when I need you!), but this was explosive on epic proportions. The kind that would have matched the recent rumblings of Mexico's only live volcano. Definitely not the day to be going on an 8-hour bus tour of Oaxaca's surrounding countryside. Which is exactly what we did. We saw a large tree (whoopty-doo), a women's village where they make rugs in the age-old Aztec tradition - fine, but where was the bathroom? 

Does my bum look big with this tree? Probably shouldn't mention bum....

Rug up.

Trying to be arty.... Indulge me.

Visited a petrified waterfall - yes, pretty, but where were the bathrooms?, were taken to a terrible place for lunch - the kind where bus-loads of Chinese tourists are dropped off for an overpriced bain-marie buffet - shit food, but great bathrooms! And indulged in some impressive archaeology, again, no bano in sight. As you can probably tell I was somewhat distracted from the day's activities and was hugely relieved when we arrived back at our hostel.

Petrified!

 I probably should have starved myself for the rest of the day, but I couldn't resist this huge piece of corn that was an exact replica of the kind you get at Fonda's... Except this cost me 50 cents as opposed to $3.50.

Perfect friday lunch anyone?

Armed with a delicate stomach, lots of bottled water and emergency immodium we spent our final day in Oaxaca at a local cooking class courtesy of casa crespa, a beautiful restaurant run by probably 'the only gay in the village'. (Paul, from what I could make out Paul Wilson also took a cooking class here a few months earlier, so the influences for the recipes in new latin food should be good!). We were taken to the local market and shown everything from avocado leaves (which taste like aniceed), at least one hundred varieties of dried chilli, herbs that I cannot begin to pronounce, and bags upon bags of zucchini flowers that cost $1 a kilo...

Chillies!

Laden with groceries we headed back to the restaurant where we donned chefs' whites and began cooking. In no particular order, we made:

3 types of salsa - simple tomato, with cumin, and with avocado leaves

Ceviche with lime, capers, onion and olives

Spicy tomato sopa with fried tortillas

Peanut mole with cheese/chicken

Tortillas filled with queso fresco and zucchini flowers, or with grasshoppers. Which we did try... They basically taste of salt.

Quesadillas stuffed with zucchini flowers

Caramel flan

Cucumber and chilli juice 

Phew!

Hand on my hip to make it look like I've done this a million times before...

Mole, mole, mole, mole....

Sopa con crispy tortillas y cucumber and chilli juice (we're practically fluent these days...)

Not only did we get to cook this delicious feast but also consume it at the end. Maybe not the best thing to put in a delicate stomach, I hear you cry. And yes, you'd be absolutely right. But it was completely worth it, even if their toilet didn't flush (wish I'd worked that out at the start) and I practically had to run through the streets of Oaxaca back to the hostel... Certainly a memorable, if not slightly uncomfortable last day in Oaxaca.

We toasted Mexico with our final cervesa Sols, celebrated the retrieval of ais' sleeping bag (I'll let her tell that story in the next edition of coughlan's corner), lamented over the fact that we could easily spend our whole 6 months travelling this country, as it's such an amazing place, and departed early the next day for the next leg of our adventure.

Adios Mexico. Buenes tardes Colombia!