Tag Archives: Merida

The Casual Restaurant Critic at Yerba Santa (Minaret)

Casual Restaurant Critic, , , , ,

Stretched out along the famous Paseo de Montejo avenue, are the mansions of the henequen millionaires from the time of the haciendas. These homes, now far too expensive to maintain and pay taxes on, have been rescued and repurposed and so now, these European-styled interiors, complete with Murano glass lamps and Austrian pianos have become banks, insurance companies and in the case of the unique construction known as El Minaret, a restaurant: Yerba Santa.

The arabesque minaret that sits atop the house gives the building its name and the view from the top should not be missed. Having one of the hostesses take you up will enable you to ask about what you are seeing below; she will also tell you a little of the history of the home.

The Casual Restaurant Critic was accompanied and invited by the always charming and much Better Half on this occasion to lunch at the relatively new restaurant Yerba Santa located in this luxurious home.

What a great lunch it was, combining delicious and beautifully-presented food with attentive and professional service, which made this an exceptional experience from the refreshingly veggie start to a decadent chocolatey finish.

View from a corner table – highly recommended if you can reserve it ahead of time

What was had? The raw veggies with hummus and a creamy dip. The smoked salmon appetizer followed by the enormous Caesar salad (do NOT think you can order this and something else, it is truly enough for 2 or 3 people). The 30 some-odd ingredient mole and boneless duck were outstanding as was the crispy risotto salmon. This is worth going back for, to try more menu items and the Critic and Better Half are thinking about as this is being written!

Enjoy the photos and reserve today!https://yerbasantamerida.com

  • Amuse Bouche
  • Selection of raw veggies
  • Hummus for the veggies
  • Salmon before dressing
  • Salmon after dressing
  • Caesar Salad
  • Salmon w Crispy Risotto
  • Duck plus mole

Casual Restaurant Critic at Du Blé

Casual Restaurant Critic, , , , , , ,
Cup of Latté in a take away paper cup
Latté to go

In a hurry, the Casual Restaurant Critic stopped at the newly opened (a week at the most) Du Blé, in Plaza Fontana where Mi Viejo Molino used to be. Owner Lorena has revamped the location and made it smaller, cozier and very attractive. It’s perfect (with an outdoor area) for a light snack, sandwich, coffee or juice or, in the evenings, a few glasses of wine with pasta or a sandwich.

Well, it turned out that there was some time available and the coffee-to-go idea became a have-lunch-now idea.

The Casual Critic ordered a quiche, four cheese and bacon, which was not really the traditional quiche as you might know it, but a pastry with the filling of a quiche inside. It could benefit from a little more cheese and bacon, but it tasted good and was perfect accompanied by a delicate salad with a vinagrette house dressing.

Du Blé

A second visit with the charming influencer known as Better Half gave the Critic the chance to try two sandwiches: the Du Blé house sandwich which looks almost Cuban in its thickness and absolutely crammed with ham and cheese; and the Pork Belly sandwich, which might have been more of a roast pork sandwich. Both were excellent and again featured the salad that was tried on the previous visit.

  • Pork Belly Sandwich Closeup
  • Pork Belly Sandwich
  • Du Blé Sandwich
  • Du Blé closeup

Du Blé is an excellent option if you are say, at Altabrisa VW buying a German automobile, or perhaps at the AB mall and there is nothing there that tickles your fancy, or maybe you are just finished dealing with a sick relative at the Star Medica hospital.

Location and more information on their Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/dublecasualkitchen

Ramiro Cocina

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The Casual Restaurant and his lovely Better Half had the pleasure of sampling these tacos, recommended by someone who we shall call Andrea of Yucatan Today (because that’s her name).

A tiny hole-in-the-wall taco place, with a drive-in parking situation – as in the car drives practically into the restaurant which is cool and also helpful as there is precious little street parking – and a definite hipster vibe.

The truly outstanding food, presented as beautiful small plates and a ton of imagination and variety, is poem-worthy. Kudos to the chef! The service was also extremely patient and friendly as this was the Critic’s first visit (but not the last). Critic’s favorite plate? The two moles! The presentation was very Amazon, as in the meeting of the rivers Solimoes and Negro just off Manaus, Brasil; two colors sitting side by side. Delicious too.

If you like the idea of a great, innovative taco in a patio setting – great for pandemic dining – this place is for you. If you have the occasion to be there when a small group of hipsters from up north invade the next table, be patient and enjoy their animated, loud, oh-my-god!! conversations about landing that next Amazon contract or getting a writing gig on a Netflix show and planning their next Uber outing to a cenote or Uxmal. Delightful!

For their Instagram and more information along with beautiful food pics from their menu, click here!

Teya Viva – Hacienda Teya in Merida

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glass with water, on a table, blurry colorful background

The Casual Restaurant Critic and his always lovely Better Half on this occasion, now that dining in restaurants is again possible, decided on having a Sunday lunch at Teya Viva in the sparkling Paseo 60 complex that features an ADO bus terminal, an Armando Manzanero museum and a snappy business hotel along with a slew of restaurants, most of them repeats or branches of other locations.

One of these is Teya Viva, the city cousin to the popular Hacienda Teya just outside Merida on the Cancun highway, where Queen Sofia of Spain once visited the Cárdenas (hacienda owners) family on a visit to the Yucatan. Another fun fact: the Hacienda Teya was the first hacienda to be restored for use as a restaurant and social events venue, by a visionary Yucateco, Jorge Cárdenas Gutiérrez.

Run by Jorge’s grandson, and featuring a menu full of Yucatecan classics and a gourmet special sheet designed by local chef Roberto Solis (he of Nectar fame), this very fancy restaurant is an excellent choice for when you want an upscale location with great local food. The Critic much enjoys the drive out, but all things considered, the city version is a different enough experience that it doesn’t feel like betrayal.

On this occasion, two Yucatecan classics. First up, the Pan de Cazón, which was very filling and excellent. Halfway through, the Critic asked for an extra helping of the flavorful tomato sauce which was the perfect complement to the bean-y tortilla and fish as it got a little dry at that point. The Better Half ordered up what the Critic had had the day before at the always remarkable Kinich in Izamal: Queso Relleno, also very good. Preceded by a fairly decent Sikil Pak dip the meal was accompanied by cerveza and Topo Chico mineral water.

Enjoy the photos that will hopefully make you hungry and want some good Yucatecan food soon!

The never-photogenic Sikil Pak pepita/tomato/cilantro dip, here presented in an unsettling style akin to cat food, was just average. In the background, a refreshing Chaya Limonada.

Queso Relleno – the Critic likes the olives cooked in with the meat, not merely sprinkled on top, but the flavor of this dish was very good. And the presentation – although as unphotogenic as the Sikil Pak above – is similar to that in the original Hacienda Teya, on the Merida-Cancun highway and worth a visit.
The Pan de Cazon, with its multiple layers of corn tortilla, beans and shark. Topped with the ubiquitous fire-roasted chile habanero and garnished with some Haas avocado.

Merida’s Very Own Refettorio

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La cultura trae conocimiento. El conocimiento conduce a la conciencia. Y cuando nos hacemos conscientes, estamos a un paso de ser socialmente responsables. La cultura es la clave

Massimo Bottura

Note: a version of this article is soon to be published in the Yucatan Today magazine.

Maria furiously swings her cane, over and over, beating on the defenseless form at her feet while I and a few others stand in a circle around her and watch a mixture of respect and a touch of alarm at her energetic, almost frantic, efforts to rip open the piñata.

“I do not want to get on her bad side.” This thought rushes into my mind as she vents a hidden fury.

While the concept of volunteering is not as evident as it is north of the border, Mexico does have a long tradition of individuals and social organizations responding to help those in need; particularly through the church. Of late, as more and more people find themselves in need, more and more individuals, organizations and even private companies have stepped forward to provide relief.

She looks up, her hair wildly out of place and flashes us a huge toothless grin. She has succeeded where the tender fists of the few children who had come to the Refettorio’s first Christmas brunch had not; candies now lie strewn about, and everyone –young and old – scrambles on all fours to grab their share. Everyone loves a piñata!

The latest entry into the world of social assistance from the private sector is a joint venture involving non-profits including Italian chef Massimo Bottura’s Food for Soul and our very own Fundación Palace Resorts. In a meticulously restored colonial mansion in the heart of Merida’s centro, a space has been designed to provide those who need it with a dignified and communal place to eat healthy, beautiful three-course meals served by volunteers. There is art on the walls, silverware on the tables. Meals are planned, based on what donations have been acquired and how they can be combined in a nutritious and attractive way. Each plate, as designed by chef José Angel Zamudio, rivals anything you will find at any of Merida’s finest restaurants, both in presentation and in deliciousness.

As the children and the adults return to their seats, a small band plays music and a few of the people get up to dance. Many of the guests, homeless or in otherwise precarious situations, are able to enjoy a moment free of tension, worry and hardship. The Refettorio is a place where they not only enjoy a first class meal, but also have the opportunity to take a shower with fresh soap and clean towels, obtain a change of clothes if necessary and even, on certain days, get a haircut.

All of this is possible through the support of the Palace Resorts and the logistical backing of Food for Soul. A minimal staff under the expert supervision of Claudia Bolio runs the operation and the active participation of dozens of volunteers – in the kitchen and in the dining room – provide the hands that ensure the work gets done.

Since opening this past year, in the middle of a very unplanned pandemic, the Refettorio has:

  • served over 21,000 plates of food
  • reclaimed over 8 tons of food
  • organized the participation of over 100 vulnteers
  • supported 34 organizations with donations
  • registered and attended over 350 individuals in need in Merida’s historic centro

There’s one other bit of data missing: how helping out has affected me, as one of a score of volunteers. Many of the families and individuals I had the opportunity to visit in their homes when we were doing meal delivery and now those who have come to the Refettorio to enjoy a meal I know by name and they know me. It has been a blessing to have found Claudia and this program, as it has allowed me to get out of my often-negative pandemic headspace and do something productive and feel useful.

If you have the time and the inclination, helping out at the Refettorio is a great way to give back to the community and assist those who need it most. See their website for details and contact information.

On the Road, Again

Inspired, Life in the Yucatan, , , , , ,

UPDATE: Please also read the tragic update, below, written just one day after publishing this.

We are all getting back into the swing of things with a sigh of relief at being “let out” and also a bit of apprehension as this virus is nowhere near controlled just yet. (at the time of this writing Mexico has not reached anything resembling a plateau or flattening of the curve) But, we can now order alcohol again (home delivery only) and move about more freely. More stores are open, not just grocery and OXXO either. Roadblocks are fewer and far between and so, traffic is on the upswing as well.

In much of the peninsula outside the main urban areas, there has been little to no traffic with access to many a small town restricted. Now, with these impediments removed, vehicles are once again returning to the highways of the Yucatan. This will lead to the inevitable death of many birds and other creatures who have quickly become accustomed to the lack of human activity and have ventured out from their forest homes to inspect the open and asphalted areas that are perfect for picking off insects and other small natural food items.

All manner of animals have been spotted around the peninsula, from crocodiles and deer to even a jaguar at an empty Bahia Principe hotel, near Akumal. And maybe it’s just me, but there seem to be so many more birds around than before.

Just this week, on a drive back from the village of Telchaquillo, I came across a flash of bright orange on the highway and pulled over to have a look. It was a yuya, which is a kind of local oriole, very beautiful with the typical orange, yellow and black plumage that was lying, motionless, next to another bird that had obviously been hammered by a vehicle at high speed and then run over by another.

At that moment a truck whizzed by and the unflattened bird blew from one lane to the other like an empty bag of Doritos. And its legs moved!

At this point, this little bird was still blinking

I got out of my car and picked it up. It didn’t appear to have anything broken but was obviously in distress and just blinked in confusion. Probably it had also been hit by a car and had injuries that were not readily visible. As I looked at it and took a photo, it stretched weirdly from head to toe – like a cat does – and then remained motionless. The bird had just died in my hand.

I set it down in the underbrush on the side of the road and got back in my car.

If you are reading this and are driving, please be extra careful out there on the highways to as not to accidentally hit anything. Maybe even slow down a bit! It’ll be better for you, better for your gasoline bill and better for the environment.

UPDATE:

It’s strange – almost eerie – that just a day after publishing the above, I encounter this on the entrance road to the La Ceiba golf course. This beautiful animal was killed by someone in a too much of a hurry driving far too fast. Can we please be aware and SLOW DOWN? This is tragic.

The sign says “Exceso de Velocidad”

Primera Piedra

Inspired, Life in the Yucatan, Politics, , , ,

Note: this article was started in 2010! I found it lurking behind the mayonnaise in the back of the fridge and after a quick re-read, thought it worthy of sharing. Enjoy!

I witnessed today what was probably an historical event. It was what those of us who speak English would call a ‘groundbreaking’ ceremony, where officials and businessmen have a little event aka a photo op where someone with completely un-calloused hands grasps a shovel for probably the first time in their life and pretends to actually dig something while mugging for the cameras of the eager press. In the Yucatan, where digging is a physical impossibility in most cases due to the half an inch of topsoil covering a solid limestone rock layer that extends from the hills of Muna to the coast, the groundbreaking become the ‘primera piedra‘ ceremony.

In this particular case, we were witnessing the unveiling and blessing of the ‘cornerstone’ of yet another Centro Comercial (mall) this one to be built by a conglomeration of business interests, most of which are foreign to the foreigners who read this so I will stick to generalities. The fine folks who gave us the Gran Plaza mall have gotten together with the modest Carso group (owners of such fine commercial ventures as Sanborns, Sears, Dorians, Mixup and more (including TelCel and TelMex), the Ramirez clan who own the Cinepolis chain of cinemas, and Yucatan’s largest franchise owner/operator who owns/operates most of the franchises you see in southwestern Mexico such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (known locally as simply Ken-Toh-Key), Pizza Hut (not to be confused with the local Pizza Hot), Burger King (yes, there is a Burger Queen in Merida) and the Bisquets Bisquets de Obregon franchise from Mexico.

The new mall, to be built on the new avenue that takes you to Cholul, will be spectacular, according to all those present. But this article is not about the new mall; rather, it is about the groundbreaking ceremony itself.

Once your car was parked by the obligatory valet parking, you found yourself on a corner of the property designated to soon become treeless and filled with more concrete, the scene was set with billowing white tents, hundreds of exotic candles providing subdued lighting and lounge-style background music. ‘Lounge’ is the latest style to hit Merida and everyone wants to incorporate it into their festivities to make them so much more hip. Plants were everywhere, all rushed in at the last minute and to be removed soon after the last guests had left. All kinds of fine upstanding folks were there, from the proud and fan-waving (it was a hot night) parents of some of the investors, potential contractors (lighting, construction and other) engineers doing their best to schmooze with the investors and line up some work, slim tall edecanes (female models) holding ends of ribbons and standing behind the men at the presidium table like so many exotic flowers, along with local politicians and church officials.

It is important to break here and mention that when you are starting a business in Merida, or perhaps anywhere in Mexico, it is vital that you have a ceremony where a symbolic ribbon is cut by someone important and that someone from the Catholic hierarchy drops by to say a little spiel and splash some holy water around to´’bless’ the new business venture. You can be the biggest crook in town, but if you have enough cash, all this can be arranged without any difficulty whatsoever. Now the more important you perceive your new undertaking to be, the more exclusive the list of invites. In the case of this new mall, it was a Very Big Deal indeed, because the mayor did not send a representative as he usually might do; he came himself. The governor also showed up, in person. This speaks well for the investors of the mall; that these important people, who must have very busy schedules, would take the time to come to a private function such as this and utter a few mumbled words of encouragement and take advantage of the situation to remind those present that all this development was the result of excellent government at both the municipal and state level. Of course.

But your event is complete if you can persuade some higher-up from the Catholic church to perform the Water Ceremony; and who better than the arch-bishop of Yucatan himself? Well lo and behold, he showed up in his newly acquired wheelchair with plenty of help to push him around and a vial of the necessary holy water. The size of this particular project and the actual stone itself compared to the amount of ‘holy’ water in his little vial, reminded him of a case where he had gone to a car dealership to perform this ceremony and the owner had asked him, as he splashed his water around, if that was ALL the water he had brought. He had replied “Do you want me to bless your dealership or wash the cars?” A stand-up comedian! In a wheelchair. The irony.

I don’t know where this was to end when I wrote it in 2010, but it was a work in progress that I found while cleaning up bits and pieces, odds and ends, of my writings and thought it was worth sharing. 

May 18, 2020. On Hunkering… Down

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Some new words and phrases have entered out lexicon, hand in hand with COVID19: social distancing, N95 facemasks, PPE, shelter-in-place and more. One term I have seen used all over the place – and used myself – is the phrase hunkering down. Everyone is hunkering down these days.

Hunkering sounds to me like something out of a Robert Louis Stevenson novel, something a sailor might be doing, crouched on an island in a shelter made out of palm fronds along with bits and pieces rescued from a broken sailing vessel. Or a man stranded alone in the mountains, protected from the elements by pine and fir branches, perhaps staring out at a small fire sputtering in the drizzle directly outside.

It is rare if not impossible to find hunkering all by itself. You can’t just hunker. “I’ll be hunkering over here for a while” just doesn’t work. You have to hunker … down.

Dictionary.com has five definitions but it is the third one on the list that definitely applies at this moment:

“to settle into the safety of one’s home or other designated shelter for a potentially long time, as would be necessitated by a natural disaster or an outbreak of a contagious disease”

It’s first recorded usage dates back to the early 1700’s and is possibly derived from the Old Norse hüka which means ‘to crouch’ This in turn is similar to the old Dutch huiken or modern German hocken, both of which mean ‘to squat or crouch’ so that theory seems to make perfect sense.

To my untrained ear it sounds very old-British and some have even traced its use back to Scotland. I fact, the Oxford English Dictionary describes how to hunker: “squat, with the haunches, knees and ankles acutely bent, so as to bring the hams near the heels (hams? really?) and throw the whole weight upon the fore part of the feet”.

An interesting and digressive factoid: the term was popularized in south-western United States dialect form by U.S. President Johnson in the 1960’s.

No matter its origins; while the hunkering down we are doing is less about crouching on haunches in the wild, it is about staying in one place, safe from the outside world and its inherent and contagious dangers, and staring – like the shipwreck victim or the mountain man – balefully out at the bleak world just beyond our shelter.

April 20, 2020. Sweeping as Therapy

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Who knew?

My morning routine, such as it is here in the COVID19 era, involves taking a broom and sweeping the driveway. 

In case you don’t live in Yucatan and don’t know, we are at the height of our dry season and many trees are popping seed pods off by the thousands in preparation for the rains that will soon come. Nature is smart that way. 

Each morning finds our treed driveway littered with hundreds of cracked open seed pods, their contents strewn randomly and wastefully all over the concrete. These pods are dry and have the consistency of hard plastic. Stepping on them results in a satisfying crunch that will make you jump in anticpation to the next step, just to crunch every pod you can, like a six year old stomping in a puddle. The satisfaction is similar to that achieved when you take that piece of bubble wrap and pop all those delicious bubbles. Step on these hard shells with bare feet however, and you will be reminded of that time you stepped on your kids/cousins/brothers/sisters lego in the middle of the night. Ouch.

But, once again I digress.

The morning sweep with the headphones on comes after the morning walk and the morning coffee enjoyed by the morning fire. There is a certain satisfaction moving that broom back and forth, hypnotically watching the seeds, leaves and dirt accumulate, while listening to Bill Maher trying to be funny from his backyard and without an audience, or the New York Times Michael Barbaro emphatically interjecting yet another “HMM” during an interview with an enthusiasm usually reserved for Mayan mestizas during a particularly juicy piece of gossip.

Once the sweeping is finished, it’s back to the morning coffee and attending to pressing decisions about what to cook for the day’s lunch, whether or not it’s garbage day, washing whites or colors, or any number of mundane tasks that could be undertaken to take my mind off the fact that this situation is dragging on and on (and on) and I have no legit means of income and what will happen when my meager savings are used up and my credit cards limits have been saturated…

Where’s that broom? 

 

A Day in the Life – Installing a Boiler

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The young man behind the long counter at the periferico Boxito megastore smiled knowingly in what could be described as an almost-smirk, as he heard me out patiently on my third visit to this famous Yucatan plumbing supply institution.

“So why did they sell you that?” he asked with a friendly yet slightly chiding laugh. It was a general question, not one that required an answer because the only answer was to say I was stupid, that I believed the ‘expert’, or that the guy who sold me ‘that’ was an idiot.

For those who don’t know me, there is a reason I don’t attempt to fix things around the house myself; it’s because I am a complete idiot with a wrench or any hand tool for that matter. Anything I try to fix becomes more broken, anything I try to replace I ruin with my clumsy attempts at being a handyman. Plumbing, electrical, anything mechanical, it matters not.

Our hot water heater, thanks to our hard Yucatan water and its age; two years of life which seems to be the lifespan of electrical appliances and plumbing fixtures, died. It sprung a leak from somewhere in its bowels and there was no replacing the water tank and so, it was time to find its replacement. And what with our chilling Yucatan winter, the hot water was a must, even if it was just for the washing machine or the kitchen sink. There is something about washing dishes with hot water…

Changing a boiler – how hard can this be? Disconnect input and output water hoses, disconnect gas. Remove boiler from where it is and put a new one in its place. Re-attach water and gas lines. Simple, straightforward.

Maybe for a normal person, but not for me.

The disconnecting process went smoothly. A couple of turns of my one all-purpose wrench and all the hoses were disconnected and the boiler was on the ground on its side, purging itself of its 40 liters of accumulated warm water.

I then went to Boxito (boh-SHEE-toh) a very well-known plumbing supply company in Merida, to buy a new boiler. Nothing fancy, as a previous experience with a snazzy Bosch water heater at 10,000 plus pesos had taught me that the more expensive brands are too delicate and no match for the rougher elements of the Yucatan. I found something cheap, under 2,000 pesos and brought it home. I figured that at that price the boiler was almost disposable, should I screw up the installation in a major way.

Turns out that the hoses feature 3/4 inch connectors on the old boiler and on this newer, smaller version, they are 1/2 inch. I will need a reductor to make this connection. I also wonder where the spark comes from to light the gas and heat the water

Back I go, on my second visit. I mention to the Boxito man that I need the little piece that will convert my 3/4 inch to a 1/2 inch whatever and we had the longest possible conversation on this admittedly trivial subject.

The salesperson I was talking with accompanied me to the counter where the ‘experts’ and their computer screens are, explained the situation and the conversation took many exciting twists and turns. The most interesting aspect of the dialogue is that it was all between the salesperson and the expert. The expert would ask questions about what I, the client, wanted or needed. I reminded him that I was actually standing in front of him and he could simply direct his gaze and questions at me, which resulted in a rather sullen attempt at customer service, completely at odds with the optimistic motivational posters behind him describing the importance of customer service and how important us customers were to Boxito.

We then went into a lengthy discussion on whether or not the boiler needed batteries. I explained to him that the flames will ignite only with the help of a spark which must be created by either an electrical connection, a battery or a little miniature caveman with flint fire creation tools inside the boiler. The expert was adamant that it did not need batteries and so naturally my response was to go to the showroom floor and take the demo and place it in front of him, opening the battery compartment for him to admire. At this point he admitted that yes, that model needed batteries.

Finally, with the connectors (and two D cell batteries) in my hand (after paying at what appeared to be a bank teller window where a humorless and disinterested woman took my money with a minimum of amiability) I headed back home to complete my installation.

Of course, these connectors did not work, as they were missing the female or male  (can’t remember which) threaded part where you actually screw the hose onto the thing. Not being a plumber, I stupidly did not become aware of this fact until I was actually trying to put all the pieces together. The batteries remained in their blister pack for the moment.

A third and thankfully final visit to Boxito was the charm. Another expert, this time one who actually knew what he was talking about, quickly and after the chiding (above) was over and done with, furnished me with the appropriate part. The third visit was worth the 19 pesos it cost me for the connectors.

At home, the connectors worked, the batteries were inserted and voila – nothing happened. At the end of all this, I had to call in my plumber to finish the installation; he did the wrapping of the connections with Teflon tape and stopped the leaks from my rather poor installation and switched the position of the batteries (I swear I did this and nada) and lo and behold: hot water in the kitchen sink.

How nice it would have been to have those folks at Boxito actually know what they are doing and take preemptive action to ensure the customer’s happiness that seems so important to them, at least on the posters. Not everyone knows what they are doing but this was a pretty cut and dry case and I could have left feeling like they actually were interested. All the radio advertising in the world with offers of free tacos (they do this often) are wasted if this is the customer experience, in my somewhat opinionated opinion.

For now, I will continue to rely on my plumber and my electrician and my mechanic for all my home (and car) repair needs.