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Published: February 20th 2015
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Thursday we lounged about the house a bit before heading to the Nespresso store where Alex was purchasing an espresso machine, the same one we have. After numerous attempts at getting a tour reservation for Casa Barragán, a private architecture gallery of sorts, we hit the road back to Coyoacán to pick up some of the pottery we had seen the day prior, or so we thought. Instead we encountered an obnoxious protest with hundreds of people that caused traffic to reach a standstill. At one point we just went with the flow and pushed through a red light while police and military with machine guns sat there and watched.
We basically didn't have enough time to go to the nursery with the cheap pottery thanks to the protesters so we instead returned to the Mercado de Ciudadela to clean up shop there. We ended up with three beautiful pieces - a big pitcher and two serving dishes, then a tree bark painting with turquoise birds or paradise, for a total of around $75 which was an absolute steal. I also picked up some of the cute toothpicks with painted animals on them like those from the mezcal fruit the
night before. Mexican dinner in Boston forthcoming so we can use our new stuff!
At this point it was go time, lunch at Pujol, Mexico's #1 restaurant and ranked #20 worldwide. Wasn't even an option to not go there, really! The lunch menu was a 7-course affair, so we starved all day to make room. What ensued was magical. The place was quite small, rather dark with simple furnishing, beautiful wood tables, and actually quite smokey. We started with some aperitifs, sherry for us and champagne for Alex. Course one was an array of street food - first elote, a baby roasted corncob with chicatana ant mayonnaise, coffee, and costeño chile. It was casually served out of a smoking gourd. Accompanying this were sunchoke crisps over a xikil pak sauce (lime, pumpkin seed, chamomile) and then a bocol huasteco, a fritter or sorts stuffed with cheese from chiapas and served with poco de gallo. In between bites we were to drink an infusion of red corn, cilantro, and pericón, a native herb.
Course two was a rockfish crudo dotted with flowers, spices, and herbs followed by a yellow mole with squash, eggplant, and brussels sprouts leaves. By this
time we had ordered a nice bottle of California garnacha as well. Course four we diverged - I went with the octopus, ink tostada, habanero and oregano mayonnaise; Chris got the barbecue lamb taco, guajillo chile adobo, avocado flower, avocado purée. For the fifth course we both went with the polomo, a tenderloin-esque cut of pork seared on the grill and served with fermented vegetables and kumquat. Course six was two types or mole served with freshly-made tortillas. The first was made that morning, while the second was aged for 589 days, reheated each day to prevent contamination - so rich and wonderful.
The last course was entitled "final feliz" - happy ending - and it was splendid. Beforehand, however, we had a surprisingly amazing palate cleanser - a green apple slice soaked in mezcal with lime, mint, and sal de gusano, salt with dried worms a la those found in bottles of mezcal. After that was a sorbet with lichi, ginger, lime, and coconut doused with coconut cream. Second was a mil hojas made with dried apples in lieu of pastry. Next was some kind of banana mash enveloped in chocolate, and last was churros with a white
Elote con mayonesa de hormiga chicatana, café, chile costeño
Baby corncob with chicatana ant mayonnaise, coffee, and costeño chile (served in a smoking gourd) chocolate foamy dipping sauce. We washed that down with carrajillos, espresso with '43 liquor'. Several thousand pesos later we had died and gone to heaven. Such an awesome light lunch! While it wasn't the most incredible food I'd ever eaten, the combination of flavors, presentation, and overall experience was phenomenal. I could have returned for dinner.
After lunch we basically stumbled around Polanco looking at things we couldn't afford, also stopping for a beer so Alex could use the restroom. We eventually picked up some provisions for brunch the next day before heading back to Casa del Solar to recharge for a bit. A full day of eating, walking, and drinking put us into semi-comatose states so we spent the rest of the evening relaxing over some cava and American television as one does.
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