Polanco

By the time we got home last night, Debby was coughing and sputtering. A cold has been settling into her chest. Today she spent most of the day in our room and in her bed.

We are now going out on a Food Tour in Polanco. This is where all the best restaurants are. I'll add more to this later.

It's time to add a little more. Tonight I did not carry my camera because it was night time and we were just going to some restaurants. Mistake!

Polanco is gorgeous. Many of the restaurants are in amazing buildings with amazing lighting. Many of the other neighbourhoods have walls that go right up to the sidewalks, but here, people seem to want to show off their homes. Here is where the richest people live. Here is where the dignitaries stay when they visit. Here is where you find Mexico's Rodeo Drive. You can buy an Aston Martin or a Gucci Handbag.

The Mexican Food tour included some of the best food ever. Some of the restaurants were very high class and some were more like taco stands. Our guide Nicky explained that food is what brings the Mexican people together. There is an extreme range between the richest and the poorest, but they all eat the same food.

For food, we had an incredible range of flavours. Chocolate mole is amazing on a wafer thin Tlayuda, but we also tasted a much sweeter mole with a mixture of fruits, and another with a variety of chillis (not crazy hot). A chicken tamali wrapped in banana leaves revealed a remarkable depth of flavour. (We learned that tamali is a soft corn paste). Of course there had to be tacos, which you could top off with an incredible hot salsa. In a seafood restaurant, the shredded marlin exploded on our tongues. Bean soup was accented with shredded goat cheese. To finish things off we had a small scoop of mamey ice cream.

At each stage, Nicky used an iPad to show us images of the food and the regions from which they came. (What is a mamey anyway?)

All in all, this was one of the most incredible culinary experiences of our lives. Catriona, Mexican food is not bland.

Nicky (and Andrea the other participant) were constantly taking pictures with their iPhones. They promised to send them to us, and if they do I will add their pictures to this posting.