Names don't always translate well....

Sometimes clever marketing in one language, fails in another language.  There are a few of those here in Mexico.      

Bimbo bread / baked goods has been a favourite of mine since my first visit to Mexico.  It's just so darn cute.  And popular!! It's so popular, it's even written on some sports jerseys.  Which makes it even funnier.  I don't know if the brand exists throughout all of Latin America, but I've also seen it in Costa Rica.    

Apparently, in Ghana, there's a cola called "Pee Cola".  Which means "very good" cola.  Which is interesting because the Internet tells me that English is the official language in Ghana.  Though 250 languages are spoken there.  I wonder in which language this product is branded???

PS.  Let's not forget the Chevy Nova car.  Cute name in English.  In Spanish, it means "no go".  Not ideal....

Pictures
1&2 Chokis and Sponch cookies. Google translate doesn't give these words any particular meaning.  But Sponch cookies were for a limited time only!!
3- Pee Cola, from Ghana
4 -Bimbo bread!!!  I think Bimbo comes from bambino, cute, fun...
5 - Who wouldn't wanna stat at Villas Skankey?!

 

Lunch at el Maple

I like Mexican food.  But sometimes, a girl needs to have something different. El Maple is great for that!!!!

There are lots of foods here that I really like: mangos, avocados, pineapple, BBQ chicken and porc chops, eggs with a super yellow yolk, and green sauce on my eggs.  But the bread and baked goods here are generally disappointing. A lot of it is dry, not chewy.  Just not for me....

The baked goods at El Maple are the exception. Their bread and pastries are awesome!

El Maple has 2 locations.  A bakery and restaurant deep in the neighbourhood, away from the main tourist zone.  They also have a cute little restaurant on the north side of town.  That's where I had the most delicious breakfast yesterday.  After I helped Tom with the Brian Collins farewell breakfast (see previous post).  One toast with cream cheese, cucumber, and smoked salmon. Another toast with cream cheese, and fresh fruit.  Super yum!


I think the ownership has a Canadian connection, which explains the name, "The maple".

 Pictures
1- My delicious lunch!
2- Tom had a poached egg presented in a grilled Parmesan "bowl".  I got to try a bite, it was also delicious!
3- El Maple is also known as the "Maple Bakehouse"
4 - My OJ, Tom's mango smoothie, and baskets of amazing baked goods on the wall in the background.  Maybe I bought a sticky bun to take home.....
5 + Some cute signs on the wall in the restaurant

Brian Collins and The Van Lears

Last night was "take two" for me for a Brian Collins "Meet me in Mexico" event. This morning was my first breakfast with Brian and his fans. 


Who is Brian Collins?  He's the same as he was last year ;)  He's a country/ rock/blues music performer from the USA.  He seems to have a very dedicated group of followers.  Last year, about 150 people came to Cozumel to see him play.  Unfortunately, the turn out was much smaller this year, at about 60 people.


Maybe the difference in the number of people had something to do with the musicians accompanying him for the events?   Last year, Danny de los Reyes was there.  He's a very accomplished drummer.  (See my January 29, 2017 post)  This year, the accompanying musicians were Zach Nytomt and The Van Lears. All country/folk musicians.  Quite good. But I don't think they're as established as Danny de Los Reyes.

New for me this year, was participating in this morning's farewell breakfeast for Brian and his fans.  It was at Tom's coffee shop.  I volunteered to help out.  Mostly I cleaned tables and dishes.  It was a fun event, with Zach Nytomt playing in the coffee shop.


Pictures
1- The concert was under a huge palapa last night.  The air was smooth and warm.  Very nice ambiance.
2 - Brian Collins posing with some of his hard core fans this morning.  They're a really pleasant gang.

3- A picture from the Van Lears web site.  They put new meaning to "artists must suffer for their art".  Both pretty much wore the same thing last night and this morning, as in this picture.  They must have been sweating bullets!!!
4 - Tom and Mirko working really hard making coffee this morning.  I had to apologize to Tom cause I told everyone how good his peanut butter coffee is.  So lots of this fairly labour intensive delicacy got ordered...
5- Zach Nytomt playing in the coffee shop.
6- This dog took a liking to me last night.  I started by petting his head.  This is where it all led to.....

 

El Bungalow - a new favourite place

Since my apartment is in town, a few blocks from the ocean, I'm always looking for nice waterfront places to read and lounge a little.  El Bungalow is my new favourite.

In past years, one of my favourite waterfront places was Cafe del Mar.  They had great bean bag "chairs", a great salad with mango and coconut, and the atmosphere was really pleasant.  Sadly, it's now closed.

But not far from that old favourite, is my new favourite - El Bungalow.  Google Translate says it means the same in Spanish as in English - a low house with a broad front porch, with no upper floor.  Or with rooms set in the roof.  Makes sense.  The whole top/roof is a big covered porch with a great view of the ocean.  The bottom/ground floor is the kitchen and bathrooms.  There are also a few tables on the beach.  I so love sitting at a table in the shade with my feet in the sand!

I've been there twice so far.  Each time to read, have lunch, enjoy the view.  So far, I wouldn't rush there for the food.  But the service is attentive without being pushy.  The first time I was there, my highlighter ran out.  My waitress very kindly lent me one.  I'm reading a book about investing.  Not your typical beach/vacation read, but it's interesting.  My habit, when trying to learn/remember, is to highlight then make notes.  Kinda geeky. But hopefully useful!

Pictures
1- The ground floor of El Bungalow has some fun paintings on it
2 - My office for the afternoon
3- El Bungalow seems popular with locals as well as tourists.  I like that.  It makes me sad that so much of the development / tourism makes it harder for Mexicans to enjoy their own island
4 - The view towards the north. 

Wet Wendy's on a Wet Wednesday Evening

What fun!

I spend most of my evenings, after class, at home.  But tonight, I joined some friends for an evening of Cuban/Mexican music at a little bar called Wet Wendy's.  It was perfect! 

The music was great!  The musicians looked like they were enjoying themselves.  That's so important to me. Watching people dance was fun too.  There were so many with skill!  Old, young, some athletic looking, some not.  But all were up there. Celebrating the music!

I had my first beverage on this trip.  A giant pina colada!  Yum!

Unfortunately, the evening ended a bit abruptly because it started to rain, and of course, this whole event happened outside. 

But my bike ride home was still great.  The air was smooth.  The puddles fun.  Have I mentioned how much I love my bicycle?!!!

PS - Maybe I'm writing this still slightly under the influence of my pina colada....

Pictures
1- The band at Wet Wendy's.  I don't know their name...
2- The lead singer saw me taking pictures, and hammed it up.  His microphone was really neat looking.  Vintage.  With a red light.
3 - Not a great picture.  But it gives a sense of the people dancing.  All types.  Awesome to watch.  For the record, I love to dance.  But I'm not good at dancing salsa.  Especially since damaging my calf. Tippy toe, which is used a lot in salsa, is very tricky for me.
4 - The decor in the bathroom at Wet Wendy's is fun!

The north end of town - Big Fish and Aeroplanes!

I live at the south end of San Miguel, the main town in Cozumel.  There are many reasons to like it here. But the north end of town is more "real" in some ways.  I rediscovered some of its' joys today. 

One of them is the airport.  Which is just outside town.  From the road/sidewalk, you can see part of the  runway. Which means that, if you're patient, you can stand right under planes that are landing or taking off.  

I had forgotten that.  So, you can imagine my surprise/awe when a plane went right over my head!  While I was taking a picture of a tree.  It was coming in for a landing.  At first, I just heard the sound.  Loud.  Powerful.  Then, there it was!  I stayed there for a while waiting for the next plane.  It was awesome!!!

Another neat thing about the north end of town is the small fishing boat landing.  Locals bring their boats onshore and unload their catch almost every day.  A boat with bright coloured paint caught my attention as I went past.  Then, I saw the fish.  Big!

The fishermen were kind enough to chat with me and let me take pictures

Pictures
1-  An airplane landing over my head.  Wow!!!
2 - A fisherman kindly posing with the fish he was cleaning.
3 - I'm assuming that's the boat the fisherman was using.  His buddies were moving stuff on/off the boat.
4 - There are 3 vintage military planes on display just outside of the airport grounds. This one is a T-28 Trojan, used as a training plane until 1982.
5 - This is Chris, one of the fishermen who chatted with me.  The size of their beer bottles (and bellies) was very impressive!  Chris actually pushed his belly out for the picture.  He had a fun sense of humour and very good English
6 - The big tree, with interesting roots, that made me stop just outside the airport.

 

Meliponinae- stingless honey bees

Today, I learned about a bee that doesn't sting, but makes delicious honey!
 
There are about 15 bee species native to the Americas. Most live in the tropical regions. Historically, the Mayans' favourite was called "xuna'an kab" which means "Royal Lady".  It's Latin name is Melipona beecheii.  It's more common name varies depending on the information source.  I'll call it meliponinae.


Although stingless bees don't sting, they can bite with their mouths to defend their hives. And can leave a welt like a mosquito bite.

In the wild, meliponinae live in hollow trees.  Traditional Mayan beekeepers also kept their bees in sections of hollow trees that were about 2 feet long. The two ends of these jobóns, which were stored horizontally, were closed by a stone or ceramic plug.  The bees moved in/out of their homes via a hole along the length of the log, and a tunnel that they made out of wax.

The bees kept their brood (eggs/larvae) in the middle of the hive, and stored their honey and pollen in egg shaped "pots" made of wax, on the outer edges of the hive. Beekepeers could simply remove the plugs at the end of the log to harvest the honey. If well maintained hives could last over 80 years and be passed down through generations.

A stingless bee colony could have up to 80,000 bees, and produce about 2 kg of honey per year. The Mayans traditionally used meliponinae honey for religious ceremonies, and as a cure for many things including coughs, cataracts, and infections, including eye infections.

Some Mayan farmers still practice beekeeping in much the same way as before.  But the populations of the stingless bees are in decline.  Partly because of deforestation, presticide use, and habitat loss due to large storms.  Also because Mexican beekeepers now prefer to use European and Africanized honey bees.  Which make considerably more honey than meliponinae.

Happily, conservation efforts have begun. And some families (still) treat stingless bees as pets. They hang one or many log-hives in and around their houses.

Pictures
1-The symbol in the middle is a bee!
2-I learned some of this at a tourist place called Pueblo de Mais, a reproduction of a Mayan village for tourists.  This was the honey tasting station.
3 - A tunnel that the bees made of wax to get into their hive.  Courtesy of Google
4 - The pots made of wax that the bees use to store their honey and pollen.  Courtesy of Google
5 - There's a little store in my neighbourhood that only sells honey.  This was the honey tasting station.  Delicious!
6 - A cross section of the inside of a hive.  It's kinda hard to understand what we're seeing, but it's really neat anyways! 

 .

When in Mexico...eat galaktoboureko, a delicious Greek dessert!

I really like Mexican food.  I enjoy eating the food I cook, in my apartment.  But sometimes change is great!!!


Tonight, I went to a Greek restaurant, Taberna El Greco, with Barbara and Tom.  As a group, we had hummus, tatziki, lemon chicken, pita bread, grilled eggplant, and Greek salad.  It was all delicious!!!  But the best part, from a "trying something new that's interesting and delicious" angle was a dessert we shared.  Galaktoboureko (Greek: γαλακτομπούρεκο)
 
Wikipedia says galaktoboureko is a semolina custard topped with filo pastry and a clear sweet syrup. What's a semolina custard you ask?  

Semolina comes from durum wheat.  Durum, which means hard in latin, is the hardest of all wheats. It's the type used to make pasta and couscous.  The CBC says Canada is the world's premier exporter of durum wheat for making pasta, including making pasta in Italy!  

There are 3 parts to every wheat grain/seed. The outer layer/skin is called bran, as in bran muffins or cereal.  It's especially rich in fibre. The part that will sprout and make a new plant is called the germ,  short for germination.  It's the most vitamin and mineral-rich part of the grain. The rest of the grain is called endosperm.  It's starchy and provides food for the germ to grow. 


To make semolina, the durum grain is ground and the endosperm is separated from the rest.  When the endosperm from Durum wheat is coarsely ground, it's called semolina.  When it's finely ground, it called Durum flour.  Both are yellow in colour.  Which gives pasta it's distinctive creamy colour. 

Durum wheat has gluten, but it's difficult to activate the gluten.  Activated gluten is what makes bread dough elastic, and baked bread fluffy.  So durum wheat doesn't make good bread.  But that lack of elasticity is great for making pasta.  

Semolina custard, is made by boiling or baking a mixture of egg yolks, sugar, meringue, milk, cream, semolina, and vanilla. The texture is creamy, a bit like rice pudding.  Delicious!!!

Pictures
1- Outside of the Taberna El Greco
2- Our Galaktoboureko.  The plate got messed up before I could take the picture.  But it was really neat.  There was an outline of a fork in cinnamon sprinkled on the bottom of the plate. 
3 - A diagram of a grain of wheat.  Just like the one we use at the farm!!!
4 - A close-up of semolina.  Turns out "grits" are corn semolina.
5 - A pretty sculpture in the Taberna El Greco

 

Painting, and peanut butter coffee

Again.  It was rainy, windy, and chilly today. But there's nothing like painting, a good book, and peanut butter coffee to turn a yucky day, into a nice day!

As in past years, I have several "missions" for this years' visit to Cozumel. Painting is one of them. 

Although I really enjoy painting, the process can sometimes be difficult.  So it's really nice to have the time and energy to focus on it.  My dining room, with all it's windows, and my balcony, with it's lovely breeze (on a nice day) are great places to do that.  I spent most of this morning working on a new project.  Only to be revealed when done....

But a girl has to get out of the house!  So I spent my afternoon at Coz Coffee, the coffee shop that my friend Tom owns. It's one of my favourite places to be in Cozumel.  Especially when the evenings, or days, are cool.  I don't really drink coffee.  But you don't need to be a coffee lover to enjoy Tom's peanut butter coffee. Totally decadent!

Pictures
1- My friend Tom, the proud owner of Coz Coffee.  
2- My painting of Loki Bear, Barbara and Tom's super cute dog. He's camera shy, so I might or might not have a picture of him later in the blog.
3 - My cup of peanut butter coffee and one of my fun notebooks.  Confession.  I'm a bit of a stationary geek :)
4 - A little chihuahua hanging out in front of the coffee shop.  She's wearing a sweater cause it's a chilly day.  I told you so!  She lives just down the street/pedestrian mall from the coffee shop.  There are many dogs like her that just hang out, til it's time to go home.  Tom thinks she's cute til she poops in front of his shop...

Exploring the grocery store

Brrrrr!!!  It was chilly today!
But I made the best of it.  I spent some time exploring my local grocery store. 

It was windy and grey all day.  It never went past 22C.  I had to wear a sweater.  Poor me.....OK.  Maybe not....

Anyhow....it was a good day to linger at the grocery store.  In so many ways, the big grocery stores here are much like at home.  There are aisles for produce, dairy, meat, canned goods, snack foods, housewares, etc. Some of the brands are even the same like Nestle and Kelloggs.

But there are so many fun differences. One of my favourite places to explore is the produce aisle.  They have cactus, banana leaves, and so many types of chiles! I've tried some interesting produce like chipotle peppers, chayote, jicama.  But I admit, I haven't been brave enough to try them all.  At least not yet.

I also like to look at the cereals and cookies. Like at home, the labels are often designed to appeal to kids.  I somehow think  they do that more here. Then there are the canned chiles.  So many options!!!

Pictures
1- Nopal / cactus leaves.  I've tried them pickled and fresh.  They're ok.  Kinda slimy.  Like eating aloe vera.
2- Chedraui has a big bulk selection of dried peppers.  The chipotle peppers are the dark ones on the left.  Hot. Tasty!
3 - Tony the Tiger and Scooby Doo are alive and well in Mexico.
4 - I love all the tins of hot peppers!
5 - Candied fruit seems to be very popular.  I've tried the coconut rolls.  They're basically macaroons - coconut and sweetened condensed milk.  What's not to like??
6 - Milk comes in tetrapaks.  Very convenient because it only needs to be refrigerated after opening. I really like the cute cows on the labels.
7-I'm not sure why they make some of the sausage green.  They're isn't much of it.  Maybe for a "Mexican flag" meal?
8 - Maple syrup from Canada is available here. It costs about $28 Canadian for 500ml.