Today, Pat and I played the piano. It was a dark and stormy day, though the promised rain did not fall all day long until now at twilight....
And the tree men came to prune the coral tree. They arrived at about the same time as Patricia, so all was confusion for a time. But they settled into their task as we into ours. We had a good couple of hours working things out, and as they finished up their work we were done with playing and ready to go to Aqui Es Texcoco, a little restaurant here in Chula Vista, on Broadway.
The tree looked great and still does. They did the exacting and wondrous task called "lacing out," and that is indeed what it is. They removed the little branches and tag ends of twigs, and made the tree look very pretty. They also took the pressure off a number of wires and cables coming in from the street, as a number of the branches had been growing unchecked into tensions and positions that were really dangerous. Now, I can hope for a really good blooming season this February, now that the tree is relieved of a great deal of energy-consuming wood and leaf. All the rest of the leaves will be down pretty soon, and the shapely new limbs will shine as they await the spring.
At Texcoco, they specialize in borrego. A borrego is a ram, nothing more and nothing less. The meat is slow cooked, barbacoa style. It was tender and tasty in itself, but there were no seasonings applied to the meat that I could tell. On the side, there were dishes of chopped onion and parsley, and two sauces, one dark and rich and sweet and one thin and green and bitey.
Patricia had sopes, which is the same meat put into tart style circles of masa with a rim built in, and fried. That is, the meat is put in after the sopes area fried. Chopped iceberg lettuce and Mexican sour cream topped this modest presentation. Same sauces on the side.
I had consome, which is ==consomme, with some white rice and garbanzo beans and some flavorings cooked into it. Very nice but a bit salty I thought.
Well, I was lucky enough to be brought up in the flavor richness of northern Mexico. I cannot fault the preparation nor the freshness of the food at Aqui Es Texcoco, but I long for a little bite, the kind of bite I am familiar with from home. Texcoco must be a poor area, and the ram a great treat for the Texcocans. It is a delicious meat as prepared by these experts. No tallowy taste whatsoever. Just plain good. And plain. YAZZYBEL
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