Pre-Thirty

This is what 30 looks like
Friends, I've got some news: I turned 30. Yo. As a gift to myself, I took a couple weeks off from the blog to enjoy the new decade. Here's what the celebrating looked like...

My natal day fell on a Monday--not the best day of the week for celebrating. Thus, the Sunday before, I headed out with the Corderos to Teotítlan de Valle. I'd read various reviews of a Zapotec restaurant nestled in a tiny community east of the city--it had gathered praise from both Gourmet Magazine and the local foodies--so it seemed worth a trip. And on your birthday (or the day before your birthday) you can obligate people to drive 35 minutes for food.



Tlamanalli is owned and run by the two Mendoza sisters. There's no menu; you just stroll in, take a seat next to the open air kitchen, and ask what your options are for the day. Then you can watch the dish come to fruition as its prepared in the colorfully-tiled kitchen at the back of the restaurant.
My chicken in a corn-based mole sauce, and Mau

The five of us (Rafael & Azucena, Mau and Alex, and me) feasted on moles, fresh corn tortillas, mezcal, guacamole served in tiny individual green pottery dishes, and flan. Yum!

Unusual, but delicious flan

I got a few little gifts--woohoo! We chatted and laughed--as is our custom when we get together for a meal. I handed my camera over to Alejandro--perhaps a mistake, as evidenced by these random photos of my face.

A simple celebration. A small group of my surrogate family. A good day.

Me holding up the building.
Some architect forgot to design the bottom half of this column.
Good thing I was there to save the day.
A little savin'-the-world on my birthday, no problem.