Happy Friday fam! Another week down, and another weekend incoming. Hope everyone is enjoying their July wherever you may be.
What’s on my mind–and in my stomach
I just had the most wonderfully gut-busting sandwich. In the coming weeks, I’m sure its consumption will turn into a (probably too long) clip/segment.
I underestimated the culinary punch Puebla would pack. Everyone knows of Mexico City and Oaxaca (and maybe Guadalajara/Jalisco) when it comes to food, but I think Puebla (the city and state) slips under the radar a bit. Something I’m fascinated about in every culture is regional cuisine. Some states are known for one or two things, Puebla is known for four to six. Check out: https://www.backyardnature.net/m/food/states/puebla.htm
Puebla in my opinion is known for the following foods/dishes:
- Mole Poblano (literally mole of Puebla)
- Chiles en Nogada (you will see this on almost every restaurant window; a seasonal/regional dish pasting homage to the Mexican flag)
- Chalupas (not Taco Bell; mini, open-faced tacos with shredded meat; typically half with red sauce and half with green)
- Tacos Arabe (spit roasted meat/pork brought over by the Lebanese immigrants served on pita bread and sometimes with a Greek-ish yogurt, jocoque)
- Cemitas (sandwiches on cemita (a local, Poblano bread with sesame seeds) typically served with a schnitzel like meat)
- Molotes & pelonas (antojitos/snacks/apps; a molote is like a deep fried empanada covered with crema and salsa with various fillings; pelonas are a sandwich with fried bread, crema, salsa, and various filling)
Today, I walked a little under an hour to go to a market to get one of the best (or at least most hyped) cemitas at Cemitas Lupita. And dear Lord, it was a spiritual experience.
The amount of quesillo (Oaxaca cheese–think refined, flavor-packed string cheese), perfect bread (cemita), savory/crispy schnitzel (one pork and one chicken), creamy avocado, and spicy chilies with eggs. It was one of the best things I’ve eaten in Puebla and probably this whole Mexico trip.
It has reminded me to de-emphasize eating at the fancy restaurants with accolades and seek out the local, street food-y favorites first.
Show I’m watching by accident?
In the haze of finishing Shadow and Bone, it looks like Yunji has moved on to watching Outlander. I occasionally drop in from episode to episode but find myself sincerely confused.
I am aware that the premise includes time travel, conflict between the British and Scottish, and that one bad man has raped another main character and a little boy. It doesn’t seem like a chill show at all.
Show I intentionally just finished
Loki gets a third shoutout on my Friday Freestyle series–it is that good. The finale (and penultimate episode) did not disappoint. Loki is Disney+/Marvel’s most successful TV show spinoff to date in my humble opinion.
If you haven’t watched it yet or don’t typically care for Loki, please do yourself a favor and bing it all this weekend–it’s only six episodes.
Expanse #7 Persepolis Rising
Babylon’s Ashes (The Expanse, 6) took me forever, but toward the end it really picked up its pace–and consequently my interest. The book ended so well that I put The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the back burner, so I could keep the momentum going with Persepolis Rising (The Expanse, 7).
I am tearing through this book at 2-3x the pace I read book 6 (tbh, this may be the quickest I’ve got through any of the books in this series). If you’re even moderately into sci-fi or enjoy massive world stories like Game of Thrones, check out book 1. If you hate reading, check out the SyFy show streaming on Amazon Prime, The Expanse.
What’s up this weekend
We’ve got a big weekend ahead of us! Our ~second~ guest is coming to visit us in Puebla. I have a full-ish day of “activities” including a lot of eating, drinking, and some walking. I’m excited to see humans from SF for the first time since March.
With our time in Puebla slowly coming to a close, that means my neurotic compulsions to eat everywhere I set out to are peaking. We will be doing our best to make time (and more importantly stomach space) to eat at the remaining restaurants I planned to try.
On the other hand, that also means slowly getting ready for our next destination: Queretaro. While this means physically packing and getting ready, it also means doing research for our next destination both in terms of where to eat and nearby day trips on the weekends.
Lastly, I’ll also be posting/publishing my first YouTube video during the weekend. More on that in the next section.
Coming soon
Procrastination finally succumbed to fate, and I will be publishing the first of my Mexico City neighborhood tour videos this weekend: Polanco Part I.
In addition to that, I filmed my Airbnb in Puebla, so a Puebla Airbnb Tour video should be coming out shortly. I’ll also be working on Polanco Part II as well as a walkthrough of the Soumaya Museum.
Blog wise, I think I’m going to work on my first reader case study and might take a jab at my first retirement post: 401k vs Roth IRA/Backdoor Roth.
That’s all for now. Write to y’all soon!