Firsts

A few days ago I had my first pulque. I read about it years ago and always wanted to try it. Pulque is a thick fermented agave drink, about the same strength as beer. It's usually flavored. The options I had were guava, pineapple or tomato with lime. I think I chose poorly -- next time I'll try a sweet one! And though it is nothing to jump for joy about, I can check it off the to-do list.

Last night my flatmate sent me a message asking where I was. He had some red wine to share. I texted back from the gym that I'd be home at nine.

Together with our landlord and another flatmate, we drank sweet red wine from the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.  I had never had wine from there before!

Then it was off to shoot pool. Last time, I won three games in a row. As I am a miserable pool player, you can imagine that is another first. I won a fourth before crashing back to normalcy.

We left shortly after midnight, but walked right past our apartment building. Our landlord wanted to show us the mescalería, which only opens late at night.

The place had no room for us, but many clients were outside on the sidewalk. We sat on someone's car. The waitress promptly appeared and patiently explained a few of the hundreds of items on the menu. I opted for a mescal (another agave beverage, similar to tequila) from the state of Guerrero. The landlord ordered chapulines.

Chapulines means grasshoppers, but I'm desensitized to food names. We eat huaraches here, but they're not shoes, they're just shaped like shoes. When I order alambres I don't expect to be served wires.

We ate toasted grasshoppers (flavored with chile, of course) on slices of orange. They tasted just like you'd expect.

And here's a non-first: I had to wake up early after late-nighting it. Off to the town of Lerma.