Tuesday, January 8, 2008

A very piggy Christmas


Wow, it's been a long time since we updated but seriously the holidays were nuts. We assumed it would be pretty quiet since we weren't going anywhere ourselves and many of our neighbor-colleagues would be gone. Instead we could barely keep up. It was pretty great.

First, Sergio's parents came for Christmas. This was a pretty big deal since Sergio is pretty sure that they have never spent Christmas outside of Texas at least in his lifetime. Mexico City and its 20 million habitantes would normally be pretty daunting for even the most seasoned travelers but the elder Morenos felt pretty confident that they knew the place because after all, how much could it have possibly changed since they were last here? (That was 1974).


Eazy-peazy.

In honor of their visit, and to do something special for the Christmas day feast, Sergio decided to prepare a dish he had always wanted to tackle: whole roasted suckling pig, or lechon as it's called in this part of the world. "Suckling" is the operative word because the key is that the piglet is so young that it has not yet been weaned from its mother (note: highly un-vegetarian pictures coming up).

The goal was to turn this:



Into this:


And to not poison any of our immediate family members in the process. We are happy to report that this goal was more or less achieved, with a lot of help from Sergio's folks and not much help from Sasha. She pretty much checked out of the process from the beginning, preferring not to engage in the senseless manipulation of an innocent mammal in celebration of the birth of our savior. Can't think of any reason why...


Oh, right, that's why.

The critter was roasted regardless, and presented on the table with the cartoon-style apple in its mouth (we expected Tom and Jerry to come chasing each other across the table and ruin everything at any second). To prove the supreme tenderness of the final result, Sergio attempted the old trick where you cut it with a dinner plate instead of a knife. When that didn't work, his mother had to step in.



Point is, pig was made, pig was eaten. God bless us, everyone. Later that night, Sergio and his mother had a special bonding moment where they were carving the remains and found the little pig brain. Real hallmark moment, you had to be there.

Full of slow-roasted pork, it was time to open gifts. We had quite a bounty, as Sergio's mother had accumulated gifts from his family, and Sasha's family had sent their gifts ahead of time by mail. We were especially pleased with a carving-knife set from Aunt Margaret, and an authentic indigenous woman's hat from Bolivia, which actually looks like it belongs to one of the Fat Albert's gang.


He-ba-lobah ebry-body.

We were also happy to receive tons of fantastic American products. Once again to anyone who plans to visit us (and all of you should): bring American food. If you don't know what to bring, we will let you know. Because you all want Sasha to look like this:


Completely authentic reaction shot.

The best gift by far though, was the gift we gave to LouLou: a monogrammed reflecting jacket. Because nothing says "dangerous pitbull" like a fleece-lined jacket from Land's End with the word "LouLou" in cursive on the backside.


Beware of dog

For the next few days, we took it easy and saw our local Bolivian relatives again, down near UNAM.


Unbelievably nice people.

Hugo Jose took us around UNAM, where he works. For those of you who don't know it, UNAM is the largest university in Latin America. How big? Think of the University of Texas...times five. They take great pride in the place, understandably, and it is noted for having not only the stadium of the 1968 Olympics on its campus, but several amazing mural-covered buildings such as this one.



And on such a gorgeous day as it was, we were bound to run into a couple of co-eds canoodling on the quad:


Their major: love.

As soon as the Morenos split, we had the pleasure of hosting Sasha's college friends Leigh and Andrew, fresh off their family Christmas trip to Merida. They came in town to ring in the New Year with us.


That place sucks.

We had heard that DF was "dead" during the Christmas/New Year holidays but we had no idea how serious people were about that. On New Year's Eve, NOTHING was open -- not even the food court in the mall -- such that we actually went home and made spaghetti. It was a lovely evening, actually, and we capped it off by lighting these 3-foot sparklers that you can buy from any number of street vendors here for like a dollar. They make for awesome freaky photos:


Auld lang syne, dude, AULD LANG SYNE...

So that's it for our extended long-overdue catch-up post. We have lots to look forward to in '08, including our first trip to Acapulco! If mid-sixties American cinema is to be believed (and of course it totally is), either Sergio will become a cliffdiver/troubadour with Sasha as his smitten American sweetheart, or we will end up embroiled in a weekend-long, booze-filled, semi-physical fight a la Liz Taylor and Dick Burton. Either way, great photos to come.

2 comments:

leigh said...

my gosh - you said little wee pig, but who could imagine a fully-intact piglet (guts and all!) - you guys are AMAZING! [oh yes, and thank you for the invention of spaghetti!]

Unknown said...

Good to see you back and posting. You've been missed.

Happy new year.