Representin' Mount Pleasant...

Mmm, mango....

Last week we had some great company here in Mexico City. Bookie and Michelle made their way down here from their amazing new place in DC to get a taste of DF's charms.

It was a blast to see them here --- they were excellent, enthusiastic tourists. We had a ball seeing the sights with them, but it was also fun just to catch up as Sasha has known Bookie for a pretty long time now (since freshman Foss Six dormitory days!) and even though English is her second (third?) language, Bookie never fails to impress with her formidable conversational skills. And Michelle is no slouch herself, so basically us blabbermouth Morenos were in heaven.

Michelle and Bookie are not tossing Ivan out the window.

So we dragged our friends all over town, took them grocery shopping with us and "entertained" them with a basketball-watching, camarones-eating marathon in our stuffy apartment. Then on Friday they took us out to eat at Pujol where we ate exquisitely presented and tasty alta cocina. We definitely got better than we gave!

(Side note: This was our very first evening out in Mexico without Sir Ivan! Thank you to the ladies for encouraging us to act like grown-ups and for pal Michael for graciously babysitting for us. Sasha was totally wigging out about leaving Ivan, and while the little dude apparently woke up pretty much immediately after we left for dinner, he was apparently a very congenial companion. He certainly looked happy as a clam-- and wide awake---when we came home three hours past his bedtime. So lesson learned: Ivan might wake up while we go out, but his sitter won't hate us. Of course, the sitter might try to make a Los Angeles Lakers fan out of him...)

Bookie and Michelle got a quick tour around Polanco (Turix!), took a trip up to the Pyramids and to the Basilica and Sasha and Ivan joined them for a tour of the Centro highlights (zocalo, murals, churches, golden post office, etc.). The whole gang spent Saturday marketing: a quick zip throughout the Ciudadela for souvenirs and then a lengthy exploration of Mercado San Juan where Bookie tasted grasshoppers and compared notes with Sergio on the wide display of snout-to-tail butchering. Apparently the Swiss and the Bolivians share a taste for the secondary meats like tongue, tripe, etc. Must be the altitude? They certainly have little else in common.

Bookie inspects the day's catch

Introducing Ivan to dead seafood

We loaded up on more tame ingredients for a big cook-up at home.

Sasha gets ditched on a bench while the rest go for tacos.

Sergio made some really great food for all of us and Michigan State kindly beat Connecticut to round out the day. Bookie and Michelle spent their last day in Coyoacan and San Angel, and joined us in Polanco for one last appointment with some of our fair city's famous margaritas.


It was a chatty, food-y few days and we look forward to more of the same when we land back in their neck of the woods in a few months!