For those of you who cannot get enough of me

Now I know that there are millions out there who find me completely and utterly resistible. But if you are among the brave and happy few that do not, on Tuesday the 27th at 7:30 pm I will be speaking with my friend J.M. Servín about writing from street level in Mexico City at the Rosario Castellanos Bookstore, on the corner of Tamaulipas and Benjamin Hill, Colonia Condesa, as part of the Independent Book Fair.

On Saturday, May 31, at 12 noon, I will be speaking with several others about the late artist Phil Kelly, at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Paseo de la Reforma y Gandhi, s/n, Chapultepec Park. The occasion is the publication of a book called La pintura es ... las manos, el corazón, los ojos, la vida (Painting is ... the hands, the heart, the eyes, life), which is a marvelous retrospective of his work.

Both events are in Spanish.

The Brass Street Boys

They are hand's down the best brass band I have heard outside of New Orleans. And while they are hugely inspired by the music of that city, the Brass Street Boys are also influenced by Balkan sounds and Spanish-language rock of the 1980s. But what they do is unique. I am still trying to figure out how a group of Mexican kids this young (one of the sax players is 18, and the oldest in the band can't be more than 25) have come up with a sound this original. They are playing this coming Tuesday the 27th at the Pata Negra (Tamaulipas 30, corner Juan Escutia, Colonia Condesa) at 9 pm. If you can't make it, follow them on Facebook, where they announce all their gigs.

Whoops

My friend Cristina Potters, of the Mexico Cooks web site, kindly pointed out that on my earlier post today about Mesámerica and me, I managed to screw up two of the three mentioned dates. I have cleared both of them up, so anyone thinking about coming should take a look at the corrected post.

Mesamérica and me

On Tuesday, the third annual Mesamérica festival begins at the Blackberry Auditorium in the Colonia Condesa. It's a three-day international foodie event, where speakers from Mexico and around the world will talk about such diverse topics as cannibalism, cocktails and -- this one intrigues me -- "meat as a verb". The theme this year is "street food, urban expressions, what we eat in big cities and why."

Among the better-known speakers will be Alice Waters and Mario Batali from the U.S., David Thompson from Thailand, and Renzo Garibaldi, Peru's most accomplished butcher. Opening up the event on Tuesday morning, one of Mexico's best living writers, Juan Villoro, will talk about Moctezuma's Revenge. I will be talking about Mexico City cantinas on Wednesday at 12:30 pm. Information about the event, and how to aquire tickets, is on the Mesamérica website.

For amigos in New York, now that the weather is getting warmer

 

A few years ago, an old friend, Jorge Loaeza, a Mexican living in New York, got together with me alongside his son, Jordi, who was about to finish high school. He was interested in talking to me as an example of a person who had never studied at university and didn't go on to make an absolute mess of his life. (I always tell people I took a year off between high school and college -- and am still on it.)

I told both Loaezas that I considered myself lucky because at certain key junctures I encountered people who were willing to take a chance on me. They were more interested in my ability to do a job than in any educational credentials. While I don't recommend my path to anyone else, the fact was that Jordi wanted to become a chef. And for the life of me I can't see the point of school for a chef. It may sound good in a feature article in the food section of the newspaper that a chef studied at the Culinary Institute of America. But in the real world, that diploma and $2.50 will get you on the subway. For a chef, the only school is working in the kitchen of a restaurant. There is no way to learn but the hard way.

When he finished high school Jordi went to work at Tom Colicchio's restaurant Riverpark. But his ambition was to open his own business, which he did with Jorge. It's a food truck called México Blvd. that purports to bring some of the flavors of Mexico City to various New York neighborhoods at the lunch and dinner hours.

I seldom eat Mexican food when I travel because I'm surrounded by it at home. But on a swing through New York last autumn, I stopped by México Blvd. on the day of the week they are downtown in the financial district. I had a taco al pastor and a taco in adobo. I told Jorge and Jordi something I can seldom say when I eat Mexican food in other countries -- it was like comiendo en casa.

In addition to various pork, beef and chicken options, for the benighted North American palate, México Blvd. also offers vegetarian and gluten-free choices. The bean and potato flautas were a great relief to the friend who accompanied me, who has recently sworn off meat. Here's a link to the menu.

And click here for Mexico Blvd.'s weekly schedule.