Upper crust comida corrida

It is more expensive than the typical comida corrida, but it is also more elegant, healthier and has fresher ingredients. At the corner of Sinaloa and Medellín, a restaurant called Artisans et Boulangers is a great place for a quiet lunch in the colonia Roma Norte. The chef is Japanese, and much of the food, although Western, is at least inflected by her home. They start you off with fresh bread, subtly flavored water (it was chamomile that day) and a homemade olive spread.First course the other day: salmon tartare. Followed by poached extraviado (a fish similar to grouper), served with mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables.

And what they call "angel cake," with homemade whipped cream. All of this, with coffee, cost 179 pesos.

A freebie

Photo by Keith Dannemiller

Keith Dannemiller is a photographer from Ohio who has lived in Mexico City since 1987. We have been friends for about 15 years. Today, he is more chilango than anything else -- he has a Mexican wife, the esteemed journalist Viétnika Batres, and their son Diego is now at university.

So many photographers have come to Mexico from other countries that their work, if not precisely clichéd, has become predictable. It is hard to come up with arresting images that the viewer hasn't seen before. I most admire Keith's work because it's original. He captures the immediacy, the contradictions and the mystery of the city. I've been here forever, but when I look at his photographs, I see my home with fresh eyes.

The Fideicomiso Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México has begun to publish a series of booklets of photos of the centro, and the photographer they chose for their first book is Keith. For a limited time, the booklet, Callegrafías, is available, free of charge, at the Antigua Librería Madero, on calle Isabel la Católica 97 (near the corner of San Jerónimo) in the centro. Pick up your copy -- more than a memento, I think it will become a collector's item.