I’ve been kind of a Christmas grinch lately.
It’s not a fun time to be living in Mexico City. The traffic is twice as bad. Drivers become despots of their own car-kingdoms, leaning on their horns at any pedestrian in their way. (Even if us walkers have the light!) Christmas lights blink wildly on random street corners, part of these pop-up markets on the sidewalk. And there are no taxis available.
I had a whole post planned last week about how Christmas had turned me into a ball-busting chilanga who glares at everyone. At the end I’d asked for advice: what do I to make my spirit feel a little brighter?
I realized the answer before I could post anything. For me, getting into the spirit meant staying home and curling up with Crayton while listening to Christmas music and decorating our tree. It meant making ponche spiked with brandy. And visiting a market specifically to marvel at the Christmas items — not the hurried, in-and-out visit I normally do.
Last week I took a trip to Mercado Medellín in the Roma, which is where I buy my dried chiles and mole pastes. It’s also one of the stops on Eat Mexico’s Taco Tour.
Like nearly every market in the city right now, they’ve got piles of winter fruit for making ponche, which is the typical warm punch enjoyed during the holidays in Mexico. Dozens of piñatas and their long, papery streamers dangle from the ceiling.
After buying my ponche fruit, I discovered an area I’d never visited before, a hallway lined with fondas selling romeritos, bacalao and buñuelos. I asked the woman at a fonda called “Sonia” if I could have half romeritos and half bacalao, and she agreed.
Last year I had trouble getting into the whole romeritos-drowned-in-mole thing, but now the dish is growing on me. Good mole is key.
After leaving the market, I felt much better, and I no longer wanted to kill any of the honking drivers on the streets. I even stopped at the Christmas tchotchke market and debating buying some hand-painted ornaments.
I’d still like to know: Are you feeling grinchy this year, too? What are you doing to get into the spirit of things?