She knows her tacos

My friend Lesley Tellez, whose charming website The Mija Chronicles details her experiences -- mostly culinary -- in Mexico City, also give a series of food tours around town.

While you are eating -- at taco stands, holes-in-the-wall, cantinas and tortilla shops -- Lesley explains much about the history and culture of Mexican food. While she says her work is geared toward tourists who don't speak Spanish, and as such can be easily confused if not totally confounded about what they are ordering, I recently accompanied her on what she calls a "taco tour." She took us to some old favorites plus a couple of standout places to which I had never been. And even I, who have called Mexico City home since 1990, was absorbed and surprised by some of her anecdotes and information. It occurred to me that, as much as I love the food here, and opinionated as I am about it, I really did not know as much as I thought I did about the origins and traditions of what I put into my mouth.

I had a great time with her and a couple of Australians with gargantuan appetites who were with us. Information about the tours is on her website, but here is a direct link to the appropriate page.

On the air

Colin Marshall, a Los Angeles-based writer, recently passed through Mexico City and recorded an interview with me for his radio show, The Marketplace of Ideas. Broadcast on KCSB in Santa Barbara, the show deals with books, culture and commerce. I was both impressed and engaged by the questions he asked -- he had clearly read my books closely, which, unfortunately, a writer cannot count on when he or she is inteviewed. If you are interested in my work, you might want to listen. Click here to go to the podcast version of the interview.

Urban junkyard

This triple tiered junk heap was shot in Iztapalapa, from the vantage point of the bridge that connects the metro to the street. A local lawyer named Hernandez took advantage of the pedestrian traffic getting on and off the metro to post a sign offering his services. For the Spanish impaired, he promises that he is experienced, honorable and reasonably priced.

More on El Narco

When I previously posted aboutIoan Grillo's new book about the failed "war on drugs" in Mexico, I had only just begun to read it. Now that I have finished it I can only commend Grillo for its excellence. The research (much of it among unsavory people in dangerous places) is impeccable, the information surprising and often tragic, but overall, it's written with a sense of humor. If you care about what is happening -- on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border -- due to misguided policy, you must read this book.

For East Coast friends: Grillo will be talking about El Narco in New York on Monday, November 28, at the Half King Bar, 505 West 23 Street, at 7 pm. On Thursday, December 1st, at 11 am he will be in D.C. at the Washington Office on Latin America, 1666 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 400.

Connected

At Metro Chapultepec, the closest station stop to where I live, people can go to this "cibercentro" and connect to the internet free. You can't get on line in every metro stop, but you can at several, and as such, some people -- who likely cannot afford internet service, let alone a personal computer -- are able to stay connected. Let's give credit where it's due: cibercenters on the subway were an impulse of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard.

Ebrard had presidential aspirations, but last Tuesday, the PRD, Ebrard's party, announced that it chose Andrés Manuel López Obrador for its presidential candidate next year. Again. The good news (if you can cull any good news out of the decision) is that Ebrard will complete his term as mayor. According to Mexican law, he is only allowed to serve one term. Pity: I was hoping he would somehow find a way to become mayor for life, like a dictator from the Middle East. In all seriousness, I think he is the best mayor Mexico City has had since 1990, when I moved here. When his term ends, I'll miss him.