Tio Juan's: Coming soon to a neighborhood near you

One of Helen's favorite games is to "help" Cristi clean our house.  Actually, the quotation marks are not fair, because Helen really does help.  She loves to sweep, mop, fold clothes, and, most of all, wipe down furniture with a wet rag.  Two of Helen's favorite toys are the child-size but otherwise real mop and broom I bought her at one of the outdoor markets.  As I write this, I realize they probably are for kids Helen's size who actually do have to clean houses, which is sad, but in our house they provide hours of fun.


Helen also likes to take out pots, pans, dishes, and silverware to pretend she is a cook, waiter, and customer at her own little restaurant.  She cooks imaginary dishes, using a chair as her stove.  Sometimes she folds a towel over her arm, serves what she cooked and then pretends to eat it, but usually she gets too engrossed with the cooking to proceed to the next step.


The cooking game entered a new stage after we bought a small wooden tortilla press, some miniature utensils, and a couple of bowls made out of painted gourds at the Sunday market in Tlacalula.  Helen filled the bowls with "salsa" made out of shredded hammock string, collected leaves to use as tortillas, and then she opened a taco restaurant -- run out of her bedroom!  She named it Tio Juan's, after one of Gabriela's horses.  For a couple weeks, Max, Natalie and I might be playing a game of Scrabble, reading, or doing anything else, when Helen would appear with a plate of "tacos" for each of us.  Tio Juan's quickly became one of our favorite Oaxacan restaurants.


Yesterday, Helen took Tio Juan's to a new level.  She engaged Max as a chef and Cristi as an assistant, and they made real tacos.  We bought dried corn and lime (the white powder) to make tortillas from scratch. The meal also featured homemade red and green salsas, fresh avocados, grilled onions, and meat.

Taking the boiled corn and lime to the grinder.

Grinding the corn into dough.

Rolling the dough into balls.

Using the tortilla press.

Grilling a tortilla and the onions on a comal.

Lunch at Tio Juan's.

We took notes on the whole process, and the tortilla press and comal are going home with us.  Helen and Max look forward to opening a Tio Juan's franchise in Oakland soon.  As I learned, the prices are quite reasonable.

The bill Max gave me after lunch (conveniently, with my check book).  The prices are in pesos.

Changing subjects, yesterday Natalie received her diploma for completing 180 hours of Spanish classes at the Amigos del Sol language school.  She gave small paintings to her teacher, Hector, and to the director, Rogelio, as parting gifts.  Hector and Rogelio were both extremely nice and they played a significant role in Natalie's trip.  Anybody who comes to Oaxaca to learn Spanish must check out Amigos del Sol.

Diploma ceremony with Rogelio.

On a final note, on Wednesday a relatively routine trip to the Centro took an unexpected turn.  We went with Max and with our friend Taylor to make some final purchases at a crafts market.  After a couple hours of shopping, Taylor went home and we went in search of something to eat.  Before we could decide where to eat, however, we ran into one of Max's teammates and his father, who owns a juice stand in the market.  They were on their way to a procession, and they invited us to join them.  They were carrying some large shopping bags, a heavy box, and a megaphone.


Turns out this is the first year all of the downtown market vendors organized themselves into a parade, leading to a Guelaguetza, or dance presentation.  Before we knew what was happening, we were part of the procession.  Natalie and I chuckled over being part of the parade instead of being in the crowd watching it pass by.  We especially enjoyed seeing the dancers in their brightly colored costumes.  After a while, however, it got a little tedious since it was sunny, we were hungry, and we had offered to help carry the bags and the box Max's friends had brought.  (They were full of candy, soccer balls with the juice stand logo, and other goodies to hand out at the Guelaguetza.)

Max and Fabricio, each bearing a heavy bag.

Me and my box.

We were not the only people carrying things.

Eventually we ducked out to meet Helen, who had been playing with Cristi and Susi at their house.  While we did not stay for the dancing, setting out to by some gifts and ending up in a parade definitely makes it on the growing list of things we will miss about Oaxaca.  --Harrison