Rants and Raves

Links for Jan 23-Jan 31

Hey man, where’d you buy those empanadas?!?  I bought them from Venga Empanadas – go check them out on Valencia.

Hey man, where’d you get those co-co-co-things? They’re called COXINHAS and I bought them at – Cafe de Casa

Anything to read this week?

Sure- try:

FIGURING OUT YOUR’E NOT A CLIMBER, UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE OF MAYONNAISE FROM BJARNE RIIS, AND THE VUELTA A COLOMBIA. COLOMBIAN INSIGHTS FROM CYLANCE’S KYLE MURPHY.

 

Coffee Recommendations in México City (CDMX)

I should have posted this list earlier- but a lot of you have asked which spots you should try when they’re in México. I have my own short list here.

Before I give you the list, I’ll just say the easiest way to make your own list if you don’t know anyone in CDMX is to check sprudge.com and look up all of Ximena Rubio’s posts. She has a guide to cafes in Colonia Roma and a lot of other great posts.

my chicken scratch
my chicken scratch

Also- if you can read Spanish, you can look up her articles and reviews on TimeOutMexico too (or pick up a copy when you get to CDMX).

Something to remember for my list- I tend to stay in La Condesa or Reforma, or in Cuauhtémoc if I’m at a work hotel. CDMX is huge and there are a lot of great neighborhoods and a lot of great neighborhood cafes. I also can speak Spanish and forget that it’s easier for me to get recommendations and other tips from friends who live there. Your mileage may vary.

My personal faves:

Buna 42
Orizaba 42 Colonia Roma

Chiquitito Cafe
Rio Lerma 179 – Colonia Cua.
(near the Churro place- Churreria El Moro)
they have another location in La Condesa

Cardinal Casa de Cafe
Córdoba 132, Cuauhtémoc, Roma Nte., 06700 Ciudad de México, D.F., Mexico

One other thing- if you go to Buna, try the chilaquiles. And if you go to Chiquitito, sit down and get their open-faced avocado, feta and grain bread toast.

Buenos días chicos lindos #cortado #Cafe #coffee #tiokenny #espresso

A photo posted by El Tejano (@eltejano) on

This morning's perfect chilaquiles and cap 💯👌🏻🍓 #cafe #coffee #cdmx

A photo posted by El Tejano (@eltejano) on

El desayuno en el café Buna 42 #espresso #cafe #cdmx

A photo posted by El Tejano (@eltejano) on

Toast at Chiquitito
Toast at Chiquitito

Have other recs? Leave them in the comments.

Why so salty?

I’m not sure why I didn’t do this sooner, but I finally went to the local home brew supply store and bought some Burton Salts (named after an English town that has a particular brew affected by its water supply – wiki). Home brewers use the salts to condition water to make ales in the style og Burton, but as a non-brewer you can dissolve the salts in water to make mineral water in your selzer bottle or sodastream.

Although I could have used the spreadsheet that the Khymos blog has (see this lengthy article) and made my own particular mix of salts and minerals, I decided to go the lazy route and just get Burton salts.

I may try the custom route later, but I was curious to see if the Burton salts would even work. They did. I can now make better mineral water and my hope is to convince someone to stop buying so many expensive bottles at the grocery store and to get a sodastream and salts instead. But we’ll see.

semi-interesting pics:

1 after putting in 1g of salts into 1L of cold water and

2 then after 5 mins of waiting (the water gets even more clear after carbonation)

salty-water salty-water2