Mexico holiday day 2

After an early morning walk around a very quiet Centro Historico, where I stumbled upon a discotheque, still pumping a cross between Mariachi and Techno, the patrons tried to persuade me to join them.

When I returned Susan and I jumped into an Uber to find Dave’s home bread recommended by Jim.

Now I know that it’s only day 2 but I think I have found the best coffee in Mexico City. We both had Almond Croissants, which had chocolate in them. Susan stated that it’s the best Almond Croissant that she’s had for years. The canopy out front of the cafe has a hashtag #herecomeshogazas which I read as Here comes shoe gazers (made me think of Clive and Dan), what it really means is Here comes the loaf of bread.

We ambled, super slowly back to our hotel through Parque Mexico which was really nice. In the park there was a quiet zone called Audiorama which was a shady retreat that had speakers playing ambient Mexican music. The sat and chilled there, the sign outside said please be quiet and take no photos and if you have children control them.

After getting back to the hotel we chilled for a while and then I went out hat hunting, I had found a place online called Sombreros Tardan so off I headed. The city could not have been more different from my early morning walk, there were people and cars everywhere.

I got to the hat shop which was truly wonderful, but the only hats I was really interested in were for exhibit only and not red. I asked the lady in the shop where I could get a true Mexican sombrero and she showed me on my phone. The hat shop was right by the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral with a huge square in front of it. In the square was the biggest flag I have ever seen and a massive covered market. In the covered market I found my new hat, not. a sombrero but a great hat by any means and only £16.

We got an Uber to the restaurant and our driver Luis explained that in Mexico City there is no driving test you just buy you licence.

So the restaurant we went to we spotted earlier in the day while in Parque México. I was called Ono Poke House, I love poke bowls, it’s what we get for the lunch at State of the Browser for the organisers, speakers and volunteers if they want us to provide them food. Poke bowls are of Hawaiian origin, but this place out a Mexican twist on it with spicing. I had Huli Huli and Susan Spicy Tuna, we also had dumplings for starters and a bottle of red wine. When the waiter brought one the wine Alma Mora Cabernet Sauvignon he proudly said it was from Mexico, it was from Argentina and it was a chilled red wine. The food was super tasty and fresh and the wine was very nice. At the end of the meal Susan asked for the desert menu, the waiter then proceeded to bring over the deserts, all 4 of them and they were all in huge sealed jam jars. They were way too big for even 2 of us to share.

If anyone knows me they will know that my social media of choice is Untappd, well today I got a friend request from someone in Mexico. This was a winner because I meant that I could look at what beers they had drunk and use this information to find good beers in Mexico City. He has already alerted me to a can shop that sells imports, such as Omnipollo, I need to investigate this place at some point. I also saw on his beer list a local brewery called Falling Piano Brewing Company as luck would have it, it was a short walk from Ono Poke House.

When we got there we both had the Retro Piano Hazy IPA, it was delicious. The second beer I wanted was The Hop’s Shop a double IPA 8%, they had just run out but fortunately they also had a bottle shops so I was able to get a take out.

In the bar there was also an exhibition called 36 Days of Type by Dani Who, which was 36 images one of each letter and one of each number (0-9). Each image was paired with a song. This meant that it comes with a playlist too.