Staying with Garry and being a good guest – We hope

We love staying with people, who live in the areas we are travelling in. It gives us the change to make new friendships and explore the area with a local perspective. It was a first for us living with a Mexican family. Garry is originally from Great Britain, but after meeting his wife Ivonne, they have been living in Mexico for 35-40 years and 4 years in Brazil. Before we left we went down to one of the best bakeries in the neighborhood, because during our stay we learned that we that a mutual love for cakes. What is a better way of saying thank you to Ivonne and Garry?

When we stay with other people, we love to get the opportunity to cook. After enjoying Ivonne’s food we asked if we could cook a typical Danish dish for the family lunch. The Mexican lunch is typical between 2-4 pm. We decided to make Danish meatballs with potato salad – all homemade.

So we went shopping at the local market…

At the local market we saw how the “chicharrón” (In Danish “Flæskesvær”) was made. If you love low carb and high fat go for the “chicharron”. The content of protein is about 60 gram per 100 gram depending of how much fat is kept underneath the skin. We are not sure the cooking method is healthy, but we love “chicharron”.

You can’t visit the market without having a snack our two. Samantha (the girl to the right in the picture) recommended a gorditas with cilantro, cheese, nopales and chicharrón. In Spanish “Yo quiero una gordita con cilantro, queso, nopales y chicharrón”. To learn more Spanish we use an app called Duolingo (you can let it in a free or a pay version). Download the app an get starting learning new languages. If you want to compete with us in learning Spanish, just add Esben Bøll (esbenboell@gmail.com).

A snack at the market…

We a snack we continued to the local butcher…. here in Mexico each butcher sells one kind for meat. The Danish meatballs is made from half pork and half beef, so first we got grounded pork from the “pork-butcher” and then got beef from the “beef-butcher”. When you ask for ground meat (In Spanish: “carne molida”) they first show you the pieces of meat and then it is grounded afterwards. That is fresh ground meat, and you know that there is only meat in it! The ground meat from the butcher is very lean.

Getting back home in the kitchen mixing the ground meat with salt, pepper, eggs, shredded onion and flour. Letting it sit for a least 1 hour in the refrigerator. Back to the potato salad, were I cut the boiled and chilled of potatoes (1½ kilos) into smaller pieces and added 750 gram of cauliflower. Mixed the dressing for the potato salad and turn it al slowly together. If you want the recipe in English please write a comment. You can find the recipe in Danish on Instragram @sund_camilla. Fry the meatballs 6-8 minutes on each side in a lot of butter – yes butter!

The traditional Danish summer dish was done “Frikadeller med kartoffelsalat” (Meatsball with potato salad). Everybody loved the Danish Lunch and after we played a board game. When a family open their home for us, it is really important for us that we can spend time with the family. There was to be time for both sightseeing and socializing with the family. We had a great time! We learned more Spanish, more about Mexican living and more about Mexican food/cakes. When you can cook a good meal as a woman, you can get married – I got the family’s approval

The family’s youngest member was Garry’s granddaughter (3 years old), who already seemed to share the same interest for motorcycles as us.

Visiting the last tourist stop in Mexico city – the Ciudad Universitaria with about 330,000 students and 38,000 teachers, which makes it the biggest university in Latin America. The university was founded in 1551 and its famous Library “Biblioteca Central”, which is 10 stories high and covered with mosaics by Juan O’Gorman.

Saying goodbye to Mexico City

Saying goodbye to Garry and his family after inviting them all out for “all you can eat tacos” at Garry’s favorite taco stand. Thank you for everything

What is our plan after visiting Mexico City? Heading to the ruins of Teotihuacán and after that we have to travel south. It is soon time to leave Mexico , but we can always visit Mexico again in the future .