Beach, Village Urban Living In Oaxaca August/September .

Calming Your NerviosBy Kary Vannice“Nervios” is a classification of medical disorders usedhere in Mexico that, for us, would loosely be translatedas the “jitters.” In reality, though, the symptoms go wellbeyond that.The late professor Carlos Zolla Luque, an expert in Mexicantraditional medicine at the National Autonomous University ofMexico (UNAM), described nervios as characterized by a “stateof unrest" in which it is customary to experience "insomnia,loss of appetite or compulsive eating, anxiety, rapid pulse,occasional despair and other disorders such as hair loss,dermatitis and weakness. Any circumstances that alter theemotional state or mood are interpreted as possible triggeringagents.”Now, let's be honest, we are all staring down the barrel ofanother six months of civil unrest, economic uncertainty, andsocial isolation – as if the past six months were not enough tomake anyone reach for the Prozac.Unlike the other North American countries, Mexicans havelong recognized what modern science now calls “stress-relateddisorders.” Ancient folk remedies throughout Mexico alwaysincluded several different plants and trees as cures to calm thenerves. In 2014, a team of UNAM scientists itemized 92"medicinal plants for the treatment of 'nervios', anxiety, anddepression in Mexican traditional medicine" – a great resourcefor getting high-strung, stressed out, insomniacs to chill outand take a nap.In the midst of a global pandemic, regional economic crisis andracial tensions boiling over (for good reason, I might add), it'ssafe to say we're all experiencing more than a little stress in ourdaily lives. The good news is, here in Mexico, they haven't losttouch with their ancient ways and some of these old folkremedies are still very much available to us today. Anyonewho's been to a traditional “tianguis” market knows there'salways at least one vendor there selling dried herbs to curewhat ails ya'.Two of the 92 Oaxacan antidotes for los nervios you'd morecommonly associate with a flower shop than a pharmacy. Theyare a local chrysanthemum and Ipomoea stans, a variety ofthose lovely blue/purple morning glories you see on yourmorning walks. However, in their case, it's not the flower that'sused, it's the roots.In other plants, it's the bark or the leaves, or the berries thathold the power to relax one with a tense and uneasydisposition. Calderona Amarilla (Galphimia Glauca, orthryallis), for example, by far the most wildly studied of the folkremedies, uses the seeds and branches to make a soothingtonic.The Eye 8Another recognizable Mexican flower,the cempasúchil, the Mexican marigold(Tagetes erecta) traditionally used Day ofthe Dead displays, while not reviewed inthe study, has long been used to cureheadaches, "fright," insomnia, excessivecrying and nervousness.There are many other at-home treatments readily available inyour local fruit and veg store. While not necessarily native toMexico, these are well-known “medicines” for nervous Nellies.Passionflower – There are over 500 varieties of passionflowerand only some of them produce a curative effect, but you'lloften find dried Passiflora in local natural farmacías, whichyou can use to make a calming tea.Ruda (common rue) – Originally from theMediterranean, this herb has a longstanding place in Mexican households forits calming and relaxing effects. A tea canbe made from its delicate leaves to reduceanxiety and nervousness.Sage – What we think of as a nice addition to a savory dish isactually an antidote for anxiety here in Mexico. If you're lucky,you can find it fresh in the produce section. But if you strikeout there, move on to the dried herb section of the store andlook for salvia.Lavender – Oil of lavender can be put into a diffuser to create apeaceful and comforting atmosphere. The leaves can be madeinto a tea and flowers can be added to a hot bath.Chamomile – You'll often find this fresh in the herb section ofmost fruterías. And it is always available in the bagged teasection of the local supermarket.Hibiscus tea – Yes, the ubiquitous aguade jamica served in cafés and streetcorners across Mexico is a great tonic foranxiety. So, if you're feeling edgy, doubledown on this aguita the next time youhave comida corrida.Red rose – Even this iconic symbol of love and romance hascalming effects. Four flowers left standing in a liter of freshlyboiled water for one hour can be consumed a half-cup at a timeto sooth the stomach and the nerves.There are better days ahead, but until then, to keep frompopping Prozac from a PEZ dispenser, why not take a morenatural approach to calming your nervous system? It's workedhere in Mexico for thousands of years.

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A Brief History of CookingBy Randy JacksonToday, perhaps morethan any other time inhuman history, foodhas been elevated on acultural pedestal ofreverence. The depth of knowledgeand appreciation for a wide varietyof cuisines among so many peopleseems to be a culturalcharacteristic of our times.Celebrity chefs, food shows andfood networks, never mind foodpictures posted on Instagram, areonly a few of the many indicators ofthis interest. The term "foodie” wasfirst coined in the 1980s and isnow in common use. The AmericanHeritage Dictionary defines a foodieas “a person who has an ardent orrefined interest in food and whoeats food not only out of hungerbut due to their interest or hobby.”Travel, immigration, and theabundance of food and ingredientsfrom all over the world have all hada hand in this current culturalobsession with food and cooking.However, today's modern hipstersof cuisine are only the most recentgreen sprig of growth in the longhistory of cooking.Our evolutionary record shows theharnessing of fire coincided withthe growth of the human brainrelative to body size. Thisdevelopment took place roughly1.9 million years ago. Harnessing fire had multiple benefits tohumans, but chief among them was that it allowed the cookingof food. Cooking food increases the caloric value and reducesthe energy required to digest it. Cooking food also enabled earlyhumans to eat certain tubers and roots that were otherwiseinedible.I think it safe to assume that grilling was the first cookingmethod. Studies of primitive tribes, even today, show how ananimal is cooked (it's estimated that there are more than ahundred "uncontacted peoples" worldwide, half of them in theAmazonian jungle). The entire carcass is thrown onto the openfire. The fire, along with some scraping, removes the fur. Thenas bits of the animal are deemed cooked, they are cut or tornfrom the carcass and consumed. It's easy to see the directlineage of this form of cooking to the tossing of a piece of meatonto the barbeque today.The Eye 12The earliest dishes beyond grillingwere probably soups and stews.There is some evidence from Japandating back 10,000 years of a typeof stew made by putting flesh andwater into an animal's paunch andboiling it over a fire. No doubtsoups and stews were being mademuch earlier than this. Oncemankind had figured out how tocook in a container of some sort, itonly made sense they beganboiling up bits of almost anythingthey could find.There is an ancient tradition inOaxaca – still practiced – of making"stone soup." National Geographichas a documentary showing elligenttravel/2010/10/04/mexicos stone soup/). The cooking methodconsists of putting water,vegetables, and fish into a smoothrounded depression in the rockyground. Then a stone is heated ona fire before dropping it into thisnatural cauldron, and the soup iscooked. It's easy to imagine howdifferent flavors were discoveredby experimentation or by chancewhen something new was added tothe soup or stew.Let's not forget about bread.Archaeologists in Jordan havefound the remains of flatbread made with wild barley and plantroots – about 14,000 years old, it predates agriculturalpractices by thousands of years. Societies all over the worldhave independently found ways to make bread. Mash upgrains, add water to make a paste, fry on a hot rock – andpresto! For example, the original inhabitants of what is nowCalifornia developed a complex procedure to make flour forflatbread out of acorns. Source material for bread waseverywhere once man learned to harness fire.Harnessing fire and cooking required greater socialorganization and division of duties – there had to be firetenders, wood gatherers, hunters, etc. A central fire alsobrought people together for longer periods, especially at night,which increased social complexity and likely helped in theevolution of language.

Upcoming EventsHuatulco Recurring Events:English AA, HuatulcoSaturdays, meeting, 7:00 pmPlaza Oaxaca, Calle Flamboyant 3102nd floor, La Crucecita,Info: Becky Wiles, b wiles@yahoo.comWeekly MarketsPochutla Market- Every MondayRacing the cooking timeline ahead by a few thousand years, weknow that, for milennia, there have been places where peoplewent for a cooked meal outside their homes. In Greek andRoman times, there were cook shops known as thermopolia. Athermopolium had L-shaped stone tables with storage urnsfrom which a soup/stew was ladled out at certain times of theday. Thermopolia were not restaurants as we know themtoday, rather a type of cook-shop frequented by travellers andpeople without kitchens.The word “restaurant” came fromthe 16th-century French term for atype of soup purported to havemedicinal benefits, in turn basedon the French word restaurer, to"restore." A French businessmanby the name of A. Boulanger, in1760, is credited with having thefirst restaurant as we understandthem today. He offered a variety ofsoups.A single eating place that offered a choice to customers wasnew. Later, others joined in. Some tried to offer other types offood beyond soups. This practice, however, was fiercelycontested by the cooking guilds of the time. These guilds werefirst established in the Medieval Era. Such guilds as meatcookers (charcutiers), pie makers, sauce makers, poultrycookers, etc., were protected by law; each had their own singleoffer to customers. Then came the French Revolution. Societalstructures were upended, including the guilds. Aristocratswere sent to the guillotine and their private cooks becameunemployed. Many of these cooks started their own cookingbusinesses to survive, and the path to the modern restaurantwas born.Restaurants are an integral part of society and are constantlyadapting to changing technology and cultural practices. Forexample, the prevalence of cars in America has made themajority of cooking businesses fast food restaurants. In 1921,White Castle became the first fast food chain restaurant,serving its distinctive little square hamburgers that becameknown as "sliders." McDonald's started in 1940 and KFC in1952.“The Importance of Eating Together,” a July 2014 article in TheAtlantic, reported that Americans eat one in five meals in theircar, that one person in four eats one fast food meal a day, andthe average American family spends almost as much on fastfood as on groceries.Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, apps like SkipTheDishesand Uber Eats have made take-out an important revenuesegment for many restaurants. The pandemic also seems tohave shifted more meals from restaurants into the householdkitchen. This is likely feeding the foodie craze further. Morepeople have time to cook at home and have the desire to havesafer, family-centered meals. The history of cooking continues.Huatulco’s Organic MarketSanta Cruz 8 am - 2 pmFirst and third Saturdays of the monthEncuentro de Cocineros - Local cooks gather withsample dishes to raise money for local charities.Santa Cruz Park, 150 pesosLast Sunday of the month at 2 pmOaxaca City Recurring Events:Open AA Meetings (English)Members of all 12-step programs welcomeMondays and Thursdays, 7 pmSaturdays, 9 am303B Rayon near corner of FialloAl-Anon (English)Tuesdays, 10:30 am303B Rayon near corner of FialloReligious ServicesHoly Trinity Anglican Episcopal ChurchSundays 10:30 amCrespo 211 (between Morelos and Matamoros)Liturgy followed by coffee hour. Information 951514-3799Oaxaca Quaker FriendsSaturdays, 10 am, Free. All are welcome.For more information and location, contactjanynelyons@hotmail.com.Weekly MarketsZaachila Market, Every ThursdayOcotlán Market, Every FridayEtla Market, Every WednesdayTlacolula Market, Every SundayDue to Coronavirus safety measures weassume most of these events aresuspended until further notice.The Eye 13

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Where Foodies Can Still Get Their Kicks:A Quarantined Summer in San Miguel de AllendeBy Carole ReedyThe virus is on our minds, andfrustration fills our hearts withdread. Most of the readers of TheEye are travelers, wanderers, andadventurers, so staying inside isanathema to us. Yours truly, wholives in Mexico City, struggledwith the same, especially after thecancellation of a months-longItalian trip scheduled for the fall.As a result, I opted to take refugein San Miguel de Allende, mysecond home.The tranquil pueblo of San Miguelde Allende (SMA) is just a threeand-a-half-hour drive from thehustle and bustle of the megapolis of Ciudad de Mexico, withits population of over 20 million. SMA was recently listed as thesecond-best city in the world by the magazine Travel Leisure.(Oaxaca City grabbed first-place accolades, and the country ofMexico had four out of 25 mentions on the coveted list, morethan any other country.)Fearful of a bus ride filled with 30 potential virus-carryingpassengers, I opted for a private car and driver from the reliableBajioGo company. It's also possible to order a shared-car ride,but that, too, seemed a bigger risk than I wanted to take.The deluxe bus ride is very reasonably priced at approximatelyUS 30 a person (half that for seniors who have Mexicanresidency), whereas my private car was US 250. The price of ashared car/van ride depends on the number of passengers, ofcourse. Vale la pena was my thought!Eating in quarantineThe quarantine situation in SMA was much the same asMexico City: stay home and wear a mask when out. Norestaurants, stores other than grocery or food businesses, orhotels are open. This is scheduled to change on July 15, whenthe next phase takes over. Hotels are set to open at 40%capacity, as will some restaurants.For those with a kitchen in whichto cook at home, in San Miguel weare fortunate to have a grocerystore right in centro.Bonanza has graced the street ofMesones for many years. It's afavorite of the gringos due to itsrange of imported items,including sweet relish,horseradish, and New Zealandbutter. They also carry delicioushomemade yogurt and ice cream.There's a deli section and a backroom with a variety of spices andnuts. The prices are higher thanthe La Comer just outside of town, but the convenience isincomparable. My favorite purchase is the pickled herring in ajar, an item I have trouble finding even in Mexico City. I wouldshy away from buying wine here though. The prices are oftendouble that of La Europea or Cava Sautto.If you'd rather not cook, let me recommend some takeout/delivery options. I'm finding comfort foods more satisfyingthese days than the fancy “tasting” options many restaurantsare offering.Let's start with a brimming bowl of pozole. On the Ancha SanAntonio, at # 35, you will find Victoria's, a tiny restauranthidden among the larger venues that sell Mexican artesanías(handcrafts). There are just a few tables inside and you'll waitjust a few minutes for your take-out order of green or redpozole, chicken or pork. Accompanying your large or smallportion are fried tortillas and the fixings to top your pozole:lettuce, radish, and red onion.One of the attractions of San Miguel is the breadth of itsinternational and local eateries. Like most major cities, thescrumptious food of the region can be delivered to your door orpicked up. And the La Europea and Cava Sautto wine storesfortunately are open daily for your imbibing needs.The local tortillerías are also working daily, so you can havefreshly made tortillas for your tacos. The small and large fruit,vegetable, and flower markets are open too for purchasing (atdrop-dead low prices) the freshest regional produce, withavocado, papaya, melón, mango, jícama, cilantro, and broccolitopping the list of the vast range of fruits and vegetablesavailable year-round in Mexico.The Eye 16Plaza Coyula Local 4Santa Cruz, Huatulco(behind Banamex)Tel: 958 100 9998

Hecho in Mexico, at Ancha SanAntonio, # 8, is a favorite amongboth the gringo crowd andMexicans due to the highlyconsistent quality of each item onthe menu. The variety of selectionsis staggering: everything fromenchiladas and tacos tohamburgers, salads, soups, and (my personal favorite) theReuben sandwich. This is a large, mostly outdoor venue, whichmakes it ideal for social distancing.Il Castello Ristorante Pizzeria, atAnimas 20, serves the real thing when itcomes to Italian food at reasonableprices.There is fabulous pizza,stromboli, calzones, and the besteggplant and chicken parmesan around(a personal favorite). Small seating areaonly, but like all other restaurants, theyare prepared to give you take-out. Theportions are ample and the location iseasy, just up from the market at the PlazaCívica on the charming street of Animas.Garambullo, at Animas 46, justdown the street from Il Castello,serves breakfast and lunch only ina beautiful courtyard. It's beendescribed as a small jewel in themidst of the hustle-bustle of thenearby market. Garambullo, bythe way, is a Mexican fruit that hasmany healthy properties, and therestaurant reflects its name in the quality of their food. Thereare salads, eggs dishes, beans, sandwiches, and enchiladas,all made from the freshest ingredients.Zenteno, at Hernandez Macías136, has by far the best coffee intown. That and their breakfastpastries are served daily in thisminiscule space with just fourtables. You might find yourselfalone in here during thesepandemic days, but during normaltimes you'd see many happy patrons on their iPads sippingcoffees. One day I even spotted Robert Reich, the Americaneconomist, in a quiet corner. I buy my freshly ground coffeehere by the kilo.Tostévere, at Codo 4, is known fortheir tostadas. Forget your imageof a Mexican tostada because herethey create their own version of thepopular Mexican dish. The chefand staff present a small menu,but it's filled with uniquevariations on the traditionalt

Aug 07, 2020 · Number Uno has to be Carlos Slim Helu, better known as Carlos Slim. I have to assume, dear readers, that most of you know he is the 5th-richest person in the world, the wealthiest Latin American and worth about 68.9 billion US dollars, but did you know he is of Lebanese descent? Slim