4 January, 2019

Short walk today, only 6,000 steps. Will have to go out later and finish! Stopped at one of my favorite local places for lunch though. I don’t make it to Tacos y Tortas Ahogadas “El Mono” as much as I’d like, primarily because the walk there is short and not too interesting. Plus, it takes me past both the panadaria where too many pan dulces are available, AND the malvaviscos factory.

I’ve been stuck on El Mono’s birria. I know they have a few other items, but I really like birria, and theirs is good. It’s not chivo, but it’s a solid good, and as said not too far away. I’ve been wanting to try the torta ahogada, but when I’m nearby I don’t have any hand sanitizer, and the traditional way of eating it is either by hand, or with a spoon. It can be very messy if you eat by hand, and the bread has to be pretty soft for the spoon method to work. Today I stuck the hand sanitizer in the backpack before venturing out, so I was boy scout prepared in case I made my way to El Mono.

The more steps I took, the more my head decided that lunch at El Mono was on today’s agenda. I made my way down the long way to the beach, then decided to come back along Aquiles Serdan. Took me past the flower shops and the shrimp ladies, to Calle Zaragoza, where “El Mono” is situated. Walk down Zaragoza to Calle German Evers and there I was! And today was the day! I skipped my typical orden de birria and went for it! Dos tacos dorados con birria y queso, un torta ahogada (con carnitas), y una coca cola.

After having deep fried tacos in Guadalajara, I learned that it’s a preparation called ‘dorados’. The tacos are bigger than the typical Méxican street tacos, and more like what ‘North’ North Americans think of as a taco. Sometimes a little change is nice, so I went with those. They were served with a cup of the birria consumé too – which I’m going to make my place in Seattle do for me when I’m back there! Today’s were quite tasty, but one of them would have been plenty along with the torta!

My torta ahogada had a LOT of meat! I added some onion and salsa con guacamole to spice it up a little. They brought the pretty orange sauce that I love to eat – until the next day arrives. Let’s just say it’s more than habañero hot and about 12 to 18 hours after eating it my body goes into a TMI zone. This time I listened to my head and ignored my taste buds! The torta was really good. The spoon method worked very well. I ate it all, including both tacos! I could only finish half of the coca-cola though, even with burping pretty loudly several times.

And the damage, was a whole $100 pesos. That’s $5.00 usd. A big sandwich, two tacos, and a half-liter coke. Add another $20 peso tip and lunch cost me a whopping $6.00 usd.

I think perhaps a short nap is in order, then I’ll venture out and get the rest of my 10,000 steps for the day! El Mono needs to go on my list of places to visit more often!