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Just skirting through the town over the weekend for a brief one-night stay, Manuel and I found a few gems that weren’t mentioned in our guide book.
Il Pomodoro: The Italian restaurant just a quick stroll from Parque Juarez was the place to be on Saturday night. With a continual wait in the lobby, the cuisine is quite popular with families and couples. The menu is large and the wine list long and descriptive. The prices were very economical: less than $4USD for pasta and $7 or $8 for seafood or meat. I enjoyed an appetizer of roasted potatoes with fresh mushrooms and melted Gouda. My salad was delicious: a simple Romaine tossed with house-made croutons, ripe tomatoes and an olive-oil dressing. As an entrée the gnocchi were tasty with ground beef and a scrumptious red sauce. Manuel ordered one of everything with shrimp in it, and highly recommends the shrimp pizza as the best of his samplings. One suggestion: when you go, ask for the smoking section. All the best tables are in the smoking section on the patio, with candlelight, potted plants and trees. Indoors the ambiance isn’t much better than what can be found in a diner.
Antojitos Doña Mary, Central Market: Here I found the best chilaquiles that I’ve had in months. The café con leche was piping hot and brewed with local Veracruz coffee beans. There are also picadas on the menu, which are nearly the same thing as a sope, except they are huge—almost the size of a medium pizza. This lively stand within the central market of Xalapa was busy, yet it runs smoothly with no less than 8 men and women working in the kitchen. As in all traditional markets, prices are a bargain, and Doña Mary’s is no exception. Next time I pass through Xalapa, I’ll be sure to stop in again.
Mujeres con Huevos: Just outside of Xalapa in Xico, Veracruz, exists a collective of over 100 women working together to improve their community and augment their families’ income. The women (and a few men) of Mujeres con Huevos sell free-range, high-quality eggs to the communities of Xico, Xalapa and even Mexico City. While I didn’t have the opportunity to speak with these women or find one of the venues for their eggs in Xalapa while I was there, the information I’ve learned about the program created by these women merits mention in this blog for future visitors to the area.
Spearheaded by Guadalupe Torres RamÃrez, Dora Gálvez Juárez and Kris McCamant, the program has 3 impactful goals. The first is to sell free-range eggs of the highest quality and nutritional value. In Mexico, the world’s leader in egg consumption per capita, this accomplishment has significant impact in the community. Through strict quality standards, the collective’s members have become experts on maintaining cleanliness in their operations. Standards for egg quality, uniformity, size and color are also met.
The second goal of the collective is to stop the alarming rate of habitat deterioration common among campesino communities in central Veracruz. To reach this goal, weekly meetings are held among the members of Mujeres con Huevos to foster an interchange of ideas, experiences and knowledge. The women have chosen to educate themselves on natural and traditional medicines for their hens, shunning the use of pharmaceuticals and other expensive, synthetic veterinary medicines. They have had success using herbs and homemade preparations in maintaining the health of their fowl, and their knowledge of proper nutrition contributes to the health of the flocks. Additionally, the hens are feed natural grains and vegetables, not processed foods.
Lastly, the third goal of the collective is to put an end to the migration of Xico families and young men to the United States. By providing additional income and education for the members of Mujeres con Huevos, the hope is that women gain the financial resources necessary to raise a family right here in Veracruz, thereby eliminating the need to migrate abroad to earn a living. For contact information on Mujeres con Huevos and a list of locations where their eggs are sold, see http://www.elgolfo.info/elgolfo/index/op/noticia/id/11783.html, the source for this blog.
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