This article is from the October 2001 The Mexico File newsletter.
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Chatting in the Kitchen

by Bruce McGovern 

Tonight, we were sitting in the kitchen in our house in DF (Mexico City) eating a hot caldo my wife made. Caldo is a sort of Mexican stew, with a lot of vegetables of every sort, and a small quantity of chicken or beef for flavor. When available, it is eaten, with tortillas of course, for every meal, which seems strange for folks raised on bacon, egg, and pancake breakfasts. Corn, green beans, zucchini, potatoes � just about any edible vegetable seems to belong in a good caldo. If not for that small quantity

of meat, it would be a vegetarian's dream. Here, at 7,200 feet, in unheated houses, if you make a large pot of caldo, you can re_heat it twice a day, without putting it in the fridge, and it doesn�t go bad before it�s all consumed. 

�Liliana,� my niece, and her brother started discussing plans to visit Cuba again. They started teasing me to go along, and asked if I needed special permission.  I told them that I had read that I could go from Mexico as long as I don�t spend any money there. That is rather silly, of course, though I really did read it in a newspaper, and they had a good laugh. 

So, they said if I got caught, I could claim I thought my tickets were for Canc�n, and I had no idea I was in Cuba.                                               

I laughed, and told them I could claim I had wondered why Canc�n was located in the middle of such a large lake � it seemed we flew across that lake for hours before we arrived. Also, I was surprised that no matter how far I walked, I never found the end of the beach!