Beachin'

The coast was beautiful! We drove down to Lazaro Cardenas, took a right, and headed west along the Pacific. This picture is walking along in Las Peñas - our first night on the beach. My brother messed around with this shot to make it look pretty:


The next morning we did some birdwatching (we ended up in a marsh and I got bitten by about three thousand mosquitoes), and then drove along the windy roads until we got to Maruata:

Rocky prettiness:



View from above - lots of palapas, or shade structures to sit under in between swimming:


We bought fish from this guy - 20 pesos for a pretty big fish:



We spent three days in Maruata before heading west again to check out Faro, and then heading back east to Pichilinguillo - a tiny town of nearly nothing, but an awesome cove to swim in and a couple of restaurants, hotels, and some palapas. We ate really great fish dinner there, and spent the night in a hotel room equipped with two beds, a hammock, an outdoor balcony overlooking the cove and ocean, and use of public bathrooms and showers. The cost for the room? 250 pesos, or less than 25 dollars. Here is Pichilinguillo:


After Pichilinguillo, we spent a rather unimpressive night in Lazaro Cardenas (an industrial city - mostly shipping). The next morning, we went "down to the docks" and bought some tuna and stingray to take home. The tuna was 90pesos/kilo already filleted; the stingray was 45pesos/kilo. Inexpensive! And I had never tried stingray. It was quite tasty.

Throughout the trip we gathered seeds to try planting here, and on the way back we got some cactus that might do ok here in the forest.

Swordfish!

I was at the grocery store today for yogurt and wandered over to the fish counter where there was a special on swordfish. Being as I get foodstamps and I have never cooked swordfish before, I decided to splurge and get something new! It tastes.. good! I made a fun little berry balsamic glaze, and cooked a little spinach and mushroom wheat bulgar salad to go with it.

The balsamic glaze is so easy! I take about a cup of vinegar to about a quarter of sugar, and simmer that sucker down until it is just a little bit thick. About fifteen minutes in, I added a handful or so of chopped up mixed berries. This simmers for maybe a half hour or so. I definitely would have made this ahead of time if time permitted, since cooking vinegar makes the whole kitchen smelly.

The salad was next. It can be served hot or cold or warm or whatever. I added warm water to a little bit of wheat bulgar and let that stuff get nice and tender (takes an hour) while I sauteed some onion. Add mushrooms and a splash of soy sauce, let that cook down, and then pop the spinach in until it is wilty but still green and pretty. Wheat bulgar is what I normally use in tabouli... it is nutritious, with lots of protein, which means when I make extra I can use it as a whole meal the next day!

Then... the fish! I marinated this stuff in lemon juice and a splash of balsamic for an hour before cooking. Salt and pepper one side, and put that side down flat on my pan (which has olive oil all heated up). I read online about how to cook a thick steak of swordfish, and I went for the recipe that suggested four minutes per side. This was perfect for me! But, I like semi-rare fish... so, if I were cooking for someone else I'd probably go with five-six minutes per side.

Then I put all the stuff on a plate, drizzled with balsamic, garnished with green onions, and WOW! Taste bud happy!