JUST LIKE JULIA

I am sitting here at the first table of Fonda Florecita. It is a long picnic table spanning at least 30 feet, almost the span of the warehouse room, covered with a green, yellow and orange striped table cloth with a clear laminate film over it. The seats are a long bench. I think about how they cut the wood and brought it in here.

There are two Mexicana senoritas next to me, on my right, enjoying their meal of salsa con huevos and a tlayuda. I noticed that we ordered the same dishes, except mine will be a meal for one.

The view of the table where I am sitting is looking out into a kitchen separated into halves. The left half has a traditional burning stove, circular in shape with a flat circular pan on top of it. A woman is hand pressing fresh masa dough into tortillas to be fired on the pan. The right half consists of a traditional chef kitchen, plastic and porcelain plates and bowls stacked into neat piles, stainless steel pots with ladles poking out with various sauces and liquids, pans frying up orders from the customers. Apparently this specific restaurant within the market is well known for their economical pricing and food, famous for their tlayudas and breakfast.

I ordered salsa con huevos which came first. A delightfully soft scrambled mess of eggs, drowning in a salsa Rojo and a stewed puddle of black beans. Something so simple looking hits the spot for me in all the things I find important: flavor profile and comfort in how I feel when eating. It reminds me of a Chinese dish made of scrambled eggs and stir fried tomatoes and scallions. Somehow a sense of nostalgia washes over me. It has been about 11 months since I have eaten home cooked Chinese food.

When I travel, I find myself in enjoying the pleasurable trap of eating delicious foods as much as I enjoy jumping off 7 meter waterfalls. As I dug into the warmth of the eggs, my ultimate Oaxacan good eats arrived: the tlayuda, a personal pizza sized local dish consisting of a large fried tortilla, refried beans, lettuce, salsa and a copious amount of cheese. I don’t eat meat, so this is as plain and simple as they come. The tlayuda was one of the best I’ve had. Crispy. Thin. Crunchy. I dip the drier parts into the leftover salsa from my eggs.

By the time my plate is cleared, I am stuffed and ready for a nap. 

February 5, 2021