food glorious food

The best food in town is Italian. We've been uniformly unimpressed with Oaxacan cuisine. The food has been bland and uninteresting. They don't season anything beyond adding salsa. No salt and pepper is rarely seen on tables. Oaxacan cheese- quesillo-is stringy, almost tasteless, and doesn't melt well. The beans down here have been black which I love but they're used mostly as a condiment. Vegetables are a rarity. I've found vegetable sopa with carrot and chayotte which I think is a cross between squash and cabbage.

There have been standouts. Tommy has found wonderful shrimp cocktails with our hotel serving the best. Their presentation is beautiful; a soup bowl of fresh shrimp with a sauce that's like gazpacho. Chunks of tomato, avocado, and jalapeno, and bits of cilantro, garlic, and onion.

We found a little place that serves Tlayudas, a quesadilla cooked over a barbecue. They're charred and crunchy with black beans used like mayonnaise just to flavor, lettuce tomato and avocado. In Puerto Escondido we found vegetarian tamales and the best salad we've had here. The tamales had poquito queso and wonderful veggies, squash bits wrapped in a banana leaf. The salad had shredded beets and carrots, avocado, and broccoli.

But the best food is town has been Il Rigoletto, a 6 table restaurant owned by ex-pat Italians. They serve flaky, thin crust pizza, family style salad that's a huge bowl filled with crispy verduras, and pasta that overwhelms with authentic Italian flavor. We go Monday night for their 2 for 1 pasta and end up with too much food for under $10.US.

I miss rice and corn and peas. We're looking forward to Mexico City and more food choices. Next week we head north!