Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mexico. Show all posts

Saturday 10 October 2020

I Don't Really Have a Sweet Tooth, but.....

.... I Used to Like Desserts

Time was we would go out and eat a three-course meal, today it is usually main course only (though in the Time of Covid we have not been out since we took up that nice Rishi Sunak’s invitation ‘to eat out to help out’). Part of the problem is the increasing size of pub main courses, but most of it is our increasing age – we just can’t eat like we use to.

So, this post is a celebration of all things sweet. It is not quite a fond farewell, we are still in 'one dessert, two spoons' territory, and of course there are many occasions where the casual purchase of something small and sweet is deemed appropriate.

My dessert at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant, Padstow (2007)

So where to start?

Portugal, Obviously

Why obviously? Because we have spent a week or two in the Algarve every October this century, and would be there right now if our flight had not been cancelled by the Curse of Covid.

The Algarve to us means, first and foremost, sea-food, fresh from the briny and expertly cooked, but a meal should not stop there.

Dessert menus generally involve a large glossy folded card produced by a manufacturer of synthetic desserts and ice creams. Stuck somewhere on the card there will be a small, sometimes hand-written, list of desserts for grown-ups, many of which will have been made in-house. Ever present is pudim flan, a rich eggy caramel custard, which is perfect when you have too little room for anything heavier. Sometimes it is just perfect.

Lynne and a pudim flan, Martin's Grill, Carvoeiro

Many residents of the dessert menu are equally at home with a morning coffee - another of the pleasures of Portugal and the reason why each trip is traditionally followed by a diet.

Coffee and Cakes, Ferragudo (2012)

An assortment of bolos (cakes) and tartes (translation unnecessary) are made from local produce including (but not limited to) almonds, figs, carobs, oranges and apples. The cakes will always be made with one egg more than would be normal elsewhere and are universally wonderful.

Different cakes (and cups) but at the same place in 2011

Apple Cakes

Portuguese apple cake is moist, flavourful and lovely. Elsewhere apple can be a little dull, though Lynne’s Dorset apple cake is always a delight and a French apple tart can be a thing of beauty. So is Moldovan apple cake – who knew there was such a thing? We made it our lunch in the ambitiously named Eco-resort, actually a clutch of traditional painted houses, in the village of Butuceni. Butuceni sees few visitors – it deserves more (click here to find out why).

Lynne and a Moldovan apple cake, Butuceni Eco-Resort

Pasteis de Nata

Our favourite and most frequent accompaniment to morning coffee is the pastel de nata (literally, if misleadingly, ‘cream pastry’)

Cafe con leite and a pastel de nata

Baked fresh every day – the supermarket version is cheap but a shadow of the real thing - the pastry is crisp and flaky, the filling rich with vanilla and egg. It can be enjoyed anywhere, but I know of nowhere better  than the Pastelaria Fabrica Velha in Carvoeiro, one of our favourite Algarve coffee spots.

I will also briefly mention Lord Stow’s Garden Café in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, just across the Pearl River estuary from Hong Kong. (Click here for our visit and ‘Lord Stow’s’ unusual back story.)

Lord Stow's Garden Café, Coloane, Macau

Lord Stow’s egg tarts are based on the pastel de nata; the pastry is first class, but they look a little too tidy and the oversweet filling lacks the subtlety of the real thing. Expanding from the Garden Café, Lord Stow bakery franchises can now be found in several east Asian luxury hotels.

Lord Stow's egg tarts, Coloane, Macau

SE Asia (and Mexico)

Vietnam

Having reached Macau we shall stay in Asia. There are many sweet foods in China, but there are no desserts because there are no courses. Dishes are ordered, arrive when they are ready and are shared by everybody.

The same is not true in Vietnam which has its own distinctive style. Finishing a meal with soup seems odd to us, but why not? In Hanoi (click here) our first dinner ended with che bo bo, a soup (though che means ‘tea’) described on the menu as a sweet southern dessert consommé.

Lynne and Nhu (representative of Haivenu Travel) at the Ly Club, Hanoi - we had not quite reached the dessert soup yet

At the other end of the country, Ngon is a Saigon institution. The huge restaurant is housed in a colonial mansion where tables fill the entrance hall, atrium, courtyard and every ground floor room. It was packed with office workers, students and suburban ladies on shopping expeditions; everybody, it seemed, headed for Ngon at lunch time.

Fortunately, we had a booking and a waiter led us confidently through the throng to the only spare seats in the building (for the full story click here). Sweetness is all-pervasive, so making good desserts is easy, but sublime desserts are rare. At Ngon, my glutinous rice balls swimming in a ginger and coconut milk sauce presented a combination of flavours and textures that hit that mark. I had difficulty grasping the idea that, for the locals, such delights are ordinary everyday food.

In the former imperial city of Hue, in Vietnam's narrow waist, we were treated to an 8-course imperial banquet. The food was all right, no more, but the presentation of each course was memorable. The dessert of sweetened red bean paste formed into fruits was one of the most inventive, though of course the fruits all tasted the same, regardless of colour or shape.

Fruits made from Bean Paste, Placid Garden Manor Restaurant, Hue

Malaysia

Malaysia is a great place to eat, but desserts are not a high priority. Cendol is a sort of national dessert available everywhere from 4-star hotels to street food stalls; the price varies, but the quality is much the same. It consists of shaved ice with coconut milk, green coloured rice noodles, a few red beans and a lot of unrefined palm sugar – simple, but pleasing.

Lynne eats cendol at a street food stall, Penang

Durian is popular from southern China southwards. The big, green spiky fruit smells like a chemical toilet left out in the sun, but if you can ignore that, and it is not easy, they taste wonderful (allegedly) – as the locals say ‘smells like Hell, tastes like Heaven.’

Green durian and red dragon fruit, Banh Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh City

Malaysia is peak durian territory. There are shops entirely devoted to durian and the pastries and confections made from it. One-bite durian puffs are an easy way to approach the challenge, but the ‘one-bite’ is important. Attempting two bites deposits a surprisingly large slick of durian slurry over an extensive area (as well I know). The smell is repressed by the cooking and the flavour is actually quite pleasant.

The one-bite durian puff, Malacca

Emboldened, we tried a durian ice-cream on a stick in Kuala Lumpur, and actually enjoyed it.

Durian ice-cream. Are we beginning to develop a taste? Central Market, Kuala Lumpur

Ice Cream

So, having reached ice cream, here is a brief rant.

Ice-cream parlours figured large in my youth, or at least Borza’s on the prom in Porthcawl did. I know others remember Borza’s fondly as the last time I mentioned them complete strangers contacted me asking for further information. Unfortunately, all I know is that the Borza’s moved on, those that didn’t can be found in Porthcawl cemetery, just across the path from my grandparents.

In the late 1950s Borza’s did few flavours, but they did the most exquisite creamy-textured vanilla - a vanilla nut sundae was a once-a-holiday treat (well it cost 1/9d!*). For Borza’s, vanilla was not a synonym for ‘plain’ it meant ice cream flavoured, quite strongly, with actual vanilla. To get an ice cream that good today you have to visit a high-end restaurant where they make it in-house. (Click here for the Walnut Tree in Abergavenny).

Since then ice cream has diversified into a host of mostly synthetic flavours and lost its texture. Some American makers have gone so far astray that ice cream has become merely a filler of the interstices in pots of crumbled brownies, cookie dough or honeycomb.

Ice Cream in Mexico

Rant over, now please join me in a leap across the Pacific from Malaysia to Mexico.

To complete a street food lunch in Puebla, 100 km south of Mexico City, we ventured into an ice cream shop. We had rarely seen such a vast array of flavours.

Ice-cream choices, Puebla

But it was not the number that amazed us, it was the flavours themselves. With our rudimentary grasp of Spanish we could see the usual suspects, strawberry, chocolate, rum and raisin, even vanilla tucked in the end. But what about vino tinto? As an ice cream? And queso (cheese) or queso con zarzamora (cheese with blackberries) or chicle (bubblegum)? Our local guide helped with the translations, but even he could not render maracuyá or guanabana into English, so that was what we chose.

Eating ice-cream in Puebla

We enjoyed both. Maracuyá was familiar though we could not quite place it, guanabana remained a mystery. We googled them later; maracuyá is passion fruit, so we should have recognised it, and guanabana is soursop. No? Nor me. It is, apparently, a spikey, vaguely pear-shaped fruit that grows on an evergreen tree throughout the tropical Americas. Its flavour, according to Wikipedia is a combination of strawberry and apple with a sour citrus note. It makes a decent enough ice cream.

Now, back to Asia

India

Mava

Mava or khoya is made throughout the sub-continent by stirring gently boiling milk until its consistency approaches a soft dough. It can be sold like that…

The Bhirandiyara Mava Center, Gujarat

… and the result is surprisingly sweet.

Lynne eating Mava, Bhirandiyara

Gulab Jamun

But it is also the basis of several sweets and desserts, my favourite being Gulab Jamun. Mava is rolled into balls, which are deep fried in ghee at low temperature until they are golden brown, then soaked in a light syrup, sometimes flavoured with cardamom, rose water or saffron. I have eaten many, but never photographed them, so I have borrowed this one from Wikipedia. In my experience they are rarely as elegantly presented as this.

Gulab Jamun with Saffron
Photo by Prakrutim, reproduced under CC Share-Alike 4. 0

Nimish

Nimish, a speciality of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, is another dairy based dessert. Double cream, icing sugar, rosewater and saffron are stirred together and topped with pistachios and silver leaf. The silver leaf has no gastronomic purpose, but the cuisine of Lucknow is the cuisine of Nawabs, so everything must look opulent.

Nimish at Lucknow market

Served here in an eco-friendly bowl of pressed leaves, it was sweet and lovely and slipped down very easily.

Nimish, Lucknow market

Turkey

Another westward skip brings us to Turkey. South-East Asia and India possess two of the world’s great cuisines and although few would say the same about Turkey, the country has, by my count, made three major culinary contributions; one is the donner kebab, the other two I like very much.

Turkish Delight

Turkish Delight, lokum in Turkish, really is a delight and Istanbul has whole shops dedicated to it.

A whole shop full of Turkish Delight, Istiklal Cadessi, Istanbul

The concept is simple, a gel of sweetened starch is cut into cubes and dusted with icing sugar. The ‘delight’ comes from the inclusions (dates, pistachio, hazelnuts, walnuts) and flavourings (rosewater, bergamot, orange, lemon). Other inclusions and flavourings are possible. It is not covered in chocolate like Fry’s Turkish Delight, which is a very poor approximation to the real thing inside.

Baklava

Baklava may have been developed in the imperial kitchens of Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace. Layers of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and bound with syrup or honey make a rich dessert entirely suitable for an emperor – and pretty much anyone else. It has always been a favourite of mine, but in the only photograph I have of baklava, it is already half-eaten (I wonder why?).

Light lunch with ample sugar - Baklava, Turkish Delight and sweet Turkish coffee, Istanbul

United Kingdom and Ireland

Leaping athletically across the rest of Europe, we arrive home.

Posh Desserts

Sugar is such a dominant flavour that desserts can be a problem for high-end restaurants where subtle flavours are important. One solution is to create a variety of textures, as in this dessert from the Michelin starred Loam in Galway. Called 'Strawberry, Juniper' it involved strawberry ice cream, shards of juniper meringue, sweet pickled cherry, lovage sponge, coconut butter, white chocolate mousse, white chocolate bonbon, hazelnut crumb and a hint of smoked hay. All the elements, some very small, made their contribution providing a variety of textures and flavours beneath the dominant sweetness.

Strawberry, Juniper - Loam, Galway

Another is to go architectural as in this henge of fruit and meringue from the then Michelin starred Box Tree in Ilkley.

Dessert, The Box Tree, Ilkley

Despite my garish lighting effect (it is as good as I can get it) this mille-feuille of raspberries with lemon curd and elderflower was very pretty.

There are fewer problems lower down the pecking order. While banoffee pie and tiramisu have become ubiquitous, there has also been a renaissance of the traditional British pud.

Bakewell Pudding

Nothing sounds and feels quite as traditional as a Bakewell pudding (and I mean ‘pudding’ not ‘tart’, but that story is complicated - click here for Bakewell and Haddon Hall). A two-person pudding in the ‘Old Bakewell Pudding Shop’ eaten at 11am (and not quite finished) kept us going until dinner at 8.

A Bakewell pudding for two, served with cream and custard(!)

The jammy, almondy, marzipany flavour of the not quite egg-custard was toe-curlingly lovely, at first, but it was so sweet that even this wonderful flavour became cloying surprisingly quickly.

Sticky Toffee Pudding (STP)

And finally a mention for Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding. Sadly, the only photo I have is of the factory in Flookburgh, 2½ miles from Cartmel, where STP has been made since demand outgrew the resources of Cartmel village shop. It seems wrong that a factory-made pudding that can be microwaved in minutes should be so good, but it is.

Cartmel sticky Toffee Pudding factory, Flookburgh

And finally, finally

That would be a dull picture to end on, so here is my dessert at the Makphet Restaurant in Vientiane, (the capital of Laos, as I am sure you know). Makphet exists to take children off the streets and train them for careers in the hospitality industry, so a worthy charity as well as a fine restaurant.

Top dessert, Makphet, Vientiane

Coconut ice-cream, fresh, sweet pineapple, cane syrup and a dusting of chilli powder. All my favourite flavours on one plate (although if they could have stuck in some ginger….)

*For the benefit for youngsters under 60, that is Old Money; one shilling and nine (old) pence – the equivalent of 8½p. That was expensive, in the 1950s when you could go round the world for half a crown and still have change for a fish supper.

Thursday 20 August 2020

A Collection of Arcs de Triomphe (None of them in Paris) Part 2, Post-1900

Triumphal Arches - What is and What is Not

This is the third iteration of this post. The original, published 01-Apr-2014, was ‘Four Arcs de Triomphe (none of them in Paris). The second, 29-June-2018, included newly collected arches, but also omitted Lutyens’ India Gate from the earlier post on the grounds it was a War Memorial, not a Triumphal Arch.

Defining a Triumphal Arch is difficult. Some arches called Triumphal have no associated triumph, and then there are Monumental Gates and War Memorials which can look very similar.

Although retaining the title, I have chosen a new and more inclusive definition for these posts (there are now two of them, this one and pre-1900). For the purposes of this blog an ‘Arc de Triomphe’ is an arch with no structural purpose. This definition includes war memorials built in arch form – like the India Gate mentioned above and also Monumental Gates as long as they were built to be symbolic i.e. not city gates built as part of a wall, even if the wall has long gone. The other qualification of inclusion is that I have been there and taken the photograph.

Arches of the 20th and 21st Centuries

For Classical Arches and modern arches built before 1900, see part 1.

All the arches below owe a debt to the Parisian Arc, (almost) the first modern Arc de Triomphe. In some cases the debt is very obvious, for others it is more in spirit than in substance.

So, In order of construction:

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

Completed 1924, Visited 14-Mar-2019

India

In 1911 George V became the first British monarch to visit the Jewel in the Crown. The Gateway of India on the Mumbai (then Bombay) waterfront was conceived as a symbolic entrance to the sub-continent for the King-Emperor and Queen-Empress.

Careful planning is not just a feature of the current British government. In 1911 the King and Queen passed through a world-beating cardboard gate, the stone version would be built once the design.was agreed.

The Gateway of India, Mumbai

The foundation stone was laid in March 1913 but another year passed before George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic gate was given the go-ahead. Work was completed in 1924.

The gateway was subsequently used as a symbolic entrance to British India by important colonial personnel and the last British troops left through it at independence in 1948. Once unpopular as a representation of "conquest and colonisation" it is now a symbol of the city and an attraction to tourists and the army of street vendors that prey upon them.

The India Gate, New Delhi

Completed 1931, Visited 16-Feb-2013

At the start of the 20th century Edwin Lutyens had the rare privilege of designing a new capital for Britain’s most prized possession. The ceremonial Kingsway, leading to the Viceroy’s palace through the administrative heart of his new city, was modelled on The Mall, but with a nod to the Champs Elysées.

The India Gate, New Delhi

In 1921 he was commissioned to build a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died fighting for the Empire in the First World War. It is now a memorial to the 70,000 who died in conflicts between 1914 and 1920. Completed in 1931, The India Gate was placed at the opposite end of the Kingsway (now Rajpath) from the Viceroy’s Palace (now the President’s Palace). If the Kingsway nodded toward the Champs Elysées, the India Gate bows deeply towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest

Completed in 1936, Visited 25-Jun-2023

Romania

With the world organised as it is, we do occasionally have to remind ourselves that it was not always thus, and most nation-states, even in Europe, are creations of the 19th century; there was no Germany before 1860 and no Italy before 1861. A Romania, smaller than the present country, achieved recognition as an independent state in 1878 and a wooden Arcul de Triumf was constructed on what would become a roundabout in north east Bucharest.

The end of World War One saw the creation of a larger Romania that included most speakers of the Romanian language. This required the construction of a new arch on the same site. It was designed by Petre Antonescu with a concrete interior and a heavily sculpted plaster exterior. The plaster became badly eroded, so in 1936 Antonescu designed a new, more durable and less flamboyant arch and that has survived to this day (with restoration work in 2014).

Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest

It is not the grandest of Arcs de Triomphe, and rather outside the city centre, though its roundabout is negotiated by all visitors being driven into Bucharest from the airport. Military parades pass beneath it every 1st of December, Romania’s national day.

Monumento a la Revolución, Mexico City

Built 1938 Visited 18-Nov-2017

Mexico

Intended as a neo-classical home for the Federal Legislative Palace, building started in 1910 but was halted two years later by the revolution. In 1938 the completed first stage was adapted as a monument to the revolution that halted the building and it now contains the tombs of five revolutionary heroes including Pancho Villa.

Monument a la Revolucion, Mexico City

Transforming the core of a parliament building into a triumphal arch altered the neo-classical intention into something that has been described as Mexican socialist realism. Whatever the label, I think it’s ugly (sorry Mexico). At 75m high it is the world’s highest triumphal arch, but please don’t tell Kim Jung Un, he would only make his bigger.

Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Cambodia

Completed 1958 Visited 17th of February 2014

This 37m high sandstone arch was built in 1958 to celebrate Cambodian independence from France some five years previously. It now also commemorates Cambodia's war dead - and there are a vast number for such a small country.

The Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

Designed by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann to resemble a lotus shaped stupa, it sits at the intersection of Norodom Boulevard and Sihanouk Boulevard, and is the ceremonial, if not geographical, centre of the city. A flame is lit on the inner pedestal, usually by the King, at times of national celebration and commemoration.

Patouxai, Vientiane

Laos

Built 1957-68, Visited 1st of March 2014

Ironically, this Arc de Triomphe was built to commemorate victory over the French. Laos gained its independence in 1954 after the first Indo-China War and Patouxai (Victory Arch) was built in the late 1950s. Less reverently it is known as ‘The Vertical Runway’ as there is a story that it was built from concrete donated by the Americans for airport construction.

Patouxai (Victory Arch), Vientiane

There are stairs inside and shops at three levels. From the top there is a good view over the gardens below one way and down Lan Xang Avenue – Vientiane’s Champs Elysées the other.

The Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang

Built 1982, Visited 9th September 2013

North Korea

North Korea’s Arch of Triumph, in Triumphant Return Square, commemorates Kim Il Sung's return to the capital (in 1948) and his founding of the Democratic People's' Republic of Korea after almost single-handedly driving the Japanese colonialists from his country (DPRK history avoids mentioning the global conflict and ignores contributions made by other combatants, including the Chinese, British and the hated Americans).

It was built in 1982 to celebrate his 70th birthday and is is blatant rip off of the French ‘original’. Two interesting details are that a) it is 10m taller than the Parisian Arch and b) that fact was the first thing we were told when we arrived in the square; delusions of grandeur and a chip on the shoulder being most obvious attributes of Kim Il Sung and the dynasty he founded.

Arch of Triumph, Pyongyang

Pyongyang’s sparse traffic means that it is perfectly safe to stand in the middle of the ‘Champs Elysées’ to take a photograph.

Eternal Flame, Martyrs Alley, Baku

Opened 9th of October 1998 Visited 12th of August 2014

Azerbaijan

The events of Azerbaijan’s Black January are little known in the UK.

In 1990 in, the dying days of its empire the Soviet Union declared a state of emergency in Azerbaijan. The Popular Front responded by imposing roadblocks around Baku which Soviet troops broke through, killing some 130 unarmed protestors. The Russian claims that the first shots came from the Azeri side, are hotly disputed. What our otherwise admirable Azeri guide did not tell us was that the state of emergency was declared to stop a pogrom which had killed 90 of Baku’s Armenian residents. What the Armenians never mentioned when we were there, was that the pogrom was provoked by Armenia granting citizenship to ethnic Armenians in the Azeri district of Nagorno Karabakh. What the Azeris forget to mention..... and so on in a time-honoured chicken-and-egg argument. The resulting Azerbaijan-Armenia war ended in 1994 with Karabakh becoming a de facto independent state (now called Artsakh) and Azerbaijan feeling miffed. Negotiations – and occasional shootings - continue. [Including a major outbreak in 2020.]

In Martyr's Alley the 130 who died in Black January are commemorated with names and photographs in black marble. At the end is an eternal flame.

Eternal Flame, Martyr's Alley, Baku

The eternal flame is the biggest test of my new rule for deciding what should be in and what out. Can it really be called an arch? Is it more of an elongated, heavyweight gazebo? I said I would be inclusive, so it is in.

The Arch of Bender

Built 2008 Visited  27th June 2018

Transnistria

Bender (or Bendery, sometimes Tighina) is a city on the right bank of the River Dniester in the breakaway Republic of Transnistria, officially part of Moldova. Bender was on the front line in many of the wars between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, its fortress being taken by the Russians in 1779, 1789 and 1806 (and lost in between). An arch commemorating the Russian capture of Bender Fort in 1806 was erected in Chişinău, the Moldovan capital, but was destroyed, along with much else, in 1944.

The Arch of Bender, Bender, Transnistria

This arch in Bender is a 2008 replica of that destroyed arch. The major result of the 1806-12 war was the Russian Empire’s gain of Bessarabia (approximately Moldova and Transnistria), so the arch is a message, or warning, from the Russian orientated Transnistrians to the Moldovans and their European ambitions.

Porta Macedonia, Skopje

North Macedonia

Built 2011 Visited May 2015

The Porta Macedonia was designed by Valentina Stefanovska as part of the then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski’s ‘Skopje 2014’ project which saddled the capital with a series of grandiose monuments at great expense. Despite its name it is not a gate, nor is it a war memorial, but the design is classic Triumphal Arch, so that is what it must be, though apart from commemorating 20 years of Macedonian independence it is unclear what the ‘triumph’ was.

Porta Macedonia

I am unconvinced that spending €4.4m on a triumphal arch was the best use of money, which is not overabundant in Skopje. Gruevski was prime minister from 2006 until forced to resign in 2016. In May 2018 he started a two years prison sentence for corruption.

and finally....

This space is available free to any country willing to build itself a pointless arch

Friday 1 December 2017

Mexico City (3), Kahlo, Rivera and Trotsky: Part 11 of South East from Mexico City

La Casa Azul, Trotsky's House and Dolores Olmeda

Mexico
Mexico City

We were pleased to see F again, even if he was half an hour late. After apologising and blaming the traffic he introduced his boss who had arrived with him. She apologised for our missed street food tour two weeks earlier - see Mexico City (1) - and promised we would be reimbursed for both the tour and the phone calls and texts on the day. The company, she said, would buy us lunch today in further recompense.

Coyoacán

Coyoacán

Happy with this we set off with F towards Coyoacán, once a Tepanec village on the south shore of Lake Texcoco, now a municipality in the south of Mexico City. The Tepanec had welcomed the Spanish as potential allies against the Aztecs, and Coyoacán became Hernán Cortés’ headquarters in his conquest of the Aztec Empire. From 1521-23 it was the first capital of New Spain and although now absorbed into Mexico City’s urban sprawl, many areas retain their original plazas, narrow streets and colonial buildings.

La Casa Azul, The Frida Kahlo Museum


Frida Kahlo, owner of the world's most celebrated monobrow
'Fulan Chang and I', 1937 self-portrait, Museum of Modern Art, New York

La Casa Azul (the Blue House) in the Colonia del Carmen district of Coyoacán was built in 1904 for German-Mexican photographer Guillermo Kahlo. Frida Kahlo, the third of his four daughters was born here in July 1907 (or perhaps at her maternal grandmother’s house nearby.)

La Casa Azul, The Frida Kahlo Museum, Coyoacán

Frida Kahlo spent her childhood here and then lived here with her husband Diego Rivera from the late 30s until her death in 1954. Rivera died in 1958 and donated the house and contents as a museum in Frida’s honour. The inscription in the courtyard claiming Diego and Frida lived here 1929-54 invokes some poetic license, they lived in rural Mexico and the USA (1929-33) and in Mexico City’s San Ángel neighbourhood for much of the rest of the 30s.

Inscription, courtyard, La Casa Azul

Like most local houses, La Casa Azul is built round a courtyard. The courtyard contains a garden, a collection of pre-Columbian artefacts and other sculptures.

In the courtyard, La Casa Azul

Frida’s life was dogged by misfortune. At the age of six she contracted polio which left her right leg shorter and thinner than her left. In 1925, aged 18, she was returning from school when her bus was involved in an accident. She was impaled on an iron rail which fractured her pelvis, and she also broke several ribs and both legs. Three months later an investigation of her continuing back pain revealed displaced vertebrae. She was placed in a rigid corset and confined to bed for another three months.

Shelving her ambition to become a doctor, she had an easel constructed that allowed her to paint in bed and a mirror positioned to facilitate the first of many self-portraits. She began to think of art as more than a mere hobby.

Frida Kahlo’s paintings are in galleries all over the world but La Casa Azul retains a few, including her (unfinished) family portrait - not perhaps her best work.

Family portrait, Frida Kahlo, La Casa Azul
Frieda y Diego Rivera (Thanks Wikipedia)
The original is in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

In 1927 Frida’s bed rest was over. Ignoring her physical disabilities as much as she could she set out on a demanding social life. She joined the communist Party and in 1928 met Diego Rivera, 20 years older than her, a well-established artist and Communist Party member. She asked him to look at her paintings, his encouragement became a relationship and they married in 1929.



[Kahlo was christened Magdalena Carmen Frida but always used her third name, spelling it Frieda until the late 1930s when (for understandable reasons) she felt  a need to dissociate herself from her German heritage.]









Over the next couple of years Rivera worked on his mural ‘The History of Mexico’ which we had seen in the National Palace ( Mexico City (2)).

The History of Mexico (part). Diego Rivera, National Palace, Mexico City

They spent 1931-33 mainly in the USA. The marriage was tempestuous, Rivera was a ‘self-confessed womaniser’ and Kahlo also had several affairs. Kahlo’s medical history meant it would be unwise or maybe impossible for her to have children. She had two abortions in the 1930s and a miscarriage later and dealt with the problems in her art. A curled foetus appears in many of her paintings, including her family portrait above.

Frieda and the Caesarean, 1931, La Casa Azul

Frida left Diego in 1935 after discovering his affair with her younger sister Christina, but they were soon reconciled. In 1937 they persuaded the Mexican government to grant asylum to Leon Trotsky, and he and his wife moved into the Casa Azul in 1937. Trotsky and Frida Kahlo had an affair, probably among the reasons the Trotsky’s left in 1939.

Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo, La Casa Azul

The affair may also have been a major factor (or final straw) in Frida and Diego’s 1939 divorce. The divorce was not a success, they remarried in 1940.

Amid all this mayhem it almost surprising to find their Casa Azul kitchen so very normal – and very Mexican.

Kitchen, La Casa Azul

Most of the remaining exhibits on the ground floor concern Frida's clothing. She favoured the Tehuana traditional dress of the Zapotec woman from Oaxaca. The flowing dresses covered up the physical imperfections caused by polio and her bus accident, but, equally importantly, her maternal grandfather had been a Zapotec, and their matriarchal society reflected her feminist ideals.

Frida Kahlo's dresses

Always frail, her medical problems continued throughout her life - she had an appendectomy in the 1930s and two gangrenous toes were amputated at much the same time. In 1950 she had more back surgery, which resulted in an infection, after which she spent much of her time in a wheel-chair. Gangrene caused the amputation of her right leg in 1953.

Frida Kahlo's medical appliances, La Casa Azul

Upstairs is her studio with her wheel-chair in front of her easel.

Frida Kahlo's studio with her last still life on the easel, La Casa Azul

In 1954 bronchopneumonia led to a pulmonary embolism and Frida Kahlo died on the night of 12th of July aged only 47. Her death mask rests on her bed….

Frida Kahlo's death mask, La Casa Azul

…while her ashes sit in a pre-Columbian urn on her dressing table.

Frida Kahlo's ashes in the urn on her dressing table. La Casa Azul

During her life Kahlo was largely known as Diego Rivera’s wife. Her work was reassessed in the 1970s and she is now regarded as a serious artist in her own right. Whatever her quality as an artist, it is impossible not to admire the spirit and commitment with which she lived her life.

Frida Kahlo in her corset with hammer and cycle (and a foetus), La Casa Azul

La Casa de Leon Trotsky

F drove us the short distance to the Leon Trotsky Museum on Avenida Vienna. He dropped us off and we waited for him, thinking he had gone to park. It was a surprisingly lengthy wait - he thought he was waiting for us to see the museum. We discovered the misunderstanding when he returned, sent him away again and entered the museum.

Museo Casa de Leon Trotsky, Avenue Vienna, Coyoacán, Mexico City

The display had some interesting photographs, but was mostly documents. We can read Russian, spelling out the words like a six-year-old but understanding nothing, and although our Spanish is better, it is not good.

We moved quickly through to the house. It is less forbidding seen from the garden but the watch-tower, top right, is an obvious reminder of Trotsky’s priorities.

The courtyard of the Trotsky House

Leon Trotsky had been a leader of the Russian revolution and in 1918 was head of the Red Army. When Lenin died in 1924 Trotsky was his natural successor, but he was outmanoeuvred by Josef Stalin. Intolerant of all opposition Stalin side-lined and demoted Trotsky and in 1929 exiled him from the Soviet Union. As a political hot potato Trotsky was a largely unwelcome guest in Turkey, France and then Norway where he was placed under house arrest. The Norwegians were delighted when Mexico offered him asylum in 1937.

After spending two years at the Casa Azul, having an affair with Frida Kahlo and so falling out with Diego Rivera, he had to move. Knowing Stalin wanted him dead he needed a house with better security and moved to the Avenida Vienna house in March 1939. He lived and worked here with his family and entourage.

Trotsky's bedroom

An ineffectual attempt at his murder in April 1939 led to increased security. The thickness of the doors shows how worried Trotsky was….

Security door and bullet holes, Casa de Trotsky, Coyoacán

…and the bullet holes in the plaster show those worries were justified. In May 1940 painter and muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros led an assault group comprised of men who had served under him in the Spanish Civil War and members of the Miner’s Union. They broke into the compound, sprayed the house with machine gun bullets, lobbed in some grenades and withdrew confident that nobody had survived. In fact, all survived uninjured except Trotsky’s grandson who was shot in the foot. That grandson, Vsevolod (later Esteban) Volkov, now in his 90s is still a trustee of the museum.

The Assassination of Leon Trotsky

Guile succeeded where brute force had failed. The American lover of long time NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, infiltrated Trotsky’s entourage as a secretary. Once she had his confidence, she introduced Mercader who posed as a Canadian sympathiser.

Sectretary's office, Trotsky's house, Coyoacán

He entered Trotsky's study on the pretext of showing him a document. As Trotsky perused the document Mercader took an ice-axe from under his coat and struck Trotsky on the back of the head. Trotsky fought back, his bodyguards rushed in and overpowered Mercader. Trotsky was taken to hospital where he died the next day and Mercader was removed by the police. He was convicted of murder and served 20 years. On his release in 1961 the USSR awarded him the Order of Lenin and he lived in retirement in Cuba until his death in 1978.

Trotsky's study, where the fatal blow was struck, Coyacán

Trotsky is buried in the garden of his Avenida Vienna house.

Trotsky's grave at his house in Coyoacán

The Dolores Olmeda Museum

F was waiting outside when we emerged. He drove us to the Dolores Olmeda Museum, not far away but just outside the borders of Coyoacán.

The museum is housed in a hacienda with extensive gardens giving a feel of the countryside, although it is well within Mexico City’s urban sprawl.

Garden, Dolores Olmeda Museum

Xoloitxcuintlu Dogs and Other Creatures

Outside there are geese, ducks and peacocks….

Peacock, Dolores Olmeda Museum

…and Xoloitzcuintli dogs. ‘Xolos’ are a native Mexican breed and are generally (though not exclusively) hairless. They were favourites of Dolores Olmeda and appear in photos with, and paintings by, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. I find them extraordinarily ugly – but I am no dog lover.

Xoloitzcuintli dogs sleep beside a statue of one of themselves

Dolores Olmeda's Diego Rivera Collection

Businesswoman Dolores Olmeda bought the property in 1962 with the intention of creating a museum. She donated her art collection and, after her death in 2002, funds for the museum's upkeep.

The Dolores Olmeda Museum, Mexico City

Her collection is vast and covers pre-Columbian, colonial, folk, modern and contemporary art, though unsurprisingly she has the premier collection of the works of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Equally unremarkably she was Diego Rivera’s lover – he hardly met a woman who wasn’t.

We started in the Day of the Dead exhibition…

Day of the Dead, Dolores Olmeda Museum

…though Diego and Frida get in there as well.

Diego and Frida at the Dolores Olmeda Museum

The Diego Rivera collection includes preliminary drawings for the ‘History of Mexico’ mural.

Diego Rivera: preliminary drawing for the History of Mexico

Rivera never seemed to decide on his preferred style. ‘History of Mexico’ has notes of socialist realism, while the nudes below are anything but.

Diego Rivera nudes, Dolores Olmeda Museum

Other paintings flirt with late impressionism or resemble Picassos or Gaugins. And then there is ‘El Picador’ painted in 1909 which combines precise draughtsmanship with great sensitivity.

El Picador, Diego Rivera, 1909. Dolores Olmeda Museum

Pablo O'Higgins

Finally, we had a look at the lithographs of Pablo O’Higgins, an American-Mexican artist, muralist and illustrator. Born Paul Higgins Stevenson in Salt Lake City in 1904, he became a student of Diego Rivera in 1924 and spent most of his working life in Mexico.

The Brickmakers, Pablo O'Higgins, Dolores Olmeda Museum

Back to the City and Homewards

It was now two o’clock and time for our ‘free' lunch. F asked if we wanted it at the museum or at any of several restaurants he could recommend near our hotel. We decided to head back, thinking we would there about three.

The traffic had been bad in the morning, but it was much worse now. Roads were closed and intersections grid-locked; for long periods nobody went anywhere. Drivers accepted it all with resigned patience but we could see our lunch vanishing as the clock ticked past three, half past and then four. We were scheduled to leave for the airport at five.

We arrived, F insisted we still had time to eat and headed into the restaurant of a department store. Lynne & F ordered a spicy soup while I went for enchiladas and F explained the need for speed to a waitress in a folk dress. Lynne’s soup wasn’t spicy and my enchiladas were just tacos in a bland, sloppy, allegedly cheesy sauce. We had started with great expectations but had found Mexican food almost universally disappointing. This was not even that good but was eaten at such speed it hardly mattered.

Our airport transfer phoned to say he would not be able to pick us up any time soon so F volunteered to take us to the airport. ‘Twenty minutes normally,’ he said, ‘forty minutes today.’

I was sceptical but he was right and we were near enough on time for check-in. We were grateful to him and did not envy his long cross-town journey home.

The gate opened on time but were held there for ages and left an hour late. ‘Sorry for the delay,’ the senior steward said, ‘I could make excuses, but the simple truth is that some of the crew were stuck in traffic. Sorry.’

The remainder of our journey home was as planned.

[update: Our 'free' lunch turned out to be little recompense for the missed tour. However, on returning home we were pleased with the speed and happy with the size of the refund.]

South East from Mexico City