Today was the day that Rosa comes to clean my place. The first couple of time she came I stayed in the apartment, but now that I am used to her, I just skedattle and let her have the run of the place. I went for a walk intending find some place to have a beer and something to eat before going home. I headed out making a point to wander down roads I hadn’t gone down before.
I found the remains of what appeared to be an old church (above) just before I found my way blocked by warning signs that it was private property. The road had several new looking buildings, like the one below, which seemed to speak to the idea that this area was were rich people live.
I had to retrace my steps back to main road. Continuing on I made my way to the center of town. I kept an eye out for places which had both beer and food. The bars I saw seemed to be closed at midday. Maybe the locals don’t make a habit of drinking at lunch. After wandering around for a while I found myself passing by places where I had taken photos, which ended up as jigsaw puzzles. I went down one street that I had always gone the other direction on before and spotted the window below. I think it would make a nice puzzle. I had never noticed it before because, just to my left as I face the window as a colorful stairway, which had always drawn my attention before.
Eventually I found myself on a road that was almost like a tunnel that had been opened to the sky. There wasn’t that much traffic at that time of day. There were also very few pedestrians. I was able to walk as fast as I wanted to.
When I got the the end of the road, where it became a full tunnel I turned back and retraced my steps into town. I again began searching for some place to eat. I finally had to admit that I was really more interested in having a beer than I was in eating. I had seen a couple of restaurants near my apartment, so I decided to pick up a few things at the market and head to one of those places.
On my way to the market I passed the candy store again and went in to get some candy. The candied fruit, which I had bought before, was a little too sweet for me. The candy I bought today turned out to be just the right sweetness. At the grocery store, I went a little crazy and bought some cheese and chorizo verde. That ment I had to go home to put them in the fridge before going out to eat. I did stop in a small park near my place and wait as long as I comfortable waiting with the perishables before heading home, hoping that Rosa would be finished.
On my way home I saw that one of the restaurants near my place didn’t serve beer, but the other one did. I glanced in and the staff smiled at me and wished me a good afternoon, very warmly. I decided that I would return. Rosa was just finishing mopping when I arrived. I got in and out of the apartment fast, letting Rosa know that I was going out to lunch.
Doubling back to the Mariscos el Amigo de Silao restaurant I walked slowly so as to waste as much time as possible before returning home. When I entered the restaurant, and informed the cashier that my spanish was bad. She told me that it was no problem, that the waiter spoke english. The waiter had not donned his uniform shirt yet, and was wearing a tee-shirt with a cartoon making fun of a particular US politician, who I can’t stand. I pointed at his shirt and laughed saying, “I love it.” He just beamed at my approval.
As it turned out his english was as bad as my spanish, so we had a good time mixing them together, until we both decided on what I would eat. When I was studying up on Guanajuato, I had learned that though it is far from the sea, it is known for its excellent seafood. It took awhile for the meal to come out. I always feel that is a good sign that they are cooking to order and not just grabbing something from under a heating lamp. I had time to leisurely finish off my first beer before the food came.
I ordered the Shrimp Special plate. As seen in the photo above, counter clockwise from lower left hand corner of the plate: Fried shrimp topped with onion rings. Now I normally don’t like onion rings, but these were excellent and I ate them all. Next was the Diablo shrimp. Despite its name it was medium hot, being just right for me. Next a lovely green salad. I used mayo and lime juice as the dressing. The mayo was already lime flavored, but I like extra lime. Next was garlic shrimp. It wasn’t as good as the garlic shrimp that you get in Hawaii, but it was perfectly cooked. Finally there was just the perfectly small portion of rice in the middle of the plate.
When I was in Spain many years ago I fell in love with the ice creams they had there. While I was eating my lunch, I noticed that the restaurant had a cooler of what looked like the same sort of confections. There was coconut ice cream frozen in a half a coconut shell, orange sherbet in an orange peel, and other similar things. The one thing I don’t remember having seen in Spain was corn ice cream in the husk. Of course I couldn’t resist that.
I am going to have to go to the resturant again. There are other things on the menu that I want to check out. All told this meal (with two beers) cost me less than $18USD.