Tonight, Lucille had invited me to the Mexican Food Festival (at the International East Asia Hotel) where her and Franko were last night! Funny that the head Food & Bev Manager there is from San Diego!

 I had to do my thing. I caught the normal 9:30 shuttle to the Portman and walked down Nianjing again even farther until I came to the part that is blocked off to traffic. They are still building there and finishing granit-izing the sidekwalk all over Nanjiang. The pedestrian area is just one huge shopping megalith conglomerate after another. I couldn’t even brave to go in any of them.

I was looking to find what we thought was the hotel where we were to meet tonight. Luckily, I found out it was on another side of town, much closer to our house.

At the Shanghai Museum, I made what rounds I could, with plans to return, and left in time to meet Lucille at 17:30 in case of mix-ups. Good thing, as my taxi driver unfortunately got a ticket on the way there, which took a while. Then she had to ask a couple times where it was and finally ended up parking the cab and walking me by the arm, leading and pointing me like a concerned protective mother hen to the hotel, also asking on the way. Welp, it turned out to be the wrong hotel, but not too far around the corner from the right one.

So I waited until Lucille arrived and we proceeded to enjoy a nice Mexican buffet! The chefs were flown in fresh from Mexico to the hotel, as they often seem to have guest chefs on a regular basis for food promos – next is Thai. We enjoyed real margueritas although they had already run out of lime. The cevice, guacamole, and Pollo Mole were excellent!!! I had never had the Mole sauce before (only read about it in Like Water for Chocolate).

Incidentally, Lucille made a deal with the mexican Consulate General and he sent her four jars of Mole and she was to whip up a Sacre Torte for him in exchange. Well, her torte unfortunately burned too much and we had to eat it at home. I also further suggested she order one and give it to him (from the Austrian Pastry Chef at the Hilton) which she did and it turned out just fine! In the meantime, we enjoyed our evening of just two adults and Pepe’s Bar.

 

Saturday, 11 September 1999