There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” Oscar Wilde Every morning I get an email from a Facebook site. It carries the not so catchy headline: [CivilSMA1] Civil San Miguel de Allende, formerly Civil SMA...
It was November and, in November, Don Day’s Canadian friend Peter goes deer hunting. And in November, Don Day’s Wife always has the same message for Peter, “Don’t let the butcher trash those shanks; bring ’em on home to me.” This November, Peter was in Canada, we were...
Carlos Sanchez was the first San Miguelense I ever met. He greeted our car from the airport, he took our bags, he shook my hand, and he introduced himself as the house manager of the home we had rented on Pila Seca. There was something I liked about Carlos Sanchez....
WARNING: If you have a fear of too much fat in your diet, I highly recommend you read no further. You may be led, recklessly, astray. Pastrami. What can I say? Perhaps the most wonderful thing that mankind has ever done to meat. And all mostly an accident. Pastrami...
I’d eaten sweet potatoes for a lot of years. Mostly smothered in butter and sprinkled with salt as the side to a roast of pork. Then I came to San Miguel de Allende and my tongue got all twisted around. In Mexico, the locals eat sweet potatoes as dessert. I thought...
It was my last night in San Miguel before heading up to Toronto for a few weeks. Don Day’s Wife was suffering some post-Covid blues so I asked a couple of my favorite guys to join me in my five o’clock ritual. “Venencia?”, said Jack, “never heard of it”. “It’s on...
A little over 60 years ago I entered the wonderful world of working. The most wonderful part…OK, maybe the only wonderful part…was the day that each and every week, Mr. O’Leary, aka Chief, would walk around with these little brown envelopes that were perfectly sized...
If you’re like me, you have grandkids. And if you’re like me, you’re constantly (and usually unsuccessfully) trying to lure them down to San Miguel de Allende. “But, Grampie, there’s no sand, no sea.” I’d been almost ready to try a somewhat shady tactic. “You come to...
I don’t remember their exact words. But it went something like this. “I don’t get Trip Advisor. A little hole in the wall like El Pato is constantly in the top ten and a gorgeous place like Bovine is down in the 200’s.” I could have taken it a step further. How can...
It’s been more than 30 years since JJ Casteñeda first walked into the California Culinary Academy and started a career in the restaurant biz. It’s been more than three years since he brought that career to San Miguel de Allende. JJ’s first stop in San Miguel was at...
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