Mall me

This past Saturday Luis and I went up to Lake Chapala to check our mailbox. We have a mailing address in the States which forwards our mail down here, but the closest location is an hour and a half away. So it’s usually a half-day trip for us at least.

From Chapala we decided to drive up to Guadalajara to the Home Depot for some furniture making supplies. We hadn’t had anything to eat all day and they were offering free hot dogs outside the Depot, so we noshed on those and decided to head home, stopping somewhere for dinner.

Now, most of what is available to eat in Tuxpan is meat. Vegetables are very rare and are usually mixed together and used as a topping for the meat. Sort of like when the US tried to call catsup a vegetable. Every once in a while I become overwhelmed and need something lighter than carne. That’s how I was feeling that day. Luis suggested one of our usual spots, but it was a meat-heavy spot. The other option was to stop at the Discount Mall on the outskirts of Guadalajara and eat at their food court. Yeah, kinda sad, I know, but at least they would have some other options.

At the food court we chose the Chinese place. Luis had eaten there before and it was passable. I had been fighting a sick stomach all day, so I said I would just share whatever he got. We sat at a table and opened the food container. It was awful. So bad that Luis took maybe five bites and couldn't eat any more. And he usually eats whatever is placed in front of him! So we tossed it in the garbage and went to see a movie instead.

The movie theatre at the mall is great. (Ok, there is a sentence I never thought I’d write!) You can see first run American movies (most have subtitles, some are dubbed! Imagine MI:3 dubbed! Hahahaha!) for the huge price of $38 pesos – about $3.80! And at the moment they are running a 2-for-1 special! So we chose “The Davinci Code”. Two hours later we walked out, not completely satisfied with our choice. So we coughed up another 38 pesos for tickets to “The X Men 3”. It didn’t start for another 45 minutes and we were still hungry. So back we went to the food court. Our first choice was Subway. Yeah, I know – Subway? But we had a previous eating experience there that was good, and considering the Chinese food earlier, we were willing to stoop to an American chain. Alas, they were already closed. We surveyed the other options – the Chinese place, a Japanese place, a salad place, a Mexican place (!?), a pizza place, and a Burger King.

Yup, we ate Burger King. I don’t even eat that shit in the states! But man, it was good.

Hamburgers down here (in Tuxpan at least) aren’t made from ground beef. They are made from some mixture of salchichas (hot dogs) and chopped ham, I think. No beef. Where’s the beef? (For those of you who remember the 80’s commercial.) So even though it was Burger King, at least it was partially beef (probably mostly soy, but beef flavored soy!). I’m not embarrassed to say I enjoyed it more than Victor’s hamburgers (a friend in Tuxpan who sells burgers and hot dogs at night). Just don’t tell him I said so.