Life in Mexico

More authentic Mexican food!
A few weeks ago, my neighbor Daniel took me to a Barbacoa de Borrego, a hole-in-the-wall taco stand in the barrio of Via Rosa in Manzanillo.
Borrego is the name for a one-year old sheep. You take lamb roasts and cover them with banana leaves and then cook it in a coal pit for a day. You then strip the meat like pulled pork and serve it in a corn taco, along with chopped onion, cilantro and a squeeze of lime. It is so succulent and delicious!
I went back with my pal Darcy last Sunday for more excellent tacos. While we were eating, I asked Mario the proprietor why Borrego stands were only opened on the weekend.
“The lamb cannot survive in Manzanillo’s heat – it is covered in wool,” he explained. “We have to order in the meat from Guadalajara, and one carcass only lasts two days.”
So, if that doesn’t get your goat, I don’t know what will.
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Book Review

The Kind Worth Killing
By Peter Swanson
I can’t seem to get enough of Peter Swanson. Last month, I wrote a review on Eight Perfect Murders; I enjoyed the book so much I had to read another of his novels.
The Kind Worth Killing is, in a way, an homage to his literary hero Patricia Highsmith. Noted mainly for her work The Amazing Mr. Ripley, the American expat in Europe wrote several amazing mystery novels, including Strangers on a Train, in which two complete strangers decide to kill each other’s nemeses in an effort to escape detection.
In Swanson’s book, the killers in question are Ted Severson, a successful dot.com millionaire, and Lily Kintner, the daughter of a famous English novelist. Severson catches his trophy wife Miranda screwing their house contractor Brad, and Lily, well, she just likes to kill people, so she decides to help Ted dispose of his wife.
Naturally, things go wrong, and the body count starts to mount. Flashbacks to Lily’s past reveal her rationale for her deadly hobby, as well as the back-story between her and Miranda. Although the story takes place in contemporary times, it has that 50s film noir feel. In the end, they all get their just desserts. I highly recommend The Kind Worth Killing!
Recipe; Pork Belly Roast

Super simple to make and mouth-watering delicious, you can get frozen portions of pork belly at La Comer in Manzanillo (just ask for ‘pork belly’).
Ingredients
1 kg of pork belly (serves four).
Salt
Brown sugar
Ground pepper.
Directions
Score the fat by cutting through the outer layer, about ½ cm. Cut at 90 degree angles to create a diamond-pattern. Sprinkle salt, brown sugar and ground pepper on the top. Place in a shallow tin pan to catch the drippings.
Preheat the oven to 450F. Place, uncovered, on a mid rack and cook for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 300F and leave for another hour.
Remove the pan and let the roast sit for 5 minutes before carving. Use the drippings to make gravy.
Documentary Review

Churchill at War
Streaming on Netflix
I’m such a big fan of Churchill that I featured him as a pivotal historical character in The Hotel Seamstress, set in Paris in WWII.
Churchill at War is an interesting mix of archival footage and dramatization. The producers use AI to both colorize WWII film and mimic Churchill’s voice when presenting correspondence and unrecorded speeches.
While most of the four-part series is focused on Churchill’s role as prime minister during his battle against Hitler and the Nazis, it also backtracks to his formative school years and escapades as an officer in the Boer War.
The series is augmented by historians placing events in context, as well as commentaries from politicians like former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and ex-president George Bush.
Altogether, it is a fascinating and well-edited documentary that highlights the pivotal role played by of one of the foremost politicians of the last century. When historians say that Churchill saved western civilization from utter destruction, they weren’t exaggerating. I highly recommend Churchill at War!
Bonus Book Review

A Murder Most French
By Colleen Cambridge
There’s a sub-genre in cozy mysteries in which the sleuth hooks up with a famous person like Einstein or Groucho Marx to solve a murder. They’re usually too gimmicky and poorly written to appeal to me, but I ran across An American in Paris Mystery series, and it caught my attention.
The book is about the adventures of one Tabitha Knight, a young, precocious woman from Michigan. The year is 1949, and she has moved to Paris to stay with her grandfather in a wonderful mansion in the Left Bank. The hook is that her friend Julia Child lives right across the street.
In all good cozy mysteries, the amateur sleuth is a magnet for gruesome murders, and Tabitha is no exception. While accompanying Julia to a cooking demonstration at the Cordon Bleu School, Master Chef Beauchaine is murdered when he sips from a bottle of wine laced with arsenic.
Detective Merveille, he of the steely eye and cleft chin, is soon on the scene, and Tabitha pesters him to distraction with her theories. Her investigation soon leads to the sinister catacombs beneath the city and a mysterious restaurant closed by the Germans during the occupation.
You get the drift. Tabitha is chased by no-goodniks and only escapes certain death through her own pluckiness. It may not be Agatha Christie, but if you’re looking for a diversion on a cold winter day, I highly recommend A Murder Most French!