3/8/2025 Birria and Saturday Market

     I did my morning routine. Soon, Dave was texting me. We had planned to eat Birria together. We walked into a great place, but it was a no-go for Dave. That poor fucker can’t deal with onions, and this place smelled heavily of them. So, we kept walking and found a place I had saved on my Google Maps. We found “Tacos De Birria”. It is a typical outdoor stand, like is common here. There is a counter around it with bar stools. For 90 Pasos you get 3x Birria, Consume, and a horchata beverage. There was a red, and a green salsa. The red a decent spice to it. For me, these tacos needed some salt. Like all good food service establishments, the salt shaker was right there on the counter.

     The next noteworthy endeavor was our lunch. We made our way down to Zona Romantica for the Saturday Market. It goes from 9:00am to 1:00pm. There is a place that grills, and smokes meats. It is called La Patagonia Cocina Argentina. I we ordered a smoked rib sandwich to split. They even cut it in half for us. Every good sandwich starts with good bread. This bread had enough chew to hold together, but it was not hard to bite through. I don’t typically like raw tomatoes at home. The exception is when they are fresh out of someone’s garden. Here, I have green eating them, and enjoying them. The herbal vinegar notes of the chimichurri finished it off nicely.

     With lunch in us, there was only one logical thing to do. Hit up Monzon Brewing Co. I got a Rice lager brewed with lime, and sea salt. Dave got their tasty west coast IPA. Both of these beers were great. Next, I decided to give their Mexican Lager another chance. It still tasted like shit. I can’t exactly tell you why. I suspect it had fermentation problems. I asked for some lime, and they brought me a plate with like 6-8 wedges. I used every one of them. It reminded me of the time the tap line cleaning got neglected at our little Side Hustle. My own Mexican Lager tasted like shit. That night I brought my own lime, and could not put enough in it to fix it.

     I made a trip through the river market, and then met Dave at All Access Sports Bar. There was a basketball game he wanted to watch.

     After the game we went to a place called Mama Caguama’s Tacos & Beer. I learned of this place from one of the YouTube travel videos I consumed. We are in a place where even the OK food is typically pretty good. What a disappointment this shit hole turned out to be. It just flat sucked. The spicy salsa rojo tasted like barbecue sauce. The Queso-Fondito was grainy. The chicken wings were OK, and the service was sub standard. I take no joy in ripping a place apart, but I am sorry. There is no excuse to suck this bad. 2 of 10, limp Böner. Best avoided…

On our way home we made a stop through the Irish pub for some over priced Guinness.

     I finished my night at the BnB. I did some writing, and just relaxed. Dave had a basketball game to watch at a near by sports bar.

Abused Beer:

     Mexico has a culture of abusing beer. I get it. It is a warm place, with limited recourses, like cold storage. A lime in a beer will chemically neutralize the skunk flavor. If a beer has seen too much light. It will also cover up the taste of a stale beer. Last trip, I did not like Victoria. This trip I am pretty sure my first samples last trip were stale. I enjoyed the shit out of it, but then I got a stale 4 pack. I have not seen a best by, or a born on date here. I have seen some codes, but not on all products.

     At home, I will drink a bottle conditioned Sierra Nevada pale ale that is 6 months old, and it still tastes good. That bottle conditioning, and their bottling technology really does a great job of keeping dissolved oxygen out of the beer. They also work hard to keep it stored cold whenever possible. At home the beer distributors often treat packaged (cans and bottles) beer like it is a soft drink. It is downright bizarre to me. With the amount beer staling has been studied, and with that knowledge readily available. How can our distributors have a culture like this?

     Now that all the craft beers at home come in cans. I will not buy a beer that is older than 2 months. I will also not buy a beer with a best by date. Most of those beers are stale well before they reach that date. I want to know when the beer was put in the can.