Getting Along

Dining at the Biznaga

It is my last week in Oaxaca and to provoke some conversation my professor asked me today to name 3 things that are different in Oaxaca than at home in Canada.  Well as you might imagine there are lots of things but the one that just screams out at you everyday is the amount of commerce in the streets and how everyone allows everyone else to try to make a living. There have to be hundreds of restaurants in this town and yet on virtually every street a vendor will be set up selling tacos, tlayudas, tamales etc.  Vendors weave in and out of the restaurants and stores and even offer pastries and other categories of things already for sale in the venue.  The streets and sidewalks become places of commerce for all sorts of vendors; scarves, blankets, clothing, trinkets, carvings etc, all laid out in front of existing businesses.  I took the attached photo in one of the better restaurants (the Biznaga).  The two young girls wandered in selling chick lets and must have negotiated a few deals as I noticed them later dining at their own private table.  I had noticed the table on a previous visit to the restaurant but I had no idea it was for anything other than novelty.  I don’t know the whole story but it appears to me that the ‘Biznaga’ has some compassion for young street vendors.  One other noticeable thing about Oaxaca which is also related to commerce is the number of shoe shine stands there are in town.  There are probably a dozen in the Zocalo alone and as I was reading the newspaper in the “Zoke” yesterday I noticed that 5 consecutive shoe shine stands within my view were all busy.  Also seen in the Zocalo yesterday was a woman advertising a very shrill and noisy bird whistle by blowing quite strenuously on it.  This would not have attracted my attention at any other time but she was working her way around the periphery of a crowd that was watching a 50 piece orchestra playing classical music.  Not one person turned to shush her or give her an eye roll.  She was trying to earn enough money to live for another day and that seemed to be well accepted by everyone.

This afternoon I went to the market for lunch which consisted of a bowl of mole soup so good that I went back this evening to sample other things on the menu.  A family of 3 sat down on the bench beside me and within 5 minutes they had ordered their meal, purchased a bag of mangoes from a passing vendor (one of the women behind the counter also bought a bag), negotiated for a clay plate and pot and said a polite “no gracias” to a couple of other vendors including a woman selling chapolines (grasshoppers).

Speaking of grasshoppers, they seem to be a bit of a delicacy here, they taste a bit oily, crunchy and smoky to me but maybe we are missing out on an opportunity.  If the French could trick us into eating snails maybe we should be working harder on this grasshopper thing in the prairies.  OK, there is a million dollar idea just waiting for someone and I will give it to you for free.  It is time to make a few calls with my new bird whistle.    

 

Hasta la proxima

 

Don Tomas