Recent adventures in Mexican food

We've been doing our best to enjoy Mexican food, both at home and out in the world. Our recent visit to the US was a good excuse to eat as much Mexican food as possible, in LA, San Fran, New York, and even Honolulu.

Here in Melbourne, we visited the Mexican Independence Day celebration at Federation Square. There, we discovered huaraches, at the Los Amates stall--and they were so good that not only did we go back for more, but then we sought out Los Amates' restaurant. It's in Fitzroy (or is it North Carlton at that point?), and conveniently right across the street from Casa Iberica, one of my favorite Mexi-Latino markets here.

We've also gone twice to Radio Mexico, in St. Kilda. In Winter, they had a great happy hour, with a taco and a Mexican beer (I gave mine to Noah) for just $10. They don't have this special anymore now, but they do still have good crab tostaditas and a yummy shrimp-poblano dish.

At this point, my ranking of Melbourne Mexican restaurants is:
1. Los Amates
2. Radio Mexico
3. La Tortilleria (Kensington)
4. Blue Corn (St. Kilda)
5. Bay City Burritos (St. Kilda)
6. Mamasita (CBD; and yep, no higher than this)
7. Zambrero (Port Melbourne)

Finally, here are some of the favorite new recipes I've been using in home cooking. They've worked out REALLY well.
Sopes
Elotes (off the cob)
Requeson Revuelto

Moving is really disruptive

Uh....it's been a while. During the last few months, we've found and moved into our "permanent" house (more on that some time); I've taught my first three courses in Australia; I got dreadfully sick for three full weeks and then mildly sick for three more; we took our first trip back to the US, with stops in Hawaii and New Zealand on the way back; and we did a whole lot of shopping.

Speaking of which, we were prepared for Australia to be expensive. We did our research, checked Expatistan and Numbeo, looked at websites, even walked through stores with a list and a calculator during one of our visits. But we were utterly unprepared for just how expensive Australia actually is. It's kind of insane. We can't figure out how people live on "average" salaries. I may write more about this in the future. But if anyone ever reads this who is considering a move...on our visit back last month, we visited several of the most expensive cities in the US--LA, San Francisco, New York, Honolulu--and kept exclaiming over how cheap everything was, without exception. It is hard to understand how much more it is here, until you're here.

Meanwhile, here's an update on my growing progress. I posted my germination set-up way back in May, then nothing. Why? Because absolutely nothing happened. Here's what my set-up looked like weeks and months after my previous post:

The big problem, I think, was that I didn't understand how to manage watering of the little peat pods. At first, I was worried about their being too waterlogged. But very quickly, they dried out, and I probably never watered them properly afterward.

I'm about to try again. This time I won't bother with jalapeños, which are readily available here in Melbourne. I can find poblanos with some frequency at the Coles on Bay Street in Port Melbourne, and recently at the South Melbourne Market as well; but they're not regular enough, so I've planted another 5 seeds. If they don't work this time, when I'm pretty sure I know how to water, I'll blame my hand-harvested seeds (I just cut open poblanos from Coles), then I'll order seeds from a garden center.

I did also order tomatillo seeds from Beautanicals, and I've planted 5 of those along with my 5 poblano seeds. Come on, hot weather!! (First...come on, germination!)

Finally, I also ordered some supplies to make cotija cheese, following instructions I found here and here, from Cheeselinks. That project has to wait until I figure out where to buy a high-quality milk for cheese-making. More soon, I hope!