Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
Mexican food is currently riding a bit of a popularity high in Auckland, with a proliferation of hipster Mexican cafes and even a SoCal styled food truck out there, all studiously and meticulously micro 'designed' to create that 'authentic' Mexican look.
Recently though, I visited Mexican Specialities, an old favourite in a very unassuming block of shops in suburban Ellerslie (an outer suburb of Auckland) - it's definitely not where you'd expect to find possibly the best Mexican food in town. I dropped in for lunch and ordered the Enchilada Verde; Chicken, corn tortillas etc all submerged in an aromatic green sauce, it warmed up a cold late winters day!
I understand it's now their 10 year anniversary, so I say - ¡Feliz aniversario Mexican Specialities!
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