Mexico Life

Happy Birthday The Travelling Chopsticks!

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 3 Comments

Exactly 3 years ago, The Travelling Chopsticks was born! Time to crack open the bubbly!

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Picture from: http://onlymissm.wordpress.com/

What started off as a  rather timid blog to keep my friends and family posted on my life in Mexico, it has slowly gathered momentum and morphed into the cooking and travel blog that it is today.

It has turned into my creative outlet and something I am immensely proud of. A project that is ever evolving, ever growing and in a way taking on a life of its own. What has been incredibly encouraging and rewarding is the warm reception that the TTC has received from my friends and family, and people who have stumbled upon it all over the world. Your comments and enthusiasm has really motivated me to keep on going. Thank you :)

As I was rather shy and self conscious in the beginning of sharing my blog with everyone, I feel that there is some really good content that has been overlooked, so as a little birthday homage to The Travelling Chopsticks, I have put together a list of all my favourite  and most memorable posts I have written over the years and thought I would share them with you.

1. Hello World: My first ever post, written almost a month after I set up The Travelling Chopsticks as I was so nervous about writing in a public forum.

2. Corrida de Toros: My first (and last) bull fight.

3. Christmas Away from Family

4. Oaxaca

5. Shrimp Bisque: One of the best recipes I have come across and one where I was so impressed with the outcome.

6. Long Weekend in Guanajuato: A little trip outside of Mexico City

7. Survival Tips for an Expat Lady of Leisure

8. Saffron & Shrimp Risotto: My all time favourite recipe and comfort food!

9. Day of the Dead & San Angel

10. Roast Duck: A tedious recipe but one where I was very proud of the outcome

11. Tamales: One of my absolute favourite days in Mexico City, where my colleague opened up her home to me and taught me how to make tamales with her family.

Once again – thank you to everyone for all your support, encouragement and kind words. The last three years has been such an interesting journey and hopefully we will go on many more adventures together in the future!

Skål!

P.S The Travelling Chopsticks now has a Facebook Page…I know, I’m finally getting on this Social Media bandwagon! If you would like to see mini-updates of my life in Brasilia and around Latin America, please go ahead and ‘like’ my page :)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Travelling-Chopsticks/424827514288003

Breakfast Sandwich, Mexican Style

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 3 Comments

When I first moved to Mexico 3 years ago C’s colleagues invited me to the office for breakfast one day.  One of his colleagues Luis, was going to prepare a special breakfast of green chorizo for us.

I had never seen, let alone heard of green chorizo before and I was excited – it turned out to be one of my most memorable and enjoyable breakfasts I have had in Mexico. When I told Luis this a couple of weeks ago, he insisted he would make it for us one more time before we left.

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Change Is In The Air!

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 5 Comments

About six month ago, C and I found out that our next post was going to be Brazil, more specifically Brasilia. Although that was a bit of a surprise to us as we both had our heart set on Tokyo, however what really threw the spanner in the works, was that instead of moving in the summer of 2014 which was the original plan, they wanted us there this year. I felt robbed! Robbed of my 1.5 years left in Mexico. My 1.5 years left of exploring this wonderful country. My 1.5 years left of working and earning money.  Our 1.5 years left with the great friends we have made here. Nevertheless this is the nature of the beast, and it is a lifestyle that both C and I got involved in with our eyes wide open. Keep Reading

My Absolute Favourite Tourist Attraction in Mexico City!

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 11 Comments

Mexico City can be rather overwhelming the first time you visit this colossal city. There is so much to see and do, but where to start? Here are my top ten absolute favourite places to go when we have guests in town, and I thought I would share them with you.

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When Violence Rears It’s Ugly Head

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

I always try to focus on the positive in Mexico and Mexico City as I believe that Mexico receives so much negative press already. I really wanted to show another face of Mexico to my readers, I wanted to show the beauty of the country that I have grown to love and the generous people who live here.

However, sometimes the ugly side of Mexico rears it’s vile head and you are faced with the cold facts that Mexico can be a dangerous and unpredictable country. A country where you should always be on your guard and should always be aware of your surroundings. Keep Reading

Magical Malinalco and Ancient Rituals

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Between having houseguests, the insane amount of travelling C was doing  in May and having a very active social calender in June, I don’t think C and I have spent any quality time together since April!

So when my incredibly lovely friend Kirsty got in touch with me one day when I was feeling particularly burnt-out, and said that she, and her equally lovely boyfriend Fer wanted to treat us to a weekend in Fer’s family hotel as a wedding present – I couldn’t have been more excited or jumped at the opportunity more quickly! Keep Reading

San Miguel de Allende

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 18 Comments

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Roughly three hours north of Mexico City lies the beautiful colonial city of San Miguel de Allende  – or SMA as the locals call it. Declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in 2008, San Miguel de Allende truly has a magical feel surrounding it. With its well preserved Baroque architecture and layout, coupled with its vibrant mix of people, SMA is a destination worth visiting in Mexico. Keep Reading

Las Cascadas Resort – Riding in Mexican Country Side

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 2 Comments

As promised a couple of posts ago, now that I am leaving Mexico in only a few months, I seriously need to get blogging on all these amazing things to see and do in this wonderful country.  So I thought I would start with Rancho Las Cascadas.

http://www.lascascadasresort.com/

I been to the Ranch a couple of times last year, once with my good friend Miako, and another time with C along with another couple. Both times I thoroughly enjoyed it and both times I promised myself to write something about it. Keep Reading

Touching Base and the LCHF Diet!

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My dear friends, it has been a while since I last wrote and I apologise for that. But I do have a pretty good excuse (well at least I think so) I went off to get married…(again!) :)

I had planned to write a few posts on restaurants and Peruvian food while I was in Peru- but quite frankly, who was I kidding? From the minute we touched down in Lima to the minute our wheels left Peruvian soil 3 weeks later – we were on the move non-stop!

However all those months organising, all those details, all that planning, all that agonizing – it was all worth it. In fact I should write a post about “how to organise a wedding in Peru”!  The wedding itself was amazing and what a wonderful feeling, having all your loved ones in one place and all there because they love you. The energy and the ambiance was just so joyous. It truly  is a memory of a lifetime.

We got back to Mexico about 3 weeks ago – and both C and I were absolutely exhausted. Apart from going to work and to the supermarket for some essential supplies, we barely left the apartment (which Khloe and Pixie are thrilled about!)

However we have started something new since we got back – and that is the LCHF diet! It stands for Low Carb High Fat – I know, it sounds odd, crazy and flips everything we have learnt about food and nutrition on its head, but when you start looking into it further, and read the science involved there are some very compelling arguments! We have decided to try it out for a month to see how it goes and how our bodies feel about it. If you are interested I have started a little ‘mini-blog’ charting my feelings about it here: LCHF….WHAT? 

I don’t know if this is something for me – but both C and I thought it was very interesting and wanted to try it out for our selves before we made any judgements. However, from people who are doing it – i have only heard really positive things.

That is all for the time being. It’s great to be back and now that I don’t have the wedding looming over me anymore, I am really looking forward to getting back to The Travelling Chopsticks and doing some serious blogging (well now I have our move to Brazil looming over me instead…but I don’t need to organise so much for this next life changing event!)

Untill next time!

Alex XXX

Brazilian Wax, Brazilian Bikini, Brazil Nut….

~ The Travelling Chopsticks ~ 8 Comments

What do all of the above have in common?! Yep, you got it! BRAZIL!

We are moving to Brazil! :)

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2 weeks ago C and I found out our next post was going to be Brasilia. 1 week ago, we found out that instead of moving in 2014 (which was planned) we are going to be moving in the summer. I can tell you one thing – there is nothing that can distract you more from your own wedding plans, than finding out that you are moving to a new country in less than 6 months!

We have done nothing but talk and think about Brasilia since we found out we were moving there. If I am going to be honest, the news was not met immediately with joy on my part…quite the opposite. I really had my hopes set on Tokyo which was our first choice, at the end of the day my heart is and always will be in Asia, and finding out I was moving further away from my family was hard. But as the reality sank in, that Brasilia is going to be our new home for the next 3-4 years, I have slowly warmed to the idea and am now quite excited about the prospect.

Even as I write this post, I still cannot completely fathom that I am moving to Brazil! Those of you who knew me in my late teens and early 20s, know that I was obsessed with Brazil, Brazilians, Latin American’s in general –there was something so exotic about that side of the world. In my rather uptight boarding school in Sweden I used to bore my friends by playing Manu Chau and Shakira on repeat (I know Manu Chau is not even Latin…but his music coincided with my fantasy of what Latin America would be like!) and dream about living in South America. This was also the time, my biggest aspiration was to live on a beach, work in a bar and date a surfer….oh how things have changed…

Or have they? Have you heard the theory of Positive Thinking? That if you think about something you want hard enough, long enough, honestly enough..it will happen? Well I think I am about to be a believer. Here I am 10 years later and I am living in Mexico, marrying a Peruvian and about to move to Brasilia….I tell you, careful for what you wish for :)

Worryingly however, is the lack of information that I can found on line regarding Brasilia, and the little I can, does not seem that exciting: In summary Brasilia is a man-made city with interesting architecture, cut out of the middle of the rain forest and is shaped like a plane….riiigghht. Not quite the South American ideal I was dreaming of as a teen…

Do you see the plane?
Do you see the plane?

When I have told friends and colleagues where our next post is, I cannot begin to tell you how many women have told me – its a great place to make babies! REALLY? that is what my future is destined for- 3 to 4 years of baby making? There must be more to this city than meets the eye, and I promise you I will find it! :)

Although I am excited about our move to Brazil – I must admit, it makes me very sad as well. We have made so many good friends here in Mexico, have such a good life here that it will be sad to leave. Also, leaving in 6 months has seriously disrupted my plans! Now everything I wanted to do before we left has to be all crammed into the next 6 months, not to mention we will be in Peru nearly all of March for the wedding (EEEK our wedding is tomorrow in a month!)

So I have decided that I need to seriously get blogging on all the amazing things there is to see and do here – be prepared for a whole barrage of ‘all things Mexico’ in the upcoming months!

Until next time – Ciao!