Sancocho Meal

This weekend, Thelma invited us to eat Sancocho, a typical meal from Dominican Republic and it looks that it has a lot of cultural traditions in this meal invitation.

First, this dish is considered one of Dominican national dishes, it consists of white rice, meats, tubercle, vegetables and spices. You can also add orange juice. They explain me that this soup is made on the rainy days because of the warmth that this cooking brings to the house and to the people. 

I think this is why this Sancocho is so popular among my friends, its perfect for Mexico City, here it rains every day and the weather is mostly cold. There will be people that say that it's not true, but I can't get used to it.

Else wise inviting some of our common friends, Thelma also invited her Dominican friends. So the moment I arrived to her house, I could listen that the conversations were a little different of mine. Almost all the people there where foreigners, the accent theme was interesting.

Before bringing the soup, they play some music and all of a sudden there were a lot of people dancing in the living room. Thelma explained me that in Dominican Republic they dance every time they gather around. There are not explanations to be done, when the music starts, the people stand up and dance. I thing that I should be born Dominican, because I love dancing.

One the people get tired of dancing, started the appetizers time, of course they where done in the Dominican way: Banana with Chorizo, Fried Yucca, Yucca's bread with Chicharron. The Sancocho was done in two types, first the traditional one and the second one with some beans. Because this soup has a lot of texture, I just eat the traditional one. I left the second one to the next invitation to Thelma's Sancocho.

When the party was getting to it's end, we had appetizers, soup and desserts. We have been dancing, singing and speaking about this delicious food. Once again, the interest of tasting some different types of food, learning about cultural traditions and making some networking lead me to have an excellent Saturday evening at Mexico City.

Have you tryied Sancocho? Let us know about your experience.

The weird case of the squirrel attack

Maybe you remember that 2 years ago I share the case of the falling duck inside our CEDES offices in Monterrey. Well this year I had a closer encounter of the third kind with an impertinent squirrel.

The summer break at Santa Fe Campi started on the first of July, when the last students of the summer period ended classes. This has made the Campi feel quite alone and empty and some of the services are not available.

I think that the lack of students, has made that the amount of wasted food available for the animals is less, and in the case of the Bulling Squirrel the hunger have given her the courage to approach the tables with the diners eating their meal.

The weird case of the squirrel attack, started when my eating meal group aproach to the eating zone with our trays and our food, and the squirrel decided to jump over the umbrellas that cover us at the moment. The squirrel jumped from umbrella to umbrella, looking for a way to get down to the table and I suppose grab some food. The problem was that the people hasn't eated yet and we wanted to eat first.

The chipmunk jumped several times, so I decided to move to a table that was farther from the umbrellas, and the rest of my eating group decided the same thing. Later the PhD Porras and Romero arrived to the same table that we just left. The squirrel decided to jump at them by surprise and try to take something from their trays.

Dr. Porras has at the moment a knife and try to chase off the impertinent squirrel but it didn't alter, so both Doctors decided to move to an adjacent table nearer us, and thinking that the squirrel would not attack at the same space.

The Bully Squirrel, did not give up and landed to the next table trying to reach again for the food trays. All of us were between nervous and worried, respect to the reaction we would have if the squirrel decided to step up on our table. All of a sudden, a lady near us, think about a solution, she approach the chipmunk with a tortilla and give it to her. The squirrel decided she had enough and get on her tree again.

The reflection this incident left on me is the following:

1.- The animals in the cities do attack when in hunger, so try to consider hand some of the food that could save us a good scare.

2.- The group solidarized in front of a threat, that was not big but aggresive enough, I think all the people around started to think on several solutions to the case, so sharing a little of stress with the adjacent people could bring some options to solve the problem in a faster and effective way.

3.- Share the food could be useful in tension moments.

How many times have you seen the need to share your meal to get out of a stressful situation? Tell us.

Flavors of the world

The last weekend I had the opportunity to visit with my kids a typical restaurant of Chinese food, at something that Latinos will know as Chinese breakfast.

Everything started on the year 2013 when I had the chance to visit Shanghai and I discover the real and typical Chinese food, not the commercial one, but the original produced by the citizens of that faraway country.

Since my first visit to a restaurant over there, I was impressed by the different way the people over there eat and cooks meals, for example at a breakfast buffet I was expecting to see eggs, hotcakes, fruit, yogurt or granola. But for Chinese people the breakfast could be a three-course meal.

To the point, chatting with a friend he told me that the Chinese breakfast is known as Dim Sum, and that is a real event to get some of it in the different places, because it takes a little long to prepare it.

With this in mind, I decided to look in Internet, as I have told you before in Mexico City you can get almost everything, so I thought that it will be easy to find this type of food, just doing a little research. And for my surprise that I not just find what I was looking for, but a blogger had posted his insights about the 10 best Dim Sum in Mexico City:

https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-get-some-quality-dim-sum-in-Mexico-City

So we follow the recommendation and arrive early to the restaurant. Of course it was 9:00am and they didn't have the service. In Chinese culture the food is served early in the morning, but in Mexican culture, not so much, so we have to wait a little for the food to be ready.

Aligned with this cultural theme I have to tell you that the owners of the restaurant are a family from Hong Kong, so they only speak in their language. It became a little difficult to communicate with them, but they had a waitress that speak Spanish, a Mexican indeed, and she became our interpreter for every explanation.

The experience, really interesting, I didn't know what to ask for, even though some of the dishes I had tasted them before. My friend send me some information by Whatsapp, and I asked for them but I didn't had the opportunity to get the food he told me.

The funniest thing happened when our waitress try to communicate with the Hong Kong family, asking them my food list and the family tell her that they do not know what she was speaking about. At the end the waitress told us, this Chinese people didn't understand your Chinese, you will have to settle with the food that is on the table.

Try knew foreign foods is a real adventure that I highly recommend. I share with you some tips to enjoy the most of the experience:

1.- All the countries have their typical special food, select the food you want to try, and then make a research on the community in your city, the more people from that place living near you , the more possibilities. 

2.- Look for in Internet the possible options that are available in your city, check for dates and days when the service is offered. Here you may find about prices, menu and if you need a previous reservation. If your city has a lot of habitants of the place, you may find reviews and additional suggestions.

3.- Go with a learning attitude, it is possible that you find things you never imagined, sometimes it will be a good surprise, sometimes not so much. The important thing is to get to know different cultures and dishes to expand our knowledge.

Fellow Networking

On the last days Mexico City was in an environmental contingency, this mean that some activities should be done to avoid sending more pollution to the atmosphere and stop the higher levels of it.

The measure that affected personally was the "hoy no circula" (One day without a car). Here you can do some preventions for always keep circulating, but in this case, the full law was applied, and the authorities asked for some citizenship considerations to support the measures and assure to lower the pollution levels. 

I suppose that this measures make some other people in this city to change their regular activities. But some of them do not change, I want to share some of this practises, that I consider the lowest level of networking for your fellows:

The way some people move poultry, shows a lack of hygienic measures, this can cause disease transmission of any type. The weirdest thing is that the police can see this type of pickups on the streets and do not do anything about it.

The contingency day, at least you couldn't see this vans, but just the alert was taken away, you could see the people doing this practises again.

Maybe this things are done, because the way a lot of people sell and buy products here, at the rolling markets. I don't know much about the way people move fruits, vegetables, cheeses or meats to this places. I just observe the way this products are offered. Me and my kids have seen that aren't placed at any type of refrigeration features. I believe this products could be kept at outdoor temperature, this couldn't be done at my hometown, anything could be kept this way, or you could be intoxicated.

Other type of activity was the coconut transportation, here the picture of the most "original" one:

I'm not sure if this practise is safe, the coconuts could fall down the car, may hit a passerby, hit another vehicle or just land in the middle of the street. I believe that there should be a correct procedure to move them without putting in risk other people.

So I share a thought to avoid annoying your fellows and generate a positive networking.

1.- In contingency alert, avoid running your car among the streets, give a positive example to your family, and use the public transportation: bus, subway. It will always be easier to continue doing your traditional practises that adapt yourself to a new way of life, but I recommend to do the effort for your community well being.

2.- If your are going to move meat, poultry or any other perishable item, use the right means to do it, closed trucks with fridge or cooler systems. Avoid transporting this foods on an outdoor van. Avoid environmental pollution and the disease transmission.

3.- If you are going to move other type of food, use the security measures that avoid accidents to your fellow passersby. Think of how mad you will get if a coconut hits your head.

Networking Dating Tips

Today's post is dedicated to those boys who have some troubles surpassing the first date. February 14th is coming and maybe you are planning to invite someone out, but you think about your past dates and remember you had bad luck or it didn't come out as you wanted. Don't worry, you are not alone and some guys have some problems moving forward this first date.

I was talking with my friend, let's call him Latinamerican Hitch, and he shared some advise that I write for you to consider the next time you ask someone out. First of all you have to think this as a business meeting, if you really like the girl, you will be convinced to close the business as soon as possible, so this business strategy may be useful to consider the tips.

Theme 1: Place and date The space where you are inviting her is very important, so you must consider taking her to a restaurant, preferably for dinner and where you may invite her a drink. Try that this date is on a week day, unless you are quite young, This is because on the weekends the restaurants have a lot of families or couples that may make you uncomfortable. You must feel some closeness and allow the girl to relax without the social pressure.

Theme 2: How much you know the place. You must learn about the place in advance, and know the menu and the food style they serve. Do you imagine that you invite her to a sea food restaurant and she is allergic? So before you invite her consider at least 3 different options on which she could choose, without letting her know that you have done a previous research.

Theme 3: Make a plan.  As in each business, its important for you to make plans in advance, once you know the  place and date, is important that you consider the table placement, where you will be seating, where you want her to seat. For you will be a complete interest in her so you must downsize distractions. She must feel comfortable also. If you have to make reservations, knowing the menu and prices, this is the moment where you consider this aspects.

Theme 4: Grooming. Even though you think you are not the most handsome guy in the world. For this occasion you want to consider your outfit and your physical presence. Make sure to take a bath, brush your teeth, use clean ironed clothes, maybe some discrete accessories. Remember you are trying to cause a good impression on her.

Theme 5: How to take her. It's important for you to pick up her where she is, she has to know that for you this event is important, that she is important for you and that you will place your full attention on her. So she will never arrive alone to the restaurant, neither leave by herself. You must give her the complete service, you pick up her and then bring her back. 

Theme 6: During the date. The most important thing is that you get to know her, so you may prepare for her several questions and themes you like to know from her. Her tastes, her interests, what she studied, her hobbies, if she has a project in advance, anything. Think as if you are investigating a future customer, you have to know what does the customer needs to then offer the best service you have. In this case, its the same, you must know what does she wants so you may adapt yourself to sell you as a candidate.

Theme 7: How much to order. You can't get drunk on this date, remember you invited her, and you are getting her back again. Also you have keep yourself together so you can pay your full attention. Because she is a lady, she will not get drunk, but always consider that you may even more if you are nervous, so don't get distracted on this theme.

Theme 8: Show interest but not hunger. She has to know at all moment that this is not a friend date, you don't want to stay in this zone. So as soon as you can, tell her your real intentions. You must make her get nervous when she is around you. But also is important for you not to declare that she is the love of your life, remember it's your first date and probably want more, so be careful on not to scare her.

Theme 9: The check. You pay, maybe in other cultures there is a wrong idea that the women and men are equal, but in dating events, the man always pays. And also remember you invited her.

Theme 10: The closure. Hitch told me that at the end of your date what you want to know if there are or not more possibilities of getting the girl. So you may want a good bye kiss. Don't throw yourself if you aren't sure she wants it to. If you are not sure, at the end of the date, send her a message telling her you wanted to kiss her. If the kiss do not arrive on the first date, you will have the perfect excuse to have a second date.

This suggestions will allow you to adapt your personal style, but if you follow them probably will have a good answer. The women like to feel attended and interested in us. After you get over the dating art, probably you may want to change some of the activities or the style in which you move. The most important thing is that you know if for you and her that was a pleasant experience.

Do you have questions on this? Send me  an inbox and I can take you to Hitch. If you made some progress, tell us about it.

Networking by Example

"Our children learn little from words; only your acts and coherence with your words work" (Joan Manuel Serrat)

Mexico city represents a big challenge for intercultural comprehension, more if you are an outsider like me. Learn different ways to avoid being harrased without loosing your ideals means to think a lot on your behavior.

If you decide to go for a walk, you have to get used that people will be asking for different things, all the time. This of course became unmanageable, you can't say yes to all the requests you have.

Two weeks ago, I went out with my kids to watch the "death altars" that were at Zocalo, then we continue  walking around. In our way we stopped at a bakery to buy something in the meantime we decided what to eat.

When I was at the bakery, a lady aproaches me and ask me if I can buy her a piece of bread. I couldn't say no, I just joke with her, telling her please do not buy the expensive cake at the place. She answered: "I'm not abuseve, I came from the street and I know perfectly well how to handle this situations".

While she was choosing her piece of bread, my kids looked at me and made me signs asking: "Are you all right?". The lady and me keep chatting and then I encourage to ask: "Ma'am, I'm not from this city, can you explain me what does came from the street means?"

She looked at me and tell: "You know, I work the streets, but today has been a very bad day and I haven't make anything..." I didn't wanted to ask more, we brought the bread and my kids asked me why I did that. I told them that people is going to ask a lot of things, but there are two special things that can't be denied: Water and Food. So that's why I buy the lady the bread.

One week later I drive my kids to the bus station, we have to leave early, to avoid traffic jams. We arrived at good time to the station, made the check in and have one hour in advance to walk, so we went to a pizza place and decided to have an early dinner.

My kids are two teenagers, so 1 pizza do not represents a big meal. They shared the pieces and we were eating when a young man approaches to us and tell us that he has 2 days without a meal. My kids take their pizza pieces, wrap them in napkins and give them to the guy.

I heard them chat: "The Water and the Food aren't for denial".

Tortilla Networking

Have you ever tried freshly made tortillas? Haven't it been the best experience? MMMMMMMM......

This weekend I was walking downtown with my kids, and suddenly we find a tortilleria. Unexpectedly it has no line, here in Mexico the tortilla line is a classic.

So we arrived and asked for a tortilla kilogram, and the sound and smells of the machine remind me my childhood. So I ask the clerk that if he could give me a tortilla. I have to describe the experience:

He took the tortilla directly from the machine and pass it to me, the product was still inflated, then I see at the end of the bar a salt dispenser. So with my hot tortilla in my hands I added the salt, and then make it a taco and give the first try. It couldn't be better the taste of the nixtamal mixture and it reminds me my Mexico. The clerk then ask me if I just wanted a kilo, of course what I want was the whole machine in my house so I can continue to have the experience. The tortilla sensation is soft on the inside and toasty on the outside.

My kids watch me as I enjoy the bites and ask one for each, this strategy always works, you ask for one, and then you have to buy some more. On the previous years this was known as the "pilón", they sell for you a kilogram and instead of the customer providing the tip, the seller was the one who have to give you a little extra.

We continue walking, and of course, eating more tortillas, without the salt, but the experience of trying a freshly made food from Mexico that has been a culture landmark is a thing you have to try when you come to my country.

Now I share some recommendations for you when you go to the tortillería:

1.- If there is a line, speak with the people that are around you. A perfect start could be, What are you going to eat with your tortillas?

2.- Speak with the clerk, it could be useful to learn the process of the tortilla making.

3.- Take advantage and taste the freshly made tortillas, it's an exquisite experience.

Foodworking

Sometimes I have told you that networking is related with food and eating, and it is good to know that there are several ways you may have interactions, so in this post I give you some advice to do it with food as your main ingredient:

If you want to know about the calories a specific food have, its properties or if you want to evaluate some different ways of cooking you may want to review what the academic environments: There are many universities that create investigation groups among food, from scratch to the last consumption. This institutions have specific programs related to the investigation:

Duke University, Food Working Group

Indiana University, Working Group

University of Chicago, Environment, Agriculture and Food

Among different Internet sites, you may find Blogs, here you will find specific features to the different meals, deserts, entrances, so get into this communities and you will find networking spaces. There are a lot of food blogs, and the diversity of them is really big. I don't want to be too much specific so I can tell you that there is an annual prize that shares the best related food blogs on several categories. If you visit this blog you can have an idea on how many people wants to share their recipes by this mean and the huge amount of followers this sites get:.

Saveur.com: http://www.saveur.com/content/best-food-blog-awards-2014-winners

Also you may find specialized sites where discussion forums are created for you to interact with some peers. Meals in Social Media, for those people that don't want a blog compromise, but like to share their general ideas, some of the following sites on social media can give you a space to share you love for food: BakeSpace ; Foodbuzz ; FoodCandy ; Foodie ; Nibbledish

Some other strategies: If you are one of those that don't like the cooking but love to eat and do some type of networking, I share the following links where you could organize both things, great eating and meeting new people: Never Eat Alone Network ; Eatwith. Both sites organize meetings among strangers where the food is usually pretty good, I suggest you to visit this pages and so you learn about what the Internet community is proposing.

As you may see your options are many, it depends on you making contact one way or another. If you decide to have some fun and do one of this activities, tell me about your experience.

Diet Networking

A common purpose that we do on January is to loose the weight that the December holidays bring on. Here I introduce you some tips for keeping your purpose without being antisocial.

 

1.- First ask for a glass of water, so you'll gain some extra time without consuming food and it keep your stress down.

 

 

 

 

 

2.- Ask for the variety of beverages that are offered and ask for those that contain the less sugar content. Mix them with sparkling water so you can keep your calorie control lower.

 

 

3.- Eat the most amount of crudites, avoid eating them with bread, tortillas, pasta, rice. It's better a salad portion or a boiled potato (without butter or cream).

 

 

4.- If you have to choose from different snacks, choose the salad over the sweet. They will contain less calorie amount.

 

 

 

5.- Once your event its over, dedicate few more minutes to your workout, this will help you compensate the extra calories you may ingested.

Being on a diet shouldn't be a displeasful process, just keep an eye on your goal and you may see that the things will be solved on the way. Don't miss a networking event just because you think you are going to fail on your purpose.

Adaptation Networking

Have you seen a customer service employee delivering at your car window?

An interesting event that happens when it comes to adaptation on the different circumstances that surround different places. At Mexico City parking spaces are few and expensive, the convenience stores do not have this facilities at most of their establishments. I miss living at a smaller city where this parking spaces were available at a 30 step walk.

In this big city, the space and the square meters are really important, so the managers have developed new service formulas to adapt to this situation. Innovation some may say. I have to tell you that a few days ago my son give me a call and ask me to buy for him 30 tamales to take to his posada (event party). It was 3:30pm and at that moment I haven't seen any tamales sold at the regular stores that I shop. In Monterrey tamales are sold at any supermarket and in some convenience stores too.

So the first thing I did was to ask a Mom that knew about this type of requests. The answers came fast, some of them lead me to different places where I can buy my tamales, but they remember me that it's better to ask for them with 2 or 3 days advance.

One of the mom's told me to go to a specialized store that has at least 12 different franchises. So I do my research in Internet, get the phone number and make a call. Jesus, store manager, answered and he explain me that he had the tamales, how to drive to the store and he offered that when I was near him I just "honk" and he will go out and deliver my request.

I had never lived a similar situation, and of course, when I was on my way to the tamale's store, I kept stuck on traffic and lost. This happens here a lot, but I take the phone and call Jesus again, as soon as he answered he gave me some new directions and get me to my way. He also told me that I should call him again when  I were near the Pizza Restaurant and he will gave me my tamales.

I still not catch his instructions, but I'm pretty obedient and when I was in front of the Pizzas Restaurant I call him again, I was at half a block from his store. He then told me turn on your flashers, then he asked about my SUV model and color and 2 seconds more he was at my window giving me the tamales, I do not have to get out of my car, neither wait for him. He also told me how to get back. This was an interesting experience.

Now my suggestions

a) If you do not have the parking spaces availability, look for different ways to give your customers service experiences less stressful, give them a taxi, have different alternatives or in as in this case make the "auto" delivery.

b) Organize with your customers the possibility to make their orders by Internet or by phone and then review the different options of delivery. 

c) Have fun in the process, Jesus helped me a lot with my driving directions and also give me some tips on the places I was lost.

Networking Spaces

How you decide on the space you will need for your networking event?

On my personal point of view, networking is not that difficult or complicated, somehow it has to have attitude and interest. Meeting a new person, get interested on his needs, establish some agreement points and follow up. This can be done at any place, but there are some spaces that make easier this task.

The past week I participate on the inauguration of the learning commons. This event make me think about the possibilities of networking that could be done depending on the spaces.

Here I share a recommendation list to consider and have a networking event:

a) Food and beberage accesibility. It can be a restaurant or a coffeshop, if there are some awkward moments at some point, you can always speak about food and drinks and there you go.

b) Connectivity and technology access. A lot of business conversations are made from information that we have on the cloud, a USB or a presentation. Make sure you can expose the information.

c) Whiteboards, flipcharts or white paper to write down your ideas. A lot of people can take notes on the presentations, the posibility to make a scheme, outline, drawing or doodle, make the process of thinking a little bit easier.

d) Last but not least, comfortable furniture. Maybe the meeting take only 15 minutes, but if you are going to be there for more than one hour, you'll be grateful to have some ergonomic furniture that make your networking easier.

Viva Mexico!!!!

The past September 15th we could achieve one of our 100 things you should do before die... Making the "Grito" at the Mexico's City Zocalo.

Now that we are here, we didn't wanted to let the opportunity pass us by. This ceremony is held each year to commemorate Mexico's independence. So we get all the courage, investigation and mental concentration and we prepared ourselves for a possible "Baño de pueblo" (people's bath).

Cafe de Tacuba

First we stopped to dine at a traditional restaurant: "Cafe de Tacuba", this place inspired the name of the Mexican rock band too. It's a beautiful place with a lot of tradition and you can get the story about the phantom sister that ambulate every night. This place was also Diego Rivera's first wedding site. And what about the food, you can taste traditional Mexican flavors such as: Tamales, Mole, Nogada Chili, Tostadas and Chalupas. We get a good fill to achieve our principal objective.

With our stomachs filled, and our hearts prepared, we headed to the Zocalo, and there we started to get "emotion as well as a little bit nervous". All the city downtown was surrounded by riot police, and because we have never seen any, we started thinking about how many people would be thinking the same thing as us. Somehow we ran into a line and follow it until the entrance. 

Zócalo

Another experience we lived on this lines, is that they separate men from women and children. But because my family is considered childless (2 teenagers, aren't children) I couldn't abandon them, so I went through the men line. And we had to pass 2 separate revisions. By the second one, we separate, but we manage to found ourselves again at the end of the spot. When we get into the Zocalo, we realized that it was a really secure place, and no to worry about disturbs.

Inside the event you couldn't see any peddlers, maybe because of the night or because the security controls. Because we had some time before the "Grito" ceremony we could review that there were some snipers installed at the roofs of each building surrounding the plaza. No one will want to be at this places with the insecurity of a big disturb.

When we arrive to our spot, the concert had started, but the first singer get to the stage about 5 minutes later. Joan Sebastian, who managed to offer a really good concert. The sound, the lights, the songs he played and the type of interaction he had with the people was really adequate to the event. He sang for about hour and a half and when the concert finished, immediately the ceremony started.

Presidente Peña Nieto

We can see through the screens the projection on what happened inside "Palacio Nacional", first the military escort running through the corridors, then the President and his wife met with them and they received the National Flag. The President went out to the balcony for the ceremony.

What happened at Zocalo was Magic, the people that usually shouts at this kind of events, momentarily keep silence. The President rang the bell and pronounced the ceremony words: "Mexicanos.... Vivan los heroes que nos dieron patria" (Mexicans... Hurray for the hero's that gave us this nation)... and the complete Zocalo answered: Viva for each sentence. After that the bell rang again and the National Anthem sang. 

Palacio Nacional

I had lived this experience at some other places, but it was really impressive hear the entire Zocalo singing with pride and nationalism the Anthem. The people forgot everything and lived some fraternity moments.

Of course at the end, we had the fireworks with the music of Cielito Lindo, Zandunga, among other traditional Mexican music. A really marvelous experience that I recommend to have at least once in life.

Cathedral Fireworks