Day 66: Back in Love with San Miguel

2/14/12

Visting the Market on Valentine's Day:

It is easy to eat vegetarian in San Miguel de Allende, but it would be easier to be a carnivore. Meat is everywhere. Slabs of fried pork skins the size of preschoolers stacked on countertops. Taco stands adorn cobblestone street corners, and everywhere you look, a man sells meat on a stick or wrapped in tortillas.

 Cow feet, pig feet, and yellow chicken feet stand in formation in a deli case, and hogshead with a rose in its mouth stares back at me through the glass. What kills me is the mixture of beef, pork, and chicken parts stored in the same case, stacked so that the juice of one can run into the juice of another. Perhaps it is not the water that needs avoiding.

Curtains of sausage hang on a bar in the open air. Flys swarm. A woman with a cleaver hacks up chickens to order.

Meat is even in the Jardin, heavenly burgers right in front of the San Miguel Archangel church. A hamburger patty, a thin sheet of ham, a few strips of bacon, a fried egg, a slice of cheese, and hot pepper rings stack on a bun fried in bacon grease. I know it sounds gross, but trust me; the burger is a religious experience.

The boys and I ate a few on our last trip. We sat quietly under a tree in the Jardin. It was a bonding moment the three of us will never forget. I won’t be eating a heavenly burger over the course of my visit, but maybe that will keep me off the antibiotics this time around.