Man eats ant pupae and lives!

For our farewell, our amigos took us to Las Mañanitas, which is a very gracious old restaurant/hotel in Cuernavaca. It's listed in the '1,000 things to do before you die' book, so we were quite excited to go. And it was lovely - the service was attentive without being obtrusive, your every need was anticipated, and peacocks and crested cranes wandered around the landscaped grounds. The dining tables and comfy relaxing conversation areas were al fresco, and the clarinettist who strolled through the drinkers and diners sounded pretty darn good after one of their really strong Margaritas!

However the most memorable thing about the meal for me, and perhaps for others at the table as well, was the starter Al ordered. He actually ordered it to share, and we were all keen to have a taste, as it really was an unusual offering. Escamoles, it was called, on both the Ingles and Español menus. Our host told us it was ant eggs, and we thought, well, it might be like an exotic caviar-type thing. When it arrived, they were clearly not eggs, they were pupae, very ant-shaped, white and about 1cm long. They had been lightly fried with a wee bit of onion and epazote, a Mexican herb. Luckily the ants here don't have the strong formic acid smell and taste like the little black ones back home - they do bite though. You broke off a bit of corn tortilla, and scooped up a little pile of these things, and added salsa or avocado, and then down the hatch. I'm happy to say that I did taste it, and it didn't taste too bad, although the texture was a bit much for me! Al and Enrique reckoned it was delicious, and ate the lot with relish.

Al's generally quite adventurous with food, and after the success of the escamoles, he ordered the chicken stuffed with huitlacoche (also with huitlacoche sauce). Huitlacoche is a fungus that grows on ears of corn (Ustilago maydis for all you botanists out there). Click on the link for a fairly unappetising picture of it in situ on a corn cob. Anyway the chicken arrived, covered in very black sauce. I had a try of that too - it was quite nice actually, although Al found it a bit sweet.

So that was Cuernavaca. After two weeks we are sad to leave our friends but we are dying to get 'home' to France where we can finally unpack our bags and relax for a while. A PhD student is coming at 8am tomorrow morning to give us a ride to the airport in Mexico City. Al's desperate to get back to work - he had a nightmare last night that his sabbatical was almost over and he hadn't done anything...It's hard to believe that Emily will be starting school in Aniane in little more than a week. I'm a bit nervous for her, I hope it will go well for her. She is handling things really well. I think after 5 weeks with just us for company she is pretty keen to get into the playground again herself!