MD-9

Gone Bananas

I'm enjoying eating the fruit here in Mexico, so much of it reminds me of being home in Kenya. The guavas - so aromatic, the miniature limes - so plentiful, the black figs - so sweet, the avocados - just so... and then there are those awesome little bananas - just sooo good.

Growing up in Kenya, we had some of these banana trees in the garden - lady finger bananas, or sugar bananas, or fig bananas, or date bananas - and when the time was right, a whole banana loom would get cut and hung up in the pantry, to ripen slowly from the bottom up. My sister and I would eat our way up the loom, and eventually the step ladder would have to come out... fruit off the loom?

Mexican Tiendas

These little tiendas are all over Mexico, small family-owned shops of every kind, the equivalent of what we knew as 'dukas' in Kenya, which has a cool etymology:

From Swahili duka, from Arabic دُكَّان (dukkān), from Aramaic דּוּכָּנָא (dukkānā, “dais”), from Akkadian 𒆠𒍇  (/⁠takkannu, dakkannu, dukkannu⁠/, “dais, platform, bench; niche, bedroom, private chambers or quarters”), ultimately from Sumerian 𒆠𒍇  (/⁠daggan⁠/, “chamber, doorway or its frame, niche in a wall”).

So, yes, a hole-in-the-wall. In Mexico, tiendas are where you can get these tiny jewels from the Earth. The tiendas are disarmingly honest, there is no infrastructure or branding or marketing, any consumption is based on need, and eating the little fruits sourced from them is curiously grounding. I've always disliked the label 'produce', it's way too close for comfort to 'product', which I also dislike - even software is a product and we become product designers. I assume 'produce' derives from industrial agriculture and the productization of food... and now I see that 'tienda' is being flogged as a concept for online shopping. Gah.

The Rain in Spain (falls mostly in Guanajuato)

A cloudy day with the rain threatening to present itself at any moment. So, other than some local walking to the tienda, and the family-style resto to eat some tostadas, we enjoyed sitting, and drawing, and imagining ventures, and listening to some great tunes and preparing and eating some good food.

Here's a fun tune that we were rocking to:

As always, thanks for reading and indulging!
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