Day 3 morning
This morning I decided to go for a run to visit 2 local Oaxacan eateries in Koreatown near my hotel. The first was Guelaguetza, named after the huge cultural festival in Oaxaca that I will be attending later on my trip. I had imagined that I would go here for breakfast, but despite the beautiful murals in front there was no one actually inside dining. I went back outside to check out the mural around the building. This man playing the accordian had birds coming out of his instrument that went throughout the entirety of the mural.
Here a young boy is holding a chicken and another girl is sitting nearby with her face covered by a bandana. I would gather that this is a hats off to the Zapatista movement that is such a big part of Mexican culture. It is hard to see scale, but the murals took up two sides of a building about the size of half a NYC block.
After checking out of the LA hotel, we headed to Sabores Oaxaquenos to have a farewell to LA breakfast. I enjoyed a squash blossom empanada, which I might have mistakenly referred to as a quesadilla before this moment. My partner had chilaquiles with green sauce. Yum! The service was amazing. We were greeted in Spanish and English, but once we established ourselves as Spanish speakers they switched over to Spanish. It was a family-run restaurant with a baby scooting around in her walker near the cash register. They were really sweet about my son, a welcomed change from some of the reactions we get when we go into restaurants. Not only did they enthusiastically bring him a high chair, but they also asked if he wanted his own starter soup and own water. I looked around and saw several families eating all together. I also noticed that many men and boys were wearing hats indoors, a practice popular at my school which is surprising to me. Growing up, I was always taught that one shouldn't wear hats indoors. I wondered if this had been an expectation that has changed recently or if it is another example of a cultural norm that I didn't realize I had.
Bellies full of food, I was ready to head up through the Central Valley to Fresno!
Bellies full of food, I was ready to head up through the Central Valley to Fresno!