Saturday, May 7, 2016

Birthday dinner for President Machado

President and Sister Jose Antonio Machado invited us to go to dinner with them for his birthday.  Also the Packard's and the Call's went.  They took us to a restaurant and dinner show at the La Fonda del Recuerdo.-  It is the translated to mean The Inn of Remembrances.  The Machado's have been many time to that restaurant for special occasions.  All of their children live in the United States and he was an only child so they have no family in Mexico except her family.  We went with them to Querataro last week and she invited us to come with her on the following Thursday to celebrate the birthday.  She also gave us Hermanas a shawl to wear in the evening.  I have a feeling that it is very important for women to wear a light weight wrap or shawl at night because when Hermana Call and I dressed up in traditional costume on their Independence Day in September and went to the evening devotional Sister Tenorio made sure we each had a wrap to wear, despite the fact that it was warm.

This was the second course. Aztec soup.  I usually get it because it has no meat.  However this version had a lot of cheese and always the tortilla strips in a tomato base and veggie soup.
That was after the appetizer of an cheese flat bread and an empanada that was stuffed with cheese.
And of course when we first sit down they bring us out fried corn chips with lots of different salsas.

Sister Machado had pre-ordered our dinner.  I told her I would like fish instead of the beef.  I was delighted it came with some steamed peppers.  My first drink was tamarind juice, or at least a drink they make from the tamarind seed. I see the  seed at the neighborhood markets. 
Dennis had beef prepared in the arranchera style which is cut very think and grilled.  Everyone else had it as well and they said that it is particularly tender.  

We had the best table of the house (which they had reserved well in advance) directly in front of the stage.  And the Mariachi Band came to our table and play for us after the show.  I did see Sister Machado slip them a wad of money afterward that looked like it was at least 400 or 500 pesos or about $30 or $40.  Check out the size of that large guitar it is a traditional Mariachi band instrument with a rounder back.  There was also another smaller guitar and a harp.  

The show included several traditional Mexican dances.  The man in this dance attended Benemerito and so the Machados knew him.  Sister Machado was a secretary at the school  when she was 15 years old.  At the age of 12 her mother told her she had enough school and she would need to learn to become a secretary.  She looked older than her age and was hired to be the secretary for the president of the school at 15.  Her husband was a student here and that is where they met.  The Benemerito school blessed the lives of many students both latter-day saints and non members for 50 years.  Sister Machado later went on to become an attorney and her husband studied chemical engineering and worked for the largest gas company in Mexico, Pemex. He is now retired and they are planning to move to the United States where their children live.  

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