Author: Fiamma

Finally had a bit (a lot) of down time to do some blog updating. The following is a portrait of a woman I met at a Mariachi Academy event at St. Patrick’s church in December. She goes by “Guadalupe La Mexicana” and her suit was just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And I’ve never seen anybody wear anything with such pride.

Sunday night there was a fantastic blizzard in NY. I woke up Monday morning to a fantastic text message telling me not to come in to work. Fantastic snow day followed. 

First order of business, quality time with the cats

Next, soft boiled eggs for breakfast

Got ready for the cold…

Snow drift patterns in the still white snow (today, the snow is gray sludge)

Digging out

TJ is caught in a drift

Kiddies enjoy the snow

Doggies do too

Peaceful walk down an unplowed street

More drifting snow

Veggie burger for lunch

Craig’s best snowed on face

After a matinee movie, walking home as the sun was setting

Snow day comes to an end…

Taking photos of restaurants and food can get a little boring when you’ve been doing it for a while. In my quest to keep finding different and creative ways to illustrate them, this is what I came up with most recently:

I am packing up, getting ready for another trip to Mexico, which reminded me, I was just there about a month ago, and I discovered one of my new favorite places: Oaxaca! Incredibly it was my first visit ever, but it really was amazing. These are some images from my trip. First, the market in Tlacolula…

Vendors making the staple Oaxaca drink Tejate, made of maize and cacao:

The market is divided into sections, the bread section:

The meat section:

After you buy your food at the market, you can cook it right then and there at the comales provided:

The live poultry section:

My niece Gaia modeling the apron she bought at the market

The most DELICIOUS LUNCH EVER provided by some local women, squash flower quesadillas anyone?

Making Tejate by hand, the cacao and maize are mixed with ice water until the cacao turns into a doughy texture:

Photos taken inside a local church:

The city of Oaxaca on a Sunday night:

I’m very excited to have completed an assignment on “gourmet New York” for Travel + Leisure Mexico. I visited many markets in NY including Mario Batali’s new Eataly. I also ate, for research and photography purposes only of course: one cheeseplate and a glass of wine at Eataly, plus one gelato and one custard, six oysters from the Lobster Place, three chocolates from Jacques Torres Chocolates, one bowl of pasta from Table Tales, and an undisclosed amount of samples from various vendors. What can I say? It was delicious.