The FICA! (International Convention of Friends and their Cultures).
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| Downtown Main square |
Mexico City
That's Right my friends, Mexico City did it again, and this time bigger than expected. Mexico City's downtown made its 10th Convention of Friends and their Culture, which means, many countries set heir stands and offer their food, jewellery, clothes and many other stuff from their land. This year we had the exception of England and France, i don't understand why but a huge variety of North-African and Middle-East countries.
The convention was split in two parts, the craft area along with music and dance spectacles at the main square of downtown and the gastronomic tend located in Santo Domingo's plaza near the main square.
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| Santo Domingo's Plaza |
For reasons... we decided to go first to St. Domingo's plaza, were the fun begun with extraordinary food, beginning with Libya's stand.
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| Libyan women and the vast delicacies |
My first impression when we got closer to the stands was the smell of spices, i'm a guy who loves food made out with tons of spices, you know why? Cuz i'm Mexican, so we tasted a bread filled with chard and decorated with vegetables and yogurt sauce (tzatziki).
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| Sorry for the bad quality... my dad moved and it was the only picture i took |
The we reached Morocco, mom and i got interested by the cous cous again, besides we have a different recipe this one we tasted seemed very authentic and traditional. boiled veggies with beef. such an incredible and familiar taste.
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| Morocco, very polite people. |
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| such and amazing cous cous from Morocco |
Now i will give you a resume about what we saw, because. First we saw Uruguay with their wine collection, the inspired respect and good vibes with their "Choripan".
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| Uruguay. |
Bangladesh and Iran showed their best too, i loved the way Bangladesh gives colour to everything and Iran... such and incredible rhythm.
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| Islamic Republic of Iran. |
in Pakistan we tasted the Cardamom water, a nice and fresh beverage we needed to keep on our way. Also Pakistan looked very delicious, and their people so nice to us.
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| Pakistan. One of those barrels contains the cardamom water. |
Thailand gave us a pitch of how much attractive their food is and the ice Popsicles were on point to refresh our day, Thai for everyone, and Turkish people were yelling "Here there's no chicken, no pork, only Lamb!!!" we could see how they were making a Giro in the stove.
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| Thailand |
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| Turkey |
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| The best Giro i have ever seen in my entire life. |
As we know Turkey is the gate to Middle-East, is also the gate to Europe, that's how we entered to the European zone of the Convention, beginning with Poland and their huge list of beers, 4 years ago i was lucky to get one for $40 MXN, Netherlands and the offer of 3 beers for $140 MXN, great price for all, the waffles were resent and the famous Holland cheese, Spain surprised me with a giant ham leg, i wished i had that ability to slice, their ham services were amazing and thin.
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| Here mom acquired two bottles of wine |
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| Get ready Vikings!!!! |
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| Bulgari |
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| oh my god!!!! |
For our surprise we saw the stand of North Korea, Mexico invited the Popular and Democratic Republic of Korea as a friendly act, also we got to the Russian stand were sweets and chocolates were so cheap, we got 5 Russian chocolates for just $20 MXN, and it was damn delicious, they offered, kompot, kvass and beer. Mom said "I like to be friends with the Russians, they sell at a very good price", beside Czech Republic had beer and absinth, and desserts.
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| North Korea, present at the FICA, Mexico City |
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| Our friends the Russians |
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| Czech Republic offering their arsenal for the battle. |
Roumania, Serbia and Azerbaijan got stick with us for some fun, Serbia brought the Rakja, the strongest liquor on earth, also they showed us they have the strongest beer, and it really is, 11% of alcohol, damn, that's a lot. Roumania delighted us with desserts and Azerbaijan, damn, it's heavenly what people there eat, so much food, desserts, meat, and they were proud of how their country is the first democracy in the Middle-East. The stands that brought more people were Germany and Belgium for their famous beers and food, Germany got Wursts and Belgium offered lots of kinds of beer, even peach beer. we were lucky to find space to take the pictures.
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| This guy is on it! |
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| Israel's feast |
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| Vietnam waiting for guests |
But we wanted more, and by more i mean what was happening at the main square of our city, The same countries and more were there offering their most incredible crafts, natives from all around the world and Mexican citizens as volunteers gathered to attend people, music shows were being held at the stage, we have a small sample of it, Syria was kinda the honour guests, a few days before i heard Morocco asked some Arabian dance schools to show what they got, the Moroccan ambassador was so pleased. But well what we saw at the stage was a true pride act. A band from Syria played for over a few people, but gave the right ambient for the occasion.
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| C'est la musique |
The Sun was so hot and this musicians made us feel like in the middle of the desert.
To be smaller than other years this edition of FICA was full of surprises, the security was priority, so that's why they split the gastronomic staff and set it somewhere else. Main square was not full of people, because "It doesn't matter the culture or citizenship... food will always gather people".
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| я мексиканский |
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| forgot to tell ya, i am Czech now |
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| Should have changed my name to Der Mexikaner |
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| And this Danish fella is waving everyone |
Yes, yes my friends this all for today. We have lots to see but also lots to learn about each other, that's why the Gov. organises this kind of Conventions. We thank to every single country that showed up to this and the ones who not we invite you to.
Yer friend here is so proud of everything and his own country because as Mexican we want to see everyone to have a nice time.
See ya later boys and girls.
