Vallarta’s Best Lamb Tacos

This was another recommend by Chef Mavi. And lo the tacos were amazing. The lamb is cooked over a fire in a pit overnight then shredded and served in a corn tortilla. I’m only sorry I don’t have the name of the place. 

Shopping in Pitillal Puerto Vallarta

On our shopping list for cooking adventure, chef Marvin Gaye take us to a number of different neighbourhoods in the Porta Vallarta area. One of them that had some interesting looking shopping is called Pitillal. We had fun shopping there.

Spend a Penny

When I was a child, and we visited England and my father’s female relatives would ask me if I needed to “spend a penny” they were asking if I needed to go To the washroom. The public convenience in London at that time still cost only a penny. And that only if you actually need to use the toilet. Each stall door had a sort of parking metre contraption re-put in a penny in the door unlocked.  If you only needed to literally powder your nose, it was free. Here in Puerto Vallarta the cost has risen to seven pesos. Meanwhile, as far as I can tell, there are no public conveniences left in London England. The world changes, but remains the same.

Mavi Graf Chef Extraordinaire

Puerto Vallarta Botanical Garden

Another lovely visit to this botanical garden. Since our last visit four years ago many parts of the garden have grown in beautifully and some new additions have been made. As always it was a fantastic visit.



There is a giant phiranna lurking in this pool. Scary cool. 



This river is a delight to cool off in after a visit to all the lovely garden specimens. 

Yes, that is chocolate. 


The new conservatory is lovely with filtered shade for the orchids. 

Real CocoNut Water

We are in Mexico revisiting Puerto Vallarta and trying to find all our old favourite places and find some new favourites. We were grilled to find the coconut water vendor- last time we were there it was there it was a lady, this time it was a very capable man. After drinking the water you get the moist slimy delicious coconut meat with lime and chilli. Heaven. 

Wooden and semi worsted

With the lovely white fleece I got in Shetland this past fall, I’ve been doing experiments. These two skeins are from my experiment to see if I can personally tell the difference between a woolen spun and a semi worsted spun yarn. lol and behold, I can. Can you?