Mexican food, Brazil-style

I'm still in Brasilia. Tonight is my last night before returning to my boys tomorrow afternoon. I'm staying at a really lovely Melia Hotel (even though somebody stole a very expensive alarm clock from my room when I stayed here last December). I've tried other hotels in the city on return trips and this really is the nicest, so now I hide my much cheaper alarm clock in the suitcase every morning before I leave for work.

But I digress...

They have had posters up all over the hotel about this Mexican Festival that started tonight at their fancy restaurant and ends this weekend. They've flown in the chef from the Gran Melia Resort in Cancun, where we stayed 7 or 8 years ago with our friends, the Royster-Mateens, and then my mom and dad. So I was a little nostalgic and I love Mexican food, and you can't get really great Mexican food here.

The problem is that the restaurant is pretty swank and I didn't really want to eat there by myself. A mall restaurant by yourself is one thing, but a fancy hotel restaurant is a little loser-ish on your own for an interactive meal like a Mexican buffet.

So I did what any self-respecting person would do. I called room service. This is one of those hotels where you dial 1 for everything. My new best friend Paulo has worked a lot this week at the other end of "dial 1" -I've had room service and Paulo was there; I've called to get the access code for Internet in my room and Paulo was there. So I really hoped Paulo would be working tonight because I thought I might be able to convince him to order room service for me with a Mexican assortment. But alas, Paulo must have the night off.

I got this other really friendly guy who said he'd call the restaurant and find out if they could do it. He called back and said no problem but I'd still have to pay the full buffet price, which was expensive but fine because I knew I'd get good Mexican food and besides, I'm on per diem so why not splurge on one meal? He asked me what I wanted and I said surprise me with an assortment, but only chicken (no beef) and lots of guacamole.

When he relayed that message to the restaurant, that must not have satisfied them. The next thing I know, the phone is ringing and on the other end is a man telling me to hold for the chef of the fancy restaurant. This seemed a little extreme that the chef would need to call, but I'm a sucker for service so I held.

The chef got on the phone and said they weren't sure what I wanted. I repeated that I'd just like an assortment really - they could pick - but I'd prefer chicken and I love guacamole.

So then he told me I needed to speak to the Mexican chef from the Gran Melia in Cancun to confirm what I wanted. (Did I mention that Mexican food isn't really that common here?) I was feeling better with every passing moment about the exorbitant price I was paying for this meal just from the attention I was getting. He asked me to hold, so I held... and held... and held.... and held.

I could hear discussion going on in the background, so I really thought the Mexican chef was telling them to tell me that I couldn't have the buffet for room service. But no, that wasn't the problem at all. The Brazilian chef got back on the phone and said he was so sorry, but it appeared that the Mexican chef had gone to use the bathroom and they'd have to call me back. Okay, too much information. Apparently his mother never taught him the art of giving a more socially acceptable reason for not being able to come to the phone.

Just as I was getting ready to hang up and wait for the callback, he told me that he had good news, the chef had just reappeared. So I spoke to this very nice man and told him that we'd had a lovely stay at his hotel some years ago and I was very eager to eat his food but didn't want to come down by myself so could he just make me a plate. I felt like a loser when he said "for one" in Spanish, but yeah, it was for one.

A few minutes later, a knock on the door produced this tray that was laden with food. My new favorite chef totally hooked me up. I didn't have one silver domed plate, but two. And that didn't count the two kinds of soup and the seafood salad and the dessert plate. I didn't eat everything (although I was tempted), but he sent these delicious light fried tortilla rounds with the most marvelous guacamole (2nd best only to Jimmy's) and ropa vieja. The second plate was rice and fried plantains and chicken mole (that tasted just like it did in Mexico) and fish in a tomato sauce. The soups were chicken/veggie and seafood, the salad was a seafood mix, and the dessert was rice pudding and flan. Oh, and they brought me a margarita too.

So I'm now stuffed to the gills with Mexican food and hooked on the idea that we must go immediately to re-visit the blue water and white sand of Cancun. If I could just hear the waves out my window right now, I could almost think I'm there....