Mexican Traditions - Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas Day)

Mexico is a Country very well known for its many and quite interesting traditions. As a Mexican, I find it important not only to follow traditions and enjoy them but to spread the word about them and reach as many people as possible. I wanna show people Mexico is much more than just Tequila, Tacos and Cactus: Mexico is an incredibly rich country in many ways, full of great people, culture, food and, of course, traditions.

One of the first great traditions of the year is the "Día de la Candelaria" or Candlemas, which is celebrated on February 2nd. It is mainly a religious and family celebration, but in some places, such as Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, it is a major party with bullfights and parades. People all over Mexico on this date dress up figures of baby Jesus and take him to the church to be blessed, and they wrap up the holiday by getting together with family and friends to eat and continue the celebration.

This holiday is a follow-up to the festivities of King's Day on January 6th, when children receive gifts and families and friends break bread together, specifically Rosca de Reyes, a special sweet bread with figurines hidden inside. The person (or people) who get the figurines on Kings Day are supposed to host the party on Candlemas Day when, traditionally, Tamales are the food of choice.

Me and my family shared some Tamales trying to follow the tradition and, besides being delicious, they photograph well. Now take a look at these photos and tell me you don't want a bite of this!

 

 

 

Paris from the Heights

Paris is a beautiful city from anywhere you see it, but from a reasonable high place (building rooftops, Eiffel Tower, Pompidou Center, Tour Montparnasse, etc)  is even better!

If you wanna know what I'm talking about, here are a few examples so you can see for yourself:

Fall in Paris

One of the best times of the year to be in Paris is definitely the Fall. You get sunny days, rainy evenings, fresh nights and beautiful colors all over the city.

Korean Food, Chapter I

Korean Food aka K-Food has become more and more popular everytime in Mexico City and it is not only good but also very inexpensive and quite exotic. As a chef/cook, if you like to experiment, Korean Food is a good way to do so. 

There is a place in the City known as Korea Town, where you can find lots of Korean restaurants as well as a few stores with Korean products, where you can buy all the necessary things to cook a perfect Korean meal.

The other day, my sister Gichef made some Doenjang Jjigae (soy bean paste stew) as well as some Crunchy Tteok (rice cake) for dessert. She decided to make a side of rice to make it more traditional and accompany the whole thing with a bit of Kimchi. All of these, rounded up with a glass of Soju.

This is the final result of a couple of hours cooking some Korean food:

 

 

 

 

 For the complete recipe, go to: The Julie-Julia-Gisela Project

2012 Layout

So, this is the third year I am Blogging about my Photography over here. I have to admit, at the beginning, I didn't really blog much; perhaps for a lack of time, enthusiasm about blogging, mere laziness or I simply did not shoot enough.

Now I think I've got rid of all of that, I not always have the time, but I certainly try to make it, I am totally enthusiastic about blogging, and I am not so lazy anymore when it comes to Photography and even though I may not shoot as much as I'd like to, I sure try to keep my shutter being pushed for as many times as possible.

Something I really like about this Blog is that you can actually see the progress (I'd hope) on my Photography skills and the experience I've gained over time, I mean, I am not perfect yet, but I do believe I've improved -or so I'd like to think.

If you wanna see what I'm talking about, you can start over here and keep reading/browsing though photographs until you get to the present day, then you'll hopefully see what I mean.

On top of the 3-year-Anniversary of this Blog (which was exactly last January 5th), it is also a brand new year, oh yes, 2012 is already here, so we definitely needed a new design. It didn't really change much as I tried to keep it simple, but I sure hope you like it.

 

Now, based on the new header, you can assume I will still post about my Photography work, but it also means now I have narrowed it a bit to Travel and Food Photography, which are two things I truly love. The Travel has been a passion of mine for quite a bit now and the Food, well, my sister is a Chef and she is really passionate about food, so I guess it turned out to be contagious.

I believe food is an important part of a culture and, sometimes, a culture can actually be defined by their food. So here you will find Photographs of Food, Travel and the occasional Portrait, but most of all, you will find photographs of cultures, my own and as many as me and my lens encounter along the way.