Eating Out, or Trying to

Walking back from a suburban movie house recently (we had gone to see 'Babel'), Barry and I decided impulsively to eat dinner out. It was about 6:30 p.m. First we tried the one Indian restaurant in town. Sorry, the guy who was washing dishes and cleaning up told us--they had just closed. Next we tried the French restaurant, and were told it was open for snacks only. We tried one more restaurant before giving up. I had a nice orzo salad aleady made at home--yum--and nothing beats our view on the terrace in the twilight, so we had our own private dinner at home, watching the lights slowly go on in town. But it was a reminder that if you want to eat dinner in Mexico, unless you go to a tourist restaurant, you have to eat on Mexican time, meaning between about 2:00 and 6:00. La comida, the main meal of the day in Mexico, is eaten around 3:30. I find it comforting that Mexicans haven't adjusted their rhythms to us.