For Valentine’s Day a very fine flamenco guitarist David Jenkins played during dinner at the restaurant Los Danzantes. David lives on the coast of Oaxaca in Puerto Angel and plays in the city of Oaxaca frequently. Sorry but this blog doesn’t have a soundtrack, yet. This started out to be sort of a Valentine Card but Los Danzantes is fairly dark at night not conducive to photography. So to cover Señor Jenkins we go to plan B. Last year David did a concert with a singer, Kat, at the Museo del los Pintores Oaxaquenos. That night the concert was special so to celebrate a few friends headed over to Mason Olivo, a Spanish restaurant a few blocks away. Most everything in Oaxaca is just a few blocks away, or a few more. After much wine and an impromptu second concert, which made everyone at Mason Olivo’s happy, Señor Olivo pulled the plug on the party at around 2 AM. All in all it was an evening with more light and more photo opportunities. After the big splash of color in the Ocotlán post you can see that I’m trying the opposite this time. I hope you enjoy the photos. There are a few more here. If you live in Oaxaca and want to get in touch with David Jenkins, he has a website. In fact if you go there you can have a soundtrack from him while you go through the photos. I hope all of you had a happy Valentine’s Day.
Let’s take a break and have something to eat. Oaxaca has many choices. Los Danzantes is a sister restaurant to one in Mexico City. It’s located off an interior courtyard on Macedonia Alcala between Bravo and Allende and is open for lunch and dinner starting at around 1:30 PM. While not traditional Oaxacan cuisine it is very upscale and combines modern and traditional elements in both food and décor. Normally they command top prices but on Wednesday and Friday they offer a price fix comida consisting of a mezcalito, sopa o entrada, plato fuerte, agua de sabor, postre, and café o té all for $105 (pesos) and prepared to their high standards. Get there early, it starts around 1:30 PM and when they run out your out of luck. For 25 pesos more they’ll throw in a glass of wine. Another nice thing about the comida, the chef gets to play. At most restaurants in town the menu rarely changes.
The second place, El Timon, is a hole in the wall with about 7 small tables. El Timon translates to the rudder so expect mariscos. The main thing here is tostadas or cócteles of mariscos, including camarón, pulpo, ceviche, almejas, y ostras or in English, shrimp, octopus, ceviche, clams, and oysters. You can also get a shrimp soup and on Fridays and Saturdays whole fried fish, usually Huachinango or red snapper. The ceviche here is better than at some of Oaxaca’s finest. 
The cóctele de camarón y pulpo is a personal favorite. The cócteles come in three sizes and you can wash one down with fresh limonada or naranjada, bottled water or coke. Everything is made to order including the limonada and it’s often a one man show so be prepared to wait. El Timon located on Matamoros between Porfirio Diaz and Garcia Vigil is open midday only from around 12:30 to about 6. Unfortunately El Timon closed in January 2012.
