John Erlich - 7-30-2009 at 12:30 PM
Greetings fellow Middle Eastern culture freaks,
On Monday, I am leaving with my family for a vacation in the Yucatan region in Mexico. My sources tell me that the city of Mérida has the largest
Arab--Lebanese--community in Mexico. Does anyone know of any Middle Eastern cultural resources in Mérida I should know about (CD shops, food
markets, etc.)?
Other than general discussion of the Lebanese community, the only concrete piece of info I've found is positive guide book reviews of a Lebanese
restaurant , Cafe Alameda, near downtown. We may have to try that restaurant, just because of the name, living as we do in Alameda County, CA.
Gracias por sus consejos,
Juanito en la playa 
John Erlich - 8-4-2009 at 08:21 PM
By accident, we ended up today at a pretty decent falafel restaurant. While visiting a park in the town of Cholul, just northeast of Merida, my 5
year old son suddenly announced that he was hungry. We neglected to bring a snack, so our hostess told us about a falafel restaurant nearby run by an
expat Israeli couple. The food was quite good considering the lack competition and my son totally chowed down. For a treat, he had a ma´amoul,
which turn out to be baked by none other than our hostess. Half Syrian, our hostess, we found out, bakes ma´amoul and baklava which are served at 3
area restaurants. Interestingly, the Israeli falafel monger had to work hard with a local 3rd-generation Lebanese-Mexican baker to get him to produce
a decent pita bread for falafel.