House & Garden Tour
Sun, May 17, tour departs at noon 
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
US$15 or 150 pesos
Breakfast at Café Santa Ana starts at 9am

House & Garden Tour
By Jennifer Hamilton

Fresco paintings, Bacchus image and San Ramon above the hearth

1. In December 1994, the owners moved to San Miguel and bought this 300-year-old home and transformed it using vibrant colors, introducing parquet floors and adding romantic touches like the mirrored window in the garden. A master bedroom was added as well as a solarium, roof garden and, in the lower garden, a small casita. Three second-floor rooms built as art studios by former owners are now a library with bar, a bedroom and walk-in closet. The fresco paintings in the dining room and the stone arch in the garden are especially noteworthy. The house reflects the drama and excitement of the owner’s 40-year career as an entertainment columnist and critic. 

2. With foresight and vision, the owners of this old home have turned it into an enchanting, cozy and colorful property with many wide open spaces and dynamic colors. Entering through their well-stocked wine “cellar” with its carved Bacchus image on the cantera fireplace, you see the lovely archway leading to the central patio with its weeping wall and its Neptune and fish sculptural piece in the center. Cantera blocks form the wall surrounding the fountain. The stenciling throughout the home is phenomenal, created by a local artist. The bird theme in the tile mural of the kitchen was copied from a bowl the owners purchased in Santa Rosa. A beautiful Indian cabinet in the family room was found locally, as were most of the Asian-themed furnishings. Off the upstairs office area is a spacious terrace filled with succulents leading up to a bedroom with the colors designed around the landscape quilt hanging on the wall. Three dimensional tiles in the bathroom are a knockout! A narrow corridor, with three oblong w
indows to give additional light, leads to a tiny kitchenette outside the master suite for cozy breakfasts and midnight snacks. The rooftop terrace with its splendid views to the Parroquia and the hills to the west houses the barbecue, bar, seating areas and the raised, sculpted beds of a cooking garden. 



3. This sumptuous house in the center of San Miguel’s historic district is a sight for sore eyes. Entering through the mosaic-floored covered vestibule one is immediately struck by the awesome art and sculpture which the owners have collected. Parts of the home date back to colonial days, although the upper level and wine cellar below were added on. Modern furniture blends effortlessly with antique rugs and artwork, with walls painted in bright colors here, soft hues there. The dramatic book-filled library has a cantera fireplace mantel reaching to the ceiling and an eighteenth-century painting of San Ramon above the hearth. Most rooms face the patio, flooding the house with light. The outside ramada faces the pool with its two stone lions and water spout at the far end, surrounded on the west side by lavender plants and bougainvillea. Atop the stairs a glass cúpola adds more light. Local artist Lynn Gleason created the equestrian artwork. Of special note are the doors and cabinets created from antique doors from India and China. Both the guest and master bedrooms are topped by remarkable bóveda ceilings and lined with wood shutters on the windows. A spacious roof garden leads into the sizeable master bathroom with mosaic flooring, mirrors framed with wood Indian carvings and a huge tiled tub. Views from all the patios, garden and rooftop are unparalleled, with close-up vistas of La Parroquia and farther west, La Iglesia de la Concepción (Las Monjas). 



The House & Garden Tour thanks the following for opening their beautiful homes on Sunday, May 10, 2009

Diane & Billy Largman
Heidi & Bill LeVasseur
Mary & Tom Ambrose



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

2nd Sunday in May for 2008 140 visitors on tour
2nd Sunday in May for 2009  5 (!) visitors on tour 

Year to Date 2008 4,415 visitors on tour
Year to Date 2009 4,150 visitors on tour 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Food & Wine

Good news for chocolate lovers
By Mary Murrell

Chocolate is one of the tastes people most frequently crave in many countries around the world. We hear people describe themselves as “chocoholics” while smiling broadly just at the thought of tasting anything chocolate.

We order desserts called “Death by Chocolate” or “Chocolate Decadence.” As children we remember Mom making a dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing called “Devil’s Food.” We are surprised to hear someone say they don’t like chocolate.
We give chocolate as gifts on special occasions like Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter and birthdays. We crave it; we eat it with pleasure and sometimes a bit of guilt. We may try to limit how much we eat to control our weight, or at least control our fat intake. It is something both wonderful and slightly forbidden. 

In the past few years more and more evidence has appeared that chocolate can be good for us. Recent medical research studies have found dark chocolate can act as an antioxidant, keep our blood platelets from clumping together, increase the flexibility of our blood vessels and even reduce blood pressure.

But a few caveats can be found. The medical research refers to dark chocolate, because the higher the cocoa content (preferably 70 percent), the better it is for us. Cocoa provides flavonoids, natural compounds with antioxidant properties. Milk chocolate flavonoid levels are much lower, and white chocolate does not even contain cocoa, so both of these are better at expanding our waistlines than improving our health. Many cocoa powders and chocolate syrups do not provide the same benefits as dark chocolate, if the way they are prepared or processed removes most of the flavonoids. It is very important to know the facts about a particular chocolate product.

Studies have found positive results with a diet containing as little as an ounce of chocolate a day. Dr. Kris-Etherton at Penn State University found small amounts of chocolate were linked to lower levels of bad LDL cholesterol and higher levels of good HDL cholesterol. She points out, “It’s okay to eat dark chocolate in small amounts, as long as you eat an otherwise healthy diet and can afford the calories.”

Although the power of chocolate sounds both new and exciting, it is a rediscovery of a powerful health enhancer well known to Mesoamerican lowland civilizations thousands of years before the Spanish came to the New World. According to Kirsten West, an expert in pre-Hispanic cuisine and a well-known chef, cacao (as pure beans) was an important part of the diet and cultures of the New World long before Europeans arrived.

“Cacao was of utmost importance in pre-Hispanic cultures, where it was consumed as a drink, mostly cold, during ceremonies, rituals and celebrations such as weddings or battle victories,” Kirsten points out. The beans were ground into a paste and combined with water and chilies. Only royalty and priests drank the liquid in the court of the Aztec kings.

Cacao beans were very expensive because they were transported over great distances. Cacao trees only grow within the tropical belt near the equator, and long-distance traders and their porters had to bring cacao in heavy backpacks over rough terrain. This work required a great deal of stamina, so the porters drank a daily ration of liquid chocolate for energy. Aztec warriors, known for their formidable strength and skill with weapons, also enjoyed drinking a daily ration of chocolate.

The Aztecs prepared the beverage as a gift when Cortés and his army first entered Tenochtitlán (Mexico City, today.) Moctezuma met Cortés, welcomed him and presented gifts, including his first taste of the highly valued chocolate. Bernal Díaz, who traveled with Cortés and recorded events of the expedition, described how the drink of chocolate had been served in a cup-shaped vessel of gold.

One of West’s major interests is the healthy nature of the cuisine in pre-Hispanic cultures. She describes the way people ate as, “A diet that was extremely healthy as we now know. Besides corn-based items, they ate large quantities of fresh vegetables and fruits. Chiles were part of their daily meals and chiles have one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C.”

The Spanish became convinced of the healthy properties of chocolate and much later when the drink reached the US, President Thomas Jefferson confidently wrote: “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.”

Chocolate became a drink only for the elite in Europe, but this changed greatly with the dawn of the Industrial Age. A Dutchman invented a mechanized process for preparing the cacao which was much quicker. Soon it was possible for a much wider group of people to enjoy chocolate.

“Chocolate tasted delicious and it started its trailblazing popularity throughout the world. However, in the process, most of the health benefit enjoyed by the Aztecs disappeared, leaving only the flavor and mostly useless calories. New, sophisticated ways of analyzing our nutrition are showing us many foods are very good for our well-being and, hallelujah, this includes chocolate!” West said with enthusiasm.

Today it is possible to add chocolate to our diet, not as a guilty pleasure, but as a healthy food. The key is to eat chocolate that is cold-pressed (heat destroys much of the benefits from the cacao) and sweetened with fruit instead of milk and sugar. Now all of us can enjoy the health benefits that made chocolate one of the most treasured foods in Mexico.

If you would like more information about chocolate and health benefits, contact Kirsten West at kirstenwest2008@yahoo.com.