* Sigh * * -- One other thing I would like to share with you right now: FOOD. If I could just take you into only one place here, and give you a meal, you would agree. Mmm-mmm, nam-nam.

My favorites are the family restaurants. These little places have much the same layout -- a narrow roomed wrapped around a kitchen, with counter seats dividing the stove from a handful of small tables. In such a place in Tijuana you can get breakfast for three dollars, maybe four, maybe less. Eggs how you like them -- huevos al gusto -- revueltos (scrambled), medianos (medium fried), estrellados (sunny-side up), or scrambled with bacon, chorizo, or un omelet, or some of the spicy styles like ranchero, mexicano, motuleno. Usually served with a little salad and a side of beans, and of course, tortillas.

Watch out, though, some of the fancier places charge for coffee refills. Like Albaniles on Segunda between F & G, which has a breakfast special for 25 pesos, but when I went to pay the bill it had gone up to 65 pesos. -- But, Senor,-- the young man at the cash register said, -- you had four coffees!

:-(

I felt totally shafted por la ley de Herodes -- o te chingas o te jodes. (You're either screwed or you're screwed [Mexico has two verbs to say it with!].) And the cash register guy did this even though I was obviously writing notes the whole time I sat there. Hee hee hee! Here we are in print, muchachos! (The hell of it is this notoriety will probably bring them more customers!!!)

I managed to get it knocked down to 55 (charging me only for three coffees), but still, ADIOS CLIENTE... I don't think I'll be back there again, except that... they DO have damn good food there, and the environment is a very pleasant, open area to sit. However, across the street, at el Barco del Oro (remember the morning without water), the food is also quite good, and no one has ever played coffee inflation with me. I still need to ask whether they got rid of their breakfast specials.

But those are both larger restaurants. I was talking about the little family ones, which often, though smaller, have more character, slightly lower prices, and better advertised specials. The lunch or dinner meal special is listed as "comida del dia" and will usually include soup and sometimes desert, but often your drink will be extra. Watch out, a good beer or two can easily double the bill, but then it's often worth it, no? Usually a daily meal special runs three to five dollars. And most restaurants have them, little and medium sized both.

At the low end of the spectrum come the tiny cook shacks and street wagons, like those clustered at 3rd and F, some of which offer specials for under two dollars. Remember your basic health rule: it is NOT good business to kill or sicken your customers, so if people are eating there, it's probably tasty and healthy. But those of you with dietary problems (diabetes, acid reflux, etc.), ALWAYS follow your regular restrictions or medical recommendations, those don't stop at the border. TRUST YOUR GUT INSTINCT: if it smells weird, then your system is telling you no. Other people might be okay, but you, no.... And conversely, if something seems attractive, and feels okay, and people are eating with gusto, well, then go ahead.

At the top end of the spectrum come those truly elegant places where you'll get excellent cuisine for moderate to expensive prices. You can read about them in any tour guide. If they buy advertising here, then you'll see their banners appear. Until then, no names.

But for my money as a cheap artist, the best deals are the little family places. You'll find them all over town. Come. Eat. Enjoy.

Last night Maria and I went to the fair. La feria de Tijuana. Walked around, went into the free circus (acrobats etc.), looked at things for sale, avoided the high-priced food and drink, looked at the art -- some very good items, actually, including some weavings from Oaxaca, with the weavers there, among them Alberto who had a piece hanging at Nina's gallery closing show last Sunday, and whom I will see at a midnight party this coming Friday. Also his maestro/teacher, his cousin. Both of them Zapotecs. Fantastically good weavers, too.

Then we went and rode a couple rides and got lost in the house of mirrors. Smelled some kids smoking pot behind the log-water ride. As soon as they left, the cops came. Too late. Watched a boy band singing on the open stage, girls squealing in delight. Had tacos at a place outside the fairgrounds -- much more reasonable prices.

The fairgrounds, incidentally, are tucked up against the Caliente racetrack -- or Hipodromo, as they call it. The original track was part of the vast Agua Caliente Casino Resort, built seventy-something years ago to attract money from Hollywood and San Francisco. It was a huge project, thousands of acres from the river up to the hills. Agua Caliente Boulevard ran right through it. The Tijuana Country Club used to be the Casino golf course. They had an airport, too. At the center, the Casino and hotel complex. When gambling was outlawed in the 1930s, the hotel buildings were turned into a school, the business broken up, the properties divided. The silverware, china, lamps and furniture were all dispersed. Many an old Tijuana family has a plate, a lampshade, a fork, hidden away in the back drawers of grandparents' chests and bureaus. Those, and the Lazara Cardenas school, with its empty, cracked swimming pool, are all that's left. No, wait, there are the bungalows....

They call that the golden age of tourism, during the years when alcohol was illegal in the United States. The silver age came when World War II sent all those soldiers and sailors across the border to drink and score. That's when Tijuana got its reputation for prostitution. And....