Mexico City
stick the phone inside the box, then look through the box’s lenses — and suddenly you’re there on the castle grounds and in a succession of exhibit halls. Look up at the fluttering flag atop the tower. Look down and you’ll see the stone terrace. Turn around and take in the gardens.
Dazzled and faintly dizzy, we take a taco break. A real one. Followed by a siesta. Also real.
And then, a little Netflix streaming — season one, episode two of James Beard award-winning chef David Chang’s foodie-travel series, “Ugly Delicious.” Chang and his friends hit Los Angeles, Copenhagen, Tulum and Mexico City on a quest for the perfect taco. (Warning: The show is wonderful, but the language is PG-13.)
It’s best watched with a margarita and, of course, more tacos or perhaps a shrimp tostada or two.
Olmecs, Aztecs and Frida
Back in the virtual Bosque the next day, we head for the enormous Museo Nacional de Antropologia. Founded in 1825, the museum boasts 23 exhibit halls and a collection of 600,000 objects from the Olmec, Aztec and Hispanic periods. Among the showstoppers: the Aztec Sun Stone and a spectacular replica of Moctezuma’s feathered cape. The anthropology museum’s virtual tour lets you “walk” through the galleries and take a closer look. We spend the rest of the afternoon browsing the museum’s website for details on what we saw and all the history we apparently never learned.
And we spend the rest of the week virtually touring every museum we can find. There’s a virtual tour of Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s vivid blue house, on the Google Arts & Culture website, which offers content from 2,000 museums and cultural organizations around the world. Many hours later, we emerge from the site in a daze, having gotten distracted by an entire planet’s worth of wonders — and eager for more.
A virtual tour, perhaps, of Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, the stunning arts hall, which presents concerts, opera and performances by, among others, the Ballet Folklórico de México.
Some more foodie TV, perhaps. Season one, episode six of Netflix’s “Somebody Feed Phil” sends wide-eyed Phil Rosenthal to Mexico to sample mezcal and make tortillas. And season two, episode three of Netflix’s “Chef’s Table” takes us to Enrique Olvera’s Pujol, the awardwinning Mexico City restaurant that ranks among the top restaurants in the world.
Olvera, who elevates Mexican street food — including tacos — into works of art, is actually featured in all three shows we’ve watched, including “Ugly Delicious.” Clearly it’s a sign.
A sign that we need more tacos — made with handmade tortillas. If Phil can do it, we can do it. We grab Camara’s cookbook, “My Mexico City Kitchen,” and head for the kitchen. For real.