Good morning. René Magritte made a painting of this day in 1956, a Surrealist depiction of a crescent moon hanging in a tree, rather than in the sky behind it. It’s a quiet, powerful work. The moon disrupts our sense of depth and leaves us unsettled, as if in a house of mirrors, as if a citizen in the world of 2019. I’d like to make kalpudding to eat while I look at it, adorn the meat with gold leaf in place of moonlight.

I won’t do that last part. But kalpudding’s awesome.

Of course it’s also Mexican Independence Day, a marker of the insurgency that got underway on this day in 1810, and resolved itself 11 years later with the Treaty of Córdoba. As Rick A. Martinez reported for The Times this week, it’s said that the leader of the Mexican Army at the time, Agustín de Iturbide, marched into Puebla in victory and was fed by nuns from the convent of Santa Monica: stuffed poblanos with walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds (above), a dish of green, white and red, to honor the Mexican flag. If I can’t do that tonight (kalpudding!), I’ll certainly try later, certainly by the weekend.

Some don’t eat meat on Mondays. Perhaps they’ll get to eat vegan mapo tofu tonight. It’s a recipe I’ve been messing around with a lot. I like it with firm tofu, for instance, instead of soft. You can use gochujang in place of the bean paste. I often do. I sometimes don’t grind the Sichuan pepper but crush it and then bloom the spice in the heat of the oil right at the start. I’ve added ground pork, in place of the mushrooms, a Monday heresy. And I’ve definitely stretched the sauce, because I love it so much mixed into rice, after the tofu’s gone.

Would you prefer tuna salad tonight, a fancy version from Scarlett Lindeman in Mexico City, which Tejal Rao picked up on a reporting trip?