Making chicharrónes–freshly fried pig skins, just out of the vat. If you haven't eaten this when it's fresh and still hot, you haven't really eaten chicharrones! This man's stand is a favorite on one of my market tours. Mexico City, January 2018.
It occurred to me the other day that I have taken literally hundreds of photographs this year and have shared comparatively few with you. Remember when Mexico Cooks! regularly published a "flaneur" report, of wanderings and wonderful or weird things all over the country? Today we're taking a photographic nostalgia trip through 2018.
Tulips are always a sure sign that Mexico has turned the corner from winter to spring. These, at our wholesale flower market, have jumped the gun just a bit–but so nice to see them now! Mexico City, January 2018.
Color is everywhere in Mexico. Boxes of fresh chile serrano, fresh chile habanero, and fresh pale-green tomate verde (you probably know them in English as tomatillos) are for sale in one of my favorite Mexico City markets. At the very bottom left of the photo are a few limones–in English, key limes. Mexico City, January 2018.
Pinole (toasted and finely ground dried corn flour, sweetened with piloncillo (raw cane sugar, and cinnamon) is an old-fashioned treat still much loved today. It's for eating as a powder, as is, or it can be combined with milk and other spices into a hot atole. It's a very, very dry powder, to the point that Mexico has a saying about it: "El que tiene más saliva, traga más pinole" (he who has the most spit can eat the most pinole). Or two: "No se puede chiflar y comer pinole" (you can't whistle and eat pinole). Morelia, Michoacán, March 2018.
This may well be my number-one favorite restaurant dish of 2018. What you see is a tennis-ball size "albóndiga" (literally, meatball)–but in this case, it's not really a meatball. The golden brown crust is made of crushed corn and amaranth; the interior is filled with quesillo (Oaxaca cheese), huauzontle (a pre-Hispanic green vegetable), and Oaxaca-style chorizo (spicy round sausage links). The albóndiga is fried until golden, plated in a pool of Oaxacan green mole–with fresh snow peas and fresh green beans, topped with beet sprouts. Thank you, Pasillo de Humo–this is an unfailingly stupendous meal. Mexico City, April 2018.
A round fogón (space that encloses a cooking fire) with its clay comal (griddle), ready for making tortillas, roasting tomatoes, onions, and garlic, or for whatever the needs of the day are. El Coyul, Oaxaca, May 2018.
My dear friend Carina Santiago, in her cocina tradicional (traditional kitchen) in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. If you're planning at trip to this town, known for its hand-woven woolen rugs as well as its traditional cooks, don't miss breakfast or comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) at Tierra Antigua, the restaurant/gallery run by Carina and her family. The gallery's rugs are woven from hand-dyed wool by Pedro Montaño (Carina's husband) and their sons; Carina and her kitchen team prepare the food, and everything is glorious. Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, May 2018.
Nuestra Señora de la Soledad con el Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, Teotitlán del Valle, May 2018.
Our Lady of Solitude with the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Church of the Precious Blood of Christ.
Oxcart heading home, late afternoon in San Blas Atempa, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. May 2018.
Cocktail picks and their woven case, from the early days of Restaurante Los Danzantes in Coyoacán. A flea market find one beautiful Sunday! Mexico City, early June 2018.
So much travel and so many pictures–and we're only halfway through the year. We'll be back after Christmas with more!
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