Author: typepadtowordpress

A Pre-Hispanic Treat in a Modern Kitchen: Mexico Cooks! Makes Alegrías

Mexico Cooks!' homemade alegrías, freshly turned from the parchment-lined baking sheet onto the cutting board and ready to cut into pieces.

Lots of people are like Mexico Cooks! when it comes to cookbooks. We own hundreds of them, but actually cook from very few. For over a year, I've read and sighed with delight over the stories and recipes in Fany Gerson's My Sweet Mexico–and last week I finally prepared alegrías from her recipe. Fany calls them 'amaranth happiness candy'. Why? Happiness or joy are the English meanings of the Spanish word alegría.

A couple of weeks ago, friends at the superb web page Cocina al Natural invited Mexico Cooks!' household to a wonderful comida casera (main meal of the day at their home). For dessert, they proudly carried a big tray of alegrías to the table. "They're home made!" they proclaimed. "No way!" we remonstrated. Well, yes, güey, it was the absolute truth. The alegrías were beautiful, professional, delicious, and prepared from Fany Gerson's cookbook, which is actually in my kitchen library. We joyfully crunched these delicacies down.

According to Ricardo Muñoz Zurita, legendary Mexico City chef and author of the Diccionario Enciclopédico de Gastronomía Mexicana (Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy), among other books, alegrías are the oldest candy in Mexico. In pre-Hispanic times, before sugar cane had been introduced to New Spain (now Mexico), the amaranth candy was sweetened with maguey cactus syrup. In that long-ago era, this candy had a highly religious meaning. Shaped in the form of a cookie or cracker, it was utilized for communion in indigenous rituals and also was made into huge sculptures of pre-Christian gods. Because these god-figures appeared so horrible to the Spanish, they outlawed the use of this candy after the conquest. But in the 16th century, a Spanish monk had the idea to mix amaranth with bee honey. Rejoicing over the return of the right to eat this sweet treat, the ancient inhabitants of Mexico named it what they felt 'alegría'–joy.

The topping mixture for the alegrías–raisins and lightly toasted pecans, peanuts, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds), spread onto the parchment-paper lined baking sheet.

The following week, Betty Fussell, our wonderful friend from New York, invited us once again to visit her in Tepoztlán, just south of Mexico City. The light bulb went on: alegrías would make a great gift to take to Betty!

The recipe for alegrías is simplicity itself. Here's the recipe, taken straight from My Sweet Mexico.

Alegrías (Happiness Candy)

Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup chopped toasted peanuts
1/2 cup toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
1/2 cup dark raisins
8 ounces chopped Mexican piloncillo (coarse brown sugar) or standard dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
4 ounces puffed amaranth seeds

Equipment
Large bowl
Large spoon
15" X 10" X 1/2" baking sheet
Parchment paper
Medium sauce pan
Cutting board
Sharp knife

Preparation
Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the pecans, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, and raisins in a bowl and then spread them on the prepared pan.

Piloncillo, honey, and lemon juice in the pot.

Combine the piloncillo, honey, and lemon juice in a medium pot over medium heat and cook until the piloncillo has melted and the mixture has thickened slightly, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Squeezing the jugo de limón (lemon juice) into the mixture is simplicity itself using a Mexican lime squeezers. You can find one in metal or plastic at your local Latin market.

Remove the syrup from the heat and add the amaranth seeds, stirring quickly to mix everything well.

Mixing the cooked and thickened piloncillo, honey, and lemon juice mixture with the amaranth seeds.

The amaranth mixture, patted firmly into the parchment-lined baking sheet. Remember that the nuts and raisins are the topping–they're on the other side of the alegrías. Once this rectangle is completely cool, it will be firm and you will easily be able turn it over onto a cutting board.

Pour the amaranth mixture into the baking pan with the nuts, seeds, and raisins, and carefully press down with slightly dampened hands (so you don't burn yourself) to compact the mixture.

Allow to cool completely, 30 to 40 minutes at least, then invert onto a cutting board. Cut the mixture into the desired shapes with a sharp knife. If your mixture seems to be sticking to the knife, simply dip the knife into hot water, dry, and continue cutting.

Freshly made alegrías, ready to travel!

Mexico Cooks!' alegrías turned out overly crispy and difficult to cut, so instead of battling with the knife, I simply broke them into reasonable-size pieces and packed them in a tightly sealed container to travel the next day.

Were the alegrías a hit? They definitely were! Five of us ate almost all of them. We left all but a couple of the remaining pieces with our hosts, but we had to bring a little bit home. Minimal ingredients, minimal cooking, and maximal enjoyment: what more can you ask for from pre-conquest Mexico! Your family will love them and you can send a big thank you to Fany Gerson at My Sweet Mexico–and to Mexico Cooks!.

If you don't have your copy of the book yet, look over on the left-hand sidebar and just click on the book cover. That click will take you to My Sweet Mexico's Amazon.com page. Grab the book today and make your family a sweet Mexican treat as soon as it's in your kitchen.

And by all means visit our friends at Cocina al Natural. Their website and their videos are marvelous. In the very near future, Mexico Cooks! will be partnering with them to post some of the videos with English-language subtitles. We're all very excited about this new venture.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

1 de August de 2015
Ricardo Muñoz Zurita and Azul/Condesa: Consistently Excellent

One of the best places to eat in Mexico City's leafy, gentrified Colonia La Condesa is Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Azul/Condesa at Nuevo León #68, almost at the corner of Calle Laredo–and walking distance from Mexico Cooks!' house. This eagerly awaited joint venture between Chef Muñoz and restauranteurs Gonzalo Serrano Orozco and Salomé Álvarez (formerly of Restaurante/Bar Ligaya) opened in late January 2011.  Mexico Cooks! photo.

Just as Mexico Cooks! was in the process of renting an apartment in La Condesa, our good friend Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita announced that his newest baby, Restaurante Azul/Condesa, was about to open right here in the neighborhood. After having made–and several times–the lengthy but worthwhile trek to the far-southern Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM campus) site of Chef Muñoz's first restaurant, Azul y Oro, the news that his menus would be available within walking distance of us produced an ecstasy of anticipatory drool.

The ambience in all of Azul/Condesa's dining spaces–downstairs, upstairs, and in the garden–is conducive to enjoying a relaxing drink, a fine meal from the fixed or festival menus, and a changing gallery of art. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Start with a straight-up tequila, limones, and a chaser of terrific, flavorful, and picante house-made sangrita. Another option, served in typical jícaras (carved half-gourds), is a mezcal from Azul/Condesa's excellent tasting list.  Mexico Cooks!' particular favorite is Oaxaca's mezcal Amores.  Mexico Cooks! photo.

Several years ago, Gonzalo Serrano and Salomé Álvarez approached Ricardo Muñoz with the idea of opening a new restaurant in the Ligaya building. After fourteen highly successful years at Ligaya, the Serrano/Álvarez partnership wanted to offer something new to its public. Gonzalo Serrano said, "We believed that it was time to offer a discerning clientele a taste of Mexico that goes beyond the Vitamina T choices that are most common in this neighborhood." (Vitamina T refers to a steady diet of tacos, tortas, tamales, and other standard fonda (small restaurant) or street food fare that starts with the letter 't'). The three restauranteurs hit it off immediately and Restaurante Azul/Condesa was in the works.

Before opening, the new partners collaborated in making changes to the interior spaces as well as the menu. The kitchen underwent a complete renovation, as did the restaurant furnishings. Tables, chairs, linen, and dishware were re-designed for the new venture. Upstairs, a new cantera (stone) floor was installed. Everything was planned for the comfort and enjoyment of the client, as well as for a different style but equally professional use of the kitchen. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

From Azul/Condesa's fixed menu, a salad of arrugula, pear, roquefort cheese, and cashew nut dressed with balsamic vinegar. Each dish on the menus is a work of art as well as an incredible explosion of flavor on your palate. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

The Azul/Condesa menu concept divides between fixed and festival menus. Some menu offerings stay the same, ranging from salads to desserts. The festival menus change each month. The initial festival was Alma Jarocha (the soul of Veracruz), featuring dishes from that eastern coastal state. The main courses of the festival menu featured predominately seafood specialties such as Veracruz-style octopus, a fish in green pipián (in this case, a thick pumpkin-seed based sauce), and Boca del Río-style shrimp in a sauce of white wine and smoky chile chipotle en adobo. In addition, the Veracruz dessert menu showcased vanilla, mamey, guanábana, and other products from the state.

Buñuelos rellenos de pato rostizado (roast duck stuffed into wee packets and deep-fried, similar to fried wontons) are served with Oaxacan black mole, thin slices of steamed calabacita (zucchini), and fresh blackberries. This dish is on the menu as a main course for one person, but it also makes a marvelous appetizer for a table of three or four diners.  Mexico Cooks! photo.

During the month of March, we were in love with the menu called Festival de Moles y Pipianes. The menu was set up in two parts: one side offered a selection of twelve moles and pipianes–just the sauces–and the other side offered a selection of eleven different meats, birds, and fish. The possibilities were endless: for example, almendrado huasteco, an almond mole from Veracruz, combined equally well with imported pheasant as with breast of turkey medallions or New Zealand lamb ribs.  Chichilo negro, a Oaxacan black mole flavored with avocado leaves, made the kitchen's perfectly cooked medium-rare filete de res (filet of beef) a spectacular choice.

A vegetarian appetizer from the fixed menu: tamalitos de acelgas, bañadas en caldillo de jitomate (little swiss chard tamales, bathed with a thin tomato sauce), from the state of Tabasco. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Traditional Yucatecan cochinita pibil (pit-roasted pork), cooked in a banana leaf and garnished with pickled red onions. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

During the month of April, the festival menu was called MMMM…Mango!, to celebrate the onset of that fruit's season in Mexico. Everything from salads to desserts included mango: diced into guacamole, garnishing your steak or shrimp, fresh-frozen into ice cream, or served as a simple bowl of the king of fruits, mango made your perfect choice of dinner even better.

Sautéed shrimp covered with mango salsa–delicioso!  Mexico Cooks! photo.

Have you bought your plane tickets yet? Just wait! Desserts are as marvelous as everything else on the menu at Azul/Condesa. Your choices range from the simplest bowl of ice cream to the outrageously delicious–well, I truly don't know what I prefer. You look:

Espuma de guanábana is a light-as-a-breath refreshing soursop (I know, a terrible English name for a fabulous fruit) mousse served with your choice of salsas: the red fruits that you see in the photo, black zapote, or chocolate. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Tamalito de chocolate (little chocolate tamal), accompanied with a custard sauce, chocolate sauce, AND a mixed-berry sauce, then topped with slivered almonds and whipped cream. Oh man… Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Last, pastel de tres leches (three milks cake), served with a generous pour of rompope (Mexico's eggnog–this devilishly good liqueur has its origins in a convent) and presented with fresh fruit and a variety of sauces. Photo courtesy Mexico Cooks!' dear friend from Guadalajara, Tim Welch.

We've tried to capture a photo of the dessert that Mexico Cooks! prefers, but somebody has always snitched a forkful before we can take the picture.  Triángulo de café pluma is a multi-layered coffee-flavored cake, filled with coffee butter cream and covered with dark chocolate and is well worth snitching.

Beautiful in concept and extraordinary in execution, Azul/Condesa fills a niche in this Mexico City neighborhood that has been vacant until now. The fixed menu is marvelous, the festival menus are filled with regional and seasonal treats that you will love. Prices? Moderate.

Go. When you're visiting Mexico City, just go.

Azul/Condesa
Nuevo León #68
Colonia La Condesa
Mexico, D.F.
Telephone 5286-6380 or 5286-6268 for reservations
Monday through Saturday from 1:30PM until 1:30AM, Sundays 1:30PM until 6:30PM.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

25 de July de 2015
Las Apariencias Engañan :: Appearances Deceive :: Casa Museo Frida Kahlo

This article was originally published in 2012, shortly after the Casa Museo Frida Kahlo mounted the exhibit titled Las Apariencias Engañan. Due to overwhelming demand, the exhibition continues to be open and the article bears repeating.

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, age three or four, and friend. Photo by her father, Guillermo Kahlo.

Which is the Frida Kahlo who most touches your imagination? The innocent toddler in her beribboned shoes?

The iconic self-portrait dressed as a Tehuana (woman from Oaxaca's Isthmus of Tehuantepec)?

The pain-wracked, alcoholic, drug-addicted, unadorned, exhausted Frida? This photo was taken on July 2, 1954, at her last public appearance. She (in her wheelchair), Diego Rivera, and a group of friends and colleagues marched in Mexico City to protest the involvement of the United States Central Intelligence Agency in the overthrow of Guatemala's president. Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954.

There was a time, and not too long ago, when I thought I understood the moments that these photos purport to reveal. Photos and self-portraits are a record of life, just as black-and-white as the first and last of these three. Except–perhaps not. Perhaps, as the on-going exhibit at Casa Museo Frida Kahlo is titled, las apariencias engañan. Appearances deceive. What we see is tricky. Appearances are as fluid as blood in the veins, as liquor down the throat, as dye seeking fabric, as paint on a palette. And as Anais Nin is alleged to have said, "We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are."

The original drawing used for the exhibit poster is part of Frida Kahlo's diary.

When Frida Kahlo died, Diego Rivera insisted that the places in her home where the majority of her personal effects were stored (two bathrooms, some trunks and closets) be sealed for the following 50 years. In 2004, under the close supervision of museum directors, workers knocked down bathroom walls and pried open long-locked doors. They found literally thousands of items belonging to the couple, including more than 300 of Frida Kahlo's dresses, some of her jewelry, some hair ornaments, shoes, and orthopedic appliances.

A few of the Oaxaca-style skirts and huipiles (blouses) from Frida Kahlo's closets and trunks, currently showing in Room 2 of the exhibit space. If you are familiar with her paintings, you may recognize one or two.

Detail of encaje (lace) and other fabrics from the skirts shown second and third from the right in the above photo.

Las Apariencias Engañan opened in late November 2012. According to museum personnel, the exhibit was to have been on display for approximately one year, during which time the mannequins' clothing was to have been changed every three to four months. Not only did these changes give the public an opportunity to see more of the 300 dresses found when the walls were knocked down, but long-stored delicate fabrics have not been subjected to the stress of their own weight as they are displayed.

The Tehuana headdress from the self portrait shown above. Click on any photograph to enlarge it for a better view.

The restoration period has lasted nearly eight years. Despite the conditions under which Frida's clothing and other belongings were stored for 50 years, what we see is a marvel of both natural preservation and expert resurrection. The mounting of the exhibit, supervised by curator Circe Henestrosa and mounted by prominent British architect and designer Doctor Judith Clark, stuns with its mix of the lovely, the grotesque, and the matter-of-fact.

You may well be familiar with some of Frida's famous hand-painted plaster of Paris corsets, decorated with her fabled fantastical flowers, animals, and even the Communist hammer and sickle. They are beautiful. About five years ago, the museum's exhibit of the artist's night bedroom included both her death mask, wrapped in a rebozo, and a plaster of Paris corset.

These three corsets suspended (by white ribbons meant to evoke bandages) from white-tile walls that are symbolic of the bathrooms where the items were found, are not beautiful to any eye. They are what they are: early 20th century medical appliances meant to bind, to support, and inevitably to inflict pain on the wearer.

A pair of Frida's black suede shoes. Srta. Maricarmen Rodríguez López, my personal guide to the exhibit, said, "People ask why Dr. Clark insisted that we mount these shoes showing the back rather than the pretty front with bows on the toes. Look closer. The right shoe has an elevated heel to compensate for the shortness of Frida's right leg." Srta. Rodríguez also mentioned that the entire exhibit is designed to emphasize the disabilities that Frida suffered from the time she was a child of six, when she had polio which left her right leg thinner and shorter than the left.

Frida's calf-high, crimson leather lace-up boot–the left boot, with its wedge heel, decorated with panels of Chinese embroidery and a bell on a ribbon (…rings on her fingers, bells on her toes…).

The right boot and prosthesis, quite literally the other side of the story. Compare the wedge heel on this boot with the wedge on the other. Due to gangrene, doctors were forced to amputate Frida's long-injured right leg in 1953.

The metal supports for this and other items in the exhibit symbolize the iron handrail that pierced her abdomen and uterus in the 1925 trolley-car accident in which she suffered other serious injuries: a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder.

Arguably the most famous page from Frida's diary: Pies para qué los quiero si tengo alas pa'volar. (Feet, what do I need them for, if I have wings to fly.) Dated 1953 and painted just prior to the amputation of her right foot.

From Frida's trunks, a hair ornament. The tiara includes aluminum and textile flowers and green linen leaves.

Another hair ornament, in the form of a butterfly.

Gold chokers and other necklaces.

Who will see my brokenness, when the glory of my wardrobe hides my pain? In the exhibit, even the limbs of the mannequins resemble prostheses.

A full cabinet of Frida's long-stored belongings: clothing, jewelry, shoes, even a pair of golden cat's-eye sunglasses came from the closets and trunks.

Las Apariencias Engañan is intended to be a revolving, year-long exhibit. Sponsored in large part by Vogue Magazine, as well as BMW, The Anglo Mexican Foundation, British Airways, The BBVA Bancomer Foundation, the Japan Foundation, Lasalle College of the Arts, Montblanc, the University of the Arts London, and Valentino Parfums, the exhibit also includes a roomful of newly created items of haute couture based very loosely on Frida's wardrobe. This dress and jacket are by GQ's 2012 Designer of the Year Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy. Still more designer dresses are by Costume National and Jason Wu, among the other couture houses involved in the show.

From Frida's diary: arrows point to all of the parts of her body where she had surgeries. A tear falls from her right eye. I asked Srta. Rodríguez, "But she never had surgery on her head…?" "No, la flecha esa simboliza el daño psicológico…" ('No, that arrow represents the psychological damage.') Although the drawing shows only a few arrows, Frida actually had 22 or more surgeries.

Frida Kahlo chose her very Mexican wardrobe with extreme care. Each item was designed to flatter this part, cover that part, hide the other part. Under her embroidered and boldly colorful square-cut huipiles (in this instance, Oaxaca-style blouses), terrible leather-and-metal corsets were barely noticable to others. A maimed foot, a withered leg, a missing leg? Let the boots take center stage, let the lace-bordered skirts be a frothy smoke screen. Don't attend to my limp, look at the wreath of flowers in my hair. Pay no attention to this wheelchair, raise your eyes to my multiple gold necklaces, the bracelets on my arms, the rings on my fingers.

The exhibit reveals in a way that a photo, an article online, or a biography cannot show how and why Frida Kahlo invented the appearance of festive health for herself. The psychology that moved her to create this way of life and this wardrobe, the fractures (both physical and mental) that shaped her need for window dressing: all is apparent in the exhibit, and we see both the color and the shadow, the harsh reality and the fugue of fashion. Frida stands naked before us, a human being rather than a souvenir.

Las Apariencias Engañan has enjoyed such an enormous audience that it continues to be on exhibit at the Casa Museo Frida Kahlo. Mexico Cooks! suggests that in order to buy tickets in a timely manner for the exhibition, you will want to arrive at the museum approximately one-half hour prior to the museum's opening time. Otherwise, the wait to enter is often very lengthy.

HOURS
CLOSED MONDAYS
Tuesday: 10:00 – 17:45 h
Wednesday: 11:00 – 17:45 h
Thursday through Sunday: 10:00 – 17:45 h

LOCATION
Calle Londres #247
Del Carmen, Coyoacán
Mexico City, Mexico
___________________________________________________

With profound thanks to Hilda Trujillo Soto (Directora Casa Museo Frida Kahlo), Patricia Cordero (Coordinadora de Difusión y Contenidos Digitales, Casa Museo Frida Kahlo), and Maricarmen Rodríguez López (Redes Sociales y Difusión, Casa Museo Frida Kahlo) for their time and effort in arranging a private guided tour of Las Aparencias Engañan for Mexico Cooks!.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

18 de July de 2015
Restaurante Yuban: Comida Casera Zapoteca (Oaxacan Home Cooking in Mexico City)

Restaurante Yuban takes the iconic Oaxaca tlayuda and brings it to Mexico City with the addition of fresh, crunchy vegetables. In addition to the visible vegetables, this tlayuda is stuffed with melted Oaxaca cheese, chorizo (spicy pork sausage), and tasajo (marinated grilled beef). We four split it as an appetizer; it was just enough to wake up our appetites for more. All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted. Click on any photo for a larger view.

One part of the charming and comfortable dining room at Yuban. The restaurant also has a very popular bar with a large selection of mezcales. Photo courtesy Gastronoma.

The state and city of Oaxaca are deservedly famous for their cuisine, and the Zapotec communities outside the city of Oaxaca are celebrated for their regional dishes. Every household has its jealously guarded recipes; every grandmother has her personal way of preparing ancestral dishes. Restaurante Yuban, which opened its doors in October 2013, continues to be one of the few restaurants in the city where Zapotec food is prepared–and prepared deliciously.

Fernando Martínez Zavala has been the executive chef at Yuban since mid-2014. A native of Uruapan, Michoacán, chef Fernando is self-taught and has 14 years' experience, most notably as chef in the Mexico City restaurants Les Moustaches and Moustache Bistrot. He comes from a family of cooks. Just prior to starting his work at Yuban, Fernando won Mexico's well-respected Cocinero del Año 2014 (Cook of the Year) competition. Photo courtesy Yuban.

Two lovely friends, visiting recently from Los Angeles, invited Mexico Cooks! to join them for comida (the midday main meal of the day in Mexico) at Restaurante Yuban, where we had not been since chef Fernando took the helm. Yuban (the Zapotec name means living earth) was a favorite of ours when it opened, but it had obviously been quite a while since we'd enjoyed both the charming room and the delicious menu.

Lengua en salsa verde (tongue in green sauce) was deliciously tangy, sweet, slightly salty, and served with a mix of organic vegetables from Oaxaca. One of Mexico Cooks!' companions at table chose the tongue but allowed me to taste it.

Two of the four of us ordered this cooked-over-low-temperature lechón en pipián de pepita (suckling pig in pumpkin seed sauce) with nopales (diced cactus paddles), pea shoots and nasturtium flowers. Although the flavors were exquisite, the meat was extremely fatty and the sauce quite over-salted. With just a bit more attention to the details, this dish will have the potential for greatness.

My choice for comida was mole negro con guajolote (black mole with turkey). I loved the vegetable garnish: tender flor de calabaza (squash flowers) and still-crunchy baby calabacitas (similar to zucchini). The turkey was tender, but once again, the sauce was seriously over-salted.

The house very graciously sent two desserts to our table–along with four plates and spoons all around. This pastel de chocolate (in this case, cake made of stone-ground Oaxacan chocolate) is presented with a leaf of white chocolate freckled with ground chile chilhuacle, Oaxaca's iconic and very scarce chile.

Our second dessert was my favorite: Cremoso de requesón (creamy ricotta-type cheese ice cream) with a streusel of pinole (toasted, lightly sweetened and ground dried corn), roasted fresh pineapple, and coconut ice cream. Its textures and flavors surprised me with their depth and fresh combination. I hoped that my table companions might let me finish it by myself, but we all loved it too much to do anything but share it to the last crumb.

Another view of Yuban's inviting dining space. Photo courtesy DondeIr.

Mexico Cooks! was grateful to have time for a talk with chef Fernando about the opportunities for improvement in his dishes. I'm sure that by the time you read this, the very few kinks we noticed will have been straightened out and that you will love Yuban when you dine there. I certainly plan on returning–maybe we will see one another there.

Restaurante Yuban
Colima 268 near the corner of Insurgentes
Col. Roma Norte
Tel: 55-6387-0358
Hours: Monday – Wednesday 1:30PM – 11:00PM
Thursday – Saturday 1:30PM – Midnight
Sunday 1:30PM – 6:00PM
Reservations recommended

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.

11 de July de 2015
Michoacán’s Own Soup: The Mystery of Sopa Tarasca

North-central Michoacán is frequently and with much reason called paradise on earth. Autumn's wildflowers, ripening corn, green mountains, and a partly cloudy sky combine to give you the sense that 'paradise on earth' just might be exactly where you are: in this case, near Senguio, Michoacán.

The state of Michoacán is well-known both for its lovely scenery and its even more lovely–and delicious–regional cooking. The indigenous Purépecha kitchen, in particular, is Mexico Cooks!' favorite. If you look back at the Mexico Cooks! archives (found listed on the right-hand side of this page), you'll see many, many articles about this marvelous cuisine, which dates back to pre-Hispanic days.

Misnamed "Tarascos" by unknowing 16th century Spanish invaders, the Purépecha have, just within the last 25 to 30 years, largely reclaimed their actual tribal name. Nonetheless, one of the most popular dishes in the Michoacán culinary repertoire bears the name sopa tarasca (Tarascan Soup).

Not precisely traditional, but certainly not modern, this pot of beans is cooking over a wood fire built in a deep tire rim in an open patio in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán.

You might well ask, "Sopa tarasca must be a pre-Hispanic dish, right?" Or maybe, "Sopa tarasca was first made for her family by a long-ago Purépecha housewife, no?" Over the course of years, most people who have eaten and fallen in love with this remarkably delicious and filling soup have asked me these same questions. Much to their surprise, the answer is always, "No…but let me tell you the story I know."

Once upon a time, before Mexico Cooks! was born, the small plaza in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán looked like the above photo. Part of the two-story building with the arches, just to the right of the photo's center, became the home of the Hostería de don Felipe, which had a dining room to serve its guests. Later, the Hostería was renamed Gran Hotel. In the 1960's, Rafael García Correa was a young cook in the Gran Hotel kitchen.

When I met Rafael García Correa in 1982, he was the head of the kitchen at the Gran Hotel. The photo above, taken in 2004 by Luis Jiménez of the New York Times during an interview where I was present, is don Rafa (don is an honorific title given to a revered older man) showing us a bowl of sopa tarasca in the foreground, along with a plate of corundas (a kind of Michoacán tamal).

Don Rafa told me that in the mid-1960s, he himself, along with the hotel's then-owner and the owner's American wife, invented a dish that, once offered to the public, became an almost instant classic: sopa tarasca was born, not created in an indigenous kitchen but for a tourist hotel's dining room. Today, we'd call that cocina de autor: the cook's invention.

Sopa tarasca as served at Lu Cocina Michoacana in Morelia. Read more about the restaurant here.

Sopa tarasca as served at the Hotel de la Soledad, Morelia. Some sopa tarasca is based on beans; some, like don Rafa's, is not.

Was don Rafa the inventor? He swore his story is true. He also gave me a hand-written recipe which he promised is the original. Don Rafa passed away a few years ago, and any possible secrets of sopa tarasca's origins were buried with him.

Don Rafa reported that sopa tarasca was served for the first time as part of a Pátzcuaro wedding banquet, on May 8, 1965. Years later, he opened his own restaurant near Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra (the plaza chica) in Pátzcuaro. If you go to the restaurant, you can still enjoy a bowl of his own sopa tarasca.

Today, sopa tarasca is a Michoacán icon, prepared in almost every restaurant around Lake Pátzcuaro as well as in further-flung establishments. It's one of those you-have-to-try-it local dishes that people who know you've been to Michoacán will ask you about: did you taste it at so-and-so's restaurant? How about at this other place, did you like it there?

Sopa tarasca as served at Pátzcuaro's Mansión Iturbe, a hotel and restaurant.
Click on any picture to see a larger view.

Fortunately, sopa tarasca is a relatively easy soup to prepare at home. The ingredients should be readily available, if not in your nearby supermarket then at a Mexican market not far from you. The recipe I offer you here is don Rafa's, but there are others (notably an excellent one from Diana Kennedy) that are available either in books or on the Internet.

Sopa tarasca as served by chef Alma Cervantes Cota at Restaurante Azul y Oro Ingeniería, UNAM, Mexico City.

Sopa Tarasca Don Rafael García

Ingredients
500 grams tomato purée
2 tortillas
5 corn tortillas, cut into very thin strips and fried until crisp
100 grams chile pasillo, cut into thin strips and fried until just crisp. Be very careful not to burn the chiles, they fry quickly and burn in the blink of an eye.
250 grams Mexican table cream
100 grams Oaxaca cheese, shredded
50 grams all-purpose flour
100 grams unsalted butter
1 clove garlic
1 small white onion
10 cups rich chicken stock
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh marjoram or oregano
2 bay leaves

Preparation
In a heavy pot, prepare a roux with the butter and flour, stirring constantly so that no lumps form. Allow to cook until the roux is a deep caramel color.

In a blender, liquify the two tortillas listed, some of the fried chiles, and the onion. Add this mixture to the roux and continue stirring until it is well incorporated. Next, add the tomato purée, the chicken broth, the herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Add half a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and taste; if you think more is needed, add bit by bit. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Put equal amounts of the soup into each of 10 bowls. Garnish with fried tortilla strips, fried chile ancho or negro, some Oaxaca cheese, and some cream. You can add some cubed avocado and a few sprigs of cilantro. Take your cues from the photos I've included in this article.

Sopa tarasca, garnished in this serving with fried shredded tortillas and fried shredded chile pasilla.

Serves 10.

Provecho!

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4 de July de 2015
Mexico Cooks!, Touring Off the Beaten Path

A November market tour in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. I'm holding a mamey fruit. The mamey's scientific name is poutería sapote.

One of the great pleasures of my life is the number of tours Mexico Cooks! gives to lots of excited tourists. Small, specialized tours are a joy to organize: the participants generally have common interests, a thirst for knowledge, and a hunger for–well, for Mexico Cooks!' tour specialty: food and its preparation. Touring a food destination (a street market in Michoacán, an enclosed market in Guadalajara, a crawl through some Mexico City street stands, or meals in a series of upscale restaurants) is about far more than a brief look at a fruit, a vegetable, or a basket of freshly made tortillas.

A Pátzcuaro street vendor holds out a partially unwrapped tamal de trigo (wheat tamal). It's sweetened with piloncillo (Mexican raw sugar) and a few plump raisins, wrapped in corn husks, and steamed. Taste? It's all but identical to a bran muffin, and every tour participant enjoyed a pinch of it.

A tour planned to your specifications can lead you to places you didn't know you wanted to go, but that you would not have missed for the world. Here, Donna talks with the man who makes these enormous adobe bricks. He let her try to pick up the laden wheelbarrow. She could barely get its legs off the ground! He laughed, raised the handles, and whizzed away with his load.

Several times in recent years, small groups wanted to tour traditional bakeries in Mexico City. The photo shows one tiny corner of the enormous Pastelería La Ideal in the Centro Histórico. Just looking at the photo brings the sweet fragrances back to mind. And never mind the taste of the delicious pastries!

Ramon and Annabelle Canova wanted an introduction to how ordinary people live and shop in Guadalajara. We spent a highly entertaining morning at the Tianguis del Sol, a three-times-a-week outdoor market in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. Our first stop was for breakfast, then we shopped for unusual produce, fresh spices, and other goodies that the Canovas don't often see in their home town. Annabelle said she felt right at home because so much of the style and flavor of this market was similar to what she experienced in the markets near her home town in the Phillipines.

We went for comida (main meal of the day) to the original location of Guadalajara's Karne Garibaldi. The restaurant does one thing–carne en su jugo (meat in its juice)–and does it exceptionally well. The food is plentiful, delicious, and affordable. The place is always packed, and usually has a line to get in!

Ramon wanted to try tejuino, a regional specialty in the Guadalajara area. Mixed when you order it, the refreshing, lightly fermented drink is thickened with masa de maíz (corn dough) and served with a pinch of salt and a small scoop of lemon ice.

Pillars of nopal cactus paddles, taller than a man, at Mercado de la Merced, Mexico City. La Merced is the largest retail market in Mexico, if not in all of Latin America. It's the ultimate market experience and just a partial tour takes the best part of a morning. Comfortable walking shoes are a necessity–let's go!

A more intimate, up-close-and-personal Mexico City market tour takes us through the Mercado San Juan. The San Juan is renowned for its gourmet selection of meats, fish and shellfish, cheeses, and wild mushrooms–among a million other things you might not expect to find.

Pepitorias are a sweet specialty of Mexico's capital city. Crunchy and colorful obleas (wafers) enclose sticky syrup and squash seeds. Mexico Cooks!' tour groups usually try these at the Bazar Sábado in San Ángel.

Lovely and fascinating people and events are around almost any Mexican corner. The annual Festival Internacional de Música de Morelia opens every year with several blocks of carpets made of flowers. Residents of Patamban, Michoacán work all night to create the carpets for the festival. This piano is made entirely of plant material. Enlarge any picture for a closer view.

Entire flowers, fuzzy pods, and flower petals are used to create the carpets' ephemeral beauty and design; these carpets last two days at most.

In November 2012, one of Mexico Cooks!' tours was dazzled by a special Morelia concert given by Tania Libertad. With Tania is Rosalba Morales Bartolo, a fabulous traditional cook from San Jerónimo, Michoacán, who presented the artist with various handcrafted items from the state–including the lovely coral necklace and rebozo (shawl) that Tania is wearing.

No matter where we start our tour and no matter what we plan together for your itinerary, a Mexico Cooks! tour always includes a terrific surprise or two, special memories to take home, and the thirst for more of Mexico. Marvey Chapman had a wonderful time! By all means come and enjoy a tour!

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27 de June de 2015
More Travels Around Mexico: Sights You’ll See Along Your Way

Rueda de la fortuna (ferris wheel), Cuanajo, Michoacán. Every small town, every city, has its annual fiestas patronales (patron saint's fiestas). A ferris wheel is never an option–it's always a necessity!

Templo Santo Domingo, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. Every candle represents a prayer, whether of gratitude or petition or simple remembrance.

Mojiganga (10 foot tall papel maché dance figure). On parade, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. This band-following girl partied hearty as she twirled her way down a cobblestone street.

Guajolotes callejeros (turkeys in the street), San José de las Torres, Michoacán.

Chicharrón (fried pork skin) with small squares of meat left attached to the skin. The creamy meat combines perfectly with the crispy skin for a big punch of flavor. Mercado de Jamaica, Mexico City.

Burrita y su dueño cargados (loaded donkey and its owner) with corn stalks, Ajijic, Jalisco. You have to look hard to see this hard-working burrita.

Trajineras (traditional boats), Xochimilco, Mexico City. There are few things more fun than a Sunday outing on the canals of Xochimilco! It's bumper boats all the way, with a mariachi accompaniment.

Casa particular (private home) with bougainvillea, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. The dream of Mexico…

Tourist police at Parque Alameda Central, Centro Histórico, Mexico City. They're from the government, and they're truly here to help you.

Pájaro de la suerte (fortune telling canary), Morelia, Michoacán. For just a few pesos, the little bird will pull your fortune–written on a folded slip of paper–from the box to the left of its cage. But watch out! Do you want to see more of your fortune? You'll have to pay again.

Dog obedience school, held daily, Parque México, Colonia La Condesa, Mexico City. Dogs of every spot and stripe learn to sit, stay, and keep quiet in this canine institute of study.

Guerrero-style pozole blanco, Mexico City. If you love pozole and want to know where to get a spectacular bowlful like this, you'll have to come along with me. The spot has been a well-guarded secret for more than 60 years.

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20 de June de 2015
Your Flaneur in Mexico: Out and About in the Distrito Federal and Beyond

Roof at Casa Luis Barragán, Calle General Francisco Ramírez 12 and 14, Col. Daniel Garza, Distrito Federal. If you are at all interested in modern Mexican architecture, this museum is a must-see. Arquitecto Luis Barragán changed the face of Mexican building, pioneering in the use of forms and space.

Baby bok choy at the Mercado de San Juan de Dios. Each of these little bok choys is about six inches long, perfect for steaming. Most of the most-used fresh Asian vegetables are regularly available at this downtown Mexico City market.

One of my favorite market stall signs: Bacon Shop "La Guadalupana", a Mercado de Jamaica pork butcher puesto (booth) that sells far more than bacon.

Just around the corner from Mexico Cooks!' Mexico City headquarters, this tree wears a multi-colored and textured knit jacket.

A wheelbarrow full of mamey (pouteria sapota), perfectly ripe, beautifully cut, creamy sweetness. Sunday market, Tlacolula, Oaxaca.

Molinillos (carved chocolate beaters), Sunday market, Tlacolula, Oaxaca.

Pink graffiti on a window. The little sign reads, "Fresh paint".

Tomatoes for salsa, roasting directly on the red-hot embers. Private home, Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. "Sí, siempre los asamos así. Agarran más sabor." ('Yes, we always roast them this way. They take on more flavor.')

Tortillas freshly toasted on the comal (griddle). These tortillas, prepared in Puebla by traditional cooks from Querétaro, bear a "Q" stamp indicating their place of origin. In long-ago years, tortillas were often stamped with similar carved wooden stamps. The stamps were carved with pictures or letters that identified the owners.

Crystallized fruits, Mercado Medellín, Mexico City. Clockwise from the top: a whole orange, a slice of sweet potato, a slice of squash, a whole green limón, a pale slice of chilacayote squash, another orange, more sweet potato, and several wheels of pineapple. In the center, a whole limón and a fig.

Fresh morel mushrooms, Mercado de San Juan, Mexico City. Morels are available at this market fresh during the rainy season and dried all year long.

A pre-Hispanic waterspout in the shape of a monkey's head. Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City.

Jícaras (hand-carved or painted drinking gourds), Mercado Benito Juárez, Oaxaca.

Misitu, the Purépecha word for cat. Mural detail, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán.

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13 de June de 2015
Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Mexico::Imágenes de la Santísima Virgen María en México

Patron of the Americas and Empress of Mexico: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe). There is no apparition of the Virgin Mary that is more highly venerated than this one. She's known by many loving nicknames: La Morenita (the little brown woman), Paloma Blanca (white dove), and La Guadalupana (the woman from Guadalupe) are just a few.

Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows). This apparition of the Virgin Mary is usually seen standing at the foot of the cross where Jesus is crucified. Dressed in black and frequently depicted with arrows piercing her heart, she is the image of pain.

La Virgen en Tránsito (The Virgin in Transition). According to Roman Catholic doctrine, when the Virgin Mary died, she was in fact merely sleeping and, after three days, was taken up to heaven, body and soul. This 17th Century statue, from the Jesuit-founded Templo de la Companía in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, shows the recumbent Virgin after her death but prior to her assumption into heaven.

La Santísima Virgen en Camino a Belén (the Blessed Virgin on the Way to Bethlehem), Cuitzeo, Michoacán. She wears her straw traveling hat as Joseph takes her to Bethlehem, where Jesus will be born.

Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, Basílica de Zapopan, Zapopan, Jalisco. This 16th Century image of the Virgin Mary, made of pasta de caña: cornstalk and orchid-bulb juice paste, molded to the shape of the Virgin, covered with gesso, and polychromed. She measures a mere 14" high. One of her nicknames is 'La Generala' (the general) after helping troops to victory in battle in 1852. She is the santa patrona (patron Virgin) of Guadalajara.

Nuestra Señora de la Salud, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. This tiny 16th Century figure, revered as the patrona of Pátzcuaro, is also made of pasta de caña.

La Inmaculada Concepción (the Immaculate Conception). This statue of the Virgin represents the Roman Catholic doctrine of her conception without the taint of original sin. Mexico Cooks! photographed this modern image in the Templo de la Inmaculada Concepción, Concepción de Buenos Aires, Jalisco.

Do you have a favorite image of the Virgin Mary? Mexico Cooks! would love to hear from you–please leave a comment!

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6 de June de 2015
Fresh As The Morning: Mexico’s Tianguis (Street Markets)

Fresh from Mexico's fields, these gorgeous pimientos morrón rojo y amarillo (red and yellow sweet peppers) sell for about 40 pesos the kilo ($2.50 USD the pound) at the tianguis where Mexico Cooks! shops.

Nearly eight years ago, in August 2007, Mexico Cooks! featured every sort of produce, dairy product, and meat sold at a local tianguis (street market) near Guadalajara, Jalisco. For the entire month of August 2008, you read about seasonal availability of fruits and vegetables at the dozens of regularly scheduled tianguis (it's the same word in singular and plural) in Morelia, Michoacán.  Mexico Cooks! would rather shop at a hot, crowded, and sometimes smelly tianguis than at an air conditioned supermarket, rather shop for supremely fresh foods at a tianguis than give a second glance to anything frozen, boxed, or canned that's offered for sale elsewhere.

A signmaker with a sense of humor stuck this tag on his fresh Roma tomatoes: "Like you saw it on TV". These were offered at 14 pesos the kilo (about 45 cents US the pound).

The tianguis, wherever in Mexico it's held, is a basic part of the culture of modern Mexico.   Its name comes from the Náuhatl word tianquiztli, market. Although Nahuatl markets are centuries old, the present-day form of the tianguis is fairly recent, originating during the 1970-76 Mexican presidency of Luis Echeverría Alvarez. The author of the tianguis project in Mexico was José Iturriaga, Echeverría's former finance minister.

Cooked in a sweet syrup, whole calabaza de castilla (squash, left), camote (sweet potato, right), and higos (figs, rear) are available at the tianguis by the kilo or portion of a kilo. They're to be eaten for breakfast or supper.

Although Iturriaga was himself a wealthy, educated, and cultured man, he worried about the ability of Mexico's poor to feed their families. He was especially concerned about the availability of nutritious fresh foods sold at reasonable prices. The tianguis, otherwise known as a mercado sobre ruedas (market on wheels), was his idea. The government took charge of giving Mexico's working-class housewives and other food shoppers stupendous quality at the lowest possible prices.

Beautiful cebollitas de cambray (knob onions), ready for serving with carne asada (grilled meat, usually accompanied by grilled whole onions like these.

Still operated by local government, today's tianguis only sometimes reach Iturriaga's ideal. Often the produce can be second-rate, the meats and seafood far less than fresh, and the market's hygiene questionable–while prices are often as high or higher than the días de plaza (sale days) in upscale supermarkets.

Higos–figs, at the peak of maturity and ripeness–enjoy a relatively long season here in Mexico. We recently paid 100 pesos for two kilos of beautifully ripe figs and prepared half a dozen jars of you-don't-want-to-know-how-good fig conserve. Later this winter, spread on a toasted and buttered bolillo (small loaf of fresh-baked bread) from our tianguis, served over ice cream, or simply licked off the finger, the conserve will be an intense memory of summer.

Mexico Cooks! is a regular customer at one of the better tianguis in Mexico City. Our tianguis, set up early Wednesday mornings, is quite near our house. Our normal purchases include tortillas, bread, seafood, excellent pork ranging from maciza (fresh pork leg) to tocino (bacon), marvelously fresh chicken (whole or whichever part you want), all of our fruits and vegetables, cheeses and cream, grains, and flowers for the house. We don't eat much beef, but if we did, we'd buy it at the tianguis.

Tiny plátanos dominico (finger bananas, about 2.5 inches long) are just one of the banana varieties we usually see at the tianguis.

Prices at the Wednesday tianguis in our neighborhood, while not substantially lower than those at the supermarket, are still not higher than we care to pay. We usually budget about 700 pesos (about $50 USD) to buy what we need at the tianguis for a week's meals, including pork and sometimes shrimp. We budget another 400 pesos for purchases at the supermarket.

Mangos stacked high at a tianguis. This large variety is known as either Paraíso or Petacón.

On a recent Wednesday–when the refrigerator was bare of produce, as we had been out of the country for more than a week–these were our purchases:

6 large fresh white onions
1 huge cantaloupe
4 Petacón mangos
6 red-ripe Roma tomatoes
1/2 lb mushrooms
1/2 large white cabbage
8 Red Delicious apples
1 large avocado
2 large bananas
1 large papaya
1 lb fresh green beans
1 large head of broccoli
8 ounces crema de mesa (table cream, similar to crême fraiche)
1 kilo freshly ground-to-order beef
Total cost: 350 pesos–the equivalent of about $23.00 USD.

Stands offering prepared foods are always popular at any tianguis. This woman at the Tianguis del Sol in Guadalajara is preparing hand made huaraches (a long, thick oval of corn masa (dough), similar to a tortilla, served with various toppings).

Times and needs change. Urban Mexico views the tianguis as both a terrible bother (who would want one on their street, with its attendant noise and mess) and a joy (but where else can we get produce this fresh!).  Mexico Cooks! knows people who will not shop at a tianguis, and we know people who will not shop anywhere else. Come with us some week and see what you think.

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30 de May de 2015