Author: typepadtowordpress

Sin Maíz, No Hay País: Without Corn, There is No Country

On July 22, 2010, UNESCO awarded Mexico's ancient corn-based cuisines–in particular the traditional cuisine of Michoacán–with the very first coveted World Heritage designation granted to a cuisine: Patrimonio Intangible de la Humanidad. Dra. Gloria López Morales, head of Mexico's Conservatorio de Gastronomia Mexicana, made the announcement in Bogotá, Colombia, where she was attending a culinary conference organized by that country's Mexican embassy. After six years of concerted efforts by Dra. Morales and many others involved in the preservation of Mexico's rich culinary history, the award brings honor to our beloved country and her exquisite traditional kitchen.

This article, originally published by Mexico Cooks! on June 14, 2008, offers a brief overview and a bit of insight into Mexico's history of corn and its uses.

Yumil Kaxob, the Mayan corn god.

Mexico is corn, corn is Mexico.   From prehistoric times, Mexico has produced corn to feed its people. Archaeological remains of early corn ears found in the Oaxaca Valley date as far back as 3450 B.C. Ears found in a cave in Puebla date to 2750 B.C.

Diego Rivera, Festival de Maíz, 1923-24.

Around 1500 B.C. the first evidence of large-scale land clearing for milpas appears. Indian farmers still grow corn in a milpa, (corn field), planting a dozen crops together, including corn, melon, tomatoes, sweet potato, and varieties of squash and beans. Some of these plants lack nutrients which others have in abundance, resulting in a powerful, self-sustaining symbiosis between all plants grown in the milpa. The milpa is therefore seen by some as one of the most successful human inventions – alongside corn.¹

Listen as this group from Burgos, Tamaulipas, sings a song from the early 20th Century: Las Cuatro Milpas. The song's sad verses recount the loss of a family's home and its milpas.

"Only four cornfields remain
Of the little ranch that was mine,

And that little house, so white and beautiful
Look how sad it is!

Loan me your eyes, my brown woman,
I'll carry them in my soul,
And what do they see over there?
The wreckage of that little house,
So white and beautiful–
It's so sad! The stables no longer shelter cattle,
Everything is finished! Oh, Oh!
Now there are no pigeons, no fragrant herbs,
Everything is finished!

Four cornfields that I loved so much,
My mother took care of them, Oh!
If you could just see how lonely it is,
Now there are no poppies and no herbs!"

The family-owned milpa is quickly disappearing from Mexico's flatlands and hillsides, giving way to agro-business corn farming. Today, Mexico's corn industry produces more than 24 million tons of white corn a year. Nearly half again that amount is imported from other countries. The imports are primarily yellow corn used to feed animals.

Woman singing to or praying over corn as she puts it in the fire– so that the corn will not be afraid of the heat. Florentine Codex, Fray Bernardino Sahagún, third quarter 16th Century.

According to the Popul Vuh, the Mayan creation story, humans were created from corn. Do you know the story?

At first, there were only the sky and the sea. There was not one bird, not one animal. There was not one mountain. The sky and the sea were alone with the Maker. There was no one to praise the Maker's names, there was no one to praise the Maker's glory.

Traditional milpa (cornfield) in the mountains of central Mexico.

The Maker said the word, "Earth," and the earth rose, like a mist from the sea. The Maker only thought of it, and there it was.

The Maker thought of mountains, and great mountains came. The Maker thought of trees, and trees grew on the land.

The Maker made the animals, the birds, and all the many creatures of the Earth.

Masa tricolor (three-color corn dough) ground by hand using the metate y mano.

The Maker wanted a being in his likeness. First the Maker used dirt to create a Human, but
made of mud and earth. It didn't look very good. Dry, it crumbled and wet, it softened. It looked lopsided and twisted. It only spoke nonsense. It could not multiply. So the Maker tried again.

Our Grandfather and Our Grandmother, the wise deities of the Sun and Moon, were summoned. "Determine if we should carve people from wood," commanded the Maker.

They answered, "It is good to make your people with wood. They will speak your name.
They will walk about and multiply."

"So be it," replied the Maker. And as the words were spoken, it was done. The doll-people were made with faces carved from wood. They had children. But they had no blood, no sweat. They had nothing in their minds. They had no respect for the Maker or the creations of the Maker. They just walked about, accomplishing nothing.

"This is not what I had in mind," said the Maker, and destroyed the wooden people.

In Michoacán, unfilled tamales called corundas are eaten with churipo, a richly delicious beef and cabbage soup.

The Maker sat and contemplated the ears of corn, the kernels of the ears. The Maker thought, "What comes from this nourishing life will be my people," and the Maker ground the corn, ground the corn and formed Man and Woman. On the first day, when Man and Woman, formed from corn, awakened, they rose up praising the Maker's name and giving thanks for their lives. They bore children, they praised the Maker as they planted corn and tended the crop. They were made in the Maker's image, born from corn. The Maker and his people rejoiced in one another."

Stone image of Yumil Kaxob. Photo courtesy of Michael Martin.²

Imagine an entire people formed from corn, formed to honor the seed, the earth, the plant, the crop! Corn cannot grow without human intervention; ancient Mesoamerican humanity could not have existed without corn. Spiritual planting rituals continue to be celebrated in the milpas every chosen planting day.

Corn is still the staple food of Mexico. Nixtamal (dried dent corn soaked in water and cal, builder's lime) is corn's basic currency. Nixtamal is the starting point for the tortilla, the tamal, the corunda, the sope, the cup of atole, and a myriad of other masa-based preparations.

This poster advertises a conference about "Nuestro Maíz" (Our Corn) held on June 3, 2008 at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico.

As Mexico changes, corn production also changes. NAFTA and globalization have affected Mexico's corn industry, as has genetic modification of corn itself. Is corn food, or is corn fuel for vehicles? Argument rages about the future of Mexico's corn. There is, however, no doubt: sin maíz, no hay país. Without corn, there is no country.

1. http://www.philipcoppens.com/maize.html
2. http://www.pbase.com/pinemikey/image/85632845

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31 de July de 2010
Ruta de Aromas y Sabores 2010: La Mesa de Blanca

The sign on the entry wall at Restaurante La Mesa de Blanca in Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán says that the place is a "restaurant of celebration". Whether your celebration is simply a pleasant comida (midday meal) for you and your family or a huge party for friends, the joy of life overflows at Blanca's table.

Two weeks ago, Mexico Cooks! wrote about the glorious Ruta de Aromas y Sabores 2010 tour through Michoacán. For me, the highlight of that part of the tour was our stop for comida at Restaurante La Mesa de Blanca in tiny, far off-the-beaten-track Ziracuaretiro.

The wonderful Sra. Chef Blanca Estela Vidales, who, together with her equally wonderful husband, Don Rodrigo Lemus, founded La Mesa de Blanca nearly nine years ago. Chef Blanca's joyful personality fills the restaurant with happiness.

Nearly 100 well-known chefs and journalists from all parts of the world had boarded tour buses and vans that morning, heading for truly fascinating culinary destinations in west-central Michoacán. The day bore down on all of us; no matter that we were eager to do and taste and experience everything on the tour agenda, the plus-ninety degree heat, blazing sun, and the accumulated exhaustion of nearly two weeks on the road had us all fainting in our bus seats. The buses took ever more twisting mountain roads through enormous avocado orchards as many of us dozed in silent appreciation of the on-board air conditioning. But where were we going? A few more turns in the road and we stopped in the tiniest town imaginable. The driver opened the bus door and WOW! The booming tuba and brilliant horns of a brass band shook the sleep from all of our heads.

The ofrenda de plátanos (banana offering) in Ziracuaretiro.

The Aromas y Sabores 100-member tour, preceded by a brass band, the ofrenda de plátanos, and a group of restaurant servers dressed in Michoacán's ropa típica (regional clothing) danced up the hill to the restaurant.

The charming restaurant was ready for the onslaught of the suddenly hungry members of the tour. Open to the fresh mountain breezes, decorated with tropical greenery, and roomy enough for the largest party, La Mesa de Blanca is a gorgeous surprise. Click on the photo for a better view of the restaurant's interior stream filled with golden koi.

Chef Blanca made certain that every table was complete with a variety of botanas (appetizers) and aguas frescas (fresh-made juice drinks. The house-signature agua fresca is made with locally-grown blackberries. The botana pictured above is ceviche made of Michoacán-farmed rainbow trout and the famous Hass avocados grown in the region around Uruapan.

Another botana, this time Blanca's famously delicious guacamole with house-made chicharrón and grilled nopal cactus paddles. The entire meal was accompanied by interleaved stacks of fresh-from-the-comal blue and white tortillas.

After a choice of either tortilla soup or sopa de milpa (chicken broth with corn and squash)–and some diners had both!–the main course included a locally grown, sun-dried chile pasilla stuffed with cheese, aporreadillo en salsa de aguacate (dried, seasoned beef and scrambled egg in avocado sauce), and a heavenly uchepo (regional specialty fresh-corn tamal).

In addition, servers brought each table a huge wooden batea (tray), lined with banana leaves and piled with freshly made, juicy carnitas. The carnitas were so delicious that the six tour members at Mexico Cooks!' table gobbled them all down and asked for more, which also promptly disappeared.

Along with locally-grown coffee, every diner sampled three desserts: volcán de mango (mango 'volcano' served on a purée of local strawberries), a tamal de zarzamora (sweet blackberry tamal) and ice cream made from regionally-grown mamey. Every item of meat and produce is produced within shouting distance of the restaurant.

The ofrenda de plátanos, called "La Cuelga", is a local Ziracuaretiro tradition celebrated especially during the banana harvest. Why? In 1554, Don Vasco de Quiroga brought the first five banana plants to this spot in Michoacán from the island of Santo Domingo. In thanksgiving for the first successful banana harvest in the New World, these offerings are still made every year on November 30. Aromas y Sabores 2010 was privileged to experience the tradition at La Mesa de Blanca.

Mexico Cooks!' delightful friends, Juan Bosco Castro García (Director of Promotion for the State of Michoacán's Department of Tourism) and Executive Chef Lucero Soto Arriaga, Restaurante LU, Hotel Best Western Casino, Morelia. Every person traveling with the Ruta de Aromas y Sabores 2010 tour had a marvelous time–and an equally marvelous comida–at La Mesa de Blanca.

Every table in the restaurant offers a beautiful view. Choose from misty Michoacán mountainsides, the Ziracuaretiro pink and white church tower, or this vision of the restaurant garden and banana trees; no matter where you look, you will find a fresh and restful vision.

Whether you are visiting Uruapan, Pátzcuaro, or Morelia, it's a simple drive to La Mesa de Blanca. You need not be part of a special tour to receive a very special welcome and eat a very special meal. Please, when you go, tell Sra. Blanca that you read about her here on Mexico Cooks!–and give her a big hug from me.

La Mesa de Blanca
Avenida Ferrocarril sin número

Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán, México
Tels: 01.423.593.0355 or 01.423.593.0356

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24 de July de 2010
Museo Regional de Arte Popular (Regional Folk Art Museum) in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

This Mexico Cooks! article was originally published in early 2009. The museum is currently undergoing extensive restoration and expects to re-open to the public in August 2010 and I'll be there to take new photos for publication here. Meantime, let's take a virtual tour for old time's sake.

El
Museo Regional de Arte Popular (Regional Folk Art Museum), located
at the corner of Calle Enseñanza and Calle Alcantarilla in Pátzcuaro,
Michoacán. This small museum, the original site of the oldest college
in the state of Michoacán, now holds arts and crafts treasures of the
regional indigenous Purhépecha people. Exquisite examples of copper,
silver, clay, wood, straw, and textile work from the 16th Century to the
present allow visitors to compare old and new techniques.

Mexico
Cooks! has visited Pátzcuaro's Museo Regional de Arte Popular
(Regional Folk Art Museum) so frequently over the course of the last 30
years that we all but have the exhibits memorized. Some of the items
are such favorites that at times, they populate our dreams. This
marvelously carved wooden dance mask, with its long beard and
exceptionally large nose, makes us laugh every time we see it. Notice
the cut-out slits between the mask's eyes and the eyebrows. They
allowed the wearer to see where he was going while he danced.

This
17th Century Christ is made of pasta de caña de maíz.

Sometimes
erroneously called 'corn dough', the core of the entire Christ figure
pictured above is made of a finely kneaded paste created from the
ground-up inner parts of cornstalks and a liquid exuded from deltatzingeni
(the bulbs of regional orchids). Early artisans created an armature, a
'skeleton' of dried corn leaves and incidental small pieces of wood.
Tiny parts (such as fingers) of some figures were sometimes formed using
turkey feathers as the armature. Artists then sculpted a figure with pasta
de caña. The artisans incorporated insecticides into the
corn/orchid paste, which has protected these sculptures over the course
of several centuries. The Museo Regional in Pátzcuaro has a number of pasta
de caña figures dating to the 16th and 17th Centuries.

Mexico
Cooks! is particularly fond of the museum's display of an early
Michoacán kitchen.

In the photo above, you can see many components
of a traditional Michoacán cocina (kitchen). The wood-burning
cookstove, at lower left, is made of clay-covered adobe. Long
rectangular holes for firewood are under recessed round openings for
balancing round-bottomed clay cooking pots. Ocote (sticks of fat
pine kindling, stored in a metal holder built into the stove,
near-middle left) quickly lights the fire. Ollas de barro (clay
pots) stack for storing kitchen staples–no lids required. To the right
of the stacked ollas, copper vessels line a wooden shelf. Other
ollas are ranged around the lower kitchen shelf. At middle left,
above the ollas, two carved wood cuchareros (spoon
holders) are both decorative and utilitarian. Above the cuchareros,
another wooden shelf holds pottery cups and small dishes and pitchers.
Above that shelf, the intricate wall art, made of individual tiny clay
cups, is typical of nearly every region of Mexico. Whether a simple or
complex design, in Mexico's traditional kitchens, it's always made of
cups.

A
carved wood cupboard, built into the museum wall, holds copper mugs,
pitchers, bowls and platters made in Sta. Clara del Cobre, Michoacán.
The graduated-size copper utensils hung on either side of the cupboard
are measures for dry and liquid ingredients.

A
charola de maque (inlaid lacquer tray) from the 19th Century.

This
large carved figure of Saint Ann holding the child Virgin Maria is made
of one piece of wood–except for one detail. When you visit the museum
on your Mexico Cooks! tour of Pátzcuaro, look closely for the
fine line near the ears of both heads. The faces were carved separately
to allow for the placement of the figures' glass eyes.

Mexico
Cooks! covets this hand-embroidered tablecloth. Every part of the
cloth is sewn with a Mexican dicho de la cocina (kitchen
sayings). We've often told the museum docents that if the tablecloth
disappears, it will be at our house. For more dichos de la cocina,
see Panza Llena, Corazón Contento.

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17 de July de 2010
Ruta de Aromas y Sabores 2010: Touring Michoacán with Patricia Quintana

A decorative charanda barrel at the entrance to Distilería El Tarasco in Uruapan. Charanda, distilled from sugar cane and bottled as both blanco (newly distilled) or reposado (aged), is a regional alcohol specialty of Michoacán.

Eighty hardy souls, chefs, journalists, travel specialists and food writers all, recently toured Mexico's Central Highlands on a two-week fact-finding and eating binge that brought us together from Europe, South and Central America, the United States, and other points around the globe. Aromas y Sabores de México, Ruta del Bicentenario 2010, organized by Mexico's national tourism department, kicked off in Mexico City on May 29 and ended its culinary wanderings in Michoacán on June 10. Naturally Mexico Cooks! thinks they saved the best for last!

Eleven o'clock on a hot spring morning and my friend Betty Fussell was sucking down a charanda piña colada AND a torito at the distillery! It was Betty's first full-blown taste of Michoacán and we had a marvelous time together.

The two-bus, multi-van caravan wound its way from Mexico City to the State of Mexico, then to Querétaro, to Guanajuato and, for the last four days, to Michoacán. Tour participants, accompanied by Chef Patricia Quintana of Mexico City's hot-ticket Restaurante Izote, slept when they could, partied when sleep eluded them, visited countless historic sites gussied up for Mexico's 2010 bicentennial celebrations, and ate till they could eat no more.

John Rivera Sedlar, of Rivera Restaurant in Los Angeles, California, enjoys a super-refreshing torito (made with charanda, of course) and a visit with Mexico Cooks! Photo courtesy Cynthia Martínez, Restaurante San Miguelito, Morelia.

On a hot spring day in Uruapan, Michoacán, Magda Choque Vilca, field coordinator of Argentina's Proyecto Cultivos Andinos, delights in a cooling paleta de aguacate (avocado ice pop).

Two of Michoacán's best known products are the avocado (we're the world's largest avocado grower) and the macadamia nut. This chilly and refreshing mousse, unique to Restaurante Tony's–(Morelos #183, Col. Morelos, Uruapan)–combines both delicacies. The creamy white macadamia bottom layer supports the pale green avocado top layer. It was absolutely delicious.

A metate y mano (volcanic three-legged flat grinding stone and its 'rolling pin') on display at the regional museum at Uruapan's La Huatápera. La Huatápera originated in the 16th Century. Nearly five hundred years ago, Bishop Vasco de Quiroga created the building as a hospitality center for the Purhépecha people.

For the Ruta de Aromas y Sabores tour, La Huatápera once again became a hospitality center. Tables along the portales (covered terraces) around the building held tastes of regional treats: ceviche de trucha, guacamole, paletas, and much more. Brought by Restaurante Tony's, these avocados were halved horizontally, the meat partially removed and then mashed with cream cheese, spices, and stuffed back into the avocado shell and decorated with these charming faces. The parsley eyebrows especially tickled me.

Restaurante Los Mirasoles in Morelia hosted the welcome dinner for the Michoacán portion of the Ruta de Aromas y Sabores tour. Executive chef Rubí Silva Figueroa pulled out all the stops to make the meal a high-end version of Michoacán's regional foods. Seated at a table with food professionals and journalists from Europe, South America, and the United States, Mexico Cooks! explained the food. It was, as one friend said, a comida didáctica–a teaching meal! Photo courtesy of Los Mirasoles.

Paracho, Michoacán, is known as Mexico's guitar central, but it is also famous for weaving, embroidery, and other artisan work. Michoacán's Secretaría de Turismo (state tourism department) had arranged for a small tianguis artesanal (artisans' street market) for our tour. Among the items on display and for sale were rebozos (long rectangular shawls) woven by the famous reboceros de Aranza (rebozo-makers of Aranza). Finely loomed and beautifully patterned and colored, each of these dressy cotton rebozos take anywhere from two weeks to a month to complete.

We had a marvelous time on the tour! Left to right: Lic. Elizabeth Vargas Martín del Campo, director of the Politécnico de Guanajuato; Chef Patricia Quintana, executive chef, Restaurante Izote, Mexico City; Sacha Ormaechea, Restaurante Sacha, Madrid, Spain; Olivia González de Alegría, Director General, Instituto Gastronómico de Estudios Superiores, Querétaro; Cynthia Canela, owner, Restaurante San Miguelito, Morelia; and Mexico Cooks!. Photo courtesy of Cynthia Canela.

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10 de July de 2010
Museo del Dulce, Morelia: The Sweetest Heritage

Lilia Facio Hernández offers us one of the 37 gorgeous varieties of cakes made at the Museo del Dulce de la Calle Real (the Royal Road Candy Museum). Buy as little as a slice to indulge yourself, or purchase as much as an entire cake for a party dessert. Each cake is more beautiful than the next and each one has a name from Mexico's history. This one is the Iturbide, named for General Agustín Iturbide, hero of Mexico's 1810 War of Independence and designer of Mexico's first flag.

Mexico Cooks! has had some very sweet interviews, but none has been sweeter than the time we spent recently with Arquitecto Gerardo Torres, owner of Morelia's Museo del Dulce (candy museum). Imagine spending several hours in a 19th Century Morelia mansion presently converted into a real-life version of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! Delicious aromas of melting sugar constantly waft through the air, sepia-tone photographs carry us back to earlier times in Morelia, and charmingly attractive employees treat each customer like visiting royalty.

Walking into the Museo del Dulce's retail chocolate and cake shop is a voyage to the Porfiriato (the era of Porfirio Díaz), a trip to the 19th Century.

De la Calle Real, the candy-making firm that's part of the Museo del Dulce, has been in constant business since 1840. The oldest family of candy makers in Morelia prides itself on the continuity of its passion for the sweet life. Family recipes, hand-written in spidery script on yellowing pages, family photographs dating over the last two centuries, and the importance of family heritage glow in every corner of the building that was at one time the Torres home. Every corner of the many rooms of the house, now converted to a museum and retail shop, breathes history and love of Mexico.

An old wooden carreta (cart) parked in one of the museum patios looks like it's just waiting to be hitched up to a team of draft animals.

The original De la Calle Real candy shop was located in Morelia's portales (arched, covered walkways) on Avenida Madero, across from the Cathedral. Later, the shop moved to its current spot–still on Avenida Madero, just a few blocks to the east. Now, De la Calle Real has locations in Morelia's upscale Plaza Fiesta Camelinas, in Mexico City's traditional neighborhood Coyoacán, and will soon open branches in both Sanborns and Palacio de Hierro, two of Mexico's swankiest department stores.

One room of the museum is set up with machinery used in the 1940s, when the family candy business was only 100 years old! This beautiful hand-made copper pot has a double bottom, like a bain-marie, to keep the cooking candy from burning.

Not only does the company continue to produce candy from old family recipes, Arq. Torres also prides himself on participating in the rescue of recipes dating back as far as pre-Colonial days. Sweets composed of native fruits and vegetables were made with honey until the Spanish brought sugar cane to the New World. Chocolate, native to Mexico, was consumed only by the indigenous nobility as an unsweetened cold drink–served either as bitter chocolate or flavored with chile–prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

Decorated like a convent shop, this museum and sales room carry us back to the time when fine candies were made in Morelia by cloistered Dominican nuns. Click on the picture to enlarge any photo.

In the demonstration kitchen, Mexico Cooks! watched as the cook combined equal parts fresh membrillo (quince) pulp and cane sugar in a copper pot. She was preparing ate de membrillo (quince candy). When the mixture formed una cortina (a curtain) without dripping as the wooden spoon was lifted from the pot, the ate was at its point of perfection.

It's an easy walk from the Centro Histórico (Morelia's historic center) to the Museo del Dulce, but why not take the little tourist trolley instead? Hop on in front of the Cathedral (buy tickets at the Department of Tourism kiosk in the Plaza de Armas, just to the right of the Cathedral). The trolley will take you from there to some of the most important historic sites in Morelia, including the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the Conservatorio de las Rosas (the oldest music conservatory in the New World) and the glorious Templo de las Rosas (Church of St. Rose of Lima, originally the home of Morelia's 16th Century Domincan nuns), and the Museo del Dulce. The trolley trip, which lasts slightly over an hour, gives the tourist plenty of time to enjoy all of these Morelia traditions.

Dulces de la Calle Real (the candy maker's brand name) prepares specialty ates de membrillo in molds which create the embossed images of some of Morelia's historic landmarks: (from left) Las Tarascas fountain, the 18th Century aqueduct, and the Cathedral.

The candy maker prepares and packages small gourmet ates made of strawberry, pineapple, blackberry, and other fruits that are little-used in this presentation. Each box tells a story, each ate is perfectly molded.

For special culinary events, the museum occasionally re-creates antique recipes, some of which date to Mexico's colonial days. This just-made historic ate contains chayote (vegetable pear, or mirleton) and fresh fig leaves.

An excellent video, shown for everyone visiting the Museo del Dulce, tracks the history of candy making in Morelia. Long known for ates (fruit pastes) and laminillas (fruit leathers), Morelia developed another culture of candies during the Porfiriato, the long presidency of Porfirio Díaz (1875-1910). During those 35 years, the influence of everything French invaded Mexico and colored the fashion of Mexico's upper-class society. French-style sweets became all the rage, and Morelia never lagged in preparing candies and cakes to meet the demand. Today, Porfiriato-style cakes, beautiful to see and delicious to taste, are made and sold by De la Calle Real. You can sit for a while in the cozy elegance of the Café del Patio de Atrás (the Back Patio) coffee shop and choose from a menu of 37 different cakes, house-made Mexican hot chocolate, delicious fresh-made ice creams, and a mind-boggling selection of other delights from the Museo del Dulce's menu.

The candy maker created beautiful embossed jamoncillo (milk candy similar to penuche) ovals to honor Mexico's 2010 Bicentennial. Each one carries the image of a hero of Mexico's independence. These candies represent Miguel Hidalgo, father of the Independence. The candy molds are hand-carved by a museum employee.

There's a room of the store where you can dress up in Victorian-era clothing–from elegant feathered hats to fancy silk dresses, from black top hats to cutaway suits–and a shop employee will take your picture. What a terrific souvenir!

In part of the retail shop, lines of baskets hold individual candies for instant gratification of your sweet tooth–or to pack easily into your suitcase to carry home as gifts. The tissue-paper-wrapped candies are similar to jamoncillo.

Another entire room of the store is just stuffed with a variety of small toys, perfect for an inexpensive souvenir from Morelia. Inexpensive and easy to pack, they're exactly right for the child in all of us. These are baleros. The idea is to hold the long handle in your fist (with the cup on top) and catch the small wooden ball. It looks easy to accomplish–but it's quite a challenge!

Nuns originated Mexico's famously delicious rompope (a kind of eggnog). You'll find it in several flavors and bottles ranging from small to large, all made by the artisan candy makers at Dulces de la Calle Real.

Absolutely everything about the Museo del Dulce and De la Calle Real is devoted to reverence for the past, passion for perfection in the present, and devotion to the future preservation of Mexico's traditions. Every product and its packaging, designed and developed by Arq. Torres, is an homage to Mexico. Each candy box incorporates an old photo and a paragraph-long history lesson, with the treat you purchased as your sweet reward for learning.

Elia Ramírez Ramírez is packing small sweet treasures in Mexican pottery containers. The packaged candies are destined for the retail store. All employees who work directly with the public wear 19th Century costumes.

As Arq. Torres said during our time together, "We are the in-between generation. We still remember mothers and grandmothers who made candy at home. We still hold that tradition in our hearts. It's up to us to keep those memories alive, to pass them to our children and help them pass the traditions to the generations that follow. Otherwise, we will forget everything that truly makes us who we are."

Arquitecto Gerardo Torres, the delightful gentleman who runs this sweet business with passionate care, comes from a long line of candy makers. He showed Mexico Cooks! lovely old photos of his mother, his grandmother, and his great-grandmother–candy makers one and all.

Whether you are a fan of jamoncillo, ate, chocolate,
rompope or another traditional Mexican sweet, you will be as
thrilled as Mexico Cooks! was with everything about the Museo del Dulce
and De la Calle Real. If De la Calle Real is your first experience of
heavenly Mexican candy, it will spoil you for every other kind.

Come to visit, stay to give in to temptation! Employees at the Dulces de la Calle Real Museo del Dulce will be glad to help you find the perfect house-made candy for yourself, your relatives, and your friends.

De la Calle Real Museo del Dulce
Av. Madero #440
Colonia Centro
Morelia, Michoacán, México
443.312.8157

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

3 de July de 2010
Point of View: Magdalena Ojeda Arana, First Lady of Michoacán

Ingeniera Magdalena Ojeda Arana is at the beginning of her third year (of four) as first lady of Michoacán. During her term as first lady, she serves as President of Michoacán's Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (Whole Family Development System), the state social services agency known informally as DIF.

In mid-2007, after more than 25 years living in other parts of Mexico, Mexico Cooks! moved to Morelia, Michoacán. At that time, the state was in the throes of a hotly contested gubernatorial campaign. We watched closely as the campaign progressed. At first we saw the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) candidate move ahead in the polls. Then the PRD (Partido de la Revolución Democrática) candidate, Leonel Godoy Rangel, took a decisive lead and never fell back. He took the oath as governor of Michoacán on February 15, 2008, to serve a four-year term.

During the first two years of Governor Godoy's term of office, Mexico Cooks! has talked many times with the first lady, Ingeniera Magdalena Ojeda Arana. At every cultural event where she and Mexico Cooks! have been present, we have been enormously impressed with her from-the-heart tenderness and genuine interest in the subject at hand as we hear her talking with Michoacán's artisans, musicians, and regional cooks. In the face of unprecedented difficulties in government, she remains steadfast as a leader.

Mexico Cooks! thought that you might like to meet her, too. We scheduled a private hour of conversation at the Casa de Gobierno (governor's residence) in Morelia (the state capital) to talk about everything from her childhood in Acámbaro, Guanajuato to her view of the future of Mexico.

Dormitorio (Pullman car), Ferrocarriles de México. Photo courtesy of Fotolog.

Born into a family of six–she has five brothers–she has happily innocent memories of her childhood. Her mother worked as a bank secretary prior to marrying, but later stayed home to care for the family. Her father worked for Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (Mexico's national railroad system) until his retirement, and as a child she learned to love traveling by train through Mexico, listening to the wheels turn on the tracks, watching the scenery as the train moved along, and sleeping in a Pullman car. Ing. Magdalena talked with great nostalgia about the simple games she played with her brothers and her friends: kickball in the street, avión (in English, hopscotch), and other games and lamented that, "Children don't play these games anymore. Now, everything is video games and computers. Even our son (Salvador Godoy Ojeda, age eleven) has to have his video games! He played so much with the ones his older cousins have that even though we didn't want to do it, we finally broke down and bought one for him."

Collecting pine resin near Pichátaro, Michoacán. The container holds about ten ounces; click to enlarge the photo for a better view of the small metal trough that channels the resin into the cup. Pine forests in the state of Michoacán supply about 90% of the resin for Mexico's industrial use–an average of seven tons of resin per year. Nearly 5,000 rural Michoacán families make their living collecting and selling pine resin.

Ing. Magdalena studied at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo. She flashed her lovely smile when she talked about her course of study: Ingeniería en la Tecnología de Madera (Technology of Wood Engineering), a post-bachelor degree offered only at the UMSNH. "I wanted to do something a little different, not study medicine or law. This degree is important in Michoacán because even now our state is highly forested. We need to know how to keep our forests strong, how to preserve our natural resources." She explained to me that the degree includes both the chemistry and biology of wood technology–and patiently said that it didn't in any way involve being a forest ranger, my romantic vision of what she had studied. Ing. Magdalena talked easily and knowledgeably about several technical aspects of her work, including age-dating a tree by its rings and about the process of making plywood.

We talked a bit about her role as President of Michoacán's Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (Whole
Family Development System), the state social services agency known
informally as DIF. As a preface to Ing. Magdalena's second annual informational report concerning that agency, given in May 2010, she said, "What started several decades ago as a nice, ladylike activity to keep the governor's wife busy has today become one of the most important functions of public administration. The DIF system truly is in charge of direct contact with all of those people whom society ignores, mistreats, or discriminates against. Girls and boys abandoned by poverty, elderly people, disabled people, pregnant or nursing women–or simply those people who live in a condition of inequality– those people constitute the focus of attention that, as government, we must care for while they gain access to better life circumstances." As I quoted this section of her statement back to her, Ing. Magadalena nodded.

Mexico Cooks! with Ing. Magdalena Ojeda Arana. Photo courtesy of Lorena Cruz Godoy, Enlace de Comunicación Social, DIF Michoacán.

"That has to be the most important part of my role in government. It's true, there have been times in the past when the governor's wife was just a decoration, someone with her hair done just so and her clothes in sync with the latest and most fashionable styles. I like being a little more casual than that. I prefer to dress in my jeans, unless the occasion is more formal. My style lets me be a little more accessible to people. When I can have close and genuine contact with the people of this state, they know that someone cares, someone who has the ability to offer some help. Frankly, we can't go just everywhere we would like to go, to visit all the little towns in Michoacán, because people have come to expect that we will be able to offer them something. Sometimes we simply don't have the state resources to offer what we would like to everyone who has needs, and we cannot go with empty hands.

"It's very difficult for me to see so much need. A few small towns in Michoacán are still impossibly marginalized, living on the very edge of terrible want. My heart goes out to the people in those towns, and in fact to everyone who needs help–but as a government, we are also very limited in how far we can stretch our resources.

"Fortunately, we have still been able to maintain and strengthen Michoacán's program to feed those who might otherwise go hungry. We have provided basic food packages to more than 100,000 families. During this year, we have provided more than 18 million school breakfasts to young children. The program CRECER (to grow) provides milk to 75,000 Michoacán children ages six months to three years. Other programs offer help and training in health education and services, nutritional information, education, and housing.

"I don't want to leave out the importance of sex education and preparation for marriage. So many teenagers are having babies in our state. It's crucial to offer them a choice, an education about preventing pregnancies while their own lives are still in formation. It's equally crucial for our young people to see that marriage isn't just about today; it's an important commitment that takes hard work and isn't to be casually thrown aside when the going gets tough.

"All of these programs are very close to my heart. It's extremely difficult to see that we in Michoacán live in so much abundance, and yet there are people here who do not have enough to eat, or do not have safe place to sleep at night."

November 2008.

Mexico Cooks! was eager to talk with Ing. Magdalena about her point of view of today's Mexico. As a highly educated, politically knowledgeable woman, she shares our concerns about the state of the country. Her demeanor became very serious as we discussed current events. "President Calderón is a human being, just like the rest of us. His party's political philosophy is different from that of my party, the PRD; the PAN (Partido Acción Nacional) is more conservative, more business oriented, than the PRD. The PRD is more to the left of center, with different ideas of social equality and social justice.

"What President Calderón is trying to do for Mexico [the war against drugs] is very difficult, with so many ramifications. I think that he's made some mistakes–but don't we all make mistakes? Not one of us is perfect.

"Right now, there are definitely problems of security in Mexico. We cannot say otherwise. It seems to me that in order for Mexico to come out of this crisis of security, we all need to do our part for change. No single person can change a country–it takes all of us, working together, to bring about the changes we need for the good of society, for everyone's safety."

Ing. Magdalena Ojeda Arana and Ing. Miguel Bernal Macouzet applaud
the
opening of the Festival Internacional de Música de Morelia, 2008.

And her personal security?

"I like to shop in the tianguis (street markets). I like to be able to compare the ripeness of this avocado with that one, to see which fruits are less expensive, which cost more, to see what's in season here in Michoacán. Shopping that way isn't just a household chore, it's a social event, too. I like to go here and there with my friends, go to our son's soccer games, live my life normally when I am not in my official capacity as state head of DIF or attending an event as the governor's wife. When my husband was first in office as governor, wherever I went they sent a patrol car ahead of me, red and blue lights flashing. How secure is that? Those lights just announced, 'Here comes somebody who needs special security!'. Now, they let me go out with an unmarked car and a plainclothes bodyguard, which I think is much safer.

"The truth is, in many places where I go, people don't know that I am the governor's wife. Some people don't even recognize that he is the governor. When they do expect us at an event, it takes a while for some people to realize that I am not just another woman following along with the pack of reporters or string of government representatives. I really like that; I don't need or want to be set apart from or above someone else just because of my temporary position as first lady.

"We'll only be in this house for two more years and then someone else will be in charge, just like before us, there were other governors and other first ladies. My husband will go back to his political life–right now, a substitute senator is working in his place, but he wants to go back to that. He's been active in politics since long before I met him, 25 years ago; that's what he has chosen for his life's path. I'll go back to my chosen career, our son will continue in school, and our lives will go on as usual. Meanwhile, the new governor–whoever he or she might be–will, we hope, carry on the work that we have done during our time in office."

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26 de June de 2010
52nd Anniversary: Ballet Folklórico de Michoacán, Part Two

Gorgeous young men and women, great polka music, and inexhaustable dancing: the evening opened with a fantastically exciting estampa norteña (dance from northern Mexico).

These young men danced El Baile de los Machetes, a traditional dance from Mexico's western state of Nayarit. The dance includes precision maneuvers with flashing, clashing machetes and wild high kicks.

This Purhépecha folk dance shows off the beauty of traditional embroidery as well as the dancers' skill. The apron is cross-stitched by hand, as are the woman's blouse and the man's pants. This dance is in part a courtship ritual, ending with the men's fishnets catching the women.

19th Century dress from the northern part of Mexico included long suede coats for the men.

These handsome young men brought down the house–they might as well have been Chippendale dancers! The screaming, swooning young women in the audience adored the fellows' provocative moves.

It was the constant-motion rear view of these vaqueros (cowboys) that really got the crowd going.

A few minutes later, the guys were joined onstage by equally beautiful young women.

Frequent costume changes, exciting music, and beautiful choreography made the night intensely satisfying. The setting, in the Patio del Quijote at the Casa de Cultura, created the perfect ambiance.

The dancers never slowed down!

As darkness fell, another group took the stage for more estampa norteña.

Another traditional Purhépecha dance, performed by four men wearing carved wood pink-painted, blue-eyed masks representing Europeans in the New World. Each costume includes long white hair, a gourd at the back, a silvery fish at the side, and a cane with a horse head.

The costumes in this dance are similar to those in the photo above, but the masks are very different. From left to right, the masks represent a yellow man, an owl, a blue man, a black man, and a European man. Click on any of the photos to see a larger image.

A closer view of the dancer wearing the owl mask.

This male dancer in this Purhépecha dance wears a yellow mask. By turn, the woman dances with each of the masked men.

After one last number, a dance from Apatzingán in Michoacán's Tierra Caliente (hot lowlands), Mexico Cooks! needed to head for home.

Thanks to the Secretaría de Cultura for its wonderful dance presentations during this celebration. Won't you come with Mexico Cooks! next year, for the 53rd anniversary of Ballet Folklórico de Michoacán?

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19 de June de 2010
52nd Anniversary: Ballet Folklórico de Michoacán, Part One

Estampa norteña (folk dance from the north of Mexico).

The Ballet Folklórico de Michoacán recently celebrated its 52nd anniversary. The three-evening event, in honor of founder Roberto García Marín, was filled with joy, color, and music that completely filled the hearts and minds of everyone present. To commemorate Sr. García Marín's legacy, eight dance troupes, various government officials, and several hundred of the general public gathered in the Patio del Quijote of Morelia's Casa de Cultura.

Grupo Coyucan.

Danza de los Pescadores (Dance of the Fishermen) from Michoacán's Lake Zirahuén.

The first night of the festival, Silvia Zavala Tzitzún from the office of the Secretaría de Cultura and current ballet director Luis Antonio Sánchez unveiled a commemorative plaque in the founder's name. Sr. Sánchez commented, "We want to recognize Professor Marín for his entire legacy. Right up until today, our groups of folk dancers continue to execute the choreography that Profesor Marín created more than 50 years ago. This is the oldest ballet folklórico in Michoacán, and we believe that thanks to Professor Marín, it's still the best."

Grupo Pindekua.

Traditional Purhépecha (Michoacán's indigenous community) dances form an important and stately part of the states folk heritage. Dances commemorate traditional work: the Danza de los Panaderos (Bakers), los Pescadores (fishermen), and los Leñadores (wood choppers) were part of the weekend's festive activities. Other dances memorialize other aspects of Purhépecha life.

La Danza de los Kúrpites (the Dance of the Butterflies, otherwise known as 'the dance of those who find themselves') is one of the Michoacán Purhépecha community's most revered folk dances. This figure represents T'arepiti, the bride. Her costume can easily cost more than $12,000 pesos. Each role in the dance–which can include as many as 40 dancers–is traditionally performed by young single men.

The butterfly dancers performing La Danza de los Kúrpites. In their home communities, the young male dancers perform for a few minutes in the home of each of their girlfriends. The dancers then move to the town plaza, where the dancing continues according to the neighborhood where each group lives.

Tassels, lace, and hundreds of small bells are parts of the costume of Los Kúrpites butterfly dancers.

La Danza de los Panaderos (Bakers), as performed by Grupo Pindekua.

Norteño dances from the north of Mexico frequently have an accordion-driven polka beat. The polka came to Mexico in the 1830s and 40s, brought by the Germans who settled south Texas.

Another norteño! These wildly lively, upbeat and swirling dances are always tremendous crowd-pleasers. Colorful costumes and foot-tapping rhythms are the order of the day.

One last fling. Just watching the dancing exhausted Mexico Cooks!, but we had to head back to the dance festival for its final night. Come back to Mexico Cooks! next week and we'll take you dancing again!

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12 de June de 2010
Everything But the Squeal: Chicharrón (aka Fried Pork Skin)

Hot-out-of-the-grease porky deliciousness: chicharrón (chee-chah-ROHN, fried pork skin), as made at the Morelia tianguis (street market) where Mexico Cooks! shops every Wednesday. The piece of just-made chicharrón in the photo above is about 60cm high by 45cm wide (two feet by one and a half feet). The cazo (cooking vessel) in the photo is about three feet in diameter at the top.

Mexico is a huge producer of pork, and not just any pork: the little piggy that goes to market here is usually finely grained, tender, and flavorful. The meat has just enough fat-to-lean ratio for a wonderful feel in the mouth. Every part of the pig is consumed, from the head (pozole) to the curlicue tail (cooked in a pot of beans). Even the skin is eaten, in at least two forms: fried as chicharrón or sliced into thin strips and pickled as cueritos.

Fresh chicharrón, almost ready to eat, gets a final dowsing with boiling oil.

In the United States, pork
rinds destined for the snack food aisle begin as hard, dry pellets made in a factory. Meat processing plants
sell these pellets in bulk to snack food producers and individual pork rind vendors. The
dehydrated pellets are placed in vats of hot cooking oil, maintained at a
temperature around 400 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 204 degrees
Celsius). A consistent cooking temperature is crucial, since colder oil
may not cause the pellets to puff out during the deep frying
stage. The individual pork
rind pellets are held
down in the near-boiling oil with a metal screen to insure consistency; after about 60 seconds, they're ready for packaging.

Typical pork rind marketing from the United States. Crunchy pre-packaged pork rinds and NASCAR go together like gin and tonic, bread and butter, or mashed potatoes and gravy.

In Mexico, very little processing takes place between the on-the-hoof pig and the cazo (huge metal pot used to make chicharrones). The slaughterer skins the pig in as large a single piece as possible, soaks the skin briefly in brine, and sends it to market. At the tianguis where I shop on Wednesdays, the chicharrón vendor's brother kills the pig at the rancho. Another relative–the vendor next to the chicharrón purveyor–sells the rest of the freshly killed animal: ribs, tongue, liver, kidneys, legs, chops, tenderloin, etc. Feet sell fresh or pickled, ears sell fresh or fried.

In Mexico, customers usually wait in line for fresh chicharrón to come out of the cazo. Although packaged chicharrón is available in supermarkets, freshly-made is infinitely better. Truly, there is no comparison.

Pork rinds, long a popular snack food in the southern United States, became
popular country-wide with the advent of high-protein food plans such as
the Atkins and South Beach
diets. Unlike potato or corn chips, fried pork rinds have no
carbohydrates at all. They are exceptionally high in protein, however,
which makes them ideal for those who prefer snack foods that have no starch component.

Fresh chicharrón can be delgado (thin, above) or gordito (thick, below). Chicharrón delgado is just the crispy, crunchy fried skin of the pig. Ask the vendor to weigh out as much or as little as you need; in Mexico, chicharrón is sold by the kilo. You can see the old-fashioned scale that my vendor uses in the photo above. Other vendors at the tianguis use digital electronic scales.

Chicharrón gordito is fried with little squares of pork meat still attached to the skin. The meat develops a creamy texture, which contrasts beautifully with the crunch of the crisp-fried skin. The difference in color between this photo and the one above is due to the red lona (tarp) that hung above the first booth and the blue lona that hung over the second booth.

The main concern about pork
rinds, however, is their high sodium content. Pork
rinds can have up to three times as much sodium as regular potato
chips. In spite of their sodium content, pork rinds are usually less
greasy than other snacks.

In Mexico, guacamole is often served with chunks of chicharrón instead of totopos (tortilla chips).

In addition to eating chicharrón as a snack food, most Mexicans also enjoy it as a high-protein yet inexpensive meal. Served everywhere in Mexico, chicharrones en salsa verde is enormously popular.

Chicharrones en Salsa Verde
Fried Pork Skins in Green Sauce

Sauce
1 lb fresh tomatillos, husked and washed
1 large bunch cilantro, washed well
4 to 6 chiles serranos, depending on your heat tolerance
Salt to taste

Mexico Cooks! already ground the tomatillos and chiles in the blender. The cilantro is ready to add.

In
a large, heavy saucepan, bring 4 quarts water to a boil. Add the husked tomatillos and the
chiles. Allow to boil until the
tomatillos begin to crack open. As each
one opens, remove it to your blender jar.
A few may not open; when the rest are done, just add the unopened
tomatillos to the rest in the blender jar.
Add the chiles as well. Blend
until roughly chopped. Using the hole in
the center of your blender top, add the cilantro little by little , blending
until the cilantro is finely chopped.
Add salt to taste.

Heat the salsa verde in the large, heavy saucepan until the sauce is simmering. Add six or so ounces of freshly-made crunchy chicharrón delgado.* Allow the chicharrón and salsa to simmer for several minutes. The texture of the chicharrón will change; during the simmer time, it will become soft and slippery.

If you prefer, you can put a portion of chicharrón into a bowl and pour the heated sauce on top. The chicharrón will stay crunchy.

*Don't try to make this recipe with pre-packaged snack food pork rinds; they will fall apart in the sauce.

Serve with hot tortillas, steamed rice, and a cold beer.

Serves two or three.

Provecho!

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5 de June de 2010
Casa Limonchelo, Morelia: An Oasis in the Heart of Downtown

Just a few of the fresh seasonal fruits and house-squeezed juices from the full breakfast buffet at Hotel Limonchelo B&B, Morelia. Other breakfast treats on the fruit bar include yogurt, granola, nuts, and honey.

A few weeks ago, our friend Sheila Velazco mentioned that she had found a new hotel in downtown Morelia that we just had to see. Last week, Sheila invited Mexico Cooks! to join her for breakfast at Casa Limonchelo Bed and Breakfast in Morelia's Centro Histórico (historic downtown).

It was a great day to be in downtown Morelia. Just for the day, the Centro Histórico was closed to vehicular traffic; our taxi dropped us two blocks from the hotel and we ambled the rest of the way under blue skies and bright sunshine.

The young Duarte family opened Casa Limonchelo in April 2010. Raúl Duarte Ramírez, who trained as an architect, was actually born in this late 17th Century house that he and Susana Carrasco, his wife, now run as a bed and breakfast.

A view of the gift shop at Casa Limonchelo, which features some of Michoacán's regional products–candy, jewelry, and hand-made souvenir items.

Raúl Duarte grew up just down the street from the 225-year-old building. Ten years ago, as a young single man, he moved into a few upstairs rooms in the old building. During the years of his architectural studies, he grew more and more concerned about signs he noticed of the slow deterioration of his family home. His main preoccupation became the restoration of the historic house.

INAH, Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, closely monitors the restoration of homes in Morelia's Centro Histórico. Even though the restoration and minor remodeling of Casa Limonchelo was primarily cosmetic, INAH's strict regulations for historic preservation governed Sr. Duarte's work.

A covered terraza (terrace) surrounds three sides of the sunny
central patio at Casa Limonchelo.

After Raúl and Susana married, they continued to live upstairs while they dedicated themselves to the work on the house. Opening the hotel became their joint dream. Due to their hard work and determination, they have been able to open the hotel sooner than they expected. Even so, they say that more amenities will be added to the public rooms and the guest quarters as time goes on.

Furnished in typical highly decorative late-17th Century style, the sala principal (guest living room) is elegant but relaxing and comfortable.

The charming bed and breakfast has nine guest rooms, a large, comfortable living room, two patios, a cozy bar, and a small gift shop specializing in Michoacán's regional products.

One of the two double-sized guest rooms at Casa Limonchelo. Susana Carrasco took charge of all the hotel's decoration and added everything that was, as her husband said, 'the woman's touch'. The B&B also offers free wireless Internet service to all guests.

One of the six Casa Limonchelo guest rooms suitable for one person or a couple.

The nine available rooms at Casa Limonchelo:
Six individual rooms:
–1 person…….400 pesos
–2 people…….500 pesos
One double room:
–2 people…….500 pesos
–4 people…….700 pesos
These seven rooms share bathrooms.

One individual room with en suite bath:
–1 person……550 pesos
–2 people…….650 pesos

One double room with en suite bath:
–2 people……700 pesos
–4 people……950 pesos

All beds in all rooms are double bed size. All prices include a full breakfast every day of each guest's stay. All prices are as of May 2010 and are subject to change without notice.

The dining patio at Casa Limonchelo. Cheerful umbrellas offer plenty of morning shade. Breakfast the morning that Mexico Cooks! was at the bed and breakfast included a guisado (prepared hot dish) of chicken and potatoes, aporreadillo (a dish of eggs, cecina [spicy dried beef], and broth from Michoacán's Tierra Caliente [hot lowlands]), beans, house-made salsa picante (hot table sauce), freshly made hot tortillas, a variety of seasonal fresh fruits and juices, and bread brought oven-hot from a nearby bakery.

The delicious fresh-baked bread offered at the bed and breakfast.

Little Raúl, age two and a half, with his father, arquitecto Raúl Duarte Ramírez.

This new bed and breakfast offers a terrific and inexpensive option for a stay in Morelia's Centro Histórico. Whether you're coming from out of town or have more guests coming than your Morelia home can accommodate, Casa Limonchelo is super-comfortable, and close to all of Morelia's main tourist attractions. Its guest rooms are set far enough back from the street that normal city noise will not intrude on your times of relaxation or sleep. The owners are charming and willing to go the extra mile to please their guests. You'll have a great time here.

Casa Limonchelo Bed and Breakfast
Avenida Madero #742
Col. Centro
Morelia, Michoacan, México
Casa Limonchelo
Tel: 443.232.2114

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29 de May de 2010