Category: Art and Culture

Mexico Cooks! and “El Mural” Love El Ostión Feliz (The Happy Oyster)

Denisse Hernández, reporter from Guadalajara's newspaper El Mural, interviews Rosario Reyes Estrada about the coctel de camarón (shrimp cocktail) that Mexico Cooks! proclaims to be the best in Mexico. Behind the two women is another tianguis (street market) booth that sells balls and toys.

Last February, while Mexico Cooks! was deep in the heart of Chiapas, an email requesting a tour arrived saying that El Mural, the prominent Guadalajara newspaper, wanted Mexico Cooks! to guide a writer and photographer on an eating tour of…Guadalajara! The initial email from the editor said Mexico Cooks! was the best blog in the blogosphere, they were dying to meet us, and that the article would be featured in an upcoming Buena Mesa, El Mural's Friday food section. Flattery will get you everywhere, so of course we said a delighted YES.

Sra. Reyes, her family, and a small staff operate El Ostión Feliz.

Mexico Cooks! met reporter Denisse Hernández and a staff photographer in Guadalajara and off we went on our eating outing. Our first stop was Guadalajara's enormous Tianguis del Sol, an outdoor market specializing in everything from replacement parts for your blender to incredible food and produce purveyors.

When I was first living in Guadalajara, a dear friend introduced me to Rosario Reyes Estrada at her booth El Ostión Feliz (the Happy Oyster). Sra. Reyes is at the Tianguis del Sol every day it's open, serving concoctions of fresh fish and seafood. Her tiny booth, where about ten hungry diners at a time sit on plastic stools at a long, oilcloth-covered table, is definitely where the desayuno (breakfast) and almuerzo (brunch) action is. We've been eating her coctel de camarón (shrimp cocktail) for years, and as far as Mexico Cooks! is concerned, it's the best in Mexico. We don't know what magic ingredient she incorporates into the coctel (she swears her only secret is the use of the absolutely freshest ingredients), but from the first bite years ago, we were instantly addicted.

Look at the size of the shrimp in that soup spoon! Each of Doña Rosario's cocteles de camarón includes a dozen shrimp like that.

A Mexican coctel de camarón resembles a shrimp cocktail from the United States or Canada only in that both are made with shrimp. When asked for her recipe, Sra. Reyes, originally from the state of Veracruz, just smiles. This approximation of her coctel will have to satisfy you till you get to Guadalajara.

Coctel de Camarón Estilo Mexicano for Four

Ingredients for Poaching the Shrimp
48 fresh large (U25) shrimp, shell on.
1 clove garlic
1 stick celery, with leaves if possible
1 carrot, washed but not peeled
1 medium white onion, peeled
1 Roma tomato
1 chile serrano, split from tip almost to stem
A few stems of cilantro

Ingredients for composing the coctel
Caldo (broth) reserved from cooking shrimp
Sea salt to taste
1 1/2 cups tomato catsup (not a typo)
1 Tbsp minced white onion per serving
1 Tbsp minced Roma tomato per serving
1 Tbsp minced cucumber per serving
1/2 tsp minced chile serrano
Roughly chopped cilantro to taste
Ripe avocado
Mexican limes, halved and seeded
Salsa de mesa (table salsa) such as
     Cholula, Valentina, Búfalo, etc.
     DO NOT USE TABASCO!

What You Might Not Have On Hand
Ice cream soda glasses–optional, but authentic for serving

Procedure
In simmering water, poach the shrimp, along with the garlic, celery, carrot, onion, tomato, chile serrano, and cilantro until the shrimp are just done, firm and pink but still tender. Discard the vegetables from the poaching. Reserve and chill the caldo de camarón (poaching liquid) for later use. Be careful: a friend of mine poached his shrimp and drained it, inadvertently pouring all the liquid down the drain! Be sure to use a container under your strainer.

Shell the shrimp and chill.

At serving time, mix the catsup, the reserved, chilled caldo de camarón (shrimp broth), and sea salt to taste.   Add a squeeze of fresh Mexican lime juice.

In each ice cream soda glass or other large glass, put the indicated quantities of minced onion, tomato, cucumber, chile serrano, and chopped cilantro. Add 12 shrimp to each glass. Pour the catsup/caldo de camarón mixture to cover all ingredients.

Serve with diced avocado. At the table, offer Mexican lime halves for those who prefer a limier flavor, a small dish of sea salt, a dish of minced chile serrano and another of chopped cilantro for those who prefer more, and a salsa de mesa or two for those who like more picante (HEAT!).

A coctel de camarón is traditionally served with saltine crackers and tostadas, those crunchy fried or dehydrated salty tortillas. Tostadas are usually rubbed with the cut side of a squeezed lime for added flavor. Buen provecho!

The lovely Sra. Josefina Naranjo of Guadalajara has eaten at El Ostión Feliz for years, coming every Friday to enjoy Doña Rosario's fish and seafood.

The assortment of Doña Rosario's salsas includes Valentina (in the bottle), a house-made salsa of cucumber, onion, and chile habanero (in the bowl), a green avocado/cilantro salsa, and my favorite, the little jar of salsa de ajonjolí (sesame seed) and chile de árbol. This one is so popular that Doña Rosario sells it to take home. Mexico Cooks! wouldn't be without a jar of this salsa muy picante in the refrigerator.

Next week with Mexico Cooks! and "El Mural": Taco Fish La Paz.

21 de June de 2008
Sin Maíz, No Hay País: Without Corn, There is No Country

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 Las Cuatro Milpas, a song from the early 20th Century: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se4OcLbFuFg.

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 blowing on 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

14 de June de 2008
Looking for Smut on the Internet?

Not that kind! What in the world are you thinking!

Ustilago maydis, called corn smut, or cuitlacoche.

Mexico Cooks! is rejoicing in a wealth of corn smut, known in Mexico as the delicacy cuitlacoche (or huitlacoche) and known in the rest of the world as disgusting. The word cuitlacoche comes from the Nahuatl word cuitlatl (excrement) and cochi (sleeping). You wanted to know that, didn't you?

Ustilago maydis (corn smut's biological name) is a fungal disease that most often attacks corn before the ear forms. Spores enter corn stalks that have been wounded by hail, insects, or cultivation cuts. The fungus grows inside the corn kernel, distorting and discoloring it, leaving only the husk of the kernel remaining. The fungus winters over in the ground or in old corn stalks left to rot. Smut spores can blow long distances, invading every cornfield in a region. No country is exempt from its infection and losses to the fungus may be as high as 20% of a corn crop. Most of the world's corn growers use every means possible to stave off the infection, but here in Mexico, we love to see the fungus come to market.

Here in Morelia, Michoacán, the cuitlacoche season just started. Some of the vegetable vendors at the Wednesday tianguis had piles of it for sale last week, in amongst the broccoli, chiles, leeks, tomatoes, and the rest of the weekly array in their stands. Twenty-five pesos (about $2.50 US) per half pound seemed like a fair price, so we bought a bag of big juicy-looking fungus and brought it home for comida, our main meal of the day.

The taste of cuitlacoche is deep, rich, earthy, and is frequently compared to truffles. The texture is meaty, similar to a portabello mushroom. The color–well, we don't eat many coal black foods, but it's quite elegant on the plate.

In Mexico, cuitlacoche is sold either on the cob or loose, by the kilo. Once in a great while, fresh cuitlacoche is available in a Latin market outside Mexico. It's said that the canned variety works as well as the fresh, although Mexico Cooks! hasn't used the canned product and makes no guarantees. Look for this variety:

Here's Mexico Cooks!' recipe for our comida muy de la temporada (very seasonal dinner).

Salsa de Cuitlacoche con Espagueti y Pechuga de Pollo
(Cuitlacoche Sauce with Spaghetti and Chicken Breast)

Ingredients for the sauce:
1 large clove garlic, minced fine
2 tbsp white onion, minced fine
2 or 3 strips bacon, minced
3 chiles chilacas or 2 chiles poblanos
250 grams (1/2 lb) cuitlacoche, roughly chopped
Sea salt to taste
Enough chicken broth to thin sauce to coat the back of a spoon
Bacon drippings plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Utensils:
10-inch nonstick sauté pan
Wooden spoon
Measuring spoons
Blender

Procedure:
Roast the chiles on a dry (not oiled) comal (griddle) until the skins are blistered and nearly black. Put them in a plastic bag and twist it shut. "Sweat" the chiles for about 10 minutes. Remove the stems and seeds and peel the chiles. Roughly chop the prepared chiles and reserve for later use.

Sauté the minced bacon until nearly crisp. Remove from pan and reserve with the chiles. Keep the bacon drippings in the pan. Add the oil.

Sauté the garlic, onion, and cuitlacoche in the drippings/oil until the cuitlacoche is soft, about 10-15 minutes. Be careful that the cuitlacoche does not become mushy. It should retain some texture. The mixture in your sauté pan will be inky black.

Put the cuitlacoche mixture, the reserved chiles and the bacon in the blender. Add 1/2 cup chicken stock and purée. The mix should thickly coat the back of a spoon. Add more chicken stock if needed and blend again. Add sea salt to taste and blend briefly. Again, the sauce will be black.

Chicken breasts:
Cut two boneless, skinless chicken breast halves into 1/2" wide strips as long as each breast. Put 2 Tbsp flour and 1/2 tsp sea salt in a plastic bag and shake to mix. Add the chicken breast strips and shake to flour thoroughly. Shake off excess flour. Sauté breast strips in olive oil until they are golden brown. Be careful not to overcook the breast strips. Remove and reserve.

Spaghetti:
I used 1/2 lb fettucine and cooked following package directions.

Plating:
Serves two generously.

Put half the spaghetti on each plate. Divide the cuitlacoche sauce between the two servings of spaghetti. Divide the chicken breast strips between the two plates, laying them across the spaghetti and sauce. Drizzle more sauce across the chicken breast strips.

We all but licked our plates.

So…we've got rough stuff (the chopping), breasts (the chicken), and licking (the plates). I guess this really is smut on the Internet!

Provecho!

7 de June de 2008
What Do You Collect?

Many collectors hunt for fine Mexican textiles. These are hand-embroidered Purépecha huipiles (blouses).

Mexico Cooks! reads a lot of blogs, some about Mexico, some specifically about Mexican culinary affairs, some about photography, and some of general interest. Once in a while, a particular blog post jogs some deep connection and keeps us pondering the subject for days. When I read the April 6, 2008, post on Billie Mercer's Billieblog (written from San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato), I was stopped in my tracks.

Billie had read and linked to this article about the psychology of collecting. I'm not so sure I buy the various theories that the article discusses, but the topic really pushed my buttons.

When I was a very small child, my family lived next door to the Fords. The Ford family included Mr. and Mrs. Ford, their my-age son, and Mrs. Ford's mother, who seemed from my six-year-old perspective to be very, very old. She was tiny, her face creased with age, and her white hair was wound into a bun high on her head.

Once a week, Mrs. Ford washed her mother's hair. I often sat chatting with her mother while Mrs. Ford brushed and brushed the long white hair until it was dry. While we chatted, Mrs. Ford's mother let me hold a little doll that she had owned since her own long-ago childhood. Unlike my own hard plastic Madame Alexander dolls or my nearly-real Baby Newborn, the old doll was made of what I learned to call bisque. She had real hair and open/shut eyes made of glass! She had four teeny-tiny china teeth! Her wee blue shoes and white socks were also bisque, part of the mold that made her legs. Her hand-sewn clothing (including an apron) was from another time, not from the 1950s. Mrs. Ford's mother knew that the little bisque doll was from Germany and that she had received it as a birthday present when she turned seven–the very same age that I was about to be! That small doll fascinated me. It seemed to hold clues to a life not my own and a time I did not understand.

Dolls like these intrigued me throughout my childhood.

When the week of my birthday arrived, Mrs. Ford and her mother presented me with a small ribbon-tied box. The doll! They gave me the doll! She sat in a place of honor on my bookshelf, her tiny white teeth gleaming, and she went with me every time I visited Mrs. Ford's mother. When my family moved away, my hardest loss was those weekly visits to another childhood far removed from my own.

That little doll, so special to me, started my collection. My parents and my grandparents began giving me other antique dolls on big-gift occasions: birthdays and Christmas often brought a new addition to my doll family. Soon my father's antique glass-doored bookcase moved into my bedroom to house my own books along with these antique children.

I loved my 1920s Grace Storey Putnam bisque Bye-Lo Baby, originally modeled in clay, from the head of a sleeping three-day-old infant.

For me, the fascination of collecting antique dolls was in large part about the mystery: whose dolls had they been originally, where had they traveled, what happened to the little girl who first treasured them? The mystery also included the information treasure hunt: who made the doll, and when, and where? How much did it cost when it was first made, and what was its value today, and why?

As a young adult, I lost interest in my dolls and eventually sold the collection. During the following years, I occasionally experienced what I think of as 'collector's lust', the hunger for a roomful of this or that. In my case, I lusted for one-of-a-kind early American folk art. The idiosyncratic, the outsider, the slightly off-kilter intrigued and beckoned to me. Beloved pieces still decorate my house in Mexico.

A handmade mid-19th century black walnut fretless banjo, a country Hepplewhite table, and a home-made Mexican shooting gallery dog target are among the items that decorate my Morelia entry hall.

Later, I learned about late 19th and early 20th century Mexican arte popular (folk art) and began to accumulate a few examples. A friend of mine says, "Two of anything is just a pair, but three is a collection." My collection, then, is primarily of old Mexican folk art. Newly made pieces do occasionally creep into the house, but I prefer to find little treasures that verge on the antique.

In my office, a new papel maché (paper maché) Judas reclines next to an early 20th century Balbino Lucano-style jarra (pitcher) from Tonalá, Jalisco.

The blue-and-yellow Mexican fantasía plate dates to the 1920s. The painted Lake Pátzcuaro box was made in the late 19th century and has its original key. My partner and I commissioned the calabaza de barro (clay squash) from the artist.

Why do I collect? It's all about Mrs. Ford's mother, that German bisque doll and the fascination that hooked me at age seven. Why do certain things grab my attention and others leave me cold? The jury is still out on that one.

So I wonder: what do you collect? And why do you collect it? Please leave your comments, I'm collecting those, too!

31 de May de 2008
Torito de Petate: Morelia’s Festival of Dancing Bulls

Mexico Cooks! is turning back the clock this week, but only a little: let's imagine that it's February 2, 2008, just before Lent begins, and we're in Morelia, Michoacán for the afternoon festival of the Torito de Petate.

El diablo (the devil) is an annual participant in Morelia's torito de petate competition.

The idea of this celebration is that everyone, young and old alike, have a great time celebrating and learning the significance of this age-old tradition. Year after year, the creativity that characterizes the making of these so-called 'little bulls' surprises us with huge and exceptionally colorful figures.

A huge owl decorates this torito de petate.

The figure is made of a bamboo frame, covered with colorful tissue paper. Near the bottom of the torito, the head of a bull peeks out, adorned with banderillas. The upper part of the torito shows off huge cut-paper shapes: swans, lyres, stars, mermaids, and every other fantasy that can be created in cut tissue paper.

A monumental sirenita (mermaid) is the top of this torito. Compare the sirenita figure with the adult women standing to its left and right to get a good idea of its size.

The torito de petate honoring Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, built by Eduardo Hernández and his crew.

Mexico Cooks! talked with Gregorio Hernández, head of the torito team representing El Clavelito in Morelia's Colonia Eduardo Ruíz. Sr. Hernández gave us some history. "Before the Spanish conquest, the Purhépecha (local indigenous people) danced with the head of a bull, a real bull, to welcome the spring planting season and to insure a good crop. It's said that the little bull is the symbol of fertility.

"After the Spanish came and the indigenous people were converted to Catholicism, Tata Vasco (Don Vasco de Quiroga, the first Roman Catholic bishop in Michoacán) encouraged the people to include the bull dance in pre-Lenten celebrations. At first the same bull head was used, and then the people added a sombrero de listones (a beribboned hat) to make a bigger show. After that, the torito just got bigger and bigger and became what it is today: a joyful dance and artistic competition."

The young man standing next to this fantasy-figure torito is about 1.60 meters (5'6") tall. Just below the yin-yang symbol you can see the horned black bull head in its red cap. Be sure to click on all of the pictures on Mexico Cooks! to enlarge them for a better view.

One of the toritos dancing on stage at Morelia's Plaza Valladolid. Photo courtesy of La Jornada de Michoacán.

In another version of the story of the torito de petate, it's said that the dance had its beginning in the 1830s, when hacienda owners allowed their slaves to celebrate planting or a good harvest with the Dance of the Bull. The dance troupe was made up of la maringuía (a female figure said to represent the Virgin Mary), the caporal (soldier, representing St. Joseph), a caballito (little horse), representing the Niño Jesús (Child Jesus), and the bull, representing worldly activities. At the end of the 20th Century dancers added another figure, known as el apache, a fearsome creature whose sole role is to strike fear into the hearts of children in the audience!

She's choosing small toritos de petate to take home as souvenirs. Mexico Cooks! liked so many of them that we ended up not buying one. We simply couldn't decide.

Cascarones (dyed eggshells filled with confetti), ready to break on the heads of your best pals or your girlfriend. You can always tell who's the grade school heartthrob of the moment by the amount of confetti in his or her hair.

Time to take the torito de petate back to the colonia (neighborhood) where it was made.

We stayed at the festival till the last dance was done. What fun we had watching the dancers fill Morelia's Plaza Valladolid with color, music, and joy. Maybe we'll see you there next year.

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

24 de May de 2008
Not in Any Guide Book: Why You Will Love a Mexico Cooks! Tour
Mexico Cooks! has been around the manzana (city block) a time or two since first living in Mexico nearly 30 years ago. Over all of that time, we've found a lot of hidden wonders in this vast República.

A huge popsicle marks the entrance to this way-off-the-beaten-path town. Why? We can take you there to find out!

In the "ABOUT" section listed on the front page of Mexico Cooks! (up there in the right-hand corner, where it's easy to miss), I make mention of the highly personalized tours I occasionally give for small groups. Many of my readers have asked about planning a Mexico Cooks! tour for themselves and their friends. Today, I've succumbed to your requests for more information.

This pale and placid moon graces a lovely fountain–but where, why is it special, and how do you find it?

Minimum group size is two people, and I can accommodate up to seven tour participants for a day trip, a few-days' trip, or a longer adventure.

All of the tours that I offer include the following:
- my undivided attention for the duration of your tour
- personalized tours to meet your special interests
- extensive pre-planning to maximize your experience on tour
- my 100% bilingual (English/Spanish) guide service
- tour transportation (not including air travel), including all ground vehicle related expenses, gasoline, parking fees, and tolls
- Cost of all meals taken as a group, tips, museum entry fees
Mexico Cooks! knows the secret of this private chapel and will share it with you.

Tour participants pay individually for:
- air transportation costs to/from and within Mexico
- ground transportation to/from airports and/or bus stations and participants' hotels
- hotel accommodations and accommodation-related tips
- alcoholic beverages consumed at tour meals
- all food and all beverages consumed at non-tour meals or during "on your own" times
You can discover the joyous heart of Mexico with Mexico Cooks!

The myriad wonders of Mexico are too many to count, and too many to see in an entire lifetime. If you've been here and want more, the "more" that most tourists never see, Mexico Cooks! will meet your needs. Traveling with Mexico Cooks!, you have the opportunity to tailor-make the tour you want. Nothing is pre-packaged. Each itinerary is designed based on your ideas, your wants.

Colorfully beautiful, whimsical, or elegant, Mexico Cooks! knows where to find the best of Mexico's crafts. Come along…

If you have particular interests (artisan villages and handwork, churches and cathedrals, city and country markets [with or without a cooking class!], traditional Mexican food and ingredients in all their regional varieties, restaurants small and large, special fiestas and religious celebrations, and small regional museums, to list a few), Mexico Cooks! can show you more than you've dreamed of finding.

Who ARE these guys, and why are they smiling? We'll go see!

Most of the Mexico Cooks! tours are focused on Mexico's high-altitude Central Highlands, where the weather is nearly always temperate: balmy and sunny during the day and refreshingly cool during the evening hours. The best times for touring are mid-June through February. March through late May are often uncomfortably warm and dry for daytime touring. Come discover the cool joy of central Mexico in the summer.

Mexico Cooks! can take you right into the bedroom of the all time best-known Mexican artist.

This is the perfect time to start planning a Mexico Cooks! tour. Email me at patalarga@gmail.com and tell me what you might like to do, or ask me for suggestions based on your interests. I'll be happy to quote prices and any other details you need.

What a great staircase! Want to see it in person? We'll take you there.

Buen viaje–Mexico Cooks! te espera! (Have a great trip–Mexico Cooks! is waiting for you!)
17 de May de 2008
Mexico Cooks! in Mexico City!

Como México, no hay dos…there’s no other place like Mexico!

That old saying, ‘Como México, no hay dos’, is so true. It’s used with enormous pride, it’s used ironically, it’s used with colors-flying patriotic fervor. In the photo above, for example, the signs at these Mexico City outdoor fondas (food booths) read (left to right): Soft Drinks, Beer, and Fruit Drinks. Chicken Soup. We Repair Baby Jesuses. Only in Mexico can you find such wonderfully surrealistic juxtapositions. Como México, no hay dos.

This handy key chain with an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe comes complete with a bottle opener. Judy shook her head and rolled her eyes, but ended up buying this memento of the Basílica for her son.

Mexico Cooks! tacked four days in Mexico City onto the end of our February trip to Chiapas. We’d been invited to stay at the home of our dear friend Ruth Alegría (Alegria in Mexico) and didn’t want to pass up the chance to comadrear tantito (to gossip a little bit) about the Distrito Federal food world. Our time with Ruth was a fast-forward speed combination of eating, yakking, and running around the city. Boy, did we have fun!

Frida Kahlo’s bedroom with her death mask.

Among our muchos recorridos (lots of running around), we visited the Museo Frida Kahlo (La Casa Azul) and the central plaza of Colonia Coyoacán.

The coyote fountain in the plaza principal of Colonia Coyoacán.

One of the best times was a pozole outing with Ruth and another couple, Jim Johnston and Nick Gilman. Jim is the author of Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler; Nick wrote Good Food in Mexico City: A Guide to Food Stalls, Fondas, and Fine Dining. (Look over on the left-hand side of this page for Amazon links to those two books–they’re both well worth buying! Mexico Cooks! wouldn’t shill for them…umm…well, or maybe we would!)

Who would know the best pozolería in Mexico City better than a passel of foodies? Ruth drove; she’s intrepid behind the wheel, even in this city of nearly 30,000,000 souls. We voyaged north from our digs in south central Colonia Condesa, heading for Colonia Santa María La Ribera, near Alameda Norte. Mexico Cooks! has spent a lot of time in the Distrito Federal, but this was our first time in Colonia Santa María La Ribera. Nick assured us that we would love the pozolería.

The back of our waiter’s shirt at La Casa de Toño!

Nick was right. La Casa de Toño is sheer heaven, from the salsas to the postres. The restaurant has been a Mexico City stronghold forever. It’s open every day of the year, including Christmas. You can pay a virtual visit to La Casa de Toño here. We had a blast eating our way through a goodly part of the menu. We know we’ll go back again next time we’re in the city.

A night view of one of the patios at La Casa de Toño. The restaurant is housed in a converted mansion.

Of course we ordered pozole, the specialty of the house, but we also tried a quesadilla or two, a tostada de tinga, and some flautas. Four of us ordered pozole con maciza de puerco, the white meat of the pig. Jim ordered the pozole vegetariano, made with squash blossoms, mushrooms, and corn. I’m a confirmed meat-eater, but Jim’s vegetarian pozole was just as delicious as the meat-filled bowl I ate.

Pozole con tostadas, the traditional combo.

Condiments for pozole: minced onion, thinly sliced radishes, shredded lettuce, and a variety of salsas. We also crumbled dried orégano into the bowl, along with powdered chile and sea salt.

We’re waiting for our cena (supper): Judy, Jim, Nick, and Ruth.

The kitchen at La Casa de Toño is a hive of buzzing cooks, waiters, and busboys.

Next week: Let’s Make Pozole.

3 de May de 2008
Master of the Art of Metalwork: Guadalupe Hermosillo Escobar
María Esther Flores Najera and her husband, Guadalupe Hermosillo Escobar, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, February 2008.

It's no small thing to have been named one of the "grandes maestros del arte popular en México" by Fomento Cultural Banamex. In the eponymous book, originally published in 1999, Banamex designated Guadalupe Hermosillo Escobar and nearly 100 other fine Mexican popular artists as grand masters of their crafts. The artists come from many Mexican states and work in media ranging from textiles and clay to wood, paper, leather, and metal. Guadalupe Hermosillo Escobar, his wife María Esther Flores Najera, and his children Gerardo, Cristóbal, and Paola have worked exclusively in hand-wrought iron for over 20 years.

Banamex reissued the huge and important book in 2006.

Born in Tapachula, Chiapas on December 12, 1962, Sr. Hermosillo moved to San Cristóbal de las Casas and learned the art of wrought iron. During the many years he has dedicated to his craft, he experimented with fire's intensity to give the metal different shades of color, from intense blue to silvery white, with natural finish flashes of red, green, and gold mixed into a single piece.

Assortment of traditional crosses with the symbols of Christ's passion.

Around 1548, metal smiths in San Cristóbal began making house crosses, padlocks, latches, and door knockers. These earliest examples are either in museums or have disappeared over the course of more than 450 years. Sr. Hermosillo continues the tradition of fine metal work in his own art, following the early designs. His most-requested designs are la cruz de la pasión de Cristo (the cross of Christ's passion), el árbol de la vida (the tree of life), and hardware for the home.

Cruz de la pasión de Cristo (cross of Christ's passion), San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas 2008.

The cruz de la pasión de Cristo is made entirely of symbols of the Crucifixion. In the photo above (click on it to enlarge it), you can see:
- the dove at the top of the cross, which represents peace and the Holy Spirit
- pliers, used to remove the nails from Christ's hands and feet after his death
- the moon, representing the darkness that fell as Christ died
- the sun, representing the passage of the day and its events
- the rooster, which crowed after Peter denied Christ for the third time
- the crown, representing divine light
- the ladder, used to lower Christ's body from the cross
- the butterfly, representing both Eve and the hope of the Resurrection
- the snake, symbol of evil and seduction
- the heart, symbol of Christ's love, pity, and virtue
- the spear used to pierce Christ's body
- palm fronds, remembering Palm Sunday
- the scales of justice, representing the Last Judgment
In 2002, Sr. Hermosillo won the prize "Fray Bartolomé de las Casas", the highest artistic award given by the State of Chiapas. During the years he has worked making fine metal art, he has won nearly every honor given in his field, has taught classes in traditional metalwork, and labors tirelessly to promote the art of traditional wrought iron work.

Sr. Hermosillo made this traditional door latch in the form of human hands.

Detail of hand-hammered iron work in one of the crosses.

If you go to San Cristóbal, a visit to Guadalupe Hermosillo is a must. His museum and workshop are located at:

Avenida de la Jardinera #12
Colonia Jardines del Valle
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas

You'll find Sr. Hermosillo there from Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM and 4:00 PM until 7:00 PM. He might also be there on Sundays from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM.
26 de April de 2008
Amatenango del Valle, Chiapas

Amatenango del Valle, Chiapas

Two or three days after our trip to Zinacantán, we wound our way through the streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas and took the highway south toward Comitán de Domínguez, bound for Amatenango del Valle, a town of 6,000 inhabitants. Amatenango’s language is Tzeltal, although the name of the town is Nauhatl for "fortified place of the fig trees". Its women wear the town’s traditional red and yellow huipil (blouse). The town square, dominated by the peak-roofed 18th Century Templo de San Francisco de Asís, is surrounded by steep 6600-foot hillsides.

The artesanía in Amatenango is pottery, created by women. As we approached the town, we saw roadside stands filled with clay pots, clay animals, and clay doves lining both sides of the highway. Women dressed in Amatenango’s ropa típica painted fresh clay vessels while they waited for customers.

Las palomas (doves) are the most common Amatenango clay figure. The birds are finished in a technique called bruñido (burnishing).

Clay for making the pots comes from hillside locations several hours on foot from the center of town. Hard oak firewood for firing the pots comes from the high hills, brought down in a wild go-cart ride to the potters’ homes. Most women of the town dedicate themselves to creating pots, and most begin their clay work in early childhood. Many Amatenango women have no memory of their lives before they began to make pots.

The women of Amatenango fire their clay goods in pre-Hispanic bonfire kilns, one of the world’s oldest firing methods. Pots are fired in the open air with firewood stacked all around and over the clay.

Painted gallinas de barro (clay hens) are nearly as numerous as las palomas.

The hens are distinctive and differ from artist to artist.

Juana Gómez learned pottery-making by observing her relatives working
with clay. Arguably the most gifted potter in today’s Amatenango, her
work ranges from intricately designed small jugs to her current work,
monumental jaguar sculptures.

Juana Gómez Ramírez with one of her nearly complete, monumental jaguares de barro (clay jaguars).

Juana showed me around her small property and the firing lot just beyond her one-room cement block studio. On the bare ground of the firing lot, she had constructed a wrought iron stand for balancing the life-size jaguar figures. "Their legs and bodies are hollow," Juana said, "so they are very fragile. You can see the holes in their legs and in their stomachs, where the fire goes through them. Firing them inside and out makes them very dry and sturdy, although they’re clay and can’t take a lot of abuse. My uncle used to make jaguares this size, but the legs of his were solid, not hollow like mine, and they didn’t fire all the way through. A lot of his jaguares broke in the kiln. Mine don’t."

The second of Juana’s latest pair of jaguares. She has just started painting the spots of the big cat.

Like the other Amatenango potters, Juana fires her pots and jaguares in the open air. "First the jaguar has to dry. Then I pile the wood under and over and around the figure and then burn the whole pile. It takes hours to burn, and the oak burns so hot. But I have to be careful that the fire is hot enough to bake the jaguar, but not too hot to burn it."

We ordered two pots from Juana Gómez Ramírez and reluctantly left her workshop. Once again we turned the car to the south, toward Aguacatenango, where we hoped to meet a rug weaver. As we came down from the hills into view of the town, our traveling companion gave us a bit of information about Aguacatenango. A Tzotzil-speaking village well-known for its cottage industry textiles, Aguacatenango politically casts its lot with EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), the Zapatista revolutionaries whose front-man is known as Sub-Comandante Marcos. In Aguacatenango, no photos are permitted due to politics rather than, as is the case in San Juan Chamula and Zinacantán, religion.

Máscara de barro (clay mask) of a Mayan god, Juana Gómez Ramírez, 2008.

The rug weaver wasn’t at home and we left Aguacatenango to return to San Cristóbal de las Casas.

19 de April de 2008
The Sacred and the Profane: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Part Two

Fancy trimmings and even fancier names grace many truck tops in San Cristóbal.

Hammocks hang from this store’s ceiling like graceful butterflies.

Naptime at the mercado de artesanía.

Piñatas for sale in the market, including orange and pink rose blossoms.

Niño Dios with basket of flowers, Templo Santo Domingo, San Cristóbal.

February peach blossoms, San Cristóbal.

Lunch.

12 de April de 2008