Category: Food and Drink

El Istmo de Tehuantepec :: Tierra del Mar, Tierra del Sol, Tierra del Buen Comer, y Tierra de Sorpresas

Along the 2-lane highway between Tlacolula and the Isthmus, Chef Silvana and I stopped to have the gas tank filled. (In Mexico, a gas station attendant performs that chore. There's no self-serve here.) In a little nicho between the men's and women's bathrooms, this figure on his miniature golden throne caught our attention. El Niño Dios de Pemex patiently awaited a visit from anyone who cared to visit him. He looks very sweet in his Pemex uniform–compete with company patch!–and straw hat.

Entering the city of Tehuantepec, this sculpture of a tehuana–the symbol of the region–greeted us. She's dressed in full tehuana vestido de gala, including her resplandor, the lace headdress.

Another sculpture of La Tehuana, with a silver over copper mask and resplandor of actual lace, electroplated with silver. Work of Mexican sculptor Ana Pellicer, Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán.

A glorious hand-embroidered made-to-measure velveteen huipil (regional Istmo de Tehuantepec blouse) created by fabulous costurera (seamstress) Sra. Nancy González at Taller Bizuudi, 16 de septiembre #99, Ixtepec, Oaxaca. That's her handsome son behind her. The highly colorful embroidered huipil (blouse) and its companion enagua skirt, the characteristic dress of the women of the Istmo, are available in a range of quality and price in the markets and shops of the Istmo.

Here's a good look at the traje de gala (fancy dress) of the tehuanas–the women of the Istmo de Tehuantepec. Chef Silvana and I were invited to this dance–more about that in a minute!

The Isthmus (Istmo, in Spanish) of Tehuantepec is the largest region in the state of Oaxaca, connecting the southwestern part of the state of Oaxaca with the western part of the state of Chiapas. Part of the Istmo is on southern Oaxaca's Pacific Ocean coast, part is inland to the north and east. Prior to the building of the Panama Canal, the Istmo was the shortest land trade route between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; if you look at a map of Mexico, you'll see that the Istmo is the narrowest part of Mexico's "waist". Fairly distant from more populated parts of Oaxaca, the Istmo has its own cultures, its own manners of dress, and its own foods. Several distinct indigenous groups live in the Istmo, each with its own language.

The first night we were in Tehuantepec, we enjoyed wonderful tlayudas at Cenaduría Juanita, an outdoor supper stand near our hotel. The tlayuda is one of the iconic foods of Oaxaca; made from a very large corn tortilla (actually called tlayuda), the dish can be eaten for desayuno (breakfast), comida (Mexico's main meal of the day), or cena (late-evening supper)–or any time in between! These were absolutely wonderful, maybe the best tlayudas I've eaten.

Here are a lot of tlayudas–the simple tortilla–pressed, toasted, and ready to be prepared as tlayudas–the meal. These measure about 13-14" in diameter. Each one will be spread with asiento (the delicious brown fat at the bottom of a pot of newly rendered pork lard), then layered with smoothly blended black beans, then with tasajo (seasoned semi-dried beef) or cecina (seasoned semi-dried pork) or chorizo (spicy pork sausage) or even with shredded chicken. Then one adds shredded quesillo (you might know it as Oaxaca cheese), then shredded fresh cabbage, slivers or slices of green chile (either fresh or pickled), sliced tomatoes, sliced avocado, fold it in half, and toast it on a griddle or a grill till the cheese melts. Add the salsa that you like best and get your mouth ready for a taste of heaven. Any tlayuda recipe is very forgiving: add this, leave this out, put more of this or that, add (as in the picture above this one) pickled red onions, turn your avocados into guacamole and add that. However you prepare them, the only "requirement" is that you start with that freshly toasted tlayuda base.

Chef Silvana holds a memela. A small, freshly toasted tortilla is the base for a smear of asiento, a smear of creamy black beans, maybe some tasajo or cecina, a lot of queso fresco (fresh crumbly white cheese), some sliced avocado, and then topped with either red or green salsa. These Oaxaca-style memelas are usually about four inches in diameter.

The next morning, we went to the Tehuantepec market to see what it had to offer. Mid-market, we met the delightful María del Carmen Suárez, who sells her famous home-made budín (in this case, a type of flan that she makes with breadcrumbs) and her excellent pickled vegetables. We spent quite a while chatting with her; she sells at the market several days a week. She did tell us that she'd be working the following day, but not the day after that. We didn't ask why, but we later found out. Remember that photo (up there ^^) of the tehuanas dancing? The plot thickens.

María del Carmen's budín. It was very good, with no indication of bread crumbs in its texture other than a pleasantly slightly thicker consistency than normal flan.

So: the surprise! Silvana and I had been out the entire day, driving among several small towns around the city of Tehuantepec. Mid-evening, we pulled back into town and parked, intending to go find something to eat. Wait–music! Drums! Shouting! Flags and banners! What's that coming toward us? A PARADE, and not just any parade–dancing down the street came a contingent of laughing, shouting muxes, the "third sex" of the Istmo world. Much associated with the city of Juchitán, muxes also live and work–and play–in Tehuantepec. These gorgeous creatures beckoned to us: "Vénganse! Vénganse! Vénganse con nosotras al Baile del Barrio!" ("Come on! Come on! Come with us to our Neighborhood Dance!") We scurried out into the street, linked arms with some of the beautiful muxes, and paraded through town, backed by flags, banners, flowers, and music.

A few blocks outside Tehuantepec's Centro Histórico, we were led to a blocked-off street covered with a lona (tarp), decorated with papel picado (cut paper streamers), and alive with joyful, dressed for the gala muxes, their companions, and people handing out plates of food, pouring tequila, passing around bottled beer, and hugging everyone who came along–including us. We were invited to sit down, invited to eat, invited to drink. And then, shouts of, "A bailar! A bailar!"  ("Get up and dance! Get up and dance!")

And suddenly we heard a scream: "Amigaaaaaaas! Amigaaaaaaaas!" We turned around to see–María del Carmen, from the market! She grabbed both of us and hugged us hard. "AMIGAAAAAAS!" So this was why she didn't work today–she had to get ready for the Baile del Barrio! "María del Carmen, why didn't you tell us the other day?" "Bueno–bueno, I wasn't sure…" We laughed and hugged and were so glad that we actually had met someone before who was at the dance. She looked beautiful, in her traje de gala.

Our delicious dinner: Tehuantepec-style chicken in a flavorful, spicy sauce, served with macaroni salad and a pile of tortillas. "Is that enough? Do you want more chicken? More tortillas? Another beer? Wait, here's another shot of tequila! No, wait, let's dance first!"  The people at the dance made us feel entirely welcome and totally at home.

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We had the best time ever!

EVER! I'm grinning ear to ear just looking at these pictures. Such sweet, beautiful memories we made, all of us together.

Beautiful young women, beautiful older women–nothing separated us during this magical evening. I know for sure that the next time I go to the Istmo de Tehuantepec, someone will scream out, "AMIGAAAAA!" and she will be a friend from this night, connected by the joy of music, dance, and by our shared experience of a chance encounter that meant the world to all of us.

Next week, further travels and surprises around the Istmo. Come along! Get up and dance!

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

23 de June de 2018
On the Way to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec :: First Stop, Sunday Market at Tlacolula, Oaxaca

If you go to Tlacolula on a day other than Sunday, you'll easily be able to see the exterior of Templo Santa María de la Asunción. Be sure to visit both the inside of the church and its adjacent chapel–the chapel in particular is breathtaking. If you go on a Sunday, Tlacolula, an easy drive of approximately 45 minutes south of the city of Oaxaca, has what is in my opinion the most vibrant, colorful, and fascinating market of anyplace in Mexico. I go every chance I get and it never gets old. You'll still want to visit the church, but there will be crowds around it!

Everything you can think of–and a lot of things you would never thing of!–is available at the Sunday market in Tlacolula. Here, beautiful squash blossoms, ready for use in your kitchen. Did you know that only the male blossoms are harvested? The female blossoms are left to develop squash.

The last Sunday in April, just after the end of the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, my travel companion, chef Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona, and I rented a car at a rental agency just steps from our hotel in the city. Even though I had booked the rental prior to our trip, the paperwork took much more time than we anticipated. Nevertheless, we made it to the market in Tlacolula before noon.

Not far from the entrance to the market, we looked for this delightful woman from San Marcos Tlapazola, a nearby potters' village. We had spent some time talking with this woman at the Encuentro, where she and some other potters had a booth–you can see that they specialize in beautiful, softly shaped red clay kitchen and tableware. She looks very serious, but her sense of humor doesn't quit. We were often doubled over laughing at something one or the other of us had said. San Marcos Tlapazola offers an annual red clay pottery festival–interested in going? I'll find out the dates for 2019 and we'll set up a tour of that town and other artisan towns.

Hanging links of chorizo oaxaqueño, a deliciously spicy pork sausage. The chorizo here is stuffed into natural pork casings; the links are almost always shaped like little oval or round balls, about 2" in diameter.

We were really hungry and were looking for a stand inside the market where we could eat Oaxaca-style barbacoa. There was just enough bench seating at this booth for the two of us, so we slid in to try some of the house specialties.

The barbacoa! We ordered a bowl each, plus a taco for each of us that was much bigger than we could possibly finish. The bowl of barbacoa was filled with plenty of beef and consomé (the spicy liquid that the meat had cooked in overnight); we added our own condiments of sliced radishes, chopped cilantro, onion, and shredded lettuce, plus either red or green salsa. Was it good? My mouth is watering just looking at the pictures!

These guys enlivened our breakfast with their accordion/guitar duets and great songs. Chef Silvana, whose family roots are in Chihuahua, requested that they sing El Corrido de Chihuahua. They did, and what fun! She was singing right along with them, and it felt like old home week.

Any of you who grow cilantro have probably experienced "bolting", the point at which the plant shoots up a tall, frondy stem filled with flowers. Most garden sites recommend that you forget about stopping bolting and plant cilantro seed consecutively so you can always have fresh leaves. On the other hand, you could let your cilantro bolt and harvest the fronds and flowers; that's what you're looking at in the photo above, for sale in the Tlacolula market. Those little fronds are just as flavorful (if not even more intensely so) than standard cilantro leaves. The flowers? They're equally terrifically "cilantro" and are prized in traditional Mexican food! Try it this summer–harvest from at least one bolted plant and you'll be a convert.

These delantales (aprons) are a symbol of home cooks in this part of Oaxaca. Made from typically checkered fabric, they are then machine-embroidered with intricate and beautifully colorful flowers. If you should see a woman wearing one of these aprons in another part of Mexico, you can be almost positive that she bought it in Tlacolula. I have one–you should, too!

What in the world is this! No, not a new-to-you kind of mushroom, and not little rocks–it's a special kind of cacao (chocolate) bean that's used to make chocolateatole, a drink particular to Oaxaca. These cocoa beans, as they're known in English, have been buried in the ground for up to eight months, until the beans ferment and turn this grey and white color. A cook can ferment them herself, or buy them already fermented in the market. See here for more information about the preparation of chocolateatole.

These are Oaxaca-style polychromed jícaras; this style is often used as a drinking vessel, as well as for the preparation of tejate, a cold and refreshing chocolate drink. The jícara is the mature fruit of the Crescentia alata tree, commonly known in English as the calabash tree and in Spanish as the tecomate, or güiro, among other regional names. The immature fruit can be bound as it grows to shape it into elongated bottles, rattles, and other shapes. When allowed to mature without intervention, it is normally round; the pulp is removed from the fruit and the shell is dried. Once dried, the jícaras are either carved (see photo below) or are painted with plant resins, which gives them a totally natural finish that resembles a chemical varnish. Because the jícara is round on the bottom, you'll need a ring-shaped reed base called a rodete or yagua to allow the jícara to sit straight on a table.

Most of the jícaras in this basketful at Oaxaca's Mercado 20 de noviembre are dried and then carved with wonderful animals. The tecomate tree grows primarily in coastal areas and the jícaras are usually dried, carved or painted by artisans who live where the tree grows.

Rodete (base) for the jícara. These are available from the jícara vendor in the size you need to support the size jícaras you purchase. Ask the vendor to make sure you're buying the right size. Photo courtesy Artefacto.com.

These are very large Oaxaca-style metates with their metlapil, or mano (the tool that's shaped like a rolling pin, alongside one of the metates). All of these metates are painted with flowers, and some have the legends "Recuerdo de Oaxaca" (memento from Oaxaca)
or "Regalo de los Padrinos" (gift from your godparents–in this case, padrinos of your wedding). It's common for newlyweds to receive this crucial piece of kitchen equipment as a wedding gift. If one whispers your name and you want it for a memento, be sure to try to pick it up before you buy it to carry it home to Cleveland with you. You might reconsider.

The Tlacolula market isn't anything like the sterile experience of a supermarket, where you push your cart around, stuff it with boxed, canned, or frozen items, shove it to the checkout point, pay, pack up your plunder, and leave. Most Mexican markets–whether municipal markets or tianguis (street markets)–are for shopping, for listening to music, for having a bite to eat, for catching up on how the new baby is, whose son graduated from secundaria (junior high school), who's getting married and to whom (and maybe why so quickly), how god-awful much prices have gone up, and simple chisme (gossip) in general. The vendors all get to know you, and if you missed last Sunday's market, they ask if you were ill. You know all the vendors, and you ask how their husbands/wives/children/in-laws are faring. The market–whether it's the Sunday market or a weekday market–connects you to the pulse, the beating heart, of your town. See, your neighbor will help you tuck those tomatoes into your rebozo (long shawl). I'd far rather have this deep connection with my community than anonymous supermarket speed, wouldn't you?

We're back in the chapel at Templo Santa María de la Asunción, Tlacolula. This is Jesús, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday).

When I took this photograph at the Tlacolula market in April, I didn't notice the section of the newspaper this woman's flowers were wrapped in. As far as I'm concerned, it says everything.

Next week, we travel farther south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where we eat extraordinary food (cucarachas, anyone?), swoon over local textiles, go to a dance, and attend a couple of parties. Come along with us, you don't want to miss a minute!

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

16 de June de 2018
Seventy Kinds of Tamales, Seventy Cooks, One Fabulous Morning :: Fourth Day, Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras de Oaxaca

When we who know tamales think about Oaxaca-style tamales (and who here reading Mexico Cooks! doesn't know tamales?), this is what comes immediately to mind: a tamal oxaqueño like the one above, made from maíz nixtamalizado (in this case, corn prepared to make masa para tamales), filled with mole negro, mole amarillo, or another typical Oaxaca filling, wrapped in banana leaves, tied up, and steamed until ready to be devoured. Who knew that there were so many, many more traditional kinds of tamales from Oaxaca? Oaxaca is a state of eight regions, and each region has its tamales specialties, and oh boy! Get ready for thrills, chills, and corn-based excitement.

Early on the morning of April 28, 2018, the last day of the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca had an incredible treat in store for its attendees. In one large section of Oaxaca's centrally located Plaza de la Danza, all of the Encuentro's dining tables were squeezed tightly together to form several rows of demonstration stands. Seventy of the participating cocineras bustled about, each readying her space for the biggest tamales-making party I've ever seen. Each cook carefully made her mise en place–not that she would have called it that: having made tamales all her life, each cocinera knew in her bones just how to put her ingredients in exactly the place, exactly in the order, in which she needed them to be at hand.

A portion–just a small part–of the tamales demonstration. The crowd of attendees was so intensely packed and fascinated by what we were seeing, and the number of cocineras was so large, that it was difficult to make a plan to see all of them. Plus, the absolute beauty of so much living tradition playing out before my eyes caused me to continually wipe away tears of joy and gratitude that I was present. So moving…

Cocineras tradicionales in another section of the large demonstration space. The tamales resulting from the cocineras' preparations were later steamed and sold to the public. Right to left in the photo: cocineras tradicionales Sra. Gladys Hortencia Calvo García (in the white apron, preparing tamal pastel de carne) ; Sra. Rosario Cruz Cobos (tamales de masa cocida con costilla de puerco en hoja de pozol), (skip) and Sra. Emma Méndez García (tamal Nioti Nal'ma).

These are leaves from the almendro: the almond tree. Cocinera tradicional Sra. Raquel Silva Méndez from San Juan Bautista Cuicatlán (Zona Cañada) used them to wrap tamales de frijol.

Tamales de piedra (stone), which in fact are made with nixtamalize-d corn masa (dough) moistened with liquid from cooked black beans, formed on a base of leaves from aguacate nativo (native avocado trees), and then further wrapped in part of a banana plant trunk. In this photo, the jícara contains sea salt.

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Watch Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz, from San Juan Teitipac in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales, as she prepares tamales de piedra.

Here's the finished tamal de piedra, ready to be steamed. You can see the green avocado leaves poking out of the bundle; the aguacate nativo leaves add a slight anise flavor to these tamales. This tamal is one of the interesting types that I had never seen before attending the 2018 Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.

At the top, freshly rendered manteca de cerdo (pork lard). Below, home-made sausage for tamales de salchicha as prepared by cocinera tradicional Sra. Anel Felisa Hernández Morga, of Ejutla de Crespo (Zona Valles Centrales). This was another tamal new to me.

Another truly unusual Oaxacan tamal which I first tasted at the initial Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales in April 2017: tamal de tichinda, made with mejillones de agua dulce (sweet water mussels), incorporated shell and all into the nixtamalize-d corn masa (dough). These are wrapped in totomoxtle (dried and rehydrated corn husks) and then steamed; cocinera tradicional Sra. Brígida Martínez Ávila of Zapotalito, Tututepec (Zona Costa) is preparing these. Another variety is similarly made but is wrapped in banana leaves.

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Let's watch Sra. Martínez as she makes the tamales de tichinda. Notice that she fills one totomoxtle with the masa/tichinda mixture and then adds a second corn husk for further stability of the tamales. She sets them aside to be steamed later.

Tamales de tichinda, ready to be steamed. I dreamed about these delicious tamales for an entire year and was so thrilled to know that I could taste them again in 2018.

Expert hands making the initial folds of banana leaves, slightly warmed over a flame to make them soft and flexible, enclosing masa and a filling.

The second step of folding the banana leaves to enclose the masa and filling.

The final step: tying each bundle securely together with a strip of the same banana leaf.

Cocinera tradicional Sra. Elena Tapia Flores, who came from San Juan Colorado, Jamiltepec (Zona Costa) to prepare tamales de hierbabuena con pollo (tamales with mint and chicken) at the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i30BTCWyTsg&w=560&h=315]
Sra. Tapia kneads the masa for her tamales until it is the perfect consistency for spreading on rehydrated totomoxtle (dried, then rehydrated corn husks).

The prepared masa for Sra. Tapia's tamales de hierbabuena con pollo. The flecks that you see in the dough are hierbabuena (mint).

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Cocinera tradicional Sra. Catalina Chávez Lucas from Tlacolula de Matamoros (Zona Valles Centrales) prepares tamales de conejo (rabbit tamales).

Ingredients for tamales de cambray oaxaqueños: banana leaf, nixtamalize-d masa, and a mixture of chicken, potatoes, raisins, almonds, and mole paste.

Tamales de cambray, the finished product. These are right up at the top of my "favorite tamales" list. They are slightly sweet, slightly savory, and in my opinion, just right.

Cocinera tradicional María del Carmen Gómez Martínez of the Sierra Norte, filling one of her tamales de mole amarillo (yellow mole).

See how María del Carmen's tamales are rolled up? I've never seen tamales made in this style before, have you?

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These two elderly women, both cocineras tradicionales, really touched my heart: they kept plugging away and made so many tamales together. Life's much more rewarding when we share its work and its joys, its sorrows and its happiness, with one another!

Mexico Cooks! and everyone I met or talked with had a fabulous time at the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, held April 25-28, 2018, in the city of Oaxaca. If any of you would be interested in attending all or part of this incredible festival with me in 2019, please let me know as soon as possible. I'd be glad to send you a quote for a tour, for all or part of this incredibly exciting event.

Meantime, come back next week for the start of the next leg of the Mexico Cooks!/Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Café Phoenix fame to continue our tour of Oaxaca: next, we're going to the southernmost part of the state: the Isthmus of Tehuantepec! Here we go: first stop, the Sunday Market at Tlacolula, Oaxaca!

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

9 de June de 2018
Market to Table :: Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, Days Three and Four

Oaxaca's Mercado de la Merced. It's small compared to the city's downtown Mercado 20 de noviembre, yet quite complete in its offerings and is arguably the most traditional of Oaxaca City's markets. You'll find everything from freshly baked pan de yema to–well, to anything you might need from a market. The Merced also has a number of excellent fondas–small, often family-run restaurant stands where one can eat well for a relatively low price. The market is at the corner of Calles José María Morelos and Leandro Valle in the city of Oaxaca.

We started our morning at the famous Fonda Florecita inside the Mercado de la Merced. Foamy hot chocolate was the envy of this piggy bank. Although I have eaten here with great pleasure on many other occasions, none of us were too happy with breakfast today. We finished fairly quickly and took a walk through the market to see what was available and interesting.

These oval, "pleated" tomatoes are shaped almost like kidneys–hence their name, jitomate de riñón (kidney tomatoes). They are endemic to Oaxaca and have a slightly different and more intense tomato flavor that gives a truly special taste to the dishes in which they're used.

On the left, locally grown granadas (pomegranates). On the right, a tiny fruit called jiotillo, similar to its large cousin, the pitaya.

Anywhere you wander in Oaxaca, you'll find chapulines (grasshoppers) for sale. They come toasted with salt, chile, and a little jugo de limón (juice of Mexico's most common lime). These are my favorites, the tiniest ones. Sprinkled into a quesadilla, served with guacamole, or as a botana (snack) on their own, they're delicious. Yes, they really are.

What we see in Mexico is often a surreal juxtaposition of objects. Here, a market vendor displays raw chickens with their feet splayed out below a huge and beautiful magnolia flower, still on its branch. And why not.

Left to right: locally grown and freshly harvested ajo (garlic), an enormous green pod–close to 18" long–called cuajinicuil, tiny green miltomates in a plastic bag, and granadas (pomegranates).

Later we cut the cuajinicuil open at the edges to see and taste the edible parts inside. The raw, fluffy, white, fibrous material protects the green seeds and is the part that's eaten as a sweet fruit. The green seeds, which are just under two inches long, can be cooked and eaten, but are not eaten raw. We and several friends tried the white part and pronounced it delicious and refreshing.

Outside the market, newly laundered jeans hung on a chicken wire fence to dry.

We grabbed a cab from the market to the Plaza de la Danza in Oaxaca's Centro Histórico to continue with Day Three at the Second Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.

Just inside the entrance to the event, we saw this wonderful example of ingenuity: a wheelbarrow, converted into a fogón (fire enclosure, the flames are just visible)–complete with a cal (builder's lime) coated clay comal supported by bricks for preparing tortillas. The use of cal gives the surface of the comal a non-stick coating. Cocinera tradicional Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz of the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, was in charge of preparing the tortillas. We'll see more of doña Martina next week, in a special event at the Encuentro. "Doña" is an honorific given to women (it's "don", for men) as a sign of respect.

Ceviche made from wild mushrooms by young cocinera tradicional María del Carmen Gómez Martínez from Tlahuitoltepec, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca.

Garnachas–in this case, five small tortillas similar in size and shape to the antojito known as sopes, served with frijoles negros refritos (refried black beans), and with picadillo, among other toppings, all accompanied by delicious crumbled cheese and verduras encurtidas (pickled vegetables). Served with choice of salsas.

Cocineras from the Zona Triqui, west and slightly to the north of the city of Oaxaca City. The indigenous Triquis live in some of the most remote villages of Oaxaca state; outside their region, their food is very little known. These women, and several other Triqui women, traveled with some difficulty to bring their cuisine to the Encuentro. They were unfortunately disappointed in the public's limited understanding and acceptance of the food they prepared.

We were much enamored of each community and region's typical dress and hairstyle. Unfortunately I don't have notes to indicate some of the communities. There was simply too much to see, to much to hear, too much to experience, and above all, too many people crowded into booths to take highly detailed information.

Making tortillas with a press.

These beautifully dressed and coiffed cocineras tradicionales are anticipating what writer/chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas will say as she takes notes on what the food they prepared and served in their stand.

Panza rellena con barbacoa (sheep stomach stuffed with meat and spices and then long-cooked). The panza had just been removed from the cooking vessel and cut open. The fragrance was delicious! The panza, along with several other dishes made of sheep, was prepared and served by cocinero tradicional Sr. Irving Sergio Clemente Villegas from Villa Tejuapam de la Unión, Teposcolula, in the Zona Mixteca. Men rather than women are almost always in charge of making barbacoa. Each molcajete (volcanic stone grinding vessel) filled with tradition
al green and red salsas was actually bigger than the panza itself.

One other barbacoa expert was selling his wares at the Encuentro.  Sr. Alejandro López Cosme from the Villa de Zaachila in the Valles Centrales prepared Niño Envuelto made of barbacoa de res (beef barbacoa) or barbacoa de cerdo (pork barbacoa). Niño Envuelto translates literally to "a child wrapped up" and is the term used for making a jelly roll, so you can imagine how the meats are prepared for this dish. The beef is cut very thin, the way tasajo is cut, and well-seasoned. Then it's rolled around vegetables, layer upon layer, in a covering of native avocado leaves; the native avocado imparts an anise flavor to the meat. Then it's slathered with a concoction made by don Alejandro, covered, cooked for several hours, sliced, and served with salsa. Photo courtesy El Universal.

Cocinera tradicional Sra. Faustina Lucía Valencia Sánchez from San Antonino Castillo Velásco in the Valles Centrales, preparing chocolateatole early on the morning of the fourth day of the Encuentro. Sra. Valencia generously took the time to instruct us in the specifics of this uniquely Oaxacan drink. The foam for the drink, made of a particular kind of cocoa beans that are buried underground to ferment for as many as eight months–along with ground, toasted wheat, sugar, cinnamon, water, and other ingredients–is made separately from the atole itself, which is white. The foam is whipped until quite stiff with a special molinillo (chocolate beater) which has no loose rings. Once the foam is ready to be used, it will hold its shape for several hours or more. To serve the drink, one's cup is first filled with atole blanco, and then the thick, heavy foam is heaped on top. The foam is often made some time prior to the day it will be served, and then dried solid; when the festivities are about to start, the dried hunks of foam are ground to powder, sprinkled with water, and beaten again to use on top of the atole blanco (white atole).

Cacao fermentado (fermented cacao beans), the principal ingredient for Oaxacan chocolateatole. You might be familiar with champurrado, the chocolate atole (note separation of the words) made in many parts of Mexico. Chocolateatole is not champurrado, it is a drink unique to Oaxaca.

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Grinding the fermented cacao beans on a metate to prepare for the foam for chocolateatole.

Chocolateatole oaxaquéño, topped with a large amount of extremely thick chocolate foam and ready to be drunk.

The Encuentro offered four full days of academic conferences in addition to offering food from every region of Oaxaca. We heard panel conference about El Quehacer de una Cocinera Tradicional (The Tasks of a Traditional Cook), moderated by chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas; about La Cocina Oaxaqueña como Patrimonio del Estado de Oaxaca y la Importancia de Preservarla (The Oaxacan Cuisine as a Heritage and the Importance of Preserving It), presented by teacher, writer, and designer Claudio Sánchez Islas; El Maíz Como Patrimonio Gastronómico (Corn as a Gastronomic Heritage), presented by Maestro Rafael Mier Sáinz Trapaga (photo above); and Conversario de Cocineras Tradicionales del Estado de Oaxaca "Historias de la Vida" (A Conversation Among Traditional Cooks from Oaxaca: Life Stories, again moderated by writer/chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas.

The group of eight cocineras tradicionales who willingly shared their life histories. Left to right: Sra. Carina Santiago Bautista, Sra. Faustina Lucía Valencia Sánchez, Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz, Dra. Ana Laura Martínez (director of the Culinary Arts School in Tijuana, Baja California); Sra. Dolores García Arroyo; Sra. María Sarah Gómez Galán; Sra. Emma Méndez García (holding the microphone), Sra. Elena Tapia Flores (in the white cap), Sra. Porfiria Bautista López, and chef/writer Margarita Carrillo de Salinas, the moderator of the panel. This conference was so moving that we in the audience wept unguardedly as these women spoke. They opened their hearts and minds to tell us who they are, why they cook, and the incredible deep personal meaning their cooking holds for them, for their children, and for future generations. It was an honor and a privilege to be present.

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At the end of that conference, cocinera tradicional Sra. Emma Méndez García, from Huautla de Jiménez, La Cañada zone, sang her gratitude to the audience with this song in her native Mazateco language. Sra. Méndez prepared five distinct dishes for the Encuentro, among them pipián con huevo duro (a seed-based sauce with hard-boiled eggs), tamales with tesmole (a pre-Hispanic recipe), and quelites (native greens).

On that beautiful note, we'll stop until next week. Come back on June 9, 2018, to enjoy Mexico Cooks! final report about the Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca. We're going to visit 70 cocineras traditionales as each of them prepares tamales important in the region where each cook lives. You know that I've been to many, many of Mexico's fantastic food events, but I have never been so bowled over as I was by the tamales demonstration. Don't miss it, right here in one week.

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2 de June de 2018
Hearts Filled with Love, Stomachs Filled with Food :: 2018 Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, Day Two

The 2nd Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca was about food, of course–more than 300 different and delicious dishes, prepared and served by about 85 of Oaxaca's finest traditional cooks, from all eight regions of the state of Oaxaca. The event was also food for the heart and soul, an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and colleagues and to meet people who were sure to become close to us. Lifelong cocinera tradicional (and owner with her husband, Fidel Méndez) of Oaxaca City's Restaurante Las 15 Letras, my beloved and beautiful friend Celia Florián (above) is the person in charge of organizing and overseeing the Encuentro. She works in tandem with Adriana Aguilar, director of the Oaxaca City Tourism Department, and with Myriam Corro Niño de Rivera of the same agency, as well as with an entire team of incredibly organized and dedicated people, to bring the Encuentro to fruition each year. It takes the steady hands of people passionately devoted to an event to bring it to such a high state of art. Photo courtesy Lourdes Rosas. All other photos copyright Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

At the early-April Mexico City press conference before (and about) the Encuentro, key members of the organizing committee along with two cocineras tradicionales, without whom there would be no Encuentro. Left to right: Sra. Dolores Ofelia Martínez Pacheco, Oaxaca; Sra. Celia Florián; Sra. Adriana Aguilar; Myriam Corro Niño de Rivera; Sra. Margarita Carrillo de Salinas; Sra. Catalina Chávez Lucas.

The irrepressible María del Carmen Gómez Martínez, cocinera tradicional from Tlahuitoltepec, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca. Due to her wonderful charisma and her delicious array of regional dishes (empanadas de frijol, several types of tamales, caldo mixe, and the spectacular tepache con espuma roja (pictured below, all from the Sierra Norte), her stand at the Encuentro was always crowded with fans. Photo courtesy Silvana Salcido Esparza.

One of the delicious traditional preparations little known outside regional Oaxaca and made by María del Carmen Gómez is this tepache con espuma roja, a slightly fermented drink made with pulque, panela (raw brown sugar), and a thick foam made of ground corn, chocolate, and achiote. Achiote is a spice/coloring agent usually associated with comida (food) from Yucatán, but it is also used in Oaxaca. To the left, blue corn tortillas.

Sra. Concepción Abrego Rivera, cocinera tradicional from San Pedro y San Pablo Teposcolula, in the Mixteca region north of the city of Oaxaca. Sra. Abrego is holding hoja de milpa, long corn leaves used to wrap a kind of regional tamal.

Chile relleno mixteco prepared by Sra. Abrego. The chile she used was the small, dried chile pasillo oaxaqueño, reconstituted, filled with delicious picadillo (in this case, a savory and fruited hash), then covered with egg batter and fried. The sauce, which makes my mouth water just seeing the picture, contains almonds, capers, olives, pineapple, and typically sweet and sour seasonings. This dish was among my top three favorites at the Encuentro. I liked it so well I ate it two days in a row and wish I could have it for my comida (Mexico's main midday meal) today!

A group of colleagues and friends in Mexico's culinary world: left to right, long-time journalist Celia Marín Chiunti, extraordinary professional photographers Sergio Mendoza Alarcón and Bertha Herrera, and delightful writer/editor Marichuy Garduño. Seeing each of them–and particularly having the opportunity to spend this time together eating, laughing, and catching up on the latest news–was a sweet treat indeed.

Abigail Mendoza Ruíz in her outdoor home kitchen, preparing just a small amount (!) of mole negro for a fandango (huge Oaxaca-style party) in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. In the background, you can see a large pedal loom; the Mendoza Ruíz family are well-known as wool rug weavers as well as cooks.  Mexico Cooks! was privileged to have been among the women invited to the day-long fiesta.

Rufina Mendoza Ruíz (back to camera) and Marcelina Mendoza Ruíz as they prepare plates of enmoladas for eager diners at the 2018 Encuentro. Their glistening hair is braided with red ribbons typical to Teotitlán del Valle. The braids are often wrapped together on top of a woman's head, as you can see in the photo of Abigail Mendoza making her mole negro. Photo courtesy Silvana Salcido Esparza.

Enmoladas con mole negro (tortillas dipped in black mole, then rolled with chicken and topped with more mole negro, thinly sliced onion, chopped parsley, and fresh cheese) as prepared by the delightful Mendoza Ruíz sisters: Abigail, Rufina, and Marcelina. The Mendoza Ruíz family are lifelong residents of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, about 30 minutes south of Oaxaca City.

Chilecaldo, shared with me by my lovely Mexico City friend, Ruth Fajardo González. The reddish-brown chile chilhuacle rojo to the left in the bowl gives the caldo an inimitable taste: no other chile is like the chilhuacle. In the case of the chilecaldo, the chile is used when fresh. If you need this chile dried, (it has black, red, and yellow varieties) and live outside Mexico, it's sometimes available online. Ruth generously let me taste the soup–the broth alone was deeply flavorful and spiced perfectly by the chilhuacle. This regional caldo was prepared by cocinera tradicional Sra. Mayra Mariscal Hernández, of San Juan Bautista Cuicatlán, where most of the chilhuacle chiles are produced by just five producers, in the Cañada zone of Oaxaca state.

Beloved friends–we took a brief break from stuffing ourselves to have our picture taken. What joy to be together at the Encuentro! Left to right: Celia Marín Chiunti and (standing, in red) Sonia Ortiz, founders of the wonderful Youtube channel Cocina al Natural, (seated) Mexico Cooks!. Standing, Rafael Mier, found of the profoundly important Facebook group Tortilla de Maíz Mexicana (if you haven't joined, please add your name to the group's nearly 350,000 followers!) and Silvana Salcido Esparza, six-time James Beard nominated chef (Best Chef Southwest USA) and owner of restaurants Barrio Café and Barrio Café Reserva, Phoenix, Arizona. Photo courtesy our long-suffering waiter, who pushed his way through the crowds to deliver drinks, food, and photographs!

Our group of many friends shared this newly made fresh cheese. The cheese was wrapped in the large leaf you see; the leaf left its imprint on the cheese and kept the cheese moist and cool. We ate it all, of course.

Beautiful mazapán (marzipan) shaped like various fruits. These delicious candies are made by cocinera tradicional Sra. Verónica Josefina Sánchez Pérez, from Ejutla de Crespo in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales. She makes them by hand, from squash seeds or coconut, and colors them by hand as well. My particular favorite is at the far right of the plate: it's a miniature jícama!

Everybody loves mezcal from Oaxaca and it's always good to taste whatever brand or variety is offered. Click on this or any photo to make it bigger so you can see it better; here, the priest has a tasting glass in each hand. As the saying goes, "Una vez al año no hace daño." (Once a year does no harm.) Mexico Cooks! saw him in the Market section of the Encuentro.

Vendedor de gardenias (gardenia seller) at the Encuentro. He walked by every table and sold many bouquets of fragrant gardenias.

Next week, Days 3 and 4 of the Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca. We're only halfway through–and the festival just kept getting better. Days 3 and 4–well, you'll see. Remember to come back to read more!

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26 de May de 2018
Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca

A few weeks ago, Mexico Cooks! featured a retrospective about the First Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, encouraging readers to hotfoot it south to the city of Oaxaca for the Second Annual Encuentro. Above is the 2018 poster for the event, which was held from April 25 through 28. The first of these festivals, held in 2017, was marvelous. The 2018 festival was–was–how many superlatives do I get to write? At three weeks post-Encuentro, my eyes still well up with tears just thinking about the impact the organization and organizers of the event, the traditional cooks themselves and their life stories, the huge number of attendees, and the food–the food!–had on me and on everyone I talked to at the event. Memorable is hardly a big enough word for this really fantastic festival, but I can't think of a better one.

My wonderful friend Silvana Salcido Esparza, chef extraordinaire and owner at Barrio Café and Barrio Café Gran Reserva in Phoenix, Arizona, traveled with me to Oaxaca to experience the Encuentro. We got off the plane from Mexico City at midday on April 25, just in time to run to Oaxaca's Plaza de la Danza for the official opening of the event. Were we excited to be on the ground in Oaxaca? Just look at those faces!

We peeked over the wall of the Plaza de la Danza in Oaxaca's Centro Histórico and were astounded by a sea of attendees, everyone packed into the space and already enjoying the 85 traditional cooks' food. We snaked through the crowd, found a couple of seats at one of the packed tables, and cheered the dancing, speeches, and music, greeting friends and making introductions and generally whooping it up.

The food stand closest to the Encuentro entrance belonged to Rosario Cruz Cobos and her hard-working crew. For the entire four days of the festival, her crew of guys built the wood fires that roasted these cochinos a la cubana (literally, pigs Cuban style) but also hugely popular fiesta food from San José Chiltepec in the Papaloapan region of the state of Oaxaca, north and east of the city of Oaxaca.

Silvana waited in line for nearly an entire hour for an enormous serving of the delicious, juicy roast pork with a generous portion of crisp skin. Of course we shared it, as I'm sure many of Sra. Cruz's patrons also did. Half of the order is hidden by large folded tortillas, as is the huge serving of refried black beans. Silvana said, "The wait time in all that smoke was long but the pig was worth it!"

The next dish we tried was chileajo amarillo, prepared by traditional cook Sra. Yolanda Garzón Acevedo, from Huajuapan, Oaxaca, located in the Mixtec zone, north and a bit west of the city of Oaxaca. The fork-tender meat in the chileajo is fried carne de cerdo (pork). The sauce is made with chile guajillo, chile costeño amarillo, oregano, cumin, and garlic, among other ingredients. This dish was so extremely good that I actually ate it twice.

Here's a huge cazuela (deep clay cooking dish with handles) of mole de fiesta (mole for a party!), another dish from the same region. The mole de fiesta was also prepared by Sra. Yolanda Garzón Acevedo of Huajuapan and is one of her specialties. It's sweeter than the chileajo amarillo.  Silvana and I couldn't resist sampling both of the dishes–we polished off our shares.

Sra. Ivette Morán, the wife of Oaxaca's governor, tastes the mole de fiesta as cocinera tradicional Yolanda Garzón Acevedo watches to see how she likes it. Was there any doubt? Sra. Morán's eyes all but rolled back in her head from pleasure.

In the market section of the Encuentro, inside the Instituto de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts School) at the side of the Plaza de la Danza, the organizers had mounted a large selection of seasonal products–everything from amaranth products to this beautiful pitaya (cactus fruit). These fruits, about the size of a tennis ball, can be wine red, green, or purple inside. Their consistency is similar to watermelon
, they are just that juicy, and are marvelously sweet.

You can't guess, not in a million years, what this is: a tamal oaxaqueño de tichinda. It's a tamal (the singular form of the word tamales–one tamal, two tamales) made with tichinda (sweet-water mussels–shell and all–mixed into the masa (corn dough) for the tamales. The women who make these tamales go out into the water to gather the mussels, then clean them, make the masa, and wrap this tamal Oaxaqueño in banana leaves; these were prepared by cocinera tradicional Sra. Elena Tapia Flores, from coastal San Juan Jimaltepec. Another style is wrapped in dried and rehydrated totomoxtle (corn husks). Both are wonderful. At the Encuentro last year, I ate tichindas en caldo de frijol (sweet water mussels in bean broth), because by the time I got around to that, the tamales were sold out. This year, I was determined to try the tamales.

At the end of the Encuentro's opening day, a sated and sleepy-eyed group of friends gathered on the rooftop patio of another friend's home in Oaxaca's Centro Histórico. Her plumeria (also known in Oaxaca as guechachi, also known as May flower), was in full, fragrant bloom. We breathed in the perfume, drank some mezcal, nibbled a peanut or two, and talked well into the evening.

Next week: Day Two of the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca. Don't miss it!

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19 de May de 2018
Bakeries and Their Basque Origins in Mexico City :: Please Wash Your Feet Before Entering!

Pan Segura, Legítimo Estilo Jalisco (Bread Segura, Legitimate Jalisco Style) is almost literally a hole in the wall on Calle 16 de septiembre in Mexico City's Centro Histórico. There's just enough open space for a person to squeeze single file and sideways past a bread case and into the slightly wider part of the bakery to pick up a tray and tongs. Buy bread here often enough and you probably won't fit through the door! The bakery bears the Segura family name.

A while back, Mexico Cooks! was invited to take a Mexico City tour of traditional bakeries. Would I like to join them? Did I leap at the chance? You bet! Universidad Iberoamericana, in the person of Maestra Sandra Llamas, planned the bakery tour to explore the 19th century presence in Mexico of Basque immigrants from the province of Navarre, Spain. Those immigrants came from the Spanish Valley of Baztán to live in Mexico City at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Ultimately, they became the most important European influence on Mexico's commercial bakeries, flour sellers, and yeast purveyors.

Racks of Jalisco-style pan dulce (Mexican sweet breads) at Pan Segura. Their most famous sweet bread is the unique cuadros de queso (cheese squares). Large, densely textured, and completely delicious, the bread balances between sweet and salty. With a freshly squeezed glass of juice, it's big enough to be breakfast. It's also addictive. Trust me, eating one cuadro de queso today leaves you wanting another tomorrow.

Maestra Sandra Llamas begins the tour of traditional bakeries by offering an overview of prominent Basque bakers in 19th century Mexico City. Approximately 25 people of every young-adult and adult age participated in our three-bakery walking tour.

During Porfirio Díaz's long presidency/dictatorship (1876-1910), all things European were very much the rage in Mexico. Spanish and French goods were much more highly valued than goods made in Mexico. During the Porfiriato (the name used to describe those nearly 35 years), many Basque families were accustomed to sending their adolescent first-born sons to the New World. These young men arrived all but penniless in Mexico, and their families in Spain expected that they would make successes of themselves in their new homes.

In 1877, there were 68 bakeries in Mexico City. By 1898, the bakery count was up to 200. Most of the bakery owners were Basques from Navarre. They did not bring baking to Mexico, but they did bring a particular way of doing business. They bought wheat fields, built urban rather than rural flour mills, bought bakeries, and soon dominated the market that catered to one of humankind's basic needs: hunger.

Don Braulio Iriarte Goyeneche was born in Navarra, Spain, in 1860 and arrived in Mexico City in 1877.

Arguably the most successful of these young Basques was the teenager who, as an adult in Mexico City, would be known as don Braulio Iriarte Goyeneche. In 1877, his family forced him to leave Navarra and make a life for himself in this unknown world across the sea. Industrious, hard-working, and creative, the young Iriarte began his career as an employee at one of Mexico's first commercial bakeries. By the end of the 1800s, he was Mexico's king of flour, yeast, and bread. The two keys to his success were his business acumen and the trustworthy cleanliness of his bakeries.

More Jalisco-style bread from Pan Segura. This tiny bakery has been in operation for 85 years.

During the fourth quarter of the 19th century, common practice meant that campesinos (country boys) worked barefoot in bakeries. They were required to remove their footwear–if they actually had shoes to wear–at the beginning of the workday and scrub their feet until they were spotless. In an attempt to keep their feet clean, they were not allowed to go outside the bakery during the day–locked in with the ovens, barefoot boys and young men clad in the white pants and shirts of the campesino, danced 17 hours a day in the heat of a wood-fired bakery to knead the fresh-made dough . It's no wonder that some customers complained occasionally that their bread was too salty: blame the extra salt on the campesinos' sweat blended into the flour mixture. Don Braulio's bakeries were considered to be extremely sanitary because, unlike in other Mexico City bakeries, machinery did all the kneading. No one's feet touched the dough.

Conchas (shells, a kind of sweet bread) from Panadería El Molino. These conchas are quiet large, and you can see that when I took this photograph, the price per piece was five pesos (at the exchange rate at the time, approximately 36 US cents).

At the end of the 19th century in Mexico, the salary for a Mexico City panadero (baker) was two pesos per month. Yes, two. In 1903, Mexico City's bakers began what is known as la huelga de los bolillos (the bread strike). Their demand? A raise in salary to 2.5 pesos per month. The bakers gave or threw away thousands of the individual-serving size loaves of the white bread known as bolillos to protest the bakery owners' reluctance to pay them a half peso more per month. The bakery owners' main fear was that their young men would drink substantially more due to the salary increase.

Sr. Iriarte rapidly rose to the highest level of prominence in Mexico's world of wheat, flour, and yeast. Within 30 years of his arrival in Mexico City, he and a business partner owned numerous bakeries, had opened a flour mill in Toluca (near the urban center of Mexico City), and founded Mexico's first commercial yeast factory. By the end of the 1920s, he was grinding nearly all of Mexico's wheat.

In early 1922, Sr. Iriarte added another business to his stable: the Corona brewery, which has grown to become one of the largest and most important breweries in the world. Its flagship beer, Corona, is the largest-selling Mexican beer in the world. What's the connection between beer and bread? Yeast.

At El Molino, a bakery worker paints apricot syrup onto fresh-from-the-oven trenzas (braids) made of puff paste. She will then sprinkle the braids with sesame seeds.

You don't use your fingers to pick up bread in Mexico's bakeries. Near the entrance to any bakery, you'll find trays and tongs for choosing what you want to buy. Load up your tray and the check-out clerk will use your tongs to put your bread in its bag or box, then bang the crumbs off the tray and back into the rack it goes, for the next customer's use.

Our tour took in three bakeries, all within a few blocks on Calle 16 de septiembre in Mexico City's Centro Histórico. Pan Segura is the smallest of the three, barely big enough for four or five people to shop for bread at the same time. Pastelería El Molino, just down the street, has been in business since 1918 and was purchased first by Carlos Slim Helú's Panadería El Globo and then was sold to Grupo Bimbo, a giant international wholesale bread-baking concern which bought both bakeries in 2005.

The undisputed pan dulce and cake palace of Mexico–of anywhere in Mexico!–is the Pastelería La Ideal, at its original location at Calle 16 de septiembre 28, Centro Histórico, Mexico City. If you haven't breathed in its air of flour and sugar and bread fresh from the oven, you haven't experienced Mexico City. By all means make this wonder of the world a part of your next trip.

The crown of our bakery tour was its visit to Pastelería La Ideal, long one of Mexico Cooks!' favorite spots in Mexico City. The bakery is enormous. Founded in 1927, the bakery specializes in…well, it specializes in being special. The first floor is devoted to decorative and delicious gelatins, flans, small cookies called pasta seca, everyday cakes, and breads. Hundreds of kinds of breads–350 different kinds, to be exact. Unbelievable amounts of bread, but there it is: right in front of your eyes and absolutely believable. This bakery alone (it has two more branches in the city) turns out 50 to 55 thousand pieces of bread every day, seven days a week. The number boggles the mind.

One small room on the first floor of Pastelería La Ideal.

Cochinitos (gingerbread pigs), detail of one tray with stacks and stacks of one of the most traditional sweet breads in Mexico, at Pastelería La Ideal. The number of trays of cochinitos is beyond comprehension. Seeing is almost–almost!–believing.

Little cookie men in their two-button suits at La Ideal.

Muffins with candied fruits, Pastelería La Ideal.

This branch of Pastelería La Ideal is closed for cleaning for exactly one hour a day. If you go between five and six o'clock in the morning, you'll find the doors locked. Otherwise, teams of master bakers (17 to 20 per shift, three eight-hour shifts per day) supervise and work with 350 workers to give us this day our daily bread.

La Ideal traditional package on Mexico Cooks!' dining room table. We bought our neighbor a coffee cake. Honest, it was really for her.

During the early morning hours, you'll see men and women rushing up and down Calle 16 de septiembre and its surrounding streets, carrying packages from La Ideal, tied up with string, tucked under their arms or dangling from outstretched fingers. Mexico City's desayuno (breakfast), whether at home or at the office, almost always includes a pan, either salado or dulce (salty or sweet bread). Cuernitos (like croissants), biscoches (biscuits), panqué (poundcake), pan danés (Danish pastry), bigotes (bread shaped a bit like a moustache), orejas (elephant ears), and conchas (shells), plus bolillo, telera, and all the other kinds of breads fly off the shelves and into Mexico City offices and home kitchens, to be served with a coffee or hot chocolate.

Chocolate cake filled with strawberry marmalade and topped with cream horns, Pastelería La Ideal. In the evening, Mexico City stops back in at La Ideal to buy a little something for cena (light supper): a cake, a gelatin, or some cupcakes or cookies. This cake costs 190 pesos. Click on any photo to enlarge and show details.

The second floor of Pastelería La Ideal is entirely about big-deal party cakes. You and the person who is giving a party with you sit down at a tiny desk with a La Ideal sales associate to have a serious discussion about cake: how many people you plan to invite for cake, how much other food there will be, what the occasion might be, how much you want to spend, and any other question you need to ask to have just the right cake made for your needs.

This six-kilo cake (model J-28) decorated with a chocolate basket and pink sugar roses would be perfect for your aunt's birthday, Mother's Day, or any occasion where a small cake is necessary. Hold onto your hats:

Model L-20, decorated with clowns, balloons, ribbons, and stalactites made of icing, weighs 25 kilos and is designed for a child's birthday party. Twenty-five kilos and four stories equal a mid-size cake at La Ideal. There are cakes for quinceañeras (girls' fifteenth birthday parties), engagement parties, first communion parties, and wedding receptions that weigh as much as 50 kilos or more. Those cakes are constructed with pisos (multiple vertical or horizontal layers), bridges, and some have actual running-water waterfalls. The size of your expected crowd dictates the size of the cake.

Real bolillo, currently very rarely seen even in Mexican bakeries, and much missed. Slightly crusty on the outside, dense and flavorful on the inside…all but a thing of the past.

Some things at your bakery are just about the same as they were when the Basques came to Mexico: bread is freshly baked throughout the day and night, it's affordable, and some is still quite delicious. Other things have changed completely: in most commercial bakeries, margarine or vegetable shortenings are used instead of butter, most everything is mechanized, and the lowly, delicious bolillo–Mexico's original white bread–is now more like cotton batting than like honest bread. I have vowed to track down any real bolillo that still exists. It's the best thing since–since before sliced bread! I promise to report back–or if you know where to find it in Mexico City, please let me know!

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12 de May de 2018
Pinche Gringo BBQ: The Silver Twinkie in Mexico City, Still Wonderful Choices!

In this mural around the corner from the restaurant, the silver Twinkie, icon of the Pinche Gringo BBQ joint, floats above Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), offering a bilingual welcome to everyone in the Distrito Federal who wants Texas-style barbecue. You might be amazed to see how many people line up every day for a pile of smokey pork meat and a couple of sides or a mile-high beef brisket sandwich. In just seven months, this BBQ heaven had to expand twice to accommodate the crowds. G'wan, line up. We did. Photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

Pinche Gringo BBQ menu. Click on any photo to enlarge the image. Photo courtesy Pinche Gringo.

Mexico Cooks!, a person of a certain age, usually manages a fair degree of decorum when in public. "Pinche" is not a very nice word in Mexico, especially when attached to gringo, a word I certainly know but refuse to use either in writing or speaking. This whole article is an exception to my rule. It surprises me no end when foreigners who hail from north of the Mexican border identify themselves with the derogatory term gringos, but Dan Defossey, the pinche gringo himself and founder of the feast, brings it off with grace.

Dan is a native New Yorker, transplanted to Austin, Texas and thence to Mexico City. He's a righteous smoked barbecue fiend. When he arrived in Mexico's capital, he had plenty of barbecue eating experience but no restaurant-running experience. It was the barbecue-eating experience he missed during his first four years in Mexico. Until his Pinche Gringo BBQ joint hit the scene in Colonia Narvarte, having a taste of 'cue meant an 11-hour drive to the Texas border.

Dan retrofitted the silver Twinkie, otherwise known as an Airstream travel trailer, for use as a cafeteria-style restaurant counter. Line up, study the wall-mounted menu while you wait, grab a tray and tell the genial (and bilingual) staff inside the trailer what you want to eat. A plated meat order (using the term loosely, since the Pinche Gringo piles your meat not on a plate but on a big sheet of brown paper, directly on your tray) comes with two sides; you can order sides separately if you choose a sandwich. My order? "Carne de cerdo deshebrado (de-seh-BRAH-doh, Texas-style pulled pork), macaroni and cheese, and barbecue beans, please." One of my companions had ordered the pork ribs, with sides of potato salad and cole slaw; the plan was to share everything.

The line forms at the rear. The day Mexico Cooks! and a couple of boon companions went to eat BBQ, we purposely went quite early (1:00PM) to avoid a long wait. Mexico eats its main meal of the day at around three o'clock and we wanted to beat the rush. It turned out to be a strangely slow day; when there's a crowd, the line can snake all the way to the front door, down a step, and around the corner to the end of the building. Note the picnic table: at this very rustic restaurant, all seating is this type.

Pinche Gringo accepts cash payments and all credit cards. You can also pay via the PG iPad at the cashier–using PayPal Check-In, which takes the cost of your meal directly out of your PayPal account. It's a neat new wrinkle in payment processing. From the top down, the sign translates to, "Really damn practical, really damn easy, really damn fast!"

Time to cut to the chase: these are the pork ribs, a half-rack of smoked ribs, thickly drizzled with PG sauce and accommpanied by potato salad, cole slaw, a sesame-seeded roll, and Texas sweet tea. The flavor of the ribs was soft and smokey, but our companions, who also ordered ribs, said they weren't as fall-off-the-bone tender as he has eaten them the other four times he's been to Pinche Gringo. "Why did I pick the ribs? I love the pulled pork best," he regretted.

My other companion's potato salad tasted just like Mom used to make: rich with mayonnaise, slightly mustard-y, and just the right combo of tang and potato. The texture was strange to me, almost like mashed potato with lumps. I prefer my potato salad chunky, with the potatoes at a melt-in-the-mouth tenderness. The cole slaw, made with purple cabbage and carrots, was perfect.

The big pile-on-the-tray of pulled pork, sauced and with a side of mac'n'cheese and another of barbecue style beans. The fork-tender, slightly fatty pulled pork was the hands-down winner of the meal. I was loathe to share this pile with a companion in exchange for some of her ribs, but a deal is a deal.

The Texas-style beans were just right, sweet and smoky. The mac'n'cheese was slightly spicy, very cheesy, and creamy in the mouth. Score!

Smoked, tender beef brisket, chopped, stacked up six inches high and oozing out of the confines of its bun, served with onion and dill pickles and of course the standard PG sauce. A generous customer let me take this picture of his meal–but I noticed that he didn't offer me a taste. Some people just want it all for themselves!

Luis Urrutia Alonzo, one of the PGBB staff, let me sneak behind the scenes to photograph the four-door wood-fired gargantuan smoker. At the bottom left corner you can see the little burner. Gauges indicate that the heat is kept at a slow, even temperature. The meat is cooked for a while to seal in the juices, then wrapped in aluminum foil and smoked for ten hours–overnight. Dan Defossey brought the smoker from Texas, along with the elderly Airstream trailer. Sometime when you're at Pinche Gringo, ask him to tell you the tale of the trip.

Two of the several drink options: barrels of free-refill lemonade and Texas sweet tea. In addition, there's a good range of soft drinks and several kinds of beer.

Pie for dessert! The pies change every month. The pies for the day we were there, in this case: on the left, raspberry and cheese. On the right, real down-home apple pie. Which to choose! We all had the apple; it was as good as any I've ever had–really good.

So long for now, Pinche Gringo! We'll see you again soon to try more of your smokey Texas menu. You're a welcome addition to the Mexico City restaurant scene. Even though you don't offer tortillas or micheladas or Mexican salsas, everybody loves your style.

UPDATE as of May 9, 2018. Beautiful!: Pinche Gringo Hires Deportees from the USA

Pinche Gringo BBQ
Cumbres de Maltrata 360
Colonia Narvarte
Del. Benito Juárez 03020
Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal
Tel. 55 6389 1129
Hours: Tuesday through Friday: 1PM – 7PM
Saturday and Sunday: Noon – 7PM
Monday: Closed

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5 de May de 2018
An Overview of Some of Mexico’s Dried Chiles

These bright-red dried chile de árbol (tree chile) are slender, pointed, and about four inches long. These chiles are really–but really–picante. Soak, toast and liquefy them to use in salsas, or dry-grind them to powder, then dust the chile, along with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of jugo de limón (lemon juice) onto raw fruits and vegetables. Start with just a little, though, till you know how much heat your palate will tolerate.

Generally when I see dried chiles in the United States or in Canada, they're packaged in sealed plastic bags and are not only dry, they're downright crisp and crunchy. They crackle when you touch them through the plastic. When you're buying dried chiles, try to buy them at a Latin market near you. If you're lucky, you'll be able to buy them in bulk–just the quantity you need for the recipe you're preparing–and they'll still be leathery and flexible. That's exactly how you want them to be. Those crisp, crackly chiles are old–who knows how old!–and completely past their prime.

Left on the plant to ripen to a deep mahogany red, then dried and smoked, the chile jalapeño becomes the chile chipotle. It's one of the spiciest of Mexico's dried chiles, and one of the most flavorful. Buy it at a market as you see it in the photo, or buy it canned en adobo (a delicious, dark, spicy sauce). You'll find canned chile chipotle at most Latin markets. If you can find La Morena brand, they're fantastic.

The chile morita will remind you of the chipotle because of its smoky fragrance and very spicy but sweetish taste. Some say the morita is the last of the mature jalapeño crop to be harvested (and therefore smaller than the earlier harvest); others say it's actually a smaller variety of chile jalapeño.

Chile cascabel (bell chile) has a mildly spicy, nutty flavor. It's the dried version of the fresh, red chile bola. Cascabel means "bell"–the sort of bell you might see on a cat's collar. Hold it by the stem, shake it, and you'll understand its name: the rattle of the dried seeds inside gives the name away.

Reconstituted by soaking and toasting, the familiar chile ancho is used for preparing salsas and many other common dishes. The mature fresh chile poblano, left on the plant to ripen to a deep, dark red, becomes the dried ancho. To make sure you are buying chile ancho and not chile mulato–the two are often confused and/or mislabeled–slice open one of the chiles and hold it up to the light. As the light shines through the chile, the ancho glows red, the mulato is mid-range brown.

The beautiful stained-glass-red of the chile ancho, held up to the light.

Chile guajillo, reddish-brown, flat, and about six or seven inches long, is one of the most commonly used Mexican dried chiles. Indispensable for preparing Jalisco's signature pozole rojo, the guajillo is also an ingredient in moles, adobos, and salsa picante. Here's a recipe for Mexico Cooks!' favorite mushroom appetizer, champiñones al ajillo:

Champiñones al Ajillo estilo Mexico Cooks!
Mushrooms in Garlic/Guajillo Sauce, Mexico Cooks! Style

1 lb good-size fresh white mushrooms
4-6 chiles guajillos, leathery and flexible
4-6 large cloves of garlic
Minced flat leaf parsley
Olive oil as needed
Sea salt to taste

Remove the stems from the chiles. Shake the seeds out through the stem opening and save them for another use in the future. Bring the chiles just to a boil in a pan of water. Turn off the heat and soak for about 30 minutes.

While the chiles are soaking, clean the mushrooms and cut the stems off, even with the caps.

Drain the chiles and pat dry. Cut them into 1/8" slices across their width.

Mince the garlic.

In a 12" skillet over medium heat, sauté the garlic in oil just until it begins to soften. Add the chile strips and sauté for a few minutes more. Add the mushrooms and sauté until tender. Sprinkle with minced parsley, add sea salt to taste, and toss very briefly. Plate and serve.

Serves 3-4 as an appetizer.

Provecho!

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28 de April de 2018
Fresh Chiles Common in Mexico and Beyond

The ubiquitous chile jalapeño is popular all over Mexico and the world, at points north, south, east, and west. The jalapeño measures anywhere from 2" to 3" long and rates between 10,000 and 20,000 units on the Scoville scale. We usually see it in markets when it's green, but in some markets we also see it red–like the one on the bottom left of the photo. The jalapeño is the chile most people outside Mexico think of when they think of what we use to prepare Mexican food.

Chile–hot, savory, wonderful chile–has been part of Mexico's food culture for literally thousands of years. The Nahuatl name is chilli. Chile, corn, squash, avocado and beans formed the indigenous dietary base for thousands of years before the Spanish first sailed into the bays of what they called the New World–it was, of course, a new world only in their eyes. The earliest chiles in Mexico have been carbon-dated to approximately 11,000 years ago!

Here in Mexico, we've learned to distinguish the qualities of different types of chile not only by their colors and forms but also by the degree of heat they impart to our foods and palates. Picor (heat), as subjective an experience in the mouth as one's experience of sweetness or sourness, ranges from a disappointed shrug to holy Moses, bring the fire hose!

Chile poblano, usually mildly picante (heat-producing), has a distinctive, rich flavor to match its deep inky-green color. The poblano usually measures about 6" to 7" long, 1,000 to 2,000 Scoville units, and is most commonly used to prepare chiles rellenos. Once in a while a poblano will surprise you with more heat than you expect! One of the most delicious preparations using chiles poblanos is the seasonal Chile En Nogada–stuffed chiles poblanos in walnut sauce.

Wilbur Scoville, an early 20th Century American chemist, quantified the heat factor of various chiles and left us all with an approach to picor more scientific than simple subjectivity. His objective scale of heat ranges from 1 (the sweet red bell pepper) to a possible 325,000 (the chile habanero). What Scoville didn't quantify was flavor; chile is substantially more than a mere fire in your mouth.

Chile güero (blond chile, about the size of a jalapeño) is only slightly higher on the Scoville scale than chile poblano. These chiles, like jalapeños or serranos, are often hand-rubbed to loosen the seeds, oiled, grilled, and served as chiles toreados, alongside an order of tacos.

Chile chilaca, grown extensively in Queréndaro, Michoacán, is widely used in Michoacán but is not quite as well-known outside this region. It measures between 8 and 10 inches long and is 2,500-5,000 Scoville units. In color and flavor–and heat–it is very similar to the poblano.

Chile de árbol (tree chile, although it's not grown on a tree) is picked green to use as a fresh chile and allowed to mature to bright red for different uses as a dried chile. It's usually 3" to 4" long. It's a good bit hotter on the Scoville scale than previous chiles: 15,000-30,000 units.

Chile manzano (aka chile perón), a bit bigger than a golf ball, packs a punch: 30,000-60,000 on the Scoville scale. The manzano is hot, but also very floral in flavor. It's usually used in encurtidos (pickled vegetables with chiles) and salsas, but also seasons broths and other dishes.

Known in parts of Michoacán as chile chiltepiquín, this little orange devil is only about 1.5" long but measures 50,000-100,000 Scoville units.

The small but infamous chile habanero (Havana chile) is arguably the hottest fresh chile grown in Mexico, ranking as high as 350,000 Scoville units. Merely slit open and passed through some salsas, the habanero leaves just a hint of its tremendous heat after it's removed from the salsa. In spite of its name, this chile originated in southeastern Mexico, not in Cuba.

This is the latest wrinkle in chile habañero: the very small chile habañero chocolate. It's named, as you might guess, for its deep brown color, and cultivated in the state of Michoacán. The flavor, on the other hand, has nothing to do with chocolate. It's hot. Fiery hot. MORE than fiery hot. Go here with caution, unless you really love heat.

Chile serrano, about 3" long, is not the hottest chile in Mexico (Scoville ranks it just a tiny bit hotter than the jalapeño), but it may well be the most-used. The serrano is known by other names: chile verde is the most common of these. Generally it's eaten green; the red ones have been left to mature on the bush.

Next week in Mexico Cooks!: a collection of dried chiles you'll want to know!

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21 de April de 2018