Category: Food and Drink

Carne de Cerdo en Salsa Verde (Pork in Green Sauce): You Asked For It, You Got It!

This recipe, initially published in the early days of Mexico Cooks!, continues to be the most popular of all our articles. Any time of year, but especially in the winter months in frigid climates, you and your family and guests will relish the warmth of this delicious dish. Enjoy!

Tomatillos with their husks and fresh chiles serrano.

If you are like most cooks–Mexico Cooks! included–there are times when you want to astonish your guests with your intricate culinary skills by preparing the most complicated and time-consuming recipes you know. A seven-course Szechuan dinner that I prepared several years ago comes immediately to mind; it took me several days to recover just from the preparations.

Then there are other times when you want to prepare something relatively quick but still completely delicious and which will inevitably win raves from your companions at table. This recipe for pork in green salsa completely satisfies both requirements. It's my never-fail dish for many company dinners.

Although there are other ways to prepare the dish (griddle-roasting rather than boiling the vegetables for the sauce or leaving out the steps of flouring and browning the meat, for example), this is my favorite method.

Carne de Cerdo en Salsa Verde (Pork in Green Chile Sauce)
Six generous servings

Ingredients
Salsa verde (Green sauce)
1 pound tomatillos (known in Mexico as tomate verde), husks removed
4 or 5 whole chiles serrano, depending on your tolerance for picante (spiciness)
1/2 medium white onion, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic (optional)
1 medium bunch fresh cilantro, largest stems removed
Sea salt to taste

Fresh cilantro.

Carne de cerdo (Pork Meat)
1 kilo (2.2 pounds) very lean fresh pork butt, cut into 2" cubes
White flour
Salt
Oil or lard sufficient for frying the pork

Preparation
Salsa verde
In a large pot of water over high heat, bring the tomatillos and chiles (and garlic, if you choose to use it) to a full rolling boil. Boil just until the tomatillos begin to crack; watch them closely or they will disintegrate in the water.

Let the tomatillos and chiles (and garlic, if you like) boil until the tomatillos begin to crack.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop the cooked tomatillos, salt, and chiles into your blender jar. There's no need to add liquid at first, but reserve the liquid in which the vegetables boiled until you see the thickness of your sauce. You might want to thin it slightly and the cooking liquid will not dilute the flavor. Set the vegetables aside to cool for about half an hour. Once they are cool, cover the blender, hold the blender cap on, and blend all the vegetables, including the chopped onion, until you have a smooth sauce.

Be careful to allow the tomatillos and chiles to cool before you blend them; blending them while they are fresh from the boiling water could easily cause you to burn yourself, the hot mixture tends to react like molten lava in the blender. (Note: don't ask me how I know this.)

In the blender, the boiled and cooled tomatillos and chiles. The cilantro goes in last.

While the blender is running, remove the center of its cap and, little by little, push the cilantro into the whizzing sauce. Blend just until smooth; you should still see big flecks of dark green cilantro in the lighter green sauce. Test the salt and correct if necessary. Reserve the sauce for later use.

Golden brown pork cubes.

Carne de Cerdo (Pork Meat)
Preheat oven to 170°C or 350°F.

Pat the 2" pork cubes as dry as possible with paper towels.

Put about 1/4 cup flour in a plastic grocery-size bag. Add 1/2 tsp salt. Melt the lard over high heat in a large heavy oven-proof casserole. While the lard is melting, shake about 1/4 of the cubed pork in the salted flour. When the oil or lard begins to smoke, add the floured pork cubes, being careful not to dump the flour into the pan. Cover the pan. As the pork cubes brown, shake another 1/4 of the pork cubes in flour and salt. Turn the pork cubes until all sides are golden brown. Remove browned cubes to a bowl and reserve. Add more floured pork to the hot lard. You may need more oil or lard as well as more salted flour. Repeat until all pork cubes are well browned. Reserve the browned pork in the same pan, scraping the crispy bits from the bottom.

Add the sauce to the pork cubes in the casserole, making sure that all the cubes are immersed in sauce. Cover and put the casserole into the oven, reducing the heat to 160°C or 325°F. Bake for two hours. Add cooking liquid from the vegetables if necessary to keep the sauce relatively thick but not sticking to the casserole. The pork will be fork-tender and the green sauce will take on a rich, deep, pork-y flavor and color.

The browned pork cubes and green sauce, ready to be baked. This particular batch of carne de cerdo en salsa verde was a little more than double the recipe included here. The recipe is very forgiving and can easily be doubled or tripled to fit the number of guests on your dinner party list. If a whole recipe is too much for your needs, make it anyway: it freezes very well.

Serve with arroz blanco (steamed white rice) or arroz a la mexicana (red rice), refried beans, a colorful, contrasting vegetable, and fresh, hot tortillas. Mexico Cooks!' money-back guarantee: everyone will come back for seconds.

Provecho!

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

30 de January de 2016
Kitchen and Countryside Mexico 2015: A Recap of Some of Our Favorite Things

In Mexico, once we've rung in the New Year, the next party is ordinarily for Los Reyes Magos–the Three Kings–on January 6, their feast day. The photo above shows the traditional Mexican Rosca de Reyes (Kings' Bread) that is eaten (accompanied by a cup or two of delicious Mexican hot chocolate) at just about every table in the country on that day. The sweet, rich dough is rolled into an oval or a ring and then decorated with sugar, ates of various flavors (similar to fruit leather), nuts, and then baked. So what's the big deal? Inside the dough, bakers hide a tiny figure of the Niño Dios (Baby Jesus). There's great hilarity as the rosca is sliced: who will get the muñeco (little figure)? The person who finds the baby in his or her slice is required to throw another party on Candelaria (Candlemas Day), February 2: tamales and atole (a thick, sweet corn-based drink) for everyone! February 2 is the official end of the Christmas season in Mexico.

February took Mexico Cooks! to Oaxaca, invited to the wedding of dear friends Diana Miller and Adán Paredes. The wedding festivities lasted three days–we don't do things by half here!–and the guests still sigh and smile when we think or talk about the event's joyous beauty. The civil ceremony was a marvelous cocktail party and opportunity to socialize with everyone; the morning of the spiritual ceremony, Mexico Cooks! gave two Oaxaca market tours to guests from northern Mexico. Later that afternoon, a traditional Zapotec chamán and his wife presided over the spiritual ceremony (followed by all-night dining and dancing!), and the third day we toured with the wedding party to a market south of Oaxaca city and then shared a joyous meal at the ever-marvelous restaurant La Teca. It was only February, but we knew that no other event on the 2015 calendar would come close to matching this thrilling weekend.

March found Mexico Cooks! at Pujol, Enrique Olvera's flagship restaurant in Mexico City. Invited by a serious lover of food in all its aspects, we were not disappointed. In fact, we were overwhelmed by everything about our meal: the room, the service, and most of all, the food. There was no room at all for improvement: everything we experienced was perfect.

In April, we were back at Jing Teng, our favorite Chinese restaurant in all of Mexico. Yes: not just Mexico City, but the entire country. The photo shows perfectly cooked gai lan (Chinese broccoli) with garlic, one of the you-absolutely-gotta-get-it dishes on the menu.

Morelia en Boca, an international food and wine festival, takes place in Morelia, Michoacán on the last weekend of each May, and we were there. This fish is a pejelagarto, an enormous fish found primarily in the Mexican state of Tabasco. Look at its needle-teeth! The pejelagarto has no scales; its skin is like a suit of armor. This section of the fish was about one-third of its length; it measured between three and four feet long. World-acclaimed chef Aquiles Chávez brought this giant animal from Tabasco and cooked it (turning it with a broomstick rammed down its throat, all the way to the other end) over an open fire on the festival stage! The demonstration conference also included Rosalba Morales Bartolo of San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán, who prepared her famously delicious charales (fish as tiny as the pejelagarto is huge) in the style her grandmother taught her. This was without doubt the single best food conference I have ever attended; the skill, knowledge, and sense of humor on the part of both participants combined to receive a standing ovation at conference end.

June (and every other month of the year) took Mexico Cooks! on tour with various groups from the United States, Canada, and other countries from around the worl
d. This pork butcher's sign is always a favorite photo opportunity: unsuspecting little pig mariachis sing for somebody's supper!

An old friend, visiting me in Mexico City, was as interested as I in visiting the church of San Hipólito, in Mexico City's Centro Histórico. The 28th of each month, Masses are offered all day in honor of San Judas Tadeo. My friend and I were there on July 28, among a crowd that numbered in the thousands. On San Judas Tadeo's actual October feast day, the crowds number in the hundreds of thousands.

The Primer Encuentro Nacional de Cocineras Tradicionales (first national reunion of traditional cooks) in Morelia, Michoacán, in August 2015 brought together home cooks from 25 of the 31 Mexican states–plus the Federal District. Many of us who attended are long-time friends who see one another only occasionally. This memorable photo includes (L to R): Celia Florián from Oaxaca, Alma Cervantes Cota from Sinaloa and currently living in Mexico City, Susana Trilling of Seasons of My Heart cooking school in Oaxaca, Mexico Cooks!, and Calletana Nambo from Erongarícuaro, Michoacán. We spent hours around that table, eating, drinking mezcal, and gossiping catching up with one another.

The rainy season in central Mexico begins in mid-May and lasts until the beginning of November. During that time, wild mushrooms spring up in Mexico's oak and pine forests, especially in the more mountainous states. This vendor, who was too busy selling on this September day to tell me her name, brought mushrooms that she and her family foraged to sell in Mexico City's markets. Fresh chanterelles, boletes, and morels make up most of her wares. I bought a pound of fresh morels (approximately 80 pesos, or $4.50USD), gave half to my neighbor, and made a pasta sauce of the rest. Click on the photo to enlarge it and better see the mushrooms.

In late October we were in Quiroga, Michoacán, for carnitas. These, from a street stand under the traffic light downtown, are in my opinion the best carnitas in town. The vendor gave us this taco as a taste–just to see if we'd like what he was selling. Yes, it was exactly as enormous as it looks. And yes, we bought another half-kilo of carnitas to share among our group. The carnitas come with fresh tortillas, limones, and several kinds of salsas. Soft drinks and aguas frescas are available at a booth near your communal-seating outdoor table, and someone will come by your table to ask if you want to buy a cupful of guacamole. Yes, you do.

October gets two mentions! Suzanne Cope and her family came to Mexico City in the early Fall to tour with Mexico Cooks!. This sweet toddler is her son Rocco, who fell in love with a pig head at one of Mexico City's best markets. Who knows, you might fall in love with a pig head too!

A friend from Washington, D.C., ordered this bowl of crema de flor de calabaza at Restaurante Azul/Histórico in Mexico City in mid-November. She graciously let me taste it. This cream soup was without question one of the best I've ever tasted. Our waiter told us that each bowl contains 18 squash flowers plus the one used as decoration. Did you know that only male squash blossoms are harvested for food? The female blossoms are left on the vines to allow squash to form.

Just in case you might think that Mexico Cooks! never cooks at home: a Dece
mber dish of beautiful shrimp muenìere, served over fettucine.

Where will we travel and what will we eat in 2016? You're welcome to come along, whether to a market, a restaurant, or an exciting festival in Mexico City, Michoacán, or Oaxaca. Mexico City, just named the top travel destination in the world by the New York Times, is waiting for you. When you're ready to visit, Mexico Cooks! will gladly show you all the hot spots.

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

23 de January de 2016
New in Mexico City: Fonda Fina, to Recharge Your Body and Soul

The main dining room at Fonda Fina is cozy in the best possible ways: it's warming to the spirit and feels just like the party you always wanted to attend. Not only that, it's filled with beautiful design. Case in point: those lampshades are enormous upside down cazuelas–Mexican clay cooking vessels–and illuminate the room with a joyous light.

In early December, one of the people I love best in Mexico City sent me a Whatsapp: "What are you doing tomorrow for comida? I want to take you to try a new place I found." Never one to say no to a dear friend or a new restaurant, I Whats'd her right back and said, "Vámonos!" (Let's go!) The next day, I met her at Fonda Fina in Mexico City's trendy Colonia Roma. At 2:30PM, the place was moderately busy. By three o'clock, it was packed. Just two and a half months post-opening, it was obvious from the happy hum in the room that something wonderful was happening.

Because my friend had arrived a few minutes before I did, a wee basket of tostaditas (little house-made tostadas) and two salsas in mini-molcajetes were already on the table. In addition, the restaurant has an old-fashioned practice that made me smile. Every day the chef prepares a lightly flavored water–one day with a touch of basil, another day a touch of jasmine, another day a delicious flavor that you can almost-but-not-quite place–that's offered as a reminder that you're visiting someone and that, as a visitor, you're important.

In Mexico, the very best mannered people (think your maiden great-aunt) insist that when a guest arrives, a glass of water is almost instantly forthcoming. It's always served in a glass placed on a small plate with a napkin, in case the water spills over or in case you dribble, and it welcomes you whether you have traveled days from a far-distant place or have merely come from the next floor down in your apartment building. Photo from the Mexico Cooks! kitchen.

Old-fashioned niceties, old-fashioned food (some with a modern twist), and old-fashioned service are the hallmarks of this charming restaurant. Fonda Fina, backed by chef Jorge Vallejo of the acclaimed Restaurante Quintonil, by the actor Luis Gerardo Méndez, and by the restauranteur Ramón Orraca, combines the talents of each man to bring a fresh, new aspect and ambiance to Colonia Roma. Fonda Fina's executive chef, Juan Cabrera Barron, has earned his stripes in a variety of kitchens in many parts of Mexico. During recent years, chef Cabrera has been an important part of the Hotel Camino Real restaurant staff in several cities including Guadalajara and Mexico City. Now he's all ours!

But enough preamble: let's eat!

The first two pages of the Fonda Fina menu explain how this restaurant serves your meal. Order a la carte items from the first page and order a meal similar to a comida corrida (complete main meal) from the second page. Click on any photo to enlarge the image for better viewing. Because chef Cabrera is a friend of the friend who invited me, and because she and I both wanted to try as many dishes as possible, we didn't place an order: chef Cabrera simply started sending dishes to our table.

Please notice, at the left of the photo, the paper bag holding the clay container. This was our pre-meal drink: it's called, at least at Fonda Fina, teporocho. Teporocho is a down-and-dirty Mexican slang word for the drunk who can't pick himself up off the sidewalk, the guy who's drinking from his pint bottle concealed in (you guessed it) a paper bag; the word has a long and inglorious history in Mexican popular culture. To find teporocho served in a high-class restaurant is a bit of a shock, a trip into the seamier side of life, and a really terrific start to a meal. I had two, and the taste and effect are a little like Long Island Iced Tea. If you don't see it on the menu, ask for it. And take it slow.

Our first treat was the taco placero (plaza-style taco). The soft, warm tortilla was smeared with asiento (the dark, thick lard left in the bottom of the rendering pot) and then smeared again with refried beans. Folded in half, it was then garnished with avocado, chicharrón (crisply fried pork skin), fresh crumbled cheese, a spicy salsa cruda (raw sauce), and cilantro sprouts. The small taco did what it was meant to do: it left us wanting more.

Chef Cabrera then sent out memelas de cecina (a Oaxaca corn-based delicacy). The toppings for the memelas were avocado, jícama, caramelized onions, pomegranate seeds, raw onions, and sprouts of acidy verdolagas (purslane). The combination of flavors was mouth-watering.

I could have eaten two of these incredibly delicious antojitos (literally, little whims) from Puebla: peneques rellenos de requesón. Fill a soft, uncooked tortilla with requesón (similar to ricotta cheese), fry it till it's crisp, then let it sit in a warm bath of green pipián from Puebla, and garnish it with Chiapas cheese, little cubes of avocado, and pumpkin seeds, add a swirl of Mexican table cream, and decorate the dish with an edible, peppery nasturtium leaf. I stopped at one, but…this was simply marvelous.

Fideo seco con chilaquiles (dry-cooked angel hair pasta with chilaquiles). Chef Cabrera's signature dish, topped with requesón and crema (cheese similar to ricotta accompanied by Mexican table cream), this is another do-not-miss from the a la carte menu.

Crema Conde, a classic Mexican cream soup, is made of puréed black beans, smooth as silk, and in this case poured over crumbled fresh cheese and a sprig of sprouts. Thick and rich, it made us aware that we hadn't quite arrived at the main course yet and we needed to slow the pace. Stop now? Never! Slow down a little, that's all.

Crema poblana, made from roasted, slightly spicy chile poblano and poured over tender corn kernels and fresh cheese. I am hard pressed to choose a favorite between the crema conde and the crema poblano. Fortunately Fonda Fina serves just one of them as the crema del día (cream soup of the day).

Main course: costillas de res (beef short ribs), oven-braised for 12 hours and served with tender baby asparagus, quelites de cenizo (field-grown greens), rings of raw onion, and diced avocado. Fork tender and complexly flavored, this offering from chef Cabrera was perfect.

The Fonda Fina kitchen offers simple and delicious roast chicken, either a half or the whole bird. On a second occasion at the restaurant, another friend and I ordered the whole chicken to share. The skin was crisp and golden, the chicken was juicy and tender, and we were both more than pleased to share it.

Dessert: a selection of unusual and delicious ice creams, all house-made. Clockwise from the left: avocado, hoja santa, chocolate, and chicozapote. The rich, deep, creamy chocolate and the hoja santa, with its marvelous anise flavor, were my favorites.

One of the latecomers ordered Chiapas-style cheese flan, garnished with guava, raspberries, edible flowers, and maguey cactus honey.

For our last dessert–and you thought we'd never stop eating!–the second late arrival asked for pan de elote tierno (sweet corn cake) with strawberries flamed with mezcal and a foam created from Michoacán's famous chongos zamoranos (a milk-based treat).

Mexico Cooks! has eaten at Fonda Fina several times since early December and has never been disappointed. If you're visiting Mexico City or if you live here and are looking for a delightul experience, do go for a meal. It's a wonderful thing to be able to recommend a new restaurant on all levels: ambiance, service, and excellent food. Let me know how you like it!

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

16 de January de 2016
Restaurante Nicos: Vintage Traditions, New Acclaim

This article about Mexico City's ever-popular Restaurante Nicos bears repeating today for an important announcement. Just a few weeks ago, our much-loved Nicos was named to the list of 50 Best Restaurants in Latin America, presented by RESTAURANT, a British specialty magazine. Long a great cause for pride in Mexico City, thanks to this award Nicos is now even better known throughout the world.

Chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo, consummately professional executive chef at Restaurante Nicos in Mexico City.

Freshly baked, still-warm bolillo (crusty white bread roll) served from a dried guaje (gourd) and accompanied by three salsas and a wee dish of sea salt.

Mexico City's gourmands–the many of us who are heartily fond of good food and drink–often travel substantially north of the Centro Histórico (downtown) to have a marvelous meal. The magnet that pulls us to Delegación Azcapotzalco? Restaurante Nicos, a Mexico City institution since 1957. Started by don Raimundo Vázques and his wife María Elena Lugo Zermeño (chef Gerardo's parents) and run by the Vázquez Lugo family for the last 58 years, the restaurant offers a warmly charming atmosphere, excellent service, and simply fantastic food.

It always makes me happy to see that Nicos makes its guacamole exactly the way I've been doing it at home for 30 years. You can see that the avocado is left in silky chunks; it's not mashed. Add a little olive oil, some sea salt, small-diced white onion, small-diced tomato, chopped cilantro, and as much minced chile serrano as your palate can handle. No limón (Key lime) is necessary.

Prepared at tableside with perfectly ripe, perfectly fresh ingredients, this guacamole brims over in its molcajete (volcanic stone mortar) and is a plentiful appetizer for four diners. It's served with freshly-fried salty totopos (tortilla chips).

This oasis of great eating has never pretended to be more than a family restaurant serving home-style Mexican cooking. Traditional recipes prepared and served in the spirit of Slow Food are the basis of Nicos' kitchen, and attentive, non-obtrusive, closely-supervised staff continue to ensure that the customer is king. Really, what more can we want?

Another appetizer, this time doblada de tinga (delectable stewed, spiced, and shredded chicken stuffed into a folded, hot-off-the-comal (griddle) tortilla). These dobladas are offered three to an order, but our server generously provided our table of four diners with an extra doblada.

A Mexican food enthusiast and restaurant owner visiting from Oregon recently invited me and some other friends to accompany him for comida (main meal of Mexico's day) at Nicos. An eager sí, cómo no!, and Mexico Cooks! joined this group of friends at table. Faced with the truly difficult choices among Nicos' marvelous appetizers, soups, salads, and main dishes, we of course ordered far too much food, and of course we polished it all off with delight.

Our third entrada (appetizer) was this beautiful plate of trancas—taquitos (small rolled and fried tacos) stuffed with chicken and served with farm-fresh crema de mesa (Mexican table cream, similar to creme fraiche), grated queso fresco (soft white cheese), lettuce, and tomato–plus a small bowl of guacamole.

We ordered two sopas to share. This is what Mexico knows as a sopa seca (dry soup). In this case, it's the very special sopa seca de natas; a 19th century recipe from the convent of the Capuchinas (Capuchin nuns) in Guadalajara. It's made of crepes, layered with shredded chicken and a sauce made of nata (unpasteurized cream from raw milk), tomatoes, and finely sliced chile poblano. Once the ingredients are layered in a baking dish, they're baked for about an hour and a half.

A soup plate arrives at table already piled with accompaniments for sopa de frijoles, the sopa aguada (liquid soup) we ordered. The shallow bowl holds strips of thinly sliced, fried tortillas, queso Pijijiapan (a white crumbly cheese from the state of Chiapas), lightly fried chile de árbol, and crema de rancho (farm-style table cream). Note the name Pijijiapan: it's the only place name in Mexico with five dotted letters in a row! You can always count on Mexico Cooks! for this sort of fascinating trivia.

Absolutely delicious sopa de frijoles (bean soup), based on an ayocote (white runner bean) broth flavored with fresh epazote (wormweed) is then ladled atop the soup accompaniments, and our waiter added a few drops of organic olive oil.

The first of our three platos fuertes (main dishes) was adobo de antaño con carne de cerdo con tamal de ejote tierno (pork cooked in an old-fashioned smooth, spicy adobo (sauce) and served with a fresh-corn tamal.

A tiny pot of frijoles negros (black beans), for just a spoonful each to go with our main dishes.

And another tiny pot of frijoles charros (cowboy-style beans with bacon, onion, and tomato). We couldn't have just one pot of beans, right?

Our second main dish: conejo al chile piquín (tender rabbit in a chile piquín sauce), served with ensalada de nopalitos (cactus paddle salad). Next time I am at Nicos, I'll order this dish just for myself. It was unquestionably my favorite–fall-off-the-bone tender rabbit cooked in a supremely delicious sauce. Just try and get me to give you a bite!

This dish of pollo en hoja de aguacate con pulque (boneless chicken with avocado leaf, orange juice, butter, and pulque) was, for me, a close runner-up to the rabbit. Beautifully presented and carrying the subtle flavor of anise-y avocado leaf and earthy pulque, the recipe was created by one of Mexico's foremost chefs and my friend, Mexico's great lady of the kitchen, Alicia Gironella d'Angeli.

Can you tell that we were simply too stuffed to order dessert? We waddled out of the restaurant into the first downpour of Mexico City's 2013 rainy season, happy to have spent several hours enjoying one another's company and a superb meal. Next time you're in Mexico City, Restaurante Nicos will be a truly memorable experience for you.

Restaurante Nicos
Av. Cuitláhuac 3102, corner of Clavería
Col. Clavería
Del. Azcapotzalco
Mexico City 02080
Tel: 55.5396.7090 (reservations suggested for hours of comida, 2.30-4:00PM)
Hours: Monday through Friday 7.30AM to 7:30PM

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

5 de December de 2015
On The Road and at The Table, La Marquesa National Park

Cabaña Carmelita, La Marquesa, Estado de México (the State of México, or Edomex).

When you think of national parks, what comes first to your mind? Smokey the Bear? That cute forest ranger in khaki shorts who showed you how to pitch your tent? Hungry campers 'round the fire, waiting for hotdogs? Next time you think "national park", think La Marquesa in the State of Mexico (affectionately known as Edomex). And forget about forest rangers, tents, bears, and hotdogs. Instead, think about homey fonda-style restaurants lining both sides of the highway.

Watch for the sign on the south side of the cuota–you'll love the place.

For more than 30 years, Mexico Cooks! has bused to and from Mexico City, first on the old two-lane highways and then on the super-duper toll highway called the autopista. Either way, the road meanders between the city of Toluca and the Distrito Federal, passing through Parque Nacional Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. The park is affectionately known as La Marquesa, and its natural wonders are an enormous tourist attraction.

Guisado de chicharrón prensado (a stew-like dish made of the compressed crunchy bits left after frying pork skins), ready to be served at Cabaña Carmelita. It was truly hard to choose among all of the wonderful offerings. We wanted one of everything.

Mountains, waterfalls, and green pine forests are one thing: what called my attention every single time the bus passed through the park were the colorful restaurants framing two sides of the roadway. But sadly enough, the bus hurtling along never stopped for food. Think thirty years of unsatisfied craving!

Crocheted lace doilies and hand-decorated clay dishes are just waiting for your arrival.

About a year ago, it suddenly occurred to me that I was familiar enough with getting around in Mexico City that I could drive to and–oh, the daring thought!–in this city of nearly 25,000,000 people. And if I played my cards right, I could time the trip to arrive at La Marquesa just in time for comida, Mexico's main meal of the day. My compañera, our two little dogs, and I left Morelia at eleven o'clock in the morning with happy plans for our lunch break at one of the La Marquesa fondas.

On the left, a guisado of huitlacoche (corn fungus). On the right, hongos silvestres (wild mushrooms).

But which one! The little restaurants line up one after another like tempting booths at a state fair, colorful and filled with promise. Look, this one advertises rabbit! And that one has delicate escamoles (ant eggs)! And then we noticed La Cabaña Carmelita, with pambazos (iconic Mexico City-style sandwiches) blazened prominently on its placards. The thought of pambazos enticed us in, but even though we found out that there were no pambazos that day, the rest of the menu made us stay.

Sopa de hongos (mushroom soup), served with a piece of crunchy chicharrón and a lime to squeeze into the broth. Steaming hot, loaded with big pieces and strips of setas (a kind of mushroom), and deliciously spicy, this mushroom soup is a far cry from your Mom's can of Campbell's.

A quesadilla con pollo (quesadilla with shredded chicken). The serving was enormous: it consisted of a huge blue corn tortilla covered with shredded chicken, melted soft cheese, shredded hard cheese, and a salsa picante, plus a salad of sliced ripe tomatoes and cucumbers.

A tlacoyo con frijolitos y queso (an oval tortilla, in this case made of blue corn, stuffed to bursting with refried beans and cheese), accompanied by a big clay mug of café de olla (cinnamon-spiced coffee).

These two women took our orders and cooked and served our delicious food.

By the time you read this, we will have driven once again through La Marquesa. Will we stop for comida? Look at that face–is there any doubt in your mind?

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

28 de November de 2015
Your Flaneur in Mexico City: Markets, Food, and Curiosities–Part 1, Summer 2015

Midsummer always gives us an abundance of flor de calabaza (squash flowers) to be used in the kitchen. Prepared as sopa de guias (squash vine soup), quesadillas, or stuffed with cheese, these flowers are delicious and are readily available in many Mexican markets. Did you know that only the male flowers are harvested? The female flowers are left to develop squash.

You might like to try this Mexico Cooks! recipe in your own kitchen.

Flor de Calabaza Estilo Cristina
Squash Flowers, Cristina's Style

Ingredients

1 or 2 large bunches flor de calabaza, washed and patted dry
1 medium white onion
4 chiles poblano
2 large russet or other large white potatoes
Flour
Sea salt to taste
Vegetable oil or half vegetable oil, half bacon grease for frying.

Procedure

Peel and dice potatoes. Boil until fork-tender. Drain, allow to dry, and reserve.

Roast chiles according to your preferred method until the skin is blistered and they are well-blackened. Sweat for 10 minutes in a closed plastic bag. Remove skin. Slice each chile lengthwise to remove seeds. Dice peppers in 1/2” squares.

Rough-chop flor de calabaza into 1 1/2" pieces.

Dice onion.

In a large sauté pan, heat the vegetable oil until it shimmers. While the oil is heating, shake the reserved potatoes in flour and salt in a plastic bag.

Sauté onions in oil or oil/bacon grease mixture. Add the potatoes and sauté until crisp and pale golden, adding oil if needed. Add the diced chiles and continue to sauté for about 1 minute.

Add the flor de calabaza and sauté just until tender.

Add sea salt to taste.

Serves 2-3 as a side dish.

Late in the spring, we were invited to attend the opening of El Rebozo: Made in Mexico at Mexico City's extraordinary Museo Franz Mayer. The exhibition, which was originally mounted in London, featured both old and new rebozos (long rectangular shawls) as well as some other typical Mexican garments. One of the many rebozos in the exhibit was an exquisitely embroidered shawl from Oaxaca. This is a detail of that rebozo.

This photograph of Evita Perón, wife of Argentina's Juan Domingo Perón during his first term as president of that country, was part of an exhibit at Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art (MAM) during the spring and summer. The photograph formed part of an exhibition of the works of Giselle Freund, a self-taught photographer who worked in Argentina and Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s.

This tiny ironwood mortar and pestle (the mortar is only about 2" high) comes from the state of Sonora, in northern Mexico. It is made specifically for use at the table, for a diner to grind one or two chiles chiltepín, which are highly spicy and famously used to season certain dishes from the cuisine of that state.

Chile chiltepín from Sonora. Each chile is tiny but extremely picante. Photo courtesy Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

Beautiful ceremonial tortillas from the state of Guanajuato. The tortillas are made in the usual way and are then stamped prior to baking with a wooden stamp dipped in vegetable dye. Mexico Cooks! was privileged to see these twice this summer, first at an event at the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana in Mexico City and again at the Primer Encuentro Nacional de Cocineras Tradicionales (First National Meeting of Traditional Cooks) in Morelia, Michoacán.

This is the tamarillo or tomate del árbol (tree tomato), a native of the South American Andes. Each fruit is approximately 2.5" long. The flesh is fairly firm and deeply flavorful, both sweet and earthy. You never know what you'll see when you take a Mexico Cooks! tour–our group found these delicious fruits at a downtown Mexico City market.

Come back next week for more summertime wanderings with Mexico Cooks!. Our summer was far too interesting for just one article!

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

14 de November de 2015
Revisiting Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in the Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán Cemetery

Graves decorated for Noche de los Muertos (Night of the Dead) in the Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán panteón (cemetery). These recent graves lie within easy sight of the yácatas (Purhépecha pyramids, mid-center in the photograph) just across the road. The yácatas, dating to as early as 900 A.D., were formerly both a priestly burial site and the site of ancient Purhépecha religious ceremonies.

Rituals for the traditional Noche y Día de los Muertos (Night and Day of the Dead) take place all over Mexico on the night of November 1 and the day of November 2. One of the best-known celebrations of this enormously important spiritual holiday takes place in the town of Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán. A visit to the town cemetery on November 2 gives just a small idea of the beauty of the events. During this very Mexican, very special festival, the dead–at least in spirit–pay a visit to their loved ones here on earth. In an article in 2005, The New York Times quoted Mexico Cooks! as saying, "It's about mutual nostalgia: the living remember the dead, and the dead remember the taste of home."

The packed-earth paths among the graves at the cemetery in Tzintzuntzan wind through old trees and dappled sunshine.

This little car, decorated with cempasúchil (marigold) flowers, fruits, and pan de muertos (bread of the dead) in the shape of human figures, is the cemetery ofrenda (altar, or offering) for a baby born in October 2005 and dead the same November. Tiny white baby shoes are on the car's hood, along with a baby bottle. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

The faithful Purhépecha believe that the angelitos, the dead children, are the first of the departed who come to re-visit their loved ones each year during the day of November 1, arriving early in the evening. Their parents take an ofrenda (offering) of fruit, candies, and wooden toys to the children's graves and invite the little ones to come and eat. Late in the night, the godfather of a dead child goes to the cemetery with a boveda (arch) made of cempasúchil (marigolds). At home, the parents have already prepared beautiful altars to honor the memory and spirits of their children.

Cempasúchiles, gladiolas, and candles adorn this grave. The cross is made of red veladoras (candles in holders) in a framework of blue and white.

Each year, late in the night of November 1, the spirits of deceased adults make their way back to this earthly plane to visit their relatives. The living relatives, bearing food, bright golden flowers, strong drink, and other favorites of the dead, file into Purhépecha cemeteries to commune with those who have gone before. The assembled lay out blankets, unfold chairs, bring out plastic cups, cartons of beer, a bottle of tequila, and assorted food for their own consumption as they settle in for the long, cold night of vigil.

A band or two or three often wander the cemetery, hired for a song or two or three to entertain the living and the dead.

Copal incense burns, its mystic scent calling the souls of the dead home. Candles, hundreds and hundreds of candles, flicker on and around the graves, showing the way home to the wandering spirits. Food–especially corn tamales and churipo, a beef soup for festivals–and other personal gifts for the 'visitors' show the spirits that they are still valued members of their community. Special Purhépecha-style pan de muertos (bread of the dead) in the form of human bodies represents the relationship between the living and the dead. Seasonal fruits, including bananas, oranges, and limas, are hung on the ofrendas de cempasúchil to represent the relationship between nature and human beings.

This elaborate bóveda de cempasúchil (marigold arch) hung with an old family photograph and topped by a feather dove (the symbol of the Holy Spirit) decorates a family grave. Under the photograph, an angel stands vigil.

During the Día y Noche de Muertos fiesta, a loved one's grave becomes a place to pray, party, and reminisce. Candles, a glass of water to quench the deceased person's thirst, a bottle of his or her favorite liquor, and favorite foods such as mole or tamales, pan de muertos, calabaza en tacha, and seasonal fresh fruits are always placed on the grave. Baskets of favorite foods, prepared especially for the spirits of deceased family members, are covered with beautiful hand-embroidered cloths. The spirits partake of the food's essence; the living gather at the grave to partake of the material food.

Marigolds are used as symbols for their yellow color, which resembles the gold that was used as decoration for the ancient grand festivals. The flowers were used to adorn the visitor in the form of crowns or necklaces. Today, the belief is that the ofrendas de cempasúchil (marigold arches) aid the visiting spirits to identify their homes. Cempasúchil petals are also strewn over the bare earth mounds of the graves.

These modern coronas (wreaths) are made of ribbons and plastic, much more durable than fresh flowers. The brilliant colors eventually fade over the course of a year, but the wreaths will stay up till next October.

Cempasúchiles, pata de león (lion's paw, as cockscomb is known in this part of Michoacán), freshly cut gladiola, nube (baby's breath) and just-in-season flor de las ánimas (flowers of the souls–wild orchids) from the mountains are the flowers most commonly used on Tzintzuntzan's graves.

My favorite ofrenda of 2009: a terrific full-size bicycle made of cempasúchiles, decorated with various fruits–including a pineapple on the seat! The flowers at the base of the grave marker are flores de las ánimas (wild orchids). This elaborate style of figural ofrenda is very unusual.

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

31 de October de 2015
Día y Noche de los Muertos: Another Look at the Day and Night of the Dead in Michoacán

Catrinas de papel maché (death-mocking skeletal figures made of paper maché). The catrín (male figure) and catrina (female figure) come from the late 19th and early 20th Century drawings by political cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada. Posada drew his skeletons dressed in finery of the Porfiriato (the era between 1875-1910 when Porfirio Díaz, a Francophile, ruled Mexico) to demonstrate the pointlessness of vanity in one's life that, in the end, covers nothing but bones.

Día (y Noche) de los Muertos (Day or Night of the Dead) is celebrated in Mexico each year late on November 1 and early on November 2. It's a festival both solemn and humorous, both sacred and profane: it's a wildly and uniquely Mexican fiesta (party), although other Latin American countries–Guatemala, Honduras, and Perú, among others–celebrate the dates in other ways.

Called Día de los Muertos in most of Mexico, in Michoacán the fiesta is known as Noche de los Muertos. The traditional celebrations in Purhépecha pueblos (indigenous towns) near Morelia are among the most famous in Mexico.

Everywhere in Mexico, it's traditional to eat pan de muertos (bread of the dead) before, during, and after the early November Día de los Muertos. Mexico Cooks! photographed this gorgeous pan de muertos at Panadería Hornos Los Ortiz on Av. Vicente Santa María in Morelia.

These catrínes de barro (clay) are tremendously elegant. They are the creations of acclaimed painter and bronze sculptor Juan Torres Calderón and his wife, clay sculptor Belia Canals. Maestro Torres and Belia Canals work in Capula, Michoacán, where in the early 1960s they started the now Mexico-wide tradition of clay catrines.

Cohetes (rockets) are another tradition for Día de los Muertos and other fiestas. Coheteros carry bundles of long-stick rockets in local processions, lighting one after another during the duration of the parade. The young boy walking behind the cohetero is carrying a pole to move electrical wires out of the way of the rockets. The intense boom! boom! boom! of the cohetes announces the arrival of the procession.

Calabaza en tacha (squash in syrup) is one of the most traditional foods for a Diá de los Muertos ofrenda (home or cemetery altar to honor the deceased). Delicious for breakfast or for a light supper, this squash brings the flavors and scents of home to the dearly departed.

During the Día y Noche de Muertos fiesta, a loved one's grave becomes a place to pray, party, and reminisce. Candles, a glass of water to quench the deceased person's thirst, a bottle of his or her favorite liquor, and favorite foods such as mole or tamales, pan de muertos, calabaza en tacha, and seasonal fresh fruits are always placed on the grave.

During this very Mexican, very special festival, the dead–at least in spirit–pay a visit to their loved ones here on earth. It's a mutual nostalgia: the living remember the dead, and the dead remember the taste of home.

An acquaintance in Pátzcuaro dedicated this very large ofrenda (offering, or altar) to his deceased parents and other family members. The colors, the candles, the foods, the photos, and the flowers are all part of the old traditional altar decoration.

Next week, Mexico Cooks! will take you to one of the most important cemeteries in Mexico for a last look at the special Michoacán traditional commemoration of Noche de los Muertos .

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

24 de October de 2015
Día de los Muertos en México: Day of the Dead in Mexico, A Primer

Highly decorated cardboard skull for Noche de Muertos.

Pantéon Municipal (Municipal Cemetery), Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán.

Mexico Cooks! will be touring Morelia and surrounding areas again during this special time of year. We'll be attending one or another special Noche de Muertos event every day for an entire week. Traditional ofrendas (altars dedicated to the dead), spectacular crafts exhibits, concerts, and annual concursos (contests) will fill our days and nights. Known in most parts of Mexico as Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), here in Michoacán we call it Noche de los Muertos (Night of the Dead). By either name, the festival as it's celebrated in Mexico is unique in the world.

These four-inch-long skeletal figures, laid out on their petates (woven rush mats), are hooked up to intravenous bottles of either beer or tequila!

Tiny sugar footwear, in styles from baby booties to high-heeled pumps, are ready to be given as gifts or for placement on an ofrenda.

Mexico celebrates death as it celebrates life, with extreme enjoyment in the simplest things. Life and death are both honored states.

The home ofrenda (altar) may memorialize a cherished relative, a political figure (either reviled or beloved), or a figure from the entertainment world. Traditional decorations include cempasúchil (marigold) and cordón del obispo (cockscomb) flowers, which are used in profusion in churches, cemeteries, and homes.

Sugar skulls are often inscribed in icing with a living friend's name and given to that person as a small token of admiration.

Relatives take favorite foods and beverages to the grave of a loved one gone before. It's said that the dead partake of the spirit of the food, while the living enjoy the physical treats at the cemetery.

Pan de muertos (bread of the dead) is decorated with bone-shaped bread and sugar. The bread itself is flavored with orange and anise.

This miniature ofrenda (altar) is filled with tiny representations of treats that the deceased loved in life.

Several years ago, an article in the New York Times quoted Mexico Cooks! about the Noche de los Muertos: "There's a mutual nostalgia. The living remember the dead, and the dead remember the taste of home." That nostalgia imbues the cities and villages of Michoacán at this time of year just as surely as do woodsmoke and the scent of toasting tortillas.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours. And be sure to book your Mexico Cooks! 2016 Dia de los Muertos tour as soon as possible! We'll reserve space for you and your group to make sure you don't miss anything!

17 de October de 2015
Eat My Globe and The Day of the Dead, Revisited

For the next month, Mexico Cooks! will publish a retrospective of articles about the Day (and Night) of the Dead in Mexico. This brief article was published originally on November 24, 2007, when Mexico Cooks! was just a few months old.

Mexico Cooks!' friend Simon Majumdar, on his first tour of Mexico, joined us for a week-long whirlwind crawl to some of our favorite food sites in Guadalajara and Morelia. In between restaurants, taco stands, and walking-around food, we introduced him to the Day of the Dead in both cities.

Papel maché skull masks at the Tianguis del Día de los Muertos, Guadalajara.

Fancy-dress clay catrines (skeletons), each about 7" high, ready for an evening out on the town.

Little clay calacas (skeletons) in sombreros and serapes, the perfect size for hanging from your car's rear-view mirror.

Muñecas de cartón (cardboard dolls) dressed in crepe paper and sequins.

Part of a large ofrenda (altar) in Morelia's Centro Histórico. This altar was dedicated to Don Vasco de Quiroga, one of Michoacán's most historic figures and the first bishop of the state.

A traditional ofrenda (with a twist–click on the photo to get a better view of the hand creeping out of the grave) at Morelia's Hotel Virrey de Mendoza. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

The Plaza San Agustín in Morelia. The ofrenda covered the entire plaza. The central pyramid is made of carrizo (bamboo) and ears of corn. It's surrounded by cempasúchil and terciopelo (marigolds and cock's comb flowers). The cempasúchil fragrance leads the spirits of the dead back to earth and the deep maroon terciopelo is a color of mourning.

A skeletal pair in the Jardín de las Rosas, the garden outside the Conservatorio de las Rosas in Morelia.

This ofrenda, in front of Morelia's Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, is dedicated to Frida Kahlo.

At the time of this 2007 article, our guest was traveling the world to research his first book, Eat My Globe. Today, Simon Majumdar is a well-known and well-respected Food Network personality, with several more books to his credit. His most recent, published a bit earlier in 2015, is Fed, White, and Blue: Finding America With My Fork.

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

10 de October de 2015