Category: Food and Drink

Fonda Los Burritos de Moyahua: Central Jalisco’s Unique Burrito Stop

An actual burrito–the Spanish word means 'little donkey'.

A huge California-style burrito in a to-go container. This burrito is 'wet'–served slathered with sauce and dripping with shredded yellow cheese. You can also order yours 'dry'–just the burrito, usually served wrapped in either aluminum foil or paper.

For those of you who live in most parts of the United States, the burrito is a fast-food fact of life. Southern California in particular has its Mexican drive-through joints where the burrito is king. You can order a burrito stuffed with anything from ground beef to shrimp; some burritos are advertised as being as big as your head. Most are dubiously the equivalent of an entire meal, often eaten from your dripping hands as you whiz along a freeway. One burrito that has come to enjoy raging popularity is stuffed with all the usual items (a meat, rice, beans, plus guacamole) and adds french fries!

Here in Mexico, the burrito is a little more elusive. Not a native of the central or southern part of Mexico, it's been imported from the northern regions of Mexico to fill a niche in some local menus.

The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines burrito as a Mexican cooking term: a tortilla folded over a filling of ground meat, cheese, or refried beans. [1940-45; derived from Mexican Spanish: stuffed taco, Spanish: young donkey, foal, equivalent to burro or its diminutive, burr + ito]

In his book Chicano Folklore, Rafael Castro says that the burrito (the food) probably originated in Northern Mexico and was not known in other regions of Mexico. Chicanos in Texas have been making them since the 1920's. The origin and first use of the word burrito for a special type of taco is muddy, however. One story has it that the 'new' flour tortilla and bean tacos were better suited than the crisper, more fragile corn tortilla to withstand travel in the saddle bags of the vaqueros (cowboys). Castro says they came to be called burritos because young donkeys were often the "sidekick" of the vaquero's horse. Another story says that "burrito" comes from small children asking for a treat while their mother was making tortillas. She would form the masa (dough) into a small tortilla, heat it on a comal, smear it with beans, roll it up, and send each child away with one, satisfying them until it was time to eat. Another tale thinks the term came from a 1940's restaurant in Ciudad Juárez (just across the Mexican border from El Paso, Texas) called Los Burritos that sold these new flour tortilla creations.

Yet another theory says that the word burrito originated among migrant workers in California's Imperial Valley. The fields were often too far from the lodgings provided for the workers for them to return home for lunch, so their rice and beans were cooked up in the morning, portions were wrapped in a large flour tortilla to carry them out to the fields. Thus the tortilla more specifically was the "little burro" used to carry the lunch, but the term burrito was understood to mean the whole package.

Fonda Los Burritos de Moyahua

Out in the wilds of the state of Zacatecas, there is a little town called Moyahua (moy-AH-wah), where the burrito has reigned supreme since 1976, when the restaurant Fonda Los Burritos de Moyahua opened. Now world-renowned, the restaurant opened its branch on the Chapala-Guadalajara highway (about half way between Chapala and the Guadalajara airport) in 1989.

For 26 years, Jalisco's Los Burritos de Moyahua has served burritos to hungry truckers, to bus loads of travelers, to ravenous families, to workers taking a break—to anyone who turns in off the highway, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. On Sunday afternoons the line of folks waiting to be fed often stretches down the entry stairs and all the way out to the parking lot.

My friend Susan and I drove the 40 minutes from Guadalajara to Los Burritos for lunch a few years ago. The restaurant is essentially a cafeteria; we each grabbed a tray and started down the line. The choices were plentiful: the menu includes chiles rellenos, chicken, and a few other standard dishes as well as the famous burritos, which is what we were craving.

Typical table at Fonda Los Burritos de Moyahua. Note the variety of dishes, but pay special attention to the small burritos at the top right of the photo. Click on any photo for a larger view. Photo courtesy Fonda Los Burritos.

Every burrito is made in the same way: a freshly made flour tortilla about eight inches in diameter is smeared with a spoonful of frijoles refritos and filled with a good amount of your choice of eight to ten different guisados (stews). The day we were there, the guisados included cochinita pibil (pork cooked Yucatan style), tinga poblana (Puebla-style stew), carne de res a la mexicana (Mexican style beef, with tomatoes, onions, and chile), chicharrones con salsa verde (crispy fried pigskins with spicy green sauce), carne deshebrada (shredded beef cooked with tomatoes and spices), elote con rajas de chile (corn with green chile strips), and others, including my personal favorite, chilorio (cooked and shredded pork and diced potatoes, seasoned with chile and a variety of spices).

Interior at Fonda los Burritos de Moyahua. The hand made signs above the tables are a tradition of the restaurant, changing with the passing seasons. Photo courtesy Fonda los Burritos.

In addition to the burritos, you'll be tempted by chunks of cheese (queso fresco or panela) to add to your plate and desserts such as arroz con leche (Mexican rice pudding), flan (Mexican caramel custard), and jericailla (plain Mexican custard). Grab a soft drink or a beer, pay at the end of the cafeteria line, and head for a table. Place an order for quesadillas (and do order at least one; they're the best) and you'll be given a number to place on your tray; after you're seated a waitress will bring the quesadillas to you at your table.

Expect to pay very little for your meal. Susan and I ordered two chilorio burritos, one burrito of cochinita pibil, two quesadillas, a chile relleno, two chunks of queso fresco, and two soft drinks. The total bill for the two of us was under 80 pesos (Less than $8 USD). It's been a few years, so the price has undoubtedly increased.

Susan, chowing down on her first burrito.

La Fonda Los Burritos has three large dining rooms, two huge indoor rooms and another outdoors under a roof for shade. You'll find wonderful fresh salsas and pickled chiles jalapeños available on a table in each dining room. In addition, there are posters in hand-lettered Spanish hanging from the ceilings of all three areas. The posters are changed from time to time; when Susan and I were there, love poems by the romantic Spaniard, poet Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (1836-1870), were hung in honor of February, the month of love.

La Fonda Los Burritos de Moyahua is located on the west side of the Chapala-Guadalajara highway just past the exit for La Barca (as you're driving north), almost directly opposite the incredibly pink Motel Eddie's.

Breakfast burrito to make at home. Photo courtesy Jeff Miller.

Burritos in the Home Kitchen
It's simple and delicious to make burritos at home-and they're suitable for any meal from breakfast to a midnight snack. I talked to a favorite chef, who gave me this recipe for:

Mexican Style Breakfast Burritos
(Serves 4)

4 flour tortillas, 7-8 inches in diameter
4 thick slices of bacon
1/2 white onion, chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
3/4 pound new potatoes, boiled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
salt and fresh ground pepper
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup chopped canned green chiles
1/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 ripe avocado, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

Wrap the tortillas in foil and warm in a 250 degree oven.

Fry the bacon and remove from the skillet when crispy. Drain on absorbent paper and crumble. Add the onion to the skillet and sauté until softened. Stir in the potatoes and sprinkle with cumin, salt, and pepper to taste. Fry until the potatoes are well-browned; you may need to scrape the bottom of the skillet with a spatula so that the potatoes don't stick. Lower the heat and stir in the eggs and green chiles. Scramble with a fork until the eggs are completely set but still moist. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the cheese and the crumbled bacon.

Spoon 1/4 of the mixture across the middle of each warmed tortilla; be sure to leave room to fold the tortilla. Sprinkle on some diced avocado. Fold two sides of the tortilla over the filling, slightly overlapping. Fold up the bottom to cover more of the filling and roll into a cylinder.

Buen provecho!

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7 de March de 2015
Regional Sweets from Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, Jalisco

I had planned to photograph some membrillo (quince) trees, but at the orchard entrance I found myself just about nose-to-nose with the guard goat.

No matter where you're from, you've heard some interesting place names. In the United States, you'll find Medicine Hat, Wounded Knee, and French Lick. You might even live in a town called Eagle Knob, Summershade, or Bird-in-Hand. In Canada, Jerry's Nose, Heart's Desire, and Lower Economy are home to some brave souls. We're used to the rhythms of our town names and they roll easily off the tongue.

South of the border, it's another story altogether. One of the first challenges of an English-speaker's life is learning to pronounce local town names.

A town that's often troublesome to pronounce is about 40 minutes south of Guadalajara, just north of Lake Chapala: Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos (eeks-tlah-wah-KAHN de lohs mehm-BREE-yohs). It's a mouthful. It's even difficult to write phonetically in a way that makes sense. But whether you can pronounce it or not, it's well worth a visit right around this time of year.

The entrance to Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos.

Many towns and cities in Mexico are named for historical figures or events. Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos is named, oddly enough, for a fruit. The membrillo is known in English as quince, and the municipality is renowned for its quince orchards, its artesanal quince products, and the annual Fiestas del Membrillo that take place late each summer in Atotonilquillo (ah-toh-toh-neel-KEE-yoh), a village in the nearby municipality of Chapala.

Curious about production of the fruit, I made an appointment to meet Ingeniero Jorge Alberto López Iglesias, head of agricultural development in Ixtlahuacán, to talk about how the town became so well known for quince production.

"In years gone by, there were enormous plots of land here devoted to growing huge orchards of membrillos. The fruit actually came over from Europe in the middle 1500s, with the missionary priests. At one time, this whole area was famous for the quantity and variety of fruit it produced. Even today, there are plum orchards on the hillsides. They're visible from the highway.

"When the town was founded, back in the early 16th century, it was just called Ixtlahuacán. After fruit production became really important here, ??especially the production of membrillos, ??the rest of the name was added. That happened around 1825. Since then, the town has used its full name: Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos.

The membrillo (quince) looks a lot like an apple.

"The climate here is perfect for growing membrillos because we have four seasons. The membrillo needs heat, cold, light, and rain in order to produce well. Most of the time we have just the right amount of each of those components. Just think, the membrillo needs 100 to 500 hours of exactly the kind of cold that we have on these hillsides in January and February in order for the flowers and fruit to form. This year, though, the cold stayed very late and a lot of the flowers fell off."

"And when the flowers fall off, the fruit doesn't form, right?" I saw that Ingeniero Jorge was quite concerned about this year's fruit production.

"That's exactly what happens. Not only was it unusually cold for a long period of time this winter, the fruit also depends on las cabaañuelas (the very short January rainy season) to begin to grow properly. This year, we didn't have any winter rain until February and that delay also harmed the young fruit.

"Agriculture is always such a risky business, Ingeniero." I waited a moment for him to continue.

"Yes, even though technology has changed many aspects of agriculture, there are still things we can't control. For example, even with new irrigation methods, new pesticides, and new products such as shade cloth, we can't control Mother Nature. This year's summer rainy season also started late, and so far there has been much less rain than usual. There isn't any real way to predict what the heavens will send us.

"Now, unfortunately, the production of membrillos is substantially less than it used to be in this area. A lot of the big parcels of land have been divided into other uses." He held out his hands and shrugged. "What can we do? Times change."

Ingeniero Jorge's office mate, Verónica Zaragoza, chimed in from across the room. "But señora,the people here still use all the traditional ways of preparing membrillo, even if we have to bring some of the membrillo from somewhere else. We use several different kinds of the fruit: ??there's the common white one that has green skin, and the membrillo melocotón, a yellow fruit that's less acid than the white one, and the membrillo cristalino. The sweet flesh of the cristalino is almost transparent. And there's one other, the membrillo mostrenco. It's the first one of the season to ripen.

Verónica continued telling me that some of the fruit is sold raw, simply cut into pieces and topped with a squeeze of fresh jugo de limón (key lime juice), a dusting of powdered chile, and a pinch of salt. It's eaten as a snack or as an appetizer before a meal. In addition, membrillo is made into several kinds of ates (thick, stiff jellies) which are then sold by the kilo.

"You should go to the entrance of town, where the membrillo booths are, and talk to the vendors. They'll show you all the products and probably give you a taste of everything." Verónica smiled and she and Ingeniero Jorge shook my hand as we parted.

"I'm on my way to visit the booths right now," I promised.

Sra. María Eugenia Zaragoza holds a jar of preserved membrillos.

Those of you who have been to the Lake Chapala area have undoubtedly noticed the string of ten or twelve booths along the east side of the highway near the entrance to Ixtlahuacán. The vendors sell honey, traditional candies, and other regional specialties in addition to the famous ates, ponche (punch), and conservas (fruits in syrup) made from membrillo. I stopped to talk with María Eugenia Zaragoza and her family about their home made products.

Conservas (fruit in syrup) line the top shelves; regional candies are on lower shelves.

Sra. Zaragoza pointed to each item as she told me about it. "We sell several kinds of ates. This rich-colored brown one is called martajada (rough chopped) because the fruit isn't ground up to a smooth paste. There are fruit chunks and peels in it, along with sugar and a little water. It sells for $30 pesos a kilo. Here, taste it." She cut a sliver for me.

"That's really delicious," I complimented her, wishing the sliver had been a bit bigger. "And what's that one over there, the rectangular one?"

She held up the carefully wrapped package and explained that it was called molida (ground) because the quince is ground to a smooth paste prior to cooking. "This one is the same price as the martajada, $30 pesos a kilo. It's all home made," she smiled. "Would you like to see part of the process?"

We walked into the rear of the booth where her husband was peeling what looked like a mountain of membrillos. "This is Poli Herrera, and this is what he does. He's in charge of peeling all the fruit, cutting it in half, and taking out the heart, where the seeds and their coarse coverings are." Poli held out his wrist for me to shake: ??his hands were clean but damp from the fruit.

"After the fruit is peeled and cored, it's washed well and put to parboil so that all the juices start to flow. Then the sugar is added and it's all cooked until it turns that rich dark brown color and thickens. We do the cooking in our kitchen at home. You have to be really, really careful to make sure it doesn't burn.

Next Sra. Zaragoza showed me a big crate filled with beautiful freshly made ates martajadas. I was amazed to watch her gently tip one of the ates out of a terra cotta mold. The mold was unglazed on the outside and glazed on the inside. Each ate had a raised design on its surface. Some were flowers, some were hearts, and some were wonderful roosters.

Ates de membrillo, fresh from the molds and just beautiful–and of course, delicious.

I stopped to talk with Alfredo Jiménez García, who was busy wrapping the smooth bricks of membrillo in plastic wrap. He told me that he does a little of everything, from waiting on customers to working in the back room.

Back outside, Sra. Zaragoza showed me the neatly shelved bottles of ponche. "It's all natural. It only contains fruit, sugar, water, and alcohol. We make it and bottle it at home. It costs $30 pesos for a liter. And here is the conserva. The jars, ??about a kilo each, ??sell for $40 pesos." The color of the preserved fruits in syrup was beautifully dark red. "And of course we also make empanadas (a sweet Mexican turnover) filled with ate." She pointed to the plastic-wrapped packages on the shelves. "They're delicious for breakfast or dessert."

As I was preparing to leave, Sra. Zaragoza handed me a bag. "Take these with you with our compliments," she smiled. "You and your friends will enjoy our homemade ate martajada and our empanadas." I was delighted with her generous gift.

On the road north toward Guadalajara, I decided to detour the short distance to Atotonilquillo to find out the dates of the Fiestas del Membrillo. I kept my eye on the odometer and saw that it is only seven kilometers from the La Barca exit off the Chapala/Guadalajara highway to the membrillo vendors' booths along the main road in the little village.

I pulled up to the first booth along the road. The teenage boy behind the counter squinted slightly and wrinkled his nose in thought when I asked if he knew the dates for the quince festival. "Well, my uncle wrote the song for it, and the song says it's always on August 16. It only lasts two days, but it's a lot of fun. You should come."

"So it's not a nine-day fiesta, like so many are?" I'd never heard of a two-day fiesta, but then it's quite unusual to find a fiesta devoted to a fruit.

"Oh no, it's only two days. Be sure you don't miss it, and bring all your friends. We'll have a great time, and you can hear my uncle's song." He grinned proudly.

"You can count on it, son. I'll look for you at the fiestas." We shook hands and I drove back toward the Chapala/Guadalajara highway. The package that Sra. Zaragoza had given me sent the tempting fragrance of sweet membrillo wafting toward the driver's seat, the vision of the upcoming fiesta danced in my head, and the day was bright with promise.

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28 de February de 2015
Mexico’s Special Lenten Foods: Comida Mexicana para La Cuaresma

Tortitas de papa (potato croquettes, left) and frijoles negros (black beans, right) from the south of Mexico are ideal for a Lenten meal.

Catholic Mexicans observe la Cuaresma (Lent), the 40-day (excluding Sundays) penitential season that precedes Easter, with special prayers, vigils, and with extraordinary meatless meals cooked only on Ash Wednesday and during Lent. Many Mexican dishes–seafood, vegetable, and egg–are normally prepared without meat, but some other meatless dishes are particular to Lent. Known as comida cuaresmeña, many of these delicious Lenten foods are little-known outside Mexico and some other parts of Latin America.

Many observant Catholics believe that the personal reflection and meditation demanded by Lenten practices are more fruitful if the individual refrains from heavy food indulgence and makes a promise to abstain from other common habits such as eating candy, smoking cigarettes, and drinking alcohol.

Atole de grano, a Michoacán specialty made of tender corn and licorice-scented anís, is a perfect cena (supper) for Lenten Fridays.

Lent began this year on Ash Wednesday, February 18. Shortly before, certain food specialties began to appear in local markets.Vendors are currently offering very large dried shrimp for caldos (broths) and tortitas (croquettes), perfect heads of cauliflower for tortitas de coliflor (cauliflower croquettes), seasonal romeritos, and thick, dried slices of bolillo (small loaves of white bread) for capirotada (a kind of bread pudding).

This common Lenten preparation is romeritos en mole.  Romeritos, an acidic green vegetable, is in season at this time of year. Although it looks a little like rosemary, its taste is relatively sour, more like verdolagas (purslane).

You'll usually see tortitas de camarón (dried shrimp croquettes) paired for a Friday comida (midday meal) with romeritos en mole, although they are sometimes bathed in a caldillo de jitomate (tomato broth) and served with sliced nopalitos (cactus paddles).

During Lent, the price of fish and seafood in Mexico goes through the roof due to the huge seasonal demand for meatless meals. These beautiful huachinango (red snapper) come from Mexico's Pacific coast.

Chef Martín Rafael Mendizabal of La Trucha Alegre in Zitacuaro, Michoacán, prepared trucha deshuesada con agridulce de guayaba (boned trout with guava sweet and sour sauce) for the V Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán held in Morelia in December 2008. The dish would be ideal for an elegant Lenten dinner.

Capirotada (kah-pee-roh-TAH-dah, Lenten bread pudding) is almost unknown outside Mexico. Simple to prepare and absolutely delicious, it's hard to eat it sparingly if you're trying to keep a Lenten abstinence! This photo shows capirotada as served by Carmen Titita Ramírez Degollado at the El Bajío restaurants in Mexico City.

Every family makes a slightly different version of capirotada: a pinch more of this, leave out that, add such-and-such.  Mexico Cooks! prefers to leave out the apricots and add dried pineapple. Make it once and then tweak the recipe to your preference–but please do stick with traditional ingredients.

CAPIROTADA (Mexican Bread Pudding)

Ingredients

*4 bollilos, in 1" slices (small loaves of dense white bread)
5 stale tortillas
150 grams pecans
50 grams prunes
100 grams raisins
200 grams peanuts
100 grams dried apricots
1 large apple, peeled and sliced thin
100 grams grated Cotija cheese
Peel of one orange, two uses
*3 cones piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar)
Four 3" pieces of Mexican stick cinnamon
2 cloves
Butter
Salt

*If you don't have bolillo, substitute slices of very dense French bread. If you don't have piloncillo, substitute 1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar.

A large metal or clay baking dish.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Toast the bread and spread with butter. Slightly overlap the tortillas in the bottom and along the sides of the baking dish to make a base for the capirotada. Prepare a thin syrup by boiling the piloncillo in 2 1/2 cups of water with a few shreds of cinnamon sticks, 2/3 of the orange peel, the cloves, and a pinch of salt.

Place the layers of bread rounds in the baking dish so as to allow for their expansion as the capirotada cooks. Lay down a layer of bread, then a layer of nuts, prunes, raisins, peanuts and apricots. Continue until all the bread is layered with the rest. For the final layer, sprinkle the capirotada with the grated Cotija cheese and the remaining third of the orange peel (grated). Add the syrup, moistening all the layers little by little. Reserve a portion of the syrup to add to the capirotada in case it becomes dry during baking.

Bake uncovered until the capirotada is golden brown and the syrup is absorbed. The bread will expand as it absorbs the syrup. Remember to add the rest of the syrup if the top of the capirotada looks dry, and reserve plenty of syrup to pour over each serving.

Cool the capirotada to room temperature. Do not cover until it is cool; even after it is cooled, leave the top ajar.

Try very hard not to eat the entire pan of capirotada at one sitting!

A positive thought for this Lent: give up discouragement, be an optimist.

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21 de February de 2015
Mexico Cooks!’ Anniversary: Grateful for Eight Years with YOU.

This is the very first photo published by Mexico Cooks! on February 2, 2007: multicolor woven sonajas (rattles) for sale at a Michoacán artisans' fair. Wouldn't you love to work a jigsaw puzzle made from this picture?

The first week of February 2015, Mexico Cooks! joyfully celebrated its eighth birthday. In March, 2007, only weeks after our first publication, one of our articles was titled, 'From That Little Beginning', quoting the owner of the original producer of Salsa Cholula in speaking of his own business. Today, we echo his thoughts: who would have thought that after Mexico Cooks!' initial article on Candlemas Day 2007–that 'little beginning' article read out of the goodness of their hearts by an audience of 2 or 3 friends–that our 2015 readership would number nearly three and a half million faithful followers? Who would have thought that the London Times would name Mexico Cooks! the number one food blog in the world? And who would have thought that at ten o'clock every Saturday morning for eight years, a Mexico Cooks! article would be ready for you to read? Trust me, not us!

In February and March 2008, Mexico Cooks! published several articles about our travels to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Many of our readers asked if this photo of ciruelas criollas (native Mexican plums), taken at the San Cristóbal de las Casas indigenous market, were for sale or if it would be part of a calendar.

September 2009 featured Ana Pellicer and James Metcalf, internationally-known copper artists from Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán. This large and utilitarian French-style tinned copper pot with hand-forged iron handle, although not representative of the artists' fine sculptural works, is part of a popular baterie de cuisine–a set of kitchen pots designed and sold by the couple. Mexico Cooks! featured Ana Pellicer again in November 2010 when she received the illustrious Michoacán Premio Estatal de las Artes Eréndira (Eréndira State Arts Prize of Michoacán). She is the first woman ever to receive the award.

Tortita de calabacita (little squash fritter) from the sorely missed Restaurante Los Comensales in Morelia, Michoacán. Mexico Cooks! featured the restaurant (the name means 'The Diners') in October 2009. Less than a year from the date of our interview with her, Señora Catalina Aguirre Camacho, the owner of Los Comensales since 1980, became too elderly and incapacitated to continue to operate her wonderful restaurant. Sra. Aguirre has since gone to cook for God's angelitos in heaven.

And of course there has always been food at Mexico Cooks!: recipes, history, and mouth-watering photographs have filled our pages since the beginning. If these few memorable articles leave you hungry for more, our archives contain nearly 500 articles, each with six–or eight–or ten–or more photos. In January 2009, we featured the first retrospective of the prior year's highlights of some of your favorite articles about Mexican food.

Over the last eight years, we have frequently featured Mexican ingredients and how to use them in your home kitchen. Some of the most popular articles showcased fresh and dried chiles, and some of Mexico's exotic fruits. This fruit, the wild ilama (Annona diversifolia) from Michoacán's Tierra Caliente (hot lands), is all but unknown outside its home territory. Its skin color is ashy green tinged with pink on the outside. The flesh is rosy pink; the flavor is a little like a cross between a peach and a pineapple.

If you had to guess, which of Mexico Cooks!' nearly 500 articles do you think would be the most searched for on Google? Think of the ultimate comfort food. Yes: it's caldo de pollo, Mexican-style chicken soup. The article is so popular that once a year, we publish it again!

Another enormously popular article features the preparation of Mexico Cooks!-style frijolitos refritos (refried beans). Prepare them this way once and you may never eat them any other way.

Mangos on the street in 2011–cut to look like flowers, soon to be spritzed with jugo de limón (lime juice), salt, and a dash of powdered red chile. Served like this, a mango is sweet, tangy, salty, spicy, and altogether delicious!

A marvelously textured guajolote (turkey) at a rural Oaxaca market, 2014.

It's almost always a party here at Mexico Cooks!, and you are always invited. Join us at ten o'clock every Saturday morning. Look at the right-hand side of the page to click on "Subscribe to this blog's feed' and receive each new week's Mexico Cooks! article and photos via email.

And what might be Mexico Cooks!' favorite part of this eight-year-long party? It's not the food, nor the travels, nor the fascinating cultural insights to this marvelous country that I can share with you, the country for which I fell hook, line, and sinker in 1981. Nope. The best part of all is you.

Mexico Cooks! met a number of fellow food writers in Mexico City in 2010. What did we do? Oh puh-leeez! We met for lunch, of course.

Many of you have written to me to talk about your joy at discovering Mexico's traditions, including its traditional foods. Many of you have written to me for advice about travel, restaurants, and the use of various Mexican ingredients. Many of you have written to me, like this person, to share a memory: "Thanks. I cried and remember my family. We always ate corundas with pork and chile. It has been many, many years since I visited my family's town in Mexico. Your articles always take me home to my beloved Mexico."

It has been particularly wonderful to meet some of you when you have visited Mexico–whether in Jalisco, Michoacán, Oaxaca, or Mexico City–to take a Mexico Cooks! culinary tour designed especially for you. Mexico Cooks! looks forward to welcoming more of you–our tours are always, as one faithful reader and tour participant says, "DIVINE". Come soon!

Be assured that knowing that you are out there reading about Mexico's food and cultures–wherever you are in the world–you are the reason that Mexico Cooks! continues. Thank you for eight years of support, trust, and confidence.

Teaching about exotic fruits (the one in my hand is a mamey) during a Pátzcuaro, Michoacán market tour with faithful readers, 2011.

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14 de February de 2015

The Tianguis: Mexico’s Prehispanic Street Market in Today’s World

Fresh red corn at a Pátzcuaro, Michoacán tianguis (street market).

The typical Mexican tianguis (street market) is a multi-layered event. It combines wonderful shopping with catching up on gossip and meeting friends. It's a place to restock your larder and recharge your spirit at the same time. The tianguis is the perfect spot to buy lovely and inexpensive flowers, delicious field-fresh produce, and succulently sweet tropical fruits. I also buy all of my fresh fish, chicken, cheese, and meat right there at the tianguis. When I tell them where I shop, many friends from North of the Border exclaim, "What! Aren't you afraid of—afraid of—" and their questions fade into puzzled silence.

Beautiful Mexican papaya, sold year-round at almost every tianguis. It's beautifully cut to show the ripe, sweet flesh to prospective buyers.

No, I am not afraid. Not of food poisoning, not of communicable diseases, not of spoilage. After years of purchasing nearly all of my produce, meats and dairy products at the tianguis, I believe that it's just as safe and healthy to buy those items from the tianguis vendors as it is to buy them from a supermarket refrigerator case. I've never been sick nor had any sort of problem from any of the foods I buy from the market vendors. The friends I've convinced to try the vendors report the same thing: unequalled satisfaction and never a problem.

It took me some time to figure out not only what I needed but also where at the tianguis I wanted to buy. You can figure it out, too. My main rule of thumb is to buy where the crowds have gathered to shop and to make my purchases where the fresh foods I want are clean and free of flies. I haven't been disappointed. The quality of meat (particularly chicken and pork) is far superior to anything I've bought from a butcher. The cheeses are unbeatable. The fish is inevitably fresh and clean. Not only are the eyes clear but the fish still smell of the ocean.

Seedless red grapes, ready to be weighed at a small tianguis in Morelia, Michoacán.

It's always best to go to the tianguis early to buy products that need refrigeration. During those first hours of the market, the meats, fish, and dairy products are still chilled and the selection is good. Later in the day, some items may not be available and what's left might look a bit tired.

There are usually several fishmongers at any good-sized urban tianguis. A fishmonger's booth is usually large and filled with a variety of fish. Dorado (mahi mahi), huachinango (red snapper), lenguado (sole), robalo (sea bass), mackerel, crabs, shrimp, octopus, tilapia, and a full assortment of others fresh from the sea compete for space on a bed of ice.

You can request your fish entero (whole), filete (fillete), or even molido (ground, for ceviche). If the fish is small, expect to pay by weight for the whole fish even if you ask for it filleted. If the fish is very large, like a dorado, you'll be charged only for the fillets. Occasionally it's possible to make an advance order for a special request. I've asked for fresh sea scallops when they're in season. If you're making a request for a party menu, it's always best to have an alternative in mind: sometimes the special item you want isn't available.

All of the fish sold by these vendors in the state of Jalisco comes from the Atlantic or Pacific oceans to the main fish market in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. The vendors are at the market before dawn to purchase the freshest fish to sell in the tianguis.

At some tianguis (but not all) you'll find vendors selling pork and some beef from a tiny table. The table is just big enough for a few large pieces of fresh pork ready to be cut to order, a scale, and a roll of plastic bags. Some days they also have freshly rendered lard for sale.

The first time I shopped for meat at a tianguis, I requested a kilo (approximately two pounds) of maciza (solid boneless leg of pork) that I could use to prepare carne de puerco con chile verde. You can also have maciza ground for albóndigas (Mexican meatballs) or to mix with ground beef for a meatloaf or Italian meatballs. While I was waiting for my maciza, I noticed a beautiful bone-in lomo (in this case, pork loin) and made a mental note to add it to my shopping list another week.

Browned cubes of pork in salsa verde (green sauce). All of the ingredients for this dish (pork, lard, tomate verde [tomatillos], chile serrano, cilantro, and onion) came from my local tianguis. It's ready to go into the oven.

The butcher told me that he buys only first class hogs and has them butchered at the municipal slaughterhouse. At the tianguis, he and his mother sell either lomo or maciza cut to your specifications. The price for either meat on the day that I talked with Sra. Gómez, his mother, was $60 pesos per kilo. The meat is not refrigerated at the tianguis, but it is meat-locker cold when it is placed in the cooler where it is kept until it's sold out, usually by 10 AM.

A little over a year ago I noticed that a new chicken seller had set up shop at the tianguis where I shop. When I prepared the first skinless, boneless chicken breast that I bought from Jaime Ribera, I was hooked. Brought freshly killed to the tianguis on Wednesday mornings, Mexican chicken is the freshest, pinkest, plumpest, most flavorful chicken I have eaten in my life. This chicken is immaculately clean, as is his booth.

A whole Mexican chicken. It weighs approximately three kilos (about six and a half pounds). This one was destined for the soup pot.

The pallid birds of the USA grow even paler in comparison to these glorious creatures. Chicken this good was not available even in the markets I frequented during two months I recently spent in France.

Fresth pata de pollo (chicken feet).

Jaime sells his chicken any way you want it, from a whole bird to just the feet. Breasts can be had with or without skin and bones. If I want the nearly paper-thin breast meat that is used here for preparing milanesa de pollo (breaded chicken), Jaime either has it ready or cuts it for me while I wait. Although the livers are mixed with hearts, I always ask him to sell me just the livers. He carefully picks the hearts out of the mix. When I buy the golden yellow feet—I use them when preparing chicken stock—he always makes sure the toenails are well-trimmed.

Part	Price In Pesos per kilo
Breast (skinless, boneless)	$120
Breast (with skin and bone)	$90
Leg (with thigh, back portion attached)	$40
Leg (with thigh, no back)	$45
Wings	$25
Whole chicken	$40
Chicken livers	$15
Chicken feet	$15

The vendors also sell a variety of cheeses, thick crema (Mexican table cream, similar to French creme fraiche), requesón (Mexican-style cottage cheese, similar to Italian ricotta), and corn or flour tortillas. All of the dairy products are kept fresh and cold in coolers during the selling day.

Products	Price in Pesos
Yogurt	$25/liter
Queso Panela (Mexican fresh cheese)	$35/per cheese 650-700 grams
Queso Oaxaca (Oaxaca-style cheese)	$60/kilo
Crema (Mexican thick cream)	$26/kilo
Queso Cotija (Mexican sharp cheese)	$60/kilo
Queso Asadero (Mexican melting cheese)	$25/half kilo
Requesón (Mexican cottage cheese)	$30/kilo
Flour Tortillas	$20/packet

My dairy product buying isn't confined to just one vendor. I usually purchase cheeses from another booth. Santiago and Ana Isabel Valdomillos specialize in cheeses, cream, yogurts, honey, and chicken nuggets, smoked pork chops, and other easy-to-prepare meats. You'll also see small bottles of Yakult, a drinkable live-bacteria yogurt.

More_cheeses
I'm particularly fond of Santiago's queso cotija, a cheese named for the town in Michoacán where it originated. It's a sharp and fairly dry cheese which crumbles easily. As it ages, it becomes drier and sharper. It's delicious crumbled over refried beans and enchiladas or stirred into soups as a thickening agent.

Santiago smiled when I asked how long he had been selling at the tianguis. "Altogether, it's been more than 28 years." He gestured with his index finger held straight up near his waist to indicate the height of a small child. "I used to help my Dad when I was no taller than this." The dairy and other products are kept cold in coolers throughout the day. The products kept out for sale on the tables are also covered with cheesecloth to protect them from flies.

I think you'll be wonderfully surprised by the freshness, quality, and prices of the fish, meats, chicken, and dairy products offered for sale by these vendors. There's no reason to shop elsewhere for what you'll find–of better quality and for less money–on your regular outing to the tianguis.

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24 de January de 2015

There’s Nowhere Else Like Mexico City: Como México, No Hay Dos

Como México, no hay dos…there's nowhere else like Mexico!

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

Mexico Cooks! tacked four days in Mexico City onto the end of our February 2008 trip to Chiapas. It was Judy's first trip to Mexico's capital city and we packed in a lot. We'd been invited to stay at the home of a friend, and our time with her was a fast-forward speed combination of eating, yakking, and running around the city. Boy, did we have fun!

Our first order of business was a trip to the Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the second most-visited religious shrine in the Western Hemisphere and a must in Mexico City.

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

Frida Kahlo's bedroom with her death mask.

Among our many recorridos (running around), we visited the Museo Frida Kahlo (also known as La Casa Azul), as well as the central plaza of Coyoacán.

The coyote fountain in the plaza principal of Coyoacán. The name means 'place of the coyote' and the fountain commemorates the animal.

One of the best times was a pozole outing with our newest acquaintances, Jim Johnston and Nick Gilman. Jim is the author of Mexico City: An Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler; Nick wrote Good Food in Mexico City: A Guide to Food Stalls, Fondas, and Fine Dining.

Who would know the best pozolería in Mexico City better than a passel of foodies? Our friend drove; she's intrepid behind the wheel, even in this city of nearly 25,000,000 souls. We voyaged north from our digs in south central Colonia Condesa, heading for Colonia Santa María La Ribera, near Alameda Norte. Mexico Cooks! has spent a lot of time in the Distrito Federal, but this was our first time in Colonia Santa María La Ribera. Nick assured us that we would love the pozolería.

The back of our waiter's shirt at La Casa de Toño, 'the home of eating well'.

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

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

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

Pozole con tostadas, the traditional combo.

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

Waiting for our cena (supper): Judy, Jim, Nick, and our friend.

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

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17 de January de 2015
Mexican Traditions from the Day of the Three Kings to Candelaria

Most Mexicans eat traditional rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread) on January 6. Its usual accompaniment is chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) made in the traditional way–with water, not milk.

The Día de los Reyes Magos (the Feast of the Three Kings) falls on January 6 each year. You might know the Christian feast day as Epiphany or as Little Christmas. The festivities celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings at Bethlehem to visit the newborn Baby Jesus. In some cultures, children receive gifts not on Christmas, but on the Feast of the Three Kings–and the Kings are the gift-givers, commemorating the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they presented to the Baby Jesus. Many, many children in Mexico still receive special gifts of toys from the Reyes (Kings) on January 6

Typically, Mexican families celebrate the festival with a rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread). The size of the family's rosca varies according to the size of the family, but everybody gets a slice, from the littlest toddler to great-grandpa. Accompanied by a cup of chocolate caliente (hot chocolate), it's a great winter treat.

Chef Arturo Camacho Domínguez of Tampico, Tamaulipas.

My friend, chef Arturo Camacho Domínguez, who lives and works in Tampico, Tamaulipas, recently wrote a bit about the significance of the rosca. He wrote, "The rosca de reyes represents a crown; the colorful fruits simulate the jewels which covered the crowns of the Holy Kings. The Kings themselves signify peace, love, and happiness. The Niño Dios hidden in the rosca reminds us of the moment when Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary hid the Baby Jesus in order to save him from King Herod, who wanted to kill him. The three gifts that the Kings gave to the Niño Dios represent the Kings (gold), God (frankincense), and man (myrrh).

"In Mexico, we consider that an oval or ring shape represents the movement of the sun and that the Niño Dios represents the Child Jesus in his apparition as the Sun God. Others mention that the circular or oval form of the Rosca de Reyes, which has no beginning and no end, is a representation of heaven–which of course is the home of the Niño Dios."

On January 6, 2009, Paty Mora de Vallejo, wife of Morelia's mayor Fausto Vallejo, served a slice of the enormous rosca de reyes monumental moreliana, prepared jointly by bakeries from everywhere in the city.

In many places in Mexico, including Morelia, Michoacán, bakers prepare an annual monumental rosca for the whole city to share. The rosca contains nearly 3000 pounds of flour, 1500 pounds of margerine, 10,500 eggs, 150 liters of milk, 35 pounds of yeast, 35 pounds of salt, 225 pounds of butter, 2000 pounds of dried fruits, and 90 pounds of orange peel. The completed cake, if stretched out straight, measures two kilometers in length! Baked in sections, the gigantic rosca is the collaborative effort of ten bakeries in the city. The city government as well as grocery wholesalers join together to see to it that the tradition of the rosca continues to be a vibrant custom.

The plastic Niño Dios (Baby Jesus) baked into our rosca measured less than 2" tall. The figures used to be made of porcelain, but now they are generally made of plastic. See the dent from a bite on the Niño's head? Mexico Cooks! is the culprit. Every rosca de reyes baked in Mexico contains at least one Niño Dios; larger roscas can hold two, three, or more. Morelia's giant rosca normally contains 10,000 of these tiny figures.

Tradition demands that the person who finds the niño in his or her slice of rosca is required to give a party on February 2, el Día de La Candelaria (Candlemas Day). The party for La Candelaria calls for tamales, more tamales, and their traditional companion, a rich atole flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, or chocolate. Several years ago, an old friend, in the throes of a family economic emergency, was a guest at his relatives' Three Kings party. He bit into the niño buried in his slice of rosca. Embarrassed that he couldn't shoulder the expense of the following month's Candelaria party, he gulped–literally–and swallowed the niño.

El Día de La Candelaria celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the Jewish temple, forty days after his birth. The traditions of La Candelaria encompass religious rituals of ancient Jews, of pre-hispanic rites indigenous to Mexico, of the Christian evangelization brought to Mexico by the Spanish, and of modern-day Catholicism.

In Mexico, you'll find a Niño Dios of any size for your home nacimiento (nativity scene). Traditionally, the Niño Dios is passed down, along with his wardrobe of special clothing, from generation to generation in a single family.

Mexico Cooks!' Niño Dios.

The presentation of the child Jesus to the church is enormously important in Mexican Catholic life. February 2 marks the official end of the Christmas season, the day to put away the last of the holiday decorations. On February 2, the figure of Jesus is gently lifted from the home nacimiento (manger scene, or creche), dressed in new clothing, carried to the church, where he receives blessings and prayers. He is then carried home and rocked to sleep with tender lullabies, and carefully put away until the following year.

The Niño Dios Doctor from Puebla.

Each family dresses its Niño Dios according to its personal beliefs and traditions. Some figures are dressed in clothing representing a Catholic saint particularly venerated in a family; others are dressed in the clothing typically worn by the patron saints of different Mexican states. Some favorites are the Santo Niño de Atocha, venerated especially in Zacatecas; the Niño de Salud (Michoacán), the Santo Niño Doctor (Puebla), and, in Xochimilco (suburban Mexico City), the Niñopa n(alternately spelled Niñopa or Niño-Pa).

This Xochimilco arch and the highly decorated street welcome the much-loved Niñopa figure.

The veneration of Xochimilco's beloved Niñopan follows centuries-old traditions. The figure has a different mayordomo every year; the mayordomo is the person in whose house the baby sleeps every night. Although the Niñopan (his name is a contraction of the words Niño Padre or Niño Patrón) travels from house to house, visiting his chosen hosts, he always returns to the mayordomo's house to spend the night. One resident put it this way: "When the day is beautiful and it's really hot, we take him out on the canals. In his special chalupita (little boat), he floats around all the chinampas (floating islands), wearing his little straw hat so that the heat won't bother him. Then we take him back to his mayordomo, who dresses our Niñopan in his little pajamas, sings him a lullaby, and puts him to sleep, saying, 'Get in your little bed, it's sleepy time!" Even though the Niñopan is always put properly to bed, folks in Xochimilco believe that he sneaks out of bed to play with his toys in the wee hours of the night.

Trajineras (decorated boats) ready to receive tourists line the canals in Xochimilco.

Although he is venerated in many Xochimilco houses during the course of every year, the Niñopan's major feast day is January 6. The annual celebration takes place in Xochimilco's church of St. Bernard of Sienna. On the feast of the Candelaria, fireworks, music, and dancers accompany the Niñopan as he processes through the streets of Xochimilco on his way to his presentation in the church.

Gloria in Xochimilco with Niñopan, April 2008. Photo courtesy Colibrí.

Blue papel picado (cut paper decoration) floating in the deep-blue Xochimilco sky wishes the Niñopan welcome and wishes all of us Feliz Navidad.

El Día de La Candelaria means a joyful party with lots of tamales, coupled with devotion to the Niño Dios. For more about a tamalada (tamales-making party), look at this 2007 Mexico Cooks! article.

From the rosca de reyes on January 6 to the tamales on February 2, the old traditions continue in Mexico's 21st Century.

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10 de January de 2015
Ritos del Año Nuevo: Happy New Year, Mexican Style

In Mexico and other Latin American countries, women wear yellow underwear on New Year's Eve to bring good luck and wealth in the year to come. Red underwear indicates a New Year's wish for an exciting love interest! Whatever the color, be sure your unmentionables for Año Nuevo are newly purchased–recycling a former year's undies won't do the trick!

Superstition or not, many here in Mexico have the custom of ritos del Año Nuevo (New Year's rituals). Some rituals include foods, others prescribe certain clothing, and still others warrant attention for religious interest.

As the clock strikes midnight, it's common to eat twelve grapes–one at each ding, one at each dong of the bell. While eating the grapes, you make a personal wish for each one you consume, welcoming the new year that's beginning. Mexico Cooks! finds that it's helpful to write down the twelve wishes so as not to forget one or choke in the rush to swallow the grapes before the clock finishes striking the hour!

Eating a tablespoonful of cooked lentils on New Year's Eve is said to bring prosperity and fortune. You can also give raw lentils–just a handful–to family and friends with the same wish.

On a small piece of paper, write down the undesirable habits and customs you'd like to let go of in the New Year that's just starting. Burn the paper, then follow through with the changes!

Choose three stones that symbolize health, love, and money. Put them in a place where you will see them every day.

Light candles: blue for peace, yellow for abundance, red for love, green for health, white for spirituality, and orange for intelligence.

Spill clean water on the sidewalk in front of your house as the clock rings in the New Year. Your house will be purified and all tears will be washed away.

To have money for your needs all year, have some bills in your hand or in your pocket to welcome the arrival of the New Year. Some people fold up the money and put it in their shoes!

Take your suitcase for a walk. Legend is that the farther you walk with your suitcase, the farther you'll travel. Several New Year's Eves ago, Mexico Cooks! and a few friends celebrated by walking our suitcases around the block, and we all traveled far and wide during the new year that followed.

Mexico Cooks! wishes all of you a muy Próspero Año Nuevo–and especially wishes that your red underwear brings you (or keeps you) the love of family, friends, and that special someone.

We'll see you in 2015!

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3 de January de 2015
Puros Tamales: For Christmas in Mexico, It’s All About Tamales

Sweet tamales de zarzamora (fresh blackberry tamales) are a specialty of the Meseta Purhépecha, Michoacán.

When I was a child, my mother would sometimes buy a glass jar (I have conveniently forgotten the brand name) packed with what we called "hot tamales". Wrapped individually in parchment paper, covered in a thin, brackish, tomato-y fluid, these slippery travesties were all I knew of tamales until I moved to Mexico.

The first Christmas season I that I lived South of the Border, my neighbor came to my door to deliver a dozen of her finest home made tamales, fresh from the tamalera (tamales steamer). I knew enough of Mexican culture to understand that to refuse them would be an irreparable insult, but I also was guilty of what I now know as contempt prior to investigation. I did not want tamales. The memory of those childhood tamales was disgusting. I smiled and thanked her as graciously as I could.

A three-compartment tamalera: bottom left, Oaxaca-style tamales wrapped in banana leaves. Right, central Mexico-style tamales, wrapped in corn husks.

"Pruébalos ya!" she prodded. "Taste them now!" With some hesitation I reached for a plate from the shelf, a fork from the drawer (delay, delay) and unwrapped the steaming corn husk wrapper from a plump tamal she said was filled with pork meat and red chile. One bite and I was an instant convert. My grin told her everything she wanted to know. She went home satisfied, wiping her hands on her apron. I downed two more tamales as soon as she was out of sight. More than 25 years later, I haven't stopped loving them.

[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUWjZTAWMQU&w=350&h=315]
The 'official' voice of the ubiquitous Mexico City tamales oaxaqueños vendors. One visits our street every night at about ten o'clock.

Christmas in Mexico is a time for special festive foods. More tamales than any other food come from the Christmas kitchen. Tamales of pork, beef or chicken with spicy red chile, tamales of rajas con queso (strips of roasted poblano chiles with cheese), and sweet pineapple ones, each with a single raisin pressed into the masa (dough), pour in a steady, steaming mountain from kitchen after kitchen.

I asked my next door neighbor what she's making for Christmas Eve dinner. "Pues, tamales,que más," she answered. "Well, tamales, what else!"

I asked the woman who grooms my dog. "Pues, tamales, que más!"

I asked the woman who cuts my hair. "Pues, tamales, que más!"

And my gardener. "What's your Mom making to eat for Christmas Eve, Jorge?"

I bet by now you know what he replied. "Pues,tamales, que más?"

Obviously there are other things eaten on Christmas Eve in Mexico. Some folks feast on bacalao a la vizcaína (dried salt codfish stewed with tomatoes, capers, olives, and potatoes). Some women proudly carry huge clay cazuelas (rustic casserole dishes) of mole poblano con guajolote (turkey in a complex, rich sauce of chiles, toasted spices, and chocolate, thickened with ground tortillas) to their festive table. Some brew enormous ollas (pots) of menudo (tripe and cow's foot soup) or pozole (a hearty soup of prepared corn, chiles, pork meat, and condiments) for their special Christmas Eve meal, traditionally served late on Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), after the Misa de Gallo (Midnight Mass).

Doña Martha Prepares Tamales for Christmas

As an exceptional treat, we're sharing part of a photo essay by my good friend Rolly Brook. It's all about tamales, their ingredients and preparation. Rolly's friend Doña Martha cooks a whole pig head for her tamales; many cooks prefer to use maciza—the solid meat from the leg. Either way, the end result is a marvelous Christmas treat.

Doña Martha begins to take the meat off the cooked pig head.

Doña Martha mixes the shredded meat from the pig head into the pot of chile colorado (red chile that she prepared earlier in the day).

Doña Martha needs a strong arm to beat lard into the prepared corn for the masa.

Doña Martha's daughter spreads masa (corn dough) on the prepared hojas de maíz (corn husks).

Corn husks with masa, ready for filling.

Doña Martha fills each masa-spread corn husk with meat and chile colorado.

Folding the hojas de maíz is an assembly-line process involving the whole family.

Tamales in the tamalera, ready to be steamed. Steaming takes an hour or so.

The photos only show part of the process of making tamales. You can access Rolly's entire photo essay on his website. Rolly graciously allowed Mexico Cooks! the use of his wonderful pictures.

Can we finish all these tamales at one sitting? My friends and neighbors prepare them with leftovers in mind. Here's how to reheat tamales so they're even better than when they first came out of the steamer.

Recalentados (Reheated Tamales)

Over a medium flame, pre-heat an ungreased comal (griddle) or heavy skillet. Put the tamales to reheat in a single layer, still in their corn husk wrappers. Let them toast, turning them over and over until the corn husks are dark golden brown, nearly black. Just when you think they're going to burn, take them off the heat and peel the husks away. The tamales will be slightly golden, a little crunchy on the edges, and absolutely out of this world delicious.

Provecho y Feliz Navidad!

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27 de December de 2014
Seven Points of Tradition: The Piñata in Mexico

Traditional piñatas ready for sale decorate the door to the Hernández family's tiny taller (workshop) on Av. Lázaro Cárdenas.

Among clean ollas de barro (clay pots), plastic receptacles filled with engrudo (flour/water paste), and colorful, neatly stacked rounds of papel de china (tissue paper), Sra. María Dolores Hernández (affectionately known as Doña Lolita) sits on an upturned bucket. She celebrates her birthday on December 24, and she still lights up–just like a Christmas tree–when she talks about her business and her life.

The last point of the star-shaped piñata is in Doña Lolita's hands, nearly ready to be glued into place.

"When I was a young woman, raising my family together with my husband, it was hard for us to make a good living here in Morelia. We had eight children (one has died, but six girls and a boy survive) and we struggled to make ends meet. My husband was a master mason, but I wanted to help out with the finances. I knew a woman who made piñatas, and I thought, 'I can do that.' So I started trying my hand, nearly 60 years ago."

Doña Lolita adds another layer of newspaper to this piñata in progress. "You can't put too much newspaper on the pot, because it will take too long to break," she explained. "And you can't put too little on it, either, because then the first child to hit it will break it. That's no good, either. You just have to know how much to use." Click on the photo to enlarge it and get a good look at the clay pot inside the paper maché.

"The woman who made piñatas wouldn't give away her secrets, so I had to figure everything out for myself. You should have seen me the first time I tried to make a bird's beak for a parrot-shaped piñata! A man I knew told me to make it out of chapopote (a kind of tar), so I did. It hardened all right, but later in the day the weather warmed up and that beak dripped down to here! What a mess! I finally figured out how to make the shape out of paper, but I just about broke my head thinking about it!"

Pre-cut rounds of papel de china (tissue paper) wait to be glued onto a piñata. The black plastic bag holds strips of newspaper.

Doña Lolita told me about the different grades of paper used to create different styles of decoration on the piñata, and she explained different kinds of paper-cutting techniques; she's absolutely the expert. Here, her son-in-law Fernando cuts tissue paper for fringe. His hands are so fast with the scissors it made my head spin; he can even cut without looking.

"In those days, the clay pots cost four and a half pesos for a gross–yes, for 144. In the old days, I usually sold about 7,000 piñatas every December, so you can imagine the investment I made just in clay pots. In the 1960s, I could sell a large piñata for seven pesos. Now–well, now the pots are much more expensive, so naturally the piñatas cost more, too. The large ones cost 45 pesos. This year, I'll sell about 1,000 piñatas just for the posadas. "

Piñatas in various stages of completion hang from every beam in Doña Lolita's tiny workshop.

"When my daughter Mercedes was about eight years old, she wanted to learn to make piñatas. She'd been watching me do it since she was born. So I taught her, and I've taught the whole family.  Piñatería (making piñatas) is what's kept us going." Doña Lolita smiled hugely. "My children have always been extremely hard workers. There was a girl for each part of making the piñatas. Every year, we started making piñatas in August and finished at the beginning of January.

This gigantic piñata, still unfinished, measures almost six feet in diameter from point to point.

"One time, we had so many piñatas to finish that I didn't think we could do it. So I thought, 'if we work all night long, we can finish them by tomorrow morning.' Only I couldn't figure out how to keep the children awake to work all night." She laughed. "I went to the drugstore and bought pills to stay awake. I knew I could keep myself awake, but I gave one pill to each of the children. And in just a little while, I was working and they were sleeping, their heads fell right down into their work! What! Those pills didn't work at all! The next day I went back to the drugstore and asked the pharmacist about it. 'Oh no! I thought you asked me for pills to make them sleep!' he said." Doña Lolita laughed again. "We finished all the piñatas in spite of those pills, but you had better believe me, I never tried anything that foolish again."

Doña Lolita builds piñatas with her son-in-law, Fernando Cedeño Herrera (left), her daughter Mercedes Ayala Hernández, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. A close friend, Oswaldo Gutiérrez López (background), works with the family. Her grandson Enrique, 19, says he intends to keep the family business going.

Oswaldo Gutiérrez works on this piñata in the doorway of the tiny taller. Doña Lolita has taught many people the art of creating traditional piñatas, but her family and her loyal customers say she's the best piñatera (piñata maker) in Morelia.

"People come from everywhere to buy my piñatas. I don't have to take them out to sell; I only sell them here in the taller. Because they're so beautiful and well-made, all the best people in Morelia–and lots of people from other places–come to seek me out and order piñatas for their parties. I've taught my family that our work is our pride and our heritage, and my children have all taught their children the same. That is our legacy, our family tradition."

Fill the piñata with candy like these bags of traditional colación (hard candies especially for Christmas).

But why piñatas, and why in December? During the early days of the Spanish conquest, the piñata was used as a catechetical tool. The body of the piñata represented Satan; each of the seven points symbolized the seven capital sins (pride, lust, gluttony, rage, greed, laziness, and envy). Breaking the piñata equated with the triumph of good over evil, overpowering Satan, overcoming sin, and enjoying the delights of God's creation as they pour out of the piñata. Doña Lolita's most sought-after piñatas continue the traditional style, but she also creates piñatas shaped like roosters, peacocks, half-watermelons, deer, half moons, and once, an enormous octopus!

Now, for the nine nights from December 16 through December 24, Mexico celebrates las posadas. Each evening, a re-enactment of the Christmas story brings children dressed as la Virgencita María (ready to give birth to her baby) and her husband Sr. San José (and a street filled with angels, shepherds, and other costumed children) along the road to Bethlehem, searching for a place to stay. There is no place: Bethlehem's posadas (inns) are filled. Where will the baby be born! For the re-enactment, people wait behind closed doors at certain neighborhood houses. The santos peregrinos (holy pilgrims) knock, first at one door, then another. At each house, they sing a song, begging lodging for the night. At each house, the neighbors inside turn them away in song: 'No room here! Go away! Bother someone else!' Watch a lovely slide show: Las Posadas.

Freshly toasted cacahuates (peanuts) also stuff the piñata. The wooden box holding the peanuts is actually a measure, as is the oval metal box.

After several houses turn away la Virgen, San José, and their retinue, they finally receive welcome at the last designated house. After the pilgrims sing their plea for a place to stay, the guests assembled inside sing their welcome,  "Entren santos peregrinos…" (Come in, holy pilgrims…). The doors are flung open, everyone piles into the house, and a huge party starts. Traditional foods like ponche (a hot fruit punch), buñuelos (a thin fried dough covered with either sugar or syrup), and tamales (hundreds of tamales!) pour out of the kitchen as revelers sing villancicos (Mexican Christmas carols) and celebrate the coming of the Niño Dios (the Child Jesus). Finally, all the children line up to put on a blindfold and take swings at a piñata stuffed with candy, seasonal fruits, and peanuts.

This five-pound bag of hard candies shows a blindfolded (but peeking) boy ready to break open the filled piñata. Luis Gómez, a merchant at Local 290, Mercado Independencia in Morelia, offers these and other bags of piñata candies.

Mandarinas (tangerines) are in season at Christmastime and round out the goodies in lots of piñatas.

The piñata, stuffed with all it will hold, hangs from a rope during the posada party. A parent or neighbor swings it back and forth, up and down, as each child takes a turn at breaking it open with a big stick. Watch these adorable kids whack away.

The piñata, lovely though it may be, is purely temporary. Nevertheless, happy memories of childhood posadas with family and friends last a lifetime.

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20 de December de 2014