Category: Food and Drink

Tamales, Tamales, and More Tamales in Mexico City

Tamales in the tamalera (the steamer) at Tamalería (tamales shop) Méndez, on the street at the corner of Av. Baja California and Av. Insurgentes, Colonia Condesa, Distrito Federal. You can see that the tamalera is divided into three sections. Each section can hold a different kind of tamal (that's the word for ONE of a group of tamales). In this case, the tamales at the bottom left of the photo are Oaxaqueños (Oaxaca-style). On the right of the divider are tamales rojos (with a red chile sauce) and tamales de mole (both with pork meat). The third section of the tamalera holds just-out-of-sight tamales verdes (with chicken, in green chile sauce) and tamales con rajas y queso (with cheese and strips of chile poblano).

Older than
an Aztec pyramid and fresh as this morning’s breakfast, a pot of newly-steamed
tamales whets Mexico City’s appetite like nothing else in town. Dating to pre-Hispanic times—most historians
say tamales date to the time before the Christian era—the tamales of New Spain (now
Mexico) were first documented in the Florentine Codex, a mid-16th century
research project crafted by Spanish Franciscan monk Fray Bernadino Sahagún.

Traditionally, tamales are made by hand, not by machine. At first, they seem to be exhaustingly labor-intensive and difficult. Just as with most wonderful food, once you learn the techniques and tricks of making the various styles, they're not so hard to prepare–and they are so worth the time and effort! Here, Carmen Titita Ramírez Degollado, owner of Mexico City's Restaurante El Bajío, preparaes masa cocida (cooked corn dough) for her special tamales pulacles from Papantla, Veracruz.

The
ancients of the New World believed that humankind was created from corn. Just as in pre-history, much of Mexico’s traditional and
still current cuisine is based on corn, and corn-based recipes are still
creating humankind. A daily ration of corn
tortillas, tacos, and tamales keeps us going strong in the Distrito Federal,
Mexico’s capital city of more than twenty million corn-craving stomachs. Tamales are created from dried corn
reconstituted with builder’s lime and water.
The corn is then ground and beaten with lard or other fat into a thick,
smooth masa (dough). Filled with sauce and a bit of meat or
vegetable, most tamales are wrapped in dried corn husks or banana leaves and steamed, to fill Mexico
City’s corn hunger and keep her hustling.

Tamal-to-be: cut the banana leaf to the size and shape of the tamal you're making, then lightly toast each leaf. On the banana leaf, place a layer of masa, a strip of hoja santa (acuyo) leaf, and a big spoonful or two of cooked, shredded chicken in a sauce of chile guajillo, onion, and garlic.

Mexico’s capital city makes it easy to buy tamales any time the craving
hits you. Every day of the week, nearly
five million riders pack the Metro (the city’s subway system) and are disgorged
into approximately 200 Metro stations.
At any given Metro stop, a passenger is likely to find a tamales vendor. Her huge stainless steel tamalera (tamales steamer) hisses heartily over a low flame until
the tamales are sold out. Each steamer
can hold as many as two hundred tamales, and the vendor may preside over two or
three or more of these vats.

Titita folds the tamal so that the banana leaf completely wraps the masa and filling.

Hungry
students on the way to and from classes, office workers with no time to eat
breakfast at home, construction workers looking for a mid-morning pick-me-up:
all line up at their favorite vendor’s spot on the sidewalk closest to a
Metro exit. Near the vibrant
Chilpancingo Metro station at the corner of Av. Insurgentes and Av. Baja California, Sra. María de los Ángeles Chávez Hernández sells tamales out of two huge pots. “Qué le doy?”
(‘What’ll you have?’) she raps out
without ceremony to every hungry comer.
The choices: rojo (with pork and spicy red chile); verde (with chicken and even spicier
green chile); rajas con queso (strips
of chile poblano with melting white
cheese); mole (a thick spicy sauce
with a hint of chocolate); some Oaxaca-style tamales wrapped in banana leaves; and
dulce (sweet, usually either
pineapple or strawberry). The stand
sells about 200 tamales a day. Sra.
Chávez’s father, Ángel Méndez Rocha, has been selling tamales on this corner for
more than 60 years. Even at age 80, he alternates
weeks at the stand with his brother, selling tamales by the hundreds.

The masa and filling are centered in the banana leaf. Titita is simultaneously pressing the masa toward the middle of the leaf and folding each end of the banana leaf toward the middle.

The pair of tamales in the center of the photo are filled with chicken and chile guajillo sauce. The tamal closest to the bottom is made with black beans crushed with dried avocado leaves. Avocado leaves give a delicious anise flavor and fragrance to the beans. These tamales are ready to be steamed in the tamalera.

The tamal de chile guajillo, fresh out of the tamalera and unwrapped on my plate.

A specialty breakfast, unique to Mexico City, is the guajolota: a steaming hot tamal, divested
of its corn husks and plopped into a split bolillo,
a dense bread roll. Folks from outside
Mexico City think this combo is crazy, but one of these hefty and delicious
carbohydrate bombs will easily keep your stomach filled until mid-afternoon,
when Mexico eats its main meal of the day. When I asked Sra. Chávez Hernández about the name of the sandwich, she laughed. “Nobody knows why this
sandwich is called guajolota—the word
means female turkey. But everybody wants
one!”

If you'd rather take your tamales home to eat them, Sra. Chávez of Tamalería Méndez or her employee, Sra. Lucina Montel, will gladly wrap them in paper and send them along in a bag.

For steaming tamales, the bottom portion of a tamalera is filled with water. Add a coin to the water and put the tamales vertically into the steamer, atop the perforated base that rests just above the water. When the water boils, the coin will rattle. When the rattle slows or stops, add more water.

Tamales can be a massive guajolota to eat on the street or the most delicate, upscale meal in a restaurant. These, prepared by chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo of Restaurante Nicos, are a degustación (tasting) at the Escuela de Oficios Gastronómicos operated by online magazine Culinaria Mexicana, where chef Vázquez recently offered a workshop teaching the history, ingredients, and preparation of tamales. From left to right, the four tamales are: carnitas de pato en salsa de cítricos y chile chipotle (shredded duck confit in a citrus and chile chipotle sauce), tamal de tzotolbichay (with the herb chaya), tamal de mole negro (black mole),and tamal de frijol (beans).

Chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo of Mexico City's Restaurante Nicos.

In
addition to being daily sustenance, tamales are a fiesta, a party.
In Mexico City and every other part of Mexico, Christmas isn’t Christmas
without tamales for the late-night family feasting on Christmas Eve. Gather the women of the family together, grab
the neighbors, and the preparation of tamales becomes a party called a tamalada. Mexico City chef Margarita Carrillo tells us,
“Mexican grandmothers from time immemorial say that the first ingredient for
great tamales is a good sense of humor.
Tamales like it when you sing while you prepare them, they love to hear a
little friendly gossip while you work, and if you make tamales in the good
company of your family and friends, they’re sure to turn out just the way you
want them: with fluffy, richly flavored corn dough on the outside and a delicious filling
on the inside.”

A small and elegant tamal de chocolate for dessert, prepared by Restaurante Nicos for the tamales workshop.

Señora Elia Rodríguez Bravo, specialty cook at the original Restaurante
El Bajío, strains masa cocida for tamales. She
gently shook a wooden spoon at me as she proclaimed, “You can’t make tamales
without putting your hands in the masa (corn
dough). Your hand knows what it
feels. Your hand will tell you when the masa is beaten smooth, when the tamales
are well-formed in their leaves, and when they have steamed long enough to be
ready to eat. Your hand knows!”

Señora María de los Ángeles Chávez Hernández (left) and her longtime employee Señora Lucina Montel (right) sell tamales at the street booth Tamalería Méndez seven days a week. They and Sra. Chávez's staff prepare hundreds of tamales every night, for sale the next day.

Let's go on a Mexico City tamales tour! Let Mexico Cooks! know when you're ready, and we'll be on our way.

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

9 de February de 2013
Los Reyes Magos to La Candelaria: Three Kings, Rosca de Reyes and Tamales!

Most Mexicans eat traditional rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread) on January 6. Its usual accompaniment is chocolate caliente (hot chocolate).

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.

Here in 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 (baby) 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 tooth mark on the head? Mexico Cooks! is the culprit. Every rosca de reyes baked in Mexico contains at least one niño; 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.

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.

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 (alternately spelled Niñopan or Niño-Pa).

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

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

26 de January de 2013
Signs of the Times at Mexico City’s Mercado de Jamaica

This man carries his purchase: cempasúchil (marigolds) and crisántamo (chrysanthemums) for the Day of the Dead. Most of the flowers at the market are grown in the State of Mexico, which is separate from but almost completely surrounds Mexico City. In the State of Mexico, flower growing generates a yearly economic bounty of $2,700,000,000 pesos: two billion seven hundred million, folks. It's not a typo.

This truckload of wholesale flowers for the Day of the Dead–golden cempasúchil, white nube (baby's breath), and wine-red cordón del obispo (cockscomb)–was undoubtedly destined for someone's retail flower shop.

In late October, Mexico Cooks! went to the Mercado de Jamaica specifically to find flowers and decorative items to build a home altar for the Day of the Dead. We were quite taken with these veladoras (candles in their holders). We found exactly what we wanted, but that became our secondary objective once we passed into the produce section of the market.

Many of Mexico City's markets use this sort of printed sign to advertise the price of what's for sale–in this case, vine-ripened Roma tomatoes–and every sign has a bit of advice to offer about your potential purchase. I've loved these signs since long before moving to Mexico's capital. On this market jaunt, the lightbulb went on: all of you would love these typical and sometimes funny signs, too. This one urges, "Don't think about it too much…take home a little kilo!".

For already-cut-up calabaza de castilla (a hard-shell Mexican squash): 'money well spent'.

For limón criollo (Mexican limes): I'll be right with you!

Limas–and there really is no translation for this uniquely Mexican fruit. They are neither limes nor lemons, nor are they oranges. But as the sign says: it's scrumptious!

Chile jalapeño: pretty and cheap, at four pesos the quarter kilo.

White potatoes for 10 pesos the kilo: smile.

Beautiful crisp cucumbers: ask for more.

At six pesos the kilo: 'Don't look any further!'

This merchant is offering his chiles jalapeños at 14 pesos the kilo: 'Like you saw on TV'.

This sign is my current favorite. "Ni hablar mujer" means 'Lady, don't even talk about it!'. The phrase is also part of a Pedro Infante song.

Next year, plan to come along with us to this marvelous market. Ahorita la atiendo!

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

12 de January de 2013
Pastorela in Cuitzeo: Devil Take the Hindmost
This article, originally published at Christmastime 2007, has been extremely popular every Christmas since then. We think you will enjoy this slightly updated version…

A Seattle Christmas pageant, circa 1953. Thanks, Sandy in Seattle!

My school put on a Christmas pageant when I was in the third grade,
back in the days before the law specified generic holiday greetings. Remember how Joey
and Jimmy, Ralphie and Bobby, were the shepherds in their father's striped
terrycloth bathrobes, the sashes tied three or four times around their
waists? Chuck got to be Joseph and that prissy little Amy got to dress
in blue and white as the Virgin Mary when everybody KNEW it should have
been you up there nuzzling the Baby Jesus. Here's a sweet little
reminder:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clSUr9fLapY&w=320&h=240]

A 19th Century pastorela photograph showing Bartolo, the indolent shepherd who overslept and missed his chance to go to Bethlehem to see the Niño Dios.

In Mexico, a Christmas pageant, like almost everything, is different from Christmas plays North of the Border. Called a pastorela,
the Mexican Christmas play is part very naughty topical comedy, part
traditional drama, part Sunday school lesson, and 100% morality play. Pastorela means pastoral, or a play that takes place in the countryside, and concerns the activities of pastores, or shepherds. First introduced to Mexico by Franciscan missionaries in the 1500's, pastorelas
continued to grow in favor here. Today the plays are one of the most
popular Christmastime entertainments. The theme portrays the eternal
conflict between good and evil. The plot revolves around the pilgrimage
of the shepherds to Bethlehem to see the newborn Niño Dios (Christ Child).

The devil is not ordinarily associated with Christmas. In Mexico, however, Satanás
plays a very solid role in the holiday festivities. He is actually the
star! Lucifer works all his worst wiles to detour the shepherds away
from their destination. Costumed as various alluring personages, Satan
and his associate devils do their best to trick the shepherds into
abandoning their journey to redemption. At the end, Satan is trumped,
good triumphs, the shepherds meet the Holy Family, and all is well.

Mexico Cooks! recently spent a week or so looking for a pastorela to be presented at a time we could attend. Last week, Judy noticed an article in the newspaper about a pastorela that was being offered that very night in Cuitzeo, a small town about an hour north of Morelia. The title of the play (El Ermitaño.com:
The Hermit.com) was intriguing, the photo of the performers in costume
looked exciting, and the timing was right. We called our friend Bunny,
who jumped at the chance to accompany us to the evening performance, and
we were off to Cuitzeo.

Cuitzeo reached the status of Mexican Pueblo Mágico, the third in Michoacán, in 2006. The requirements for the Pueblo Mágico designation are:
- a town or city rich in tradition
- located in an area of high interest to tourists
- that it have a strong history
- that it have ready access from major highways
You'll see in this video that Cuitzeo easily meets Pueblo Mágico criteria.

Our pastorela took place outside, on the grounds of the
Ex-Convento de Santa María Magdalena, a 16th Century Augustinian
convent. Judy, Bunny, and I stopped first in the church to see the
Christmas decorations.

Cuitzeo's 17th Century Virgin Mary wears a charming straw sombrero, carries a lace-trimmed basket, and rides a donkey as she and Joseph travel to Bethlehem.

The presentation of El Ermitaño.com was sponsored by Adopt a
Work of Art, the Michoacán Secretary of Tourism, the Cuitzeo city
government, the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and the
newspaper La Voz de Michoacán. We discovered that this pastorela was not a simple country town's Christmas caprice. It is a sophisticated, professional play of great good humor.

According to Miguel Sabido, the creator of El Hermitaño.com,
"The culture which distinguishes Mexico is both vast and rich, but it's
composed of more than our country's admirable buildings. Mexico has
its greatest patrimony in its popular rituals, and its recipes like the pinole cookies that are only made here in this region, and the pastorelas. These are Mexico's legacies and we must make a commitment to spread her traditions."

The pastorela characters mounted the stage dancing, singing, and rejoicing.

Adam and Eve were the first to take the devil's bait: Adam bit the apple and all hell broke loose.

Still singing, the shepherds, in typical indigenous Purhépecha dress, started their trip to Bethlehem.

El ermitaño (the hermit), portrayed as a post-elderly (think
200 years old) fellow, leads the shepherds (in this case, indigenous
Purépecha from Michoacán) on the long trip to Bethlehem. The Archangel
Michael warns them that they'll see the devil in the disguise of famous
and fascinating people. When Satan begins to tempt the simple
shepherds, they easily fall into his traps.

El ermitaño (the hermit) co-starred with Satan.

Famously rival Mexican soccer teams, a drunken debauch complete with
Caribbean dancers in flounced skirts and turbans, and an angelic choir
are all devils in disguise. In every encounter, Archangel Michael has
to intervene to prod the shepherds on their way. Topical jokes ran
wild, references to the famous and the infamous flew, and we loved it
all.

Finally, Bethlehem! The Virgin Mary holds the Niño Dios as St. Joseph and the shepherds look on.

The pastorela story was typically good conquers evil, but
what a production! Acted, danced, and sung by professionals, the
morality play kept the crowd (packed into bleachers on two sides of the
open stage) laughing, clapping, booing and hissing, and singing along
with Mexico's treasured and iconic villancicos (Christmas carols).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07FjX4R1d-s&w=350&h=263]
Listen to this lovely version of Los Peces en el Río. Can you hear the lyric 'la Virgen lava pañales'? It means 'the Virgin is washing diapers'!

Mexico Cooks! wishes everyone a very joyous New Year, filled with good health, great happiness, and many delights.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.
29 de December de 2012
Christmas–Piñata Time in Mexico!

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

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'll celebrate her 82nd
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 circle of 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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15 de December de 2012
Colonia La Condesa Bakery Crawl–Un Paseo por las Panaderías de Colonia la Condesa

Pan de muertos (special bread for Day of the Dead), almost ready for the oven at Panadería Maque, Calle Ozululama 4, at the corner of Calle Citlatépetl, Colonia La Condesa.

Late in October, my baker-friend Jane suggested that in honor of Mexico's Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), we go poking around in bakeries. Pan de muerto is one of the traditional treats set out on altars to entice the spirits of the dead back for a visit with the living, and every bakery has its own recipe. As it happened, neither of us had a lot of time on the appointed day, so we made a list of eight spots to visit in Colonia La Condesa. We set off on foot with high hopes of finding sublime breads.

The family-size pan de muertos at Panadería Maque, wrapped in cellophane and ready to go home with you. We calculated that it would serve eight or more people, with a good-sized slice or more for each person. It cost just under 400 pesos.

Our first stop–we arranged our bakeries in a big oval starting with the one closest to Mexico Cooks! home and ending as near as possible to the same spot–was at Panadería Maque. Maque is a several-bakery/coffee shop chain open from 8AM breakfast to 10PM light supper in Col. Condesa. We were impressed by the big crowd at the outdoor and indoor tables, the long line waiting to be seated, and the bustling wait staff whizzing by with coffee, great-looking sandwiches, and lots of pan de muertos. We took some pictures and made a note to return for breakfast another morning when we both had more time.

Not on our list but in our path, at the corner of Calle Ozululama and Av. Amsterdam: Louis Robledo's Tout Chocolat, where the pan de muertos was made with chocolate. Jane bought one hot out of the oven to take home. She also bought each of us a delicious macarrón. They were very nearly as good as the ones I tried last spring in Paris.

Next on our list was Panadería La Artesa, at Alfonso Reyes 203, corner Calle Saltillo. Mexico Cooks!' wife often stops at La Artesa for baguettes and pan de agua, both of which are good but not spectacularly so. The owner noticed that both Jane and I had cameras with us; he started berating us with, "No photos! No photos! Put the cameras away!" If you want to put up with that kind of behavior, fine. Neither Jane nor I will be going back.

As we strolled along, we noticed this sign: MANDUCA. Recently opened at Calle Nuevo León 125-B, this terrific bakery was also not on our list–but what a find! Trendy but not precious, all its bread is baked on the premises.

Real bread! Manduca's delightful manager, Alejandra Miranda Medina, told us that the baker is German.

We couldn't leave; hunger suddenly overcame our need to step lively. Jane ordered a pan de muerto and coffee; I asked for one of the pretzel bread individual loaves and butter. The pretzel bread was marvelous, the heavily anise-flavored pan de muertos a little less so. The outside seating (there are also tables inside) was comfortable and pleasant.

Manduca's pan de muertos enticed us to stay, but Jane and I both prefer this bread with more orange flavor and a lighter touch of anise.

We continued to meander down Calle Nuevo León, looking for Panadería La Victoria, our next destination.

La Victoria, at Calle Nuevo León 50 (almost to the corner of Calle Laredo), bills itself as a Rioplatense (from the River Plate area that lies between Argentina and Uruguay) rotisserie and bakery. The chef is from Uruguay. These little sweet breads, called vigilantes (watchmen), are filled with a sweetened creamy cheese and topped with ate de membrillo (sweet quince paste). In Uruguay, these are said to be the favorite sweet bread of policemen–hence vigilantes.

Pan de muertos from La Victoria. These mini-breads (compare them with the ordinary size of the tongs at the right of the photo) are just the right size for two or three bites.

We spent a few minutes looking for Panadería Hackl (Calle Atlixco 100, between Calles Campeche and Michoacán, but realized distance and our rapidly disappearing time meant that we would have to come back another day.

We walked through Fresco by Diego (Fernando Montes de Oca 23, near the corner of Calle Tamaulipas), which offers some breads but is primarily a restaurant.

Our last stop was Pastelería Suiza, at Parque España 7 (between Calles Oaxaca and Sonora). It's a 70-year-old Mexico City institution with several sucursales (branches); this location is the original. Mention this bakery to almost anyone who loves pan dulce (sweet bread) in the Distrito Federal and the response will be a sigh of blissful longing.

On November 2, the only bread for sale at Pastelería Suiza was pan de muertos, and the only pan de muertos left, in several sizes, was split horizontally and stuffed with a huge schmear of nata (thick sweet cream). It looked like the Holy Grail of pan de muertos. I could not resist buying two individual-size panes de muertos.

You choose your bread, take it to the wrapping station, pick up your ticket, pay at the cashier, and then go back for your bread. The wrapping staff put the pan on a tray, then surrounded it with a cardboard collar.

Wrapped up in paper and string, the package has a come-hither look equal to the bread itself.

We could hardly wait–the Pastelería Suiza pan de muertos and a cup of hot tea would be our cena (supper) that night.

The verdict? The thick mound of nata was quite honestly an overkill of creamy sweetness. And the bread itself? The texture was wrong, more like a dry, crumbly, unpleasant muffin than like traditional pan de muertos. The bread had no flavor–not a drop of orange, not a drop of anise, nothing. It was a tremendous disappointment. Big sigh…but not blissful in the least.

So, you might ask: you walked all over Colonia La Condesa, you sniffed breads, you tasted breads, and nothing really satisfied Your Pickiness. What now?

A few days prior to Mexico's Día de los Muertos, my wife and I stopped at what is essentially our corner bakery, located at the corner of Av. Insurgentes and Av. Baja California, hard by the Metro station a couple of blocks from our house. Panificadora La Espiga (the Spike of Wheat bread maker) is large but ordinary, with not much to recommend it other than its proximity to us. A seasonal craving for pan de muertos had us by the innards, though, and we bought two small ones. They looked generic, with the traditional sprinkle of sugar: no nata, no chocolate, nothing special at all.

Pan de muertos, La Espiga.

When I tasted the pan de muertos, I was surprised. My exclamation was, "A poco!" (I don't believe it!) The texture was dense, slightly layered, and moist. The not-too-sweet flavor leaned toward the orange, with just a hint of anise. Who could have guessed! It was perfect. Jane and I had wandered far afield, spent time and money in all those uppity Condesa bakeries, and I had already tried the best bread of the bunch. Next year, Jane. I promise to take you to La Espiga first.

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1 de December de 2012
9º Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán: Ninth Annual Festival of Traditional Michoacán Cooking

At the 9th Annual Festival of Traditional Michoacán Cooking (October 19-21, 2012), Mexico Cooks! photographed alcatraces (calla lilies), an ear of blue corn, and a basketful of hypomyces lactifluorum, known in English as lobster mushroom and in Spanish as oreja de puerco (pig's ear). During Michoacán's rainy season, the mushrooms grow wild and are harvested in the pine forests around Lake Pátzcuaro. The lilies grow in home gardens. Point of interest: Alcatraz, the ominous sounding name of the infamous California prison, simply means calla lily.

For the last six years, Mexico Cooks! has been a proud part of a uniquely Michoacán food festival. This Encuentro de Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán was the impetus and the paradigm for which in 2010 UNESCO awarded Mexico's food Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity status. Every year, we feature stories and photos about the food that makes this festival an inimitable part of Mexico's richness. Those stories are here: Fourth Annual Encuentro, Fifth Annual Encuentro, Sixth Annual Encuentro, Seventh Annual Encuentro, and Eighth Annual Encuentro.

A huge bunch of freshly cut flor de calabaza (squash flowers), used in a variety of Michoacán's regional dishes. Did you know that only the male flowers are cut for cooking? The female flowers are left to develop squash on the vines.

If asked about pre-Spanish conquest regional food, few people would think of
frogs. These great big frogs, for sale at Morelia's Mercado de
Independencia on the Sunday of the Encuentro, are caught around Lake Pátzcuaro and skinned for traditional preparations. Only the ancas de rana (frog legs) are eaten.

This year, rather than focus primarily on festival food, Mexico Cooks! wants to introduce you to some of the now-elderly masters of Michoacán's regional home cooking, women who have annually brought the best of their family kitchens to the fair, who have proudly participated in the festivals, and who have given their hands, hearts, and hearths to the rescue and preservation of Michoacán's ingredients and techniques.

Doña Paulita Alfaro Águilar lives in Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Michoacán. She has participated in all of the Encuentros to date and has long operated her own restaurant. We chatted for a while this year; she told me she thinks this might be her last Encuentro. She told me that she is over 85 years old now and that in the last few months, her health has begun to be less trustworthy. "I've had to go to doctors a lot lately. And I don't feel as strong as I used to. See, I have to walk with a cane." When it was time to say our farewells, she added, "If I don't see you again next year, tell everyone I'm glad to know that so many people tasted my food."

Doña Matilde Apolinar Hernández from Charapan, Michoacán. Doña Matilde, who is also over 85 years old, prepared atápakua de queso (cheese in an herb-based sauce), atápakua de charales (tiny whole fish in an herb-based sauce), churipo (Purépecha beef soup), and atápakua de frijol (beans in an herb-based sauce) as well as corundas (Michoacán-style unfilled tamales). She participated in the the 2012 competitions with atápakua verde (a green herb-based sauce).

Doña Celia Moncitar Pulido shows us with her expressive hands one of the four elements of the Purépecha kitchen altar. The mazorcas (dried ears of corn) and beans represent Mother Earth, who gives us our food. Purépecha cooking–and eating–depend as much on spiritual elements as on earthly elements.

Doña Amparo Cervantes, legendary cook from Tzurumútaro, Michoacán. The 2011 Encuentro named Doña Amparo one of a handful of official maestras of the annual festival. The small group of recognized maestras had won the Encuentro competitions so often–really, every year–that the organizing committee retired these fabulous cooks from competition. Nonetheless, at nearly 90, Doña Amparo continued to cook (but not compete) at the 2012 Encuentro. In addition to her participation at the Morelia event, she has also been an impetus and support for the cocina comunitaria (community kitchen) in Tzurumútaro, her hometown. A few of her specialties are mole with chicken and rice, pork with strips of chile poblano, corundas, and uchepos.

Doña Ana María Gutiérrez Águilar and her husband, don Espiridión Chávez Toral, who live in Calzontzin, in the municipality of Uruapan. At the 2012 Encuentro, I sat near the couple as we listened to a young and extremely talented woman sing a traditional Purépecha pirekua. When the song was over, Doña Ana María asked the singer who wrote the song. The singer mentioned a name. Doña Ana María stood up and said, "No señor! That song was written by my father, Valentín Gutiérrez Toral from Paricutín. He was too poor to afford to have his pirekuas registered and most of them have been stolen. I've sung them all my life, just as he taught them to me." The young singer invited Doña Ana María to the stage, where she sang her father's song a capella and wowed the crowd.

Doña Lupita works selling onions at Morelia's Mercado de Independencia. At more than 85 years old, she continues to accompany her slightly younger sister to work. When asked how much longer she hopes to be at the market, she smiled and merely shrugged. "Hasta que Dios me de licencia." ('As long as God lets me.')

These beautiful and highly respected old women will not be with us forever. It's far better to honor them while they are still with us than to carry flowers to them after they have gone.

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17 de November de 2012
Taiwan Cuisine in Mexico City: Restaurante Rico Food in Colonia Del Valle
On your table at Rico Food when you sit down, house-made nibbles to open your appetite: sweetly pickled crunchy
carrots and cucumbers.

If you regularly read this website, you already know that Mexico Cooks! is always on the lookout for a really good Chinese restaurant in Mexico City. In March 2012, you read our report about the wonders of Restaurante Dalián. Dalián, whose owners hail from Beijing, features very satisfying food from mainland China.

A few months ago, friends mentioned a Chinese restaurant in their neighborhood. Our friends didn't know the restaurant's name, they weren't sure of the exact address, and they had never eaten there. But they said it must be good, because it was always packed with Asian people. And they said the restaurant was on Av. Coyoacán, not far from their home in Colonia Del Valle. A few days later, we took our car for its monthly outing and drove down Av. Coyoacán: there it is! Sure enough, Restaurante Rico Food was just half a block from División del Norte and mere minutes from our home.

Julio Lai, the delightful owner and culinary inspiration at Restaurante Rico Food. He was brought from Taiwan to cook in a restaurant in the city of Guanajuato, Mexico. Several years later, he went back to Taiwan with the intent to open his own restaurant in his home country. Once he realized how difficult his hometown competition would be, he came back to Mexico City to open Rico Food.

At Rico Food, dry-fried green beans with pork and chile are so delicious and everyone loves them so much that, depending on how many diners we have with us, we sometimes have to order two big platefuls. At this meal, we all dove into the green beans so fast that they almost disappeared before I got a photo.

The last time we visited Rico Food, this order of 20 freshly steamed pork dumplings served our table of five remarkably restrained eaters. Of course we also ordered several other dishes. The dumpling's dipping sauce is prepared prior to being brought to your table; it's the perfect flavor combination of soy sauce, ginger, black vinegar, and sesame oil.

Fileted delicate white fish, bean sprouts, scallions, and hot red chiles are the heart of this incredibly delicious Taiwanese dish. When I saw the oily liquid in the bowl, I thought I might not care for this. Boy, was I wrong!

Up until now, Mexico Cooks! has been fairly unfamiliar with even the most common specialities from Taiwan. This Taiwanese pork chop is a staple recipe from any restaurant or home menu. Given that these pork chops are relatively easy to make, you might want to try them at home. This recipe (courtesy of Allrecipes.com) will give you chops similar to the ones that Rico Food serves.

Taiwanese Pork Chops

Ingredients
- 4 (3/4 inch) thick bone-in pork chops
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon white wine
- 1/2 tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
- vegetable oil
- vegetable oil for frying
Directions
1. With a sharp knife, make several small slits near
  the edges of the pork chops to keep them from curling when fried.
2. Into a large resealable plastic bag, add the soy
  sauce, garlic, sugar, white wine, and five-spice powder. Place chops
  into the bag, and close the seal tightly. Carefully massage the marinade
  into chops, coating well. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, turning the bag
  over every so often.
3. In a large skillet, heat enough vegetable oil to
  fill the skillet to a depth of about 1/2 inch. Remove chops from
  resealable bag without wiping off marinade. Lightly sprinkle cornstarch
  on both sides of the chops.
4. Carefully add chops to skillet; cook, turning once, until golden brown on both sides and cooked through.
Serves four.

Steamed white rice with special Taiwanese sauce accompanied our meal.

Our comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) a few weeks ago at Rico Food celebrated the birthday of one of our group and offered her and two of our other companions their first taste of the restaurant's wonderful dishes. Our friends Alejandro and Allyson recently returned from several years in China; owner Julio Lai was astonished to be able to speak to both of them in Mandarin Chinese. Long conversation, special off-menu treats, and an introduction to Julio's beautiful wife ensued. Alejandro helped me talk with Julio, who promptly adopted me as his 'mamá mexicana' I'm proud to say that my new son is an altogether superlative cook!

Last but very definitely not least, our dessert left all of us tremendously satisfied. Steamed sweet black sesame paste buns were the perfect ending, the final touch to a magical meal.

Exterior of Rico Food, Colonia Del Valle, Mexico City. The signage says
that Rico Food is a Chinese restaurant, but many of the specialties are
from Taiwan. Photo courtesy Alejandro Linares García.

Restaurante Rico Food
Av. Coyoacán 426
Col. Del Valle
Del. Benito Juárez
Mexico City
Tel. 5682-9220 or 5682-9989
Monday through Sunday, Noon until 10PM

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10 de November de 2012
November 2 (Día de los Muertos) in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán: A Lively Walk through the Cemetery on the Day of the Dead

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 (Purépecha pyramids, mid-center in the photograph) just across the road. The yácatas were formerly both a priestly burial site and the site of ancient Purépecha religious ceremonies.

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 and dead in November
2005. Tiny white baby shoes are on the car's hood, along with a baby
bottle. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

The faithful Purépecha 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 at
noon. 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 an arco (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 Purépecha 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 about in the cemetery, hired for a song or two or three to entertain the living and the dead.

Copal
incense burns, 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 to the 'visitors'
show that the spirits are still valued members of their community.
Special pan de muertos (bread of the dead) in the form of human
bodies represents the relationship between the living and the dead.
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.

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 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 fruit–and with pineapple on the seat! The flowers at
the base of the grave marker are wild orchids. This style figural ofrenda is very unusual.

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3 de November de 2012
Cooking Classes at Taller Zirita in Morelia, Michoacán: Traditional Cuisine of Michoacán
Many people–Mexico Cooks! included–believe that maestra Benedicta Alejo Várgas is the finest traditional cook in the state of Michoacán. Here, maestra Benedicta explains some of the finer points of Morelia's Mercado San Juan to a Zirita taller (workshop) cooking class. For Zirita workshops, maestra Benedicta wears typical Purépecha dress: elegant knife-pleated skirt, hand-embroidered lace apron, and a beautiful lacy blouse. She has her rebozo (long rectangular shawl) folded on her head to keep her hands free and as protection from the sun.

A few colorful, traditional pots and ingredients in Taller Zirita's outdoor kitchen. The ingredients include (from left) round, juicy Mexican limones (Key limes), dark green chiles serranos, bright red jitomates (Roma tomatoes), and just-picked green-and-gold flor de calabaza (squash blossoms).

This past May, Mexico Cooks! was honored to be part of the opening at Taller Zirita, Cynthia Martínez's incredibly beautiful cooking school in Morelia, Michoacán. At that time, we were pleased to show you photos of the exquisite environment of a Zirita cooking class. I'm excited to report that I have now been part of two Zirita culinary workshops, both offered with maestra Benedicta at the helm.

The delightful and talented Carolina Salazar Valle is part of the culinary teaching team at Zirita. In front of her on the counter, you see the printed recipes given to each attendee, as well ingredients for a few of the dishes that are her part of the day's workshop.

Our list of recipes for each of the days I participated at Zirita included this menu:
- chiles rellenos de uchepos (Poblano chiles stuffed with sweet corn tamales)
- corundas (traditional dried corn tamales with swiss chard and carrots)
- chorizo de Huetamo con salsa de mango (Huetamo-style spicy sausage with mango sauce)
- col de árbol dos maneras (wild cabbage prepared two ways)
- mole de queso de Benedicta (Benedicta's cheese mole)
- paquesos (sweets for dessert made of ground wheat and piloncillo [Mexican brown sugar cones])
Our workshop group, divided in two parts, prepared all of these traditional Michoacán delicacies and then enjoyed platefuls of everything we had prepared as our marvelous comida (main meal of the day).

Maestra Benedicta showed our group how to knead the masa (corn dough) we used to prepare corundas. The masa is kneaded with grated, aged Cotija cheese, salt, shredded fresh acelgas (Swiss chard), and finely diced fresh carrots. She said, "Watch and listen. The masa will speak to you when it's ready to use." She was right: when she had kneaded the masa enough, it began to squeak as it pulled away from the bottom of the batea (wooden bowl). We carefully cleaned both sides of long corn leaves (right side of photo), used to wrap the corundas. Maestra Benedicta told us that there were two different sides to a corn plant's leaf: one side is smooth, the other is fuzzy. The balls of masa that are transformed by steam into corundas are placed on the smooth side.

Maestra Benedicta wraps a ball of masa into the corn leaf. Each corunda can have three, five, or seven picos (points) which are formed by the way the corn leaf is wrapped. It's rare to see a corunda with seven picos, but maestra Benedicta has the necessary wrapping skill.

The corundas are stacked in their clay pot to steam. The lid will be a clay bowl that fits snugly into the pot opening. Maestra Benedicta does not use a vaporera (steam pot). Instead, she places a bundle of very small pine branches at the bottom of this clay pot, then a cushioning layer of the leftover ribs ripped lengthwise from the center of each of the corn leaves, then the water for steaming, then the corundas. Nothing goes to waste in her kitchen: everything has a use.

Fluffy, hot-out-of-the-pot and freshly unwrapped corundas con acelgas y zanahorias, served with a molcajete-made sauce. The molcajete is a three-legged volcanic stone mortar which is used with its own volcanic stone tejolote (pestle).

While the corundas steamed in their clay pot, Carolina taught us to make chorizo de Huetamo con salsa de mango. We ate this dish spooned onto crisp corn tostadas for a simple, spicy, and delicious appetizer.

One group of students prepared col de árbol two different ways, cooked (in this photo the potful has just been put on the fire) and as a raw salad with vinegar and crumbled cheese. Both preparations were magnificent.

Elvira, one of maestra Benedicta's daughters, minds the cooking fire; her own daughter Imelda is at her side. Many traditional Purépecha cooks continue to cook outdoors over a fragrant wood fire. Special long stones form the parangua (sacred cooking area); smaller stones form the fogón (support for the pot).

A Purépecha girl is never too young to learn ancient techniques: maestra Benedicta's two-year-old granddaughter Imelda has her own miniature metate y mano (grinding stone and rolling pin made of volcanic rock) and is learning to grind corn for masa by watching and imitating her grandmother and her mother. Maestra Benedicta learned these same techniques from her grandmother. The Purépecha kitchen has always been taught by oral tradition, recipes and techniques passing from grandmother to daughters and from a mother to her own daughters.

Our class on September 27, 2012, was made up of 17 professional journalists from all over the world. They were visiting Morelia for the 2012 Feria Internacional de Turismo Cultural.

Professor Masaya Arakawa was visiting from Takarazuka City, Hyogo, Japan, to learn more about Michoacán cuisine. He joined our class on September 13, 2012.

A chile relleno con uchepo–a roasted and peeled chile poblano, stuffed with diced leftover and toasted uchepos (sweet corn tamales) mixed with toasted almonds, raisins, and crema de mesa (Mexican table cream). To drink? Mezcal, artisan-made in Michoacán!

Maestra Benedicta's award-winning mole de queso, ready to serve. This mole is made with Cotija cheese and has a sharp, pleasant taste.

Paquesos for dessert: marble-size balls made of ground toasted wheat berries, piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar cones), canela (Mexican cinnamon), and a little water. We made the balls and then rolled them in a little reserved ground wheat.

Maestra Benedicta toasts chile negro on the comal (in this case, a large clay griddle).

Saveur Magazine's Issue 149 is devoted entirely to Mexico's enormous array of food and drink. On page 80 of that issue, the editors write about Zirita Culinary Experiences: "Restaurateur Cynthia Martínez has created a shrine to the cuisine of small-town Michoacán. In outdoor kitchens over woodburning stoves, visitors learn to grind corn on a metate, press tortillas, and cook them on a comal, guided by practiced home cooks." One of a mere handful of Saveur-recommended cooking schools in Mexico, Zirita will give you a taste of everything you love about Mexico's cooking: its heart, its soul, and its deep, ancient flavors. Reserve your spot now for an upcoming class. There's nothing remotely like it anywhere else!

Zirita Culinary Experiences
Morelia, Michoacán
http://www.zirita.com.mx (website and classes offered in Spanish and English)

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27 de October de 2012

Category: Food and Drink

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