Category: Food and Drink

Crafts, Food and Mayan Culture in Zinacantán, Chiapas: Part Two

If you have not yet read Part One of Mexico Cooks! visit to San Lorenzo Zinacantán, please see the article dated March 1, 2008.

One of several Centros de Artesanía (craft stores) in the town of San Lorenzo Zinacantán, Chiapas.

As we drove into Zinacantán, we noticed many large invernaderos (greenhouses) here and there on the mountain slopes. In addition to the work of artesanía, there is a large
flower-growing industry in the town. Roses, daisies, chrysanthemums
and other flowers grow profusely in greenhouses that dot the hillsides
around this tiny town in a valley. The flowers are produced for use in the town as well as for export.

When Mexico Cooks! arrived in the town center, the parish church bells were ringing over and over again–Clang! Ca-CLANG! Clang! Clang! Ca-clang!–in a pattern that was neither the usual call to Mass nor the clamor (the mournful ring that indicates a parishioner has died). Although the Centros de Artesanía
(crafts centers) beckoned and we had really come to shop, we decided to
answer the call of the bells and visit the church first. Many
villagers crowded the entryway, watching one of the most beautiful
processions I’ve seen in Mexico. No photographs are permitted in
either the church atrium or the church itself, and I wished so deeply
that I had the talent to draw what we were watching.

Young men wearing white cotton shorts embroidered along the hems, thickly furry woven wool cotones, beribboned pañuelos
and straw hats processed from a shadowy side chapel carrying huge
wicker baskets filled to overflowing with every color rose petal. The
procession came slowly, these young zinacantecos scattering
thousands and thousands of petals throughout the candlelit main part of
the church. The wooden floor disappeared under a pink, yellow, red,
and white carpet. Other men wearing ritual black or white woolen cotones followed, stepping reverently on the rose petals, releasing their scent into the air along with the scent of copal burning in the clay incensarios (incense burners) they waved high above their heads.

Then followed twelve highly honored town elders dressed in even more
elaborate ritual clothing bearing three life-size statues on their
shoulders. The statues, each dressed in the finest ropa típica zinacanteca,
represented the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and San Lorenzo, the patron of
Zinacantán. The tremendous statues processed, crowned with gold and
surrounded by candles and artfully arranged flowers of every
description. The three saints gently tipped this way and that on the shoulders of their
bearers as they moved through the nave of the church.

The first young
men of the procession rained thousands more rose petals on the statues
as they wended their way slowly through the small church and back into
the half-light of the side chapel, where the saints were situated in
places of honor in front of the communion rail and altar.

This image, taken inside Templo Santo Domingo in San Cristóbal de
las Casas, Chiapas, shows candles similar to those lit before the
saints in Templo San Lorenzo, Zinacantán.

Beneath swooping banners, strings of brightly colored metal
ornaments, and tired-out balloons from prior fiestas, church elders lit
hundreds of candles to honor the three saints. Men clad in garments
resembling ribbon-festooned woolly black or white sheep hurried back
and forth placing candles in large stands, stopping to kneel and pray
aloud in Tzotzil. Meantime, women elders clad in brilliant blue and
teal embroidered chales (shawls) crouched on the church floor. Ritual white cotton rebozos covered
their heads and faces, leaving only their black eyes visible, watching
the men. The men lit candles and more candles. Young boys left
greenery around the statues. In the dimness, a solemn father pinched
his laughing son’s ear to remind him to respect the ceremony and the
saints.

When we could tell that the ceremony was drawing to a close, I asked
one of the elders to tell me its significance. "This is the first
Friday of Lent," he replied. "We’ll have this procession the first
Friday of every month from now until All Saints Day in November." He
smiled, bowed briefly, and moved away from me. My partner and I walked
slowly out of the church and back into the brilliant Zinacantán
afternoon light. We felt that we had been centuries and huge distances
away from this millennium. And of course, after that much mystical
time and space travel, we were starving. Lunch! Where would we have
lunch?

View of Zinacantán from the floor of the valley, 8500 feet above sea level.

Next week, read Part Three as Mexico Cooks! continues its visit to San Lorenzo Zinacantán, Chiapas.

8 de March de 2008
Crafts, Food and Mayan Culture in Zinacantán, Chiapas: Part One

The highlands of Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico, are unlike any region of the 27 other Mexican states I know. The indigenous culture of the highlands is still fiercely Mayan, albeit with a veneer of Catholicism. The Chiapanecan Maya are for the most part unwelcoming to outsiders, holding their customs and celebrations close to their chests as jealously guarded secrets. Some regions forbid entry to both mestizos and foreigners, some forbid the taking of photographs, and some have essentially seceded from Mexico, allowing no access to services commonly accepted as essential everywhere else in the country.

There are a few small indigenous towns where outside visitors are at least superficially welcome, including the pueblo called San Lorenzo Zinacantán, located in a valley at 8500 feet above sea level, just six miles from the small but cosmopolitan city of San Cristóbal de las Casas. In Zinacantán, where the women dress like flocks of exotically beautiful bluebirds, a prominent sign on the church door reads, "Se prohibe matar pollos durante sus rezos," (‘Killing chickens during your prayers is forbidden’), and the vernacular is Tzotzil, derived from Mayan. The name Zinacantán means "place of the bats". Mexico Cooks! missed seeing bats, but we lucked upon certain mystically Mayan Zinacantán ceremonies that left us wide-eyed and pensive.

Zinacantecas Juana Hernández de la Cruz, Josefa Victoria González, Juana Adriana Hernández Hernández, and Yolanda Julieta González Hernández laughed with delight when they saw their photographs.

Village residents wear ropa típica (native dress) made by their own hands. Women use hand-woven long black wool skirts, hand-embroidered red or blue blouses embroidered in teal blue, deeper blue, and green thread, and stunning tassel-embellished shawls. It’s possible to identify the families that men, boys, and young girls are from based on the style of weaving and embroidery in the garments their wives, mothers and aunts make for them.

For their weddings, Zinacantán women wear the k’uk’umal chilil, an elaborately woven huipil (long blouse). White feathers are woven among the colored borders of these wedding dresses, which are nearly long enough to reach the ground. Under the huipil, the bride wears a finely hand woven and embroidered navy blue woolen skirt. The bride’s white dress takes approximately five months to weave on a back strap loom. The people of Zinacantán say that the hen is a domestic animal that has feathers but cannot fly, walks on two legs just like people, is dependent on them for its nourishment, and is always near the house even when it runs loose. So the feathers that women weave into the bridal garment represent the attitude of the hen, which the bride is expected to adopt: she will not leave the household, even though she is capable of doing so, and she will shape a relationship of interdependence with her husband. Hence the feathers are a symbol of good marriage, as are the three borders of multicolored embroidery. In addition to the long blouse and the navy blue skirt, the bride wears a long white embroidered shawl which covers most of her head and face during the marriage ceremony.

Zinacantán men wear short pants and a knee-length cotón (a sleeveless garment made of one piece of hand-woven fabric sewn up the sides to the armpits, with a cut-out for inserting the head). The cotón is fastened with a wide red cotton belt wrapped several times around the waist and knotted. Over that, a man wears a hand-woven and embroidered pink fabric vest with long, elaborate tassels. A large scarf wraps around the man’s head, either with or without multi-colored ribbons trailing down his back, and over the scarf the men wear a handmade hat woven of palm fronds, long colorful ribbons cascading from the peak of the sombrero.

Because many people in Zinacantán are reluctant to have their pictures taken, I took the photo of traditional wedding clothing in a women’s cooperative crafts store with the permission of the women in the second photograph, who staffed the store the day Mexico Cooks! visited.

Sra. Pascuala Pérez Pérez weaves using a back strap loom.

The loom with a portion of Doña Pascuala’s weaving lies neatly where she left it momentarily to tend the cooperative store.

Crafts work such as weaving traditional brides’ huipiles, rugs, tablecloths, blouses, shawls, and straw hats has become the major source of income for many zinacantecos (residents of Zinacantán). Doña Pascuala told me, "We start as children, learning to separate the colored threads and put the same colors together. Many learn how to embroider, but the bad thing is that no one helps us export our crafts to anywhere outside the area."

Next week, read Part Two as Mexico Cooks! continues its visit to San Lorenzo Zinacantán, Chiapas.

1 de March de 2008
Detallitos (Little Details) Around Mexico

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, 2007.

Before the guests arrived, Jalisco 2004.

A window frame in Pátzcuaro.

A picture frame in Zacatecas.

Our Lady of Guadalupe embroidered on the back of a shirt.

Archway in San Cristóbal de las Casas.

La Puerta, Ajijic, Jalisco, 2004.

Gold-leaf flowers in the Santuario de Guadalupe in Morelia.

Stairway in La Casa de los Once Patios, Pátzcuaro.

Mexico Cooks! is on vacation. Coming soon: our adventures in Chiapas!

9 de February de 2008
Images of Women in Mexico

A late-19th Century image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Queen of Mexico and Empress of the Americas.

Collage by Rodolfo Morales, 20th Century Oaxacan artist.

Tortillando y comadreando (making tortillas and gossiping), Morelia, December 2007.

Sayaca (transvestite clown), Carnaval, Jalisco 2004.

Native dance costume, Chiapas 2003.

Berta Alicia Alejo, Michoacán 2007.

Lila Downs, Mexican-American singer, Guadalajara, November 2005.

Mexico Cooks! is on vacation. Coming soon: our adventures in Chiapas.

2 de February de 2008
FIESTAS! FIESTAS! FIESTAS!

Fiestas! A Mexican town goes all-out for its fiestas. Every barrio (neighborhood) celebrates its special saint. Any specialty item produced in a town gets at least a couple of days’ party: the paleta in Tocumbo, a cheese in Cotija, maque (laquerware) in Uruapan. El Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), Candelaria (Candlemas)–each merits a party. But the biggest, most whoop-de-do wonderful fiesta time of the
year comes to one small town near Guadalajara at the end of November. Starting on the evening of November 22
and culminating on the night of November 30, the town celebrates the
fiestas of its patron saint, San Andrés (St. Andrew).

Dare we go up on the ferris wheel? It’s called rueda de la fortuna (wheel of fortune) at the fiestas in this town.

Each day of the fiesta is sponsored by a different worker’s group, or gremio. For example, there are gremios for the masons, gardeners and domestic workers, plumbers and electricians. One day of the yearly fiestas patronales is sponsored by a large local hotel, and another is sponsored by los hijos ausentes,
(the absent children), those who were born and raised in the town but who
now live in the United States or other parts of Mexico.

In the pre-dawn hours of every morning, the angels are awakened (so goes a local saying) by hundreds of booming cohetes
(skyrockets) set off in the church atrium. Soon after, pealing
church bells call the faithful to 6:00 AM Mass, along with oom-pah bands
of musicians processing through the cobbled streets leading the
procession to the church of San Andrés. Thousands more skyrockets
thunder to the heavens throughout the day and night, every day and night.

Cohetes courtesy of a terrific photographer, Flickr user joven_60. Thanks, David, you captured everything but the booms!

The faint of heart leave town for the duration, dogs bark,
cats hide, but the tiniest babies yawn and cuddle closer to their
mothers as they sleep undisturbed through all of the racket. Last year,
on the day that was sponsored by the gremio de los albañiles (construction workers), 7,000 thundering skyrockets were set off in one 24-hour period. You read that right, seven thousand. Nearly 300 an hour for 24 hours!

Pozole (a pork, corn, and chile stew) and atole (a hot drink, in this case made of corn) warm you inside and out during the fiestas in Mexico’s chilly winter.

Each gremio sponsors a second procession and
celebration of Mass at 7:00 PM every evening and then the fun begins. The
fiestas are part religious observance, part circus sideshow, part food
festival, part carnival, part dance party, part courtship, and part
competition. You’ll find every sort of food being served on the plaza.
There are in-season guasanas (fresh green garbanzo beans, steamed in the pod on a brazier), tacos of every description including carne asada (marinated beef), beef tongue, and tacos al pastor (pork, marinated, roasted on a spit, and chipped off to order, sizzling hot).

Hungry celebrators of any age can choose from tamales, pozole, atole,
pizza baked in a portable oven, hot dogs, hot cakes, hot corn on the
cob, hot fresh-made potato chips, hot breads and hot drinks. Hot
cinnamon tea is a specialty of the fiestas, served sweetened and, more
often than not, with a piquete (a stiff shot of tequila, rum or rompope (eggnog liquor).

The fiestas bring great friends together for great fun.

There are games of chance galore: typical ring toss games (encircle the
prize and you win it), canaries that tell your fortune, shooting
gallery games (watch out for the little stuffed monkey. Someone hits it
and it pees in an astonishingly long trajectory).

Stop at Bebidas Paraíso for a drink. Tequila, rum, brandy, whiskey–these temporary bars, set up just for the fiestas, are called terrazas.

There’s a long street of tchotchke booths, selling everything from plastic
kitchen wares to CDs to clothes to toys (Christmas is just around the
corner) to souvenirs of the fiestas. It’s easy to get lost in the vast numbers of tiny trinkets in each booth.

There are specialty crafts booths selling fantastic embroidery, wood
carvings, pottery, and regional candy specialties. Want to ride a big
white goat with a saddle? Hop on!

Everything is made luminous by the chilly, starry skies. The
warmth of twinkling colored lights, the sounds, the smells and the
excitement of young and old alike is palpable in the chilly night air.
The band revs up around 8:00 PM and plays con gusto till the last possible moment, frequently until two, three or four in the morning.

Coheteros (fireworks makers) spend part of each fiesta daytime setting up the evening’s castillo.

And overshadowing all of these goings-ons is the grand finale of each evening, the castillo (castle). A set-piece fireworks display made of thin strips of bamboo, wires, strings, black powder and fuses, the castillo
is mounted on a 20-foot-high 6-inch thick pole in the middle of one of
the narrowest streets in town. The miracle of engineering and
architecture has its moments of glory around 11:00 each evening. The coheteros,
the men who build these fireworks marvels, mill around their creation
all evening, having a few beers while they baby sit the ‘castle’.

At about 10:30, murmurs start running through the crowded plaza: "A qué horas se quema?" (What time will it be burned?) Suddenly, the castillo jiggles-the long fuses are loosened and shaken. It’s time! The coheteros
grin and suck their cigarettes as the music crescendos. All eyes are
fixed on the bamboo center of attention. And, whoosh, the first
long fuse is lit with the hot end of a cigarette, the sparks climb
higher, and BANG! The first wheel of the display catches fire with a
whistle, a whir, and a buzz.

Brilliantly colored flames shoot out in the form of—wait! What is that? It’s an elephant—no, wait, it’s a bull!
For mere moments the bull whirls in space, isolated in the darkness and
shooting sparks into the crowd. And then whoosh another fuse, and this
time it’s a champagne glass that bursts into the night, and then a
flower, and then spinning discs of neon green flame, and then fountains
of what look like diamonds fall into the night, showering over the
crowd.

Six little boys run merrily under the exploding castillo, protected by cardboard cartons held over their heads. Oh the risk! Oh the joy! And BANG, the castillo
erupts again, now at the higher levels—this time a guitar, and an apple
and a poinsettia flame out into the night. And at the highest level,
what’s this? A folded fan falls open, shooting flames of purple, pink,
blue, and green–no! There’s a head. It’s a peacock, twirling and
shooting fantastic cascades of sparks from the feathers of its tail.

And then the coup de grace—at the very top, a ring of brilliant fuchsia fire spins faster, faster, faster, until the corona
(crown) loosens its moorings from the structure and flies higher and
higher into the starry sky, trailing glittering sparks until finally it
burns out with a hiss that is echoed by the sigh of the crowd. The castillo is finished for tonight, the smell of smoke and gunpowder lingering in the air.

The band music takes up the slack. Families with little ones and the
old folks head home as soon as the last spark dies. The teens and the
young men and women begin their sloe-eyed walk around the plaza. In the
sidewalk cantinas, members of the sponsoring gremio
order another tequila, in food stands couples eat another taco, and then
it’s home to bed to dream of what’s been tonight and what tomorrow
might bring.

A globo (balloon) vendor plies the fiesta crowd.

And all the while they dream, the band plays, the stars
shine and the coheteros smile and tip yet another beer to toast their evening’s work.













http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js

26 de January de 2008
Xilonen: Guadalajara School of Traditional Mexican Cooking

A couple of months ago I received a desperate email. Friends who are owners of a Guadalajara B&B were frantically looking for a Mexican cooking school for clients who would arrive within the week. The answer was a no-brainer: Xilonen, the Guadalajara school of Mexican culinary traditions run by Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski, would fill the bill perfectly. My friends breathed a sigh of relief, their guests were ecstatic with their cooking adventure, and I made big points. The situation was win-win all the way around.

Culinary tourism is a hot item these days. Whether you’re a recreational cook-tourist looking for a visceral way to understand a new culture, a home cook looking for a new twist on dinner, or a professional cook looking for ways to update a restaurant menu, the road to a man’s (or woman’s) heart is still definitely through the stomach.

Founder and owner of Xilonen, Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski.

Rose Marie Plaschinski is not your ordinary cooking school owner. A Guadalajara
native, she knew from an early age that the kitchen was
her passion. In high school, she often baked and sold cookies as a way
to make extra money and she still dearly loves dessert preparation.

After studying at three of the most famous cooking schools in
the world—the Cordon Bleu in Paris, the Culinary Institute of America
in Hyde Park, New York, and at the University of Mexico’s
Cultura Culinaria—she returned to Guadalajara to open her own cooking school, Cordón Rose.

We met recently to talk about her culinary life. Rose Marie chatted with me about her career and her decision to open Cordón Rose, and now Xilonen.

"All of my career, people have told me that I am a pioneer,"
Rose Marie began. "My original cooking school was the first to open in
Guadalajara. Cordón Rose concentrated on the classic styles of cooking,
and there are still no other schools in Guadalajara that prepare a professional chef
in that way. Now there are many schools, more than twenty. But to find
one of the high category of Cordón Rose?" Rose Marie lifted an eyebrow
in doubt.

"When my children were a bit younger, I wanted them to live away from the hustle-bustle of Guadalajara. I thought they needed a slower life, closer to nature and closer to me. My work kept me away from them and I was afraid they would only know me as "that lady", not as their mother. I initially opened Xilonen in the country, about an hour and a half from Guadalajara. My children and I loved living there, but it was almost impossible for them to have a high-quality education in the nearest town. We decided to come back to the city for the sake of their school preparation. I moved the whole Xilonen operation back to Guadalajara."

"Xilonen is the Nahuatl name of the young goddess of corn. Corn is the
mother of the cuisines of Mexico; corn has fed us for centuries and
Xilonen the goddess is our nourishing mother. In gratitude to our
mother, I call this new incarnation of my cooking school by her name.

Rose Marie commented, "You know, Xilonen isn’t just about exquisite
food. I’ve been involved in the Slow Food International movement for
several years, and the movement’s philosophy is part of Xilonen. You know that part of the Slow Food philosophy is a firm defense of quiet material pleasure, opposing the universal folly of Fast Life.

"My clients are mature people, people who understand that the beauty of
our natural surroundings combines with the gentleness of the indoor
atmosphere, which combines with the delightful surprises coming from
the kitchen. The entire ambience creates a whole aura of relaxation and
slowing down. Pleasures in the city, in the house, in the kitchen and at table are primary to a marvelous culinary vacation.

Glorieta Chapalita, the hub of Xilonen’s neighborhood, hosts an art show every Sunday.

"Even though we’re in the midst of Guadalajara, a city of more than 6,000,000, Xilonen’s neighborhood is an island of peace. The streets are tree-lined, the pace is slow, and yet we’re just minutes from Guadalajara’s Centro Histórico (historic downtown area). Along with several plans tailored to our clients’ cooking school requirements, Xilonen also offers sightseeing and tourism options.

Rose Marie will explain everything you’ll see in the food stalls at Guadalajara’s famous Mercado Libertad.

A one-day Xilonen class features a trip to a typical market plus preparation of a dish or a meal. Set up for an individual or a couple, the class offers an intimate introduction to regional Mexican cooking, an opportunity to spend time honing your already well-used kitchen skills, and the close personal attention of Chef Rose Marie.

The one-week series of classes is much more detailed and features authentic regional recipes. Rose Marie herself guides students through preparing several full meals: drinks, appetizers, soups, main courses, and desserts. You’ll learn the proper preparation of a margarita, an exciting guacamole made from perfectly ripe avocados, the preparation of authentic arroz a la mexicana (Mexican red rice), a salsa or two to add a touch of picante, and delicious desserts made from local ingredients. Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating! Naturally you’ll enjoy the fruits of your labor at Chef Rose Marie’s elegant and very Mexican table.

Professional food and design consultation for chefs and restaurants is another of Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski’s specialties.

For the culinary professional, Chef Rose Marie offers courses to update qualifications, ability to assess needs,
product development, plan restaurant menus, and more. The professional can come to Mexico or
invite Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski for a personal visit to your
workplace. She has recently completed extensive consultation with the planners and owners of a new Mexican restaurant in Maryland. Her work there included numerous field visits to the United States.

All of you aficionados of Mexico’s cuisines know that there are any number of cooking schools in the República which offer classes in the country’s more esoteric foods: 37-ingredient moles which take days to prepare, guisdados made of mushrooms found in one corner of one Mexican state, et cetera. Chef Rose Marie can offer you classes in all of the esoterica, but if you want to cook what Mexico really eats, every day, Xilonen is the place to study. Rose Marie’s prices compare very favorably with those of other Mexican cooking schools, she offers full accommodations for your stay in Guadalajara, and you’ll be thrilled with her as well as with what you learn during your time at Xilonen.

Contact Xilonen here:   Be sure to tell Chef Rose Marie hello from us at Mexico Cooks!



19 de January de 2008
Alicia Gironella and Giorgio de’Angeli, Extraordinary Ambassadors of Mexico’s Cuisines

At the December 2007 Expo de Gastronomía in Morelia, Michoacán, Alicia
Gironella de'Angeli comments on the importance of keeping a family
cookbook.

Mention Mexico's cuisines (both ancient and modern) and within moments you'll hear the names Alicia Gironella and Giorgio d'Angeli. The spouses have worked together for more than 30 years to promote, preserve, and protect Mexico's pre-conquest and mestizo kitchen traditions. It's been my honor to have known the two of them for several years.

In the culinary world of Mexico, Alicia
Gironella De'Angeli is ever-present, even when she is not in the room.
A recognized authority on the cuisines of Mexico she is also a
committed Slow Food officer and was part of the initiative that
prepared and presented the proposal "People of Corn — Mexico's
Ancestral Cuisine" to UNESCO. She has devoted herself to research,
investigation and rescue of the vast and complex cuisines of Mexico and
with her husband Giorgio De'Angeli they have traveled the world, taught, and
written on the complex nature and multiplicity of ingredients found
only here.

At the recent Muestra de Gastronomía in Morelia, Giorgio de'Angeli gobbled some slow food: tacos de borrego a la penca.

Giorgio de'Angeli is a tireless laborer in the interest of Slow Food, the international movement founded in Italy in 1989 as a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. In the defense of Slow Food, Sr. de'Angeli says, "No vertical food, please, and no fusion cuisine. Fusion cuisine ends up being CON-fusion. The Slow Food movement is about preserving and teaching real cooking, sustainable agriculture, eco-gastronomia, and tradition." Click here to learn more about Slow Food International.

SLOW, the magazine of the Slow Food movement, is published four times a year in six languages.

Over the last nearly 20 years, Alicia Gironella and Giorgio de'Angeli have written a number of books.

El Gran Libro de la Cocina Mexicana was published by Larousse in 1990. The five-volume set, in Spanish, includes volumes called La Cocina de la Imaginación, La Cocina de la Sencillez, La Cocina de las Sorpresas, La Cocina de las Especias y los Aromas, and La Cocina Barroca. The set is out of print. A volume or the entire set is occasionally available at specialty used and rare bookstores.

Epazote y Molcajete arrived in 1993.

Everest Publishing offered Cocina Mexicana para el Mundo: Saberes y Sabores in 2003.

Larousse published this edition of the Larousse de la Cocina Mexicana in 2006, with a second edition in 2007.

In this second
edition of the Larousse, aesthetics and modernity share the pages with
the indigenous and traditional, providing a concise guide for the
professional and the novice alike. Alicia explains the work as "not a
coffee table book" but as a text to be used in the kitchen, though the
photographs by Federico Gil are breathtakingly beautiful. The book
serves as a compendium of recipes with step by step instructions,
techniques and methods, and a full descriptive of utensils commonly
used in the Mexican kitchen. One of the sections deals with the
importance of flowers as food and the preparation of this "gift of
nature" transformed into a delicious meal. Moles as well are given an
in depth view by region, method of preparation and according to place
names.

The de'Angelis masterwork is as easily used by the home cook as by the professional. Neither bogged down in historical detail nor lengthy socio-geographical analysis, the authors cut to the chase and give us what is arguably the most complete reference and recipe book on Mexican cooking. Larousse de la Cocina Mexicana is not only an homage to one of the richest world gastronomies, it is also a compendium of variety, tradition, and flavor. Its pages contain more than 500 recipes for main dishes, drinks, and salsas, from the simplest to the most elaborate and from the traditional to today's kitchen. The book has more than 800 photographs, step-by-step explanations of preparations, and numerous technical illustrations. Among the most useful and interesting details are comparative tables of moles, tamales, and salsas. The tables allow the cook to understand the similarities and differences among the various preparations.

As Sra. Gironella commented "We have created this book to demonstrate the richness of a cuisine that is vast, creative and colorful. We tasted every recipe so there would be no doubt about its ingredients and preparation. If it weren't for the kitchen brigade at El Tajín (her restaurant close to Coyoacán in Mexico City), the book would not be what it is. I'm so grateful for their dedication and skill."

A classical Mexican kitchen, circa 1920-30.

In addition to their multiple tasks as restaurant owners, writers and teachers, the de'Angelis are also part of the enormous effort with UNESCO to declare Mexico's corn-based kitchen a patrimony of humanity. Along with Gloria López Morales and several well-known Mexican chefs, the de'Angelis presented the cuisines of Mexico at UNESCO's Paris headquarters in 2006. Although the initial request for patrimony of humanity status was denied, the chefs agree that with or without UNESCO, Mexico's corn-based cuisines are a cultural and culinary heritage that must be preserved.

Mexico has extraordinary regional cuisines, one for nearly every state, and the base of all these cuisines is three plants: corn, bean, and chile. The roots of Mexico's cuisines go back thousands of years, to an age and past comparable with other great civilizations.

The de'Angelis and the rest of the chefs agree that there should be another presentation to UNESCO to plead the cause for patrimony of humanity status. Giorgio de'Angeli says that a great campaign is needed to make everyone conscious of Mexico's marvelous traditional cuisines. "Largely unknown internationally, indigenous cuisines are also little recognized here in the cities of Mexico. In both Mexico City and Guadalajara, there are more restaurants featuring foreign cuisines than those which feature traditional Mexican cooking. In my mind, that's clear evidence that certain sectors of society underestimate or know little about the greatness of Mexico's culinary culture." De'Angeli goes on to say that this expression of Mexico's national culture requires better definition of ingredients, utensils, and food preparation. Mexico's cuisines are as extensive as China's, as delicious as the cuisines of France, but they lack definition. Because Mexico's cuisines are so diverse, there is no single recipe, for example, for mole, for tamales, for enchiladas.

Alicia Gironella de'Angeli graciously shared a simple traditional recipe with Mexico Cooks!

Pipián Prieto
(Dark Pipián)

Utensils
Blender
Cazuela (shallow clay pot)
Wooden spoon

Ingredients
100 grams hulled green pumpkin seeds, toasted
50 grams dried black corn, toasted
2 whole chiles anchos
1 cup chicken or beef broth
2 Tbsp lard
1 teaspoon salt

Procedure
1. Grind the pumpkin seeds, corn, and chiles with a little of the broth. Strain and fry in the lard. Season with salt to taste.
2. Finish cooking the above paste with the rest of the broth. If you like, you can add potatoes, nopales, or cooked, sliced turnips. The pipián should be thick.
3. Serve in the shallow dish as a salsa for shrimp and potatoes.

In 1993, Sra. De'Angeli opened a stunning new restaurant, El Tajín,
on the outskirts of Mexico City. Some of the highlights on the menu
are: fish steamed in a banana leaf with mushrooms and nopales (cactus paddles), various kinds of ceviche arranged like flower petals,
seductive bisque-like soups and tantalizing fruit desserts, including
one made of the sour cactus fruit xoconoxtle.

"This is the
same food we serve at home," Mrs. De'Angeli said. "It is one of two
tendencies in Mexican cooking. The other is popular Mexican food,
the kind with the grease and the cheese and everything fried. It is the
traditional food that we are reinterpreting."

Basically, she
said, she is changing the presentation. Take the way she makes
tortillas at El Tajín: the warm, flat corn cakes come with leaves of the
fragrant Mexican herb epazote embedded in them, which gives them a stylish look.

If you plan to be in Mexico City, make reservations and give yourself the extraordinary pleasure of dining in the traditional style. If you're very lucky indeed, you'll have an opportunity to meet both the de'Angelis. Be prepared to be ecstatic.

El Tajin restaurant:
Telephones: (52-55) 5659 -5759 / 5659 – 4447
Address: Miguel Ángel de Quevedo Num. 687
Colonia: Cuadrante de San Francisco (just south of Coyoacán) Part of the Centro Cultural Veracruzano
Hours: Monday thru Sunday from 1 to 6 PM.






12 de January de 2008
Indigenous Michoacán Cuisine Exposition in Morelia: Molcajete and Metate, Churipo and Charanda

This drawing from the Florentine Codex, a 12-volume compendium of indigenous Aztec (Mexica) customs written by Bernadino de Sahagún between 1540 and 1585, shows a woman grinding corn with a metate and metapil.

For four days in early December, 2007, the city of Morelia focused its attention on the cuisine of its largest indigenous people, the Purhépecha. Government officials and people important in the world of Mexican food arrived from points east and west. They heard seminars, book presentations, and studious commentary about the origins of mestizo cooking in Michoacán. Speakers emphasized the importance of keeping the strong cultural traditions of the Michoacán kitchen, the grand patrimony of family cookbooks, and the need to study and record the heritage of the various culinary regions of the state.

More than 460 years after Sahagún wrote the Codex, this Purhépecha woman grinds masa on the lawn at the Muestra de Gastronomía, still using a metate (the sloping three-legged grinding stone)and metapil, which resembles a rolling pin.

We looked wise and nodded sagely as we heard scholarly talks. We of the press photographed all the bigwigs, who smiled politely and acquiesced. In truth, the press, the bigwigs, and Morelia's hungry citizens were waiting for only one thing: the Saturday opening of the Muestra de Gastronomía, the two-day food tasting that would give all of us an opportunity to sample the exquisite regional cuisines we'd been theorizing about for the first two days of this annual event.

After all, food is what this annual event celebrates. Food is what fuels us, what feeds our bodies and our passions. Food kindles both our present day and our nostalgic past, and this encuentro (encounter) of tradition with today can bring together the best of both times. In the hands of las mayoras (the Purhépecha home cooks, elderly women all) and the young alta cocina (haute cuisine) chefs of Michoacán, we literally become one another's companions*: we break bread together and unite our hearts at table.

*companion: From the Latin "Companionem," which was, "one with whom you would eat bread" — "Con" (with) and "Pan" (bread) — presumably, your "companion" was someone with whom you would "break bread."

Gloria López Morales of Mexico City, formerly a long-term UNESCO and Conaculta official who continues to be a driving force in the conservation of Mexican gastronomy, comments about the importance of Mexico's cuisine as a cultural patrimony.

To start our Saturday eating foray, we tried delicious tacos de borrego a la penca (lamb wrapped in agave leaves and pit-roasted), as prepared by Sr. Eduardo Garibay of Santa Clara del Cobre.

Doña Paula Alfaro Aguilar (right) operates her eponymous restaurant, Doña Paulita, in Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro. She brought her special preparation of churipo to the Muestra de Gastronomía. Churipo, native to Michoacán, is a soup made of beef, cabbage, onion, chile, and xoconostle, a sour tuna (fruit of the nopal cactus), among other ingredients.

Michoacán pozole is made of pork (starting with the head and feet), nixtamal-ized corn, chiles guajillo and other spices, all simmered for hours over a wood fire.

This woman stirs atole (a thick, usually sweetened corn drink), prepared in an olla de barro (clay pot) over a wood fire.

The next generation: Guadalupe Cielo Talavera Andrade of Tzurumútaro makes masa using a metate. A large percentage of the young people from Michoacán's Purhépecha villages has gone to work in the United States, leaving traditions behind and the future of the old ways in doubt.

Tamales de zarzamora (blackberry tamales).

Tamales de Zarzamora
1/2 kilo prepared masa
1/2 to 1 kilo fresh blackberries
350 grams sugar
1 liter water

In a large copper pot, bring the water to a boil. Add the 1/2 kilo prepared masa and simmer, stirring constantly, until the masa is dissolved and the liquid is thick.

Grind 1/2 to 1 kilo fresh blackberries. Strain through a fine strainer to remove seeds. Simmer for 20 minutes in just a little water.

Add the sugar to the strained blackberries and bring that mixture to a boil with the masa mixture. Cool slightly.

Soak dried corn husks in warm water to soften. Using one or two husks per tamal, spread two or three tablespoonsful of the blackberry/masa mixture over the husks. Fold as for an ordinary tamal. Place the tamales in overlapping layers in a tamalera (tamal steamer) and steam for 30-45 minutes. Test for doneness.

Charanda is typically Michoacán. A product of Uruapan and its surrounding area, charanda is distilled from sugar cane and yeast. Clear charanda is approximately the same proof as tequila or rum. We used charanda as the piquete in our ponche navideño (Christmas punch).

María Luísa R. de Obregón is the director of the bookstore "El Rincón de María Luísa, Donde las Letras Se Cocinan". Among many other volumes, she displayed these two books. One is about the traditional cocina charra (cowboy kitchen) and the other gives information about the techniques and flavors of sushi. Their juxtaposition is proof positive that in Mexico, the times are definitely changing.

Cocadas (coconut candy) from Dulces Don Nacho of Uruapan.

Regional sweets, including candied limones stuffed with sweetened coconut, rectangular bars of jamoncillo, balls of chile flavored sweetened tamarind paste, a whole candied squash (just left of lower center) and guava leather rolls stuffed with cajeta.

Mayra Coffigny de Cárdenas, director of the state social service agency Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF, Whole Family Development) and the wife of Michoacán's governor Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, enjoys a tamal stuffed with picadillo, a mixture of meat, fruits and/or vegetables, and spices.

Doña Basilia Amezcua of Tarecuato prepared the prize-winning atole. Unlike most atoles, hers is a savory atole de habas (fava beans) seasoned with just a little chile jalapeño and hoja de aguacate (ground avocado leaves). The atole was so delicious that it won the prize for the second year in a row. I thought it was marvelous, so good that I purchased a liter to bring home.

Benedita Vargas Alejo (right) and her assitant use a clay comal (griddle) to make blue corn tortillas, gorditas, and quesadillas.

We see the Michoacán kitchen, with all its traditions and innovations, as an evolving work that needs to stick very close to its origins while it understands that transformation due to changing times–not simply current changes, but changes that have evolved across the centuries–are both valid and important. An event such as the Exposition and Muestra de Gastronomía acts as a guide for those who want to recognize the different origins of indigenous dishes and those that are of recent creation.

Come to visit us in Michoacán!

Few aspects of culture define a people more than its gastronomy. The four Encuentros sobre la Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán permit us to realize that eating isn't only a biological necessity but the enjoyment of good taste, social life, religious rituals, and the entire heritage of the indigenous Purhépecha in Michoacán.

We hope that Mexico Cooks! will meet you at the next Encuentro de Gastronomía or similar event. If you'd be interested in a taste of Michoacán, please contact us and we'll plan a trip for your pleasure.

All photos and written material are property of Mexico Cooks! and may not be reproduced without prior permission.

5 de January de 2008
May Your Days Be Merry and Bright…

Chepo celebrates Christmas.

Mexico Cooks! wishes all of you a very merry Christmas and the happiest New Year.

Les deseo una navidad super-feliz con todo lo mejor para el Año Nuevo.

Enjoy!

25 de December de 2007
Christmas in Mexico: Tamales, Tamales, and MORE Tamales

Sweet tamales de zarzamora (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.

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 guajolote con mole poblano (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!Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours

22 de December de 2007