Category: Maíces de México

In Memoriam :: Maestros Yuri de Gortari and Edmundo Escamilla, Ever in Our Hearts

Originally published in 2011, it's time to remind ourselves of the lifelong work done by these two men: Yuri de Gortari and Edumundo Escamilla. Their contribution to the culinary history and traditions of Mexico are not likely to be met by others in the field. They were unique and a treasure, and I was so fortunate to call them my friends.

Standing at the doors of Mexico City's Catedral Metropolitana, maestro Edmundo Escamilla offers fascinating historical background about the pre-Hispanic marketplace at Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Mexica/Aztec empire. That enormous marketplace operated where the Zócalo (Mexico City's main square and the current site of the cathedral) now exists.

A few weeks ago, Mexico Cooks! received the announcement of a recorrido (walking tour) through Mexico City's enormous Mercado de la Merced. The tour would be given by none other than my good friends Edmundo Escamilla and Yuri de Gortari, the guiding lights who were until their deaths in charge of the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana. After I checked to make sure my favorite walking shoes were in good repair, I emailed back: Amigos, cuentan conmigo! (Friends, count on me!)

Diego Rivera's mural of the great market at pre-Hispanic Tenochtitlán, painted in 1945. Click on any photo for a better view.

Twenty of us hardy souls met at the front door to Mexico City's Catedral Metropolitana for a history lesson to begin our tour. Edmundo–an incredible repository of knowledge about all things Mexican–gave us a talk about the ancient market of Tenochtitlán, about food records just after the Spanish arrived in the New World, and about the evolution of farm-to-market transportation.

For example, the Mexica (the indigenous rulers who later became known to the world as the Aztecs) were the businessmen and tax collectors of that era. They kept records of all that was bought and sold in the market at Tenochtitlán, and demanded high tributario (tax payment) from the market vendors. When the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés realized how the Mexica were conducting their lucrative business, he decreed that taxes must no longer be paid to the Mexica. Instead, the taxes were suddenly payable to none other than Cortés.

Transportation of goods to market has also changed enormously. Today, we are accustomed to seeing huge amounts of produce, meats, fish, and every other sort of goods delivered to La Merced by trucks and other vehicles. Back in the days of the Mexica, on the other hand, the southern part of what is now Mexico City (notably what are now Chalco and Xochimilco) were connected to the marketplace of Tenochtitlán by waterways. Produce grown on the chinampas (island farms) of Xochimilco's canals was delivered to the central market by boat.

The huge market is large and important enough to have its own Metro station, on Line 1 (the pink line). Notice that the icon (to the left in the photo) for the Metro stop is a crate of fruit.

From the Cathedral, we boarded the Metro at the Zócalo, rode to Pino Suárez, and transferred to the pink line, traveling just one more stop to La Merced. When we entered the market, Yuri took the lead, we twenty participants trailed out behind like ducklings after their mother, and Edmundo brought up the rear. Each of us was armed with our cellular phone. In case one or more of us inadvertently became lost from the group, a simple call to the leaders' cell phone brought one of them to the rescue. The market is unbelievably enormous and packed with people. It has narrow aisles that were easy to miss when the front man turned left or right, the rear guard was straggling behind, and suddenly uh oh…where did they go? Fortunately the market is well-marked with aisle and booth numbers, making it easy to give a coordinate and just wait a couple of minutes to be retrieved.

Yuri de Gortari (the man in the white shirt at the top right of the photo) talks with the vendor and some of the tour participants about the almost unbelievable quantities of different kinds of garlic for sale at this single booth.

No matter what you are looking for–produce of all kinds, kitchen utensils ranging from the smallest toothpick holder to the largest restaurant-size stove, household accessories like baskets, bags, and rope, or candy and other regional sweets–you are bound to find it at La Merced. Even though Mexico Cooks! was familiar with the market from prior visits, this guided tour gave our group insights that would be impossible to understand on a solo trip.

Let's let the diversity of the market speak for itself.

Moles in pastes and powders at Don Pancho's puesto (stand) at La Merced. There were easily ten other nearby stands offering tastes of every sort of mole.

Here in Mexico, it's the season for fresh corn. This booth–and the next one, and the one after that, and the one around the corner, too–offer corn either as elotes (fresh and tender, on the cob) or already desgranado (taken off the cob). The fresh corn kernels in the bowl weighed about 25 pounds.

Up-close-and-personal with super-spicy Red Savina chiles habaneros, which have a rating of 580,000+ on the Scoville Scale. Bite into one at your own risk! This variety is just an example of the many kinds of chiles available at La Merced.

Bundles of dried avocado leaves. Pulverize some in your blender, then cook the resulting powder in a pot of beans to add the leaves' subtle anise flavor.

Cucumbers? No–these are stacks of neatly displayed fresh chiles jalapeños.

The original eco-friendly bolsa de ixtle. These colorfully dyed-woven ixtle shopping bags have been made of maguey cactus fiber since pre-Hispanic times.

Huitlacoche (corn fungus) is one of Mexico's true delicacies. This foot-high pile of the fungus has been removed from the fresh corn cob, but it's also available on the cob.

Small candies, sold in the quantity you need–anything from 100 grams to numerous kilos.

Freshly harvested nopales (cactus paddles) stacked in pillars taller than a man.

Fresh morel mushrooms. This sought-after mushroom grows wild in Mexico's forests and is harvested during our rainy season–from about July 1 till the beginning of November.

Much used as a garnish for tacos in Mexico City and the surrounding area, the leaf of the papaloquelite is shaped like butterfly wings. Its name is derived from the Nahuatl word papalotl (butterfly). This native herb pre-dates the introduction of cilantro, imported by the Chinese to Mexico.

On the left, dried jamaica blossoms (a kind of hibiscus) grown in Mexico. On the right, jamaica imported from the Sudan. The prices are per quarter kilo (about one-half pound). The unfortunate reality is that the higher-quality Mexican blossoms are more expensive than the imported version. Most people prefer to buy Mexican-grown products, but price can be a deterrent. These flowers are used primarily to prepare agua de jamaica, a refreshing cold drink enjoyed copiously all over the República.

Our walking tour ended after several hours at the Mercado de la Merced. Filled with new information and great respect for our tour guides' knowledge, I arrived at home extremely satisfied and tired to the bone.

September 24 is the feast day of Nuestra Señora de la Merced (Our Lady of Mercies), the patron of the Mercado de la Merced. She is feted there every year with mariachis, flowers, and every sort of celebration. If you are reading this on her feast day, know that Mexico Cooks! is at the market for the celebration.

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

4 de March de 2023
Thalía Barrios García and La Cocina de Humo, Oaxaca :: A Do-Not-Miss in Oaxaca’s Capital

Thalía Barrios García, chef and cocinera tradicional (traditional cook) and head of the kitchens at both of her restaurants: Levadura de Olla and La Cocina de Humo, both located in the Centro Historico of Oaxaca, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. Thalía was born and raised in San Mateo Yucutindoó, a town of approximately 2500 inhabitants in the Sierra Sur of the state of Oaxaca. The town is approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital city of Oaxaca. Photo courtesy UTVCO

Two months ago, I spent a week visiting many friends in the city of Oaxaca. I was thrilled; I hadn't travelled anywhere since early 2019. Pre-COVID, I was accustomed to travel to Oaxaca as many as six times a year, taking tour groups, attending culinary events, and generally taking my Michoacán-based, Oaxaca-related life for granted. In March 2020, boom! COVID's impact on Mexico–and everywhere else in the world–shut down tours, culinary events, and travel. This June, I was way beyond eager to see old friends, enjoy long comidas (comida is the afternoon main meal of the day in Mexico) with them, and have the time to visit Thalía Barrios García, the young Oaxaca culinary phenomenon, in one of her two restaurants. She asked me to have desayuno (breakfast) with her at Cocina de Humo (the smoke kitchen) and I jumped at the chance.

La Cocina de Humo is an offshoot of her larger restaurant, Levadura de Olla (literally 'yeast for a clay pot'; in Thalía's native San Mateo Yucutindoó, bread is baked in clay pots). At La Cocina de Humo, I was privileged to sit in the kitchen for breakfast, next to the comal (in this case, a flat handmade clay griddle seated above a wood fire). The tiny restaurant space is specifically designed to be a copy of the home kitchens of Yucutindoó. The photo above is the view from my seat; the comal is just to the left of the vegetables. All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

Thalía left her hometown when she was 18 years old, to attend culinary school. Her parents were 100% behind her decision. Thalía says, "My parents were always behind us kids, they wanted only the best for each of us and dreamed that we would be able to leave our town to achieve something in the wider world. My parents said, "The only condition is that you do something chingona." Loosely translated, that means 'badass', and in my opinion, Thalía's middle name should be chingona.

My first course included café de olla (coffee with cinnamon and other spices, middle left), atole de plátano (a thick corn-based drink, in this case including banana, right), and pastel de elote (a delicious semi-sweet cake made with fresh, early-season corn). At the back of the photo, the cup is made to resemble the pochote tree trunk–pochote, endemic to Oaxaca and Puebla, is known in English as kapok.

The trunk of a pochote tree. I took the photo in the Biósfera Tehuacán-Cuicatlán, in the state of Puebla (just north of the Oaxaca state border). You can easily see the resemblance the trunk, with its soft protuberances (they look like sharp thorns, but they're not), has to the cups used at La Cocina de Humo. Every aspect of the pochote tree is sacred to the Maya–including to the contemporary Maya. From its curative bark to its medicinal roots, from its profound shade to its life-giving energy, it is easy to understand why the handmade clay cups at La Cocina de Humo have the shape that they do.

Caldo de ejote de milpa (broth with green beans from the milpa). The wooden serving spoons for each of these dishes were large, and the handmade bowls themselves were small, thank goodness. I'm pretty sure that Thalía sent me everything on the menu to taste!

Calabacitas criollas (diced little squash, similar to zucchini) with jitomate riñón (kidney-shaped tomatoes particular to Oaxaca), seasoned with d
elicious spices. All of the dishware at La Cocina de Humo is handmade clay, designed by Thalía and some women potters in San Mateo Yucutindoó.

Barbacoa de olla (pot-style barbacoa) made of pork, chicken, the leaf of avocado criollo, chile guajillo and chile ancho.

After finishing the equivalent to a bachelor's degree at the culinary school that is part of Oaxaca's Universidad Tecnológica de los Valles Centrales, Thalía worked in various restaurants until she realized that her strongest point was the traditional kitchen, and not just any traditional kitchen, but the dishes she originally learned from her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts. I first met Thalía several years ago, when she was cooking under the baton of my beloved friend Celia Florián, the cocinera tradicional who is head of the kitchen at Oaxaca's internationally renowned Restaurante Las 15 Letras. In 2019, Thalía opened her first restaurant, Levadura de Olla. By 2021, she was considered to be the most outstanding participant in the awards of the 50 Best Restaurants of Latin America, given that year in the city of Oaxaca. And since then, the reviews have been pure praise, pure delight, for her cooking, her restaurants' style, and her own chingona self since the beginning.

A newly made taco filled with house-style mole negro (black mole) and deliciously fried sweet plátano macho–super-ripe plantain. This was course number three or four–nothing was large, nothing was overpowering, and every single taste of every single thing was marvelous.

Stove-side still life with jitomate riñón, at La Cocina de Humo.

On reflection, I think this was my favorite of the many separate platillos (prepared dishes) that I ate (at least some of) for breakfast. This is simplicity itself: a freshly-made salsa de molcajete (a table salsa in which all the comal-roasted ingredients are ground together in a volcanic stone mortar, with a volcanic stone pestle). While the salsa is hot from the roasting, raw eggs are scrambled into it. The ingredients were that old cliché: much more than the sum of their parts. I'd have it again tomorrow, and the next day. And oh joy, I've been invited back to Oaxaca this coming October. Can you guess where I'll be having breakfast?

Don't miss the store (Tienda Piedra de Río) in the front of the building where La Cocina de Humo is located. The pottery is the same as that used in the restaurant, those wonderful pochote cups are available there, and lots of other beautiful Oaxaca kitchen and household things are there as well.

I recently read a quote that I love, dedicated to La Cocina de Humo. I hope you'll love it too, and I hope you'll go to eat there as soon as you possibly can.

"Si dios (el qué sea de su confianza) bajara al mundo de los mortales, sería para comer aquí."
"If god (whichever god you might trust) were to come from Heaven to this mortal world, it would be to eat here."
________________________________________

La Cocina de Humo
Calle Murguía 304
Near the corner of Calle Juárez
Centro Histórico
Oaxaca 68000
Oaxaca de Juárez
Tel: +52 951 169 8076
Hours: Monday through Saturday 9:00AM – 9:00PM
Closed Sundays
Reservation necessary

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

27 de August de 2022
If You’ll Be in Mexico City Over the Holidays :: Pozole Moctezuma, the Best in Town

The block-long portion of Calle Moctezuma in Colonia Guerrero where the restaurant sits is just off Av. Reforma. It's right there in plain sight, but where? Mexico Cooks!' taxi driver missed it twice before he pulled up in front, and even then he couldn't believe we were anyplace we really wanted to be. There's no sign and no indication that the restaurant is anywhere on the block. Other restaurants, yes–but not the one you are looking for! The word 'pozole' next to the buzzer at Number 12 is your only clue that you are indeed in the right place.

Do the clandestine days of Prohibition appeal to you–those long-ago days when, if you wanted a snootful of booze runner's gin, you had to know somebody who knew somebody who knew where the gin joint was? "Joe sent me," was the joke of the era–knock three times, the little window in the door slid open, and if you were in the right place, knew the right people, and had the right look, you got in for a drink or two or three.

Something of those days continues to exist in Mexico City: not a gin joint, but a 75-year-old hidden and semi-secret restaurant very near the Centro Histórico. One of your capitalino friends will have been there; finding the address is still by word of mouth. Once you're pretty sure you're in the right place, buzz the doorbell marked 'pozole', and the door creaks open. Aha! Pozole estilo Guerrero–state of Guerrero style pozole–will soon be your comida (main meal of the day). But shhhh, this place is our secret, okay?

All of the best pozole starts with cabeza de puerco (a pig's head). Nothing else gives pozole its rich flavor and consistency.

If you've been following Mexico Cooks! for quite a while, you'll probably remember our 2008 article about my beloved friend doña María Medina's pozole estilo Jalisco. Jalisco-style pozole is almost always red, colored and flavored by chile guajillo and is usually prepared with nixtamalized native cacahuatzintle corn. Until a few weeks ago, Jalisco-style pozole was the only kind Mexico Cooks! had eaten. Not any more! We have now partaken of several other pozole pleasures.

The caldo (soupy part) of Guerrero-style pozole is green, more often than not, and prepared in part with pepitas (squash seeds). The dried, nixtamalize-d (simmered with builder's lime and water) corn is white, not red. The flavor is much milder than that of Jalisco-style pozole, and the accompaniments can be decidedly different.

Our group of comensales (diners)–in this instance, happy fellow pozole-slurpers and good friends. From left in the photo: Judith McKnight, photographers Sergio Mendoza Alarcón and Bertha Herrera, journalist Rubén Hernández, and journalist Nadia Luna. The empty chair is mine, and we were later joined by the delightful gastronomer Silvia Kurczyn.

If you are interested in preparing a delicious meal for your friends and family–especially good on a cool fall day, a chilly winter day, or on one of Mexico City's cool, rainy summer afternoons–pozole estilo Guerrero is just the ticket. There are many recipes available on the Internet, both in Spanish and English–not necessarily the exact family recipe used at Pozole Moctezuma, but delicious nonetheless.

Our group indulged in several appetizers: an entire plateful of very fine rolled tacos de chorizo (chorizo is a spicy pork sausage, in this case house-made) and laden with finely chopped onion and fresh cilantro–plus a squeeze of fresh limón), disappeared before I could snap its picture. I pulled the second appetizer plate over to me as soon as it arrived at table; this plate is filled with tostadas de frijoles refritos con chorizo y jitomate (crispy tortillas with refried beans, the same chorizo used in the tacos, and thinly sliced tomatoes). I could have eaten all six tostadas, they were that delicious. The yellow plate in the background holds freshly made chicharrón (fried pork skin) to eat by itself, spread liberally with crema de mesa (table cream) or to break up a little and add to the pozole.

Each of us ordered the medium-size pozole, more than enough for medium-size appetites or for folks who had already eaten several appetizers. Compare the size of the bowl with the good-size avocado behind it. Our bowlsful, replete with rich pork meat, nixtamal-ized corn, and Guerrero-green broth, arrived at table just as you see this one. Behind the bowl at left are a plate of chicharrón (rear), a plate of plain tostadas, and, to the right, the avocado.

My bowl of pozole after adding condiments. I know the green in the center looks like broccoli, but in reality it is pieces of avocado just spooned out of the skin. Also in the bowl are a sprinkle of oregano, a sprinkle of chile piquín, a spoonful each of minced onion and chile serrano, and a bit of chopped cilantro. On the back edge of the bowl (at twelve o'clock) is a piece of chicharrón gordo, with a creamy square of deep-fried pork meat still attached. Next to the chicharrón is a tostada smeared with thick crema de mesa, (Mexican table cream), sprinkled with just a bit of the same chile piquín. In the bowl itself, just in front of the green avocado, is a slice of sardine. Its slightly fishy saltiness added the perfect je-ne-sais-quoi to the pozole. According to my compañeros de mesa (dining companions), pozole estilo Guerrero is often served with a sardine accompaniment. The various elements of the pozole represent all of the elements of the state, including the high plains, the jungle, and the coast.

This restaurant, with more 75 years of history behind it, has been witness to countless events important to Mexico City and the country as a whole. Here, history has been made and history has been changed, young men propose to their girlfriends and politicians plan their campaigns. During one crucial comida, the guns of opposing political factions had to be checked at the door. Jerónimo Álvarez Garduño, the gallant great-grandson of the founder, is executive chef of the restaurant that got its start long before he was born. Its beginnings, in the kitchen and living room of his great-grandmother's upstairs apartment (Number 6), were hidden from public view for the security of the restaurant's clients. Álvarez Garduño works together with his parents, Yolanda Garduño and Guillermo Álvarez López, to ensure that the great Guerrero tradition of "jueves pozolero" (pozole Thursday) continues in Mexico City.

Things are not always what they seem: arroz con huevo estrellado (rice with sunny-side up fried egg) is a typically Mexican dish–served in an atypical form at Pozole Moctezuma. Here, it's dessert: arroz con leche topped with a syrupy peach half.

After comida, ask for café de olla–normally, a special Mexican coffee sweetened in the pot with piloncillo (raw brown sugar) and cinnamon. At Pozole Moctezuma, you will be served instead with a glass of anise liqueur, a few roasted coffee beans floating on top. The restaurant has never had a liquor license, but some alcoholic beverages by other names are available: a refrescada (mezcal with grapefruit soda) to start your meal, beer to go with your pozole, and this lovely café de olla to finish your meal. Soft drinks are also served.

Pozole Moctezuma is a true, rich taste of Mexico City's yesteryear. By all means, if you are visiting the city, go. You'll be so glad you did.

Pozole Moctezuma
Moctezuma #12 (Ring the bell to be admitted)
Colonia Guerrero
Distrito Federal
Monday through Saturday 2PM – 7PM
Pozole verde on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
Reservations: 5526-7448

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18 de December de 2021
October in Michoacán :: Wildflowers and Fresh Produce at Pátzcuaro’s Municipal Market

The area around Lake Pátzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, bursts into wildflower bloom in late September, just as the rainy season is ending here. The flowers are naturalized wild cosmos, known here as mirasoles ("look-at-the-sun"). Entire fields fill with swaths of these delicate flowers, turning our green countryside into a temporary sea of pink. Behind the mirasoles is a milpa, a field of native Michoacán corn, beans, and squash.

These beautiful blossoms, selling now at the municipal market in Pátzcuaro, are called estrellas del campo (stars of the field). From the tops of the flowers to the bottom of their thin, tender stems, they measure about two and a half feet long. Each multi-petaled bloom measure about 1.5" in diameter. I've lived in Michoacán for a long time, but this is the first year I've seen these for sale. We took three large bunches as a gift to a friend–at 15 pesos the bunch. The total for a big armful of beauty was the Mexican peso equivalent of about $2.25 USD.

Available throughout the year, the native Mexican nanche fruit is in full-blown season right now, piled high on stands around the perimeter of the Pátzcuaro municipal market and on numerous street corners all over the town. Sold in clear plastic cups (as seen in the photo, courtesy of Healthline) or by the plastic bagful, the vendor will slather these 3/4" inch diameter fruits with jugo de limón (fresh-squeezed Key lime juice), a big sprinkle of salt, and as much highly spicy bottled salsa as your mouth can handle. The biological name of the nanche is Byrsonima crassifolia.  The fruit is slightly sweet and mildly musty-flavored, a combination that most people love and that I regret to say is not a taste I enjoy at all. Nanches are packed with nourishment, though–a half-cup of them will give you nearly 60% of your daily Vitamin C requirement, 41 calories, and only 9.5 grams of carbohydrates!

These are jocotes (native Mexican plums), also in season now in central Mexico. The fruit measures about two to three inches long; the flesh is bright orange and the flavor is marvelous. Unfortunately the stone of this plum is almost as big as the entire fruit, and although you could eat it out of hand, the delicious jocote is most often made into an agua fresca (fresh fruit water) that is only available for the fruit's short season. This little plum is replete with Vitamins A and C, phosphorous, iron, and calcium, and is said to work wonders with gum problems.

A bucket of freshly made agua fresca de jocote, with whole peeled plums floating on top. It's my favorite agua fresca, and only available when these plums are in season: right now!

Who wants to take a guess at what each of the green herbs (and the vegetable) is? The elotes (tender fresh Pátzcuaro red corn) at the bottom of the photo were part of a small daily harvest brought to sell on the outdoor periphery of Pátzcuaro's market. Just to the left of the corn, at the bottom of the photo, are some mint branches that the same vendor brought for sale. But above the mint? Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll be able to tell that these are home-grown spiny chayotes. You are probably familiar with the paler green smooth-skinned chayotes (mirliton in Louisiana, pear squash in other English-speaking locations). The chayote has an interesting growing habit: unlike most squash, which grows as a vine along the ground, the chayote is airborne–its vines grow on overhead trellises and remind me of grapevines; the small squash hangs down from the vines. It's an extremely versatile vegetable, taking on the flavors of what you cook it with. Be sure to eat the soft, tender, flat, white seed–it's considered to be the prize part and is as delicious as the chayote itself.

To the right of the chayotes is a big bunch of wild anise, known in Pátzcuaro as anisillo. Used to make the Pátzcuaro regional specialty atole de grano, this herb is tremendously flavorful. In case you find some anisillo where you are, here's a recipe for atole de grano.

Atole de Grano
(Fresh Anise-Flavored Corn Kernel Soup)

Ingredients
2 fresh ears of tender young corn
2 cups fresh corn, cut from the cob
1 bunch wild anisillo
3 liters water
2 whole chiles perón (or substitute chiles poblano)
1/2 pound recently ground corn masa (dough)–ask at the tortillería near you
Salt to taste

Garnishes
1/2 medium white onion, minced
Chile serrano or chile perón, minced
Fresh Key limes, cut in half
Sea salt

Preparation
1. Clean the ears of corn, remove the silk and cut off the ends. Cut each ear into three pieces.

2. Boil the corn on the cob AND the corn kernels in enough water, for an hour and a half or until the corn is tender.

3. Cut the stem away from the chiles, take out the seeds and veins. Cut the chiles into small pieces.

4. In the blender, liquify the chiles, the anisillo, and the masa with two cups of water. Strain and add to the pot where the corn on the cob is cooking.

5. Allow to boil gently for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is slightly thickened.

To serve
1. Place sections of the cooked corn ears into bowls.

2. Ladle soup and corn kernels into the bowls.

3. Serve with the minced onion, minced chile to taste, sea salt, and Key lime halves to squeeze into the soup.

Serves 2 people as a main dish, 3 as a first course. This soup is both vegetarian and vegan, and gluten-free.

Atole de grano, made in a cazo (large copper kettle).

The vendor at this small booth at the Pátzcuaro market had an interesting variety of things for sale. Bottom right are fresh guavas, just now coming into season. To the left of the guavas are chiles perón (aka chiles manzano), arguably the most-used chile in this part of Michoacán. Above the chiles perón are fresh, green chiles de árbol. To the right are wild mushrooms known as patita de pájaro (little bird foot). These mushrooms, growing wild in Michoacán's woods and foraged during the rainy season, make a wonderful mushroom soup.

These are home-grown loquats, known in Mexico as nísperos (NEE-speh-rohs). Nísperos are local and are plentiful in markets right now.

Gelatin–this large cupful is called "mosaíco"–mosaic, because of its many colored cubes. More gelatin is eaten in Mexico than in any other country of the world! A cupful this size is usually an eat-while-you-walk snack food. This one was made and sold from a tiny cart with no name, just to one side of the Pátzcuaro market. The young woman selling the gelatins said her name was Yesi–I said her cart was now dubbed Gelatinas Yesi, and she laughed.

Just at the corner of the market, we bumped into don Rafael, who was selling–you guessed it–cotton candy. Cotton candy HAS no season, it's always available here. Get the blue, it will turn your lips and tongue blue as a blueberry, but just for a while.

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23 de October de 2021
La Casa del Abuelo Antojería, Morelia, Michoacán :: Fill Your Stomach, Fill Your Heart

Update May 10, 2021: Mexico Cooks! is sorry to report that La Casa del Abuelo Antojería has closed permanently. A victim of COVID-19, lack of business during the recent few months of the pandemia made the closure necessary. Best of luck to Ulises and Karina as they move forward to other endeavors.

The inviting entrance to La Casa del Abuelo (Grandpa's House) in the Centro Histórico of Morelia, Michoacán, México. This tiny restaurant is the epitome of Mexico's "3 Bs": bueno, bonito, y barato (good, pretty, and inexpensive). We're very lucky: it's just a couple of blocks from our house and we eat there as often as possible.

Who among us is always on the lookout for a restaurant that serves delicious food, in a pretty atmosphere, without spending an arm and a leg (or as we say in Mexico, el ojo de la cara (the eye out of your face)? In mid-summer 2020, Luisa and I were walking the three or so blocks from our house to Avenida Madero (Morelia's main downtown street) and noticed a woman standing in the doorway of a restaurant we had often passed on our way to or from–somewhere. Karina Bonilla Pointelin–the woman in the doorway–waved to and grinned at Luisa, and it turned out that several years ago, she was a student in a class Luisa was teaching. It further turned out that the doorway she was standing in was the entrance to La Casa del Abuelo, a restaurant that she and her spouse, Ulises Ramos Estrada, had opened in December, 2018. And what? We hadn't been there yet? How embarrassing! We vowed to eat there as soon as possible.

The menu cover at La Casa del Abuelo. The drawing–made by a niece when she was only five years old–depicts the home of Ulises's father, the "Grandpa" in the restaurant's name. The extensive menu offering breakfast, comida, and supper, is also available using QR, that newish scanning technology for your cellular phone.

Available at all three mealtimes (or as a really hearty snack in between meals, if you're feeling peckish), carne en su jugo (meat in its juice) is one of my particular favorites at La Casa del Abuelo. The large peltre (enameled metal) bowl is served as you see it–filled to the rim with lots of long-simmered small pieces of beef, chopped onion, bacon, flavoring spices, frijoles de la olla (freshly cooked beans, straight from the pot) and beef broth. Topped with more chopped onion, freshly chopped cilantro, and jugo de limón (Key lime juice), this dish is topnotch old-school Mexican comfort food. We were there for breakfast the other day, and I'd been craving their carne en su jugo; I ordered it with a papaya/orange juice combination and a napkin full of hot tortillas. The meals at La Casa del Abuelo are always bien servidos–satisfying portions that fill you up. The carne en su jugo, as of this writing, is priced at 60 pesos, including tortillas. Click on any photo to enlarge it for a better view.

Creamy, foamy hot chocolate, in this case made with milk–Luisa's preference–and topped with multi-color miniature marshmallows.

Another terrific breakfast or anytime option are the chilaquiles, in this case, a mountain of house-fried tortillas topped with freshly made salsa roja (red sauce) and a tender fried egg. Luisa ordered them for breakfast, along with a big glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. How newly squeezed was the juice? I went to the kitchen and watched Ulises squeeze it!

Here's Ulises, squeezing our breakfast juice.

One corner of the main dining room. The restaurant is cozy and intimate, if you're going with a group of relatives or friends, it would be best to make a reservation in advance.

Ulises and Karina talked to me quite a bit about the philosophy of their cooking, service, and restaurant in general. They are strong fans of the international Slow Food movement and follow its precepts closely. Almost nothing on the restaurant menu is prepared in advance: for a salad like the one in the photo above, the greens and the additional vegetables are chopped when a customer orders a salad, the cheese is crumbled when your order is ready to eat, and nothing on the plate will have come from a bag of mixed salad ingredients.

Everything that arrives at your table is hand-chosen by Karina and Ulises–they go to the Morelia markets themselves (and have their favorite markets)–and everything is purchased not much prior to preparation. Nothing is comes frozen from a package. They are also firm believers in cooking and serving local foods and supporting local farmers. Service here takes a bit longer than you might be accustomed to–they only have one other occasional employee, but truly, it's worth the wait for your food. During the pandemic, all health requirements are met at the restaurant: use of masks required, temperature taken at the entrance, antibacterial gel required and provided.

Ulises created this appetizer plate, and we have loved sharing it with our table companions ever since. A bar of slightly softened cream cheese topped with bacon, chopped onion, pieces of toasted nuts, fried dried chile rings, a touch of maple syrup, rosemary, house-fried tortilla strips, and sesame seeds combine to make you want to eat the entire thing! The whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts, and we are always amazed to taste this dish.

Costra filled with grilled beef and chorizo. Costra simply means crust–and in this case, it's a crust made of crispy-grilled cheese. The dish is wonderful for a light supper!

In addition, the couple explained the name of the restaurant. Karina said, "There are several restaurants called variations on a 'Grandma's House' theme, so we didn't want to intrude on that idea. And we wanted to honor Ulises's father, who helped us get the restaurant going–we only had a month from the time we decided to open up, and finding the right place for the restaurant here in Morelia's downtown. He helped us so, so much. And Ulises himself is now a grandfather, so all of the pieces fell into place–La Casa del Abuelo was the right choice!"

A taquito (small rolled and fried taco) filled with jamaica flowers. Jamaica (in English, roselle) is a flower used to make agua de jamaica, a cold, red, slightly tangy agua fresca that is one of the most popular in Mexico. Once the flowers are used to make the "fresh water", they can be squeezed dry and used for other dishes, like this taquito. Like many of Ulises's dishes, this one is a mix of several different textures.

My favorite dessert on the menu: the buñuelos del abuelo–again, created by Ulises. Fried dough, coated with a piloncillo (Mexican raw brown sugar) syrup, crystals of sugar, fresh apple slices, and crushed nuts. A winner–it's very hard to resist ordering it, it's so delicious.

Ulises, Karina, and Mexico Cooks! pose for a photo during a December 2020 event at La Casa del Abuelo. We took new friends to enjoy the atmosphere and the food; it's such a pleasure to spread the word about this great place to eat.

La Casa del Abuelo Antojería
Calle Abasolo 186
Between Calles Corregidora y Allende
Centro Histórico
Morelia, Michoacán, Mexi
co
Reservations or questions: 011-52-443-312-1963 (from the USA and Canada)
Hours due to COVID-19:
Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday 10:00AM until 9:00PM. Post 9:00PM, call for takeout.
Thursday-Friday-Saturday 10:00AM until 7:00PM. Post 7:00PM, call for takeout.
Sunday CLOSED (or call for takeout)

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

13 de February de 2021
Tamales, Tamales, Tamales :: Who Wants Tamales?

Tamales in the tamalera (the steamer) at Tamalería (tamales stand) 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 were made even before the advent of the tortilla and date to the time long before the Christian era—the tamales of what is now Mexico were first documented in the Florentine Codex, a mid-16th century research project crafted in the "new world" by Spanish Franciscan monk Fray Bernadino Sahagún.

Traditionally and to this day, 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! In the photo above, Carmen Titita Ramírez Degollado, owner of Mexico City's Restaurante El Bajío, prepares masa cocida (cooked corn dough) for her special tamales pulacles from Papantla, Veracruz.

The ancients of what is now Mexico 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-five 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 at El Bajío: cut the banana leaf to the size and shape of the tamal you're making, then lightly toast each leaf to soften it for folding. 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 arrival. The choices: rojo (with pork and spicy red chile); verde (with chicken and even spicier green chile); rajas con queso (strips of delectable 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 corner of the photo is stuffed 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 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 Montiel (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.

6 de February de 2021
Looking Back Through 2016 :: Una Mirada Hacia Atras 2016

Due to the pandemic, it's generally been impossible in 2020 to travel and tour with Mexico Cooks! Here's a look back through 2016 at some of our many fantastic and fascinating travel experiences. I hope that when it's prudent for all of us to travel again, Mexico Cooks! will be your first choice for a market/cooking tour in Mexico.

Ceremonial tortillas from the state of Guanajuato, made only in the Otomí communities of that state as food for certain ritual occasions. These were served at Restaurante Azul Condesa during July 2016, when Guanajuato's cuisine was featured for the month at the restaurant. They became so deservedly popular that the restaurant has continued to offer them. The tortillas, made of nixtamalized corn masa (dough), are shaped, pressed, and cooked on one side on a comal (griddle). They are then flipped and stamped with a hand-carved wooden stamp that has been dipped in muicle, a liquid vegetable dye made from a wild plant.

In mid-July, it was my tremendous honor to host an evening in honor of Zarela Martínez (seated, center), who in 1987 opened Zarela, a Mexican restaurant that is credited as being a pioneer of regional Mexican cuisine in New York City. She is the author of several wonderful cookbooks, including Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined (1995) (nominated for Best International Cookbook of the Year, James Beard Foundation); The Food and Life of Oaxaca: Traditional Recipes from Mexico's Heart (1997); and Zarela's Veracruz (2001). Some of the guests surrounding Zarela are: (seated) Celia Marín Chiunti and Rosa María Villareal; (standing from left) Rafael Mier, Marisa Zannie, Pedro Luis de Aguinaga, Mexico Cooks!, and Sonia Ortiz.

As a frequent visitor to a local tiradero (slang for flea market–literally, garbage dump), Mexico Cooks! has bought many wonderful old things for decorating the home place. This is not one of them. In August, a friend asked me to photograph this tableau of a javalí (wild boar) and rattlesnake for her nephew, a fan of taxidermy. One can buy anything from a silver ring to–well, a stuffed javalí–at this flea market.

I often go out looking for interesting graffiti, and almost always find something fun. This cat face, stenciled onto a wall close to my home, looks very much like Risa, my tortoiseshell kitten.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqVC3NaCLM&w=560&h=315]
An event in Mexico City at the end of August brought several cocineras tradicionales (traditional cooks) to visit from Michoacán. This woman spent most of the day pat-pat-patting truly hand-made tortillas to serve to the public along with home-style food. The gentle rhythm of her hands against the masa (corn dough) coupled with the laughter of other cooks made me feel like I was home again in Michoacán. Listen as she pats out the tortilla; imagine the smell of woodsmoke. Both are still iconic to rural Mexico.

This hard-working market bag advertises a butcher shop in Tehuacán, Puebla. No recap of the year 2016 could be complete without at least one mention of the life-changing weekend I spent in this south-central part of Mexico. Remember the Mexico Cooks! article about the cave where…well, re-read it here: Corn, An Ancient Gift from Mexico to Feed the World. Chills still run up the back of my neck when I think about gazing into this small hollow space, a shelter in the mountain.

Early September took us to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Palace) in downtown Mexico City. The traditional music group Los Folkloristas celebrated its 50th anniversary here. A good friend is a member of the group and made certain that another friend and I had great seats, a couple of levels below the glorious stained-glass dome.

Sometimes a person can't help being ecstatic. Meeting Laura Esquivel (author of the extraordinary and ground-breaking Like Water for Chocolate, among other wonderful books) near the end of September was a real highlight of my year. She was part of the press conference for the MODO exhibition Del Plato a la Boca–the beautifully curated, kitchen-oriented show will be at the museum through February 2017. Don't miss it.

Mid-October took me to Toluca, in the State of Mexico, to see the Cosmovitral. The Cosmovitral is a beautiful stained glass-enclosed botanical garden. The group Aztec Explorers, which organizes mostly day tours for people new to Mexico City or the surrounding area, invited me to come along to see the kind of work they do. The tour company advertises primarily to people who live in or near Mexico City and want to make friends with others while enjoying an overview of sites they've heard about and want to see. If this sounds like a day that suits your style, you'll enjoy the inexpensive tours that Lilia and Peter give. By all means tell them Mexico Cooks! sent you.

Remember the gorgeous October 15, 2016 super moon? I took this shot with my cellular phone, from my bathroom window! Moon over Mexico City, a lucky shot indeed.

For November 2, Día de Los Muertos, Mexico Cooks! took a small group of tourists to that flea market I mentioned above–no taxidermy this time, though. Alfredo Vilchis Roque, who is proclaimed as "the Da Vinci of the market", built an altar for Day of the Dead 2016. Click on any of the photographs for a larger view. Sr. Vilchis, whose work has been exhibited at the Louvre and is sold at a Paris gallery (among others), was generous enough to point out several fascinating aspects to the altar. Look, for example, just at knee level and in front of him: there's a tribute to Juan Gabriel, Mexico's world-famous singer and idol, who died on August 28, 2016.

November 17, 2016, marked the launch of a program called Salvemos el Maíz Palomero de México (Let's Save Mexican Popcorn). Part of the project for the preservation of Mexico's native corns in general as well as for the preservation of the tortilla made of nixtamalized corn, the popcorn event was particularly designed to bring the near-extinction of Mexico's original corn to the attention of the press. It was a tremendous success; even Aristegui Noticias, the foremost news in Mexico shown on CÑÑ (CNN in Spanish), picked up the story and broadcast it to the Spanish-speaking world. You'll be reading a lot more about this multi-faceted project in the weeks and months to come, right here at Mexico Cooks!.

Whatever your faith, may the New Year bless you with abundance in all things, especially joy and peace. From our house to yours, we wish you a blessed 2021.

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16 de January de 2021
More of Mexico Cooks! Pre-Pandemia Wanderings :: All Over Mexico, Part 2

I'm sure you remember that old saying, "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first." Mexico Cooks! is a firm proponent of that–at least for beginning today's report. This sweet, delicious offering is on the menu at La Conspiración de 1809, just at the back of Morelia's cathedral. In the photo, you see a pavlova, a crisp meringue filled with pastry cream and frutos rojos (red fruits)–in this case, Michoacán's locally grown strawberries, blackberries, and red raspberries. Driscoll's also grows blueberries here in Michoacán. The company leases fields from local owners and trains local workers to cultivate, harvest, and pack the berries. Next time you're in your supermarket, take a close look at the Driscoll's label. Many of the berries that you purchase, no matter where in the world you live, are grown just a few kilometers from Mexico Cooks!' home. Click on any photo for a larger view.

A doorway to a private home in the community Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán.

Elotes tatemados (roasted young corn, still in its husk) for sale in a large Mexico City market.

These are also elotes (young corn), boiled rather than roasted, for sale at the same market stand. It's hard to choose which to buy, roasted or boiled, both are so delicious!

Chambarete entomatado (beef shank cooked in a sauce of tomate verde (tomatillos), onions, chile, and other spices) until the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender. Available daily at Fonda Marceva in Morelia's centro historico. It's one of my favorite things on their menu–come to tour Michoacán with me, and we'll definitely eat at Marceva. Photo courtesy my friend chef Eddie Álvarez.

Preparing fresh chicharrón (fried pork skins) at a market booth in Mexico City. Book a market tour with me and we'll visit this booth–and we'll have a taste of hot-from-the-vat chicharrón. Everybody loves its crisp, greaseless texture and taste.

Escobetillas (stiff brushes made from plant root material bound together with thin wire), used for scrubbing dirty dishes. Seen in a Oaxaca market. Each one measures approximately 5"-6" in length.

My longtime friend don Rafael, a copper worker in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, for 62 of his 70 years. Yes, he started hand-hammering copper vessels when he was eight years old. Today, he is a prize-winning grand master of the art. In the photo, he's demonstrating a hammering technique to one of my tour groups. Each beautiful copper item in this workshop is entirely made by hand. Let's go!

Souls burning in Hell, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Wood carving.

Longaniza (the long sausage without links) and Oaxaca-style chorizo, with small round links, displayed on a market stand, Oaxaca City.

Two little devils at once, 2019 Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales, Oaxaca. Wait, what, two? Yes, in the background is a hand dolly, known here in Mexico as a diablito, a little devil.

Puerco estilo cubano (Cuban-style roast pork). The men on the right-hand side of the photo sit on benches and turn, turn, turn the spits until the pork is tender, juicy, and ready to serve. I've eaten big plates of this meat every year for the last three years. It's truly something to look forward to at the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales, Oaxaca.

The Unión de Palmeadoras (tortilla makers' union) from Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca had a wonderful booth set up, selling hand-made Tlaxiaco-style tortillas. Those are fiery chiles pequín, in the dish.

The fiestas patronales in San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán, featured Moorish dancers. These two young men posed for me.

San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro is widely known for one of its several artesanías (handcrafts): these are velas escamadas (elaborate, hand-made beeswax candles). These particular candles were placed at one side of the main altar in the church in San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro; other banks of candles were placed throughout the church. Beautiful but ephemeral, the candles are meant to be burned.

Golden cempasúchil (a type of giant marigold) and wine-red pata de león (cockscomb) are Mexico's most typical flowers for Día de los Muertos. These are for sale at the wholesale flower market in Mexico City.

Right now and until approximately March of next year, Mexico's fresh guasanas (garbanzo beans) are in season. Not dried, these are harvested fresh and steamed lightly in salt water. Each pod contains two individual green, fresh garbanzos; we eat them like edamame, squeezing the garbanzos out of the pods directly into our mouths. Some people like to douse a bagful with liquid chile (what you see in the bottle), but I prefer the clean, green taste of the guasana.

One of my favorite places to go, whether with old friends or with tourists new to Mexico City, continues to be Azul Histórico. The food is exquisite, the restaurant itself is marvelously beautiful, and the servic
e is always attentive. Here, the "hostess" is a catrina, all gussied up Oaxaca-style for Day of the Dead.

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21 de November de 2020
More of Mexico Cooks! Pre-Pandemia Wanderings :: All Over Mexico, Part 1

In February 2019, Mexico Cooks! returned to live once again in Morelia, Michoacán. It's been a joyful return, to the welcome of wonderful old friends, well-remembered streets and markets, and the beautiful colonial city itself. I found a terrific house in Morelia's Centro Histórico, walking distance to most anywhere I need to go. You can expect to hear a lot more from me in the months to come about the cuisines, customs, and creativity of the people of Michoacán. The photo above is Morelia's Cathedral by the light of the full moon.

Workshop for creating a flavored salt. In a volcanic stone molcajete (that's part of it, in the photo), I ground roasted maguey worms, dehydrated pineapple, sea salt, and a chile de árbol or two. The flavor of mine was just so-so; a fellow behind me made a fantastic salt, flavored with a roasted scorpion. Who knew! Each of us participants got to bring our salt home in a test tube.

Late this spring, a friend and I traveled to San Miguel de Allende, where we saw friends and tried some of San Miguel's many restaurants. My personal favorite meal was brunch at Marsala: Cocina con Acentos, a truly innovative and delicious Mediterranean niche in the center of the city. The photo shows my plate of Marsala-style eggs Benedict, accompanied by a so-good mimosa. In addition to a full menu of brunch choices, one is also invited to partake of the buffet of freshly baked scones, cheese biscuits, marmalades, a magnificent house-made terrine, and a number of other take-what-you want items. I can't wait to go back!

One of the highlights of the trip to San Miguel de Allende was the opportunity to meet in person a man I have long admired from afar. Charles Hall manages Rose Anne Hall Designs, a highly successful family business which produces mouth-blown glass items for the home, as well as the most beautiful hand-made candles in Mexico. Under Charlie's direction, the business dedicates itself to hiring people with disabilities–or what would appear to be disabilities–but who are enabled by the opportunity to create. Charlie is a businessman, a philosopher, and a humorist, and a wonderful human being.

In the lovely traditional kitchen at the home of good friends in Santa Fe de la Laguna. It's always a privilege to be with them.

Cocido, or caldo de res, in my own kitchen and ready to serve. So simple, and so delicious.

Embarcadero San Pedro near twilight, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

If you've been reading Mexico Cooks! for very long, you know that I have a strange fascination with pig heads. The staff at this market booth are all great people and love showing off their wares. This handsome fellow has a mouthful of alfalfa. They are also a bunch of goofballs: they always encourage my market tour clients to kiss the snout–and I must say that in the spirit of fun, quite a few do!

These miniature chairs–about the size to seat a one-year-old baby–were all but viral on Facebook when I uploaded the photo. Turned upside down with potted plants on the bottoms of the straw seats, the chairs make a charming entrance into my home.

Last–but definitely not least–was my outrageously wonderful end-of-June birthday party, with the crowning touch of this spectacular cake. A huge shout-out to the Colegio Culinario de Morelia, to chef Joaquín Bonilla, to chef Juan Carlos Montaño, and to the crew who brought and served this marvelous creation. Between the delicious cake, the just-right frosting, the assortment of cookies and candies–and gold leaf!–that decorated the masterpiece, party guests were thrilled and so was the birthday girl. Such a wonderful birthday gift! Mil gracias a todos ustedes del Colegio!

Come back next week for a look at the rest of Mexico Cooks!' year 2019.

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14 de November de 2020
Autumn in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán :: Wildflower Season and Sights at the Market

The area around Lake Pátzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, bursts into wildflower bloom in late September, just as the rainy season is ending here. The flowers are naturalized wild cosmos, known here as mirasoles ("look-at-the-sun"). Entire fields fill with swaths of these delicate flowers, turning our green countryside into a temporary sea of pink. Behind the mirasoles is a milpa, a field of native Michoacán corn, beans, and squash.

These beautiful blossoms, selling now at the municipal market in Pátzcuaro, are called estrellas del campo (stars of the field). From the tops of the flowers to the bottom of their thin, tender stems, they measure about two and a half feet long. Each multi-petaled bloom measure about 1.5" in diameter. I've lived in Michoacán for a long time, but this is the first year I've seen these for sale. We took three large bunches as a gift to a friend–at 15 pesos the bunch. The total for a big armful of beauty was the Mexican peso equivalent of about $2.25 USD.

Available throughout the year, the native Mexican nanche fruit is in full-blown season right now, piled high on stands around the perimeter of the Pátzcuaro municipal market and on numerous street corners all over the town. Sold in clear plastic cups (as seen in the photo, courtesy of Healthline) or by the plastic bagful, the vendor will slather these 3/4" inch diameter fruits with jugo de limón (fresh-squeezed Key lime juice), a big sprinkle of salt, and as much highly spicy bottled salsa as your mouth can handle. The biological name of the nanche is Byrsonima crassifolia.  The fruit is slightly sweet and mildly musty-flavored, a combination that most people love and that I regret to say is not a taste I enjoy at all. Nanches are packed with nourishment, though–a half-cup of them will give you nearly 60% of your daily Vitamin C requirement, 41 calories, and only 9.5 grams of carbohydrates!

These are jocotes (native Mexican plums), also in season now in central Mexico. The fruit measures about two to three inches long; the flesh is bright orange and the flavor is marvelous. Unfortunately the stone of this plum is almost as big as the entire fruit, and although you could eat it out of hand, the delicious jocote is most often made into an agua fresca (fresh fruit water) that is only available for the fruit's short season. This little plum is replete with Vitamins A and C, phosphorous, iron, and calcium, and is said to work wonders with gum problems.

Who wants to take a guess at what each of the green herbs (and the vegetable) is? The elotes (tender fresh Pátzcuaro red corn) at the bottom of the photo were part of a small daily harvest brought to sell on the outdoor periphery of Pátzcuaro's market. Just to the left of the corn, at the bottom of the photo, are some mint branches that the same vendor brought for sale. But above the mint? Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll be able to tell that these are home-grown spiny chayotes. You are probably familiar with the paler green smooth-skinned chayotes (mirliton in Louisiana, pear squash in other English-speaking locations). The chayote has an interesting growing habit: unlike most squash, which grows as a vine along the ground, the chayote is airborne–its vines grow on overhead trellises and remind me of grapevines; the small squash hangs down from the vines. It's an extremely versatile vegetable, taking on the flavors of what you cook it with. Be sure to eat the soft, tender, flat, white seed–it's considered to be the prize part and is as delicious as the chayote itself.

To the right of the chayotes is a big bunch of wild anise, known in Pátzcuaro as anisillo. Used to make the Pátzcuaro regional specialty atole de grano, this herb is tremendously flavorful. In case you find some anisillo where you are, here's a recipe for atole de grano.

Atole de Grano
(Fresh Anise-Flavored Corn Kernel Soup)

Ingredients
2 fresh ears of tender young corn
2 cups fresh corn, cut from the cob
1 bunch wild anisillo
3 liters water
2 whole chiles perón (or substitute chiles poblano)
1/2 pound recently ground corn masa (dough)–ask at the tortillería near you
Salt to taste

Garnishes
1/2 medium white onion, minced
Chile serrano or chile perón, minced
Fresh Key limes, cut in half
Sea salt

Preparation

1. Clean the ears of corn, remove the silk and cut off the ends. Cut each ear into three pieces.

2. Boil the corn on the cob AND the corn kernels in enough water, for an hour and a half or until the corn is tender.

3. Cut the stem away from the chiles, take out the seeds and veins. Cut the chiles into small pieces.

4. In the blender, liquify the chiles, the anisillo, and the masa with two cups of water. Strain and add to the pot where the corn on the cob is cooking.

5. Allow to boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is slightly thickened.

To serve
1. Place sections of the cooked corn ears into each of 2 bowls.

2. Ladle soup and corn kernels into the bowls.

3. Serve with the minced onion, minced chile to taste, sea salt, and Key lime halves to squeeze into the soup.

Serves 2 people as a main dish, 3 as a first course. This soup is both vegetarian and vegan, and gluten-free.

Atole de grano, made in a cazo (large copper kettle).

The vendor at this small booth at the Pátzcuaro market had an interesting variety of things for sale. Bottom right are fresh guavas, just now coming into season. To the left of the guavas are chiles perón (aka chiles manzano), arguably the most-used chile in this part of Michoacán. Above the chiles perón are fresh, green chiles de árbol. To the right are wild mushrooms known as patita de pájaro (little bird foot). These mushrooms, growing wild in Michoacán's woods and foraged during the rainy season, make a wonderful mushroom soup.

These are home-grown loquats, known in Mexico as nísperos (NEE-speh-rohs). Nísperos are local and are plentiful in markets right now.

Gelatin–this large cupful is called "mosaíco"–mosaic, because of its many colored cubes. More gelatin is eaten in Mexico than in any other country of the world! A cupful this size is usually an eat-while-you-walk snack food. This one was made and sold from a tiny cart with no name, just to one side of the Pátzcuaro market. The young woman selling the gelatins said her name was Yesi–I said her cart was now dubbed Gelatinas Yesi, and she laughed.

Just at the corner of the market, we bumped into don Rafael, who was selling–you guessed it–cotton candy. Cotton candy HAS no season, it's always available here. Get the blue, it will turn your lips and tongue blue as a blueberry, but just for a while.

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24 de October de 2020