Category: Mexican Tourism

Sweet Traditions: Morelia’s Mercado de Dulces (Candy Market)

Morelia's Mercado de Dulces y Artesanías Valentín Gómez Farías (Candy and Artisans' Market), at the corner of Av. Madero and Calle Rayón, recently celebrated the 41st anniversary of its founding.

Imagine a market packed with nearly 170 booths filled with candy, hand-made toys, and cheerful vendors. Sound like a child's paradise? It certainly is, and an adults' paradise as well. Mexican candy comes in varieties worth drooling over: whole candied fruits, lollipops big enough for two or three days, tiny clay pots and baskets filled with goodies, haystacks of toasted coconut, and hundreds of other treats. There's nothing else quite like the candy made here.

Dulce de leche, also known as jamoncillo, is similar to penuche–vanilla fudge. In Mexico, this candy may be flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, or guava.

Tarugos are made of tamarind paste (with the fiber removed) and are prepared either with sugar (left center) or with chile (right center). The word tarugo means a hunk–as in a hunk of bread, or candy–but it also means blockhead, or stupid, or oaf. Ay tarugo, se te cayó tu tarugo! (Oh you oaf, you dropped your tarugo!)

Frutas cubiertas (crystallized fruits). Clockwise from four o'clock: cactus, sweet potato, whole figs, sliced pineapple, and squash. To prepare these fruits, you peel them, seed them, and then boil them for three to five minutes in a syrup of piloncillo (brown sugar), water, and a few drops of jugo de limón (lemon juice). Remove the fruits and allow them to dry. Once the fruits are thoroughly dry, boil them one by one in the same syrup, until they are crystallized. The preparation process is, as you can imagine, extremely time-consuming.

Ates en cubitos (fruit pastes, in this case formed as small cubes). Ates originated in Morelia. They're made from membrillo, guayaba, perón, (quince, guava, and pear apple) as well as other fruits, including mango and durazno (peach). The fruits are cooked slowly, with plenty of sugar, until the mixture is stiff and can be formed in a mold.

A basket filled with glorias–cajeta (goat or cow's milk cooked with sugar until richly brown and thick), mixed with pecans and individually wrapped.

Fruit liqueurs, rompope (bottled eggnog), chongos zamoranos (a milk and honey-based dessert), and powerful charanda–Michoacán's traditional sugarcane alcohol.

Ollitas de barro (tiny clay pots), each stuffed with sweet tamarind paste mixed with sugar, salt, and chile. One little plastic spoonful and you'll crave more of this sweet, savory, spicy mixture.

The mercado de dulces also sells traditional crafts and clothing. Yunuén Danae Ortiz Medina, seven years old and adorable, tried on several dresses suitable for Mexico's Independence Day holiday. She liked a similar white one better than this black one. "And of course I won't have this shirt on underneath when I wear it!"

Home-made muéganos (half-inch balls of fried masa (dough), candied in piloncillo [brown sugar] syrup). The masa is the same as that prepared for buñuelos, but rolled into balls rather than extended into a flat sheet.

Cocadas (toasted coconut candy) look just like haystacks–two inches high! Cocadas originated in Mexico's coastal states. Prepare them with toasted coconut, condensed milk, and egg, then bake. Better yet, buy them ready to eat at the mercado de dulces.

A little bit of every kind of sweet packs this booth. Paletones (all-day suckers), alfajores (cocadas made of ground white coconut, the tops colored pink), cajeta (caramel candy), borrachitos (similar to gumdrop rolls filled with milk and alcohol), rollos de guayaba (rolls of guava paste, often filled with cajeta), and a dozen other kinds of candies.

Exotic dolls, each about two feet tall and made of painted and bejeweled cardboard, occupy one corner of a candy stand.

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26 de September de 2009
James Metcalf and Ana Pellicer: Copper Artists in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán

Two trivets and a large olla de cobre con asa (copper kitchen pot with a handle), all hand-hammered in the French style by James Metcalf, catch the afternoon sun at the Metcalf/Pellicer home in Santa Clara del Cobre.

James Metcalf and Ana Pellicer, both important sculptors, choose not to live in Paris (where James worked early in his life, cheek by jowl with Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, René Magritte, and other seminal modern artists), New York (where both have exhibited their work in stellar galleries and museums), or Mexico City (where Mexico's hippest and most active artist's circle burgeons). Instead, the Metcalf/Pellicer household has built a better mousetrap in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán. The world beats a path to their door in the heart of this tiny community of artisans.

One of Metcalf's small copper pots. Ana Pellicer told me, "We use this one every day, to heat the milk." He created an entire baterie de cuisine (set of cooking pots) for their personal use.

In 1950, James went to Majorca, where he studied ancient Mediterranean metallurgy and created the illustrations for poet Robert Graves' Adam's Rib. In the mid-1960s, James left Paris for Mexico, where he had heard that pre-Hispanic coppersmithing techniques were still in use. Told that what he searched for only existed in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, he set off to investigate. By the late 1960s, James Metcalf and Ana Pellicer, his former student, were living and working in Santa Clara.

Their early explorations were related to el cazo de Don Vasco, the 16th Century cooking kettle introduced to Santa Clara del Cobre by Don Vasco de Quiroga. The copper cazo, which ranges from stove-top size to immense (large enough to cook an entire cut-into-chunks pig) is still used wherever carnitas or candy are made in Mexico. It's safe to say that all of Mexico's copper cazos come from Santa Clara.

This hammered copper cazo has a diameter at the top of approximately 60 centimeters (two feet).

When James Metcalf arrived, Santa Clara del Cobre offered no luxury to the artist accustomed to life in Paris, New York, and other cosmopolitan centers. Houses in the town were little more than hovels. There was no indoor plumbing. Although nearly every man in town worked copper as a livelihood, with few exceptions the only items produced in the talleres (workshops) were cazos. All of the cazos were formed with a thin edge which was rolled around an iron wire to finish the piece. Metcalf, using clay pots from the nearby state of Colima as examples of shapes, taught the Santa Clara smiths the design and construction technique of the thick edge.

James Metcalf, extraordinary Renaissance man–elegantly knowledgeable, elegant as well in speech, dress, and manner. His work, sometimes classified as both surrealist and abstract expressionist, is an important force in 20th Century metal sculpture.

A few of the hundreds of tools in James Metcalf's work room. He crafted many of his own tools to accomplish the techniques of particular works. Until Metcalf's arrival, the coppersmiths of Santa Clara del Cobre had never seen the highly polished hammers commonly used in urban metalsmithing.

Metcalf's thick edge copper technique, completely different from the techniques used at the time in Santa Clara, revolutionized Santa Clara's artisanal copper production. The smiths slowly began to produce hollow ware other than cazos, including jugs, kitchenware, and other decorative work.

James Metcalf puts the final touches on his huge sculptural portrait of Mexican president (1934-1940) General. Lázaro Cárdenas Ríos. In 1985, Metcalf donated the sculpture to the town of Santa Clara del Cobre. Photo by Miguel Bracho, courtesy of Artisans of the Future by Jorge Pellicer, SEP, 1996.

Metcalf and the artisan coppersmiths of Santa Clara del Cobre received the commission to create the Pebetero Olímpico (cauldron which holds the Olympic Flame for the duration of the games) for the Olympic Games to be held in Mexico in 1968. The enormous cauldron, adorned with repousée decoration of maíz (corn, representing the life force of Mexico), brought world-wide attention to the traditional artisans of Santa Clara and their work.

Ana Pellicer, August 5, 2009, at home in Santa Clara del Cobre. Exquisitely talented, Ms. Pellicer continues to create beautiful art. "What else can I do? Making art is my life, it's always my salvation."

Ana Pellicer arrived in Santa Clara del Cobre fresh from a privileged life in Mexico City and New York. Santa Clara, a community bound in rigid traditional gender roles and attitudes, did not respond well to her desire to work in copper. Talented, young and beautiful, her life in the small town was frequently difficult. Nevertheless, committed to the philosophy of 'mexicanidad'–the internalization of being Mexican in every aspect of life, including their art–both Pellicer and Metcalf felt deeply obligated to live and work in the Santa Clara community of artisans.

The maquette (small scale model) for La Máquina Enamorada (the Machine In Love), Ana Pellicer's enormous sculpture. The actual sculpture, commissioned by Mexican industrialist Francisco Trouyet, is now part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. La Máquina Enamorada weighs 250 kilos and measures nearly two meters high by nearly two meters wide and a meter and a half deep.

Over time, Pellicer to some degree gained the trust of the townspeople. In 1975, she and a group of artisan coppersmiths worked together to produce the commissioned piece La Máquina Enamorada (the Machine in Love). Enormous and enormously complex–made from nearly 300 kilos of solid copper ingot–the piece became the largest forged work ever made in Santa Clara and the first artisan-made work accepted by the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City.

La Ulama or La Pelota que Rebota (The Ball that Bounces), by Ana Pellicer. The hammered copper decorative ring represents the cartwheel ruff, a heavily starched collar that was muy de la moda española (very stylish with the Spanish) during the time of the conquest of Nueva España. The black rubber ball represents the Purhépecha fire ball played in the pre-Hispanic game called Ulama. Pellicer collected the resin for the ball in the traditional method, from Michoacán pine trees. Exhibited in Denver, Colorado, as part of a complex installation, the piece represents ideas that transcend ancient times as traditions and native peoples bounce between cultures.

One of Ana Pellicer's lasting and tremendous accomplishments in Santa Clara has been incorporating women of the community into artisanal copper making. Despite intense opposition from many male artisans, Pellicer taught jewelry-making to some artisans' wives, who began to create jewelry that subsequently has won prizes at the community's annual copper fair.

El Beso (The Kiss), hand-hammered copper, 35X40X15 centimeters, Ana Pellicer, 1995. This hinged sculpture is currently part of the traveling exhibit The Women of Michoacán, Art and Artists. Photo courtesy Fred Derosset.

James Metcalf and Ana Pellicer founded several schools in Santa Clara del Cobre. In 1973, they received the support of the Ministry of Popular Culture and opened La Casa del Artesano. La Casa del Artesano offered artisan training to Santa Clara coppersmiths apart from the traditional training they received as apprentices in local talleres. Later in the 1970s, La Casa del Artesano closed.

Ana Pellicer's double copper plaques, each one smaller than a postcard, with male and female figures.

In 1976, Metcalf and Pellicer began teaching classes in their home. All the while, deep tensions continued to exist, not only within the artisans' community but also between ancient and modern techniques and styles of work, dress, jewelry, and, at its essence, community life.

Metcalf and Pellicer later founded, under the auspices of Mexico's Secretaría de Educación Pública (Secretary of Public Education) what became the most important school for artisans in Santa Clara del Cobre and arguably in all of Mexico: the Adolfo Best Maugard Center for Technical/Industrial Training #166 (Cecati #166). Teaching different techniques of metalsmithing and jewelry making at all levels of production, the school incorporated traditional and European forging methods, taught blacksmithing, casting in both lost wax and sand, machine tools, lathing, enamel work, stone cutting, and electroplating. All of those techniques opened multi-faceted new horizons of artistic and commercial opportunity to Santa Clara artisans.

In 2002, a Michoacán branch of Mexico's teachers' union took over directorship of the school, displacing Metcalf and Pellicer. The move was highly politicized and its consequences spilled over into extreme community tensions and division between the copper artisans and the former directors of the school. Many members of the artisan community continued (and continue until today) to consider Metcalf and Pellicer to be outsiders, even after their more than 35 years' involvement in the life of Santa Clara del Cobre. The pain and stress of this division are still abundantly apparent in both Metcalf and Pellicer's recounting of its incidents.

Sala (living room), Casa Metcalf/Pellicer, August 2009.

The lives and work of James Metcalf and Ana Pellicer are profoundly rooted in both art and artesanía, in both an international community of artists and a local community of artisans. Richly philosophical and deeply reflective, the artists confront their life's mixture of joy and pain in their work. Their story continues to unfold.

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

19 de September de 2009
Essence, Evolution, and Independence: Restaurante LU, Hotel Best Western Turotel Casino, Morelia, Michoacán

You'll find the Hotel Best Western Turotel Casino at Portal Hidalgo #35 on Avenida Madero in Morelia. The hotel is in the very heart of Morelia's Centro Histórico, just across the street from the Cathedral, Plaza Melchor Ocampo, and the Plaza de Armas. Restaurante LU is on the ground floor of the hotel, with seating indoors as well as outside under the portales (arches).

A few weeks ago Mexico Cooks! received an email from colleague and friend Lucero Soto Arriaga, executive chef at Restaurante LU. "Can you come for comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) at the restaurant on Friday ? I have a big surprise for you!" Could we resist a visit with Lucero, a surprise, or a meal at LU? Of course not!

Mexico Cooks! has dined at the Hotel Casino over the course of many years. The food was always just adequate, and the service was always friendly but lackadaisical. About two years ago, I noticed a radical change in both the menu and in the quality of what was on my plate. I was puzzled. The Hotel Casino restaurant was one of those places where Mexico Cooks! took visiting firemen who wanted to have something to eat while they enjoyed views of Morelia's enchanting Cathedral and main plazas, but I would never have said the restaurant had much of a special touch. Something had definitely changed and Mexico Cooks! wanted to know why.

Lucero Soto Arriaga, the extraordinarily talented young executive chef at Restaurante LU.

The answer turned out to be executive chef Lucero Soto Arriaga's passionate commitment to the traditional regional food of Michoacán and to its essence as well as its evolution. She started her executive chef's career at the hotel in 2004. After three years settling into the job and letting the employees become accustomed to her style of working, Lucero was ready to make big changes in the operation of the restaurant. Her work in the restaurant is a treasured legacy from the former mayora (older woman who holds a kitchen's secrets) at the hotel and from her two childhood nanas (cherished nannies), both of whom were excellent cooks. "But I didn't inherit my passion for the kitchen from my mother," Lucero said with a rueful smile. "When she tries to cook, my mother burns water!"

Guinea pigs! Which of the two is Mexico Cooks!?

The big surprise for our Friday comida was a new menu that Restaurante LU will offer in honor of Mexico's bicentennial year, just over the horizon in 2010. Mexico Cooks! was happily a conejo de la india (guinea pig) for the menú bicentenario. Chef Lucero asked for our feedback about the extensive new tasting menu, a series of dishes in small portions which she created for Mexico's 200th birthday celebration.

Chef Lucero has developed a new take on the margarita. Our coctel de bienvenida (welcome cocktail) is a delicious mix of tamarindo (tamarind paste)and charanda (high-proof sugar cane alcohol similar to rum, a specialty of Michoacán). A mixture of fine salt and spicy ground chile del árbol rims the glass.

Lucero calls our botana (appetizer) Salmón a Mi Estilo (Salmon My Way). The smoked salmon carpaccio has an incredible list of ingredients: smoked salmon, of course, plus avocado, chile negro, a squeeze of limón, a sweet and sour marinade, and a touch of chocolate. The golden 'lid' is a chicharrón de queso cotija, which adds both crunch and a savory finish to the appetizer.

Traditional tamalitos de harina (small wheat flour tamales) from the region around Lake Pátzcuaro, served in place of bread, arrived with butter, smoky, deep-flavored salsa, and limón. Cooked al vapor (steamed), these tamalitos are reminiscent of Chinese steamed bread in both texture and flavor.

Next up were foods representing the three pre-Hispanic cooking methods: hervido (boiled), al vapor (steamed), and atápakua (stewed), plus a tiny brazier filled with salsa tzirita.

In the centuries prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the land that would eventually become Mexico counted on three basic methods of cooking: boiling, steaming, and stewing. Corn was the staple ingredient, the source of all life, and had been cultivated in the new world for well over 4,000 years prior to the Spanish conquest.

In addition to corn, the Spanish discovered that indigenous peoples of New Spain ate a widely varied diet: beans, squash, wild vegetables including cactus, quelites and hongos (mushrooms), tomatoes, various seeds, nuts, and chiles, along with hunted or captured animals, birds, fish and amphibians, and insects.

Chef Lucero planned the menú bicentenario to reflect cooking
styles and ingredients that have evolved in the New World over the
course of time, starting with the pre-Hispanic kitchen. Pictured in the photo above, starting at four o'clock are: tacos of atápakua made with squash flowers, peanuts, and honey; a miniature corunda (typical regional tamal from Michoacán); rescoldo de hongos (mushrooms wrapped in a corn husk and cooked in the embers of the brazier) at eleven o'clock); and in the center, a tiny olla (clay pot) filled with churipo, a meat, chile, and vegetable soup native to Michoacán. On the side of the plate is a miniature brazier filled with salsa tzirita, made with roasted chile seeds, tomate verde (tomatillos), and a hint of mint.

The Spanish colonial era brought us, clockwise from four o'clock, tostadas de patita (pigs feet tostada), pollo en cuñete (chicken cooked in a covered clay pot), and salmón en escabeche dulce (salmon in sweet and sour pickling sauce), served on a tiny tostada topped with a dehydrated orange slice and shredded locally-grown chile chilaca.

Chile güero en nogada (stuffed 'blond' chile in nut sauce) and enchiladas placeras morelianas (plaza-style enchiladas from Morelia) flank dried nopal cactus strips–with the eagle perched on top. The dish symbolizes Mexico's green, white, and red flag, proudly flown since independence in 1821.

The era of Mexico's fight for independence (1810-1820) brought the creation of dishes designed to show off not only the intense flavor combinations of indigenous and Spanish cuisines, but also highlighted the green, white, and red of the Mexican flag. The meal most associated with the weeks closest to Independence Day (September 16) is chiles en nogada (stuffed chiles poblanos in creamy walnut sauce, left side of the plate). Chef Lucero prepared this traditional dish using the small chile güero (blond chile) rather than the much larger chile poblano. The list of ingredients for the chile's filling is long and complicated: chopped beef, quince, pear, Asian pear, apple, peach, sugared, dried pineapple, sugared, dried cactus, plums, raisins, almonds, and macadamia nuts, plus spices and herbs. The roasted and stuffed chile is surrounded by its traditional walnut sauce (made from in-season fresh walnuts) and pomegranate seeds.

On the right side of the same plate is a small serving of enchiladas placeras estilo moreliano (plaza-style enchiladas as prepared in Morelia). The three enchiladitas (little enchiladas) are no more than three inches long. Dipped in sauce and rolled, they're topped with carrots, potatoes, a sprinkle of finely grated cheese, and a wee wheel of chile jalapeño en escabeche (pickled chile jalapeño).

Chef Lucero's sense of humor is apparent in the center of the plate: shreds of dehydrated nopal cactus, topped with a mix of chile with minced caramelized pepitas (pumpkin seeds). "It symbolizes the eagle on the nopal–the shield on the Mexican flag," she explained with a grin. We weren't quite convinced about the effect of the symbolism, but we loved the mix of flavors.

Restaurante LU served this traditional but very updated dessert: ate de guayaba con queso (guava paste with cheese). Its tremendously delicious combination of flavors was the perfect end to our comida.

When we were almost-but-not-quite stuffed, our waiter presented the special dessert del tiempo actual (today's era) for the menú bicenentario. Lucero's dessert recipe for the classic combination of ate de guayaba (guava paste) with cheese is based on traditional flavors and textures, but lifted to a level only possible given today's high-tech kitchens. Mexico Cooks! wouldn't dream of giving away the multiple delicious surprises literally at every level of this concoction, but will say only: don't miss it. At once sweet and savory, it's a standout.

We Mexico Cooks! guinea pigs were completely enthralled with the new menú bicentenario at Restaurante LU. As we talked about culinary philosophy and related ideas after our meal, Chef Lucero was adamant that the first ingredient in her gastronomic repertoire is respect: respect for the essence and tradition of the foods she prepares, respect for the knowledge and experience of those who have come before her, and respect for the ingredients that she uses to create meals that are at once firmly based in regional products and completely cocina del autor–her own creations. There isn't another restaurant in Morelia where we've found a more exacting, exciting, and innovative kitchen. Pair those attributes with Chef Lucero's devotion to local and regional cuisine and you'll call Restaurante LU what Mexico Cooks! calls it: very simply, the best restaurant in the city.

Felices Fiestas Patrias 2009! Qué viva México!

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12 de September de 2009
Los Cantantes del Lago on Tour with Mexico Cooks! (Part Two: Guanajuato)

La Parroquia (Church of St. Michael the Archangel), San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. This church is one of the most-photographed in Mexico. Originally built in the late 1600s, the church facade was rebuilt close to the turn of the 20th Century. The architect, Zeferino Gutiérrez, had no formal training and patterned the church facade and towers after picture postcards of European cathedrals.

Entrance to Hotel Posada La Aldea, San Miguel de Allende. Los Cantantes del Lago stayed here during their time in town.

Exploring some of Mexico's historic sites was one of Los Cantantes' primary purposes in visiting the region around San Miguel de Allende. Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato–just half an hour from San Miguel–is known as la Cuna de Independencia, the cradle of independence. Standing on the steps of the historic church, Mexico Cooks! gave Los Cantantes a short history of Mexico's struggle for freedom from Spain.

Templo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Church of Our Lady of Sorrows), Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato. Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave the Grito de Dolores (Cry from Dolores)–the call for independence from Spanish colonization–to his followers during the night of September 15, 1810.

Mexico is preparing for its 2010 Bicentennial. This digital counter, positioned on the steps of the church where Hidalgo first gave the call for Mexico's freedom from Spanish rule, marks 428 days, eight hours, fifty minutes, and eleven seconds and counting, until the start of the bicentennial.

It wouldn't have been a trip to Dolores Hidalgo without stopping to shop for talavera, the colorful local pottery specialty. Los Cantantes surprised the fine workshop Arte San Gabriel with the large amount of talavera they bought and loaded onto the bus to take home.

The Santuario de Jesús el Nazareno (Sanctuary of Jesus the Nazarene), Atotonilco, Guanajuato, was built in the 18th Century.

Los Cantantes del Lago scheduled two concerts in Guanajuato. Mexico Cooks! arranged for the first of the two, to be sung outdoors at the Santuario de Jesús el Nazareno to celebrate the beginning of the church's fiestas patronales, scheduled for the third weekend in July. As Padre Fernando Manríquez, the pastor of the Santuario, told me, "This concert is the perfect botana (appetizer) for the fiestas!"

Los Cantantes sang in the atrium of the Santuario de Jesús el Nazareno.

The crowd attending the concert in Atotonilco was composed for the most part of people making a spiritual retreat at the church.

These women were completely enthralled by the singing. One elderly woman (not pictured) listened to parts of the concert with happy tears running down her cheeks.

The members of Los Cantantes del Lago were as profoundly touched as the audience was by the concert at the Santuario. It was impossible not to draw the comparison between the formal, elegantly dressed audiences that usually attend Los Cantantes concerts and this audience, many of whom had undoubtedly never heard a live concert of this type. One of the Cantantes said to me, "Here we are, out in the middle of nowhere, dressed in
our tuxedos and fancy gowns, singing for people who appear to be so poor. What must they think?" We agreed that it honored the audience that this marvelous chorus, dressed to the nines, came to sing for them.

As an encore, Los Cantantes sang the Mexican standard, Cielito Lindo. The entire audience sang along in Spanish to the song's chorus–you already know it:

                            Ay, ay, ay, ay, canta y no llores!
                            Porque cantando se alegran, cielito lindo, los corazones.
                            Oh, oh, oh, oh, sing and don't cry!
                            Because, little heaven, singing makes our hearts joyful.

How true the words are, and never brought closer to home than in this intensely emotional concert. In Atotonilco, glorious music made all of our hearts overflow with joy.

No one wanted the concert to end. As soon as the last encore was sung, the crowd surged forward to thank Maestro Timothy Welch and Los Cantantes del Lago for their visit to Atotonilco.

Los Cantantes del Lago sang the final concert of the Central Mexico Tour at the Teatro Ángela Peralta in San Miguel de Allende. A benefit for the Centro Infantil San Pablo, a program for needy Mexican children, the concert was a tremendous success.

Final concert at the Teatro Ángela Peralta, San Miguel de Allende.

As the surprise finale to the evening, Maestro Tim auctioned off the only copy he had left of Los Cantantes del Lago's newest recording of Christmas music. The audience held its breath while the bidding went higher–and higher–and higher! Hammered down at over 2500 pesos, all the proceeds from the auction of that one CD went to the Centro Infantil San Pablo. Later in the evening, another audience member matched that bid as his personal donation to the school.

Filled with the memories of its warm reception wherever it sang during eleven days' travel through two states and countless towns, all done in two huge buses filled with singers, equipment, baggage, and new artisan purchases, Los Cantantes del Lago took to the road from San Miguel de Allende for the return home to Ajijic, Jalisco.

All photos courtesy of Robert Kelly. Robert, the designated photographer for Los Cantantes del Lago, has
posted many additional photos of the 2009 Central Mexico Tour in these files:

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5 de September de 2009
Los Cantantes del Lago on Tour with Mexico Cooks! (Part One: Michoacán)

Los Cantantes del Lago, invited to perform at the 9° Festival de Coros de La Inmaculada (9th Annual Choral Festival sponsored by the Church of the Immaculate Conception) in Morelia, combined their singing tour with a tour of churches and artisan villages in the states of Michoacán and Guanajuato.

Late last winter, Los Cantantes del Lago, a marvelous chorus based in Ajijic, Jalisco, (on the shore of Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake) contracted with Mexico Cooks! to plan, organize, and guide them during their Central Mexico Tour 2009. The members of the chorus, nearly all of whom live in the Jalisco municipality of Chapala, range in age from 18 to over 80. They are natives of countries as diverse as England, France, Canada, and the United States, as well as Mexico.

Los Cantantes del Lago, directed by Maestro
Timothy Welch, sang at the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe) in Zamora, Michoacán.

The chorus director, Timothy Welch, is a native of Wisconsin who has lived in the city of Guadalajara for the last 10 years. Under his direction, Los Cantantes del Lago have sung throughout Mexico, they have toured in Greece, Turkey, and Ecuador, and they have produced two recordings of multilingual Christmas music.

The Calzada de Fray Antonio de San Miguel is one of the most beautiful streets in Morelia. The tree-lined street runs from Morelia's Las Tarascas fountain to one of the city's 18th Century gems, the Santuario de Guadalupe.

For the last nine years, Morelia's Templo de la Inmaculada Concepción (Church of the Immaculate Conception) has hosted a choral festival. From its inception as a recital event for that church's chorus, the festival has grown into a vibrant and important showcase for choruses from all over Mexico. Hernán Cortés, director of the festival, invited Los Cantantes del Lago to participate in the 2009 Festival del Coro. The idea for Los Cantantes' Central Mexico Tour 2009 sprang from that invitation.

Bell tower, Templo de La Inmaculada Concepción, Morelia. La Inmaculada is the seat of Morelia's annual choral festival.

Los Cantantes del Lago enjoyed a marvelous welcome dinner at Morelia's Fonda Marceva. The magnificent Trio Los Caracuaros de Serafín Ibarra provided live music from Michoacán's Tierra Caliente (the hot inland lowlands). After the meal and in spite of being stuffed to the gills, Los Cantantes stood up and sang Pilgrim's Hymn from the opera The Three Hermits for the musicians who had been singing to them. Tim Welch directs in this casual setting.

Within the framework of the chorus's five concerts in Morelia and the surrounding region, Mexico Cooks! set up day trips to artisan villages and culturally important historical sites for Los Cantantes del Lago.

Morelia's Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe). Although Los Cantantes did not sing at the Santuario, its beauty made
it a favorite destination during the week the chorus spent in Morelia. (Photo: Mexico Cooks!)

Los Cantantes visited various locations in Morelia, Pátzcuaro, and Cuitzeo, Michoacán. They were inspired by the restoration of the Ex-Convento de San Francisco de Ásis and shopped at the artisans' market in Tzintzuntzan. They were awed by the 16th Century Templo de Santiago Apóstol in Tupátaro.

After an afternoon touring Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Los Cantantes sang at the Templo del Sagrario (Church of the Tabernacle), built in Pátzcuaro during the 17th Century.

Santiago Apóstol (St. James the Apostle), the patron saint of the church at Tupátaro, Michoacán. (Photo: Mexico Cooks!)

Los Cantantes del Lago stayed in Morelia at the Hotel de la Soledad. Public areas as well as guest rooms at the hotel are magnificently decorated and filled with flowers.

After their morning trip to Tupátaro, Los Cantantes sang in Cuitzeo, Michoacán, at the 16th Century Augustinian monastery dedicated to Santa María Magdalena.

Despite ongoing restoration at the monastery in Cuitzeo, Los Cantantes del Lago squeezed in among the scaffolding and sang a beautiful concert.

A hand-and-foot-powered bellows makes the fire leap high in the copper
workshop at Casa Felícitas in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán.

Visiting the copper smiths of Santa Clara del Cobre was one of the highlights of Los Cantantes' week in Michoacán. Several of the singers took sledgehammer in hand to join the smiths in hammering a red-hot copper ingot at internationally known Casa Felícitas.

The real joy for Los Cantantes was meeting festival choruses from all over Mexico. All of the singing was marvelous! Beginning with the very first performance in Zamora, Michoacán, loud cheers and standing ovations followed every Los Cantantes' concert. It was the first time a chorus composed primarily of retired foreigners sang in the Festival del Coro, but it's not likely to be the last time.

Joyous young chorus members from the Yucatán who also sang at the choral festival in Morelia.

The twelve invited choruses were so ecstatic with performing that even after their full week of performances in many different venues, after the long and beautiful closing Mass at La Inmaculada Concepción, they met one last time to sing a few more songs, just for one another.

Next week, travel with us as Los Cantantes del Lago leave Michoacán and head for San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Please join Mexico Cooks! for the second leg of their 2009 Central Mexico Tour.

Except as noted, all photos are courtesy of Robert Kelly. Robert, the designated photographer for Los Cantantes del Lago, has posted many additional photos of the 2009 Central Mexico Tour in these files:

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29 de August de 2009
La Feria del Hongo (The Mushroom Fair) 2009, Senguio, Michoacán

The wild Amanita caesarea and amanita jacksonii are two edible varieties of the common amanita fungus. Watch out for the amanita phalloides, though: it's known as the death cap and is definitely inedible.

This time last year, Mexico Cooks! attended the annual Feria del Hongo (Mushroom Fair) in Senguio, Michoacán. The fair was wonderful, a tremendous lesson in the wild and cultivated edible and medicinal mushrooms of Michoacán. Since then (and to my great surprise), the article about the mushroom fair has appeared as a link on several mushroom and mycology websites.

Wild amanitas, sliced and ready to cook. If you can't find amanitas where you live, try these dishes with farmed portabellos, another meaty and flavorful mushroom.

Due to a conflict on our calendar, Mexico Cooks! isn't able to attend the August 21-23 Feria del Hongo this year. In honor of the mushroom fair, we'd like to present some photographs and recipes by Fulvio Castillo, a biologist who is also a mycologist, photographer, and extraordinary cook.

Frying amanitas in canola oil.

Chiles serrano, nuez (pecans), and nuez de la India (cashews). Toasting the nuts and chiles intensifies their flavors.

Add the toasted nuts and cream to the frying mushrooms, along with a big pinch of marjoram. Then grind the toasted chiles, avocado, onions, some cilantro, and a bit of salt in a molcajete (volcanic stone mortar and pestle) to make a simple salsa de aguacate (avocado salsa).

Green, yellow, and red sweet peppers, sliced into the sauté pan for yet another guisado (prepared dish) of amanitas.

Voilá! A deliciously healthy comida (main meal of the day).

Roasted peanuts and dried, toasted red chile yahualica, crushed together in the molcajete. The end product will be salsa de cacahuate (peanut sauce), a traditional indigenous accompaniment to main dishes.

Continue to crush the peanuts with a little salt and the chiles until very fine-textured. The stone pestle (upper lefthand corner of the photo) is called the tejolote. Little by little, add water and continue to grind until the salsa is smooth and of the consistency you like.

Ready to devour: mushrooms, vegetables, and two kinds of salsas: avocado and peanut/chile. Clockwise from five o'clock: salsa de cacahuate, mushrooms with zucchini, mushrooms with cream, mushroom stems, and mushrooms with mixed sweet peppers.

Thank you, amigo Fulvio Castillo, for permission to use your fine photographs and marvelous recipes. If you'd care to see more of his wonderful photos,
check this site. During the coming week, Mexico Cooks! will be buying all the ingredients for at least one of these dishes–plus peanuts and chiles to prepare the salsa de cacahuate. Se nos hace agua la boca–it makes our mouths water!

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22 de August de 2009
Algunas Imágines de la Virgen María en México::Images of the Virgin Mary in Mexico

Patron of the Americas and Empress of Mexico: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe). There is no apparition of the Virgin Mary that is more highly venerated than this one. She's known by many loving nicknames: La Morenita (the little brown woman), Paloma Blanca (white dove), and La Guadalupana (the woman from Guadalupe) are just a few.

Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows). This apparition of the Virgin Mary is usually seen standing at the foot of the cross where Jesus is crucified. Dressed in black and frequently depicted with arrows piercing her heart, she is the image of pain.

La Virgen en Tránsito (The Virgin in Transition). According to Roman Catholic doctrine, when the Virgin Mary died, she was taken up to heaven, body and soul. This 17th Century statue, from the Templo de la Companía in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, shows the Virgin after death but prior to her assumption into heaven.

La Santísima Virgen en Camino a Belén (the Blessed Virgin on the Way to Bethlehem), Cuitzeo, Michoacán. She wears her straw traveling hat as Joseph takes her to Bethlehem, where Jesus will be born.

Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, Basílica de Zapopan, Zapopan, Jalisco. This 16th Century image of the Virgin Mary, made of pasta de caña: cornstalk and orchid-bulb juice paste, molded to the shape of the Virgin, covered with gesso, and polychromed. She measures a mere 14" high. One of her nicknames is 'La Generala' (the general) after helping troops to victory in battle in 1852. She is the santa patrona (patron Virgin) of Guadalajara.

Nuestra Señora de la Salud, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. This tiny 16th Century figure, revered as the patrona of Pátzcuaro, is also made of pasta de caña.

La Inmaculada Concepción (the Immaculate Conception). This statue of the Virgin represents the Roman Catholic doctrine of her conception without the taint of original sin. Mexico Cooks! photographed this modern image in the Templo de la Inmaculada Concepción, Concepción de Buenos Aires, Jalisco.

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15 de August de 2009
Cocina Económica Doña Felícitas y el Mercado Nicolás Bravo, Morelia, Michoacán

Templo del Santo Niño (Church of the Holy Child) is the spiritual heart of this neighborhood that is part of Morelia's Centro Histórico (historic center).

The pila del Santo Niño (fountain of the Holy Child), was built in front of the church as the water supply for the neighborhood.

The Santo Niño plaque, embedded in the wall at the side of the church. The church was built because the plaque was found on the site.

The Mercado Nicolás Bravo is the commercial heart of the neighborhood. Because of its proximity to the church, the mercado is more popularly known as the Mercado del Santo Niño. The market has been a presence in Morelia for more than 34 years. Some of the big differences between this market and others are its exemplary cleanliness, wide aisles, and the medical and dental offices upstairs.

Cocina Económica de Doña Felícitas (Doña Felícitas' Affordable Foods) is space number 127, upstairs in the Mercado Santo Niño.

Our dear friend Rosa invited us to lunch at her favorite fonda (small eating place) in the market. Fonda food is usually just a half-step up from eating in Mom's kitchen, but once in a while we discover a treasure. Don Joel Cuamba García and his wife, Doña Felícitas Díaz y Díaz, owners of the Cocina Económica de Doña Felícitas, are just as filled with the joy of life as their picture shows them. Doña Feli's wonderful laugh boomed out across the fonda as Don Joel regaled us with old family stories.

Doña Feli's guisados (similar to stews) wait for customers. Clockwise from seven o'clock: caldo de pollo (chicken soup), frijolitos (beans), carne de res en chile negro (beef in black chile), and sopa de albóndigas (meatball soup). The small blue pot in the middle is hot water. Don Joel mentioned that his wife never uses lard in her cooking; it's always done with vegetable oil.

Doña Feli's delicious, freshly prepared caldo de pollo contains a whole chicken thigh, a piece of corn on the cob, carrots, chayote, tomato, rice, and garbanzos. All of Doña Feli's tortillas are hand-made as you eat.

Doña Feli started learning to cook from her mother. She'd never worked outside her home until so many people begged her to open a restaurant that she finally agreed. Don Joel said, "All our married life her wonderful food has just been for the family and our guests. Now it's for everyone!"

She prepares just enough of her marvelous guisados to serve during any given day. Nothing other than the pot of beans is held over to be served the next day. And, as Don Joel said, "Beans only get better after a day or two."

In the kitchen: Mirna (left, 18) and Marisol (right, 19), Don Joel and Doña Feli's smart, attentive, and beautiful daughters.

The fonda is open daily from 7:00AM until 5:00PM. Don Joel said, "We four–my wife, myself, and our daughters–work as a team to make this business go. Each of us has a role to play. Our daughters serve the tables, I keep the customers happy with my chatter, and my wife–well, without her cooking we'd have to close up! She's the heart of it all, she has the sazón (personal flavor, every fine cook's special touch) that keeps you coming back for more."

Open for just a year and a half, the fonda has plenty of regular customers. For 45 pesos (less than $3.50USD), the little restaurant fills your plate and makes sure you go away satisfied. Even more than filling your plate, the owners fill your heart. Don Joel assured us that even though we were paying customers, we were also members of the family. This was no empty promise; we felt more than welcomed and left knowing we'd be back soon for another serving of comida (the main meal of the day) and affectionate conversation.

Carne de res en chile negro (beef in black sauce), frijolitos, and arroz blanco (white rice) were absolutely delicious.

Doña Feli gave us a quick recipe for her rightly famous salsa de chile negro. "You have to be very careful, because it's easy for the sauce to come out really bitter. First you clean the chiles (in this case, chile chilaca) by wiping them with a towel. You don't roast or peel them. Cut them up and sauté them in a little oil, along with garlic, cloves, three or four peppercorns, and a large cut-up green pepper. Last, add some toasted sesame seeds. Then roast three ripe red tomatoes, add them to the pot, and sauté a while longer. Add three more fresh tomatoes that you haven't roasted. When it looks right, put it all in your licuadora (blender) till it's smooth. Add salt to your taste. That's all there is to it."

Downstairs in the market, vendors are currently selling seasonal huitlacoche (corn fungus).

The bright orange oreja de puerco (pig ear) wild mushroom is also in season.

A lácteos (milk products) vendor offered rich jocoque(a fermented semi-acid cream) from this olla de barro (clay pot).

Several of the booths at the Mercado Santo Niño sell a little bit of lots of items–this vendor offers red or white eggs, at least three kinds of dried, beans, rice, milk, oil, laundry soap, baby formula, two or three kinds of pot scrubbers, dried chiles, and a hundred other things.

If You Go:
Mercado Nicolás Bravo (del Santo Niño)
Calle Nicolás Bravo between Calle Corregidora and Calle Guerrero
Morelia, Michoacán

Breaking News!
David Leite, one of the best food writers around, has published a brand new book: The New Portuguese Table (Clarkson Potter). Beautifully written, filled with glorious photographs and fascinating stories, the book belongs on your cookbook shelf. Better, yet, the book–well used, smeared and spattered from your Portuguese culinary adventures–belongs on your kitchen counter! Click on the book cover (left-hand sidebar) and order a copy today. Like me, you'll be thrilled with The New Portuguese Table.

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8 de August de 2009
Mexico in All Its Glory: Sights Along the Way

Mojiganga (10-foot high papel maché dance figure), San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, March 2009.

Rueda de la fortuna (ferris wheel), Cuanajo, Michoacán, September 2008.

Templo Santo Domingo, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, October 2006.

Guajolotes callejeros (turkeys in the street), San José de las Torres, Michoacán, October 2008.

Burrita y su dueño cargados (loaded donkey and its owner) with corn stalks, Ajijic, Jalisco, September 2005.

Trajineras (traditional boats), Xochimilco, December 2008.

Casa particular (private home) with bougainvillea, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, February 2008.

Tourist police at Parque Alameda Central, Mexico City, December 2008.

Pájaro de la suerte (fortune telling canary), Morelia, Michoacán, October 2008.

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1 de August de 2009
Música Purhépecha::Purhépecha Music with Orquesta Janintserakua

Poster advertising the P'urhepecha New Year celebrations in the city of Chilchota, Michoacán. Orquesta Janintserakua played at the festival.

Since the days before written history and since long before the 16th Century Spanish conquest of what is now Mexico, the Purhépecha indigenous people of Michoacán have had a profound impact on all things cultural in the region. Traditional Purhépecha textiles, clay work, metalwork, wood carving, dance, and music continue to be part of Michoacán's daily 21st Century life.

Orquesta Janintserakua of Morelia, Michoacán, onstage at the Auditorio del Centro Cultural Universitario.

The Orquesta Janintserakua, founded in 2003 by Juan Carlos Guerrero Jerónimo, is active in promoting the traditional pirékuas, sones abajeños and sones Purhépecha abajeños native to the Purhépecha of Michoacán. The orchestra takes pride in its strong musical presence both in the city of Morelia and in outlying towns across the state.

Old friends share gossip and a laugh at the Mercado Municipal in Pátzcuaro.

Music among the Purhépecha is an integral part of community life, both secular and religious. Pirékuas are most often highly romantic love songs, written and sung to woo a girl or to celebrate a couple's love. Sones, whether sones Purhépechas or sones Purhépecha abajeños, are generally lively dance tunes. Sones Purhépechas come from or are written about Michoacán's Zona Lacustre (lake zone) near beautiful Lago
de Pátzcuaro (Lake Pátzcuaro), or from the Meseta Purhépecha (the Purhépecha tablelands), in the foothills of nearby mountains. Sones Purhépecha abajeños originate in Michoacán's lowlands–the Tierra Caliente (Hot Lands).

Oswaldo Rivas Sánchez, cellist, Danilo Gallardo Riveros on bass, Cristián Yaird Ponce Villanova and Victor Alfonso Zaragoza Rosales, both playing second violin. Hidden in the photo are other members of the Orquesta Janintserakua María Cristina Soria Pérez (saxophone), Juan Carlos Zamudio Anastasio (trumpet), and Carlos Campos Ramírez (trombone).

This iconic mask of the Purhépecha Danza de los Viejitos (Dance of the Little Old Men) is for sale in the Pátzcuaro market.

Some composers, especially Maestro Nicolás Bartolo Juárez, have also written sones purhépechas as anthems to the glories of nature.
For example, Maestro Bartolo composed a son purhépecha for each one of the six islands of Lago
de Pátzcuaro (Lake Pátzcuaro): Janitzio, La Pacanda, Jarácuaro, Yunuén, Tecuena,
and Urandén.

Among the most noted composers in the region are José María Ponce Martínez, Salvador Próspero Román, Francisco Salmerón Equihua, Eusebio González Tomás, Primitivo Alcántar Alejandre, José Alfredo Barrera Próspero, and Francisco Mercado Zacarías. All were or are prolific in various genres: vals, pirkékua, polkas, and sones.

Sara Patricia Ballesteros Lugo and José Luis Patlán Montero, first violins.

Juan Carlos Guerrero Jerónimo, the young director of Orquesta Janintserakua, spent his childhood and adolescence in his parents' Michoacán home town, Cherán. Beginning at age 11, he studied voice and violin with Maestro Francisco Mercado Zacarías in the Brigada de Desarrollo Indigena No. 15. At 15, he entered Morelia's Escuela Popular de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, completing a Licenciatura en Música (similar to a bachelor's degree) with a specialty in composition.

In addition to composition, he has also studied directing techniques, clarinet, and saxophone. Only 37 years old, he has formed and played in several important musical groups. In 2003, he founded the Orquesta Janintserakua for the express purpose of preserving the musical works of Purhépecha composers.

P'urhepecha orchestra in ropa típica (native dress) in Zacán, Michoacán.

The Orquesta Janintserakua is an important force in preserving the cultural heritage of more than a century of regional composers. Traditional regional music could easily be muscled out in present-day Michoacán by modern ranchera, banda, and grupero music.

José Luis Patlán, first violin: Monserrat Viridiana Magaña Arriaga, first clarinet; and Maestro Juan Carlos Guerrero Jerónimo, second clarinet and director of the Orquesta Janintserakua.

In 2008, the Centro de Investigación de la Cultura Purhépecha de la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo produced and published Volumes 9 and 10 of the Antología de la Música Purhépecha (Anthology of Purhépecha Music), featuring Orquesta Janintserakua and Orquesta Tiamu Uricha. On the double-volume CD, both orchestras play the sones Purhépechas and the sones abajeños composed by Maestro Salvador Ramírez Várgas from the village of San Felipe de los Herreros, Michoacán. In the near future, Volumes 14 and 15 of the Antología de la Música Purhépecha will again feature music by Maestro Ramírez.

This elderly Purhépecha woman sells dried corn husks and alcatraces (calla lilies) on the street.

Maestro Ramírez was born in 1920 in Uruapan, where his family lived due to exigencies created by the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The family returned to San Felipe in 1930. Just a few years later, young Salvador joined his brother and other musicians in forming Orquesta Los Ramírez, which soon became sought after as one of the best of the region. Today, the Orquesta Los Ramírez is known as Orquesta Tiamu Uricha.

During his more than 70-year career as a composter and musician, Maestro Ramírez composed literally hundreds of sones and sones abajeños Purhépecha. Mexico Cooks! was privileged to be present at the concert in Morelia's Teatro Ocampo, where Maestro Ramírez received copies of Volume 9 and 10 of the recording of his music, produced by the university. Soon after that concert in his honor, Maestro Ramírez passed away and was buried in San Felipe los Herreros.

Carlos Antonio Campos Araiza, oboe; Monserrat Magaña, clarinet; Sofía Ivette Campos Araiza, transverse flute.

Traditional Purhépecha pottery from Tzintzuntzan.

Orquesta Janintserakua's members are primarily young musicians from Morelia's Escuela de Bellas Artes,
although several members are also members of the Orquesta Sinfónica de
Michoacán, which has its seat in Morelia. The orchestra takes
Michoacán's regional Purhépecha music wherever it's requested: to
regional town fiestas, to the state capital, and to outlying
districts. Its main goal is to spread the knowledge and enjoyment of this highly
idiosyncratic musical form.

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25 de July de 2009