Category: Restaurants

Nudo Negro: Daniel Ovadía in Mexico City

Daniel Ovadía of Restaurante Nudo Negro, Mexico City. Photo courtesy Chilango.com.

During the last 10 years, Daniel Ovadía has ranked among the wunderkind of Mexico City's restaurants. Barely in his middle 30s, he has already been at the helm of more than one kitchen: initially, he and a couple of friends opened El Changarrito, which closed for financial reasons. In 2005, cocinero (cook; he doesn't claim to be a trained chef) Daniel opened award-winning Paxia, which Mexico City received to grand acclaim but which closed without explanation in 2013. Several of his restaurants have come and gone, while others continue to exist. Among the latter are the neighborhood versions of Peltre, which Ovadía defines as a lonchería (a casual and inexpensive eatery, serving good fast food).

At the dawn of 2015, Daniel Ovadía and Salvador Orozco, his restaurant partner since 2011, opened Nudo Negro (the name means 'black knot') in Mexico City's Roma Norte neighborhood. The hype about the restaurant proclaims that it's unlike any other, that Mexico City has never seen a restaurant like it, and that the fusion of Mexican ingredients with touches of China, Vietnam, Japan, Thailand, and Venezuela make for unique dishes arriving at your table.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend visited me here in Mexico City. She's extraordinarily knowledgeable about the cuisines of parts of China, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand, and has ordered and eaten well in all of those countries. For a few years, I worked in New York as a Chinese chef and also have a good understanding of Vietnamese cuisine. Neither of us claims any expertise in Venezuelan cooking.

Both my friend and I love food, with its many possibilities to delight and entertain the palate. We spend a lot of time talking about food, talking about ingredients, investigating cuisines other than the familiar, and trying new foods. She adores regional Mexican food and is a lover of adventurous food; I'm always interested in trying just about anything at least once. We don't mind eating more than we normally might at a meal together that's meant to be special for both of us.

During her recent stay in Mexico City, we happily ate at street stands, at a municipal food market counter, and at restaurants ranging from delicious pozole at La Casa de Toño to a close to perfect comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) at Fonda Fina.

After researching how and what we wanted to eat on her last night in the city, we discarded a number of excellent possibilities in favor of enjoying a cena (late evening supper) at Nudo Negro. The menu intrigued us, the food sounded both delicious and fun, and friends who had recently eaten there said they had enjoyed their experience. Result: reservation confirmed. We felt the excitement of an upcoming WOW!

When we arrived, our waiter mentioned that our first stop would be upstairs in the kitchen, where we were greeted by the cooks and pinches (prep cooks) with an exuberant chorus of BUENAS NOCHES. A delightful young woman prepared two starter gorditas (little fat corn masa disks) of chicharrón prensado de pato with an adobo of chile ancho flavored with cinnamon, crumbled queso canasto, crema del rancho, and a good-sized blob of sriracha chile sauce (photo above). The savory gordita crunched, the sweet adobo was an interesting if unexpected foil, the dairy was creamy, and the sriracha tried its spicy best to bring the dish together. Eating standing up in the kitchen felt like an odd restaurant quirk, but we spooned up our gorditas and dutifully trod the stairs back to the main floor and our table.

Once we were seated, several waiters in turn talked with us about the menu (I had the Spanish version, my friend had the English version). We each ordered a cocktail from the extensive drinks list, which features classic alcoholic beverages in chronological order of their invention, plus several pages of artisanal beers. I asked for a mojito and my companion requested a Bloody Mary. My mojito was fine, if a little sweeter than they usually are. My friend's Bloody Mary was salty enough to raise her eyebrows and mine, and over-Worcestershired to the point of being undrinkable. Who sends a beverage back to the bar? We asked that hers be remade. Our antennae went up, but not up far enough.

As we discussed our preferences for other courses, we realized that our menus had some discrepancies: a dish appearing on my Spanish version didn't appear on her English menu, and vice versa. We soon realized that my menu bore the current date, while hers was dated May 2016. The waiter said that could not possibly be the case, but when he looked closely at her menu, he saw that it was indeed true. No staff member mentioned that the menu changed frequently, nor did we the clients know.

Nudo Negro recommends that dishes be shared; the two of us usually order plates to divide between us so that we can both taste as many things as possible, which made that recommendation easy for us. Ramen with matzo balls, our selection to start our dinner, comes highly touted by friends and by the restaurant's website. My companion had eaten a similar dish in a Brooklyn restaurant and was eager to try the Mexico City version; it was the first thing we ordered.

We ordered the ramen, as shown below in a photo which was posted at an earlier date by an anonymous Nudo Negro client. Our serious staff/client troubles started immediately.

Ramen with matzo balls (the two beige sph
eres on the left-hand side of the bowl). Image courtesy Twitter.

This is the ramen we received: with chochoyotes (the dark brown spheres on the left side of the bowl), small corn masa (dough) balls with a finger indent. In this case, the chochoyotes were prepared with ground black beans mixed into the masa. When I explained to the waiter that this was not what we ordered, he insisted that it was. Then he insisted that these WERE matzo balls: "Sí, señora, esferas de masa." "Perdón, pero masa no–pedimos matzo." "Sí, señora, son de masa." Irritated by this snafu in communication, we eventually gave up; the pronunciation of the two words is apparently too similar to an ear not trained to differentiate between them.

The flavor of the broth was very weak, the chochoyotes were grainy and unpleasant and fried rather than being boiled as is the norm, and the ramen (in English, noodles) were all but inedible: flavorless, pasty to the point of clumping together both in the soup and in the mouth, and without the springy texture of true ramen. The egg was correctly prepared, but the waiter offered no condiments. A nori (dried seaweed) sheet decorated the bowl, but no dashi or shoyu or pickles came with the soup. We were seriously disappointed by not receiving what we ordered. Much later, it occurred to us that ramen with matzo balls must have been listed on my companion's May menu and was not listed on my July menu. But why didn't anyone on the wait staff tell us? Waiters hovered over our table the entire evening, in an attempt to make sure that, as the headwaiter said, "your experience is exactly as you want it." Ay ay ay–would that it had been.

We requested the ostiones a las brasas (an order of six oysters, spiced and cooked over coals), but were told the oysters were only available per single oyster on the tasting menu. The waiter told us that there weren't enough oysters to prepare an order of six to share. It seemed odd, but he was quite definite. Later, after we had ordered other appetizers, he came back and said he was wrong, there were no oysters at all.

In place of the oysters, we asked for dumplings de pato (duck) and ceviche verde.

The duck dumplings, prepared with kaffir lime, almond milk, hazelnut oil, flash-cooked green beans, seta mushrooms, and smoked chile, sounded (and looked) marvelous. The truth? They weren't. The duck filling was too dense and under-seasoned; the dumpling wrapper was extremely heavy and doughy, with texture more like an uncooked empanada. The green beans were perfectly cooked, but their crunch didn't really combine well with the leaden, dense dumplings; the too-slick setas added flavor, but didn't provide fusion, just another unrelated texture and taste. The sauce was thick to the point of gloppy and added nothing to the flavor profile of the dish. I believe that the sprinkle of red atop the sauce was the smoked chile, but it brought no hint of smoked chile to the dish.

The ceviche verde consisted of tiny bits of fish marinated with slivered red onion, fresh coconut and cucumber juices, coconut, and lemon. The toppings are flowers cut from coconut meat (exactly eleven on every bowlful, according to the waiter), and sprouts. Yes, it's pretty–but most of the flavors were lost in the acidic lemon juice.

We initially tried to order three main dishes: a fish of the day, chamorro (pork shank) glazed with honey and cardamom (with dill, salted carrots and beets and mashed potatoes included) as well as the spiced fried chicken with another interesting-sounding salad, but our waiter said that we had already ordered too much food and he refused to allow us to have the chicken.

Chamorro with carrots, beets, leeks, and dill. One of the wait staff brushed glaze onto the meat at the table, but did not offer extra glaze to use as we ate. The bit of mashed potatoes was dull and flavorless. Everything on the plate, including the meat, was stone cold at the time it was served.

This pesca del día a las brasas (unidentified fish of the day cooked over coals) had a small amount of "Thai curry with chile morita" spread over it. Chile morita, which has a pronounced smoky flavor, is a smaller cousin of chile chipotle. The tiny amount of sauce had no smoky taste, and the fish was drastically overcooked. The middle object on the plate is yaki onigiri, a grilled rice cake, which in this case was grilled to the point of being tough and difficult to cut. The salad on the left-hand side is listed on the menu as fennel bulbs with a Persian lime vinaigrette. Instead, this salad was made of limp lettuce and shredded onions with halved cherry tomatoes and black olives that seemed to have come from a can; the dressing, whatever ingredients it contained, was inedible. The entire dish looked like it had been held too long under a heat lamp in a cheap cafeteria.

During the course of our meal, tension between us as clients and various members of the wait staff was palpable. My friend and I were thoroughly puzzled and frustrated by Nudo Negro's food. We talked about the difficulties in our meal with the head waiter, with another waiter who seemed to be at that level, and with our server. It was extremely disappointing to see that Daniel Ovadía was sitting on the terrace with another group of clients, within easy view of our table. At no time did we see any of the wait staff approach him to let him know of our problems. At no time did he look our way or show any interest the dining room. When I finally did hand one of the waiters my card to give to him, he immediately came to greet me with a kiss and a hug and offered a handshake to my friend–but at no time did he ask either of us if we were enjoying our meal, if everything had been to our liking, nothing of the sort. It was as if he didn't care at all. He talked with me about a business aspect of his business (a new restaurant in the offing), but not about the most crucial part of any restaurateur's business: the dining pleasure of the client. After only a few minutes with us, he returned to the group on the terrace.

My friend and I were tired of and more than annoyed by the evening's incessant struggle to dine, neither of us wanted dessert, and we asked for the check. Rather than bring the check, one of the wait staff brought us a dessert, courtesy of the house: cheesecake baklava with ground nuts and a pretty egg-shaped serving of normally subtly flavored rose petal ice cream, plus smears of jamaica reduction meant to have the appearance of rose petals. The baklava was edible, but the ice cream fragrance and flavor mimicked exactly the extremely strong scent of one of Mexico's iconic soaps: Rosa Venus. We laughed and left it on the plate after a taste.

Our server brought the check in its folder, laid it on the table, and immediately took it away again. The head waiter came to the table and said, "There is no check. There is no check. We apologize for everything." It was definitely the right thing to do and we truly appreciated the gesture.

Two thumbs down, readers. This is a first for Mexico Cooks!.

Restaurante Nudo Negro
Calle Zacatecas 139
Between Calle Jalapa and Calle Tonalá
Colonia Roma Norte
Mexico City
011-52-5564-5281

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

30 de July de 2016
What’s the Real Story on Mexico’s Mealtimes? Cena (Supper) at the End of Day.

The man who operates this cart in Mexico City's Centro Histórico (Historic Center) wheels his baked plátanos y camotes (bananas and sweet potatoes) around during the day. In residential areas, when downtown businesses are closed, you are most likely to hear the steam whistle's raucously loud and high-pitched TWEEEEEEEEEEET during mid-to-late evening hours. Each plateful is either a roasted banana or sweet potato dripping with sweetened condensed milk. Click to enlarge the photo for a better look at the front of the vehicle, where the bananas and sweet potatoes are kept warm over the cart's firebox.

Cena (supper) in Mexico is a mixed bag. For an ordinary cena at home, it's a tiny meal: a cup of hot chocolate or hot milk, a pan dulce (sweet bread), or a quick taco made with what's left over from comida (the main meal of the day). Comida being the large meal that it usually is, cena is meant only to tide you over from just before bedtime till early the next morning.

If you're out partying till the wee hours, a few tacos al pastor (shepherd-style marinated pork tacos) on the street might be just the ticket for your cena. Note the whole pineapple at the top of the trompo (vertical spit). The pineapple cooks along with the meat–see the gas grate behind the cone of meat?–and the taquero (taco cook) tosses a few small sweet slices into your grill-warmed tortilla. Top with red or green salsa, a pinch of sea salt, and a shower of minced onion and cilantro for a taste of heaven.

Buñuelos are another favorite food for cena, either eaten at a cenaduría (supper spot) or purchased from a street vendor. Some people still make them at home–the dough is very similar to that of a wheat flour tortilla, stretched over the round bottom of a clay pot till thin. Traditionally, the dough is stretched over the maker's knee to achieve each buñuelo's large size and round shape! They are usually served either whole and dusted with granulated sugar or broken into pieces in a bowl and drizzled with piloncillo (brown sugar) syrup.

Conchas (pan dulce), reposted from the breakfast article: food for cena is often the same food we eat for desayuno.

Just as an aside: in addition to cena, some people in Mexico still partake of merienda, a light snack that can come sometime between comida and cena. This 'light snack' can be as simple as a couple of cookies and a cup of té de manzanilla (chamomile tea) or it can be a more complex offering similar to an English tea. Mexico Cooks! will leave the question of how to find stomach room for merienda up to you.

Not all food eaten for cena is sweet. Case in point: this Pátzcuaro, Michoacán specialty is atole de grano, a savory corn soup that's colored and flavored with anise. In the evening, two women sell this heavenly soup on Pátzcuaro's small plaza. Let's go right now!

The 1826 Restaurant at the Rosewood Hotel in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, is an enticing spot for cena whether it's a romantic evening for you and your main squeeze or whether you are supping with a group of friends.

Several years ago, Mexico Cooks! and a group of friends attended a gala Valentine's Day cena at Restaurante Los Danzantes in Coyoacán, Mexico City. The dinner was presented by Cynthia Martínez and a team from Restaurante San Miguelito of Morelia, Michoacán.

If you are invited to a cena baile (dinner dance) or a cena de gala (black tie dinner)at a restaurant, events center, or private home, your hosts will pull out all the stops. Champagne, beautiful entradas (appetizers), a superb multi-course meal, snazzy dessert, alcoholic beverages and music are de rigeur.

Mexico Cooks! researches possibilities for an elegant cena at Restaurante JASO, Colonia Polanco, Mexico City. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

Expect to gussy up in your elegant best when you are out for a special cena. From left to right: (standing) Lucero García, (seated) Mexico Cooks!, fabulous and celebrated chef Aquiles Chávez, and Aliz Reyes at a superb and festive cena in Morelia, in honor of Diana Kennedy.

From street tacos to stilettos and tuxedos, cena in Mexico will keep you going till morning. Provecho!

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

9 de July de 2016
Hog Heaven: Mexico’s Love Affair with Pork

Cochinita pibil from the Yucatán (seasoned pork, slow-cooked and then shredded), a specialty of Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Restaurante Azul/Condesa. Served in a banana leaf with a topping of pickled red onion, it's delicious.

Mexico is one of the largest producers and consumers of pork in the world, second only to China. In spite of the 'swine flu' crisis several years ago, Mexico continues to eat pork at a record-breaking pace and, every year, to export millions of tons of pork to other countries. (FIRA)

From the growers' farms to a rastro (slaughterhouse) is a speedy ride along one of Mexico's super-highways. A truck like this one, loaded with pigs, is an everyday sight throughout Mexico. Photo courtesy ROTOV.

Mexico is not nearly as squeamish as the United States in seeing where its carne de cerdo (pork meat) comes from. In fact, a stroll through just about any city market or tianguis (street market) will give ample evidence that meat–including pork meat–comes from an animal, not from a sterile, platic-wrapped styrofoam meat tray at a supermarket.

Every part of the pig is used in Mexico's kitchens. The head is ordinarily used to make pozole, a rich stew of pork meat, reconstituted dried corn, spices, and condiments.

No pork existed in Mexico until after the Spanish conquest; in fact, no domestic animals other than the xoloitzcuintle dog were used for food. The sources of animal protein were fish, frogs, and other water creatures, wild Muscovy-type ducks, the javalí (wild boar), about 200 varieties of edible insects, doves and the turkey, all native to what is now Mexico.

Mexico has been cooking head-to-tail since long before that notion came into international vogue.  Pig tails are used here for roasting–look for recipes for rabo de cerdo asado (roast pig tail). In addition, when a butcher is preparing pork carnitas, tails, ears, snouts, tongues, and indeed, everything but the squeal goes into the cazo (enormous cooking cauldron used to boil carnitas in lard).

A carnitas taco from Quiroga, Michoacán.

No matter that just below these jolly mariachi pigs at Mexico City's Mercado de Jamaica, their once-live counterparts lie ready for the butcher's knife. These fellows play on!

Chicharrón (fried pig skin) is prepared fresh every day by butchers whose specialty is pork. Nothing goes to waste. In fact, about 75% of the pig skins used to make chicharrón are imported to Mexico from the United States, where the market for pig skin is relatively small.

Just about any Mexican butcher worth his stripes can custom-cut whatever portion of the pig you need for meal preparation. In case you're not 100% familiar with the names of Mexican cuts, here are two pork cut charts, first in English and then in Spanish for comparison.

Pork cuts chart in English. Click to enlarge the image for better viewing.

Pork cuts chart in Spanish. Even in Spanish, many cuts have different names depending on which country names them. Again, click to enlarge the image for a better view.

These suckling pigs were butchered at 6 weeks to 3 months old. Known in Mexico as lechón, roast suckling pig is a delicacy by any name. Many restaurants in Mexico specialize in its preparation.

One of the most common and popular (and really delicious) kinds of street tacos is tacos al pastor (shepherd style tacos). This preparation comes from Mexico City. Marinate thinly sliced pork meat in a sauce made of chiles guajillo, vinegar, and tomato. Next, layer the slices on a vertical spit so that they form the shape of a spinning top. At the top of the meat, place a pineapple without skin. Light the fire in the grate behind the spit and allow a portion of the meat to cook until slightly caramelized on the edges and tender within. Slice into very thin pieces, using them to fill a tortilla warmed on the flattop. With your sharp knife, flick a small section of the pineapple into the taco. Add the salsa you prefer, some minced onion and cilantro, and ahhhhh…the taste of Mexico!

Manitas de cerdo: pickled pigs' feet. The well-scrubbed feet are cooked in salted water, then added to vegetables cooked in a pickling solution of vinegar, chile, vegetables, and herbs. In Mexico, manitas de cerdo can be eaten as either a botana (snack) or a main dish.

One of my personal favorite pork dishes: carnitas from Michoacán! These carnitas in particular are the best I've ever eaten: large hunks of pork are boiled in lard until crispy on the outside, succulent and juicy on the inside. Chopped roughly and served with various salsas, they're the best tacos I know. Find them at Carnitas Aeropuerto, in Zamora, Michoacán.

Adobo huasteco, another deliciously spicy pork dish. It's been a while since this last appeared on our table–and it's high time we prepared it again. Click on the link for the recipe.

Last but not least, here's a rosy bouquet of pig heads for sale at the Mercado de Jamaica in Mexico City.

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

4 de June de 2016
Mexico Cooks! Returns to Restaurante Yuban, A Special Taste of Oaxaca in Mexico City

Chef Fernando Martínez Zavala, in charge at Restaurante Yuban. Chef Fernando has headed up the kitchen at Yuban for about two years; he's made changes in both the space and the menu that have brought the restaurant to the forefront in Mexico City's mid-to-high-end places to dine. Photo courtesy Yuban.

It's part of my job description–self-described, this job–to write about restaurants. For the first time in nine-plus years, I'm writing a second review of a place I've wanted to love without reserve but needed to revisit several times to be able say, "Yes, absolutely, this is the place to go." Before you read further today, you might like to take a look at the first article from Mexico Cooks! about Restaurante Yuban, from July of 2015: Restaurante Yuban. You will see that although I loved much about what I ate there, I still had some questions and suggestions.

The first thing I noticed this visit, in April 2016, is Yuban's very recent interior renovation. The remodel is seamless, opening up both dining and bar space without sacrificing the cozy ambience that everyone has loved about the rooms since Yuban first popped up on Mexico City's restaurant radar. This new section at the front of the restaurant is now open to lovely light and air. Click on any photo for a larger view.

The bar, with its full complement of spirits, is now integrated into one side of the front dining room, making a wonderfully open space whether you're at Yuban to have a drink with a friend or to share a full meal with your friends, family, or a group.

I've always loved the floor tiles at Yuban and was so delighted to see that they haven't been changed. Remodel and floor tiles aside, the food! The service! What about them? The menu and the service have been remodeled as well, keeping the best and seriously improving the rest. Restaurante Yuban has graduated to full star status in Mexico City.

Of the various cocktails on the Yuban menu, this one–chagua de la reina–caught my attention initially because it is made with mezcal, a drink endemic to Oaxaca and currently the go-to liquor in Mexico City. Mezcal is also Mexico Cooks!' preferred drink, although I rarely drink alcohol. The chagua (according to chef Fernando, the word refers to someone who produces a lot of super-spicy chile de agua) is made of an infusion of chile de agua, jugo de limón (juice of native limón–you might know the fruit as Key lime), ginger, and mezcal. The drink's flavors explode in one's mouth and made me, at least, crave a second taste and then a second cocktail. I can't think when I've gone bonkers for an adult beverage, but yowzah–the chagua de la reina won my heart. Move over, straight up mezcal.

Oaxaca's chile de agua, the fiery heart and soul of the chagua de la reina.

Lovely bits of tlayuda (a large toasted corn tortilla, an icon of the Oaxaca Central Valley) with avocado and ash accompanied our drinks as a house courtesy.

As we chatted and drank, our server also presented us with frijoles de la olla estilo oaxaqueño (Oaxaca-style pot-cooked beans) seasoned with hoja santa (an anise-flavored leaf), radish, pickled onions, queso fresco (tender fresh cheese), chicharrón (fried pork skin), and cilantro sprouts. Both the tlayuda and the frijoles did what appetizers are meant to do: wake up one's appetite for what's to follow.

My dining companion and I each ordered Yuban's sopa de guías, she for love and I for comparison with the sopa de guías I learned from Celia Florián in Oaxaca. This sopa, served using the restaurant's elegant upscale pour, looked and tasted almost identical to the one I helped prepare in Oaxaca. The chochoyotes (tender corn dumplings with a dimple) were delicious! On a scale of 1 to 10, definitely a ten!

My companion ordered ensalada de siete jitomates criollos con queso fresco y pesto de hoja santa (salad of seven native tomatoes, transparently thin radish slices, fresh cheese, and hoja santa pesto). These tiny native tomato halves, dressed with a just-right anise-y pesto, seemed like no big deal on the plate: pretty as a picture, but with a salad-bored shrug. One taste and I wished I'd ordered my own plateful of pure ripe tomato, wonderful pesto, and all the rest of the flavors that combine to make this small dish a huge hit. I could cheerfully have licked the plate.

A second marvelous and beautiful salad, this time of roasted asparagus, roasted nopales (cactus paddles), pickled onions, and a turnip cream. The smokiness of the roasted vegetables was the perfect complement to the mezcal we drank.

After listening to me wax ecstatic about the marvelous mole verde (green mole) from February's Oaxaca cooking class, my companion was happy to find the dish listed on Yuban's menu. She wasn't disappointed; the carne de cerdo (pork meat) was fork-tender and the mole, served with a generous spoonful of alubias (small white beans) was all but identical to the mole verde our cooking class prepared in Oaxaca.

Tasajo, a Oaxaca-style thinly cut beef topped with quelites cenizo (a kind of greens), tender as served on a pool of black beans, with grilled cebollitas cambray de la sierra (knob onions from the hills) and grilled cheese. House-made tortillas were just right for mopping the plate.

Mole negro con pechuga de guajolote (black mole with turkey breast), served with a small pot of delicious, perfectly cooked rice.

We tried two of Yuban's three desserts. This one is pastel de chocolate oaxaqueño (Oaxacan chocolate cake) with house-made sorbet, blueberries, and a streusel crumble. Marvelous.

A companion ordered cremoso de requesón (creamy sweetened cheese similar to ricotta) with streusel de pinole (slightly sweetened toasted, ground corn), piña rostizada (roast pineapple), and coconut ice cream. I give it two–no, three–thumbs up.

When you're in Mexico City but craving the authentic taste of Oaxaca, Restaurante Yuban is definitely your best option. Don't take my word for it, though: go, and enjoy the best of Oaxaca outside Oaxaca itself. And by all means order a chagua de la reina and raise a glass to me.

Provecho! (Say Bon appetit! in Spanish.)

Restaurante Yuban
Calle Colima 268
Near the corner with Insurgentes
Col. Roma Norte
Hours:
Monday through Wednesday 13:30-23:00PM
Thursday through Saturday 13:30-1:00AM
Sunday 13:30-18:00PM
Tel. 6387 0358
Reservations strongly suggested

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

7 de May de 2016
Mexico Cooks! Winter Tour to Oaxaca, Part V: Cooking with Celia Florián

Our magnificent cooking teacher, Maestra Celia Florián, owner at Restaurante Las 15 Letras, Oaxaca.

Sometime in late 2015, I was chatting with my dear friend Celia Florián, who asked when I would be going again to Oaxaca. "I'll be bringing a group of women in February!" One thing led to another and soon Celia and I had scheduled a cooking class for the group. We planned a menu, an early-morning shopping excursion at the municipal Mercado de la Merced, the group cooking class to follow, and the joy of sharing the finished products as our comida (main meal of the day) later in the afternoon. I could barely contain my excitement at the thought of introducing this California tour group to one of the most generous and joyous traditional cooks in Mexico.

The menu that Celia and I planned for the group included:

–Garnachas del Istmo de Tehuantepec
–Sopa de Guías con Chochoyotes
–Mole Verde con Espinazo y Alubias
–Pastel de Elote estilo Las 15 Letras

Maestra Celia and her husband Fidel Méndez Sosa have been the proprietors of Restaurante Las 15 Letras since 1992; today, the restaurant is a favorite among Oaxaca locals and has also become a destination restaurant for in-the-know visitors, both Mexican and foreign. The photo shows an elegant and delicious dish I ate at Las 15 Letras in February 2015: quesillo (Oaxaca cheese) wrapped in a spiral with chapulines (grasshoppers) and hoja santa (an anise-flavored leaf).

Doña Carmen Florián, Maestra Celia Florián's now-elderly mother, continues to be able to make hand-made tortillas. Maestra Celia says, "What one learns well is never forgotten. My mother has been making tortillas since she was a little girl."

Oaxaca's Mercado de la Merced is a small, friendly market serving its neighborhood. It has become a magnet for Oaxaca cooks and food-oriented tourists, as well. It suited the shopping needs of our group, and Maestra Celia was the perfect guide as we purchased the ingredients for our class and comida.

We purchased a few of Oaxaca's iconic jitomates riñon (kidney-shaped tomatoes) as part of what we needed to prepare the garnachas.

The tray in the foreground contains the ingredients for the garnachas del Istmo de Tehuantepec. Clockwise from the left: jitomates riñon (kidney-shaped tomatoes), queso de Chiapas (cheese from Chiapas), vinagre de frutas (Maestra Celia's home-made fruit vinegar), cabbage, onion, garlic, and a bowl of masa de maíz (corn dough).

To make the garnachas, we first patted out gorditas (thick rounds of masa, each approximately three inches in diameter), and baked them on a metal comal (griddle).

When the gorditas were completely cooked, we allowed them to cool for a few minutes. Then we split them in half through the center and set them aside until ready to fill and serve as an entrada (appetizer).

The garnachas, ready to serve. Each half of a gordita is topped with shredded beef, along with cabbage and sliced carrots lightly pickled in home-made fruit vinegar. Sprinkle with freshly crumbled cheese. Add salsa made with jitomates riñon, if you are able to grow them or find them in a market. Otherwise, use the vine-ripened flavorful in-season tomatoes of your choice.

While the gorditas baked, we boiled lean beef for shredding as a topping for the garnachas. Maestra Celia was careful to note that in preparing a multi-course meal, it's important to begin with the steps that take the longest amount of time, finishing with the preparation that takes less time. That way, all of your menu is ready to serve and eat at approximately the same hour.

Guías de calabaza (squash stems and tendrils) for our sopa de guías. If you grow zucchini or know someone who does, you can use its tenderest young stems, leaves, and tendrils to make sopa de guías.

The recipe for sopa de guías (squash tendril soup) also calls for flor de calabaza (squash flowers). In addition, we used fresh corn, still on the cob and sliced into rounds, and tender young chayote, cut into round slices.

We added the vegetables and herbs we prepared to simmering, lightly salted water and allowed them to boil gently just until the vegetables were tender.

Maestra Celia adds blended water and masa to the soup to thicken it just a bit. It should be not too watery, not too thick, but just right. You'll know. Be sure to stir the mixture constantly until it thickens so that no lumps form. Our group was profoundly moved by the immense love and respect that Maestra Celia imparted to us: for her country, her city, the market vendors, the ingredients, Oaxaca's traditions, and the act of cooking. The food we prepared, prepared with this kind of love, had no chance but to turn out to be delicious.

While the soup continued to cook, we prepared chochoyotes (little masa dumplings) by making one inch spheres of masa, then pressing a fingertip into each one to make the indentation that you see in the photograph. We then added the chochoyotes to the soup pot and allowed them to cook until tender. Click on any photo to enlarge it for a better look.

Sopa de guías, ready for the table. See the chochoyotes, just under the surface of the broth?

This tray includes most of the ingredients for mole verde oaxaqueño. Clockwise from left: herbs including cilantro and several herbs unique to Oaxaca, a bowl of masa, green beans, chile, onions, new potatoes, and chayote. Rather than include a step-by-step for this simple (and simply extraordinary) recipe, I offer you Maestra Celia's recipe:

Oaxaca-Style Green Mole with Pork

Ingredients

3.5 lbs meaty pork neck bones
2.2 lbs meaty pork back bones
1/2 lb small alubias (or white navy beans), cooked until tender
1/4 lb corn masa
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch epazote (fresh, not dried)
4 hoja santa leaves
Salt to taste
1/2 white onion, toasted
1/2 head of garlic, toasted
3 cloves raw garlic, separate use
1 chile serrano
3 cloves
1 white onion, sliced in wheels and 'cooked' in Key lime juice and oregano

Procedure

Boil the two kinds of pork in water, with garlic, onion, and salt. When the meats are tender, drain them and reserve the pork stock.

In the pork stock, blend the masa. Strain and add it to the consomé, stirring little by little so that lumps do not form. Blend the herbs together with the clove, the chile serrano*, and the roasted garlic and onion. Strain the liquid into the pot and allow them to boil. Add the Blend the raw garlic with a little water and add to the pot. Correct the salt and remove the pot from the fire.

*If you want the mole to be fairly spicy, use the entire chile serrano. If you prefer less 'heat', add just half the chile.

For the garnish

2 chayotes, cut into pieces
A good-size handful of green beans, clean and with the stems removed
Quartered medium-size potatoes, or if you use small potatoes as we did, you may leave them whole

Boil these vegetables separately until they are tender. Drain and reserve.

To serve

The mole should be served in a bowl. First add the pork meats and bones. Cover with the green mole. Top with the cooked vegetables. Add a heaping tablespoonful of the cooked alubias to each bowl. Add a few rings of white onion.

Mole verde oaxaqueño!

Because Restaurante Las 15 Letras was in the process of a remodel, our class was held at Maestra Celia's home. Her staff brought our pastel de elote (corn cake) which had been baked at the restaurant; we did not prepare it ourselves, but we certainly ate it with gusto! It was the perfect finish to a marvelous meal al estilo oaxaqueño–Oaxaca style!

Our tour group. Left to right: Judith Eshom, Gayla Pierce, Maestra Celia Florián, Mexico Cooks!, Holli DeLauro, and Robyn Cota Cann. Back row: culinary school interns Cristina Flores (black cap) and Alonso Castillo, who assisted Maestra Celia and our group in the kitchen. Photo courtesy Alonso Castillo.

Our class, the connections we made, and our meal were extraordinary. Each of us felt that we had become very close to Maestra Celia during our time together. There were tears at parting, promises to stay in touch with her, promises to prepare these dishes for our families and friends–and my promise to pass information about this cultural and culinary event along to you.

Ending our tour in Oaxaca with a full moon and full hearts. Thank you, California friends and Oaxaca friends, it was a joy to spend these days with you.

If you'd like to schedule a tour in Oaxaca and would like to experience a cooking class with this most wonderful of teachers, please let me know. I'd be happy to plan an itinerary for your group.

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

30 de April de 2016
Mexico Cooks!’ Winter Tour to Oaxaca, 2016 Part IV: Tlacolula Market and Teotitlán del Valle. Food! Food! Food!

You can get anything you want–including these highly colorful, durable plastic shopping bags–at the exciting Sunday market in Tlacolula, Oaxaca. In Mexico Cooks!' opinion, the Tlacolula Sunday market is the best market in all of Mexico, a do-not-miss whenever visiting the central valley of Oaxaca. Located about 30 kilometers (17 miles) from the city of Oaxaca, it's an easy trip on a Sunday morning. Take a bus or a colectivo (shared) taxi, or hire a driver and make a day of it. Best of all options, let Mexico Cooks! take you on a three-part Sunday outing: Tlacolula, Teotitlán del Valle, and Santa María del Tule.

Metates, Oaxaca-style, carved and painted with colorful flowers. These volcanic rock grinding stones (and their manos [grinding pins]) are always tempting to bring home. They're used to grind everything from nixtamalize-d corn to chocolate and from beans to toasted tomatoes, onions, and chiles. Unfortunately, they are also extremely heavy and impractical to carry if one is traveling by plane. Next time I drive to Oaxaca, though, temptation might get the better of me.

Groups of like objects fascinate me. These are the business ends of molinillos, the wooden hot chocolate frothers used in Oaxaca and most other parts of Mexico. Like everything else pictured, they're for sale in the Tlacolula market.

A market vendor sorts through her goods. She's selling beautiful radishes, verdolagas (purslane) and many kinds of herbs, including epazote (for seasoning dried beans during the cooking process and for adding to quesadillas and other dishes) and hierba buena (one type mint).

Inside this gallina (laying hen) you can see egg yolks of every size, from pin-head to the mature yolk that we see in the eggs we eat (foreground). The majority of people who buy eggs at a store, either by the kilo or by the carton, are astounded by the formation process of an egg. First the yolk grows to its mature size, then the albumin (egg white) collects around the egg, and then, less than a day prior to the egg being expelled by the hen, the shell forms around the yolk and albumin. A few hours later, boom: breakfast! Click on any photo to enlarge it for a better look at the detail.

A pig head, ready to be long-simmered with chiles and other herbs and spices to make pozole.

Flor de calabaza (squash flowers), ready to use in any number of traditional Oaxaca dishes: quesadillas, sopa de guías,or stuffed with requesón (similar to ricotta cheese) and fried. Only the male flowers are cut; the female flowers are left on the squash plant to develop calabacitas (little Mexican squash much like zucchini).

Mamey fruits were everywhere in the Sunday market at Tlacolula. These fruits, which look like small, slightly fuzzy footballs, are deep orange inside and taste quite a bit like baked sweet potato. The flesh is used to make licuados (smoothies) or to eat out of hand; the seeds are used to make tejate, an iconic drink from Oaxaca.

This tejate stand at the Mercado Tlacolula is unusual in that the vendor prepares tejate made of the standard chocolate, but also sells tejate made of coconut (middle back). I tried them both; the coconut is excellent, but I still prefer the chocolate.

We were on a deadline at the market: our appointment for comida in Teotitlán del Valle was waiting. I had talked with Restaurante Tlamanalli's Rufina Mendoza several weeks prior to our anticipated arrival to make certain that the Mendoza sisters would be there to greet the group and make sure that we had a wonderful meal. As we walked from the heat of Oaxaca's mid-February sun into the cool shade
of the restaurant, I saw Abigail, Marcelina, and Rufina at work in the kitchen. It's so wonderful to see good friends after an absence!

Left to right (clockwise) in the photo: Marcelina, Rufina, and Abigail Mendoza Ruíz, the hearts and soul of Restaurante Tlamanalli in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.

The restaurant's daily menu, hand-written on the Tlamanalli chalkboard. There are just a few offerings for soup and main dishes, but when what's on the menu is as fabulous as the food at Tlamanalli, no one cares. Mexico Cooks! dined on sopa de guías (squash flower soup), segueza de pollo (a delicious pre-Hispanic tomato and corn sauce served with post-Hispanic chicken), rice, and beans.

All of our group enjoyed the house mezcal and guacamole with totopos (in this case, house-made blue corn chips) and pepitas (squash seeds) before and during our meal.

Sopa de guías (squash tendril soup), with pieces of squash, the tender shoots, and squash flowers.

Mole zapoteco (Zapotec-style mole with chicken). This is a relatively simple mole to prepare, but it has a marvelous fresh and complex flavor.

Segueza de pollo, with a roasted tomato afloat in the delicious tomato broth. The broth is thickened with toasted and ground corn and is prepared with hoja santa (an anise-flavored leaf) and other herbs. In pre-Hispanic days, the dish would have been prepared with native turkey or rabbit, as there were no chickens in Mexico until the Spanish brought them from Europe.

I would love to take you to Teotitlán del Valle to introduce you to Abigail Mendoza (photo) and her family, and of course to have a meal at Tlamanalli!

Next week: A cooking class, filled with recipes, nostalgia, and beautiful memories.

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

23 de April de 2016
Mexico Cooks!’ Winter Tour to Oaxaca, 2016 Part III: Barro Negro, Alebrijes, and FOOD

Day Three of Mexico Cooks!' February 2016 Oaxaca tour started with a superb breakfast at the municipal Mercado de la Merced. For starters, we ordered hot chocolate, traditionally made with water rather than milk, and frothed to a fare-thee-well. The bubbles lasted to the last drop in the cup and the flavor and texture were swoon-worthy. Pan de yema (egg yolk bread), iconic to Oaxaca, came with the hot chocolate. When you're in Oaxaca, be sure to have at least one breakfast at Fonda Florecita in the market; it's the only place to be on a Oaxaca morning.

Breakfast's main course: cecina enchilada (semi-dried beef flavored with spicy red sauce and then grilled), accompanied by enfrijoladas (tortillas dipped in anise-y black bean sauce, then topped with queso fresco and slivered onions). The anise-y flavor of the black bean sauce comes not from anise, but from the dried, powdered small leaves of the aguacate criollo (native avocado). All this and a huge glass of freshly squeezed orange juice got our day off to a bang.

After breakfast, our driver took our tour group to San Bartolo Coyotepec, the original home of Oaxaca's unique and famous barro negro (black clay). We spent most of our time in San Bartolo at the Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca (MEAPO), where many of the museum-quality pieces are actually for sale. Enriqueta López García made this huge cántaro de rosas (water jug decorated with roses); the piece measures more than two feet high. Barro negro is actually light grey prior to firing. After the clay is prepared by grinding and kneading, each piece is formed either on a pre-Hispanic wheel or in a mold and then dried in the sun for several days. The piece is then polished with a stone to bring out the color and the shine; after polishing, it is again dried for several more days. Once thoroughly dry, the piece is ready to be fired. During firing, it acquires its glossy metallic black finish. A high-quality piece like the one in the photograph can take a month or more to create.

Our next stop was San Martín Tilcajete, where I had arranged for the group to visit Maestro Jacobo Ángeles and his wife María, makers of world-renowned hand-carved, hand-painted copal wood alebrijes (realistic and fantasy animals). Jacobo and María are arguably the most successful alebrije makers in the village, although others have also had considerable success. They have a large workshop where Jacobo gives fascinating demonstrations of ancient aniline dye-making techniques. Although other alebrije makers have switched to modern acrylic paints, Jacobo Ángeles remains faithful to original aniline dyes. Due to the success of Oaxaca's alebrijes in the world crafts markets, approximately 150 households now make the majority of their annual income in their manufacture. Photo courtesy Chiripa.

The road from San Martín Tilcajete took us back to Oaxaca city, where we enjoyed a marvelous comida (main meal of the day) at La Teca. In the photograph, you see a plate of ikake, a fruit in conserve that was one of our desserts. The cooked consistency of the fruit is similar to that of a cooked plum, and the stone is nearly as large as the fruit itself. Mexico Cooks!' spelling may be incorrect; the name of the fruit does not appear to be Spanish, but is most likely a transliteration of a Zapotec word. If you are familiar with this fruit, please email me! You can read here about all of the delights of La Teca's wonderful food from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It's one of my favorite restaurants in all of Mexico.

Restaurant La Teca
Calle Violetas #200-A
Colonia Reforma
Oaxaca, Oaxaca
01.951.515.0563 (from within Mexico)

Next week: Day Four of Mexico Cooks! 2016 winter tour to Oaxaca, in which we visit the best market in Mexico and are privileged to eat with Abigail Mendoza.

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

16 de April de 2016
Mexico Cooks!’ Winter Tour to Oaxaca, 2016: Part II, Ocotlán de Morelos

The second day of Mexico Cooks!' February 2016 tour to Oaxaca was devoted to visiting Ocotlán de Morelos, less than an hour south of Oaxaca. The small city of Ocotlán is the home of indigenous Zapotec artist Rodolfo Morales (May 8, 1925-January 30, 2001). In addition to working at his art, Rodolfo Morales devoted much of his later life to restoring historic buildings in Ocotlán and to working with the painters Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo to further artistic achievement in Oaxaca. For more than ten years before his death in 2001, Morales was considered to be one of the two greatest living artists from the state. The other, Francisco Toledo, is still living. The painting (oil on linen) above is a portrait of Morales's mother.

Family kitchen, Casa Rodolfo Morales. The Morales home is still open as a museum, and tourists are welcome to visit.

At the Ocotlán Friday outdoor market, our group first tasted tejate, a cold and refreshing chocolate drink iconic to Oaxaca. It's made with several ingredients (cacao, rosita (aka flor de cacao), and the ground seed of the mamey fruit, among others, and mixed with the bare hand until thick foam rises to the top of the liquid. This vendor has covered the top of her huge vessel of tejate with plastic.

Some of the ingredients for tejate: on the flat basket, a goodly amount of rosita. Below the rosita, mamey fruit seeds.

Mamey fruit with the seed already removed, displayed for sale. This creamy, sweet fruit looks like a little brown football and tastes like a baked sweet potato. Delicious!

Our group had heard about the Ocotlán indoor market food stand called "La Cocina de Frida" (Frida's Kitchen). The owner's stock in trade is her strong resemblance to painter Frida Kahlo! Click on the photo to enlarge it; you can see the owner, on the left, standing at the stove. We were intrigued and decided to eat there.

Her resemblance to Frida Kahlo is extraordinary. The food didn't live up to our hopes, but we did have a good time.

Our other main goal in visiting Ocotlán was to meet the Hermanas Águilar: we spent time with gifted sister potters Josefina and Irene and visited Guillermina's home as well. Their talleres (workshops) are in three consecutive houses near the entrance to the town. Our first stop was with Sra. Josefina Águilar, whose work has been collected since the 1975, when Nelson Rockefeller bought some of her pieces for his own notable collection of Latin American folk art.

Sra. Josefina Águilar continues to work clay, here forming the masa (clay 'dough') that will become the charming and original figures that she calls muñecas (dolls). Diabetes has made her blind, but she still makes her muñecas by feel. Doña Josefina is one of four daughters of potters Isaura Alcantara and Jesús Águilar; Guillermina, Josefina, Irene, and Concepción are all master potters.

Typical clay village figures by doña Josefina Águilar. The tallest of these measures approximately 10" high. Photo courtesy Liveauctioneers, 2013.

A relative paints careful detail on a small clay figure in doña Josefina's sunlit patio.

Juan Jesús García Águilar, doña Josefina's grandson, made this 6" high dancer with the fabulous sloe-eyes. The brilliantly talented young man is the fourth generation of potters in the Águilar family. Please click on the photo to enlarge it for a better look at the detail. Mexico Cooks! collection.

A pair of paper maché and bamboo mojigangas (giant dance puppets) created by doña Irene Águilar Alcantara. These are meant to be worn on the shoulders of adult dancers; they stand about fifteen feet high once attached to the dancer! The soft, loose fabric arms twist around and around as the dancer gyrates. Doña Irene also makes clay figures and other artistic work, but she creates these mojigangas by special request.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy53Hr9S8F4&w=560&h=315]
This video will take you right to the heart of Oaxaca City–and make you want to dance along with the mojigangas! We wended our way down the street in Oaxaca along with a wedding calenda (street dance/celebration) and had a marvelous time. Mexico Cooks! can make it happen for your group, too–just ask!

By the end of our long day in Ocotlán de Morelos, we were ready for some down-time at our hotel. After a good night's sleep, we were ready to hit the road again. Next week: Day Three, with more adventures and some delicious food.

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

9 de April de 2016
Mexico Cooks!’ Winter Tour to Oaxaca, 2016, Part I: Spring Comes Early to the Central Valley

Mid-February 2016 in Oaxaca. The sky really is that blue, the sun really is that strong, and the flowers really are that pink. Winter in Oaxaca? The daytime temperatures during our week there were as high as 90ºF. The pink-flowering tree is the amapa (Tabebuia impetiginosa), one of the first blooming signs of spring in Mexico.

These street-corner vendors were selling freshly cut freesias. The sweet, distinctive fragrance of the flowers and their colorful beauty stopped all of us for a few minutes' enjoyment.

One of the surest signs of a Oaxaca spring: kites for sale along our way! Papalotes (kites) take flight when the early spring winds kick up in February and continue into March. Street vendors were hawking them all over the Central Valley.

After a couple of hours walking around the city, looking into shops, and enjoying the sights, we stopped at a sidewalk restaurant on the Zócalo for a cold drink. Pretty soon these marimba players set up shop and serenaded us. The tropical sound of the marimba is always a crowd-pleaser.

It's always fun to see a detail for the first time and then see it in many different guises. I initially noticed this tile with its crowned-pig design near a church, slapped onto the riser of a short staircase; later, I saw similar designs in many places in the city. After asking a lot of people, I found out that it is one symbol of an anarchist political movement in Oaxaca.

After mid-February's hot Oaxaca days, the evenings were warm enough to sip a drink under the moonlight in a beautiful garden. For me, these were the most relaxing moments of our trip.

Next week, visits to several artisans–and what we ate along the way! Join us here.

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

2 de April de 2016
A New Look at an Old Favorite: Restaurante La Tecla in Mexico City

Restaurante La Tecla at Calle Durango 186-A, Colonia Roma Norte, Mexico City.

Several months ago, Mexico Cooks! arrived by pure happenstance at the door of Restaurante La Tecla–not to dine, but to retrieve a package that a friend left for me with Eduardo Holcombe, the charming and professional restaurant manager. After a brief chat, Sr. Holcombe graciously invited me to call him anytime to go back to the restaurant for a meal. "You really should give La Tecla a try. We've been right here since 1995."

As life will, life intervened, Mexico Cooks!' tour business took over, and I neglected Sr. Holcombe's kind invitation to dine. Weeks passed, until one day a gentle reminder email from him appeared in my inbox. "Will you be able to come to La Tecla sometime soon?" Several more emails and a phone call later, we had set a date and time for me to meet him at the restaurant.

The delightful view from my upstairs table at La Tecla. I might as well have been in Paris as in this pleasant part of Mexico City. Barely out of view to the left of the window is lovely Plaza Villa Madrid and the Cibeles fountain, an icon of this section of Colonia Roma.

I was smart enough to ask Sr. Holcombe to order a meal for me, believing that he would surely choose the dishes most representative of the long trajectory of La Tecla. We sat and chatted cheerfully over our drinks until the courtesy-of-the-house 'amuse' came to the table. This bite-size delight is a croqueta de tres chiles (little croquette made of three chiles), served with a bit of guacamole on a long thin plate. The number of croquetas on the plate depends on the number of diners at table!

This is La Tecla's version of one of Mexico Cooks!' favorite appetizers: perejil frito con doble crema (fried parsley with cream cheese). Fried parsley is a deceptive dish, an old standby made new again with the use of a tostada base and a cream cheese accompaniment. The parsley, fried until crisp, is entirely different from parsley fresh out of the refrigerator. Its melt-in-your-mouth texture and sweetly toasty-green flavor wake up one's palate for the meal to come.

Crema de elote (cream of fresh corn soup) with a square of pan de elote (sweet corn bread) and fresh corn kernels. This slightly sweet cream soup, served over an individual square of Mexican-style corn bread, perfectly complemented the fried parsley appetizer. Behind the soup you have a glimpse of the house-baked breads that accompanied the soup. Don't miss the crescent-shaped bread filled with house-made La Tecla mole–it's a standout!

Another of La Tecla's savory soups is this caldo de habas con nopales y chile pasilla (fresh fava bean and prickly pear cactus paddle soup, garnished with flavorful but gently spiced chile pasilla) and beautifully served in a traditional jícara. I'd be hard-put to say which of these two soups was my favorite. Each is very different from the other and each is a delicate treat.

Ensalada de higos y lechuga con nuez caramelizada y queso gorgonzola (lettuce and fig salad with caramelized nuts and gorgonzola cheese). You might think that this is a 'staged' salad, with more of each ingredient than usual. Nope, what you see is what you get. It's a huge portion, perfect for sharing with a companion, and absolutely marvelous. The figs are sweetly ripe, the cheese is a savory foil, the nuts add an extra touch of texture and flavor, and the lettuces crunch wonderfully.

Mexico Cooks!'s main course: pechuga de pollo rellena de flor de calabaza con torta de elote y salsa de poblano (chicken breast stuffed with squash flowers, with corn cake and a sauce of poblano chile). The chicken breast was tender and juicy, the squash flowers and chile poblano combined to give the dish fresh-from-the-milpa flavors. This modern dish is a deep reflection of Mexico's agricultural history.

La Tecla's goal when it opened its doors in 1995 was to present dishes with unique style and flavor in a contemporary Mexican style. After 21 years in the same spot, that successful goal remains the same. The restaurant is committed to caring for every detail, flavor, and quality of ingredients in each of its dishes. The atmosphere at La Tecla is cozy and comfortable, giving the diner the sensation that he or she is a welcome guest at the table of someone who cares deeply about offering a pleasing experience. Some of the dishes are homey favorites presented in a modern fashion; others are up-to-the-minute Mexican haute cuisine that bring freshness, flavor, and beauty to the table.

After my first visit to La Tecla, I started asking Mexico City food-world friends if they had ever eaten there. To a person, each answered, "Of course, La Tecla! With so many new restaurants on the scene, we haven't been there for years." My response: "It's time to go back. Surprise yourself with what's on the menu!"

A huge thank you to the gracious Dr. Carmen Oceja, to Eduardo Holcombe, and to the entire team at La Tecla for this introduction to its wonderful menu.

Whether you are visiting Mexico City or are a long-time resident, you&#
39;ll be excited to find that La Tecla, at 21, has definitely come of age.

Restaurante La Tecla
Durango 186-A
Colonia Roma Norte
Del. Cuauhtémoc
Tel: 5525-4920 Do make a reservation.

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

26 de March de 2016