Category: Restaurants

Super Pollo don Emilio, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán: Enchiladas Placeras, A Banquet on the Street
Over the course of more than 30 years, Mexico Cooks! has visited Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, one of the most beautiful small colonial cities of Mexico, more times than we can count. Every visit is memorable for 16th and 17th Century architecture, fantastic decorative arts, and food. Food! The regional Michoacán kitchen is incomparably rich and delicious, and Pátzcuaro's local specialties are truly magnificent.

Súper Pollo Emilio has been famous for enchiladas placeras for more than 40 years: plaza-style enchiladas, the only item on the menu. The cooks prepare approximately 400 orders of these incredible enchiladas every night. Don Emilio himself (the word don is an honorific title of respect and admiration) himself is supervising meal preparation at the giant brazier.

Great quantities of enormous pechugas (chicken breast halves, each large enough to satisfy two people) and piernas (leg/thigh quarters) are simmered early in the day until they're perfectly done, still juicy and tender. A bit later, preparation continues with vats of tender potatoes and fresh carrots.

The cook fans four tortillas at a time between his fingers and dips them into this enormous pot of house-made salsa para enchiladas (enchilada sauce). The recipe? Mexico Cooks! has wheedled and whined, but Súper Pollo Emilio won't give it up.

The cook spreads the salsa-doused tortillas evenly into the sizzling grease in the industrial-strength comal (griddle), flipping them rapidly from one side to the other. The tortillas need to be cooked till they are hot and soft, but not crisp.

He gives each tortilla a dollop of freshly mashed potato. The tortillas are then folded in half: voilà, enchiladas ready for your platter. Each order contains eight of these enchiladas as well as–well, we'll see in a minute.

While you wait for your supper, you'll most likely be treated, as we were, to a serenata (serenade) sung by strolling local musicians. We were quite taken with the multi-colored strings of this big bass fiddle. If you enjoy the music, be sure to give a small tip to the group.

At don Emilio's with friends (clockwise from left) Bob, Tim, Diane, and John. The platter of enchiladas and chicken on the table is the large size! We couldn't begin to eat it all, but we gave it our best shot.

Our order. The platter, which looks fairly small in the photo, measures approximately 16 inches from side to side. The two forks are ordinary-size table forks. Each platter contains:
- eight potato-filled enchiladas
- freshly sautéed potatoes and carrots, enough for two or more people
- the amount and kind of chicken you prefer–we normally order a breast portion, which was more than enough for the two of us
- a sprinkle of thinly sliced onion
- large shreds of queso Oaxaca (Oaxaca cheese)
- shredded fresh cabbage
- crumbled queso fresco (fresh farmer-style cheese)
- fresh salsa roja (spicy red sauce, different from the sauce on the enchiladas)
- a base of fresh lettuce
- chile perón en escabeche (local pickled yellow chile: HOT), as much as you want
Mexico Cooks! has never seen one person finish an entire platter of enchiladas placeras as prepared by Súper Pollo Emilio. We were hard pressed to do it, but in the interest of pure research we managed to eat most of this order. We accompanied the order with a glass of agua fresca de jamaica and a bottle of LIFT, an apple soda. If you'd like a beer or two with your meal, one of the waiters will go get it for you from another stand.

Súper Pollo Emilio is a night operation; the stand sets up at around 7:00PM every evening except Tuesdays, just around dusk on Pátzcuaro's Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra (the plaza chica). It's the booth closest to the portal (covered walkway) on the market side of the square. The booth is open till the food runs out.

If you're still hungry after your platter of enchiladas is gone, there are buñuelos for dessert. A buñuelo is a huge flour pastry similar to a flour tortilla; it's fried until crisp. You can order a buñuelo broken and softened in a bowl of syrup or still-crispy and dusted with sugar.

Our waiter Jesús and his sweet daughter Paola, who was helping take soft drink orders. Jesús has been a fixture at Súper Pollo Emilio since long before his daughter was born.

When you're visiting Pátzcuaro, don't miss the enchiladas placeras at Súper Pollo Emilio. If nothing else about this marvelous city brings you back again and again, you'll be pulled in by these addictive enchiladas, eaten on a chilly night under the stars, just by the market-side portales.

In early June I took a client to tour Pátzcuaro. When we arrived at Súper Pollo Emilio in the evening, don Emilio's son rushed out to greet me with a huge hug. "Señora, bienvenida y qué gusto verla de nuevo. Te comparto la triste noticia de que mi papá falleció hace ocho días." (Welcome, it's good to see you again. I have sad news: my father passed away a week ago.") We both dissolved into tears for a few moments, thinking about the rich memories that don Emilio gave us all. Súper Pollo Emilio will continue into the next generation, of course; don Emilio's son is at the helm. I dedicate this article to don Emilio's memory. If you're in Pátzcuaro, don't miss eating these fantastic enchiladas.

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22 de July de 2017
Rosalba Morales Bartolo :: Cocinera Tradicional (Traditional Cook) and Proud Daughter of San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán

Rosalba Morales Bartolo, born and raised in San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, Michoacán, grew up cooking alongside her mother in their indigenous Purépecha kitchen. Purépecha women are well known for their regional cuisine and extraordinary cooking abilities. Rosalba, who learned recipes and techniques beginning in her early childhood, has become one of the most exemplary cooks living in Mexico. In the photo, Rosalba oversees a restaurant dining room during a 2015 homage dinner she prepared for Diana Kennedy and many attendees. All photos copyright Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro–Purenchécuaro translates to 'place of visitors'–nestles at the shore of the Lago de Pátzcuaro, in central Michoacán. Eighty per cent of the town's approximately 2,000 inhabitants are indigenous Purépecha and a large number continue to speak their native language and teach it to their children. The town continues its millennia-old social customs, some of which are incorporated now into Roman Catholic religious practices. Mexico Cooks! took the photo from a scenic overlook in San Jerónimo; you can see the town, including the parish church tower, one tiny portion of Lake Pátzcuaro, and the tiers of Michoacán's mountains stretching out beyond the other shore.

Lake Pátzcuaro fishermen, in an old postcard. Today, the butterfly nets typical of the lake region have been largely replaced by other styles of hand-woven nets. Fishing continues to generate income as well as family sustenance for the towns around and close to the lake. Photo courtesy Mexico en Fotos.

Charales, freshly caught and cleaned. Rosalba's father was a fisherman, working on Lake Pátzcuaro. From him, she learned how to fish with a net. She learned how to prepare tiny charales (genus Chirostoma) her grandmother's old-fashioned way. Once the fish are caught, she scales them (yes, these tiny fish, one by one), then eviscerates and washes them. The heads are typically left on the charales. Next, Rosalba spreads them out in the sun to dry on petates (mats made of palm fronds). Once the fish are dried, she uses them for a variety of different dishes: fried for a filling in tacos or gorditas, simmered in a richly flavored broth, crushed into a salsa, or cooked in a guisado (a type of main dish that can also be used as a taco filling).

Petate (mats made of palm fronds), rolled up to be transported on a bicycle. The petate, of pre-Hispanic origin, has multiple uses, including use as bedding, as a drying floor, and as a shroud. Image courtesy Pinterest.

At home in her kitchen, Rosalba shows off a plateful of her famous charales. Restaurants and individuals in cities and towns all over Mexico order kilos of charales to be shipped to them. I confess that I always thought I hated them: strongly fishy, thickly breaded, greasy, and often overly picante (spicy), charales were for years last on my list of things I wanted to eat. One day a few years ago, Rosalba stood in front of me with a lightly fried, delicately golden brown charal held out between her fingers. "You haven't tried mine, Cristina," she insisted. There was no way to say no. What a surprise, it was delicious! Now I crave them–but only Rosalba's.

Your family's food preparation probably begins with a trip to a well-stocked supermarket. Once your ingredients are at home, you simply turn on a modern stove, either electric or gas. Rosalba's food preparation begins with a trip into the woods near her home, where she gathers branches to be used as fuel in her wood stove. In addition, she grows much of her food in h
er large back garden: she tends and harvests tomatoes, chiles, squash, cilantro, and various fruits, among other delicious items that end up on her table.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf9gUGDLBSI&w=350&h=200]
Recently, Rosalba has been featured on several Mexican television programs, including this one called "Cocineros Mexicanos" (Mexican Cooks). Take a few minutes to watch how she cleans the charales, prepares a simple soup and salsa, and delights Nico (the program's host) with her simplicity, directness, honesty, and skill as a cocinera.

Rosy's route to her present renown hasn't been fast and it hasn't been easy. Her life has had numerous ups and downs, its path twisting from her birthplace to a risky life as an undocumented person in the United States and back again. In 1984, she graduated from primary school in San Jerónimo and left the next day to work as a cook in a private home in Guadalajara. Her employer asked her to prepare food that was completely unfamiliar to her–fish cooked in white wine! She remembers, "That day marked my life and was incredibly special, because it confirmed and reconfirmed the love, my deep feeling for cooking, as I experimented with different flavors."

In 2013, Rosalba won honorable mention in Raíces, Platillos que Cuentan Una Historia (Roots, Dishes Which Tell a Story) at the annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Michoacán (Meeting of Michoacán's Traditional Cooks). Her first entry, in 2010, won her a first prize.

Twice Rosalba entered the United States as an undocumented worker, each time laboring in Mexican restaurants and sending money back to her native San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro. Over the course of 25 years, she was able to construct her own home, where she lives today and has made her "Cocina Tradicional Rosy" well known to Mexicans and foreigners who are intent on dining well in Michoacán.

Everybody's favorite chile in much of Michoacán: chile manzano, known in Michoacán as chile perón. Approximately 1.5"-2" in diameter, the perón is only chile in the world with black seeds. It ranks between 30,000 and 50,000 'heat' units on the Scoville scale–about the same heat level as the chile de árbol. "While I was living in the United States, I really missed caldo de trucha (trout soup) with chile perón," Rosalba reminisced.

Rosalba at Morelia en Boca 2015, with chef Aquiles Chávez of La Fishería Restaurant in Houston and Restaurante Sotero in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico. Morelia en Boca, an annual international high-end food and wine festival, featured a conference given by cocinera tradicional Rosalba together with chef Aquiles, demonstrating the preparation of Rosy's tiny charales and chef Aquiles' enormous pejelagarto (freshwater gar), native to the waters in chef Aquiles' home state, Tabasco. Their conference was so knowledgeable, so well-presented, and so funny that the huge and enthusiastic audience gave them a standing, cheering ovation at its end.

Chef Aquiles roasted the pejelagarto over a charcoal fire; this photo shows only the head and a small portion of the giant fish's body. To roast the fish, chef Aquiles inserted a broomstick into the gaping tooth-filled mouth; the broomstick stopped at the fish's tail. With the end of the broomstick that protruded from the mouth, chef Aquiles was able to turn the fish as it roasted.

Rosalba's caldo de pata de pollo. She prepared this rich chicken broth using just chicken feet as the base. She added fresh vegetables just prior to serving.

Rosy's delicious guisado (a casserole or stewed dish) made with nopales (cactus paddles) and calabacitas (a squash similar to zucchini).

One of Rosalba's many talents is the ability to create utterly wonderful food from whatever is seasonably available. Salsa de zarzamora (blackberry sauce) is a molcajete-ground spicy, sweet, and savory concoction of roasted chile perón, roasted ripe tomatoes, and native Michoacán blackberries. A pinch of salt, a moment's grinding in the volcanic stone mortar, and it's ready for the table. I would cheerfully have eaten it with a spoon, it was so heavenly.

Rosalba serves a taco de charales to chef Joaquín Bonilla, director of the Colegio Culinario de Morelia (Morelia's Culinary School). Not only has Rosy prepared and served her extraordinary dishes all over Mexico, but she has traveled to a number of foreign destinations as well. In 2016 alone, she thrilled Chicago, Illinois, for several weeks with her food. Later that year she participated in the Slow Food International Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy. The current year has brought more much-deserved recognition throughout Mexico.

Please contact me if you'd like to visit Rosalba and enjoy a meal in her kitchen. I'd be delighted to take you to meet my dear friend and talk with you about the food and its preparation.

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8 de July de 2017
Kitchen Sayings, Part Two :: Mexico’s Dichos de la Cocina

A beautiful pink and golden Mexican chicken, ready for the soup pot.

Last week's article about Mexico's dichos de la cocina (kitchen sayings) was just the tip of the iceberg. I love them so much that I thought you might like to learn more of them!

Chile relleno con frijoles negros de la olla (stuffed poblano chile served with freshly cooked black beans). Photo courtesy Conde Pétatl.

Mexico's dichos de la cocina (kitchen sayings) number in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Just like sayings and proverbs in any language, Mexican dichos usually have a double meaning: what the words of the saying are, and then how they are interpreted. In English, the phrase "the early bird catches the worm" make sense just as you read it, but it has a secondary import: if you start your endeavor sooner rather than later, you have a much better chance of success. So it is with all of these!

Pig heads at a Mexico City market, ready to buy and take home to make pozole.

Here are some of Mexico Cooks!' personal favorite kitchen sayings:

–Vale más pan con amor, que gallina con dolor. Bread eaten with love is worth more than chicken eaten with pain.
–Se cambia mas fácilmente de religión que de café. It's easier to change your religion than to change your coffee.
–Quien hambre tiene, en pan piensa. The hungry person thinks of bread.

Café con leche (coffee with milk) served with a basket of pan dulce (sweet Mexican breads).

–El que parte y comparte, se queda con la mejor parte. The one who portions and shares, gets the best part.
–Al hablar, como al guisar, su granito de sal. In speaking and cooking, a grain of salt.
–Frutos y amores, los primeros son los mejores. Fruits and loves–the first are the best.

A street vendor's fresh fruit in Paracho, Michoacán. He sells seasonal fruits, including papaya, sandía (watermelon), and mango. Enlarge any photo for better detail–in this photo, you'll see the bees.

–Guajolote que se sale del corral, termina en mole. The turkey that gets out of the yard ends up in mole.
–La vida es como una cebolla, uno la pela llorando. Life is like an onion, you cry while you peel it.
–Mata el pollo y pon la mesa. Kill the chicken and set the table.

Frijol peruano ('Peruvian' beans), ready to cook in a clay pot filled with water.

–Mentir y comer pescado quieren cuidado. Be careful when lying and eating fish.
–Nunca falta un negrito en el arroz. There is always a black speck in the rice.
–Al hambre de siete días, no hay pan duro. If you've been hungry for a week, there is no such thing as hard bread.

Champurrado (chocolate atole) at Restaurant Flor de Lis, Mexico City.

–De golosos y tragones, están llenos los panteones. Cemeteries are filled with gluttons and big eaters.
—En la forma de agarrar el taco, se conoce al que es tragón. They can tell if you're a big eater by the way you hold your taco.
—La mujer y las tortillas, calientes han de ser. Women and tortillas have to be hot.

Taco de carnitas at a Mexico City tianguis (street market).

There are literally hundreds more Mexican kitchen sayings. Sometime soon Mexico Cooks! will be back with more.

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1 de July de 2017
Old Kitchen Pals and Exotic New Friends :: Herbs from a Mexican Garden

Fresh hierbabuena (mint) growing in a Morelia friend's garden.

The cuisines of Mexico–and you know that there are many–are a fantastic amalgam of indigenous corn-based food preparations with an overlay of Spanish ingredients, a strong influence of Moorish flavors, and a lagniappe of French artifice from the mid-19th Century. There is no one cuisine in this big country, although some popular dishes are found in every region. Not every cook prepares enchiladas with the same list of ingredients; tacos, although ubiquitous in Mexico, can be different at every crowded taco stand.

Mexico Cooks! stores garlic in this 3" diameter wire basket, hanging from a cup hook on the side of a cupboard. Circulating air keeps the garlic fresh for quite a while.

Mexican canela (cinnamon), for sale in a Oaxaca market. Mexican cinnamon sticks are usually about two feet long and, unlike the short, hard, nearly flavorless cinnamon sticks sold outside the country, are easily broken into the length piece you need for a recipe. Grind it into horchata (usually a chilled rice drink), use it to flavor a comforting, sweet and hot atole (a thick corn drink), or use it for traditional seasoning in arroz con leche (Mexican rice pudding). Naturally there are many other Mexican recipes that require canela.

Many of the herbs and spices that you use in your own kitchen are also used in the Mexican kitchen. Garlic, cinnamon, oregano, and thyme are in widespread use here. Cumin, cloves, and mint show up frequently. Lemon grass, which we usually think of as an ingredient in Thai or Vietnamese dishes, is commonly grown in many parts of Mexico and is used to make tea.

A good part of the differences in the regional cuisines of Mexico is each region's use of herbs. Some of those herbs are completely unknown to those of us whose familiarity with Mexican food stops with Pepe's Taco Hut on Main Street, USA. Pepe, whose mother's family emigrated to the USA from the Mexican state of Hidalgo, prepares the restaurant's platillos fuertes (main dishes) from recipes passed down from his abuelita (grandmother), who lived for 97 years in the same Hidalgo village. He's adapted those recipes to include the ingredients he can find in the States and to the palates of his customers.

This herb, a large-leafed, strong-flavored variety of oregano called orégano orejón (big-ear oregano), is unusual even in Mexico. Mexico Cooks! once had a pot of it, but it has unfortunately gone to the great beyond. I'd love to have another pot of it.

Oregano is quite common in Mexican cooking. It can be used either fresh or dried. A small pot of oregano in a sunny spot of your kitchen garden will usually be plenty for all your cooking needs. If you live in a place where the growing season is short, harvest oregano periodically through the summer, tie the stems in small bunches, and hang upside down in a dark place to dry. It dries very fast and retains most of its aroma and flavor. Discard the stems and store the crisp leaves in an airtight, lightproof containers.

Because the growing season in many parts of Mexico is almost year-round, I can always cut a fresh sprig of oregano or two to use when making spaghetti sauce, pescado a la veracruzana, (fish prepared in the style of Veracruz) or other tomato-based sauces. I wash the sprigs and either strip off the leaves into the pot or put the entire sprig into the sauce for seasoning.

In Mexico, albahaca (basil) is used primarily in Italian food. However, it's widely grown and used in an unusual way: many small businesses put a pot of growing basil just outside the door to their shops. Why? The creencia (belief) is that a flower pot of albahaca will draw clients and money to the business.

Romero (rosemary). This non-native herb is used very little in Mexico's cuisines. However, some 'modern Mexican' chefs are making cold rosemary infusions to be drunk either before or with a meal.

The Mexican kitchen uses a wide range of other herbs. The Spanish names read like a mysterious litany: albahaca, epazote, estragón, hoja santa, hierbabuena; comino, clavo, and romero. In English, they are (in order) basil, wormseed, tarragon, holy leaf, mint, cumin, cloves, and rosemary.

Epazote grows wild all over Mexico and in parts of the United States. Several months ago I paid ten pesos at a tianguis (street market) for a pot of it to plant in my garden. As I was carrying the pot home, my neighbor, Doña Mago, saw me and exclaimed, "Porque compraste eso?" ("Why did you buy that?").

"Well, you know" I answered, "I like it to cook in my beans, to make quesadillas, for the flavor—"

"No, no, no, amiga!" she cried, and pointed a finger toward the corner. "It grows up through the cracks in the sidewalk just down the street. You should have asked me to show you where to find it. You could have saved your money. When I want some, I just go over there and cut a piece." It's true. When I was out for a walk the next day, I noticed for the first time the epazote plant she had mentioned.

Regardless of my profligate waste of ten pesos, I do like to cook a big sprig of epazote in a pot of beans. The herb is originally from Mexico and Central America. The indigenous language name that was given to epazote is derived from the Nahuatl words 'epti' and 'zotle': the combined word means 'skunk sweat'. As you can imagine, the herb has a very strong and distinctive flavor. According to Mexican kitchen lore, epazote also has anti-flatulent properties, which is why it might be smart to add it to the boiling bean pot.

Pescado en hoja de plátano (fish cooked in banana leaf). Restaurante San Miguelito, Morelia, Michoacán.

Banana leaves are used for wrapping meats to prepare barbacoa (southeastern Mexican barbecue, cooked in a pit) and for wrapping and flavoring tamales from Oaxaca, in southeastern Mexico. Another plant used to give uncommon seasonings to Oaxacan cuisine is hoja de aguacate (avocado leaf). You won't be able to run right out to your nearest Safeway or HEB store to find either of these. If you live in an area where there's a large Asian population, you'll find packages of frozen banana leaves in any well-stocked Asian food market. As for avocado leaves—well, the only avocado leaf that gives anise flavor to a dish is native to Mexico and doesn't grow elsewhere. Unfortunately there's no seasoning substitute for them; the Hass avocado leaf has no flavor.

Hoja santa (holy leaf) is also known as acuyo.

Hoja santa is used extensively in Mexican cooking. It's a large, heart-shaped leaf that comes from a tall, bushy plant—a plant that will take over the garden space that it's planted in and then some, if you let it. It's a native of Mexico and has medicinal properties as well as seasoning uses. The flavor of hoja santa is reminiscent of anise, and it combines exceptionally well with fish or chicken.

As you can see, Mexican home cooking is far more than tacos and enchiladas. The more unusual kitchen herbs of Mexican cuisine add intense flavor without adding that blast of spiciness that we so often mistake for the only seasoning of Mexico.

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17 de June de 2017
Favorite Mexico City Delicacies, Catching Up: Late 2016 – Early 2017

You've heard that old saying, "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first…"? Here we are, beginning at a meal's sweet ending with a tamal de chocolate (chocolate tamal) from Pasillo de Humo in Mexico City. I've eaten others in the city that don't quite make the cut, since most are dry and not very chocolate-y. This one, on the other hand, is more like a deeply rich yet still light-textured chocolate bar. Two thumbs up!

In December 2016, it was my privilege to enjoy comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) at Restaurante Quintonil, invited by my dear friend, Pamela Gordon. The Polanco restaurant, a superb effort by Jorge Vallejo and his team, met and surpassed our hopes and expectations. What a marvelous treat! This charming amuse was only the beginning of a delicious meal.

Across the street from my Mexico City home is a tiny and extremely tempting torta stand. Half of one of these tortas (Mexico's iconic sandwich) is almost enough, but the flavors are such that it's hard to stop without finishing the whole thing. This particular sandwich is a torta cubana (Cuban style); if you look at the bottom corner of the left side, you can see the tell-tale sign of its identity: a torta cubana in this part of Mexico almost always includes a cut-up hot dog!

My wonderful friend Rosalba Morales Bartolo, a skillful and well-known cocinera tradicional from the state of Michoacán, prepares tacos de charales (tiny fish) that changed my thinking about these lake fish. There was a time when I wouldn't eat charales: they were inevitably extremely 'fishy' and very badly prepared. When I met Rosalba, she insisted that I try just one of hers. What a difference! Rosalba pulls them from Lake Pátzcuaro in nets and uses a generations-old family method of preparing them; hers are cleaned and scaled, dusted with flour, fried in fresh oil, and are incredibly delicious. Whether I eat them as a a finger-food snack or as a taco, they're one of my favorite delicacies!

From Restaurante Mia Domenicca in Mexico City's Colonia Roma, this grilled octopus is accompanied by its own ink, caramelized grape tomatoes, puréed cauliflower, and a mirror of fresh green olive oil. The inventive dish is beautifully cooked, beautifully presented, and a wonderful mix of flavors and textures.

From Restaurante La Tradición in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán–and from the hands and heart of my beloved Victoria González, another of Michoacán's extraordinary cocineras tradicionales–a plate of her fabulous aporreadillo, beans, and rice. Aporreadillo is a specialty of Michoacán's Tierra Caliente; doña Vicky hails from Apatzingán, in the heart of those hot lands, and her preparation of the dish is exquisite. Made of dried beef, scrambled egg, tomatoes, and a delicious broth, I like it best served over rice.

Wait, this isn't from Mexico City! But let me introduce you to one of the magnificent scones from Rebecca's Coffee House in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego. Rebecca Zearing and her crew have been turning out hot scones, freshly made marmalades, and excellent coffee (among other things) for the last 25 years. When Mexico Cooks! was in San Diego in February, we were lucky enough to catch Rebecca in the shop with an almost-ready batch of scones in the oven. I'm not sure which was better: the welcoming hug from my old friend Rebecca, or this uniquely delicious scone! When you're in San Diego, don't miss going.

Mexico Cooks! is particularly fond of Mexican caldo de pollo: chicken soup like I hope your Grandma used to make. Based on a rich, long-simmered chicken broth, this soup is full of vegetables (in this batch: carrots, calabacitas [like zucchini], green beans, and potatoes). At table, a big squeeze of limón (Key lime), a dollop of whatever might be your favorite salsa picante, and some coarsely chopped cilantro give this dish a zing that you will crave after the first taste. Add a big spoonful of Mexican red rice to the bowl; that's how we eat it in Mexico for simple, home made comfort.

Mexico is rightfully famous for its aguas frescas (fresh fruit waters), but this is one you might not yet have tried. Fresh cucumber combines with fresh mint and a little sugar to make a wonderfully cool and refreshing summer drink. This particular agua de pepino (cucumber water) slaked our thirst at a culinary event at Mexico City's American School. It was just right for a very warm spring day–and it looks so pretty in its jug.

One last dish: coctel de caracol, pulpo, and camarón (a cocktail of sea snail, octopus, and shrimp) from the incredible Ensenada cook Sabina Bandera, well-known everywhere as La Guerrerense. Served in an immensely flavorful cold broth made from the seafood cooking stock, tomato, chile, and cilantro, this cocktail is perfection pure and simple. I'd met doña Sabina a few years ago, but this past November was the first time I'd been able to taste her heavenly seafood tostadas, salads, and cocktails. If you're ever in Ensenada, Baja California–or if you hear that she is going to be cooking where you are, hurry. Get there. You don't want to miss these briny wonders.

Mexico Cooks! with Sabina Bandera, La Guerrerense.

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27 de May de 2017
Oaxaca Comida and Cena :: Main Meals and Light Suppers From the Primer Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales

Sra. Martina Escobar Montero, gracious owner at Restaurante Catedral, welcomed our press group to Oaxaca with the city's typical hospitality. Pictured here at the bountiful buffet featured each Sunday at the restaurant, Sra. Escobar is flanked by (l) Carlos Contreras and (r) Faustino Hernández, both members of the restaurant team. Catedral, which opened originally nearly 40 years ago, finds itself in an enviable position: one of the best traditional restaurants in Oaxaca. Sra. Escobar has been at the helm for all those years. Mexico Cooks! has eaten there many times, and knows that the food, service, and ambience are impeccable.

The minute our press buses rolled into Oaxaca's Centro Histórico, we drove immediately to Restaurante Catedral, at the corner of Calles García Vigil and Morelos. We were immediately seated for the Sunday buffet in one of the sunny dining rooms. The mole negro (above), known in Mexico as el rey de los moles (the king of moles) was just one of the huge variety of dishes available from the buffet; Sra. Escobar told us that her delicious version is a generations-old family recipe; the layers of flavors in the mole combined to send us all to the moon.

Oaxaca's mole verde is one of my all-time favorite dishes, and the mole verde prepared at Restaurante Catedral is no exception. In my opinion, it was tied for first place with the mole negro. If you'd like to try making mole verde at home, you'll find a recipe in this Mexico Cooks! article from 2016.

After a full afternoon of press activities, our hosts took us all to the wonderful Tlayudas Doña Flavia, near Santa María de Tule, for tlayudas. The tlayuda is a very thin, large-diameter corn tortilla, specialty of Oaxaca. The tlayuda is prepared by spreading it with a smallish amount of asiento (ah-see-EHN-toh, the fat that's left in the bottom of the pot after rendering fresh pork lard; asiento is thick, deep brown, and full of tiny crispy bits of pork); that layer is then smeared with cooked and smoothly ground black beans. On top of that, you get a lot of quesillo (Oaxaca cheese). The tlayuda with its layers is then folded in half and, in this case, toasted over wood fire. If you've chosen a portion of meat to go with your tlayuda, it's also grilled and served on top. The tlayuda is cut in half so it fits on your platter (yes, platter) and served to you with pipicha, a Oaxacan herb that is meant to be torn apart and stuffed into each half. Use table salsa–red or green–as much as you like, and a pinch of salt if needed–to boost the layers of flavor even further. If you're in Oaxaca and hungry at night, Tlayudas Doña Flavia is the place to go.

Each of these tlayudas measures approximately 12" to 14" in diameter. They're ready to be prepared for desayuno (breakfast), comida (Mexico's main meal), cena (supper), or for a filling snack, any time of the day.

The following two days, we of the press crew ate our comida at the Encuentro–which was, after all, why we were in Oaxaca. Please be sure to see some of the highlights of what we ate here. Our second night in Oaxaca, our hosts had arranged a late-evening cena at Mezquite, a 'modern Mexican' restaurant, open just since February 2017, at García Vigil 601-A, Centro Histórico. The restaurant served us a variety of mezcales to taste, then a good selection of their appetizer/taco offerings.

A platter of Mezquite's delicious molotes&#0160
;bathed in mole and topped with cheese, sprigs of beautiful green verdolagas (purslane), and thinly slice radishes. These molotes were made of partially ripe plátano macho (plaintain) that is cooked in its peel and then smashed into a purée. The cook then forms it into a slightly elongated oval, fills it with (in this case) quesillo (Oaxaca cheese), lightly flours each one, and fries each one until it is golden brown. Are they delicious? Yes, indeed they are!

Although we ate and drank on the rooftop at Mezquite for nearly two hours, some of the moments of looking at the glorious illumination of Oaxaca's Templo de Santo Domingo managed to distract me from so much food, delicious though it was.

Sra. Deyanira Aquino, otherwise known as "La Teca" (a woman from the town of Juchitán, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca) and owner of the marvelous restaurant also called La Teca, talked with me for a few minutes after giving a conference on the last day of the Encuentro. At the end of our chat, she said, "You mean you won't be able to come to the restaurant this time?" I told her I'd try, but the chances were slim. Press time was almost entirely accounted for by Encuentro activities. How disappointing for both of us! Shortly after our chat, though, a miraculous few hours opened up and I and a group of women friends from Mexico City were able to make the time to have cena at the restaurant with Sra. Deyanira. Our time with her was the icing on the cake of our days in Oaxaca!

We started as always with the fine mezcal served at La Teca. It's traditionally accompanied by orange slices or chunks which one sprinkles with sal de gusano (the truly delicious sal de Colima [sea salt from the western coastal state of Colima] combined with a finely ground secret mix of hot red chiles plus roasted and ground red maguey cactus worms). What, worms? Yes, and if you ever have a chance to try sal de gusano, please don't look askance. It's terrific and the flavors are all but addictive!

Among a selection of seven or eight different and marvelous dishes that we ate, La Teca's tamales de cambray stand out in my mind. These are a specialty of the Isthmus: filled with ground meats, potatoes, and a selection of fruits, the mixture moistened with mole and wrapped first in rich masa (corn dough) and then in banana leaves to steam, tamales de cambray are a delicacy not to miss. Just writing about them makes my mouth water!

Mexico Cooks! hopes you've enjoyed seeing the food, traditions, and people at the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca. The minute I know the dates for 2018, I'll let you know–and anyone who wants to come along with me, please let me know!

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

20 de May de 2017
Oaxaca Restaurant Recommendations From the Primer Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales! Breakfast First…

Our first breakfast in Oaxaca at the end of April was at Restaurante Las 15 Letras (Abasolo #300, Centro Histórico, Oaxaca). We started with a seasonal fruit plate that included watermelon, papaya, kiwi, and cantaloupe. Mexico Cooks! prefers to eat tropical fruits the typically Mexican way, with a squeeze of limón (key lime), a pinch of salt, and a sprinkle of powdered chile. Try it that way–the sweetness of the fruit combines with the other flavors to bring a new flavor profile to your palate.

A really marvelous tamal–as usual, wrapped in banana leaves in the Oaxacan style–followed the fruit course.

Our main breakfast course at Las 15 Letras was chilaquiles entomatados con cecina a lightly spiced, lightly dried beef served atop a plate of totopos (tortilla chips) sautéed and then bathed in tomato sauce. Crumble white cheese on the chilaquiles and voilà–delicious.

The restaurant is charming, decorated with Oaxacan artesanía (craft work) from all of the state's eight regions. I had eaten here several times before; the meals have always been wonderful.

Breakfast on Day Two took place at Zandunga, a restaurant that I had read a good bit about but that I had never visited. We started the meal with full servings of seasonal fruits (papaya, watermelon, and banana) and freshly squeezed orange juice.

Because Aurora de Toledo, Zandunga's delightful owner, served us so very many dishes, a friend at table and I decided to share this tamal de elote. Not only did the sweet tamal come with a plate of cheese, but of course I dolloped rich crema de mesa (table cream) over it and topped that with fiery salsa de chile de árbol.

As you might begin to notice, there is no such thing as too many tamales. Zandunga's tamal de cambray is filled with mildly spicy picadillo, a kind of meaty, fruity hash. My friend and I split this one, as well. There are limits, no? Or maybe limits don't apply in Oaxaca!

Zandunga's design and decor, both coordinated by señora Toledo and her sons, are modern and quite comfortable, mixing many traditional elements into the room. The restaurant combines its delicious food with a mezcal bar. Here, typical Mexican oilcloth tablecloths combine with a quote from Oaxaca's literary prize-winning author, Manuel Matus. The translation: "Mezcal frees us from an infinite thirst for eternity."

One of our Zandunga cooks for the morning, Daniela Luis Rodríguez. Daniela has been in the kitchen at Zandunga for a bit more than a year and loves her work.

A niche in the Zandunga entryway displays old metates with their metapiles–volcanic stone grinding stones, each with its 'rolling pin'. The round grey item in the middle of the photograph is a molcajete, used for grinding spices, chiles, and other vegetables for sauces.

On my last morning in Oaxaca–for this trip–breakfast was at the Mercado de la Merced's Fonda Florecita. A fonda usually refers to a family-run eating spot, either in a market or free-standing. I've eaten at the wonderful Fonda Florecita many times. The first thing I order is a cup of hot chocolate, traditionally prepared with water.

My breakfast: cecina enchilada (semi-dried meat soaked in spicy chile sauce and cooked) with enfrijoladas (tortillas dipped in bean sauce prepared with native avocado leaves–the avocado leaves give the beans a heavenly anise-like flavor).

Three days, three superb Oaxaca breakfasts! Next week, we'll take a look at our press group's comida de bienvenida (welcoming midday meal), cenas (suppers), and a snack or two. Be sure to come back hungry.

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

13 de May de 2017
OAXACA: First Grand Meeting of Oaxaca’s Traditional Cooks :: Primer Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca

Oaxaca hosted its first-ever Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales on April 24-25, 2017. The festivities included more than 50 traditional home cooks from Oaxaca's eight regions, plus two days of conferences and other activities. Doña Martina Sánchez is the person shown on the poster; she's making a tlayuda, a very large, thin corn tortilla that will subsequently be topped with any number of ingredients.

Indescribably delicious empanandas, prepared by doña Martina Sánchez at the Mexico City press conference prior to the Encuentro.

From 1:00PM until 9:00PM, the cocineras tradicionales (traditional cooks) sold plates and platters and bowls of both well- and little-known dishes to the hordes and throngs of avid attendees. More than 10,000 people showed up over the course of two days. The Encuentro was a tremendous success in every respect.

Señora Celia Florián, traditional cook, restaurant owner (Las 15 Letras, Calle Abasolo 300, Centro Histórico, Oaxaca), and one of the principal organizers of the Primer Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca. My dear friend Celia is a truly great woman, in every sense of the word.

Oaxaca thrilled Mexico Cooks! with an invitation to an April 23-26 hosted press trip to Oaxaca, for the sole purpose of eating, drinking, photographing, and writing about the first Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales in that city. The event took place during the celebration of the city's 485th anniversary of founding, and what a celebration it was! The Encuentro, primarily organized by Señora Celia Florián and hosted by Oaxaca's city government and other organizations, the event included more than 50 traditional cooks who set up their cooking fires on the Plaza de la Danza, just in front of Oaxaca's beautiful Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad.

La Danza de los Rubios of Santiago Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca, pounded the stage with its fiercely colorful, tremendously flashy rendition of this more than 100-year-old dance to open the Encuentro. Normally danced during Carnaval, the bailable (dance) made a wonderful festival of the Encuentro. Photo courtesy Daniel Cui, IGERS Mexico.

Just one of a huge number of whole pigs, roasted over firewood at the Encuentro. This one was almost ready to be served, together with puré de papa (mashed potato), all in the style of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in far-southern Oaxaca.

My plate, filled with tender, juicy, wood-roasted, mouth-watering carne de cerdo (pork meat), Isthmus-style puré de papa (mashed potato), and delicious sauce. The cocinera tradicional istmeña who served the crowd wears the typical clothing of the Tehuana: a woman from the Isthmus: hand embroidered velveteen blouse coupled with a colorful skirt and typically white lacy underskirt, gold filigree jewelry, and a ribbon or flower wreath around the head. Photo courtesy Gaby Vargas.

From left to right: Rufina Mendoza Ruíz, Abigail Mendoza Ruíz, Mexico Cooks!, and Marcelina Mendoza Ruíz. The Mendoza Ruíz sisters are arguably the best-known cocineras tradicionales in Oaxaca–and probably in all of Mexico. Indigenous Zapotecas from Teotitlán del Valle, they operate Tlamanalli, their family restaurant. Abigail Mendoza has literally traveled the world educating people about Mexican and Oaxacan food. It's a privilege to be a friend of the loving Mendoza family.

Tichindas en caldo de frijol: sweet-water mussels hand-gathered from their muddy flats along the coast of Oaxaca and prepared in a slightly spicy, slightly savory, slightly sweet sauce of smoothly-ground beans that knocked my socks off. The mussels themselves, shells and all, were just over an inch long. From now on, when I think para chuparse los dedos (finger-lickin' good), this will be the dish in my mind. I ate this bowl of mussels on the last day of the Encuentro; on the first day, a friend gave me the last tiny bit of a tamal with one of these mussels, still in the shell, wrapped in rich masa (corn dough). The next day, I went looking for those tamales, but they were completely sold out. This bowl of tichinda soup was my consolation prize, but wow, a prize indeed.

Three members of a fascinating and tender round table conference; the one of the topics was "food memories from your childhood". The Tehuanas (women from the Istmus of Tehuantepec) are (left to right): Aurora de Toledo, owner of Restaurante Zandunga; Deyaniro Aquino Pineda, owner of Restaurante La Teca; and Ofelia Toledo Pineda, owner of Restaurante Yu Ne Nisa. All three restaurants are located in the city of Oaxaca.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgQROnZ1SY0&w=560&h=315]
Tejate, one of the iconic drinks of Oaxaca, is made from corn masa, Oaxacan chocolate, canela (Mexican cinnamon), the finely ground large brown seed of the mamey fruit, and flor de cacao (also known as rosita). After those ingredients are beaten by hand (see video), water and ice are added.

Mamey fruit for sale at a market in Oaxaca. The mamey tastes very much like a baked sweet potato. The cut fruits–so beautiful!–have had their seeds removed to be sold separately.

At the top of the photo are long sticks of Mexican cinnamon. In the woven tray is flor de cacao, or rosita. At the bottom are the large brown mamey seeds, ready to be ground to a fine powder for tejate.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFg7WqFmn3U&w=560&h=315]
In this video, the vendor has added cold water and ice to the tejate mixture–it's almost ready to serve. You can see that the surface of the tejate is foamy and thick, while the liquid she mixes from on high is thin, as it is supposed to be. Tejate is a delicious and extremely refreshing cold chocolate drink. When you're in Oaxaca, be sure to try it!

The finished product, tejate ready to be served. We thoroughly enjoyed a jícara of this one at Oaxaca's Mercado Benito Juárez.

For two full days and evenings, thousands of hungry people lined up at this event for Oaxacan regional food specialties that are rarely seen outside the comunidades (small indigenous towns) where they are made. Oaxaca residents, Mexicans from states near and far, and foreign tourists devoured anything and everything that the cocineras tradicionales prepared; everything I tasted was a thrill. The Encuentro was enlivened by constant live music and other entertainment, the city was in full fiesta mode for its anniversary, and everyone was excited and happy to be present.

As soon as the dates for the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca 2018 are announced, I'll post the news right here. You really, really need to book your trip as soon as possible! The event is a do-not-miss. In addition, I'll be offering a guided tour of the festivities!

Eager comensales (diners) pass along one of three sides of the Plaza de la Danza, where the cocineras tradicionales served food. No admission fee at the Encuentro means that one can purchase more of the very inexpensive dishes that the traditional cooks prepare and serve. Photo courtesy Marichuy Garduño.

Part of the invited Mexico City press group took a culinary tour of Oaxaca's Mercado Benito Juárez. I'd been there many times before, and nevertheless learned a tremendous amount from our guide. We're sitting for our portrait at Aguas Frescas Casilda, an institution in Oaxaca.

Over the course of many years, Mexico Cooks! has been invited to countless culinary festivals in Mexico. The Primer Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca will always stand out in my mind as extraordinary: as the first in Oaxaca and as being entirely exemplary of Oaxaca's marvelous hospitality. Profound thanks to Celia Florián, to the Oaxaca city government, to the Oaxaca tourism department, to CANIRAC Oaxaca (Cámara Nacional de la Industria de Restaurantes y Alimentos Condimentados–Mexico's national restaurant association), to the cocineras tradicionales, and to all who made this marvelous event possible. Trabajar en equipo siempre es mejor (it's always better to work as a team) has never been truer. Three cheers and huge gratitude to all.

Next week, Mexico Cooks! will feature some of the restaurants where we were spoiled rotten by Oaxaca's CANIRAC. The truth is, we ate more in three days than is really conscionable. Between the traditional food at the Encuentro and our meals at Oaxaca's legendary restaurants, we all but waddled our way through the city.

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

6 de May de 2017
La Nueva Viga, Mexico City :: Second Largest Fish Market in the World

Mexico Cooks!' mother, circa 1980. She tried her best to give me good advice, but I was often loathe to listen.

In November 1969, she suggested that the March on Washington, against the war in Vietnam, might be overcrowded. I went anyway, and it was packed–but the experience was entirely worth being smooshed like a sardine in a can.

Over the course of several years, she warned me about wanting to do battle with the New Year's Eve crowds in New York City's Times Square. Although the idea of squeezing in still piques my interest, I haven't been there yet.

My mother didn't know about Mexico City's wholesale fish market, La Nueva Viga, but had she known, she would have insisted that Viernes Santo (Good Friday) was not the day to go. This photo, taken on Good Friday 2017, barely does justice to the incredibly jammed aisles at La Nueva Viga, Latin America's largest fish market and the second largest fish market in the world. Only the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan, surpasses the volume of fish and seafood sold annually at La Nueva Viga. The Tsukiji market averages 660,000 tons of fish and seafood in yearly sales; La Nueva Viga racks up around 550,000 tons. I think 549,000 tons must sell just on Good Friday, the last day of abstinence from meat during Lent.

The main entrance at La Nueva Viga is on Prolongación Eje 6 Sur, Colonia San José Aculco, Iztapalapa. The facility extends over nearly 23 acres (9.2 hectares), with 202 wholesale warehouses, 55 retail warehouses and 165 sellers in total. On any given ordinary day, the market receives between 20,000 to 25,000 customers, mostly restaurant owners in Mexico City and the areas immediately around it. On Good Friday, the clientele is mainly retail: home cooks looking for bargain fish and seafood for the Friday before Easter. Both fish and good prices abound and it seems like half the city is there to buy–what a challenge!

On Good Friday 2017, friends Rondi Frankel, Magdalena Mosig, and I made the trek to La Viga. Rondi drove and Magdalena acted as our guide; she at one time owned a restaurant and always bought fish and seafood at the market. It was a great treat–not to mention an enormous help!–to have her show us the ropes. From my street, south of Mexico City's Centro Histórico, the trip to La Viga took about 45 minutes. Because it was Good Friday, there was no traffic at all until we were close to the market–and then–yikes! Bumper to bumper, several lanes of near-parking lot, hundreds of street vendors of everything from cold bottled water to kites, partial sleeves (wrist to above the elbow) to wear while driving so your arm doesn't get sunburned, thin, crisp, sweet fried morelianas (a kind of cookie), chewing gum, single cigarettes, bags of ready-to-eat mango with chile, limón, and salt, soft drinks, straw hats–anything at all that a person might want.

The massive parking lots for La Viga were completely filled, so we drove a couple of blocks past the fish market and found a private lot. Once we were finally at the market, we sloshed through salty puddles, thousands of fish scales flying through the air, and the clang of huge knives hitting long fish-cleaning tables. Then up a few stairs and we were smack in the middle of the jostling, shoving crowds, pushing between rows of vendor stalls.

Extra-jumbo shrimp! That's Rondi's normal-size adult hand, for comparison. Each shrimp measured approximately 8" long with the head on. The price? $280 pesos (approximately $15 USD) per kilo–or $8.00 USD per pound. If I had to guess, I'd say these huge shrimp are about 5 or 6 to the pound.

Beautiful, fresh, and enormous huachinango (red snapper) were everywhere. These measured about two feet long–great big ones!–and looked fresh as the morning. According to the sign, they were caught in the waters off the state of Veracruz, on the southeastern Gulf coast of Mexico. The darker fish to the left are mojarra (sea bream), delicious but very bony.

Another vendor displayed his mojarra with the gill flap raised. It's easy to see by the condition of the gill that the fish is wonderfully fresh. This is exactly how a gill
should look when you're buying: firm and pink.

Many vendors had huachinango for sale; these were offered at a booth farther down the aisle from the first photo of huachinango. You can tell by the condition of the eye that this lovely fish was freshly caught. The eye is shiny, not sunken into the head, and full of light. My only hesitation in buying a fish was the length of time that I would be carrying it around in a bag prior to getting it home and into the refrigerator: too long in the very warm Mexico City springtime weather.

The smallest of these almeja gallo (rooster clams, at the rear) carried a sign reading, "For soup". Their price was $20 pesos (about $1.40 USD) per kilo. As the sizes increased, the prices increased. The most expensive were the ones on the right, at 35 pesos the kilo.

Look at this incredible tower of live blue crabs, tied up with reeds! Mexico Cooks! has always seen blue crabs in retail markets, always quite moribund, so it was wonderful to discover that they actually arrive at La Viga still living.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-bSv1XADag&w=420&h=315]
Proof positive! Watch these babies wiggle! The first thing that crossed my mind to prepare was a big platter of Chinese blue crabs in black bean sauce.

Fresh red octopus, piled high. $245 pesos the kilo.

Spanish mackerel.

These are langostinos–where you live, they may be known as crayfish (although they are a completely different species).

Oysters: piled-up huge costales (in this case, open-weave polypropylene sacks) of oysters. Oysters are sold by the costal, or shucked in their liquid in plastic bags as long as your arm, and also in smaller containers for home consumption. Some oysters come from the southeastern Mexican states of Tabasco and Campeche; others come from the Pacific Coast states of Baja California and Sinaloa. Mexico is the fourth-largest producer of oysters in Latin America. These particular oysters were for sale at $150 pesos the sack. "Isn't that about $8.00 USD?" Why yes, it is.

Oysters, ready to eat. Served with fresh Mexican-grown limones (Key limes), a dozen cost 100 pesos at this sit-down restaurant in La Viga.

What would Mexican seafood be without a bottled table salsa to season it–along with limón and maybe a wee pinch of salt? What we see here is a small selection of the hundreds of salsas from which to choose.

And truly, it wouldn't be right to serve seafood without a splash of home-made salsa bruja: witches' sauce! I keep mine on my counter and top it off with more vinegar as needed. The salsa is a mixture of vinegar with onion, garlic, carrot strips, bay leaf, rosemary, chile (I use serrano), oregano, a couple of cloves, salt, and pepper. Stuff all the vegetables and herbs into an empty wine bottle, fill with vinegar, cork, and allow to sit for several days. Voilà, salsa bruja!

The next time I go to La Nueva Viga, I will abide by what my mother surely would have advised: go on a day when half of Mexico City isn't there! You come, too–we'll have a marvelous time!

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29 de April de 2017
At Home and Away in the Kitchen and on the Street: Mexico Cooks!

Like many of you, we started our year with the Women's March–in our case, at the United States Embassy in Mexico City. This delightful young man exemplified everyone's spirit of joy at spending an afternoon in solidarity with so many marchers from so many countries: Mexicans, US citizens, Canadians, Europeans from several nations, Asians, and more, all eagerly participated.

At the beginning of February, the Pacific Coast lured me away from home. Twenty years had passed since I had been to Baja California's wine country in the Valle de Guadalupe. Just the scenery was worth the trip–but oh!, the vineyards and the food were so exciting. My mind keeps drifting back there; I should have returned so much sooner.

Yes, it's a taco–but what a taco! Have you ever tasted something that almost made your knees buckle, it was so delicious? That's this taco: shreds of birria de res (long-stewed beef) topped with tender, fried tripitas (beef intestines), all tucked into a folded, chile-drenched and toasted two-tortilla package and topped with cilantro and minced onions. Add either salsa roja (red) or salsa verde (green) and get ready for an OMG moment. You can get these at Tacos Fitos, at one side of Mercado Hidalgo, Tijuana. A big shout-out to Fernando Gaxiola of Baja Wine + Food for everything you did!

To finish our two-day February tour in Valle de Guadalupe, we ate our farewell dinner at the impeccable TrasLomita Comedor Campestre. The beautiful setting outdoors under the trees, the wonderful owners and staff, and the really marvelous meal made our evening perfect. Above, a salad of grilled asparagus, seasonal greens, a variety of seeds, and ricotta cheese–all dressed with epazote oil. Two of us split the salad, but either of us could have eaten the whole thing!

One of the several desserts on the menu when Mexico Cooks! was at TrasLomita: arroz con leche (Mexican rice pudding) with tweaks by Sheyla Alvarado, the incredibly talented young chef. The base is traditional arroz con leche, which is served with conserve of fresh guavas, honey, nuts, and house-made ice cream. Photo courtesy Fernando Gaxiola of Baja Wine + Food.

In late February, Mexico Cooks! took a tour group to Morelia and neighboring towns in Michoacán. One of our stops was in Santa Fe de la Laguna, at the taller (workshop) of grand master potter Nicolás Fabián Fermín and his wife, María del Rosario Lucas, a potter in her own right and one of Michoacán's well-known cocineras tradicionales (traditional home cooks). This large bunch of mazorcas (ears of native corns) was drying, hanging from the ceiling beams.

In Morelia for several days after the tour, Mexico Cooks! took an old friend to Origo, Panadería de Origen (Bakery of Origin), at Boulevard García de León 936. This delightful new bakery is owned by Pietro Lembo Islas and his wife, Marie Lembo. The Lembos's idea is to work to take food back to its simpler, local origins, in addition to hiring and training local people to work in the restaurant and bakery. When I was there in early March, Pietro told me that they currently employed 30 people from Morelia.

Panadería Origo's beautiful flour mill, where they grind flour for bread and pastries. Pietro Lembo demonstrated the mill and the various processes that achieve the texture needed for baking the delicious products that come from Origo's ovens.

Delicious (if I do say so myself) and simple home-made albóndigas (meat balls) in caldo (broth). If you want to make these traditional Mexican meatballs in your own kitchen, the recipe is in the link.

Mexico City springtime color! The purple is jacaranda, the deep fuchsia is bougainvillea. Late March, April, and May are the hottest months in central Mexico; temperatures can be has high as 90º Fahrenheit during the afternoons. Even though the temperature is very warm at midday, morning, evening, and nighttime are cool (in the low 50s)–and the humidity is extremely low. By mid-to-late May, the rainy season starts and the weather cools off even during the afternoons. It rarely if ever rains for more than an hour or so on any day!

In early April, a visiting friend was eager to see the exhibition "Pinta la Revolución" (Paint the Revolution) at Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Palace). The exhibition, which will be on display until May 7, 2017, includes paintings, sculptures, and photographs dating from the early 1900s to about the 1950s; the works come from museums both inside and outside Mexico as well as from private collections. Artists range from Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and other top Mexican painters to Tina Modotti and Paul Strand, foreigner photographers who were profoundly affected by their lives in Mexico. The photo above is a detail of a Diego Rivera painting called Naturaleza Muerta con Botella de Anís (Still Life with a Bottle of Anise Liqueur), painted in 1918.

Our glorious springtime blue sky. You're looking at the back of the late 16th century Metropolitan Cathedral, in the heart of Mexico City's Centro Histórico (historic center).

My out-of-town friend and I also went to see Callegrafía, a photography exhibit at the Museo del Archivo de la Fotografía (Photography Files Archive Museum) at Calle República de Guatemala 34, just opposite the entrance to the Templo Mayor. The photographer, Keith Dannemiller, photographs almost exclusively in black and white; his specialty is Mexico City's downtown street scene and his gift for seeing what most of us miss is uncanny. Above, a Mexico City diner. Even angels need sustenance. The exhibit will close in mid-June; here's a preview: Callegrafía.

Tlayuda (a Oaxaca-style thin, crisp corn tortilla, folded over asiento (a smear of lard), refried black beans, chorizo, and cheese. April 2017, at Restaurante Pasillo de Humo, Av. Nuevo León 107 (upstairs). The restaurant is far and away the best Oaxacan food in Mexico City.

On the spring menu at Restaurante Pehua (the name means 'beginnings' in Náhuatl), an appetizer called 'Monocromatismo' (monochromatic). The dish is composed of finely minced green chayote and green apple, a light agua (in this case, a cool broth) of tomatillos, and swiss chard. Neither my supper comp
anion nor I wanted a full meal; this and another shared dish or two were just right for us. Monocromatismo was both stimulating and refreshing, truly delicious. Chef and co-owner Lezli Ramos Fabiel, formerly of Restaurante Quintonil, surely has a winner on her hands at Pehua.

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22 de April de 2017