Category: Restaurants

De Vaga en Veracruz, Tierra Jarocha :: Vacation Wanderings in Veracruz, Part V

The truly wonderful Hotel Tajín. Our reservation was for one night, but the town of Papantla and the hotel were so delightful that we stretched it out to three nights! We enjoyed huge quiet junior suites, comfortable beds, great showers, excellent above-the-call-of-duty service, and prices lower than we'd thought possible. A big plus: Hotel Tajín is just a block from Papantla's main square and only a few steps farther from its two markets. If you need a place to stay in Papantla, don't hesitate to book here. All photos copyright Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

We're untiring food snoops, always seeking out any option for any kind of new taste, modern or millennial. In most regions of Mexico, traditional cooking is a great opening for getting acquainted with ancient cultures, ancient customs, and ancient rituals. Veracruz–especially the Papantla area and its surroundings–is one of those very special parts of the country, where ancient cuisine continues to be the heart and soul of the region.

Inveterate investigators of food in general, we were on a hopeful hunt for traditional and regional Totonaco food. The tamales pintos that we tasted with the cocineras de humo near El Tajín had served only to whet our appetites for more of these Veracruz specialties. When we awakened after a restful night's sleep in our quiet hotel, our first stop would be Mercado Hidalgo, just a couple of blocks from Hotel Tajín. We were jonesing for a breakfast of zacahuil, another kind of Veracruz tamal. Many of the food booths at the Mercado Hidalgo specialize in regional zacahuil. We found a table at Sacahuil Rosita, on the upstairs level of the market.

This zacahuil totonaco is prepared with masa martejada (dough made of coarsely broken corn), chile guajillo (a mild-flavored red chile), other mild spices, and pork meat. Cooked in a pot rather than wrapped in corn husks or banana leaves and fire-baked, it's ladled out into your bowl and served with a choice of salsas. We were glad to have tried the zacahuil, but we weren't thrilled with its somewhat mushy texture or its bland flavors. We hoped for better food luck later in the day.

Meet don Rosendo, dressed in the traje típico totonaco (typical Totonaco men's clothing). He was quite pleased to be asked for his photo. Courtesy Pamela Gordon.

While we were out and about talking to vanilla producers, the name of one remarkable Papantla restaurant kept popping up in conversation: Restaurante Nakú Papanteco, offering traditional Papantla and Totonaco dishes. Lucky us: when we got back to the hotel, it was time for cena (supper), we were hungry, and a taxi stand was just outside our door. TAXI!

Restaurante Nakú Papanteco, built under a palapa, welcomed us warmly, brought us the menu and something to drink, and we settled in to our task: to order food that would wow us with its traditional sabores totonacos (Totonaco flavors).

The Takxwayajun (caldo de pollo estilo totonaco con chile de mole, yerbabuena y cebollina) [traditional Totonaco chicken soup with chile de mole, mint, and chives], was hot and cozy on a cool December evening. The traditional Totonaco herbs, chile, and tender chicken combined for deep satisfaction.

An appetizer plate: the tabla de tripas de leche en chile seco. Tripas de leche are the milk glands in a cow's udder, as opposed to tripas, which are intestines. Menudo, which many people know as tripe, is the different linings of any of a bovine's four stomachs.

We were so interested in trying this chicken, bathed in very subtly-flavored vanilla sauce. Last week, Mexico Cooks! explained the profound link between Papantla and vanilla, but the flavor is infrequently used in savory dishes.

Who are the Totonaco? The indigenous community known as Tutunacú (in the Totonaco language, it means three hearts) dates from approximately 300 to 1200 CE (Common Era). By the time the Spanish arrived on the shores of what is now Veracruz, the Mexica (known much l
ater as the Azteca) had conquered and overtaken the region encompassing El Tajín, Papantla, and Cempoala. The Spanish completed the takeover; diseases formerly unknown to the indigenous people decimated their population.

Varinia Juárez and Lorenzo Collado, the delightful and highly committed owners of Nakú, who so generously shared their time, food, friendship, and some Totonaco history. Photo courtesy Restaurante Nakú.

"In the Totonaco culture, we love and profoundly respect nature, Mother Earth, and the four elements that govern the universe and the consequences of our lives. To live without these considerations is to live without a reason for being. There is no moment in the Totonaco life in which we don't consider this world view; nearly every action carries a ritual with it. Illnesses arise and are healed considering the wind, fire, water, and earth. In the fields, sowing follows the state of the moon and all farming cycles. In building, we ask the god of the forest for permission to cut down trees, and at the same time we beg forgiveness from Mother Earth for damaging her. With regard to food, women are offered up to the gods, so that in their homes, no one goes hungry.

"Nakú Restaurante Papanteco was born from a vision of rescuing, preserving, and promoting the Totonaco culture by means of its gastronomy, offering traditional Papanteco and Totonaco recipes, serving farm products endemic to the region and prepared by indigenous hands. The concept is enhanced by buying and selling artisan handwork and other works of art guaranteed to be made by Totonaco hands. Nakú is redolent of firewood, vanilla, history, ancestral culture–but above all, Nakú is filled with the fragrance of love. We love what we do, because our food brings together all of this yearning to be with family, to remember those long moments marked by the hand mill, the comal (clay griddle) the metate (rectangular 3-legged grinding stone), and in this environment, the grandmother, the daughters, and the granddaughters are the leading characters. Today, the fragrance of firewood at Nakú evokes in us the uses and customs of a people that, day by day, are being lost."

Squash seeds toasting over a wood fire, on a clay comal (griddle).

Mayora Celsa Santes Cimbrón, grinding pepitas (toasted squash seeds) using a molcajete and mano. A mayora, always an extremely knowledgeable and skilled woman, is the head of a kitchen.

Mayora Celsa continued to grind the pepitas until they released enough of their oils to gather into a dough; she then formed them into little orejas (ear-shaped dumplings) that she served for breakfast in a regional vegetable soup, the morning after we'd had cena at Nakú.

Mayora Celsa, forming the orejas. You can see the first few in the bowl at the bottom of the photo. Photo courtesy Pamela Gordon.

Totonaco tortillas untadas con pipián. Freshly made tortillas, spread with freshly rendered pork lard and sprinkled with toasted, molcajete-ground squash seeds. I wish you have an opportunity to taste these–a simple, elegant and completely heavenly thing, the stuff of dreams.

Freshly harvested hongos de chaca (local wild mushrooms); mayora Celsa prepared them in empanadas for our breakfast.

Nakú Restaurante Papanteco opened on February 14, 2013. If you are ever in Papantla, don't miss it. If you're even near Pap
antla, take the time, make a detour, eat the marvelous food on its menu. Tell them Mexico Cooks! sent you. On second thought, take me with you.

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8 de April de 2017
De Vaga en Veracruz, Tierra Jarocha :: Vacation Wanderings in Veracruz, Part IV

Did you know that vanilla–that leathery, wrinkled, don't-know-what-to-do-with-it, dark-brown bean in the back of your pantry, that bottle of extract in your cupboard, the ice cream that drips from your cone–is the pod of an orchid that originally grew only in Mexico? Since long prior to Spain's arrival in what we know today as Mexico, Vanilla planifolia (flat-leafed vanilla) grew in the cool forests of the low easternmost mountains near the Gulf of Mexico–specifically, in and around Papantla, Veracruz. Today, the area produces about 80% of the vanilla grown in Mexico. The orchids were not in bloom while we were there; hence this photo, courtesy Wikipedia.com.

In our search for Veracruz vanilla, we stopped here: Vainilla Gaya, one of the original Italian vanilla growers in Mexico. I had made an appointment for a tour, but we arrived late after erroneously going to another of Gaya's locations. Nevertheless, we were well-attended and able to see–albeit quickly–the areas of 'beneficio' (betterment), where green vanilla pods, newly harvested from vines in commercial production rooms, are cured and fermented both in ovens and in the open air.

One of the growing rooms at Vainilla Gaya. Vanilla is a vine that requires the support of jungle trees, of individual limbs, or, in this case, of metal and bamboo supports. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

Trays of vanilla pods curing at Gaya. Of the three vanilla businesses that we visited, Gaya appears to be the most like a modern laboratory. If you're looking for jungle-grown vanilla, it's not at Gaya.

You might well ask, "How did vanilla get its name?" It was originally called xánat, by the Totonacos; the name in Náhuatl is tlilxóchitl. The Spanish name is vainilla, the diminutive of vaina, a pod. So vainilla–vanilla, in English–is a little pod. Even though most of us call it a vanilla bean, it is in no way related to phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean–pinto, black, navy, kidney, or any other you can think of, none of them and none of their relatives are related to vanilla. If you're asking for a vanilla bean in Spanish, the commonly used phrase is "ejote de vainilla".

The store at Gaya. The company produces and sells the pods, natural vanilla extract, vanilla saborizante (flavoring), vanilla powder, sugar flavored with vanilla, coffee flavored with vanilla, vanilla liqueur, and some other products. We bought a few pods and some vanilla extract.

Our tour guide at Gaya gave us a good deal of information about what the vanilla vine requires to prosper, flower, and produce pods. Among the various details were:

–a warm, humid, tropical climate with temperatures ranging from 71 - 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
–more than 80% humidity.
–annual rainfall of 48 to 118 inches.
–location at zero to 600 meters above sea level.
–light at 80%.
–well-drained soil with pH between 6 and 7.
–plenty of organic material as its main nutrients.

March, April, and May are the time when new vanilla plants are cut and planted from older vines. From planting to first flowering, vanilla normally requires three years of growth. From pollination to harvest, each pod requires nine months to the day.

After visiting the installations at Gaya, we moved on to meet José Luis Hernández Decuir, of Eco-Park Xanath near Papantla. Sr. Hernández is a learned and really fascinating tour guide in all aspects of the traditional cultivation of vanilla. In the photo, he's sitting in the doorway to the temazcal (ancestral and spiritual sweat lodge) on his property.

One of the most interesting facts about vanilla is its pollination. The early Spanish were fascinated with the plant, its flowers and pods, and its flavor. Of course they wanted to cultivate vanilla in Europe; Hernán Cortés introduced the plants there in the 1520s. The orchid plants grew and flowered, but produced no vanilla pods.

Sr. Hernández explains pollination of the vanilla orchid by the melipona bee. The clay pots in the photo are two tiers of bee hives balanced on bamboo shelves; the dark round spot on the top and bottom hives closest to Sr. Hernández are the tiny entryways to the hives.

Vanilla vines grow naturally in the jungles of Veracruz. Here, you can see two vanilla pods among the larger flat leaves of a tree-supported vine.

The Spaniards and other Europeans didn't know that in New Spain, the flower had a symbiotic relationship with the tiny, native melipona (stingless) bee. Only that bee is small enough to creep into the tiny hermaphroditic sex organs of the vanilla orchid and carry the pollen from the male to the female part of the flower; the melipona bee did not exist in Europe, although growers made efforts to import it. Outside Mexico, for three centuries no one could pollinate the orchid blooms and vanilla pods grew only in their country of origin.

The melipona stingless bee is tiny, measuring between approximately .07" and .5" in length. Photo courtesy Backyardnature.net.

In 1841, a simple and efficient artificial hand-pollination method was developed on Réunion Island in the French Indian Ocean, by a 13-year-old slave named Edmond Albius. His method is still used today. Using a beveled sliver of bamboo, an agricultural worker lifts the membrane separating the anther and the stigma inside the orchid flower; then, using his thumb, he transfers the pollen from the anther to the stigma. The flower will then produce a fruit. The vanilla flower lasts about one day, sometimes less, so growers have to inspect their plantations every day for open flowers, an extremely labor-intensive task. Today, vanilla is almost entirely pollinated by hand, still using this nearly 200-year-old method.

Our last specifically vanilla-related stop in Papantla was at the offices of the Consejo Estatal de Productores de Vainilla Veracruzana (the Veracruz State Council of Vanilla Producers), where Council President don Crispín Pérez García toured us through the state vanilla cooperative. Above, don Crispín talks with us about some of vanilla's characteristics. The various people who educated us about many of the historic data about vanilla agreed on those points, but on other points there was tremendous disagreement. Legend and myth mixed with statistics and theories to the point that it was difficult to sort out truth from fiction. Everyone agreed, though, that vanilla is a marvelous pod with many, many uses. Don Crispín answered one of my questions by saying, "Ay señora, la vainilla es…pues, es…supernatural!" ("Vanilla is…is…supernatural!")

Every year, more than 1,500 Veracruz vanilla producers from the municipalities of Misantla, San Rafael, Tecolutla, Gutiérrez Zamora, Coatzintla, Coyutla, Zozocolco de Hidalgo, Tihuatlan and Papantla bring 450 to 500 tons (that's between 90,000 and 100,000 pounds per year) of freshly harvested, green vanilla pods to the Council offices to be cured by traditional heat and sun methods. All of the vanilla that will be produced each year in Veracruz is sold prior to its harvest, as buyers are willing to pay almost any price to ensure that they get what they need. Don Crispín told us, "Now that we have the Denominación de Origen (similar to the Appellation d'Origine, the certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products), it's very easy for us to export vanilla. Mexican vanilla is the best, and not just because I say so. Those who buy from us say that it is, and with the price we sell it for, no one is complaining." In years gone by, green vanilla sold for between 30 and 40 pesos the kilo (2.2 pounds). The wholesale price for 2017 started at 200 pesos per kilo and is currently at 350 pesos per kilo.

Vanilla curing in the light and air of the afternoon. Consejo Estatal de Productores de Vainilla, Papantla, Veracruz. Photo courtesy Pamela Gordon.

Another tiny section of the many, many racks of curing vanilla at the Vanilla Council offices. Vanilla isn't dried; it's cured until it is fragrant and leathery. If you find some pods to buy, make certain that they aren't brittle. They should be quite flexible. Don Crispín told us that a ready-for-use vanilla pod can be used over and over again; he suggested using a whole pod to stir our morning coffee–and then he said, "Wipe it off and put it away to use again. It won't go bad and it will last a long time." He also mentioned putting a vanilla pod into a canister of sugar; left in the sugar for just a short time, the vanilla will flavor the entire contents of the canister–and again, it's reusable.

A close-up of some of the vanilla pods at the Council offices. These are nearly finished with the curing process. You can see that the pods are shiny and wrinkled, exactly the state you want for your own home use. Click on any photo for a larger view.

Next week, we'll do what we've been wanting to do for the last month of articles: EAT! Come with Mexico Cooks! to try traditional, regional Totonaco dishes. We had our socks knocked off, and so will you.

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1 de April de 2017
De Vaga en Veracruz, Tierra Jarocha :: Vacation Wanderings in Veracruz, Part II

After leaving Puerto de Veracruz, our next stop was the town of Coatepec, high in the coffee-producing mountains of central Veracruz state. We stayed just outside the town, at Eco-Hotel La Jicarita (hee-cah-REE-tah). The property at La Jicarita is beautiful, planted with native trees and flowers (and shade-grown coffee). You'll find hiking paths, a swimming pool, and delicious Veracruz breakfasts (not included in the room cost). Although the rooms and bathrooms are fairly primitive, the beds are quite comfortable. The rooms are inexpensive and the management works hard to please guests. The photo, courtesy Hotels.com, is the outside of the room where I actually stayed.

Coatepec is just about equidistant between Xalapa (the Veracruz state capital) and Xico (a charming provincial town known for its mole), and was an ideal place to stay in order to visit all three towns.

Before the trip, several friends who are from the Xalapa area recommended with great enthusiasm the breakfasts at the Hotel Mesón de Alférez, in Xalapa. The restaurant is charming and service was attentive, but what we ate left something to be desired. There was nothing exactly wrong with it, but we had hoped, given the high recommendations, that the food would be more regional and of higher quality.

After we finished breakfast in Xalapa, we went to the Xalapa Museo de Antropología primarily to see the display of colossal Olmec heads. The heads, carved of basalt and estimated to date between 1400 and 900 B.C.E., range in height from just under five feet to just over eleven feet and weigh between six and fifty tons apiece. Seventeen–or possibly 18–heads are known to exist. The color variation in the photo is due to the lighting of the displays.

The original Olmec head comes from Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, a town near the Papaloapan River (upper left in the map). The area in the map is the original Olmec territory. According to archeological notes seen in the Xalapa museum, the American archeologist M. W. Stirling and his team found the head face up at the bottom of a canyon in 1938. Some scholars dispute this version of the find, and some say that a Mexican traveler accidentally discovered the first known Olmec head in 1861, but that the find was kept secret until the mid-1940s.

Each of the heads is a portrait of a distinctly different Olmec man; each wears a helmet. Theories about who these men were (warriors, rulers, ballplayers–one now-debunked theorist even believed that they might be Africans) have never been proven. The Olmecs brought the basalt used to sculpt the heads as many as 150 kilometers to the site where carving took place, dragging the raw stone with ropes and rudimentary wheels.

Excavation of a monumental Olmec head. The photo appears to be original, but the website where Mexico Cooks! found it is full of astonishing and probably inaccurate and misleading information. Read at your own risk. Photo courtesy MessagetoEagle.com.

Writing the basic description of the Olmec heads is merely reporting data. The personal impact of standing in front of these giants is extraordinarily moving and difficult to put into words. Once we were on the street, we saw that the faces carved in stone and many present-day faces of the area men and women are the same as these colossals: strong, individual personalities in ancient stone and in modern-day flesh and bone.

While in Coatepec, we had the great pleasure of a visit to Panadería El Resobado, one of the few remaining commercial bakeries in Mexico using wood-fired ovens. The bakery opened for business more than a century ago; its ovens have not been allowed to cool in more than 25 years.

We were completely entranced with El Resobado. The bakery is faithful to its traditions: to make delicious bread with the flour, sugar, and yeast, the basic ingredients. People say that the best breads at El Resobado are the conchas (shells)–and that if you should be stricken with hunger in the middle of the night, don't worry: the bakery is open 24 hours a day!

One of the several ovens at El Resobado, ready for baking the next load of bread. To judge the oven temperature, the skilled bakers stick their hands and forearms in–the bakers' experience is so great that they don't need oven thermometers.

Bread dough, kneaded, shaped, cut, and ready to be separated for baking.

Shelves at El Resobado, loaded with hot, fresh-from-the-oven conchas. We bought a huge bag of many kinds of bread; we were struck by the unusual smokiness of what we tried.

Some of the many cats that live at El Rebosado. We were a group of crazy cat ladies and truly appreciated their gentle feline presence. The bakery is a mouse-free zone! Photo courtesy Pamela Gordon.

Also in Coatepec, we visited Museo El Cafetal to see the process of growing, harvesting, roasting, and grinding Veracruz's high altitude, shade-grown coffee. Museum admission charge is 40 pesos and worth every centavo. Photo courtesy Museo El Cafetal.

Coffee beans against a tree trunk at the Museo El Cafetal. Photo by Mexico Cooks!.

Coatepec also boasts an orchid museum–a private collection in a private home. This photo shows less than a quarter of the collection.

After two nights in Coatepec, we moved on to Casitas, on the Gulf of Mexico. We'd had some drizzle in Coatepec, but we arrived in Casitas to discover that the coast had suffered a tremendous storm the night before. Although we'd been looking forward to sunshine, the beach, and the humid heat that Veracruz is famous for, instead we had grey skies, churned-up Gulf water, and weather unsuitable for swimming.

We settled for driving to nearby San Rafael, which has the reputation of being a French-influenced town due to French settlement there in the 1840s. We asked every adult on the streets about how to find a hint of Frenchness, but nobody knew.

Here's what we did find: a carnicería (butcher shop) with a really wonderful sign. Click on the photo to enlarge it for a better view; the sign painter had a field day with accents! Two charming young women behind the butcher counter let us taste their version of carnitas. Verdict: not bad for Veracruz, but definitely not carnitas from the state of Michoacán, where carnitas originated.

Next week, come with Mexico Cooks! to Papantla, Veracruz, where we investigated regional food and vanilla. We'd planned to stay one night and ended by staying three! We had a marvelous time and truly wanted to stay even longer.

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18 de March de 2017
De Vaga en Veracruz, Tierra Jarocha :: Vacation Wanderings in Veracruz, Part I

On the malecón (pier) in the port of Veracruz. Mexican president Venustiano Carranza used this lighthouse building, built at the turn of the 20th century, as the Palacio Nacional (federal government offices) from 1914 to 1915. During that short period, the city of Veracruz was the nation's capital. Today, the Faro Venustiano Carranza (lighthouse of Venustiano Carranza) serves as part of Mexico's naval headquarters. All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

Directly across the street from the lovely old building in the photo above, the hyper-modern port of Veracruz receives and sends enormous quantities of goods to and from everywhere in the world.

Vacation! And not just vacation, but vacation in Veracruz, one of Mexico's most beautiful states–I was so excited at the prospect of re-visiting the Puerto de Veracruz (port city), where I had not been since about 1994. Two friends and I carefully chose two weeks for travel that would not be too hot, not be too humid: the temperatures along the Veracruz coast can range as high as more than 100ºF, with humidity equally high. Even during the second and third weeks of December, the high temperatures were in the mid-80s and the humidity was in that same range or higher. Did we get used to it? Not so much, but we definitely enjoyed a most fascinating trip together. From the Puerto to the mountain towns of Xalapa, Coatepec, and Xico, and from the Córdoba flanks of the Pico de Orizaba (Mexico's highest mountain, an inactive volcano) to Papantla, the land of vanilla's origin, we traveled and learned. And ate. And ate some more. Come along!

One of our group seriously craved and insisted on breakfast at La Parroquia. In researching the trip, I'd read that this old-time restaurant was muy de caída (had gone a long way down hill), but oh my goodness, our first breakfast in Veracruz was fantastic.

La Parroquia is most noted for its ritual lechero–freshly brewed Veracruz-grown coffee, poured from on high to the level you prefer in your glass, the glass then filled (again, from on high) with steaming hot milk. This first morning, the coffee wowed all three of us.

Hot milk from the heights! Photo courtesy Mexico Destinos.

The place was jam-packed for breakfast; there was no sign of a down-hill slide in quality or quantity the late-morning we were at La Parroquia. Best of all, our server, don Galindo, was a real treasure-trove of knowledge about the area. He directed us to–well, we'll go there next week on Mexico Cooks!.

Among many other regional specialties on the breakfast menu, the house special tortilla parroquia intrigued us. It's a tortilla española (Spanish-style omelet with egg and potato), cooked and then submerged in rich turkey broth. It's topped with shredded turkey, grilled onion, and chile serrano toreado (lightly fried in oil until the skin blisters and the chile is soft). Doesn't it sound odd? We were entranced by the flavor combination! Just writing about it makes me want another one right now!

Gorda negra with cheese, from La Parroquia.

We also requested other Parroquia specialties: gordas negras (corn tortilla dough combined with finely ground cooked black beans), patted out or pressed to form tortillas a bit thicker than usual. These are then fried in oil until they inflate and are served with salsa and cheese or cream. We also ordered gordas dulces (corn dough mixed with a little flour, a pinch of baking soda, and quite a bit of brown sugar), patted out and fried the same as the gordas negras, and served with thick grated mild white cheese and salsa. We also asked for what turned out to be a perfect plate of huevos motuleños, specialty of the Yucatán peninsula. We relished everything, shared among us, along with freshly squeezed super-sweet orange juice (the state of Veracruz produces nearly 40% of the oranges grown in Mexico) plus a second glass of lechero filled us to the brim.

That night, we enjoyed watching danzón in the Puerto de Veracruz zócalo. The group of both dancers and spectators was small but happy. Danzón is the official dance of Cuba and also very, very popular in Mexico.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyfVkRTSsZw&w=560&h=315]
Just to show you the dance form, here's a danzón video from Guadalajara, where one can danzón (or take inexpensive danzón classes) every Sunday evening in the plaza just in front of the Templo Expiatorio, at the corner of Calle López Cotilla and Av. Enrique Díaz de León.

In our meanderings close to the port city, we happened upon an island restaurant in tiny Mandinga-Alvarado. "Happened upon" is, of course, a euphemism for "asked everybody in the general area where to find it". Once we found the town of Mandinga, population approximately 1500, we stopped at the town taxi stand and asked a cabbie for directions to the restaurant, Isla Paraíso. He had no idea! Another fellow approached the car and said he'd guide us; he went running down the street ahead of our car and led us right to this bridge. We walked across into a world apart: Isla Paraíso opened nearly 40 years ago and is still going strong.

Mandinga is famous world-wide for its oysters. The oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is harvested throughout the entire Eastern coast of North America, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, including huge daily harvests from the Mandinga lagoon. Of course we had to eat a plateful.

The specialty of the house at Restaurante Isla Paraíso, oysters cooked in various ways and, in this case, served as an appetizer.

The restaurant owner, Patricia Waters Mújica, is British. Her Mexican husband, who passed away just a few years ago, met her in England and moved her and their family to Puebla, then to Australia, then to the Puerto de Veracruz–and ultimately to Mandinga, after many fascinating life adventures. They opened the restaurant, and Patsy has lived in tiny Mandinga all that time, raising their two daughters and running the restaurant. It was a delight to spend the afternoon and evening hearing her story.

Our last morning in the Puerto de Veracruz, we once again had breakfast at La Parroquia. This time, the restaurant unfortunately lived up to its current way-down-hill reputation. Almost everything we ordered, including this repeat plate of huevos motuleños, was far, far below the quality of what we ate the first morning. Even the coffee was disappointing. We shared the opinion that had this been our initial breakfast, we wouldn't have returned.

Next week, come back for much more de vaca y de vaga (vacation and wandering around) in central Veracruz.

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11 de March de 2017
Looking Back Through 2016, Part Two :: Una Mirada Hacia Atras 2016, Segunda Parte

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whatever your faith, may the New Year bless you with abundance in all things, especially joy and peace. From our house to yours, we wish you a blessed 2017.

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

14 de January de 2017
Looking Back Through 2016 :: Una Mirada Hacia Atras 2016

One of Mexico Cooks!’ first restaurant breakfasts of the New Year was at Lalo, where I ate these delicious huevos a la florentina (eggs with spinach) served on an English muffin and quite simply fabulous. This was the first of 2016’s wonderful breakfasts at Lalo, but there were many to follow.

In February, 2016, Mexico Cooks! was inundated with numerous wonderful tours going all over Mexico, from home base in Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, to Oaxaca, to part of the State of Jalisco, and ending in March in rural Michoacán. This year, let me know where in Mexico YOU’D like to go–starting now, we’ve added parts of eastern Veracruz to your choices! This particular market stall, with its papel maché piggy mariachi, is a favorite joyous site along on of my tour routes.

I thought this little guy would be scared in the market’s meat aisles–instead, he fell in love with a pig head! Two seconds after I snapped this picture, he leaned over and kissed its snout.

Tours with Mexico Cooks! aren’t entirely about pig heads. In March 2016, we were with a group in San Miguel de Allende, visiting this extraordinary and very upscale shopping venue for home and garden decor. The goods are pricey, but if your wallet can stand it, you’ll be carrying beautiful items back to your home.

During a week-long tour to Oaxaca, our group breakfasted on typical pan de yema (egg yolk bread) and bubbly Oaxacan hot chocolate, made with water in the traditional way.

While in Oaxaca, we learned to make Oaxaca-style mole verde (green mole), among other dishes, in the most generous, love-filled, best cooking class ever. This simple dish, rich with flavor, is now a staple on Mexico Cooks!’ table at home. If you’d like to take this class, let me know and we’ll schedule a tour in Oaxaca.

Another fantastic meal in Oaxaca included this gorgeous salsa, made in part with freshly roasted tomate verde (tomatillo, in English) and roasted tiny heirloom tomatoes. It looks good and it is way better than good. The photo makes me want to be there now.

Later in the spring, Mexico Cooks! toured with another group in rural Michoacán. One of the highlights of the trip was a comida (Mexico’s main meal of the day) at the home of cocinera tradicional (traditional cook) Rosalba Morales. Rosy holds a bowl of charales (tiny lake fish) that she prepares according to her grandmother’s recipe.

In May, Mexico Cooks! took the opportunity to take two groups of visitors to an exhibition titled Indumentaria y moda en México, 1940 – 2015, sponsored by Fomento Cultural Banamex, A.C. This stunning show of hand-made indigenous dress plus Mexican high fashion, accented by paintings of the period, was mounted by the extraordinary curator Ana Elena Mallet and her team. The pictured Tzotzil clothing from the mid-1930s, from a private collection, was hand spun, hand woven and hand sewn in Magdalenas, Chiapas.

This is a giant tamal called a zacahuil. I was fortunate to eat a portion of it in June 2016. The zacahuil, which in this case measured almost 1.5 meters in length, is made in many parts of Mexico. This one, from the part of Mexico called la huasteca potosina, (where the ancient Huastec indigenous people lived in the western part of the state of San Luis Potosí), is wrapped in papatla leaves and contains very coarsely-ground (quebrada) masa de maíz nixtamalizado (nixtamal-ized corn dough) that is patted out along the leaf. The women lay an entire butchered pig on the masa; the pig is then filled with whole raw chickens which are slathered with salsa, and the belly opening of the pig is closed. The meat, wrapped in the leaves, is roasted directly on the red-hot coals in a clay oven. The roasting takes approximately 10 to 14 hours. Normally the zacahuil shines as the star of any wedding, baptism, quinceañera (a girl’s 15th birthday party), or any important feast. Believe me, it was jaw-dropping to see and jaw-dropping to eat.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idjen8bz6so&w=560&h=315]
This marvelous Spanish-language video shows the complete process of making the zacahuil from the Huasteca potosina. Even if you don’t understand Spanish, you’ll LOVE seeing the preparation of the giant tamal. If you are ever invited to eat a portion of a zachuil, be sure to say yes, thank you!

Next week, Mexico Cooks! invites you to come with us as we travel through the second half of 2016.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here to see new information: Tour

7 de January de 2017
Pequeño Seúl in Mexico City :: Where to Eat in Mexico City’s Koreatown? Myeong Dong Guan!

For several years, I've asked friends about Korean food in Mexico City. We are fortunate to have a good-sized Korean community here. This is a cuisine I don't know but have wanted to experience and learn. Little did I know that my downstairs neighbor works in Zona Rosa (the pink zone), right in the middle of Pequeño Seúl (Little Seoul)–our very own Korea town–and often eats at the restaurant in the photo: Myeong Dong Guan. On a street I'd never heard of, in a neighborhood relatively unfamiliar to me, there was my goal: hiding in plain sight.

Page 1 of the four-page Myeong Dong Guan menu. Prices subject to change without notice. Click on any photo to enlarge it for a better view.

Page 2.

Page 3.

Page 4.

Since eating at Myeong Dong Guan, I've begun to educate myself a bit about Korean dishes. Here's what we ate–and for those who haven't tried Korean food, a short explanation of each.

Banchan might seem to be side dishes, but they are an integral and essential part of one's meal. Clockwise from the top left are soft, bland potato straws, gamja-salad (creamy potato salad), mildly spiced noodles, and spicy kimchi (fermented vegetable salad). Each of these was delicious in its own way, and each complemented the main courses we ordered.

Dolsot bibimbap, just about everyone's favorite dish from Korea. "Dolsot" is the stone pot in which the rice and vegetables are prepared.

Bibimbap simply means rice mixed with vegetables, meat, and chile. A freshly cooked runny-yolked egg usually goes on top. When your bibimbap is served, poke the egg yolk with a chopstick and mix everything together until your bowl looks like that in the photo. I'd eaten bibimbap before and after the first couple of bites, I thought it was just ho-hum. The bibimbap at Myeong Dong Guan is 180 degrees from ho-hum! I loved every delicious mouthful and so will you. I have read that for the best flavor, bimbimbap rice should be slightly crisp, toasty, and lightly stuck to the bottom of the pot. This rice was just like that.

Kimchi jjigae–in this case, stewed kimchi with firm tofu, scallions, broth, and big chunks of braised beef. The dish is spicy-hot, with a mixture of textures and flavors that dance in your mouth. Sra. Gloria told me that this is one of the most-loved jjigae (stews) in Korean cuisine. My companions, who are vegetarians, ordered it without knowing about the beef content–so guess who got to eat most of the kimchi jjigae! Next time–and there will be a next time!–I'll ask the kitchen to use more chile to make the stew even spicier.

Korean ramyeon, instant noodles very similar to Japanese ramen. At Myeong Dong Guan, the noodles are instant, but the broth and the rest of the ingredients for this soup are prepared in the restaurant. Ramyeon is traditionally prepared in a thin tin pot so that it heats up fast and stays hot. The kitchen poaches an egg in the broth, then the diner pierces it at table to mix with the noodles. Add chile sauce from the bowl on the table if you like a spicier broth.

The morning before going to Myeong Dong Guan, a friend knowledgeable about Korean food suggested that my neighbors and I try this dish: sundubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu stew with seafood). This was another big winner: the silkiness of the tofu, the spiciness of the broth, and the delicacy of the chunks of fish were all marvelous.

Sra. Gloria, the cook (and wife of the owner) at Myeong Dong Guan. She's a charming woman and as far as I can tell, a tremendously talented cook. When we had all but finished our comida (main meal of Mexico's day), she came to chat with us. The menu in her hands is not the menu from which we chose our meal! The menu she's holding includes the grilled meat categories that are offered at grill tables on the first floor of the restaurant. She took us upstairs to show us the rest of the restaurant. Even my neighbor, who has eaten countless times at Myeong Dong Guan, wasn't aware of this second menu. Another time when I dine with omnivores, we'll try the traditional grilled offerings for which Korea is famous. Raise your hand, whoever's ready for comida at Myeong Dong Guan!

Restaurante Coreano Myeong Dong Guan
Calle Oxford 28
Col. Juárez
Del. Cuauhtémoc
Ciudad de México
5511-5997

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12 de November de 2016
Mexico Cooks! Tours–Fabulous Food, Marvelous Markets, and So Much More
So many of you are nearly fanatical–and rightfully so–about Mexico's artisan-made goods! The technique shown above, that incorporates hand-ground lacquers into beautiful designs and objects of all types, is famous in Michoacán. The very best examples are for sale for only two weeks a year. Let's go see!

In the "ABOUT" section listed on the front page of Mexico Cooks! (up there in the right-hand corner, where it's easy to miss), I make mention of the highly personalized tours I frequently give for small groups. Many of my readers have asked about planning a Mexico Cooks! tour for themselves and their friends. Today, I've succumbed to your requests for more information about making Mexico Cooks! tour happen.

Pulling into a Mexico City market with a truckload of newly cut cempazúchitl, pata de león, and nube–all flowers used during celebrations for Mexico's Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Come tour with Mexico Cooks! and we might be able to pull into the market right behind a truck like this.

Mexico Cooks! has been all over this enormous country since first living in Mexico more than 35 years ago. Over all of that time, we've found a lot of hidden wonders, places rarely mentioned in guidebooks. For example, a huge popsicle marks the entrance to this way-off-the-beaten-path town. Why? We can take you there to find out!

Food–street food, market food, and restaurant food–makes up the majority of Mexico Cooks!' tours. These are tacos al pastor (shepherd-style tacos), loved by everyone and allegedly invented in Mexico City. Just tell the pastorero (the guy who prepares these), "Cuatro con todo, por favor," (four with everything, please), and get ready for a mix of flavors that no other meal provides. Chances are you'll want more than four!

This pale and luminous tile moon mural graces a fountain that is a must-see in Mexico City–we have to go!

Minimum group size is two people, and I can accommodate up to seven tour participants for a day trip, a few-days' trip, or a longer adventure.

All of the tours that I offer include the following:
- my undivided attention for the duration of your tour
- personalized tours to meet your special interests
- extensive pre-planning to maximize your experience on tour
- my 100% bilingual (English/Spanish) guide service
- Cost of all meals taken as a group including Cristina's meal(s)
Not included in the cost of your tour:
- air transportation costs to/from and within Mexico
- ground transportation to/from airports and/or bus stations
- hotel accommodations and tips to hotel personnel
- alcoholic beverages with meals or on your own
- all food and all beverages consumed at non-tour meals or during "on your own" time
- gratuity to Cristina (if you choose) at close of tour
Huitlacoche, freshly cut and ready to purchase at one of Mexico's most fascinating markets. During the course of several years, clients and market vendors alike have discovered that when Mexico Cooks! takes a group to the market, the magic starts. Expect plenty of tasting opportunities, tips on how to choose the best Mexican ingredients in the town where you live, and Cristina's tips on preparing Mexican dishes.

Do you see six varieties of fresh chiles? Prepare to learn the differences among them at any of Mexico's markets.

The myriad wonders of Mexico are too many to count, and too many to see in an entire lifetime. If you've been here and want more, the "more" that most tourists never see, Mexico Cooks! will meet your needs. Traveling with Mexico Cooks!, you have the opportunity to tailor-make the tour you want. Nothing is pre-packaged. Mexico Cooks! bases its tours on your ideas, your wants, your needs.

Dear readers, what you see is ONE taco de carnitas, prepared by the vendor for my clients as a taste of his wares. A taste. Just seeing the photo makes my mouth water. When can we go?

Does an upscale restaurant meal better suit your style? We know the best places in Mexico City, the state of Michoacán, and the state of Oaxaca. You will be rolling your eyes with delight.

If you have particular interests (artisan villages and handwork, churches and cathedrals, city and country markets [with or without a cooking class!], traditional Mexican food and ingredients in all their regional varieties, restaurants small and large, special fiestas and religious celebrations, and small regional museums, to list a few), Mexico Cooks! can show you more than you've dreamed of finding.

During this market tour in Michoacán, my clients learned about and, for the first time, tasted a fruit they'd never seen before: the mamey. They loved it, and if this will be your first time trying it, so will you.

Many of Mexico Cooks!' tours are focused on Mexico's high-altitude Central Highlands, where the weather is nearly always temperate: balmy and sunny during the day and refreshingly cool during the evening hours. The best times for touring are mid-June through February. March through late May are often uncomfortably warm and dry for daytime touring. Come discover the cool joy of central Mexico in the summer.

During a Mexico City tour, we ran into Frida Kahlo–well, actually Frida Kallejera (uniquely-spelled street Frida)! If we're lucky on your tour, we'll see her again.

There's a market in Oaxaca that will just plain knock your socks off: colors, fragrances, sounds, the works, all are love at first sight. It's my favorite market in all of Mexico, and I suspect you'll feel the same way.

Just wait! With one turn of your head, you'll see the most unexpected things! There's no place like Mexico–and no tour like a Mexico Cooks! tour. Email me at patalarga@gmail.com to start making your plans.

Buen viaje–Mexico Cooks! te espera! (Have a great trip–Mexico Cooks! is waiting for you!)
15 de October de 2016
Chiles en Nogada for September 16: Mexico’s Independence Day: The Mexican Flag on Your Plate
Chiles en nogada (stuffed chiles poblanos in walnut sauce), Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. Photo by Mexico Cooks!.

Mexico celebrates its independence the entire month of September with parades, parties, and traditional food and drink in restaurants and at home. The traditional festive dish during the weeks before and after the Independence Day holiday is chiles en nogada, a magnificent tribute to the seasonal availability of granadas (pomegranates) and nuez de castilla (freshly harvested walnuts). From late August till early October, fresh pomegranates and walnuts make chiles en nogada possible. Spicy chiles poblano, stuffed with picadillo and topped with richly creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds, flaunt the brilliant green, white and red of the Mexican flag.

This festive dish is traditionally served on September 15 or 16 in honor of Mexico's Independence Day, though it is popular anytime in the late summer and fall. During August and September in the highlands of Mexico, particularly in Mexico City and Puebla on the streets bordering the markets, village women can be seen sitting on blankets painstakingly peeling off the brown skin from each individual walnut. It is important to use the freshest walnuts possible, as they produce such a creamy, rich sauce that it is worth the effort demanded to peel them. Yes, the recipe is time-consuming…but you and your guests will jump up and shout "VIVA!" when they've licked the platters clean.

Ingredients

For the Meat
- 2 pounds beef brisket or other stew meat or 1 pound beef and 1 pound pork butt
- 1 small white onion, quartered
- 2 large cloves garlic
- about 1 Tbsp sea salt
For the Picadillo
- 4 Tbsp safflower or canola oil
- 1/3 cup chopped white onion
- 3 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 3 heaping Tbsp raisins
- 1 or 2 chiles serrano, finely minced
- 4 Tbsp chopped walnuts
- 4 Tbsp slivered blanched almonds
- 2 Tbsp chopped biznaga (candied cactus)
- 1 fresh pear, peeled and chopped
- 1 apple, peeled and chopped
- 4 ripe peaches, peeled and diced
- 3 large, ripe tomatoes, roasted, peeled and chopped
- sea salt to taste
For the Chiles
- 6 fresh chiles poblanos, roasted, peeled, and seeded, leaving the stem intact
For the Nogada (Walnut Sauce)
- 1 cup fresh walnuts
- 6 ounces queso doble crema or cream cheese (not fat free) at room temperature
- 1-1/2 cups crema mexicana or 1-1/4 cups sour cream thinned with milk
- about 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)
For the Garnish
- 1 Tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1/2 cup fresh pomegranate seeds
Method

Cut the meat into large chunks, removing any excess fat. Place the meat into a large Dutch oven with the onion, garlic, and salt. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Skim off any foam that collects on the surface. Lower the heat and allow the water to simmer about 45 minutes, until the meat is just tender. Take the pot off the stove and let the meat cool in the broth. Remove the pieces of meat and finely shred them.

Warm the oil in a large, heavy skillet and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until they turn a pale gold. Stir in the shredded meat and cook for five minutes. Add the cinnamon, pepper, and cloves, then, stir in the raisins, the two tablespoons of chopped walnuts. Add the chopped pear, apple, biznaga, and mix well. Add the tomatoes and salt to taste, and continue cooking over medium-high heat until most of the moisture has evaporated. Stir often so that the mixture doesn't stick. Let cool, cover, and set aside. The picadillo may be made a day or two in advance.

Make a slit down the side of each chile, just long enough to remove the seeds and veins. Keep the stem end intact. Drain the chiles, cut side down, on paper towels until completely dry. Cover and set aside. The chiles may be prepared a day in advance.

At least three hours in advance, put the walnuts in a small pan of boiling water. Remove from the heat and let them sit for five minutes. Drain the nuts and, when cool, rub off as much of the dark skin as possible. Chop into small pieces. Place the nuts, cream cheese, crema, and salt in a blender and purée thoroughly. Stir in the optional sugar, cinnamon, and sherry until thoroughly combined. Chill for several hours.
Candied biznaga cactus, ready to be diced for the filling.

Preheat the oven to 250ºF. When ready to serve, reheat the meat filling and stuff the chiles until they are plump and just barely closed. Put the filled chiles, covered, to warm slightly in the oven. After they are thoroughly heated, place the chiles (cut side down) on a serving platter or on individual plates, cover with the chilled walnut sauce, and sprinkle with the cilantro (or parsley) and pomegranate seeds.

Chile en nogada as served at Restaurante Azul Histórico, Mexico City.

This dish may also be served at room temperature, or it may be served chilled. It is rarely if ever served hot.

Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours.
3 de September de 2016
Michoacán’s Own Soup: The Origins of Sopa Tarasca, Hidden in the Mist of Time

North-central Michoacán is frequently and with much reason called paradise on earth. Autumn's wildflowers, ripening corn, green mountains, and a partly cloudy sky combine to give you the sense that 'paradise on earth' just might be exactly where you are: in this case, near Senguio, Michoacán.

The state of Michoacán is well-known both for its lovely scenery and its even more lovely–and delicious–regional cooking. The indigenous Purépecha kitchen, in particular, is Mexico Cooks!' favorite. If you look back at the Mexico Cooks! archives (found listed on the right-hand side of this page), you'll see many, many articles about this marvelous cuisine, which dates back to pre-Hispanic days.

Misnamed "Tarascos" by unknowing 16th century Spanish invaders, the Purépecha have, just within the last 25 to 30 years, largely reclaimed their actual tribal name. Nonetheless, one of the most popular dishes in the Michoacán culinary repertoire bears the name sopa tarasca (Tarascan Soup).

Not precisely traditional, but certainly not modern, this pot of beans is cooking over a wood fire built in a deep tire rim in an open patio in Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán.

You might well ask, "Sopa tarasca must be a pre-Hispanic dish, right?" Or maybe, "Sopa tarasca was first made for her family by a long-ago Purépecha housewife, no?" Over the course of years, most people who have eaten and fallen in love with this remarkably delicious and filling soup have asked me these same questions. Much to their surprise, the answer is always, "No…but let me tell you the story I know."

Once upon a time, before Mexico Cooks! was born, the small plaza in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán looked like the above photo. Part of the two-story building with the arches, just to the right of the photo's center, became the home of the Hostería de don Felipe, which had a dining room to serve its guests. Later, the Hostería was renamed Gran Hotel. In the 1960's, Rafael García Correa was a young cook in the Gran Hotel kitchen.

When I met Rafael García Correa in 1982, he was the head of the kitchen at the Gran Hotel. The photo above, taken in 2004 by Luis Jiménez of the New York Times during an interview where I was present, is don Rafa (don is an honorific title given to a revered older man) showing us a bowl of sopa tarasca in the foreground, along with a plate of corundas (a kind of Michoacán tamal).

Don Rafa told me that in the mid-1960s, he himself, along with the hotel's then-owner and the owner's American wife, invented a dish that, once offered to the public, became an almost instant classic: sopa tarasca was born, not created in an indigenous kitchen but for a tourist hotel's dining room. Today, we'd call that cocina de autor: the cook's invention.

Sopa tarasca as served at Lu Cocina Michoacana in Morelia. Read more about the restaurant here.

Sopa tarasca as served at the Hotel de la Soledad, Morelia. Some sopa tarasca is based on beans; some, like don Rafa's, is not.

Was don Rafa the inventor? He swore his story is true. He also gave me a hand-written recipe which he promised is the original. Don Rafa passed away a few years ago, and any possible secrets of sopa tarasca's origins were buried with him.

Don Rafa reported that sopa tarasca was served for the first time as part of a Pátzcuaro wedding banquet, on May 8, 1965. Years later, he opened his own restaurant near Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra (the plaza chica) in Pátzcuaro. If you go to the restaurant, you can still enjoy a bowl of his own sopa tarasca.

Today, sopa tarasca is a Michoacán icon, prepared in almost every restaurant around Lake Pátzcuaro as well as in further-flung establishments. It's one of those you-have-to-try-it local dishes that people who know you've been to Michoacán will ask you about: did you taste it at so-and-so's restaurant? How about at this other place, did you like it there?

Sopa tarasca as served at Pátzcuaro's Mansión Iturbe, a hotel and restaurant.
Click on any picture to see a larger view.

Fortunately, sopa tarasca is a relatively easy soup to prepare at home. The ingredients should be readily available, if not in your nearby supermarket then at a Mexican market not far from you. The recipe I offer you here is don Rafa's, but there are others (notably an excellent one from Diana Kennedy) that are available either in books or on the Internet.

Sopa tarasca as served by chef Alma Cervantes Cota at Restaurante Azul y Oro Ingeniería, UNAM, Mexico City.

Sopa Tarasca Don Rafael García

Ingredients
500 grams tomato purée
2 tortillas
5 corn tortillas, cut into very thin strips and fried until crisp
100 grams chile pasillo, cut into thin strips and fried until just crisp. Be very careful not to burn the chiles, they fry quickly and burn in the blink of an eye.
250 grams Mexican table cream
100 grams Oaxaca cheese, shredded
50 grams all-purpose flour
100 grams unsalted butter
1 clove garlic
1 small white onion
10 cups rich chicken stock
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh marjoram or oregano
2 bay leaves

Preparation
In a heavy pot, prepare a roux with the butter and flour, stirring constantly so that no lumps form. Allow to cook until the roux is a deep caramel color.

In a blender, liquify the two tortillas listed, some of the fried chiles, and the onion. Add this mixture to the roux and continue stirring until it is well incorporated. Next, add the tomato purée, the chicken broth, the herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Add half a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce and taste; if you think more is needed, add bit by bit. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Put equal amounts of the soup into each of 10 bowls. Garnish with fried tortilla strips, fried chile ancho or negro, some Oaxaca cheese, and some cream. You can add some cubed avocado and a few sprigs of cilantro. Take your cues from the photos I've included in this article.

Sopa tarasca, garnished in this serving with fried shredded tortillas and fried shredded chile pasilla.

Serves 10.

Provecho!

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27 de August de 2016