Category: Travel

Azul Histórico: Chiles en Nogada, the King of the Mexican Table
Azul Histórico, a star of the constellation of three restaurants that make up Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Grupo Azul, has become one of Mexico Cooks!' favorite destinations for comida (Mexico's midday main meal). Nestled under a canopy of trees in the patio of a 17th century Mexican palace, the restaurant is among the most beautiful–and most delicious–in Mexico's capital city.

We recently insisted that a dear friend visiting from Texas accompany us to experience the once-a-year delight of chiles en nogada (poblano chiles, stuffed with a special picadillo (meat, fruit, and vegetable hash) and then bathed with walnut sauce, as presented and served at Azul Histórico. In last week's article, we shared a terrific recipe for chiles en nogada with you. Today, we'll see the chiles, considered to be the king of Mexico's cuisine, honored at table in the restaurant.

Our friend, who serves sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup) in his own restaurant, wanted to try the version served at Azul Histórico.

Four of us shared a small order of mildly spicy, delicious salpicón de venado (venison, cooked, seasoned with onion, pepper, vinegar, oil, and salt, and shredded).

Once we finished our appetizers, two of our extremely competent wait staff laid the table with a long black linen tablecloth, plus colorful appliquéd individual placemats and extra candles, all in honor of the king of chiles. The plates, also in special use for chiles en nogada, are talavera pottery from Puebla, where chiles en nogada originated.

The serving platter of chiles. Each color ribbon indicates the type stuffing in each chile. The choices are:
- red ribbons from Atlixco, Puebla. The filling is composed of a complex picadillo with quite a lot of fruit.
- green ribbons from Coxcatlán, Puebla. The filling is shredded pork, with more spices and less fruit than the first.
- grey ribbons from Puebla de los Ángeles, Puebla. The filling is beef with fruits and spices, for those who prefer not to eat pork.
I chose the chile from Atlixco, Puebla. At the Azul restaurants and at most others, the chile is roasted, peeled, and seeded prior to stuffing, but is not coated with a stiffly beaten egg coating. The significance of the colors of the chile en nogada is the vision of the Mexican flag on your plate: green, white, and red. Were it coated and fried, the green would not be visible. The chile's red ribbon (and yellow flower) are removable. The blue and white sphere with the red ribbon are part of the table decor that honors the chile.

Once the chile is on your plate, the waiter serves the nogada (walnut sauce). At the Azul restaurants, the diner may choose savory or sweet nogada, or a combination of the two. I chose the combination. The waiter poured the thicker nogada salada (savory) onto the half of the chile near the tip; he then poured nogada dulce (sweet) onto the half closer to the stem. In the photo, you can easily see the dividing line between the two nogadas.

After the waiter bathes the chile with its walnut sauce(s), he garnishes it first with seasonal pomegranate seeds and then with a sprig of parsley. Voilà, presenting Su Majestad el Chile en Nogada!

You can see the rich filling inside the chile. Last week's Mexico Cooks! article gives you an excellent recipe to make your own chiles en nogada. If you try it, please let us know how delicious it was!

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19 de September de 2015
Seasonal Chiles en Nogada: The Mexican Flag on Your Plate
Mexico Cooks! couldn't start the month of September without paying tribute to our iconic chiles en nogada (chiles in walnut sauce), the Mexican flag on your plate.

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 walnuts. From mid- August till mid-October, fresh pomegranates and walnuts make chiles en nogada possible. Mildly 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 especially on September 15 or 16 in honor of Mexico's Independence Day, though it is popular anytime in the late summer and early fall. During August and September in the highlands of Mexico, particularly in Mexico City and Puebla, the dish is very popular. On streets bordering city markets and tianguis (street markets), you will see village women sitting on blankets painstakingly cracking open nutshells and peeling the thin brown skin from each freshly harvested 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 you've licked the platters clean.

Fresh peaches, in season now.

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 Tablespoon sea salt
Biznaga cristalizada (candied barrel cactus).

For the picadillo
- 4 Tablespoons freshly rendered pork lard or canola oil
- 1/3 cup chopped white onion
- 3 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3 heaping Tablespoons raisins
- 1 or 2 chiles serrano, finely minced
- 2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts or pecans
- 2 Tablespoons chopped candied biznaga (cactus)
- 2 fresh peaches, skinned and diced
- 1 fresh pear, peeled and chopped
- 1 apple, peeled and chopped
- 1 extremely ripe platano macho (plantain)
- 1 large potato, peeled and diced
- 3 large, ripe tomatoes, roasted, peeled and chopped
- sea salt to taste
Chiles poblano. Choose the largest chiles with the smoothest sides for easy roasting.

For the Chiles

6 fresh chiles poblano, roasted, peeled, and seeded, leaving the stem intact

Newly harvested, freshly peeled walnuts. All of the shell and the thin brown skin must be removed to make smooth, creamy-white nogada (walnut sauce). Photo courtesy Gabriela.

For the Walnut Sauce
- 1 cup fresh walnuts
- 6 ounces doble crema or full-fat cream cheese at room temperature
- 1-1/2 cups crema mexicana or 1-1/4 cups sour cream thinned with milk
- about 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup dry sherry
Fresh, seasonal pomegranates, available now in Mexico's markets.

For the Garnish
- 1 Tablespoon 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 5 minutes. Add the cinnamon, pepper, and cloves, then, stir in the raisins, the 2 Tablespoons chopped walnuts. Add the chopped pear, apple, and potato, 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 1 day 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 on absorbent paper until completely dry. Cover and set aside. The chiles may be prepared a day in advance.

At least 3 hours in advance, place the 1 cup walnuts in a small pan of boiling water. Remove from the heat and let them sit for 5 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, if using, until thoroughly combined. Reserve at room temperature.

The stuffed chiles pictured above were dipped into an egg coating and fried prior to finishing with walnut sauce and garnishes. In Mexico, passionate diners argue the pros and cons of coating the chiles; many insist that coating and frying is not traditional, and many insist that it is. Mexico Cooks! prefers chiles en nogada with no coating.

Preheat the oven to 250ºF. When ready to serve, reheat the meat filling and stuff the chiles until plump and just barely closed. Place the chiles on a serving platter or on individual plates, cover with the walnut sauce, and sprinkle with parsley and pomegranate seeds.

Chiles en nogada as presented at Restaurante Azul/Histórico, Mexico City. This beautiful service is only surpassed by the flavors of the chiles.

This dish may be served at room temperature, or it may be served chilled.

Note: Many people in today's busy world prefer to make this recipe using a mixture of ground rather than shredded beef and pork. Using this quick method, simply brown the ground meats and add the rest of the picadillo ingredients once the meats are browned. The results will be excellent!

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12 de September de 2015
The Joy of the Purépecha Language in Michoacán, Part 2

Adolescent boys walk the length of Santa Fe de la Laguna's Purépecha vocabulary-teaching wall. See the sombrero (hat) to their right? In Purépecha, it's kájtsikua. Just as in Spanish, a written accent over a letter in a word means that the stress of pronunciation falls on that letter. KAJ-tsi-kua.

Last week, Mexico Cooks! taught you the Purépecha names of various animals and insects. Today, we're going into the home and its garden to learn a few more words for common household items. All photos by my travel companion, Pamela Gordon, unless otherwise noted.

Native Mexican comestibles from the milpa (family food-growing parcel of land) include the calabaza (squash). In Purépecha, it's purhu.

Purépecha cooking includes the use of several varieties of yellow, red, white, or blue corn, all native to Michoacán and all grown in the milpa for family use. Each portion of the corn plant from tassel to stalk has a name; this elote (fresh ear of corn) is tíriapu.

Many species of wild mushrooms appear during Michoacán's summer rainy season. Here's an hongo silvestre (wild mushroom)–terekua—a common ingredient in soups and Purépecha guisados (stew-like dishes).

Handmade cucharas de madera (wooden spoons)–yurhesï–are some of the most-used utensils in a Purépecha cook's battery of equipment. Remember that the umlaut over the letter 'i' changes the pronunciation of the letter 's' to 'sh'. Yurhe-shi.

Here's a hand-carved bastón (cane). Now you know that in Purépecha, it's a t'óndasï. This type cane is commonly used by people who need aid for their balance or gait, and by dancers who use canes as part of their costumes.

Michoacán's iconic dancers, complete with t'óndasï: la Danza de los Viejitos (the Dance of the Little Old Men). Photo courtesy Google Images.

A rendering of the Purépecha woman's typical rebozo (rectangular fringed shawl): in Purépecha, atache. The atache has multiple uses: wrap yourself in it for warmth, fold it and put it on top of your head for shade, use it as a scarf, and wrap it around yourself in different ways to carry firewood, purchases from the market, large and bulky items, and most especially, a baby. Babies are wrapped close to their mothers' bodies from the time they're born until they are mid-toddler age. The legend of this
rebozo tells us that the blue is the blue of the Spanish eye, the black is the black of the Spanish hair, and the white is the ray of the sun.

You know the old adage: a new escoba (broom) sweeps clean. In Purépecha, it's a p'ankua. This charming painting lets you believe that the brand-new broomstick still has a leaf attached!

Ah, kawikua (hard liquor)! In Michoacán, we make and drink charanda (a very strong sugar cane liquor), mezcal (made from maguey cactus), and to a lesser degree, tequila. Here's an old Mexican toast to repeat as you raise and lower your glass, and before you sip your kawikua: Arriba! Abajo! Al centro! Adentro! (Up! Down! In the middle! And down the hatch!) Today, we're toasting the Purépecha language.

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5 de September de 2015
Mexico Cooks! and the Joy of the Purépecha Language in Michoacán

A portion of the language-teaching wall in Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán.

In early March, Mexico Cooks! and a friend spent a glorious day in Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán. We walked in the village, basking like lizards in the warm sun, slipping into one tiny shop and then another searching for the best rebozo (a type of shawl). We stepped into the welcome shady patio of an artisan friend, a potter. When we finished at the potter's home, we took our time ambling to the car. Turning a corner, we found ourselves face to face with a vocabulary lesson!

In the Purépecha language, misitu means gato, or cat, if you speak English.

I am always surprised by the number of well-educated people, both native Spanish-speakers and people whose native language is English, who believe that Mexico's indigenous people speak dialects of Spanish. Consider that the indigenous groups of what is now Mexico lived on this land for thousands of years before the arrival of the conquistadores (Spanish conquerers). Until the 16th century, no one in what is now Mexico spoke Spanish. Each indigenous group spoke its own language and each group continues, to one degree or another, to use that language today. Here's a link to a list of the indigenous languages spoken in today's Mexico: Mexico's indigenous languages.

Tindi is the mosca–the common house fly.

In the state of Michoacán, four indigenous languages are spoken. The most common is Purépecha, with approximately 100,000 native speakers. Next is Mazahua, with nearly 4,000 speakers, followed by 2700 coastal region speakers of Nahúatl. Approximately 600 people in the easternmost part of the state speak Otomí.

Purépecha is considered to be an isolate language, with no connection to any other language spoken in the region, in the country, or in any other country. Linguists have found only remote ties to the Quechua language in Perú.

Xanchaki: the burro, or donkey.

Kuanasï is the rana–the frog. Note the umlaut over the letter ï. Because of the umlaut, the pronunciation of the preceding 's' becomes 'sh'. Kuanashi!

Axuni, or venado–the deer.

Most Purépecha children learn their parents' native language as a first language, often learning Spanish only after they are more than halfway through primary school. Although Purépecha has been a written language since the 16th century, standard written Purépecha only began to come into existence in 1939. Even now there is no consensus as to how the language should be written.

Uakasï, the vaca–the cow. Note that uakasï is pronounced with the 'sh' sound.

Utuksï, the caracol–snail! Now you know how to pronounce that sï at the end of the word.

Like all of the languages native to what is now Mexico, Purépecha is in danger of becoming extinct. Fortunately, both the state government as well as the native speakers are coming to understand the cultural and historic importance of keeping the language alive. It's taught in primary schools for the first three years. Once a child starts fourth grade, classes are bilingual Purépecha and Spanish.

K'útu is the tortuga–the turtle.

Puki is the jaguar–the big native cat. Its scientific name is Panthera onca, and it is the only big cat native to the Americas. In this painting, you see a person dressed in the jaguar dance costume, rather than the actual animal.

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29 de August de 2015
The Purépecha of Michoacán in the 21st Century

This is Imelda, a charming Purépecha child already learning the traditional kitchen skills used by the ancestral generations of women on whose shoulders she stands. Morelia, Michoacán, 2012.

Today, more than 120,000 Purépecha live in 16 municipalities in the Zona Lacustre (Lake Zone) and the Meseta Purépecha (Purépecha tableland) of Michoacán. Within those municipalites are numerous towns and villages. Most Purépecha are bilingual. Generally the language spoken by the family at home is Purépecha. Children learn Spanish when they are part-way through primary school. There are still approximately 10,000 Purépecha who speak only their native language.

Maíz criollo (native Mexican corn) in three colors, grown for personal use in a Purépecha family's garden.

The present-day economy of the Purépecha is based, for the most part, in agriculture. The Purépecha grow corn for their own use and grow wheat to sell. In the Zona Lacustre, there are also a number of people who fish commercially.

Making the fragrant base for a pine needle basket. Uruapan, 2010.

Another significant source of income is the creation of arts and crafts. In the mid-16th century, Don Vasco de Quiroga taught the Purépecha not only Christianity but also the idea of self-sufficiency based on the refined production of items for daily use: pottery, textile weaving, copper smelting, and wood carving. Approximately 40,000 families in Michoacán presently work at one form or another of artesanía.

Eleven-hundred-year-old petroglyphs from Tzintzuntzan have a new home (with the approval of INAH, the Instituo Nacional de Arquitectura e Historia) in a visible but untouchable space in a Morelia, Michoacán gallery. It is believed that these and other Michoacán petroglyphs have spiritual and religious meaning that we cannot yet guess.

The ancient Purépecha believed that the Universe was divided into three parts: the region of the heavens, the region of the Earth, and the region of the dead. Each region had its own set of gods. The most important gods were those of the first region–the heavens–and among those, the most important were Kuerajperi, the Lord of Light, and Xaratanga, the goddess of the moon.

Today, the Purépecha practice a Catholicism colored by their reinterpretation of the teachings of the early Franciscan and Dominican missionaries. Many Purépecha believe that God, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and the saints have special powers which interact among them. The devil, in some of his manifestations, has an importance which goes beyond that of the saints.

Many Purépecha continue to live in small villages, in some respects isolated from cultures other than their own. Their homes, called trojes, are made of heavy, hand-hewn thick pine boards. Each room of a troje is separate from every other room. The buildings are constructed without nails and can be dismantled and moved. The kitchen, living quarters, sleeping and storage rooms are individual small buildings such as the one in the photo to the right.

A close Purépecha friend, Débora Cortés, who has passed away since I took this photo, washed dishes in an outdoor pila (combination water storage basin, sink, and scrub board). The pila is the only source of running water for the household. Her bathroom was an outdoor toilet. She warmed water for bathing in buckets placed in the afternoon sun. My friend was fortunate to have a township water source rather than face the daily necessity of hauling water from a well. Note the roof of the troje at the upper left of the photo and the stalks of corn at right center. The greenery closest to the foreground is a coffee tree. Débora usually kept a pig in the garden, to raise for market and for meat. Mexico Cooks! photo, 2002.

Life for the Purépecha today is a battle for survival, both economic and cultural. Physical survival depends on many factors, including money sent home by the sons and daughters of the pueblos who now work in Morelia (the Michoacán state capital), Guadalajara, Mexico City, and in the United States.

The design on this troje is made with old music CDs. Pre-conquest Mexico, meet the 21st century. Angahuan, Michoacán, 2013.

Cultural survival is constantly assaulted by the influences of television, print advertising, and innovations brought home by the sons and daughters who work 'away'.

Cherán, an indigenous Purépecha community in the west-central part of Michoacán, is well known for its high level of political awareness and activity. The banner in the photo reads, "CHERÁN DEMANDS SECURITY AND JUSTICE" and is signed, "The indigenous community of Cherán".

Political survival is crucial to the continuation of the Purhépecha nation. In Cherán, Michoacán (pictured above), the Purépecha community holds its own community elections and does not subscribe to state and national elections.

Night of the Dead altar dedicated to a deceased relative, private home, Santa Fe de la Laguna, November 2013. The Purépecha tradition of spiritual and religious practices combines ancient rituals and customs with Roman Catholic beliefs. The amalgam sustains and nourishes a community which is itself a combination of the ancient and the modern.

Spiritual survival depends on the handing down of the old ways, the old traditions, by a generation of elders that is fast disappearing. The question of globalization in indigenous communities is not an idle one, but one which must be addressed if the Purépecha are to survive as more than a curiosity in the modern world.

Next week we'll make our final stop (for now!) in the Purépecha towns of Michoacán, in which a delightful visit to Santa Fe de La Laguna turns into a language lesson! Come with us!

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22 de August de 2015
Don Vasco de Quiroga, First Bishop of Michoacán, and the Purépecha Legacy

Archeologists generally consider the yácatas (pyramids with round bases) in Tzintzuntzan to have been a ceremonial center and residence for early Purépecha priests. Originally, on each of the yácatas was a temple made of wood in which the most important rites of the Purépecha people and government took place, including burials, of which about sixty have been found. The burials that have been excavated contain rich grave goods and are probably of kings and high priests. Although reconstruction began in the 1930s, two of the yácatas remain in their found condition. Photo courtesy Google Images.

The Purépecha make up the largest indigenous population of the state of Michoacán. Their ancient kingdom, centered in the town of Tzintzuntzan on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro, is purported to have been an advanced and prosperous civilization as early as 900 A.D.

Archeologists discovered this very early tripod-form Purépecha vessel inside ceremonial rooms of the yácatas. Photo courtesy Famsi.org.

Less is known anthropologically about the historical antecedents of the Purépecha than about any other important Mexican group (the Olmecs, the Toltecs, and the Mexica, for example). The Purépecha had no written language and therefore kept no written record of their lives, culture, or activities. All of their history is extrapolated from post-conquest documents written by the Spanish. The Purépecha language was established long before the arrival of the Spanish and is in no way related to any other indigenous language of Mexico or any language anywhere.

In the early 1500s, the Lake Pátzcuaro basin had a population between 60,000 and 100,000 inhabitants spread among 91 separate settlements ranging over 25,000 square miles. Purépecha government was necessarily strong, with effective social, economic, and administrative structure. A strong religion with many gods and goddesses underlay and supported the society.

Tarascan (Purépecha) civilization. Detail of mural, Diego Rivera, 1942.

What happened to the Purépecha and their strong kingdom?

On February 23, 1521, the first Spanish soldier appeared on the borders of Michoacán. Even before this, however, the effects of the first contact had begun to be felt among the Purépecha. The previous year, a slave infected with smallpox had come ashore after crossing the Atlantic Ocean with the army of Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Naraváez and had triggered a widespread and disastrous smallpox epidemic among indigenous peoples, none of whom had previously been exposed to this sort of illness.

Tzuiangua, the Purhépecha calzonci (king) died in the smallpox epidemic of 1521. Measles and other diseases came along with the earliest Spaniards and led to further reductions in population. Partly as a result of these catastrophes, the young, newly-invested calzonci (king) Tzintzicha Tangaxoana chose to accept Spanish sovereignty when the first Spanish soldiers arrived, rather than suffer the fate of Tenochtitlán, the grand Aztec pyramid city located near present-day Mexico City. As evidence of his submission, he accepted baptism and brought Franciscan missionaries into the region under his protection.

It is unclear whether Tangaxhuan II, the new young king, failed to fully understand the Spaniards' intentions and how their system worked, whether he thought he could pull the proverbial wool over their eyes, whether he was poorly advised, or some combination of the three.

Torture and death of the last Purépecha king. Detail of mural titled "La Historia de Michoacán", painted in 1941-42 by Juan O'Gorman on the back wall of the Biblioteca Gertrudis Bocanegra, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

The Spanish had intended to allow Tangaxhuan II to keep some symbolic measure of autonomy for himself and his empire as a reward for his cooperation. However, when the Spanish discovered that he was continuing to receive tribute from his subjects, they had him executed. On February 14, 1530, the last native king of the Purépecha was put to death at the hands of the conquerers.

So begins the mystical creation history of the Purépecha people and Lake Pátzcuaro, the center of their spirituality. Still numerous and active in the modern world, the Purépecha maintain much of their supernatural culture in spite of the intrusion of globalization and the present-day world. The mid-20th Century Mexican-Irish muralist Juan O'Gorman painted the history of the Purépecha nation in the Pátzcuaro public library. The mural, a detail of which is shown above, depicts O'Gorman's vision of pre- and post-Conquest Purépecha life.

Don Vasco de Quiroga and a Purépecha woman, carved in cantera (a volcanic stone) and crowned with flowers. Outside the huatápera in Santa Fe de la Laguna, where Tata Vasco, as he is lovingly called to this day, founded the first hospital (house for shelter and relief) in Michoacán.

In 1533, Don Vasco de Quiroga, a Spanish aristocrat, was installed as the first bishop of the province of Michoacán. At that time, the province was much larger than the present-day state. Don Vasco governed an area that encompassed over 27,000 square miles and 1.5 million people. Don Vasco oversaw the construction of three Spanish-style pueblos (towns), each of which included a hospital, as well as the great cathedral of Santa Ana in Morelia, numerous churches and schools, and founded the Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo (College of St. Nicholas the Bishop), the first school in all of the Americas. Quiroga is immensely important not only to the history of Michoacán but also specifically to the Purépecha nation.

In The Christianization of the Purépecha by Bernardino Verastique (pp. 92-109), the author states that the primary task assigned to Quiroga was to "rectify the disorder in which Nino de Guzmán had left the province after the assassination of the cazonci." Unlike Guzmán, who was a viciously murderous and enslaving conqueror, Quiroga was largely benevolent. He assumed a pastoral role of protector, spiritual father, judge, and confessional physician to the Purépecha.

Tata Vasco teaching the Purépecha the Utopian ideas he held dear. Detail of Juan O'Gorman mural, "La Historia de Michoacán".

St. John the Baptist, fashioned as a Purépecha man. He's wearing his woolen jorongo (like a poncho) and his huetameño (straw hat from Huetamo, Michoacán). This early statue, so tender and so beautiful, so tattered and beloved, is hiding in plain sight in a one-room chapel just off the plaza in Santa Fe de la Laguna. His gentle demeanor melted my companion's heart and mine as well.

Tata Vasco organized the Purépecha villages into groups modeled on Thomas More's Utopia and thus extended his territorial jurisdiction. His actions brought him into direct conflict with the Spanish encomenderos (land grant holders). Quiroga recognized that Christianizing the Purépecha depended upon preserving their language and understanding their world view. He promulgated a multicultural, visual, and multilingual access to Christianity.

Even the Purépecha nation's name is debatable. Erroneously called Tarascans since the Spanish conquest, in the last 40-50 years the Purépecha have begun to reclaim their original name. The term 'tarasco' means brother-in-law in the Purépecha language. The newly arrived Spanish took Purépecha women, heard the Purépecha men use term 'tarasco' to ironically refer to themselves, and mistakenly believed that it was the name of the entire nation.

Descendants of the Purépecha remain in Michoacán, particularly in the Lake Pátzcuaro area. The language is still spoken, and many children speak Purépecha as their first language. During the last 50 years, a written Purépecha language has been devised and is used in a regional newspaper and in books.

Olive trees in what is now the atrium of the Templo de Sta. Ana, the oldest Catholic church in Michoacán. These trees were planted by the Spanish in the mid-1500s.

Olive trees planted by the Spanish conquerers nearly 500 years ago still thrive in the churchyard at Tzintzuntzan, the former capital of the Purépecha kingdom, on the shore of Lake Pátzcuaro. Some of the trees measure nearly 15 feet in diameter. Nearby, Purépecha descendants still produce the crafts of the old days: wood carving, pottery making, and tule (a kind of lake reed) weaving. The present-day town has a population of less than one-tenth of the Purépecha capital at the height of its power, and it continues to lose many of its young people as they migrate in search of jobs to other Mexican cities and to the United States.

Purépecha woman selling deliciously edible flor de calabaza (squash flowers), near Paracho, Michoacán. Photo copyright Mexico Cooks!.

Anthropologists are of two minds concerning contemporary Purépecha life. One group, the 'Hispanists', argues that the Purépecha remnant has become primarily a Spanish-speaking Mexican peasant culture. Though they have maintained their language and some of their basic Mesoamerican cultural elements (in particular their diet of beans, squash, chiles, and corn), they have become Hispanicized with regard to their religious lives, their economy, and their forms of traditional or 'folk' knowledge. In contrast, the other group is more persuaded by the consistencies they see between traditional Mesoamerican culture and the modern-day life of the remaining Purépecha. They note in particular the areas of relationship between language and culture, gender relations, socialization, and world view.

Next week: a look at Michoacán's Purépecha communities in the 21st century. Come with us!

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15 de August de 2015
Máximo Bistrot, Mexico City: Food, Wine, and Service, LO MÁXIMO! (The *Best*)

Eduardo (Lalo) García, chief cook and innovator at Máximo Bistrot Local in Colonia Roma Norte, Mexico City. Unlike many of the Distrito Federal's successful restaurant owners/chefs, Lalo has no culinary school background. He's a self-made man with many reasons to be proud of himself, but he's completely without pretension. Just about any time you dine at Máximo Bistrot, Lalo himself is in the kitchen.

Máximo Bistrot opened its doors in 2012 and almost immediately became a sensational success. After nearly 20 years of work in other heavy-hitting restaurants (at Le Bernadin in Atlanta and New York City and at Pujol in Mexico City, among others), Lalo García and his wife, Gabriela López, had finally opened the doors to their own domain.

While diners are still pondering their food orders, each table receives a portion of extraordinarily delicious berenjena ahumada (smokey eggplant purée) and individual servings of hot, crusty bread. It's just enough to whet your appetite and make you crave most of what's on the daily menu.

Just a few months after Máximo Bistrot had become the restaurant that every diner in Mexico City was buzzing about, the restaurant was suddenly in the news for another reason: you can read here how Lady PROFECO raised the roof with her father, head of a Mexican agency similar to the Better Business Bureau. Máximo Bistrot reopened to further social and gastronomical acclaim a mere few days after the incident.

Mezcal with a little orange juice (the glass rimmed with sal de gusano (sea salt ground with chile de árbol and maguey worm) adds to the pleasure of reading the menu, which changes daily.

Neither Lalo García nor Gabriela López seeks the limelight. Instead, the limelight has sought them and deservedly so. The restaurant has a well-rounded menu featuring fresh, seasonal ingredients prepared in deliciously innovative dishes which both seduce and surprise the diner.

We chose several salads. This fresh green pyramid is composed of artichokes and arugula, with a roasted garlic vinaigrette.

Here, a salad of burrata, heirloom tomatoes, greens, and balsamic vinaigrette.

A very different salad: roast porcini mushrooms with thyme and caramelized onions.

My personal pick: a salad of roasted beets, avocado, and crème fraiche, with some scattered pepitas, freshly grated cheese, and lovely edible flowers. I could eat this fantastic salad every day without tiring of it.

Between the salads and our main dishes, we shared a plate of raviolis stuffed with requesón (a fresh cheese similar to ricotta) and served with nut butter.

We also shared this beautiful plate of atún toro (raw sushi-quality bluefin tuna) topped with a garlic vinaigrette, paper-thin radish slices, and individual slices of caramelized onion.

Four at table, we chose three different main dishes. Here, pierna de cordero (leg of lamb) with morel mushrooms and a squash purée.

Next: lechón confitado (suckling pig slow-braised in oil, the skin crisp and the flesh tender) with baked tomato sauce and mashed potato.

Two of us chose the flat iron steak with chanterelle mushrooms, puréed potatoes, and a veal reduction. Chanterelles grow wild in Oaxaca and Chiapas during Mexico's summer long rainy season.

With our meal, we drank this Montefiori Horizonte Cabernet Montepulciano, from Baja California. Full-bodied, smooth, and full-flavored, it combined perfectly with the various main dishes we chose.

How could we resist the ever-so-tempting dessert menu? We couldn't!

Two at our table chose the mil hojas (mille-feuille, or puff pastry–the literal meaning is thousand-layers) with fig conserve and a dollop of whipped cream.

Would you believe pineapple upside down cake? It's served with chopped fresh pineapple, chopped strawberries, a blackberry or two, a blueberry or two, and some edible fuschia flowers as the crowning touch. This dessert is absolutely rich and absolutely delicious. Our companion who ordered it said it was without question the best he had ever tasted.

My choice was a honey-vanilla panna cotta with a layer of sliced fresh strawberries and a scoop of delicately sweet cucumber ice cream, topped with finely diced fresh cucumber. The dessert was refreshing, multi-textured, and a perfect ending to the meal.

How many times in this report have I used the word 'perfect'? From the seating to the ever-attentive but non-obtrusive service; from the hot crusty bread (which re-appeared magically every time our bread plates emptied) and chilled water; from the first taste of eggplant to the last scrape of spoon on dessert plate, there was nothing that could have been improved. Every moment in the restaurant was professional, every portion of our meal was at its peak. The place was filled to capacity but never noisy; our table conversed easily. We kept a leisurely pace throughout our meal; no one rushed us to turn the table. It's clear that Máximo Bistrot will be one of Mexico Cooks!' first choices for special occasions.

Gabriela López and Eduardo García, spouses and partners in the most most delicious of restaurants: Máximo Bistrot Local. Photo courtesy Adriana Zehbrauskas, New York Times.

Máximo Bistrot Local
Calle Tonalá 133
Corner Calle Zacatecas
Colonia Roma Norte
Mexico City, Mexico
Tel: 55-5264-4291
Reservations a must; call at least two weeks prior to the date you want to go.
Closed Sunday and Monday
Open Tuesday – Saturday 1PM – 5PM and 7PM – 11PM

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8 de August de 2015
Ricardo Muñoz Zurita and Azul/Condesa: Consistently Excellent

One of the best places to eat in Mexico City's leafy, gentrified Colonia La Condesa is Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita's Azul/Condesa at Nuevo León #68, almost at the corner of Calle Laredo–and walking distance from Mexico Cooks!' house. This eagerly awaited joint venture between Chef Muñoz and restauranteurs Gonzalo Serrano Orozco and Salomé Álvarez (formerly of Restaurante/Bar Ligaya) opened in late January 2011.  Mexico Cooks! photo.

Just as Mexico Cooks! was in the process of renting an apartment in La Condesa, our good friend Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita announced that his newest baby, Restaurante Azul/Condesa, was about to open right here in the neighborhood. After having made–and several times–the lengthy but worthwhile trek to the far-southern Ciudad Universitaria (UNAM campus) site of Chef Muñoz's first restaurant, Azul y Oro, the news that his menus would be available within walking distance of us produced an ecstasy of anticipatory drool.

The ambience in all of Azul/Condesa's dining spaces–downstairs, upstairs, and in the garden–is conducive to enjoying a relaxing drink, a fine meal from the fixed or festival menus, and a changing gallery of art. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Start with a straight-up tequila, limones, and a chaser of terrific, flavorful, and picante house-made sangrita. Another option, served in typical jícaras (carved half-gourds), is a mezcal from Azul/Condesa's excellent tasting list.  Mexico Cooks!' particular favorite is Oaxaca's mezcal Amores.  Mexico Cooks! photo.

Several years ago, Gonzalo Serrano and Salomé Álvarez approached Ricardo Muñoz with the idea of opening a new restaurant in the Ligaya building. After fourteen highly successful years at Ligaya, the Serrano/Álvarez partnership wanted to offer something new to its public. Gonzalo Serrano said, "We believed that it was time to offer a discerning clientele a taste of Mexico that goes beyond the Vitamina T choices that are most common in this neighborhood." (Vitamina T refers to a steady diet of tacos, tortas, tamales, and other standard fonda (small restaurant) or street food fare that starts with the letter 't'). The three restauranteurs hit it off immediately and Restaurante Azul/Condesa was in the works.

Before opening, the new partners collaborated in making changes to the interior spaces as well as the menu. The kitchen underwent a complete renovation, as did the restaurant furnishings. Tables, chairs, linen, and dishware were re-designed for the new venture. Upstairs, a new cantera (stone) floor was installed. Everything was planned for the comfort and enjoyment of the client, as well as for a different style but equally professional use of the kitchen. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

From Azul/Condesa's fixed menu, a salad of arrugula, pear, roquefort cheese, and cashew nut dressed with balsamic vinegar. Each dish on the menus is a work of art as well as an incredible explosion of flavor on your palate. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

The Azul/Condesa menu concept divides between fixed and festival menus. Some menu offerings stay the same, ranging from salads to desserts. The festival menus change each month. The initial festival was Alma Jarocha (the soul of Veracruz), featuring dishes from that eastern coastal state. The main courses of the festival menu featured predominately seafood specialties such as Veracruz-style octopus, a fish in green pipián (in this case, a thick pumpkin-seed based sauce), and Boca del Río-style shrimp in a sauce of white wine and smoky chile chipotle en adobo. In addition, the Veracruz dessert menu showcased vanilla, mamey, guanábana, and other products from the state.

Buñuelos rellenos de pato rostizado (roast duck stuffed into wee packets and deep-fried, similar to fried wontons) are served with Oaxacan black mole, thin slices of steamed calabacita (zucchini), and fresh blackberries. This dish is on the menu as a main course for one person, but it also makes a marvelous appetizer for a table of three or four diners.  Mexico Cooks! photo.

During the month of March, we were in love with the menu called Festival de Moles y Pipianes. The menu was set up in two parts: one side offered a selection of twelve moles and pipianes–just the sauces–and the other side offered a selection of eleven different meats, birds, and fish. The possibilities were endless: for example, almendrado huasteco, an almond mole from Veracruz, combined equally well with imported pheasant as with breast of turkey medallions or New Zealand lamb ribs.  Chichilo negro, a Oaxacan black mole flavored with avocado leaves, made the kitchen's perfectly cooked medium-rare filete de res (filet of beef) a spectacular choice.

A vegetarian appetizer from the fixed menu: tamalitos de acelgas, bañadas en caldillo de jitomate (little swiss chard tamales, bathed with a thin tomato sauce), from the state of Tabasco. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Traditional Yucatecan cochinita pibil (pit-roasted pork), cooked in a banana leaf and garnished with pickled red onions. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

During the month of April, the festival menu was called MMMM…Mango!, to celebrate the onset of that fruit's season in Mexico. Everything from salads to desserts included mango: diced into guacamole, garnishing your steak or shrimp, fresh-frozen into ice cream, or served as a simple bowl of the king of fruits, mango made your perfect choice of dinner even better.

Sautéed shrimp covered with mango salsa–delicioso!  Mexico Cooks! photo.

Have you bought your plane tickets yet? Just wait! Desserts are as marvelous as everything else on the menu at Azul/Condesa. Your choices range from the simplest bowl of ice cream to the outrageously delicious–well, I truly don't know what I prefer. You look:

Espuma de guanábana is a light-as-a-breath refreshing soursop (I know, a terrible English name for a fabulous fruit) mousse served with your choice of salsas: the red fruits that you see in the photo, black zapote, or chocolate. Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Tamalito de chocolate (little chocolate tamal), accompanied with a custard sauce, chocolate sauce, AND a mixed-berry sauce, then topped with slivered almonds and whipped cream. Oh man… Photo courtesy Azul/Condesa.

Last, pastel de tres leches (three milks cake), served with a generous pour of rompope (Mexico's eggnog–this devilishly good liqueur has its origins in a convent) and presented with fresh fruit and a variety of sauces. Photo courtesy Mexico Cooks!' dear friend from Guadalajara, Tim Welch.

We've tried to capture a photo of the dessert that Mexico Cooks! prefers, but somebody has always snitched a forkful before we can take the picture.  Triángulo de café pluma is a multi-layered coffee-flavored cake, filled with coffee butter cream and covered with dark chocolate and is well worth snitching.

Beautiful in concept and extraordinary in execution, Azul/Condesa fills a niche in this Mexico City neighborhood that has been vacant until now. The fixed menu is marvelous, the festival menus are filled with regional and seasonal treats that you will love. Prices? Moderate.

Go. When you're visiting Mexico City, just go.

Azul/Condesa
Nuevo León #68
Colonia La Condesa
Mexico, D.F.
Telephone 5286-6380 or 5286-6268 for reservations
Monday through Saturday from 1:30PM until 1:30AM, Sundays 1:30PM until 6:30PM.

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25 de July de 2015
Las Apariencias Engañan :: Appearances Deceive :: Casa Museo Frida Kahlo

This article was originally published in 2012, shortly after the Casa Museo Frida Kahlo mounted the exhibit titled Las Apariencias Engañan. Due to overwhelming demand, the exhibition continues to be open and the article bears repeating.

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón, age three or four, and friend. Photo by her father, Guillermo Kahlo.

Which is the Frida Kahlo who most touches your imagination? The innocent toddler in her beribboned shoes?

The iconic self-portrait dressed as a Tehuana (woman from Oaxaca's Isthmus of Tehuantepec)?

The pain-wracked, alcoholic, drug-addicted, unadorned, exhausted Frida? This photo was taken on July 2, 1954, at her last public appearance. She (in her wheelchair), Diego Rivera, and a group of friends and colleagues marched in Mexico City to protest the involvement of the United States Central Intelligence Agency in the overthrow of Guatemala's president. Frida Kahlo died on July 13, 1954.

There was a time, and not too long ago, when I thought I understood the moments that these photos purport to reveal. Photos and self-portraits are a record of life, just as black-and-white as the first and last of these three. Except–perhaps not. Perhaps, as the on-going exhibit at Casa Museo Frida Kahlo is titled, las apariencias engañan. Appearances deceive. What we see is tricky. Appearances are as fluid as blood in the veins, as liquor down the throat, as dye seeking fabric, as paint on a palette. And as Anais Nin is alleged to have said, "We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are."

The original drawing used for the exhibit poster is part of Frida Kahlo's diary.

When Frida Kahlo died, Diego Rivera insisted that the places in her home where the majority of her personal effects were stored (two bathrooms, some trunks and closets) be sealed for the following 50 years. In 2004, under the close supervision of museum directors, workers knocked down bathroom walls and pried open long-locked doors. They found literally thousands of items belonging to the couple, including more than 300 of Frida Kahlo's dresses, some of her jewelry, some hair ornaments, shoes, and orthopedic appliances.

A few of the Oaxaca-style skirts and huipiles (blouses) from Frida Kahlo's closets and trunks, currently showing in Room 2 of the exhibit space. If you are familiar with her paintings, you may recognize one or two.

Detail of encaje (lace) and other fabrics from the skirts shown second and third from the right in the above photo.

Las Apariencias Engañan opened in late November 2012. According to museum personnel, the exhibit was to have been on display for approximately one year, during which time the mannequins' clothing was to have been changed every three to four months. Not only did these changes give the public an opportunity to see more of the 300 dresses found when the walls were knocked down, but long-stored delicate fabrics have not been subjected to the stress of their own weight as they are displayed.

The Tehuana headdress from the self portrait shown above. Click on any photograph to enlarge it for a better view.

The restoration period has lasted nearly eight years. Despite the conditions under which Frida's clothing and other belongings were stored for 50 years, what we see is a marvel of both natural preservation and expert resurrection. The mounting of the exhibit, supervised by curator Circe Henestrosa and mounted by prominent British architect and designer Doctor Judith Clark, stuns with its mix of the lovely, the grotesque, and the matter-of-fact.

You may well be familiar with some of Frida's famous hand-painted plaster of Paris corsets, decorated with her fabled fantastical flowers, animals, and even the Communist hammer and sickle. They are beautiful. About five years ago, the museum's exhibit of the artist's night bedroom included both her death mask, wrapped in a rebozo, and a plaster of Paris corset.

These three corsets suspended (by white ribbons meant to evoke bandages) from white-tile walls that are symbolic of the bathrooms where the items were found, are not beautiful to any eye. They are what they are: early 20th century medical appliances meant to bind, to support, and inevitably to inflict pain on the wearer.

A pair of Frida's black suede shoes. Srta. Maricarmen Rodríguez López, my personal guide to the exhibit, said, "People ask why Dr. Clark insisted that we mount these shoes showing the back rather than the pretty front with bows on the toes. Look closer. The right shoe has an elevated heel to compensate for the shortness of Frida's right leg." Srta. Rodríguez also mentioned that the entire exhibit is designed to emphasize the disabilities that Frida suffered from the time she was a child of six, when she had polio which left her right leg thinner and shorter than the left.

Frida's calf-high, crimson leather lace-up boot–the left boot, with its wedge heel, decorated with panels of Chinese embroidery and a bell on a ribbon (…rings on her fingers, bells on her toes…).

The right boot and prosthesis, quite literally the other side of the story. Compare the wedge heel on this boot with the wedge on the other. Due to gangrene, doctors were forced to amputate Frida's long-injured right leg in 1953.

The metal supports for this and other items in the exhibit symbolize the iron handrail that pierced her abdomen and uterus in the 1925 trolley-car accident in which she suffered other serious injuries: a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, broken ribs, a broken pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, a crushed and dislocated right foot, and a dislocated shoulder.

Arguably the most famous page from Frida's diary: Pies para qué los quiero si tengo alas pa'volar. (Feet, what do I need them for, if I have wings to fly.) Dated 1953 and painted just prior to the amputation of her right foot.

From Frida's trunks, a hair ornament. The tiara includes aluminum and textile flowers and green linen leaves.

Another hair ornament, in the form of a butterfly.

Gold chokers and other necklaces.

Who will see my brokenness, when the glory of my wardrobe hides my pain? In the exhibit, even the limbs of the mannequins resemble prostheses.

A full cabinet of Frida's long-stored belongings: clothing, jewelry, shoes, even a pair of golden cat's-eye sunglasses came from the closets and trunks.

Las Apariencias Engañan is intended to be a revolving, year-long exhibit. Sponsored in large part by Vogue Magazine, as well as BMW, The Anglo Mexican Foundation, British Airways, The BBVA Bancomer Foundation, the Japan Foundation, Lasalle College of the Arts, Montblanc, the University of the Arts London, and Valentino Parfums, the exhibit also includes a roomful of newly created items of haute couture based very loosely on Frida's wardrobe. This dress and jacket are by GQ's 2012 Designer of the Year Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy. Still more designer dresses are by Costume National and Jason Wu, among the other couture houses involved in the show.

From Frida's diary: arrows point to all of the parts of her body where she had surgeries. A tear falls from her right eye. I asked Srta. Rodríguez, "But she never had surgery on her head…?" "No, la flecha esa simboliza el daño psicológico…" ('No, that arrow represents the psychological damage.') Although the drawing shows only a few arrows, Frida actually had 22 or more surgeries.

Frida Kahlo chose her very Mexican wardrobe with extreme care. Each item was designed to flatter this part, cover that part, hide the other part. Under her embroidered and boldly colorful square-cut huipiles (in this instance, Oaxaca-style blouses), terrible leather-and-metal corsets were barely noticable to others. A maimed foot, a withered leg, a missing leg? Let the boots take center stage, let the lace-bordered skirts be a frothy smoke screen. Don't attend to my limp, look at the wreath of flowers in my hair. Pay no attention to this wheelchair, raise your eyes to my multiple gold necklaces, the bracelets on my arms, the rings on my fingers.

The exhibit reveals in a way that a photo, an article online, or a biography cannot show how and why Frida Kahlo invented the appearance of festive health for herself. The psychology that moved her to create this way of life and this wardrobe, the fractures (both physical and mental) that shaped her need for window dressing: all is apparent in the exhibit, and we see both the color and the shadow, the harsh reality and the fugue of fashion. Frida stands naked before us, a human being rather than a souvenir.

Las Apariencias Engañan has enjoyed such an enormous audience that it continues to be on exhibit at the Casa Museo Frida Kahlo. Mexico Cooks! suggests that in order to buy tickets in a timely manner for the exhibition, you will want to arrive at the museum approximately one-half hour prior to the museum's opening time. Otherwise, the wait to enter is often very lengthy.

HOURS
CLOSED MONDAYS
Tuesday: 10:00 – 17:45 h
Wednesday: 11:00 – 17:45 h
Thursday through Sunday: 10:00 – 17:45 h

LOCATION
Calle Londres #247
Del Carmen, Coyoacán
Mexico City, Mexico
___________________________________________________

With profound thanks to Hilda Trujillo Soto (Directora Casa Museo Frida Kahlo), Patricia Cordero (Coordinadora de Difusión y Contenidos Digitales, Casa Museo Frida Kahlo), and Maricarmen Rodríguez López (Redes Sociales y Difusión, Casa Museo Frida Kahlo) for their time and effort in arranging a private guided tour of Las Aparencias Engañan for Mexico Cooks!.

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18 de July de 2015
Restaurante Yuban: Comida Casera Zapoteca (Oaxacan Home Cooking in Mexico City)

Restaurante Yuban takes the iconic Oaxaca tlayuda and brings it to Mexico City with the addition of fresh, crunchy vegetables. In addition to the visible vegetables, this tlayuda is stuffed with melted Oaxaca cheese, chorizo (spicy pork sausage), and tasajo (marinated grilled beef). We four split it as an appetizer; it was just enough to wake up our appetites for more. All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted. Click on any photo for a larger view.

One part of the charming and comfortable dining room at Yuban. The restaurant also has a very popular bar with a large selection of mezcales. Photo courtesy Gastronoma.

The state and city of Oaxaca are deservedly famous for their cuisine, and the Zapotec communities outside the city of Oaxaca are celebrated for their regional dishes. Every household has its jealously guarded recipes; every grandmother has her personal way of preparing ancestral dishes. Restaurante Yuban, which opened its doors in October 2013, continues to be one of the few restaurants in the city where Zapotec food is prepared–and prepared deliciously.

Fernando Martínez Zavala has been the executive chef at Yuban since mid-2014. A native of Uruapan, Michoacán, chef Fernando is self-taught and has 14 years' experience, most notably as chef in the Mexico City restaurants Les Moustaches and Moustache Bistrot. He comes from a family of cooks. Just prior to starting his work at Yuban, Fernando won Mexico's well-respected Cocinero del Año 2014 (Cook of the Year) competition. Photo courtesy Yuban.

Two lovely friends, visiting recently from Los Angeles, invited Mexico Cooks! to join them for comida (the midday main meal of the day in Mexico) at Restaurante Yuban, where we had not been since chef Fernando took the helm. Yuban (the Zapotec name means living earth) was a favorite of ours when it opened, but it had obviously been quite a while since we'd enjoyed both the charming room and the delicious menu.

Lengua en salsa verde (tongue in green sauce) was deliciously tangy, sweet, slightly salty, and served with a mix of organic vegetables from Oaxaca. One of Mexico Cooks!' companions at table chose the tongue but allowed me to taste it.

Two of the four of us ordered this cooked-over-low-temperature lechón en pipián de pepita (suckling pig in pumpkin seed sauce) with nopales (diced cactus paddles), pea shoots and nasturtium flowers. Although the flavors were exquisite, the meat was extremely fatty and the sauce quite over-salted. With just a bit more attention to the details, this dish will have the potential for greatness.

My choice for comida was mole negro con guajolote (black mole with turkey). I loved the vegetable garnish: tender flor de calabaza (squash flowers) and still-crunchy baby calabacitas (similar to zucchini). The turkey was tender, but once again, the sauce was seriously over-salted.

The house very graciously sent two desserts to our table–along with four plates and spoons all around. This pastel de chocolate (in this case, cake made of stone-ground Oaxacan chocolate) is presented with a leaf of white chocolate freckled with ground chile chilhuacle, Oaxaca's iconic and very scarce chile.

Our second dessert was my favorite: Cremoso de requesón (creamy ricotta-type cheese ice cream) with a streusel of pinole (toasted, lightly sweetened and ground dried corn), roasted fresh pineapple, and coconut ice cream. Its textures and flavors surprised me with their depth and fresh combination. I hoped that my table companions might let me finish it by myself, but we all loved it too much to do anything but share it to the last crumb.

Another view of Yuban's inviting dining space. Photo courtesy DondeIr.

Mexico Cooks! was grateful to have time for a talk with chef Fernando about the opportunities for improvement in his dishes. I'm sure that by the time you read this, the very few kinks we noticed will have been straightened out and that you will love Yuban when you dine there. I certainly plan on returning–maybe we will see one another there.

Restaurante Yuban
Colima 268 near the corner of Insurgentes
Col. Roma Norte
Tel: 55-6387-0358
Hours: Monday – Wednesday 1:30PM – 11:00PM
Thursday – Saturday 1:30PM – Midnight
Sunday 1:30PM – 6:00PM
Reservations recommended

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11 de July de 2015