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If you've shopped at any of Mexico's thousands of tianguis (street markets), municipal markets, or fairs, you may have wondered what certain vendors were ladling out of their frosty glass jugs.  Those are aguas frescas, made in every fresh fruit flavor you can imagine. In general, these fruit waters are made from purified water and are safe to drink.  The aguas frescas in the photo are at Aguas de Casilda, Mercado Benito Juárez, in the city of Oaxaca.  The large, beautiful stand is an icon in Oaxaca.

In addition to aguas frescas, there are numerous fresh or fermented drinks along Mexico's way.  At various hole-in-the-wall supper restaurants, pineapple tepache is the order of the day, served fizzing with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda.  And on the outskirts of one small town as you drive toward Guadalajara, a sign hangs from a guamúchil tree. It reads "Aquí Se Vende Pajarete" (Pajarete Sold Here) and advertises yet another unusual beverage.

Along many highways and byways, you'll regularly see someone selling aguamiel and pulque, the ancient drink of the Aztecs, from large jars positioned on a tiny table. By the same token, pulque, both unflavored and curado (flavored with fruit, vegetables, or nuts) is a favorite in bars called pulquerías. 

Tuba

Tuba vendor, Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

If you've wandered along the magical beaches bordering Mexico's western coastlines, you may have noticed a man with a yoke-like pole across his shoulders, a red painted gourd suspended from the pole by a rope. His cry is "Tuba! Tubaaaaaaaaaaa!" and his hands are full of plastic cups. 

In Mexico, tuba is primarily a coastal drink. Several years ago I was surprised to see a tuba vendor at a tianguis in Guadalajara. Later I started seeing the same man selling tuba in Tlaquepaque, and at the Thursday and Sunday artisans' tianguis in Tonalá. If you happen to be in the area, look for him—he's easy to spot, with his bright-red gourd of tuba suspended from a pole across his shoulders.

A glassful of tuba, served with freshly chopped apple, salted peanuts, and ice.

Coconut palm sap is fermented to make the clear, white, sweet wine called tuba. To collect the sap, workers climb the palm tree in the morning and evening and bruise the coconut flower stalk until it starts to ooze its liquid. The stalk is tied with bamboo strips into a special bamboo container to catch the sap. Crushed tanbark from the mangrove tree is dropped into the container to give the sap a reddish color and to hasten its fermentation. As many as three flowers from one coconut tree can be made to yield sap. Each flower produces tuba for two months, after which it dries out and is cut from the tree.

The liquid actually begins to ferment while still in the bamboo container on the tree, but the alcohol content increases considerably with longer fermentation. Tuba quenches the thirst, is good for indigestion, and makes conversation flow easily.

Tejuino

Since long-ago times, cooling tejuino has refreshed Mexico. It's made from the same corn masa (dough) that's used for tortillas and tamales. The prepared masa is mixed with water and piloncillo (cone-shaped Mexican brown sugar) and boiled until the liquid is quite thick. It's then allowed to ferment slightly—but just slightly. I've never known anyone to get so much as a buzz from sipping a cupful of cold tejuino.

Tejuino vendor, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco.

Once the tejuino is thickened and fermented, it's mixed as needed with freshly squeezed jugo de limón (key lime juice), a pinch of salt, water, ice, and a big scoop of lemon sherbet. Just about everywhere in Mexico, it's sold in plastic glasses—small, medium, and large—or in a plastic bag with the top knotted around a drinking straw.

Some people say that tejuino is an acquired taste. I acquired the taste for it the very first time I tried it and often crave it on hot afternoons. There is nothing more refreshing. Fortunately, there was a tejuino vendor just a block from my house in Guadalajara,  so I could buy a glassful when the spirit moved me. Cup after cup of freshly prepared tejuino is ladled out to customers every day.  Although tejuino is only a slightly sweet drink, the masa base makes tejuino very filling. A small glass is usually very satisfying.

Tejate

Tejate, a cold and foamy nixtamal-ized corn and chocolate drink, is particular to Oaxaca, especially found in the city's markets and in the small towns all around the area. Tejate is very refreshing on a hot day at the market–in this case, at the weekly market in Zaachila, Oaxaca. Compare the size of the jícara (the red enameled bowl afloat in the tejate) to the size of this very large clay vessel. 

Tepache

I've found tepache in several cenadurías (restaurants open for supper only, usually from 7:30 PM until midnight) in Mexico, as well as at street stands and, occasionally, market stands. Tepache is simple to make and the ingredients are readily available whether you live North or South of the Border. You might like to try this at home. 

Tepache (teh-PAH-cheh)
1 whole pineapple (about 3 pounds)
3 quarts water
1 pound piloncillo or brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick, approximately 3" long
3 cloves

Wash the skin of the pineapple well. Cut off the stem end and discard. Leave the skin on the pineapple and cut the entire fruit into large pieces.

Place the pieces of pineapple in a large container and add two quarts of water, the piloncillo or brown sugar, the cinnamon, and the cloves. Cover and allow to rest in a warm place for approximately 48 hours. The longer you allow the liquid and fruit to rest, the more it will ferment. If you let it sit for longer than 48 hours, taste it periodically to make sure it is not overly fermented, as it will go bad.

Strain the liquid—the tepache—and add the last quart of water.

If you prefer, do not add the last quart of water. Instead, add one cup of beer and allow to rest for another 12 hours.

Strain again and, if you have used the beer, add three cups of water.

Serve cold with ice cubes.

Tepache vendor, Zihuatanejo. 

At any cenaduría, you can ask for your tepache with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. You can also add it at home, just before you're ready to drink a glassful. The addition makes the tepache fizz and bubble, and it's said to be extremely good for the digestion. An elderly neighbor of mine swears by it as a heartburn remedy.

Pajarete

In the Mexican countryside, tequila drinking starts as soon as the sun comes up. If you drive Mexican highways early any morning—early, please, when the air is still chilly and cool gray bruma (light fog) clings to the flanks of the mountains of the Central Highlands—look for a small hand painted sign. "Aquí Se Vende Pajarete" (pah-hah-REH-teh) is all it says. The sign may hang from a tree, it may be tacked to a fencepost, and you won't see any indication of a cart or stand.

Aqui se vende pajarete: Pajarete sold here!  

Away from the road, behind the trees, past the bushes, just over there by those old wrecked cars, a dairy farmer milks his cows.  As he milks the patient cows and they snuffle their hot breath into the misty morning, groups of men (sombrero-wearing men who are real men) gather around the cow lot, each man with his large clay mug.  Into each mug go a stiff shot of either charanda (a sugar cane alcohol), mezcal, or tequila, a bit of sugar and some cinnamon-laden Mexican chocolate grated from a round tablet.  The mug is then filled with warm milk, freshly squeezed directly into the mug–straight from the cow.  More a body-temperature drink than a cold drink, that's pajarete: breakfast of champions.

I don't expect you to whip up most of these six popular drinks in your home kitchen, but I thought you'd love knowing about some of Mexico's really unusual cold drinks.

There are many more interesting and unusual drinks in Mexico, everything from A (acachú, a drink that sounds like a sneeze, made near Puebla from the wild cherry) to Z (zotol, made in Chihuahua from the sap of wild yucca). Wherever you are in Mexico, you'll find something fascinating to quench your thirst, make you feel more at home in the culture, and give you a story to tell.

A toast to each of you: Salud, dinero, y amor, y tiempo para gozarlos. Health, money, and love, and time to enjoy them. 

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

Lovely young Agustina in her pink silk rebozo (long rectangular shawl).  Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

A friend recently gave me a copy of an old and anonymous Mexican poem, written in Spanish, in homage to the rebozo.  The rebozo's importance to Mexican women cannot be exaggerated: from swaddled infancy to shrouded death, a rebozo accompanies our women throughout their days.  It is at once warmth, shade, infant's cradle, cargo-bearer, fancy dress, screen for delicious flirtation, and a sanctuary from prying eyes.

Enjoy my translation.

Michoacán-made rebozos and guitar, on exhibit in Morelia.  Note the elaborate fringes on both rebozos.

My Rebozo

Rummaging through my closet one fine day
I found this garment—my old rebozo!
How long had it been resting there?
Even I can’t say exactly.
But seeing it brought back so many memories
Tears clouded my eyes and fell one by one as I held
My beloved rebozo!

Mother and infant daughter wear matching rebozos, Fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe 2010.

What a faithful friend you have been.
Shall we relive just an instant of that far-distant past?
When I first showed you off, you were so beautiful, so new,
With your lively color and flowing fringe
Your reflection gleamed in the mirror like the morning star!

Fine lace rebozo still on the loom, from the Reboceros de Aranza (Aranza Rebozo Weavers Cooperative).

Come on, come on, let me fling you over my heart
The way I did in bygone years,
Next to this heart that disappointment has turned to ash!
Don’t you remember that beautiful blouse I wore,
Embroidered with poppies and carnations?
Don’t you remember all my triumphs and successes,
And my flounced skirt, so full of its pretty sequins, beads, and glitter?

Lavender and white rebozo with elaborate fringe.

See, tightened to the span of my narrow waist and
Crossed just so over my straight young back
Showing off my fresh round breasts,
With two vertical parallel lines.
We stepped out to the beat of those long-ago songs,
That dance that determined my life.
Your fringes hung down just so!
And the two of us formed one soul.

Finely woven black and red rebozo.

How was it that I wanted him?  You know!
Rebozo, you heard first how I loved him!
Your fringes were hopeful prisoners of my teeth
While I heard the soft slow songs of love
Oh perverse rebozo, unfaithful friend!
You were my confidante and my hiding place
You pushed me, burning, into romance
Wrapped in your fringes as if they were cherished arms.

Intricately patterned deep red rebozo.

But what’s this I see!
An ugly hole
That looks like a toothless mouth
Bursting out into furious laughter.
You laugh at my romantic memories?
You make fun of my long gone triumphs?
You know that the one who loved me has forgotten me
And that my soul, just like my love, is sacked and plundered?

Two elderly women share a secret joke in Pátzcuaro.

And you—you aren’t even a shadow of what you were
And because we don’t remember what we have been
We are betrayed!  Old!  Faded!
I’ll throw you in a box with other trash—
You, who are a traitor and so worn out!
How strange and how complicated
Just like you, I also betrayed—sometimes–in little ways!
Those sweet lies and silly nonsense
That made so many of my yesterdays happy.

White and black rebozo fringed with feathers.

Laugh, rebozo!  Don’t you see that I’m laughing–not angry?
The tears that spring from these eyes
Are just laughter, nothing more.  I’m not crying, I’m laughing!
But how can I be laughing, when I hate you so?
Let your mantel cover my head
The way it did in days long past, when I was possessed
By a kiss so strong, so violent.

Gold and salmon rebozo de gala (fancy dress).

No!  I will not throw you away, old rebozo!
You have a soul like mine
A Mexican woman's soul, wild, unmanageable
That will not bend even when faced with death itself!
I will fold you up and keep you in the closet
And there, like a holy relic,
My heart will once again put on
Your flowing fringe.

Elderly flower seller, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

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

This time in 2009, Mexico Cooks! attended the 12th annual Feria del Hongo (Mushroom Fair) in Senguio, Michoacán.  The fair was wonderful, a tremendous lesson in the wild and cultivated edible and medicinal mushrooms of Michoacán.  Since then (and to my great surprise), the article about the mushroom fair has appeared as a link on several mushroom and mycology websites.

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

Due to a conflict on our calendar, Mexico Cooks! isn't able to attend the August 19-21st Feria del Hongo in 2016.  In honor of the mushroom fair, we'd like to present some photographs and recipes by Fulvio Castillo, a biologist who is also a mycologist, photographer, and extraordinary cook.

Frying amanitas in canola oil.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The dates for the 19th Annual Feria del Hongo in Senguio are August 19, 20, and 21.  If you're anywhere in the vicinity, be sure to go.

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The 19th Annual Feria del Hongo (Mushroom Fair) will take place in Senguio, Michoacán, during the weekend of August 19, 20, and 21st, 2016. This small and delightful fair offers the opportunity to see and taste some of the great variety of wild mushrooms that grow during central Mexico's rainy season.  The article below is from August 2008, when Mexico Cooks! visited the fair.  Enjoy!
Along the winding road to the Feria del Hongo (Mushroom Fair) in Senguio, Michoacán.  The pink flowers in the center foreground are mirasoles (wild cosmos); behind them is a good-size corn field, then trees, then the lush blue-green mountains of north-central Michoacán.

Senguio, Michoacán, a tiny town much closer to the border of the State of México than to the city of Morelia, recently hosted its eleventh annual Feria del Hongo (Mushroom Fair).  More than 100 locally found varieties of edible mushrooms were on display, along with 15 poisonous varieties and a few that are used medicinally. 

Biologist Oralia Díaz Barriga Vega informed Mexico Cooks! that residents of Senguio consume more than 40 varieties of local woodland mushrooms.  "The mushrooms most frequently eaten are the patitas de pájaro, the orejas de puerco, and a few others.  People here in Senguio have a good bit of knowledge about edible as well as poisonous mushrooms that grow in local woodlands.  Medicinal mushrooms are also widely used here, for diseases that range from viral and bacterial infections to high blood pressure to muscular dystrophy, chronic fatigue syndrome, and many types of cancer."

Hypomyces lactifluorum, known in English as lobster mushroom and in Spanish as trompo de puerco (pig's snout), is widely eaten in the mountains of Michoacán, particularly around Lake Pátzcuaro.

The level of cultivated, commercial mushroom production in Senguio has not been able to keep up with the demand for high-quality product demanded by international clients.  Mushroom producers in Senguio harvest approximately two tons of mushrooms every month; that quantity satisfies only about five per cent of the demand from restaurant owners and other consumers.  Juan González Ramirez, one of Senguio's top producers, says that within a short time, Senguio will produce a ton of mushrooms each week.

Patitas de pájaro (little bird's feet), occasionally known as manitas de santo (little saint's hands) is in season right now.  It's found throughout the mountainous pine forests of Michoacán.

Pancita, or Boletus edulis, has until now only been used for medicinal purposes in Michoacán.  Like most of the rest of these mushrooms, it grows wild in the pine forests here.

Boletus edulis, known in Mexico as the pancita mushroom, has traditionally been used medicinally.  Because Mexican mushroom producers are unaccustomed to its use in cooking, its cultivation has not yet been prominent.  In the year to come, mushroom growers in Senguio plan to produce a substantial quantity of what the world's kitchen knows as the porcini mushroom.  "On the international market, this mushroom can bring as much as 800 pesos per kilo," mentioned one of the Senguio growers.

Pedos de burro–donkey farts–are better known (but much less picturesquely named in English) as the common woodland puffball.  They're edible–and delicious–when picked while the flesh is white.

The beautiful russula emetica isn't edible; it provokes vomiting and diarrhea.

Although the festival organizers labeled this mushroom Amanita parva, the label appears to have been moved from another mushroom.  This very large mushroom has been tentatively identified by another mycologist as Omphalotus sp.

Dr. R.E. Tulloss, a specialist in the genus Amanita, told me, "Amanita parva is a very small, white species ('parva' means 'little') that is known from sandy pine/oak forests between Long Island, New York (USA) and most probably the Gulf Coast states of the USA.  I would not think that it would be a good choice as an edible.  In fact, there is a possibility that it is poisonous.  To my knowledge, A. parva has never been reported in Mexico."

The seta is one of three mushroom varieties (setas, shiitake, and common white table mushrooms) grown commercially in Senguio.

Mexico Cooks! talked at length with Ezequiel Gómez López, who grows both setas and shiitake mushrooms.  In the photo above, setas are growing in a plastic bag stuffed with sterilized hay.  The bag is about 18" square.  The setas in the picture sprouted the day before I took the photo and will mature in three days.

Lentinula Edodes, the shiitake mushroom originally cultivated in Japan and Korea, is heavily produced in Senguio.

Sr. Gómez explained that the shiitake mushroom grows on harvested oak branches about three to four feet tall and three to five inches in diameter.  "Growing mushrooms on these branches is so much better than burning the branches as fire wood!" he said.  "Each branch can produce shiitakes for seven years."  The mushrooms grow from spores to maturity in only a week.  Once the shiitakes are harvested, the branch is allowed to rest for a period of time and then is re-inoculated with spores for another crop.  Sr. Gómez showed off a picture of his shiitake farm.  It's a long, narrow room with oak branches leaning against the walls, not at all what Mexico Cooks! ever thought of as a mushroom farm.

Mexico Cooks! ate quesadillas de hongos (mushroom quesadillas) at the Feria del Hongo.  The filling on the left is chicken with mushrooms and cheese; the filling on the right is rajas de chile poblano (poblano chile strips) with mushrooms and cheese.

The food at Senguio's Feria del Hongo was substantially different from the food at most Mexican festivals.  Some names were the same: quesadillas, pozole, ceviche, and tacos, but all of the dishes were prepared with mushrooms as the predominate ingredient.  We also saw mushroom yoghurt and various mushroom ointments. 

The Senguio Feria del Hongo is small in scale but filled with information and ideas.  Mexico Cooks! had a marvelous time.

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

Tamales in the tamalera (the steamer) at Tamalería (tamales shop) Méndez, on the street at the corner of Av. Baja California and Av. Insurgentes, Colonia Condesa, Distrito Federal.  You can see that the tamalera is divided into three sections.  Each section can hold a different kind of tamal (that's the word for ONE of a group of tamales).  In this case, the tamales at the bottom left of the photo are Oaxaqueños (Oaxaca-style).  On the right of the divider are tamales rojos (with a red chile sauce) and tamales de mole (both with pork meat).  The third section of the tamalera holds just-out-of-sight tamales verdes (with chicken, in green chile sauce) and tamales con rajas y queso (with cheese and strips of chile poblano).

Older than an Aztec pyramid and fresh as this morning’s breakfast, a pot of newly-steamed tamales whets Mexico City’s appetite like nothing else in town.  Dating to pre-Hispanic times—most historians say tamales date to the time before the Christian era—the tamales of New Spain (now Mexico) were first documented in the Florentine Codex, a mid-16th century research project crafted by Spanish Franciscan monk Fray Bernadino Sahagún.

Traditionally, tamales are made by hand, not by machine.  At first, they seem to be exhaustingly labor-intensive and difficult.  Just as with most wonderful food, once you learn the techniques and tricks of making the various styles, they're not so hard to prepare–and they are so worth the time and effort!  Here, Carmen Titita Ramírez Degollado, owner of Mexico City's Restaurante El Bajío, preparaes masa cocida (cooked corn dough) for her special tamales pulacles from Papantla, Veracruz.

The ancients of the New World believed that humankind was created from corn.  Just as in pre-history, much of Mexico’s traditional and still current cuisine is based on corn, and corn-based recipes are still creating humankind.  A daily ration of corn tortillas, tacos, and tamales keeps us going strong in the Distrito Federal, Mexico’s capital city of more than twenty million corn-craving stomachs.  Tamales are created from dried corn reconstituted with builder’s lime and water.  The corn is then ground and beaten with lard or other fat into a thick, smooth masa (dough).  Filled with sauce and a bit of meat or vegetable, most tamales are wrapped in dried corn husks or banana leaves and steamed, to fill Mexico City’s corn hunger and keep her hustling.

Tamal-to-be: cut the banana leaf to the size and shape of the tamal you're making, then lightly toast each leaf.  On the banana leaf, place a layer of masa, a strip of hoja santa (acuyo) leaf, and a big spoonful or two of cooked, shredded chicken in a sauce of chile guajillo, onion, and garlic.

Mexico’s capital city makes it easy to buy tamales any time the craving hits you.  Every day of the week, nearly five million riders pack the Metro (the city’s subway system) and are disgorged into approximately 200 Metro stations.  At any given Metro stop, a passenger is likely to find a tamales vendor.  Her huge stainless steel tamalera (tamales steamer) hisses heartily over a low flame until the tamales are sold out.  Each steamer can hold as many as two hundred tamales, and the vendor may preside over two or three or more of these vats.

Titita folds the tamal so that the banana leaf completely wraps the masa and filling.

Hungry students on the way to and from classes, office workers with no time to eat breakfast at home, construction workers looking for a mid-morning pick-me-up: all line up at their favorite vendor’s spot on the sidewalk closest to a Metro exit.  Near the vibrant Chilpancingo Metro station at the corner of Av. Insurgentes and Av. Baja California, Sra. María de los Ángeles Chávez Hernández sells tamales out of two huge pots.  “Qué le doy?”  (‘What’ll you have?’) she raps out without ceremony to every hungry comer.  The choices: rojo  (with pork and spicy red chile); verde (with chicken and even spicier green chile); rajas con queso (strips of chile poblano with melting white cheese); mole (a thick spicy sauce with a hint of chocolate); some Oaxaca-style tamales wrapped in banana leaves; and dulce (sweet, usually either pineapple or strawberry).  The stand sells about 200 tamales a day.  Sra. Chávez’s father, Ángel Méndez Rocha, has been selling tamales on this corner for more than 60 years.  Even at age 80, he alternates weeks at the stand with his brother, selling tamales by the hundreds.  

The masa and filling are centered in the banana leaf.  Titita is simultaneously pressing the masa toward the middle of the leaf and folding each end of the banana leaf toward the middle.

The pair of tamales in the center of the photo are filled with chicken and chile guajillo sauce.  The tamal closest to the bottom is made with black beans crushed with dried avocado leaves.  Avocado leaves give a delicious anise flavor and fragrance to the beans.  These tamales are ready to be steamed in the tamalera.

The tamal de chile guajillo, fresh out of the tamalera and unwrapped on my plate.

A specialty breakfast, unique to Mexico City, is the guajolota: a steaming hot tamal, divested of its corn husks and plopped into a split bolillo, a dense bread roll.  Folks from outside Mexico City think this combo is crazy, but one of these hefty and delicious carbohydrate bombs will easily keep your stomach filled until mid-afternoon, when Mexico eats its main meal of the day.  When I asked Sra. Chávez Hernández about the name of the sandwich, she laughed. “Nobody knows why this sandwich is called guajolota—the word means female turkey.  But everybody wants one!” 

If you'd rather take your tamales home to eat them, Sra. Chávez of Tamalería Méndez or her employee, Sra. Lucina Montel, will gladly wrap them in paper and send them along in a bag.

For steaming tamales, the bottom portion of a tamalera is filled with water.  Add a coin to the water and put the tamales vertically into the steamer, atop the perforated base that rests just above the water.  When the water boils, the coin will rattle.  When the rattle slows or stops, add more water.

Tamales can be a massive guajolota to eat on the street or the most delicate, upscale meal in a restaurant.  These, prepared by chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo of Restaurante Nicos, are a degustación (tasting) at the Escuela de Oficios Gastronómicos operated by online magazine Culinaria Mexicana, where chef Vázquez recently offered a workshop teaching the history, ingredients, and preparation of tamales.  From left to right, the four tamales are: carnitas de pato en salsa de cítricos y chile chipotle (shredded duck confit in a citrus and chile chipotle sauce), tamal de tzotolbichay (with the herb chaya), tamal de mole negro (black mole),and tamal de frijol (beans).

Chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo of Mexico City's Restaurante Nicos.

In addition to being daily sustenance, tamales are a fiesta, a party.  In Mexico City and every other part of Mexico, Christmas isn’t Christmas without tamales for the late-night family feasting on Christmas Eve.  Gather the women of the family together, grab the neighbors, and the preparation of tamales becomes a party called a tamalada.  Mexico City chef Margarita Carrillo tells us, “Mexican grandmothers from time immemorial say that the first ingredient for great tamales is a good sense of humor.  Tamales like it when you sing while you prepare them, they love to hear a little friendly gossip while you work, and if you make tamales in the good company of your family and friends, they’re sure to turn out just the way you want them: with fluffy, richly flavored corn dough on the outside and a delicious filling on the inside.”

A small and elegant tamal de chocolate for dessert, prepared by Restaurante Nicos for the tamales workshop.

Señora Elia Rodríguez Bravo, specialty cook at the original Restaurante El Bajío, strains masa cocida for tamales.  She gently shook a wooden spoon at me as she proclaimed, “You can’t make tamales without putting your hands in the masa (corn dough).  Your hand knows what it feels.  Your hand will tell you when the masa is beaten smooth, when the tamales are well-formed in their leaves, and when they have steamed long enough to be ready to eat.  Your hand knows!”

Señora María de los Ángeles Chávez Hernández (left) and her longtime employee Señora Lucina Montel (right) sell tamales at the street booth Tamalería Méndez seven days a week.  They and Sra. Chávez's staff prepare hundreds of tamales every night, for sale the next day.

Let's go on a Mexico City tamales tour!  Let Mexico Cooks! know when you're ready, and we'll be on our way.

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Due to an unexpected health issue, Mexico Cooks! is unable to attend the sixth edition of Morelia en Boca, taking place this weekend in Morelia, Michoacán.  Rather than miss the festivities altogether, I invite you this week and next week to a re-run of the very first Morelia en Boca, offered in 2011.

Here's Mexico Cooks!, once again starting at the finish.  As we always say: life is uncertain, eat dessert first.  This particular postre (dessert), the sweet finale to a special Morelia en Boca Friday night dinner at Restaurante LU, is by chef Roberto Santibáñez of Fonda Restaurant in New York. 

The sold-out dinner, titled Luces de New York en Cielo Michoacano (Lights of New York in the Michoacán Heavens), was constantly surprising in its scope and, equal to its name, heavenly in its flavors.  This dessert is a meringue mounted on sweetened cream of queso Cotija (Michoacán's signature artisan cheese) and filled with a mixed-berry compote, and passionfruit ice cream colored with red flowers.  The combination of contrasting flavors was stunning; after the first forkful, everyone at Mexico Cooks!' table simply stared at one another, speechless with delight.

Another plate from Luces de New York en Cielo Michoacano as prepared by chefs Roberto Santibáñez and Lucero Soto Arriaga: fresh Michoacán trout, smoked over guava wood and chilled, garnished with a gazpacho of cucumber, pineapple, avocado, and shredded beets.

Last week Mexico Cooks! introduced you to some of the world-class chefs who stood over the hot stoves at Morelia en Boca 2011.  Today, let's eat!  The festival food–a Mexican combination plate ranging from far-southern Chiapanecan tascalate (see below) to a Baja California tartaleta de chocolate con chile habanero (chocolate and chile habanero tart) to Michoacán's own uchepos con crema y salsa (fresh corn tamales served with cream and fiery sauce)–was as diverse as Mexico's geography.  Three days of non-stop food and drink, all served under an unprecedented blazing ball of central Mexican sun, left us Morelia en Boca participants breathless but wanting more.

Patricia Zepeda accompanied her niece, brilliant young Chiapas chef Martha Zepeda, to Morelia en Boca.  Tía Paty helped staff Chef Martha's stand featuring San Cristóbal de las Casas restaurant Tierra y Cielo.  Bearing up to the challenge of Morelia's intense midday sun, Paty served chilled and refreshing horchata de tascalate to all comers.  I first tasted tascalate at Morelia en Boca.  A sleekly smooth and blessedly cool agua fresca (fresh water) common to Chiapas, it's made of ground tortillas, chocolate, cinnamon, achiote, vanilla, sugar, and water. Some recipes also incorporate ground pine nuts.  In addition to tascalate and several wonderful botanas (appetizer-size nibbles), the booth also offered classic Chiapaneco pox (pronounced and often spelled posh), a fermented and sometimes fruit-flavored knock-your-socks off liquor made of sugar cane.

Demonstrated by chef Betty Vázquez and the team from Riviera Nayarit, this pescado zarandeado (sauced and grilled fish) leapt with color and flavor.  The sauce, an adobo of chiles, garlic, and other ingredients, is brushed onto the skin-on butterflied fish prior to grilling.  Traditionally grilled over a wood fire, the fish is juicy and tender.

During Morelia en Boca, Mexico's food and wine event of the late spring season, ticketholders had the opportunity to taste as much of the bounty of Villa Gourmet as they liked.  Villa Gourmet, a large interior patio at the Palacio Clavijero, overflowed with specially constructed and rustically sophisticated wooden booths where more than thirty providers show off their wares: beer from Belgium, wines from Spain, France, and Mexico (among other countries), and foods from all over Mexico vied for space in our stomachs.  Some attendees concentrated on the numerous wine and beer tastings, while others concentrated on the food.

Bread!  Glorious loaves like these, offered for tasting at Morelia en Boca's Villa Gourmet, are baked by chef Elena Reygadas's Italian restaurant Rosetta, located in Mexico City's Colonia Roma.  Morelia en Boca attendees rapidly found the restaurant's stand at the festival's Villa Gourmet and devoured every crumb.

At Morelia en Boca's Villa Gourmet, Mexico Cooks! talked with Ricardo Serratos of Hotel Real de Minas, San Miguel de Allende, and Elena Reygada of Restaurante Rosetta, Mexico City.

In addition to the daytime Villa Gourmet, the three nights of the festival offered special dinners prepared by internationally-known chefs in conjunction with Morelia restaurants.  The likes of Mikel Alonso (Restaurante Biko, Mexico City), Roberto Santibáñez (Fonda Restaurant, New York), Enrique Olvera (Restaurante Pujol, Mexico City), and Margarita Carrillo de Salinas (Restaurante Don Emiliano, San José del Cabo), to name just a handful, cooked wowzer dinners for those who were lucky enough to get tickets to the rapidly sold out meals.   

 

Mezcal from Chef Pilar Cabrera's Oaxaca Restaurante La Olla, served in seedless, veinless, hotter-than-you-know-where chiles de agua, their rims crusted with sal de gusano, a powerhouse mix of salt, ground maguey cactus worm, and powdered chile de árbol.

Simojovel chiles from Chiapas.

An appetizer plate by chef Rodolfo Castellanos, owner of Restaurante Origen in Oaxaca.  From the left on the plate are mezcal foam, fresh and barely roasted tuna with a coating of chile chilhuacle ashes, and a small salad of slivers of Michoacán's native black-skinned avocado, onion, tiny tortilla chips, and cilantro, all in a piloncillo vinaigrette.  This five-course dinner (titled Pasión a Fuego Lento: Erotismo en la Cocina–Passion over a Slow Fire: Eroticism in the Kitchen), was prepared by Chef Castellanos in conjunction with chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas and served at Morelia's Restaurante San Miguelito.  The meal included wine pairings from Casa Madero, Mexico's oldest wine grower, with a literary talk about the dinner's title by author José Iturriaga and wine discussions by the extraordinary scholar and sommelier Pilar Meré.

José N. Iturriaga, the delightful and erudite author, historian, and gastronome, signs a copy of his most recent book, Confieso que He Comido (I Confess That I Have Eaten).  Just before the dinner Pasión a Fuego Lento: Erotismo en la Cocina (Passion over a Slow Fire: Eroticism in the Kitchen) at Restaurante San Miguelito, Sr. Itturiaga spoke about the relationship between two hungers, one erotic and the other for food. Photo courtesy Francisco de Santiago, Mexico City.

After the brilliant Saturday night dinner at Restaurante San Miguelito, chefs (left to right) Rodolfo Castellanos, Margarita Carrillo de Salinas and restaurant owner Cynthia Martínez enjoy the happy applause of their guests.

We'll finish with dessert, right where we started, this creation by chef Margarita Carrillo: tartaleta de chocolate, chile habanero, y almendras con helado de canela hecho en casa (little chocolate tart with chile habanero and ground almonds, served with home made cinnamon ice cream) and Casa Madero brandy.

Note: all links to chefs and  restaurants are for your information only and are not paid endorsements.

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In Mexico and other Latin American countries, women wear yellow underwear on New Year's Eve to bring good luck and wealth in the year to come.  Red underwear indicates a New Year's wish for an exciting love interest!  Whatever the color, be sure your unmentionables for Año Nuevo are newly purchased–recycling a former year's undies won't do the trick!

Superstition or not, many here in Mexico have the custom of many ritos del Año Nuevo (New Year's rituals).  Some rituals include foods, others prescribe certain clothing, and still others warrant attention for their religious interest.

 
As the clock strikes midnight to ring out the old and ring in the New Year, it's common to eat twelve grapes–one at each ding, one at each dong of the bell.  While eating the grapes, you make a personal wish for each one you consume, welcoming the new year that's beginning.  Mexico Cooks! finds that it's helpful to write down the twelve wishes so as not to forget one or choke in the rush to swallow the grapes before the clock finishes striking the hour!

Sweep all the rooms of your house, your front steps, and the street in front of your house to remove all traces of the old year.  Some people put 12 gold coins outside–to be swept into the house after the house is swept clean.  The coins are to invite money and other abundance to come into the home.  Photo courtesy Jeff Trotter.


Eating a tablespoonful of cooked lentils on New Year's Eve is said to bring prosperity and fortune.  You can also give raw lentil as a gift–just a handful–with the same wish for abundance for family and friends.

On a small piece of paper, write down the undesirable habits and customs you'd like to let go of in the New Year that's just starting.  Burn the paper, then follow through with the changes!

Choose three stones that symbolize health, love, and money.  Put them in a place where you will see them every day.

Light candles: blue for peace, yellow for abundance, red for love, green for health, white for spirituality, and orange for intelligence.

Spill clean water on the sidewalk in front of your house as the clock rings in the New Year.  Your house will be purified and all tears will be washed away.

To have money for your needs all year, have some bills in your hand or in your pocket to welcome the arrival of the New Year.  Some people fold up the money and put it in their shoes!

Take your suitcase for a walk.  Legend is that the farther you walk with your suitcase, the farther you'll travel.  Several New Year's Eves ago, Mexico Cooks! and a few friends celebrated by walking our suitcases around the block, and we all traveled far and wide during the new year that followed.

Mexico Cooks! wishes all of you a muy Próspero Año Nuevo–and especially wishes that your red underwear brings you (or keeps you) the love of family, friends, and that special someone.

We'll see you right here throughout 2016!

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This white pozole from Mexico's state of Guerrero ranks close to the top of Mexico Cooks!' list of best pozoles in Mexico.  The pozolería (pozole place) is right here in Mexico City–come with us next time, we go as often as we can. 

A selection of beautiful crystallized fruits at Mercado Medellín, one of the several Mexico City markets where Mexico Cooks! takes tours.  In the photo from nine o'clock: sweet potato, pineapple, whole orange, more sweet potato, squash, and at six o'clock, chilacayote squash and another orange. The inner group consists of squash, a limón, and a fig.

Sangre de cora, a drink prepared with tequila, sweet agua de jamaica, and frothy egg white.  It's adorned with jamaica blossoms.  Jamaica is a type of hibiscus; in English, it's called roselle. The drink takes its name from the Cora indigenous group, which is native to western Jalisco and the coastal state of Nayarit.

They look like gears, don't they?  Actually, these are molinillos (chocolate frothers), stacked up for sale at a Oaxaca market.  There's nothing else like this market in all of Mexico– Mexico Cooks! would be delighted to take you along for a tour!

Oaxaca is filled with culinary delicacies not seen elsewhere in Mexico.  Here, a platter of Oaxaca quesillo (think string cheese, but a million times better) stuffed with tiny chapulines (grasshoppers) and rolled jelly-roll fashion in anise-flavored hoja santa (holy leaf).  This is one of the most delicious things Mexico Cooks! has eaten in 2015.  Thank you, Restaurante Las 15 Letras!

Carmelite nuns buying carnations by the armload at Mexico City's wholesale flower market.  An entire bundle of these flowers, the size of the paper-wrapped flowers standing on the floor, will set you back about 70 pesos–less than $4.50 USD.

And now for something completely different–gai lan (Chinese broccoli), stir-fried with garlic, as served at our favorite Chinese restaurant: Jing Teng.

These exotic fruits from South America are curuba–banana passionfruit. Each fruit is approximately 3" long and an inch in diameter.  The sweet pulpy seeds are reminiscent of normal passionfruit, but less acidic.  The skin isn't eaten. We recently saw these at one of our favorite downtown markets.

Look at the color of the flesh of these ruby red grapefruits!  Mexico Cooks! was particularly taken with the extraordinary cut made by the vendor to display (and give tastes of) the fruit.

Mexico's own tuna–aka the prickly pear cactus fruit.  The market vendor who offered these for sale had brought along the entire cactus paddle to show clients how the fruit grows.

The tuna has a zipper-skin that's so simple to peel.  Just cut off each end of the tuna, make a slit in the skin, and peel the skin away from the flesh.  Easy-peasy!  The tuna's texture is similar to that of watermelon, the flesh is sweet and refreshing, and the seeds are swallowed. Served chilled, they're even more thirst-quenching.

From a small restaurant in the state of Jalisco, this flan napolitano con queso (flan made with cheese) is one of the best I've eaten.  My comida (main meal of the day) companion assured me that he isn't a flan fan, but one taste of this one and he said, "We should have ordered two."  More the texture of cheesecake than custard, one slice of this rich, creamy dessert was plenty for the two of us.

And finally–Frida!  This portrait of Mexico's iconic painter Frida Kahlo is actually a tattoo on the inner forearm of a young woman I saw on the sidewalk outside a market.  Claudia very graciously allowed me to photograph just her arm. Here's yet another reason to spend some time with Mexico Cooks!: you never, never know what you'll see next in this enormous and enormously diversified city!  
 
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The tiny storefront with the hand-lettered sign reading Joaquinita Chocolate Supremo is at Calle Enseñanza #38 in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

In Pátzcuaro, the tradition of chocolate de metate (stone-ground chocolate) is still alive, personified by Sra. María Guadalupe García López.  Doña Lupe, as she is called by everyone who knows her, continues the work started in Pátzcuaro in 1898.  The family recipe for chocolate de metate was left to her as a legacy by her mother-in-law.  Rightly proud of her hand-ground chocolate, Doña Lupe said, "I'm convinced that by now, just about everyone in the whole world knows about chocolate de metate, and everyone who tastes it falls in love with it."

Costales (huge burlap bags) of raw cocoa beans from the state of Tabasco.  Doña Lupe stores the costales in a cool spot in her sótano (basement).

In Pátzcuaro, there are several home-based businesses which make chocolate that claims to be made on the metate, but its preparation and commercialization are not authentic.  Doña Lupe says that Joaquinita Chocolate has no locations other than her home.  "Some of the chocolate makers here in town claim to be my children or my grandchildren, but they're not.  They're not part of Joaquinita Chocolate." Joaquinita Chocolate is not only the best known, but is also completely traditional in its preparation.  

From the sidewalk, the house is unprepossessing.  It looks like most houses in the central part of Pátzcuaro: painted white, with a deep, ochre-red base.  But come closer, step up to the door: you'll be stopped in your tracks by the rich fragrance of home-made chocolate.  Breathe.  Walk in.  You'll never learn the jealously guarded secret of Doña Lupe's recipe, but you'll taste one of the legendary treats of Mexico's past and present.

Lovely Doña Lupe is ready to drop a tablet of her chocolate semiamargo (semisweet) into a pitcher of near-boiling water, just as in the novel and film "Like Water for Chocolate".  The molinillo (hand-carved wooden chocolate beater) whips the melted chocolate into a thick froth and it's ready to serve.

Chocolate was unknown to Spain and to the rest of Europe in 1519, when Cortés arrived on the shores of the New World.  Moctezuma and the highly-placed leaders in his court knew its subtleties; Cortés was soon initiated into its delights.  Mixed with vanilla and other spices including chile, xocolatl (shoh-coh-LAH-tl) needed to be mixed with water and beaten to a heavy froth before being consumed unsweetened.  Europeans quickly discovered that a bit of sugar took away the bitterness and enhanced the flavors of the new drink.  Before long, chocolate was the rage of Europe as well as a near-addiction for Europeans in the New World.

The process of making chocolate estilo Doña Lupe (Doña Lupe-style chocolate) starts with the finest beans from the state of Tabasco, in southern Mexico.  Doña Lupe says that the seed (what we usually call the cocoa bean) has to be the best, or else the chocolate loses its texture and its flavor.  She won't use a lesser bean.

Toasting cocoa beans over a wood fire requires constant stirring.  The fogón is shaped like a horseshoe to accommodate the cazuela.

While the carbón (natural wood charcoal) heated on the fogón (raised fire ring), Doña Lupe talked about making chocolate de metate.  "First we take as many beans from the costal (large bag) as we need for the day.  Normally, I make 20 to 30 kilos of chocolate tablets every day. 

"Next I clean the beans, taking out any small stones, any leaves–anything that would adulterate the chocolate"  Doña Lupe dipped into the huge bag of cocoa beans and put them by handfuls into an harnero (strainer), sifting through them as she poured them through her fingers, shaking the strainer to get rid of any tiny impurities.  She put the cleaned cocoa beans into a cazuela de barro (deep clay cooking vessel).

The large aluminum pot in the foreground holds ground cocoa beans that shortly will become a smooth, rich masa de cacao (sweetened chocolate for tablets). 

Doña Lupe's chocolate kitchen, in the lower level of her home, is furnished with traditional petate (woven reed) mats for warmth, while the room where the costales of cacao beans are stored is kept cool to preserve the beans.

Doña Lupe grinds cocoa beans the old-fashioned way, using a metate and metapil, also known as a mano.  A small fire (under the metate) keeps the metate and the cocoa beans hot during the grinding process.

The chocolate, ground smooth, rests in a wooden batea (shallow oval bowl).

Doña Lupe uses a metal mold to form the sweetened soft chocolate into individual tablets.  The top of the tablet of sweetened soft chocolate is scored into four quarters with the metal round to the left in the photograph. 

The tablets air-dry in the warmth of the chocolate kitchen.  The tablets that are scored in half are chocolate amargo: unsweetened chocolate. Both chocolate semiamargo (semisweet chocolate for making hot chocolate)) and chocolate amargo sell well.

When the chocolate is completely dry, Doña Lupe packages it in pink paper.  A packet of sweet chocolate contains nine tablets.  A packet of chocolate amargo contains seven.

She glues the label to the package and the chocolate is ready to sell.

This hand-embroidered tablecloth in Doña Lupe's dining room depicts cups and pots of hot chocolate, as well as the saying, "Chocolate Joaquinita, Industria Casera Desde 1898" (Cottage Industry since 1898).

Mexico Cooks! would love to know the proportions of chocolate, sugar, and cinnamon that Doña Lupe uses to make her chocolate tablets, but then she wouldn't have a secret recipe.  We contented ourselves with buying a package of chocolate amargo (for baking) and a package of sweetened chocolate (for preparing hot chocolate).  When you're in Pátzcuaro, be sure to stop in at Joaquinita Chocolate Supremo for your own supply of traditional chocolate.

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Hooded drummers marked the beat of Morelia's penitential Procesión del Silencio: Good Friday's silent procession commemorating both the crucifixion of Christ and his Mother's grief.  Only the drumbeat broke the silence along the route.

Nuestra Señora de Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows).  Hooded members of various Catholic confraternities (religious organizations founded in Europe in the 15th Century) carry these life-size statues on their wooden platforms approximately three kilometers through Morelia's Centro Histórico.

Jesus during la Oración en el Huerto (praying in the Garden of Gethsemane), just prior to his arrest on Holy Thursday night.  Boy Scouts (the young man in red at the right of the photo) hold the protective rope all along the route of the procession.

El Señor del Pilar (the Lord of the Column) depicts Jesus, bound to a column, and whipped by Roman soldiers after his conviction.

Roman soldiers.

The majority of Morelia's Procesión del Silencio takes place after dark, by candlelight.  

The Legion of Christ carry their banner and their lamps.  The Procesión del Silencio lasts about four hours.  During that time, all of Morelia's Centro Histórico is closed to vehicular traffic.

Jesus carries the cross a cuestas (on his back) to Calvary.  More than 50,000 spectators stood along the entire route of Morelia's Procesión del Silencio.

Penitents from one of Morelia's confraternities carry their crosses the length of the procession.  Many march barefoot through the city streets.  The procession celebrated its thirty-fourth anniversary this year.

Robed and hooded members of another Catholic confraternity carry a small image of the crucified Christ.  Hoods cover the faces of those who march as a sign of penitence.

Clothed in gold and black, these marching penitents carry huge metal torches.

Six men of all ages carry Cristo Muerto (the dead Christ), while six others follow as relief when the burden of the image, the platform, the lights, and the flowers becomes too heavy.  The man at the far right of the photo carries one of two saw horses used to support the platform during occasional pauses in the procession.

At the end of the Procesión del Silencio, la Virgen de la Soledad (Our Lady of Solitude) follows the body of her crucified Son.  The platform bearing her image holds burning candles, a purple and gold velvet canopy, and banks of fresh flowers.

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