Mexico Cooks!

To all of who love Cristi

This is just a quick post to inform that Cristi will no longer be active in this blog. She has become ill over the past year and is not able to use her computer anymore. 

In Memoriam :: Maestros Yuri de Gortari and Edmundo Escamilla, Ever in Our Hearts

Originally published in 2011, it's time to remind ourselves of the lifelong work done by these two men: Yuri de Gortari and Edumundo Escamilla.  Their contribution to the culinary history and traditions of Mexico are not likely to be met by others in the field.  They were unique and a treasure, and I was so fortunate to call them my friends.

Standing at the doors of Mexico City's Catedral Metropolitana, maestro Edmundo Escamilla offers fascinating historical background about the pre-Hispanic marketplace at Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Mexica/Aztec empire.  That enormous marketplace operated where the Zócalo (Mexico City's main square and the current site of the cathedral) now exists.

A few weeks ago, Mexico Cooks! received the announcement of a recorrido (walking tour) through Mexico City's enormous Mercado de la Merced.  The tour would be given by none other than my good friends Edmundo Escamilla and Yuri de Gortari, the guiding lights who were until their deaths in charge of the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana.  After I checked to make sure my favorite walking shoes were in good repair, I emailed back: Amigos, cuentan conmigo! (Friends, count on me!)

Diego Rivera's mural of the great market at pre-Hispanic Tenochtitlán, painted in 1945.  Click on any photo for a better view.

Twenty of us hardy souls met at the front door to Mexico City's Catedral Metropolitana for a history lesson to begin our tour.  Edmundo--an incredible repository of knowledge about all things Mexican--gave us a talk about the ancient market of Tenochtitlán, about food records just after the Spanish arrived in the New World, and about the evolution of farm-to-market transportation.

For example, the Mexica (the indigenous rulers who later became known to the world as the Aztecs) were the businessmen and tax collectors of that era.  They kept records of all that was bought and sold in the market at Tenochtitlán, and demanded high tributario (tax payment) from the market vendors.  When the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés realized how the Mexica were conducting their lucrative business, he decreed that taxes must no longer be paid to the Mexica.  Instead, the taxes were suddenly payable to none other than Cortés.

Transportation of goods to market has also changed enormously.  Today, we are accustomed to seeing huge amounts of produce, meats, fish, and every other sort of goods delivered to La Merced by trucks and other vehicles.  Back in the days of the Mexica, on the other hand, the southern part of what is now Mexico City (notably what are now Chalco and Xochimilco) were connected to the marketplace of Tenochtitlán by waterways.  Produce grown on the chinampas (island farms) of Xochimilco's canals was delivered to the central market by boat.

The huge market is large and important enough to have its own Metro station, on Line 1 (the pink line).  Notice that the icon (to the left in the photo) for the Metro stop is a crate of fruit.

From the Cathedral, we boarded the Metro at the Zócalo, rode to Pino Suárez, and transferred to the pink line, traveling just one more stop to La Merced.  When we entered the market, Yuri took the lead, we twenty participants trailed out behind like ducklings after their mother, and Edmundo brought up the rear.   Each of us was armed with our cellular phone.  In case one or more of us inadvertently became lost from the group, a simple call to the leaders' cell phone brought one of them to the rescue.  The market is unbelievably enormous and packed with people.  It has narrow aisles that were easy to miss when the front man turned left or right, the rear guard was straggling behind, and suddenly uh oh...where did they go?  Fortunately the market is well-marked with aisle and booth numbers, making it easy to give a coordinate and just wait a couple of minutes to be retrieved. 

Yuri de Gortari (the man in the white shirt at the top right of the photo) talks with the vendor and some of the tour participants about the almost unbelievable quantities of different kinds of garlic for sale at this single booth. 

No matter what you are looking for--produce of all kinds, kitchen utensils ranging from the smallest toothpick holder to the largest restaurant-size stove, household accessories like baskets, bags, and rope, or candy and other regional sweets--you are bound to find it at La Merced.  Even though Mexico Cooks! was familiar with the market from prior visits, this guided tour gave our group insights that would be impossible to understand on a solo trip.

Let's let the diversity of the market speak for itself.


Moles in pastes and powders at Don Pancho's puesto (stand) at La Merced.  There were easily ten other nearby stands offering tastes of every sort of mole.

Here in Mexico, it's the season for fresh corn.  This booth--and the next one, and the one after that, and the one around the corner, too--offer corn either as elotes (fresh and tender, on the cob) or already desgranado (taken off the cob).  The fresh corn kernels in the bowl weighed about 25 pounds.


Up-close-and-personal with super-spicy Red Savina chiles habaneros, which have a rating of 580,000+ on the Scoville Scale.  Bite into one at your own risk!  This variety is just an example of the many kinds of chiles available at La Merced.

Bundles of dried avocado leaves.  Pulverize some in your blender, then cook the resulting powder in a pot of beans to add the leaves' subtle anise flavor.

Cucumbers?  No--these are stacks of neatly displayed fresh chiles jalapeños.

The original eco-friendly bolsa de ixtle.  These colorfully dyed-woven ixtle shopping bags have been made of maguey cactus fiber since pre-Hispanic times.

Huitlacoche (corn fungus) is one of Mexico's true delicacies.  This foot-high pile of the fungus has been removed from the fresh corn cob, but it's also available on the cob.


Small candies, sold in the quantity you need--anything from 100 grams to numerous kilos.


Freshly harvested nopales (cactus paddles) stacked in pillars taller than a man.

Fresh morel mushrooms.  This sought-after mushroom grows wild in Mexico's forests and is harvested during our rainy season--from about July 1 till the beginning of November.

Much used as a garnish for tacos in Mexico City and the surrounding area, the leaf of the papaloquelite is shaped like butterfly wings.  Its name is derived from the Nahuatl word papalotl (butterfly).  This native herb pre-dates the introduction of cilantro, imported by the Chinese to Mexico.

On the left, dried jamaica blossoms (a kind of hibiscus) grown in Mexico.  On the right, jamaica imported from the Sudan.  The prices are per quarter kilo (about one-half pound).  The unfortunate reality is that the higher-quality Mexican blossoms are more expensive than the imported version.  Most people prefer to buy Mexican-grown products, but price can be a deterrent.  These flowers are used primarily to prepare agua de jamaica, a refreshing cold drink enjoyed copiously all over the República.

Our walking tour ended after several hours at the Mercado de la Merced.  Filled with new information and great respect for our tour guides' knowledge, I arrived at home extremely satisfied and tired to the bone.


September 24 is the feast day of Nuestra Señora de la Merced  (Our Lady of Mercies), the patron of the Mercado de la Merced.  She is feted there every year with mariachis, flowers, and every sort of celebration.  If you are reading this on her feast day, know that Mexico Cooks! is at the market for the celebration.

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

El Niño Dios, the Christ Child on the Feast of La Candelaria :: Celebrate Candlemas Day in Mexico

Niños Dios: one Christ Child, many colors: ideal for Mexico's range of skin tones. The sizes range from that of a child approximately two years old (at the top) to tiny infants measuring just three to four inches long.  Mercado Medellín, Colonia Roma, Mexico City.  All photos by Mexico Cooks!, unless otherwise credited.

For about a month prior to Christmas each year, figures of the Niño Dios (baby Jesus) are for sale everywhere in Mexico.  Mexico Cooks! took this photograph at the annual tianguis navideño (Christmas market) in front of the Mercado Medellín, Colonia Roma, Mexico City.  These Niños Dios range in size from just a few inches long to nearly the size of a two-year-old child.  They're sold wrapped in only a molded-on diaper.

When does the Christmas season end in your family?  When I was a child, my parents packed the Christmas decorations away on January 1, New Year's Day.  Today, I like to enjoy the nacimientos (manger scenes), the Christmas lights, and the tree until the seventh or eighth of January, right after the Día de los Reyes Magos (the Feast of the Three Kings).  Some people think that date is scandalously late.  Other people, particularly my many Mexican friends, think that date is scandalously early.  Christmas in Mexico isn't over until February 2, el Día de la Candelaria (Candlemas Day), also known as the Feast of the Presentation.

The Holy Family, a shepherd and some of his goats, Our Lady of Guadalupe, an angel, a little French santon cat from Provence, and some indigenous people from a museum diorama form el Misterio, the central portion of Mexico Cooks!' nacimiento.  Click on the photo to get a better look.  Note that the Virgin Mary is breastfeeding the infant Jesus while St. Joseph watches over them.

Although Mexico's 21st century Christmas celebration often includes Santa Claus and a Christmas tree, the main focus of a home-style Christmas here continues to be the nacimiento and the Christian Christmas story.  A family's nacimiento may well contain hundreds--even thousands--of figures, but all nacimientos have as their heart and soul the Holy Family (the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and the baby Jesus).  This centerpiece of the nacimiento is known as el Misterio (the Mystery).  The nacimiento is set up early--in 2013, mine was out at the very beginning of December--but the Niño Dios does not make his appearance until the night of December 24, when he is sung to sleep and placed in the manger.  In the photo above, you can see the tiny manger close to the Virgin's feet.  

Niños Dios at Mexico City's Mercado de la Merced.  The figures are dressed as hundreds of different saints and representations of holy people and ideas.  The figures are for sale, but most people are only shopping for new clothes for their baby Jesus.  

Between December 24, when he is tenderly rocked to sleep and laid in the manger, and February 2, the Niño Dios rests happily in the bosom of his Holy Family.  As living members of his family, we are charged with his care.  As February approaches, a certain excitement begins to bubble to the surface.  The Niño Dios needs new clothing!  How shall we dress him this year?

One of the oldest traditions is to dress the Niño Dios in hand-crocheted garments.  Photo courtesy Manos Mexicanos. 

According to New Testament teaching, the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph took the baby Jesus to the synagogue 40 days after his birth to introduce him in the temple--hence February 2 is also known as the Feast of the Presentation. What happy, proud mother would wrap her newborn in just any old thing to take him to church for the first time?  I suspect that this brand new holy child was dressed as much to the nines as his parents could afford.  


Veladoras (candles in their holders), San Francisco Pichátaro, Michoacán.

The February 2 feast day is also known as La Candelaria, due to the primarily European tradition of blessing new candles for the church and for the home on that date.  St. Anselm (1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking about the mystery of the Feast of the Presentation, invites us to consider three aspects of the blessed candles. He says, “The wax of the candles signifies the virginal flesh of the Divine Infant, the wick figures His soul, and the flame His divinity.”

The Niño Dios dressed as San Juan Diego, the indigenous man who brought Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Roman Catholic Church.  Juan Diego was canonized by now-Saint John Paul II on July 31, 2002.  His feast day is December 9, in commemoration of the date he is traditionally said to have first seen and talked with Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

Every February 2, churches are packed with men, women, and families carrying their Niños Dios to church in his new clothes, ready to be blessed, lulled to sleep with a sweet lullaby, and tucked gently away till next year.

The Niño Dios as el Santo Niño Doctor de los Enfermos (the Holy Child, doctor of the sick).  He has his stethoscope, his uniform, and his doctor's bag.  This traditionally dressed baby Jesus has origins in mid-20th century in the city of Puebla.

Every year new and different clothing for the Niño Dios comes to market.  In 2011, the latest fashions were those of the Archangels--in this case, the Archangel Gabriel.

The Niño Dios dressed as Peruvian San Martín de Porres, the patron saint of racially mixed people and all those seeking interracial harmony.  He is always portrayed holding a broom.

Niño Dios de la Eucaristía (Holy Child of the Eucharist).

Niño Dios dressed as San Benito, the founder of the Benedictine Order.

Niño Dios dressed as a Chinelo (costumed dancer from the state of Morelos).

Niño Dios de la Abundancia (Holy Child of Abundance).

The ceremony of removing the baby Jesus from the nacimiento is called the levantamiento (lifting up).  In a family ceremony, the Niño Dios is raised from his manger, gently dusted off, and dressed in his new finery.  Some families sing:

QUIERES QUE TE QUITE MI BIEN DE LAS PAJAS, (Do you want me to brush off all the straw, my beloved)
QUIERES QUE TE ADOREN TODOS LOS PASTORES, (Do you want all the shepherds to adore you?)
QUIERES QUE TE COJA EN MIS BRAZOS Y CANTE (Do you want me to hold you in my arms and sing)
GLORIA A DIOS EN LAS ALTURAS.  (Glory to God on high).

One of the most popular 'looks' for the Niño Dios in Mexico City is that of San Judas Tadeo, the patron saint of impossible causes.  He is always dressed in green, white, and gold and has a flame coming from his head.


Mexico Cooks!' very own Niño Dios.  He measures just 7" from the top of his head to his wee toes.  His new finery is very elegant.


Several years ago, I photographed this Niño Dios on his wee throne, seated in his nicho in a Pemex gasoline station, near Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.  Surely someone at the gasoline station made the Pemex uniform especially for him!

 
This lovely video from Carapan, Michoacán shows both the gravity and the joy (and the confetti!) with which a Niño Dios is carried to the parish church.

Carefully, carefully carry the Niño Dios to the parish church, where the priest will bless him and his new clothing, along with you and your family.  After Mass, take the baby Jesus home and put him safely to rest till next year's Christmas season.  Sweet dreams of his next outfit will fill your own head as you sleep that night.

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

Los Reyes Magos to La Candelaria: Three Kings, Rosca de Reyes and Tamales!

Most Mexicans eat traditional rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread) on January 6.  Its usual accompaniment is chocolate caliente (hot chocolate).

The Día de los Reyes Magos (the Feast of the Three Kings) falls on January 6 each year.  You might know the Christian feast day as Epiphany or as Little Christmas.  The festivities celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings at Bethlehem to visit the newborn Niño Dios (Child Jesus).  In some cultures, children receive gifts not on Christmas, but on the Feast of the Three Kings--and the Kings are the gift-givers, commemorating the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they presented to the Baby Jesus. Many, many children in Mexico still receive special gifts of toys from the Reyes (Kings) on January 6

Typically, Mexican families celebrate the festival with a rosca de reyes (Three Kings' Bread).  The size of the family's rosca varies according to the size of the family, but everybody gets a slice, from the littlest toddler to great-grandpa.  Accompanied by a cup of chocolate caliente (hot foamy chocolate), it's a great winter treat. 

Chef Arturo Camacho Domínguez of Tampico, Tamaulipas.

My friend Chef Arturo Camacho Domínguez, who lives and works in Tampico, Tamaulipas, recently wrote a bit about the significance of the rosca.  He wrote, "The rosca de reyes represents a crown; the colorful fruits simulate the jewels which covered the crowns of the Holy Kings.  The Kings themselves signify peace, love, and happiness.  The Niño Dios hidden in the rosca reminds us of the moment when Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary hid the Baby Jesus in order to save him from King Herod, who wanted to kill him.  The three gifts that the Kings gave to the Niño Dios represent the Kings (gold), God (frankincense), and man (myrrh).

"In Mexico, we consider that an oval or ring shape represents the movement of the sun and that the Niño Dios represents the Child Jesus in his apparition as the Sun God.  Others mention that the circular or oval form of the Rosca de Reyes, which has no beginning and no end, is a representation of heaven--which of course is the home of the Niño Dios."

On January 6, 2009, Paty Mora de Vallejo, wife of Morelia's mayor Fausto Vallejo, served a slice of the enormous rosca de reyes monumental moreliana, prepared jointly by bakeries from everywhere in the city.

Here in Morelia, Michoacán, bakers prepare an annual monumental rosca for the whole city to share.  The rosca contains nearly 3000 pounds of flour, 1500 pounds of margarine, 10,500 eggs, 150 liters of milk, 35 pounds of yeast, 35 pounds of salt, 225 pounds of butter, 2000 pounds of dried fruits, and 90 pounds of orange peel.  The completed cake, if stretched out straight, measures two kilometers in length!  Baked in sections, the gigantic rosca is the collaborative effort of ten bakeries in the city.  The city government as well as grocery wholesalers join together to see to it that the tradition of the rosca continues to be a vibrant custom.

The plastic niño (baby) baked into our rosca measured less than 2" tall.  The figures used to be made of porcelain, but now they are generally made of plastic.  See the tooth mark on the head?  Mexico Cooks! is the culprit.  Every rosca de reyes baked in Mexico contains at least one niño; larger roscas can hold two, three, or more.  Morelia's giant rosca normally contains 10,000 of these tiny figures.

Tradition demands that the person who finds a niño in his or her slice of rosca is required to give a party on February 2, el Día de La Candelaria (Candlemas Day).  The party for La Candelaria calls for tamales, more tamales, and their traditional companion, a rich atole flavored with vanilla, cinnamon, or chocolate.  Several years ago, an old friend, in the throes of a family economic emergency, was a guest at his relatives' Three Kings party.  He bit into the niño buried in his slice of rosca.  Embarrassed that he couldn't shoulder the expense of the following month's Candelaria party, he gulped--literally--and swallowed the niño.

El Día de La Candelaria celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the Jewish temple, forty days after his birth.  The traditions of La Candelaria encompass religious rituals of ancient Jews, of pre-hispanic rites indigenous to Mexico, of the Christian evangelization brought to Mexico by the Spanish, and of modern-day Catholicism. 

In Mexico, you'll find a Niño Dios of any size for your home nacimiento (Nativity scene).  Traditionally, the Niño Dios is passed down, along with his wardrobe of special clothing, from generation to generation in a single family.

The presentation of the child Jesus to the church is enormously important in Mexican Catholic life. February 2 marks the official end of the Christmas season, the day to put away the last of the holiday decorations.  On February 2, the figure of Jesus is gently lifted from the home nacimiento (manger scene, or creche), dressed in new clothing, carried to the church, where he receives blessings and prayers.  He  is then carried home and rocked to sleep with tender lullabies, and carefully put away until the following year. 

Each family dresses its Niño Dios according to its personal beliefs and traditions.  Some figures are dressed in clothing representing a Catholic saint particularly venerated in a family; others are dressed in the clothing typically worn by the patron saints of different Mexican states.  Some favorites are the Santo Niño de Atocha, venerated especially in Zacatecas; the Niño de Salud (Michoacán), the Santo Niño Doctor (Puebla), and, in Xochimilco (suburban Mexico City), the Niñopa (alternatively spelled Niñopan or Niño-Pa).

This Xochimilco arch and the highly decorated street welcome the much-loved Niñopan figure.

The veneration of Xochimilco's beloved Niñopan follows centuries-old traditions.  The figure has a different mayordomo every year; the mayordomo is the person in whose house the baby sleeps every night.  Although the Niñopan (his name is a contraction of the words Niño Padre or Niño Patrón) travels from house to house, visiting his chosen hosts, he always returns to the mayordomo's house to spend the night.  One resident put it this way: "When the day is beautiful and it's really hot, we take him out on the canals.  In his special chalupita (little boat), he floats around all the chinampas (floating islands), wearing his little straw hat so that the heat won't bother him.  Then we take him back to his mayordomo, who dresses our Niñopan in his little pajamas, sings him a lullaby, and puts him to sleep, saying, 'Get in your little bed, it's sleepy time!"  Even though the Niñopan is always put properly to bed, folks in Xochimilco believe that he sneaks out of bed to play with his toys in the wee hours of the night.  

Trajineras (decorated boats) ready to receive tourists line the canals in Xochimilco.

Although he is venerated in many Xochimilco houses during the course of every year, the Niñopan's major feast day is January 6.  The annual celebration takes place in Xochimilco's church of St. Bernard of Sienna.  On the feast of the Candelaria, fireworks, music, and dancers accompany the Niñopan as he processes through the streets of Xochimilco on his way to his presentation in the church.

Gloria in Xochimilco with Niñopa, April 2008.  Photo courtesy Colibrí.

Blue papel picado (cut paper decoration) floating in the deep-blue Xochimilco sky wishes the Niñopan welcome and wishes all of us Feliz Navidad.

El Día de La Candelaria means a joyful party with lots of tamales, coupled with devotion to the Niño Dios.  For more about a tamalada (tamales-making party), look at this 2007 Mexico Cooks! article.

From the rosca de reyes on January 6 to the tamales on February 2, the old traditions continue in Mexico's 21st Century.

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

Mexico's New Year's Customs Explained :: New Underwear, Old Suitcases, Grapes?

In Mexico and some 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 (this vendor has a lot, in every style, for sale on her tables) indicates a New Year's wish for an exciting love interest!  Just remember that the underwear has to be NEW--last year's doesn't have the same powers!

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

As the clock strikes midnight, 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 grape 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 desire or choke in the rush to swallow the grapes before the clock finishes striking the New Year's earliest hour!  The most elegant restaurants everywhere in Mexico promise that along with your multi-course late-night New Year's Eve meal, music, and dancing, they will provide the grapes and champagne.

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


Mexico Cooks! has often received a New Year's detallito (a little gift) of a tiny bottle like this, about 3" tall, filled with layers of different kinds of seeds and grains.  This gift represents the giver's wish for your New Year: abundance.


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 golden 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.


Give someone a wee woolly toy sheep as a New Year's gift--it too is a symbol of abundance!  Why?  In Mexico, a slang word for "money" is
lana--wool, in English.  And what's a sheep covered with?  Lana--for an abundance of money in the New Year.  Photo courtesy Etsy.

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 during the new year.  Several New Year's Eves ago, Mexico Cooks! and a few friends celebrated by walking our suitcases around the block.  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 in 2023!  May your New Year be infinitely better than tired-out old 2022.

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

The Heart of Mexico: Our Lady of Guadalupe :: El Corazón de México, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

Originally published on December 8, 2007, this story of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) has been one of the most-read articles published since the inception of Mexico Cooks!.  Her feast day in 2022 is Monday, December 12. 

The new Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), built between 1974 and 1976, is the second most visited religious sites in the world.  The first is the Vatican.  Photo courtesy El Viator.

My head was whirling with excitement at 7 AM last New Year's Day. I was in a taxi going to the Guadalajara airport, ready to catch a flight to Mexico City. Although I had lived in the Distrito Federal (Mexico's capital city) in the early 1980s, it had been too many years since I'd been back. Now I was going to spend five days with my friends Clara and Fabiola in their apartment in the southern section of the city. We had drafted a long agenda of things we wanted to do and places we wanted to visit together.


The old Basílica was finished in 1709.  It's slowly sinking into the ground.  You can easily see that it is not level.

First on our list, first on every list of everyone going to Mexico City, is the Basílica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the heart of the heart of Mexico. When I chatted with my neighbors in Guadalajara about my upcoming trip, every single person's first question was, "Van a la Villa?" ("Are you going to the Basílica)" 

To each inquirer I grinned and answered, "Of course!  Vamos primero a echarle una visita a la virgencita." (The first thing we'll do is pay a visit to the little virgin!)

The interior of the new Basílica holds 50,000 people.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is Mexico's patron saint, and her image adorns churches and altars, house fronts and interiors, taxis and buses, bull rings and gambling dens, restaurants and houses of ill repute. The shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Villa, is a place of extraordinary vitality and celebration. On major festival days such as the anniversary of the apparition on December 12th, 1531, the atmosphere of devotion created by the literally millions of pilgrims is truly electrifying.

Click here to see: List of Pilgrimages, December 2006.  There are often 30 Masses offered during the course of a single day, each Mass for a different group of pilgrims as well as open to the general public. 

The enormous Basílica of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Mexico City, located, on the hill of Tepeyac, was a place of great sanctity long before the arrival of Christianity in the New World. In pre-Hispanic times, Tepeyac had been crowned with a temple dedicated to an earth and fertility goddess called Tonantzin, the Mother of the Gods. Tonantzin was a virgin goddess associated with the moon, like Our Lady of Guadalupe who usurped her shrine.

The Tepeyac hill and shrine were important pilgrimage places for the nearby Mexica (later Aztec) capital city of Tenochtitlán. Following the conquest of Tenochtitlán by Hernan Cortez in 1521, the shrine was demolished, and the native people were forbidden to continue their pilgrimages to the sacred hill.  In Christian Europe, 'pagan' practices had been considered to be devil worship for more than a thousand years.

Some of you may not know the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  For all of us of whatever faith who love Mexico, it's important to understand the origins of the one who is the Queen, the Mother, the beloved guardian of the Republic and of all the Americas. She is the key to understanding the character of Mexico.  Without knowing her story, it's simply not possible to know Mexico.  Indulge me while I tell you.

On Saturday, December 9, 1531, a baptized Mexica indigenous man named Juan Diego set out for church in a nearby town. Passing the pagan sacred hill of Tepeyac, he heard a voice calling to him. Climbing the hill, he saw on the summit a young woman who seemed to be no more than fourteen years old, standing in a golden mist.

Revealing herself as the "ever-virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God" (so the Christian telling of the story goes), she told Juan Diego--in his indigenous language--not to be afraid.  Her words?  "Am I not here, I who am your mother?"  She asked where he was going.  He told her he was going to Tenochtitlán to buy medicine for his sick uncle.  She instructed him to go instead to the local bishop and tell him that she wished a church for her son to be built on the hill. She herself promised to take care of his uncle.  Juan did as he was instructed, but the bishop's staff did not believe him and told him to scram.

On his way home, Juan climbed the sacred hill and again saw the apparition, who told him to return to the bishop the next day. This time the bishop's staff listened more attentively to Juan's message from Mary. They were still skeptical, however, and so asked him to come back, bringing a sign from her.

On December 12, Juan went again to Tepeyac and, when he again met Mary, she told him to climb the hill and pick the roses that were growing there. Juan climbed the hill with misgivings. It was the dead of winter, and flowers could not possibly be growing on the cold and frosty mountain. At the summit, Juan found a profusion of roses, an armful of which he gathered and wrapped in his tilma (a garment similar to a long apron). Arranging the roses, Mary instructed Juan to take the tilma-encased bundle to the bishop, for this would be her sign.

When the bishop unrolled the tilma, he was astounded by the presence of the flowers. They were roses that grew only in Spain, roses he recognized immediately.  But more truly miraculous was the image that had mysteriously appeared on Juan Diego's tilma. The image showed the young woman, her head lowered demurely. Wearing a crown and flowing gown, surrounded by a golden resplandor, she stood upon a half moon sustained by a cherub. The bishop was convinced that Mary had indeed appeared to Juan Diego and soon thereafter the bishop began construction of the original church devoted to her honor.

News of the miraculous apparition of the Virgin's image on a peasant's tilma spread rapidly throughout Mexico. Indigenous people by the thousands came from hundreds of miles away to see the image, now hanging above the altar in the new church.  They learned that the mother of the Christian God had appeared to one of their own kind and spoken to him in his native language. The miraculous image was to have a powerful influence on the advancement of the Church's mission in Mexico. In only seven years, from 1532 to 1538, more than eight million indigenous people were converted to Christianity.

The shrine, rebuilt several times over the centuries, is today a great Basílica with a capacity for 50,000 pilgrims.

Juan Diego's tilma is preserved behind bulletproof glass and hangs twenty-five feet above the main altar in the basilica. For nearly 500 years, the colors of the image have remained as bright as if they were painted yesterday, despite being exposed for more than 100 years following the apparition to humidity, smoke from church candles, and airborne salts.

The coarsely-woven cactus cloth of the tilma, a cloth considered to have a life expectancy of about 40 years, still shows no evidence of decay. The 46 stars on her gown coincide with the position of the constellations in the heavens at the time of the winter solstice in 1531. Scientists have investigated the nature of the image and have been left with nothing more than evidence of the mystery of a miracle. The dyes forming her portrait have no base in the elements known to science.

The origin of the name Guadalupe has always been a matter of controversy. It is believed that the name came about because of the translation from Náhuatl to Spanish of the words used by the Virgin during the apparition. It is believed that she used the Náhuatl word coatlaxopeuh which is pronounced "koh-ah-tlah-SUH-peh" and sounds remarkably like the Spanish word Guadalupe. 'Coa' means serpent, 'tla' can be interpreted as "the", while 'xopeuh' means to crush or stamp out. This version of the origin would indicate that Mary must have called herself "she who crushes the serpent," a Christian New Testament reference as well as a a reference to the Mexica's mythical god, The Plumed Serpent.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe statues of all sizes are for sale at the Basílica.

Clara, Fabiola, and I took the Metro and a microbus to La Villa, a journey of about an hour from their apartment in the south to the far northern part of the city. We left the bus at the two-block-long bridge that leads to the Basílica and decided to take a shopping tour before entering the shrine. The street and the bridge are filled chock-a-block with booths selling souvenirs of La Villa. Everything that you can think of (and plenty you would never think of) is available: piles of t-shirts with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and that of Juan Diego, CDs of songs devoted to her, bandanna-like scarves with her portrait, eerie green glow-in-the-dark figurines of her, key chains shaped like the Basílica, statues of her in every size and quality, holy water containers that look like her in pink, blue, silver, and pearly white plastic, religious-themed jewelry and rosaries that smell of rose petals, snow globes with tiny statues of La Guadalupana and the kneeling Juan Diego that are dusted with stars when the globes are shaken.

You can have your picture taken as a memento of your visit to the Virgin.

There are booths selling freshly arranged flowers for pilgrims to carry to the shrine. There are booths selling soft drinks, tacos, and candy. Ice cream vendors hawk paletas (popsicles). Hordes of children offer chicles (chewing gum) for sale. We were jostled and pushed as the crowd grew denser near the Basílica.

The virgin's image is everywhere.

Is it tacky? Yes, without a doubt. Is it wonderful? Yes, without a doubt. It's the very juxtaposition of the tourist tchotchkes with the sublime message of the heavens that explain so much about Mexico. I wanted to buy several recuerdos (mementos) for my neighbors in Ajijic and I was hard-pressed to decide what to choose. Some pilgrims buy before going into the Basílica so that their recuerdos can be blessed by a priest, but we decided to wait until after visiting the Virgin to do my shopping.

Pope John Paul II loved Mexico, loved Our Lady of Guadalupe, and visited the country five times during his tenure as pope.  Here he celebrates Mass at the new Basílica.

The present church was constructed on the site of the 16th-century Old Basílica, the one that was finished in 1709. When the Old Basílica became dangerous due to the sinking of its foundations, a modern structure called the new Basílica was built nearby. The original image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is now housed above the altar in this new Basílica.

Built between 1974 and 1976, the new Basílica was designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vásquez. Its seven front doors are an allusion to the seven gates of Celestial Jerusalem referred to by Christ. It has a circular floor plan so that the image of the Virgin can be seen from any point within the building. An empty crucifix symbolizes Christ's resurrection. The choir is located between the altar and the churchgoers to indicate that it, too, is part of the group of the faithful. To the sides are the chapels of the Santísimo Sacramento (the Blessed Sacrament) and of Saint Joseph.

One of the many processions that constantly arrive from cities and towns all over Mexico and the Americas.

We entered the tall iron gates to the Basílica atrium. It was still early enough in the day that the crowds weren't crushing, although people were streaming in. Clara turned to me, asking, "How do you feel, now that you're back here?"

I thought about it for a moment, reflecting on what I was experiencing. "The first time I came here, I didn't believe the story about the Virgin's appearance to Juan Diego. I thought, 'Yeah, right'.  But the minute I saw the tilma that day, I knew—I mean I really knew—that it was all true, that she really had come here and that really is her portrait." We were walking closer and closer to the entrance we'd picked to go in and my heart was beating faster. "I feel the same excitement coming here today that I have felt every time since that first time I came, the same sense of awe and wonder." Clara nodded and then lifted her head slightly to indicate that I look at what she was seeing.

Faith.

I watched briefly while a family moved painfully toward its goal. The father, on his knees and carrying the baby, was accompanied by his wife and young son, who walked next to him with his hand on his shoulder. Their older son moved ahead of them on his knees toward an entrance of the Basílica. Their faith was evident in their faces. The purpose of their pilgrimage was not. Had the wife's pregnancy been difficult and was their journey one of gratitude for a safe birth? Had the baby been born ill? Was the father recently given a job to support the family, or did he desperately need one? Whatever the reason for their pilgrimage, the united family was going to see their Mother, either to ask for or to give thanks for her help.

Clara, Fabiola, and I entered the Basílica as one Mass was ending and another was beginning. Pilgrims were pouring in to place baskets of flowers on the rail around the altar. The pews were filled and people were standing 10-deep at the back of the church. There were lines of people waiting to be heard in the many confessionals.

We stood for a bit and listened to what the priest was saying. "La misa de once ya se terminó. Decidimos celebrar otra misa ahora a las doce por tanta gente que ha llegado, por tanta fe que se demuestra" ("The Mass at eleven o'clock is over. We decided to celebrate another Mass now at 12 o'clock because so many people have arrived, because of so much faith being demonstrated.")

Indeed, this day was no special feast day on the Catholic calendar. There was no celebration of a special saint's day. However, many people in Mexico have time off from their work during the Christmas and New Year holidays and make a pilgrimage to visit la Virgencita.

The framed tilma hangs above the main altar in the new Basílica.

Making our way through the crowd, we walked down a ramp into the area below and behind the altar. Three moving sidewalks bore crowds of pilgrims past the gold-framed tilma. Tears flowed down the cheeks of some; others made the sign of the cross as they passed, and one woman held her year-old baby up high toward the Virgin. Most, including the three of us, moved from one of the moving sidewalks to another in order to be able to have a longer visit with the Mother of Mexico.

When I visited several years ago, there were only two moving sidewalks. Behind them was space for the faithful to stand and reflect or pray for a few minutes. Today's crush of visitors has required that the space be devoted to movement rather than reflection and rest.

We walked to the back of the Basílica to look at a large bronze crucifix exhibited in a glass case. The crucifix, approximately 3 feet high, is bent backward in a deep arch and lies across a large cushion. According to the placard and the photos from the era, in 1921 a bouquet of flowers was placed directly on the altar of the Old Basílica beneath the framed tilma. It was later discovered that the floral arrangement was left at the altar by an anarchist who had placed a powerful dynamite bomb among the flowers. When the bomb detonated, the altar crucifix was bent nearly double and large portions of the marble altar were destroyed. Nevertheless, no harm came to the tilma and legend has it that the crucified Son protected his Mother.

After a while, we reluctantly left the Basílica. With a long backward glance at the tilma, Clara, Fabiola, and I stepped out into the brilliantly sunny Mexico City afternoon. The throngs in the Basílica atrium still pressed forward to visit the shrine.

Jackson and Perkins created the Our Lady of Guadalupe hybrid floribunda rose.

We stopped in some of the enclosed shops at sidewalk level and then continued over the bridge through the booths of mementos. After I bought the gifts and the priest near the booths blessed them with holy water, we moved away to hail a taxi. My mind was still in the Basílica, with our Mother.

On Monday, December 12, the tiny and gloriously beautiful Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Morelia, Michoacán, will be in full fiesta. Her feast day falls on December 12 each year.  Think about her just for a moment as you go about your day.  After all, she's the Queen of Mexico and the Empress of the Americas.

Glossary of Loving Terms for Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
La Morenita	The Little Dark-Skinned Woman
La Guadalupana	The Guadalupan Woman
La Reina de México	The Queen of Mexico
La Paloma Blanca	The White Dove
La Emperatriz de las Américas	The Empress of the Americas

How to get there once you're in Mexico City:

• From the Centro Histórico (Historic Downtown) take Metro Line 3 at Hidalgo and transfer to Line 6 at Deportivo 18 de Marzo. Go to the next station, La Villa Basílica. Then walk north two busy blocks until reaching the square.
• From the Hidalgo Metro station take a microbus to La Villa.
• From Zona Rosa take a pesero (microbus) along Reforma Avenue, north to the stop nearest the Basílica.
• Or take a taxi from your hotel, wherever it is in the city. Tell the driver, "A La Villa, por favor. Vamos a echarle una visita a la Virgencita." ("To the Basílica, please. We're going to make a visit to the little Virgin.") 

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As You Are Now, So Once Was I :: Día y Noche de Muertos, Michoacán

Mexico Cooks!' full body bone scan, 2009.

Remember me as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I.
As I am now, so you will be,
Prepare for death and follow me.
                   ...from a tombstone

What is death?  We know its first symptoms: the heart stops pumping, breath and brain activity stop. We know death's look and feel: a still, cold body from which the spirit has fled.  The orphan and widow know death's sorrow, the priest knows the liturgy of the departed and the prayers to assuage the pain of those left to mourn. But in most English-speaking countries, death and the living are not friends.  We the living look away from our mortality, we talk of the terminally ill in terms of 'if anything happens', not 'when she dies'.  We hang the crepe, we cover the mirrors, we say the beads, and some of us fling our sobbing selves upon the carefully disguised casket as it is lowered into the Astroturf-lined grave.

Octavio Paz, Mexico City's Nobel Laureate poet and essayist who died in 1998, is famously quoted as saying, "In New York, Paris, and London, the word death is never mentioned, because it burns the lips."


Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán panteón (cemetery), Mexico Cooks! photo.  These fellows were singing to la Descarnada (the fleshless woman) on November 2, 2009.

In Mexico, on the contrary, every day is a dance with death.  Death is a woman who has a numerous affectionate and humorous nicknames: la Huesuda (the bony woman), la Seria (the serious woman), la Novia Fiel (the faithful bride), la Igualadora (the equalizer), la Dientona (the toothy woman), la Pelona (the bald woman), la Patrona (the boss lady), and a hundred more.  She's always here, just around the next corner or right over there, behind that pillar.  She waits with patience, until later today or until twelve o'clock next Thursday, or sometime next year--but when it's time, she's right there to dance away with you at her side.


November 2013 altar to La Santa Muerte (Holy Death), Sta. Ana Chapitiro (near Pátzcuaro), Michoacán. Devotees of this deathly apparition say that her cult has existed since before the Spanish arrived in Mexico.

In Mexico, death is also in the midst of life.  We see our dead, alive as you and me, each November, when we wait at our cemeteries for those who have gone before to come home, if only for a night. That, in a nutshell, is Noche de Muertos: the Night of the Dead.


In the lower center portion of this photograph, you can see the panteón municipal (town cemetery) in Quiroga, Michoacán.  Late in the afternoon of November 1, 2013, most townspeople had not yet gone to the cemetery with candles and flowers for their loved ones' graves. Click on any photograph for a larger view.

Over the course of the last 30-plus years, Mexico Cooks! has been to countless Noche de Muertos events, but none as mystical, as spiritual, or as profoundly magical as in 2013.  Invited to accompany a very small group on a private tour in Michoacán, I looked forward to spending three days enjoying the company of old and new friends. I did all that, plus I came away with an extraordinarily privileged view of life and death.


A magnificent Purépecha ofrenda (in this case, a home altar) in the village of Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán. This detailed and lovely ofrenda was created to the memory of the family's maiden aunt, who died at age 74. Because she had never married, even at her advanced age she was considered to be an angelito (little angel)--like an innocent child--and her spirit was called back home to the family on November 1, the day of the angelitos.  Be sure to click on the photo to see the details of the altar. Fruits, breads, incense, salt, flowers, colors, and candles have particular symbolism and are necessary parts of the ofrenda.


Detail of the ofrenda casera (home altar) shown above. Several local people told Mexico Cooks! that the fruit piled on the altar tasted different from fruit purchased the same day and from the same source that had been put into the kitchen for family eating. "Compramos por ejemplo plátanos y pusimos unos en el altar y otros en la cocina para comer. Ya para el día siguiente, los del altar pierden su sabor, no supieron a nada," they said.  "Lo de la cocina tuvieron sabor normal."  ('We bought bananas, for example, and we put some on the altar and the rest in the kitchen to eat.  The next day, the ones in the kitchen were fine, but the ones from the altar had no taste at all.')


Preparing a family member's ofrenda (altar) in the camposanto in the village of Arócutin, Michoacán. The camposanto--literally, holy ground--is any cemetery contained within the walls of a churchyard.  The candles used in this area of Michoacán are hand-made in the tiny towns of Ihuatzio, San Jerónimo Purenchécuaro, and Santa Fé de la Laguna.

Come with me along the unlit road that skirts the shore of the Lago de Pátzcuaro: Lake Pátzcuaro.  It's chilly and the roadside weeds are damp with earlier rain, but for the moment the sky has cleared and filled with stars.  Up the hill on the right and down the slope leading left toward the lake are tiny villages, dark but for the glow of tall candles lit one by one in the cemeteries.  Tonight is November 1, the night when silent souls wend their way home from Mictlán, the land beyond life.

At the grave: candlelight to illuminate the soul's way, cempazúchitl (deeply orange marigolds) for their distinctive fragrance required to open the path back home, smoldering copal (frankincense) to cleanse the earth and air of any remnants of evil, covered baskets of the deceased's favorite foods and beverages, and a low painted chair, where the living can rest through the night. This tumba (grave) refused to be photographed head-on. From an oblique angle, the tumba allowed its likeness to be made.


Waiting through the night.  

"Oh grave, where is thy victory?  Oh death, where is thy sting?"

Noche de Muertos is not a costume party, although you may see it portrayed as such in the press.  It is not a drunken brawl, although certain towns appear to welcome that sort of blast-of-banda-music reventón (big blow-out).  It is not a tourist event, though strangers are certainly welcomed to these cemeteries. Noche de Muertos is a celebration of the spirit's life over the body's death, a festival of remembrance, a solemn passover.  Many years ago, in an interview published in the New York Times, Mexico Cooks! said, "Noche de Muertos is about mutual nostalgia.  The living remember the dead, and the dead remember the taste of home."


One by one, grave by grave, golden cempazúchiles give shape to rock-bound tombs and long candles give light to what was a dark and lonely place, transforming the cemetery into a glowing garden.  How could a soul resist this setting in its honor?  


"Our hearts remember..." we promise the dead.  Church bells toll slowly throughout the night, calling souls home with their distinctive clamor (death knell).  Come...come home.  Come...come home.


Watching and remembering.  Prayers.  Aún te quiero, mi viejo amado. (I still love you, my dear old man.)

Next year, come with me.

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Mid-October in Michoacán :: Wildflowers and Fresh Produce at Pátzcuaro's Municipal Market

The area around Lake Pátzcuaro, in the state of Michoacán, bursts into wildflower bloom in late September, just as the rainy season is ending here.  The flowers are naturalized wild cosmos, known here as mirasoles ("look-at-the-sun").  Entire fields fill with swaths of these delicate flowers, turning our green countryside into a temporary sea of pink.  Behind the mirasoles is a milpa, a field of native Michoacán corn, beans, and squash.

These beautiful blossoms, selling now at the municipal market in Pátzcuaro, are called estrellas del campo (stars of the field).  From the tops of the flowers to the bottom of their thin, tender stems, they measure about two and a half feet long.  Each multi-petaled bloom measure about 1.5" in diameter.  I've lived in Michoacán for a long time, but this is the first year I've seen these for sale.  We took three large bunches as a gift to a friend--at 15 pesos the bunch.  The total for a big armful of beauty was the Mexican peso equivalent of about $2.25 USD.


Available throughout the year, the native Mexican nanche fruit is in full-blown season right now, piled high on stands around the perimeter of the Pátzcuaro municipal market and on numerous street corners all over the town.  Sold in clear plastic cups (as seen in the photo, courtesy of Healthline) or by the plastic bagful, the vendor will slather these 3/4" inch diameter fruits with jugo de limón (fresh-squeezed Key lime juice), a big sprinkle of salt, and as much highly spicy bottled salsa as your mouth can handle.  The biological name of the nanche is Byrsonima crassifolia.  The fruit is slightly sweet and mildly musty-flavored, a combination that most people love and that I regret to say is not a taste I enjoy at all.  Nanches are packed with nourishment, though--a half-cup of them will give you nearly 60% of your daily Vitamin C requirement, 41 calories, and only 9.5 grams of carbohydrates!  


These are jocotes (native Mexican plums), also in season now in central Mexico.  The fruit measures about two to three inches long; the flesh is either bright orange or deep red, and the flavor is marvelous.  Unfortunately the stone of this plum is almost as big as the entire fruit, and although you could eat it out of hand, the delicious jocote is most often made into an agua fresca (fresh fruit water) that is only available during the fruit's short season.  This little plum is replete with Vitamins A and C, phosphorous, iron, and calcium, and is said to work wonders with gum problems.


A bucket of freshly made agua fresca de jocote, with whole peeled plums floating on top.  It's my favorite agua fresca, and only available when these plums are in season: right now!


Who wants to take a guess at what each of the green herbs (and the vegetable) is?  The elotes (tender fresh Pátzcuaro red corn) at the bottom of the photo were part of a small daily harvest brought to sell on the outdoor periphery of Pátzcuaro's market.  Just to the left of the corn, at the bottom of the photo, are some mint branches that the same vendor brought for sale.  But above the mint?  Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll be able to tell that these are home-grown spiny chayotes.  You are probably familiar with the paler green smooth-skinned chayotes (mirliton in Louisiana, pear squash in other English-speaking locations).  The chayote has an interesting growing habit: unlike most squash, which grows as a vine along the ground, the chayote is airborne--its vines grow on overhead trellises and remind me of grapevines; the small squash hangs down from the vines.  It's an extremely versatile vegetable, taking on the flavors of what you cook it with.  Be sure to eat the soft, tender, flat, white seed--it's considered to be the prize part and is as delicious as the chayote itself. 

To the right of the chayotes is a big bunch of wild anise, known in Pátzcuaro as anisillo.  Used to make the Pátzcuaro regional specialty atole de grano, this herb is tremendously flavorful.  In case you find some anisillo where you are, here's a recipe for atole de grano.  

Atole de Grano
(Fresh Anise-Flavored Corn Kernel Soup)

Ingredients
2 fresh ears of tender young corn
2 cups fresh corn, cut from the cob
1 bunch wild anisillo 
3 liters water
2 whole chiles perón (or substitute chiles poblano)
1/2 pound recently ground corn masa (dough)--ask at the tortillería near you
Salt to taste

Garnishes
1/2 medium white onion, minced
Chile serrano or chile perón, minced
Fresh Key limes, cut in half
Sea salt

Preparation
1.  Clean the ears of corn, remove the silk and cut off the ends.  Cut each ear into three pieces.

2.  Boil the corn on the cob AND the corn kernels in enough water, for an hour and a half or until the corn is tender.

3.  Cut the stem away from the chiles, take out the seeds and veins.  Cut the chiles into smallish pieces, ready to be whizzed in the blender.

4.  In the blender, liquify the chiles, the anisillo, and the masa with two cups of water.  Strain and add to the pot where the corn on the cob is cooking.

5.  Allow to boil gently for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid is slightly thickened.

To serve
1.  Place sections of the cooked corn ears into bowls.

2.  Ladle soup and corn kernels into the bowls.

3.  Serve with the minced onion, minced chile to taste, sea salt, and Key lime halves to squeeze into the soup.  

Serves 2 people as a main dish, 3 as a first course.  This soup is both vegetarian and vegan, and gluten-free.


Atole de grano, made in a cazo (large copper kettle).


The vendor at this small booth at the Pátzcuaro market had an interesting variety of things for sale.  Bottom right are fresh guavas, just now coming into season.  To the left of the guavas are chiles perón (aka chiles manzano), arguably the most-used chile in this part of Michoacán.  Above the chiles perón are fresh, green chiles de árbol.  To the right are wild mushrooms known as patita de pájaro (little bird foot).  These mushrooms, growing wild in Michoacán's woods and foraged during the rainy season, make a wonderful mushroom soup.


These are home-grown loquats, known in Mexico as nísperos (NEE-speh-rohs).  Nísperos are local and are plentiful in markets right now.


Gelatin--this large cupful is called "mosaíco"--mosaic, because of its many colored cubes.  More gelatin is eaten in Mexico than in any other country of the world!  A cupful this size is usually an eat-while-you-walk snack food.  This one was made and sold from a tiny cart with no name, just to one side of the Pátzcuaro market.  The young woman selling the gelatins said her name was Yesi--I said her cart was now dubbed Gelatinas Yesi, and she laughed.


Just at the corner of the market, we bumped into don Rafael, who was selling--you guessed it--cotton candy.  Cotton candy HAS no season, it's always available here.  Get the blue, it will turn your lips and tongue blue as a blueberry, but just for a while.  

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Thalía Barrios García and La Cocina de Humo, Oaxaca :: A Do-Not-Miss in Oaxaca's Capital

Thalía Barrios García, chef and cocinera tradicional (traditional cook) and head of the kitchens at both of her restaurants: Levadura de Olla and La Cocina de Humo, both located in the Centro Historico of Oaxaca, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.  Thalía was born and raised in San Mateo Yucutindoó, a town of approximately 2500 inhabitants in the Sierra Sur of the state of Oaxaca.  The town is approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital city of Oaxaca.  Photo courtesy UTVCO

Two months ago, I spent a week visiting many friends in the city of Oaxaca.  I was thrilled; I hadn't travelled anywhere since early 2019.  Pre-COVID, I was accustomed to travel to Oaxaca as many as six times a year, taking tour groups, attending culinary events, and generally taking my Michoacán-based, Oaxaca-related life for granted.  In March 2020, boom!  COVID's impact on Mexico--and everywhere else in the world--shut down tours, culinary events, and travel. This June, I was way beyond eager to see old friends, enjoy long comidas (comida is the afternoon main meal of the day in Mexico) with them, and have the time to visit Thalía Barrios García, the young Oaxaca culinary phenomenon, in one of her two restaurants.  She asked me to have desayuno (breakfast) with her at Cocina de Humo (the smoke kitchen) and I jumped at the chance.


La Cocina de Humo is an offshoot of her larger restaurant, Levadura de Olla (literally 'yeast for a clay pot'; in Thalía's native San Mateo Yucutindoó, bread is baked in clay pots).  At La Cocina de Humo, I was privileged to sit in the kitchen for breakfast, next to the comal (in this case, a flat handmade clay griddle seated above a wood fire).  The tiny restaurant space is specifically designed to be a copy of the home kitchens of Yucutindoó.  The photo above is the view from my seat; the comal is just to the left of the vegetables.  All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

Thalía left her hometown when she was 18 years old, to attend culinary school.  Her parents were 100% behind her decision.  Thalía says, "My parents were always behind us kids, they wanted only the best for each of us and dreamed that we would be able to leave our town to achieve something in the wider world.  My parents said, "The only condition is that you do something chingona."  Loosely translated, that means 'badass', and in my opinion, Thalía's middle name should be chingona. 


My first course included café de olla (coffee with cinnamon and other spices, middle left), atole de plátano (a thick corn-based drink, in this case including banana, right), and pastel de elote (a delicious semi-sweet cake made with fresh, early-season corn).  At the back of the photo, the cup is made to resemble the pochote tree trunk--pochote, endemic to Oaxaca and Puebla, is known in English as kapok.


The trunk of a pochote tree.  I took the photo in the Biósfera Tehuacán-Cuicatlán, in the state of Puebla (just north of the Oaxaca state border).  You can easily see the resemblance the trunk, with its soft protuberances (they look like sharp thorns, but they're not), has to the cups used at La Cocina de Humo.  Every aspect of the pochote tree is sacred to the Maya--including to the contemporary Maya.  From its curative bark to its medicinal roots, from its profound shade to its life-giving energy, it is easy to understand why the handmade clay cups at La Cocina de Humo have the shape that they do.  


Caldo de ejote de milpa (broth with green beans from the milpa).  The wooden serving spoons for each of these dishes were large, and the handmade bowls themselves were small, thank goodness.  I'm pretty sure that Thalía sent me everything on the menu to taste!    


Calabacitas criollas (diced little squash, similar to zucchini) with jitomate riñón (kidney-shaped tomatoes particular to Oaxaca), seasoned with delicious spices.  All of the dishware at La Cocina de Humo is handmade clay, designed by Thalía and some women potters in San Mateo Yucutindoó.


Barbacoa de olla (pot-style barbacoa) made of pork, chicken, the leaf of avocado criollo, chile guajillo and chile ancho.

After finishing the equivalent to a bachelor's degree at the culinary school that is part of Oaxaca's Universidad Tecnológica de los Valles Centrales, Thalía worked in various restaurants until she realized that her strongest point was the traditional kitchen, and not just any traditional kitchen, but the dishes she originally learned from her grandmother, her mother, and her aunts. I first met Thalía several years ago, when she was cooking under the baton of my beloved friend Celia Florián, the cocinera tradicional who is head of the kitchen at Oaxaca's internationally renowned Restaurante Las 15 Letras.  In 2019, Thalía opened her first restaurant, Levadura de Olla. By 2021, she was considered to be the most outstanding participant in the awards of the 50 Best Restaurants of Latin America, given that year in the city of Oaxaca.  And since then, the reviews have been pure praise, pure delight, for her cooking, her restaurants' style, and her own chingona self since the beginning.


A newly made taco filled with house-style mole negro (black mole) and deliciously fried sweet plátano macho--super-ripe plantain.  This was course number three or four--nothing was large, nothing was overpowering, and every single taste of every single thing was marvelous.


Stove-side still life with jitomate riñón, at La Cocina de Humo.


On reflection, I think this was my favorite of the many separate platillos (prepared dishes) that I ate (at least some of) for breakfast.  This is simplicity itself: a freshly-made salsa de molcajete (a table salsa in which all the comal-roasted ingredients are ground together in a volcanic stone mortar, with a volcanic stone pestle).  While the salsa is hot from the roasting, raw eggs are scrambled into it.  The ingredients were that old cliché: much more than the sum of their parts. I'd have it again tomorrow, and the next day.  And oh joy, I've been invited back to Oaxaca this coming October.  Can you guess where I'll be having breakfast?


Don't miss the store (Tienda Piedra de Río) in the front of the building where La Cocina de Humo is located.  The pottery is the same as that used in the restaurant, those wonderful pochote cups are available there, and lots of other beautiful Oaxaca kitchen and household things are there as well.  

I recently read a quote that I love, dedicated to La Cocina de Humo.  I hope you'll love it too, and I hope you'll go to eat there as soon as you possibly can. 

"Si dios (el qué sea de su confianza) bajara al mundo de los mortales, sería para comer aquí."
"If god (whichever god you might trust) were to come from Heaven to this mortal world, it would be to eat here."
________________________________________

La Cocina de Humo
Calle Murguía 304
Near the corner of Calle Juárez
Centro Histórico
Oaxaca 68000
Oaxaca de Juárez
Tel: +52 951 169 8076
Hours: Monday through Saturday 9:00AM - 9:00PM
           Closed Sundays
           Reservation necessary

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Chiles en Nogada, Symbol of Mexico's Independence from Spain and in Season RIGHT NOW

 

It's that time of year again: time for chiles en nogada!  I was thrilled to eat the chile above at Restaurante La Conspiración de 1809 in Morelia, Michoacán--it was without question the best chile en nogada I've eaten, in my long history of eating as many as possible every season!

This year's freshly harvested and peeled nuez de castilla (walnuts), an essential for seasonal chiles en nogada.  The nut meats must be perfectly white, with no pieces of the papery brown peel left at all.  This step is the fiddley-est part of the recipe.  You can do it, it just takes patience.  If you have school-age children, get them to help you.

Mexico celebrates its independence the entire month of September with parades, parties, and traditional food and drink, served in restaurants and at home.  The traditional festive dish during the weeks just before and after the Independence Day holiday is chiles en nogada, a magnificent tribute to the seasonal availability of a certain kind of peach, a particular kind of pear (the pera lechera), the locally grown panochera apple, newly in-season granadas (pomegranates) and nuez de castilla (freshly harvested walnuts). From mid-July until early October, seasonal local fruits, fresh pomegranates, and newly harvested walnuts make chiles en nogada possible.  Mildly spicy chiles poblano, stuffed with a special kind of picadillo and topped with richly creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds, flaunt the brilliant green, white and red of the Mexican flag. 


The panochera apple, grown in the Mexican state of Puebla, and pera lechera (milky pear), also grown in the area, are two must-have ingredients for making chiles en nogada in Mexico.  If you live outside central Mexico, a small crisp apple and a very crisp pear (Bosc or d'Anjou) would substitute.

This festive dish is traditionally served beginning in late July, right on through September 15 or 16 in honor of Mexico's Independence Day, and then as long as the seasonal ingredients hold out--usually ending in October. During August and September in the highlands of Mexico, particularly in Mexico City and Puebla, vendors wander through tianguis (street markets) and other markets, selling the clean, white meats of nuez de castilla (walnuts, grown in Mexico). It is important to use the freshest walnuts possible, as they produce such a creamy, rich sauce that it is worth the effort to buy them peeled or peel them oneself.  Yes, the recipe is time-consuming (not difficult, just takes time)...but you and your guests will jump up and shout "VIVA MÉXICO!" when they've licked the platters clean. 

Ingredients

For the meat:  

• 2 pounds beef brisket or other stew meat or 1 pound beef and 1 pound pork butt*
• 1 small white onion, quartered 
• 2 large cloves garlic 
• about 1 Tbsp sea salt
  *You can, if you are in a pinch for time, use equal quantities of coarsely ground beef and pork.  Brown them before adding other ingredients.

 For the picadillo (filling):  

• 4 Tbsp safflower or canola oil
• the shredded meat (or the ground meat)
• 1/3 cup chopped white onion
• 3 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• pinch pimienta gorda (allspice)
• 1 or 2 chiles serrano, finely minced
• 4 Tbsp chopped fresh walnuts 
• 4 Tbsp slivered blanched almonds
• 2 Tbsp finely diced crystalized pineapple (in place of acitrón, candied biznaga cactus).  See note below.
• 1 fresh pear, peeled and chopped.  I like to use very ripe, soft Bosc pears.
• 1 apple, peeled and chopped.  I prefer to use a sweet apple rather than a tart apple.
• 4 very ripe yellow peaches, peeled and diced
• 3 Tbsp Mexican pink pine nuts.  You can substitute white if you aren't able to find pink, but white pine nuts aren't sweet.
• 3 ripe Roma tomatoes, roasted, peeled and chopped
• sea salt to taste

Fully mature chiles poblano, picked fresh and sold on the street in Tehuacán, Puebla, very close to where the chiles are grown. 


Deep green chiles poblano are normally used for chiles en nogada.  These measure as much as seven inches long. If you click on the photo to make it larger, you can see that these chiles have deep, long grooves running down their sides. When I'm buying them, I choose chiles poblano that are as smooth and flat as possible on their broad flat sides.  The flat smoothness makes them easier to roast easily.  

For the chiles:

--6 fresh chiles poblanos, roasted, peeled, slit open, and seeds removed, leaving the stem intact   

 For the nogada (walnut sauce):  

• 1 cup freshly harvested nuez de castilla (walnuts), peeled of all brown membrane** 
• 6 ounces queso de cabra (goat cheese), queso doble crema or standard cream cheese (not fat free), at room temperature 
• 1-1/2 cups crema mexicana or 1-1/4 cups sour cream thinned with milk 
• about 1/2 tsp sea salt or to taste
• 1 Tbsp sugar   
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 cup dry sherry (optional)

**Please note that this recipe is correctly made with walnuts, not almonds and not pecans.  Using pecans will give your sauce a non-traditional flavor and a beige color, rather than pure white.

Remove the arils (seeds) from a pomegranate.  


We who live in Mexico are fortunate to find pomegranate seeds ready to use, sold in plastic cups.  Can you see them at the top of the photo, with the pink plastic spoons stuck into the cups?

For the garnish: 

--1 Tbsp coarse-chopped flat-leaf parsley
--1/2 cup fresh pomegranate seeds 

Preparation:

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.  If you're using ground beef/pork, simply brown the ground meats in a big-enough pot, in a small amount of oil (see below).  


Candied biznaga (aka acitrón) cactus.  Because the biznaga cactus is on the endangered species list, it's recommended that we either leave this out of the chile en nogada filling entirely or that we substitute finely diced crystallized pineapple.  


Mexican pink pine nuts.  Their taste is sweeter than the standard white ones, and they leave no bitter aftertaste in your dish.  If you can't find these pink pine nuts, you can substitute the white ones.

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 or ground meats and cook, stirring, for five minutes. Add the cinnamon, pepper, and cloves, then, stir in the two tablespoons of chopped walnuts. Add the chopped pear, apple, pine nuts, and finely diced biznaga cactus, 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 and refrigerated a day or two in advance of final preparations.

Roasted chiles poblano, ready to peel, seed, and stuff.  Photo courtesy Delicious Mexican Recipes.

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

At least three hours in advance, put the walnuts in a small pan of water.  Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat and let the nuts sit for five minutes. Drain the nuts and, when cool, rub off as much of the dark skin as possible.  Your goal is pure white nutmeats without peel.  Chop the nuts into small pieces. Place the nuts, cream cheese, crema, and salt in a blender and purée thoroughly. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and sherry until thoroughly combined. The sauce should be velvety smooth.  Chill for several hours. 

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


Chile en nogada as served at Restaurante Azul Histórico, Mexico City.  It's the Mexican flag on your plate!  


Chile en nogada as served at Restaurante Las Quince Letras, Centro Histórico, Oaxaca.

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

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