Mexico Cooks!

FIESTAS! FIESTAS! FIESTAS!

Fiestas! A Mexican town goes all-out for its fiestas.  Every barrio (neighborhood) celebrates its special saint.  Any specialty item produced in a town gets at least a couple of days' party: the paleta in Tocumbo, a cheese in Cotija, maque (laquerware) in Uruapan.  El Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead), Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe), Candelaria (Candlemas)--each merits a party.  But the biggest, most whoop-de-do wonderful fiesta time of the year comes to one small town near Guadalajara at the end of November. Starting on the evening of November 22 and culminating on the night of November 30, the town celebrates the fiestas of its patron saint, San Andrés (St. Andrew).

Dare we go up on the ferris wheel?  It's called rueda de la fortuna (wheel of fortune) at the fiestas in this town.

Each day of the fiesta is sponsored by a different worker's group, or gremio.  For example, there are gremios for the masons, gardeners and domestic workers, plumbers and electricians.  One day of the yearly fiestas patronales is sponsored by a large local hotel, and another is sponsored by los hijos ausentes, (the absent children), those who were born and raised in the town but who now live in the United States or other parts of Mexico.

In the pre-dawn hours of every morning, the angels are awakened (so goes a local saying) by hundreds of booming cohetes (skyrockets) set off in the church atrium. Soon after, pealing church bells call the faithful to 6:00 AM Mass, along with oom-pah bands of musicians processing through the cobbled streets leading the procession to the church of San Andrés. Thousands more skyrockets thunder to the heavens throughout the day and night, every day and night.

Cohetes courtesy of a terrific photographer, Flickr user joven_60.  Thanks, David, you captured everything but the booms!

The faint of heart leave town for the duration, dogs bark, cats hide, but the tiniest babies yawn and cuddle closer to their mothers as they sleep undisturbed through all of the racket. Last year, on the day that was sponsored by the gremio de los albañiles (construction workers), 7,000 thundering skyrockets were set off in one 24-hour period.  You read that right, seven thousand.  Nearly 300 an hour for 24 hours!

Pozole (a pork, corn, and chile stew) and atole (a hot drink, in this case made of corn) warm you inside and out during the fiestas in Mexico's chilly winter.

Each gremio sponsors a second procession and celebration of Mass at 7:00 PM every evening and then the fun begins. The fiestas are part religious observance, part circus sideshow, part food festival, part carnival, part dance party, part courtship, and part competition. You'll find every sort of food being served on the plaza. There are in-season guasanas (fresh green garbanzo beans, steamed in the pod on a brazier), tacos of every description including carne asada (marinated beef), beef tongue, and tacos al pastor (pork, marinated, roasted on a spit, and chipped off to order, sizzling hot).

Hungry celebrators of any age can choose from tamales, pozole, atole, pizza baked in a portable oven, hot dogs, hot cakes, hot corn on the cob, hot fresh-made potato chips, hot breads and hot drinks. Hot cinnamon tea is a specialty of the fiestas, served sweetened and, more often than not, with a piquete (a stiff shot of tequila, rum or rompope (eggnog liquor).

The fiestas bring great friends together for great fun.

There are games of chance galore: typical ring toss games (encircle the prize and you win it), canaries that tell your fortune, shooting gallery games (watch out for the little stuffed monkey. Someone hits it and it pees in an astonishingly long trajectory).

Stop at Bebidas Paraíso for a drink.  Tequila, rum, brandy, whiskey--these temporary bars, set up just for the fiestas, are called terrazas.

There's a long street of tchotchke booths, selling everything from plastic kitchen wares to CDs to clothes to toys (Christmas is just around the corner) to souvenirs of the fiestas. It's easy to get lost in the vast numbers of tiny trinkets in each booth.

There are specialty crafts booths selling fantastic embroidery, wood carvings, pottery, and regional candy specialties. Want to ride a big white goat with a saddle? Hop on!

Everything is made luminous by the chilly, starry skies. The warmth of twinkling colored lights, the sounds, the smells and the excitement of young and old alike is palpable in the chilly night air. The band revs up around 8:00 PM and plays con gusto till the last possible moment, frequently until two, three or four in the morning.

Coheteros (fireworks makers) spend part of each fiesta daytime setting up the evening's castillo.

And overshadowing all of these goings-ons is the grand finale of each evening, the castillo (castle). A set-piece fireworks display made of thin strips of bamboo, wires, strings, black powder and fuses, the castillo is mounted on a 20-foot-high 6-inch thick pole in the middle of one of the narrowest streets in town. The miracle of engineering and architecture has its moments of glory around 11:00 each evening. The coheteros, the men who build these fireworks marvels, mill around their creation all evening, having a few beers while they baby sit the 'castle'.

At about 10:30, murmurs start running through the crowded plaza: "A qué horas se quema?" (What time will it be burned?) Suddenly, the castillo jiggles-the long fuses are loosened and shaken. It's time! The coheteros grin and suck their cigarettes as the music crescendos. All eyes are fixed on the bamboo center of attention. And, whoosh, the first long fuse is lit with the hot end of a cigarette, the sparks climb higher, and BANG! The first wheel of the display catches fire with a whistle, a whir, and a buzz.

Brilliantly colored flames shoot out in the form of—wait! What is that? It's an elephant—no, wait, it's a bull! For mere moments the bull whirls in space, isolated in the darkness and shooting sparks into the crowd. And then whoosh another fuse, and this time it's a champagne glass that bursts into the night, and then a flower, and then spinning discs of neon green flame, and then fountains of what look like diamonds fall into the night, showering over the crowd.

Six little boys run merrily under the exploding castillo, protected by cardboard cartons held over their heads. Oh the risk! Oh the joy! And BANG, the castillo erupts again, now at the higher levels—this time a guitar, and an apple and a poinsettia flame out into the night. And at the highest level, what's this? A folded fan falls open, shooting flames of purple, pink, blue, and green--no! There's a head. It's a peacock, twirling and shooting fantastic cascades of sparks from the feathers of its tail.

And then the coup de grace—at the very top, a ring of brilliant fuchsia fire spins faster, faster, faster, until the corona (crown) loosens its moorings from the structure and flies higher and higher into the starry sky, trailing glittering sparks until finally it burns out with a hiss that is echoed by the sigh of the crowd. The castillo is finished for tonight, the smell of smoke and gunpowder lingering in the air.

The band music takes up the slack. Families with little ones and the old folks head home as soon as the last spark dies. The teens and the young men and women begin their sloe-eyed walk around the plaza. In the sidewalk cantinas, members of the sponsoring gremio order another tequila, in food stands couples eat another taco, and then it's home to bed to dream of what's been tonight and what tomorrow might bring.

A globo (balloon) vendor plies the fiesta crowd.

And all the while they dream, the band plays, the stars shine and the coheteros smile and tip yet another beer to toast their evening's work.

   

         

                                                                                                                                                

 

Xilonen: Guadalajara School of Traditional Mexican Cooking

A couple of months ago I received a desperate email.  Friends who are owners of a Guadalajara B&B were frantically looking for a Mexican cooking school for clients who would arrive within the week.  The answer was a no-brainer: Xilonen, the Guadalajara school of Mexican culinary traditions run by Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski, would fill the bill perfectly.   My friends breathed a sigh of relief, their guests were ecstatic with their cooking adventure, and I made big points.  The situation was win-win all the way around.

Culinary tourism is a hot item these days.  Whether you're a recreational cook-tourist looking for a visceral way to understand a new culture, a home cook looking for a new twist on dinner, or a professional cook looking for ways to update a restaurant menu, the road to a man's (or woman's) heart is still definitely through the stomach.

Founder and owner of Xilonen, Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski.

Rose Marie Plaschinski is not your ordinary cooking school owner.  A Guadalajara native, she knew from an early age that the kitchen was her passion. In high school, she often baked and sold cookies as a way to make extra money and she still dearly loves dessert preparation.

After studying at three of the most famous cooking schools in the world—the Cordon Bleu in Paris, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and at the University of Mexico's Cultura Culinaria—she returned to Guadalajara to open her own cooking school, Cordón Rose.

We met recently to talk about her culinary life.  Rose Marie chatted with me about her career and her decision to open Cordón Rose, and now Xilonen.

"All of my career, people have told me that I am a pioneer," Rose Marie began. "My original cooking school was the first to open in Guadalajara. Cordón Rose concentrated on the classic styles of cooking, and there are still no other schools in Guadalajara that prepare a professional chef in that way. Now there are many schools, more than twenty. But to find one of the high category of Cordón Rose?"  Rose Marie lifted an eyebrow in doubt. 

"When my children were a bit younger, I wanted them to live away from the hustle-bustle of Guadalajara.  I thought they needed a slower life, closer to nature and closer to me.  My work kept me away from them and I was afraid they would only know me as "that lady", not as their mother.  I initially opened Xilonen in the country, about an hour and a half from Guadalajara.  My children and I  loved living there, but it was almost impossible for them to have a high-quality education in the nearest town.  We decided to come back to the city for the sake of their school preparation.  I moved the whole Xilonen operation back to Guadalajara."

"Xilonen is the Nahuatl name of the young goddess of corn. Corn is the mother of the cuisines of Mexico; corn has fed us for centuries and Xilonen the goddess is our nourishing mother. In gratitude to our mother, I call this new incarnation of my cooking school by her name.

Rose Marie commented, "You know, Xilonen isn't just about exquisite food. I've been involved in the Slow Food International movement for several years, and the movement's philosophy is part of Xilonen.  You know that part of the Slow Food philosophy is a firm defense of quiet material pleasure, opposing the universal folly of Fast Life.
         
"My clients are mature people, people who understand that the beauty of our natural surroundings combines with the gentleness of the indoor atmosphere, which combines with the delightful surprises coming from the kitchen. The entire ambience creates a whole aura of relaxation and slowing down.  Pleasures in the city, in the house, in the kitchen and at table are primary to a marvelous culinary vacation.

Glorieta Chapalita, the hub of Xilonen's neighborhood, hosts an art show every Sunday.

"Even though we're in the midst of Guadalajara, a city of more than 6,000,000, Xilonen's neighborhood is an island of peace.  The streets are tree-lined, the pace is slow, and yet we're just minutes from Guadalajara's Centro Histórico (historic downtown area).  Along with several plans tailored to our clients' cooking school requirements, Xilonen also offers sightseeing and tourism options.

Rose Marie will explain everything you'll see in the food stalls at Guadalajara's famous Mercado Libertad.

A one-day Xilonen class features a trip to a typical market plus preparation of a dish or a meal.  Set up for an individual or a couple, the class offers an intimate introduction to regional Mexican cooking, an opportunity to spend time honing your already well-used kitchen skills, and the close personal attention of Chef Rose Marie.

The one-week series of classes is much more detailed and features authentic regional recipes.  Rose Marie herself guides students through preparing several full meals: drinks, appetizers, soups, main courses, and desserts.  You'll learn the proper preparation of a margarita, an exciting guacamole made from perfectly ripe avocados, the preparation of authentic arroz a la mexicana (Mexican red rice), a salsa or two to add a touch of picante, and delicious desserts made from local ingredients.  Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating!  Naturally you'll enjoy the fruits of your labor at Chef Rose Marie's elegant and very Mexican table.

Professional food and design consultation for chefs and restaurants is another of Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski's specialties.

For the culinary professional, Chef Rose Marie offers courses to update qualifications, ability to assess needs, product development, plan restaurant menus, and more. The professional can come to Mexico or invite Chef Rose Marie Plaschinski for a personal visit to your workplace.  She has recently completed extensive consultation with the planners and owners of a new Mexican restaurant in Maryland.  Her work there included numerous field visits to the United States.

All of you aficionados of Mexico's cuisines know that there are any number of cooking schools in the República which offer classes in the country's more esoteric foods: 37-ingredient moles which take days to prepare, guisdados made of mushrooms found in one corner of one Mexican state, et cetera.  Chef Rose Marie can offer you classes in all of the esoterica, but if you want to cook what Mexico really eats, every day, Xilonen is the place to study.  Rose Marie's prices compare very favorably with those of other Mexican cooking schools, she offers full accommodations for your stay in Guadalajara, and you'll be thrilled with her as well as with what you learn during your time at Xilonen.

Contact Xilonen here:   Be sure to tell Chef Rose Marie hello from us at Mexico Cooks!
 

 

                     

Alicia Gironella and Giorgio de'Angeli, Extraordinary Ambassadors of Mexico's Cuisines

At the December 2007 Expo de Gastronomía in Morelia, Michoacán, Alicia Gironella de'Angeli comments on the importance of keeping a family cookbook.

Mention Mexico's cuisines (both ancient and modern) and within moments you'll hear the names Alicia Gironella and Giorgio d'Angeli.  The spouses have worked together for more than 30 years to promote, preserve, and protect Mexico's pre-conquest and mestizo kitchen traditions.  It's been my honor to have known the two of them for several years.

In the culinary world of Mexico, Alicia Gironella De'Angeli is ever-present, even when she is not in the room. A recognized authority on the cuisines of Mexico she is also a committed Slow Food officer and was part of the initiative that prepared and presented the proposal "People of Corn -- Mexico's Ancestral Cuisine" to UNESCO. She has devoted herself to research, investigation and rescue of the vast and complex cuisines of Mexico and with her husband Giorgio De'Angeli they have traveled the world, taught, and written on the complex nature and multiplicity of ingredients found only here.

At the recent Muestra de Gastronomía in Morelia, Giorgio de'Angeli gobbled some slow food: tacos de borrego a la penca.

Giorgio de'Angeli is a tireless laborer in the interest of Slow Food, the international movement founded in Italy in 1989 as a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.  In the defense of Slow Food, Sr. de'Angeli says, "No vertical food, please, and no fusion cuisine.  Fusion cuisine ends up being CON-fusion.  The Slow Food movement is about preserving and teaching real cooking, sustainable agriculture, eco-gastronomia, and tradition."  Click here to learn more about Slow Food International.

SLOW, the magazine of the Slow Food movement, is published four times a year in six languages.

Over the last nearly 20 years, Alicia Gironella and Giorgio de'Angeli have written a number of books.

El Gran Libro de la Cocina Mexicana was published by Larousse in 1990.  The five-volume set, in Spanish, includes volumes called La Cocina de la Imaginación, La Cocina de la Sencillez, La Cocina de las Sorpresas, La Cocina de las Especias y los Aromas, and La Cocina Barroca.  The set is out of print.  A volume or the entire set is occasionally available at specialty used and rare bookstores.

Epazote y Molcajete arrived in 1993.

Everest Publishing offered Cocina Mexicana para el Mundo: Saberes y Sabores in 2003.

Larousse published this edition of the Larousse de la Cocina Mexicana in 2006, with a second edition in 2007.

In this second edition of the Larousse, aesthetics and modernity share the pages with the indigenous and traditional, providing a concise guide for the professional and the novice alike. Alicia explains the work as "not a coffee table book" but as a text to be used in the kitchen, though the photographs by Federico Gil are breathtakingly beautiful. The book serves as a compendium of recipes with step by step instructions, techniques and methods, and a full descriptive of utensils commonly used in the Mexican kitchen. One of the sections deals with the importance of flowers as food and the preparation of this "gift of nature" transformed into a delicious meal. Moles as well are given an in depth view by region, method of preparation and according to place names.

The de'Angelis masterwork is as easily used by the home cook as by the professional.  Neither bogged down in historical detail nor lengthy socio-geographical analysis, the authors cut to the chase and give us what is arguably the most complete reference and recipe book on Mexican cooking.   Larousse de la Cocina Mexicana is not only an homage to one of the richest world gastronomies, it is also a compendium of variety, tradition, and flavor.  Its pages contain more than 500 recipes for main dishes, drinks, and salsas, from the simplest to the most elaborate and from the traditional to today's kitchen.  The book has more than 800 photographs, step-by-step explanations of preparations, and numerous technical illustrations.  Among the most useful and interesting details are comparative tables of moles, tamales, and salsas.  The tables allow the cook to understand the similarities and differences among the various preparations.

As Sra. Gironella commented "We have created this book to demonstrate the richness of a cuisine that is vast, creative and colorful.  We tasted every recipe so there would be no doubt about its ingredients and preparation.  If it weren't for the kitchen brigade at El Tajín (her restaurant close to Coyoacán in Mexico City), the book would not be what it is.  I'm so grateful for their dedication and skill."

A classical Mexican kitchen, circa 1920-30.

In addition to their multiple tasks as restaurant owners, writers and teachers, the de'Angelis are also part of the enormous effort with UNESCO to declare Mexico's corn-based kitchen a patrimony of humanity. Along with Gloria López Morales and several well-known Mexican chefs, the de'Angelis presented the cuisines of Mexico at UNESCO's Paris headquarters in 2006.  Although the initial request for patrimony of humanity status was denied, the chefs agree that with or without UNESCO, Mexico's corn-based cuisines are a cultural and culinary heritage that must be preserved.

Mexico has extraordinary regional cuisines, one for nearly every state, and the base of all these cuisines is three plants: corn, bean, and chile.  The roots of Mexico's cuisines go back thousands of years, to an age and past comparable with other great civilizations. 

The de'Angelis and the rest of the chefs agree that there should be another presentation to UNESCO to plead the cause for patrimony of humanity status.  Giorgio de'Angeli says that a great campaign is needed to make everyone conscious of Mexico's marvelous traditional cuisines.  "Largely unknown internationally, indigenous cuisines are also little recognized here in the cities of Mexico.  In both Mexico City and Guadalajara, there are more restaurants featuring foreign cuisines than those which feature traditional Mexican cooking.  In my mind, that's clear evidence that certain sectors of society underestimate or know little about the greatness of Mexico's culinary culture."  De'Angeli goes on to say that this expression of Mexico's national culture requires better definition of ingredients, utensils, and food preparation.  Mexico's cuisines are as extensive as China's, as delicious as the cuisines of France, but they lack definition.  Because Mexico's cuisines are so diverse, there is no single recipe, for example, for mole, for tamales, for enchiladas.

Alicia Gironella de'Angeli graciously shared a simple traditional recipe with Mexico Cooks!

Pipián Prieto
(Dark Pipián)

Utensils
Blender
Cazuela (shallow clay pot)
Wooden spoon

Ingredients
100 grams hulled green pumpkin seeds, toasted
50 grams dried black corn, toasted
2 whole chiles anchos
1 cup chicken or beef broth
2 Tbsp lard
1 teaspoon salt

Procedure
1.  Grind the pumpkin seeds, corn, and chiles with a little of the broth.  Strain and fry in the lard.  Season with salt to taste.
2.  Finish cooking the above paste with the rest of the broth.  If you like, you can add potatoes, nopales, or cooked, sliced turnips.  The pipián should be thick.
3.  Serve in the shallow dish as a salsa for shrimp and potatoes.

In 1993, Sra. De'Angeli opened a stunning new restaurant, El Tajín, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Some of the highlights on the menu are: fish steamed in a banana leaf with mushrooms and nopales (cactus paddles), various kinds of ceviche arranged like flower petals, seductive bisque-like soups and tantalizing fruit desserts, including one made of the sour cactus fruit xoconoxtle.

"This is the same food we serve at home," Mrs. De'Angeli said. "It is one of two tendencies in Mexican cooking. The other is popular Mexican food, the kind with the grease and the cheese and everything fried. It is the traditional food that we are reinterpreting."

Basically, she said, she is changing the presentation. Take the way she makes tortillas at El Tajín: the warm, flat corn cakes come with leaves of the fragrant Mexican herb epazote embedded in them, which gives them a stylish look.

If you plan to be in Mexico City, make reservations and give yourself the extraordinary pleasure of dining in the traditional style.  If you're very lucky indeed, you'll have an opportunity to meet both the de'Angelis.  Be prepared to be ecstatic.

El Tajin restaurant:
Telephones: (52-55)  5659 -5759 / 5659 - 4447
Address: Miguel Ángel de Quevedo Num. 687
Colonia: Cuadrante de San Francisco (just south of Coyoacán) Part of the Centro Cultural Veracruzano
Hours: Monday thru Sunday from 1 to 6 PM.

 

                                                                          

Indigenous Michoacán Cuisine Exposition in Morelia: Molcajete and Metate, Churipo and Charanda

This drawing from the Florentine Codex, a 12-volume compendium of indigenous Aztec (Mexica) customs written by Bernadino de Sahagún between 1540 and 1585, shows a woman grinding corn with a metate and metapil.

For four days in early December, 2007, the city of Morelia focused its attention on the cuisine of its largest indigenous people, the Purhépecha.  Government officials and people important in the world of Mexican food  arrived from points east and west.  They heard seminars, book presentations, and studious commentary about the origins of mestizo cooking in Michoacán.  Speakers emphasized the importance of keeping the strong cultural traditions of the Michoacán kitchen, the grand patrimony of family cookbooks, and the need to study and record the heritage of the various culinary regions of the state.

More than 460 years after Sahagún wrote the Codex, this Purhépecha woman grinds masa on the lawn at the Muestra de Gastronomía, still using a metate (the sloping three-legged grinding stone)and metapil, which resembles a rolling pin.

We looked wise and nodded sagely as we heard scholarly talks.  We of the press photographed all the bigwigs, who smiled politely and acquiesced.  In truth, the press, the bigwigs, and Morelia's hungry citizens were waiting for only one thing: the Saturday opening of the Muestra de Gastronomía, the two-day food tasting that would give all of us an opportunity to sample the exquisite regional cuisines we'd been theorizing about for the first two days of this annual event.

After all, food is what this annual event celebrates.  Food is what fuels us, what feeds our bodies and our passions.  Food kindles both our present day and our nostalgic past, and this encuentro (encounter) of tradition with today can bring together the best of both times.  In the hands of las mayoras (the Purhépecha home cooks, elderly women all) and the young alta cocina (haute cuisine) chefs of Michoacán, we literally become one another's companions*: we break bread together and unite our hearts at table.

*companion: From the Latin "Companionem," which was, "one with whom you would eat bread" -- "Con" (with) and "Pan" (bread) -- presumably, your "companion" was someone with whom you would "break bread."

Gloria López Morales of Mexico City, formerly a long-term UNESCO and Conaculta official who continues to be a driving force in the conservation of Mexican gastronomy, comments about the importance of Mexico's cuisine as a cultural patrimony.

To start our Saturday eating foray, we tried delicious tacos de borrego a la penca (lamb wrapped in agave leaves and pit-roasted), as prepared by Sr. Eduardo Garibay of Santa Clara del Cobre.

Doña Paula Alfaro Aguilar (right) operates her eponymous restaurant, Doña Paulita, in Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro.  She brought her special preparation of churipo to the Muestra de Gastronomía.  Churipo, native to Michoacán, is a soup made of beef, cabbage, onion, chile, and xoconostle, a sour tuna (fruit of the nopal cactus), among other ingredients.

Michoacán pozole is made of pork (starting with the head and feet), nixtamal-ized corn, chiles guajillo and other spices, all simmered for hours over a wood fire.

This woman stirs atole (a thick, usually sweetened corn drink), prepared in an olla de barro (clay pot) over a wood fire.

The next generation: Guadalupe Cielo Talavera Andrade of Tzurumútaro makes masa using a metate.  A large percentage of the young people from Michoacán's Purhépecha villages has gone to work in the United States, leaving traditions behind and the future of the old ways in doubt.

Tamales de zarzamora (blackberry tamales). 

    Tamales de Zarzamora
    1/2 kilo prepared masa
    1/2 to 1 kilo fresh blackberries
    350 grams sugar
    1 liter water

In a large copper pot, bring the water to a boil.  Add the 1/2 kilo prepared masa and simmer, stirring constantly, until the masa is dissolved and the liquid is thick.

Grind 1/2 to 1 kilo fresh blackberries.  Strain through a fine strainer to remove seeds.  Simmer for 20 minutes in just a little water. 

Add the sugar to the strained blackberries and bring that mixture to a boil with the masa mixture.  Cool slightly.

Soak dried corn husks in warm water to soften.  Using one or two husks per tamal, spread two or three tablespoonsful of the blackberry/masa mixture over the husks.  Fold as for an ordinary tamal.  Place the tamales in overlapping layers in a tamalera (tamal steamer) and steam for 30-45 minutes.  Test for doneness.

Charanda is typically Michoacán.  A product of Uruapan and its surrounding area, charanda is distilled from sugar cane and yeast.  Clear charanda is approximately the same proof as tequila or rum.  We used charanda as the piquete in our ponche navideño (Christmas punch).

María Luísa R. de Obregón is the director of the bookstore "El Rincón de María Luísa, Donde las Letras Se Cocinan".  Among many other volumes, she displayed these two books.  One is about the traditional cocina charra (cowboy kitchen) and the other gives information about the techniques and flavors of sushi.  Their juxtaposition is proof positive that in Mexico, the times are definitely changing.

Cocadas (coconut candy) from Dulces Don Nacho of Uruapan.

Regional sweets, including candied limones stuffed with sweetened coconut, rectangular bars of jamoncillo, balls of chile flavored sweetened tamarind paste, a whole candied squash (just left of lower center) and guava leather rolls stuffed with cajeta.

Mayra Coffigny de Cárdenas, director of the state social service agency Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF, Whole Family Development) and the wife of Michoacán's governor Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, enjoys a tamal stuffed with picadillo, a mixture of meat, fruits and/or vegetables, and spices.

Doña Basilia Amezcua of Tarecuato prepared the prize-winning atole.  Unlike most atoles, hers is a savory atole de habas (fava beans) seasoned with just a little chile jalapeño and hoja de aguacate (ground avocado leaves).  The atole was so delicious that it won the prize for the second year in a row.  I thought it was marvelous, so good that I purchased a liter to bring home.

Benedita Vargas Alejo (right) and her assitant use a clay comal (griddle) to make blue corn tortillas, gorditas, and quesadillas.

We see the Michoacán kitchen, with all its traditions and innovations, as an evolving work that needs to stick very close to its origins while it understands that transformation due to changing times--not simply current changes, but changes that have evolved across the centuries--are both valid and important.  An event such as the Exposition and Muestra de Gastronomía acts as a guide for those who want to recognize the different origins of indigenous dishes and those that are of recent creation.

Come to visit us in Michoacán!

Few aspects of culture define a people more than its gastronomy.  The four Encuentros sobre la Cocina Tradicional de Michoacán permit us to realize that eating isn't only a biological necessity but the enjoyment of good taste, social life, religious rituals, and the entire heritage of the indigenous Purhépecha in Michoacán.

We hope that Mexico Cooks! will meet you at the next Encuentro de Gastronomía or similar event.  If you'd be interested in a taste of Michoacán, please contact us and we'll plan a trip for your pleasure.

All photos and written material are property of Mexico Cooks! and may not be reproduced without prior permission.