Mexico Cooks!

Mexico Cooks! meets Mexico Bob in Irapuato, Guanajuato

 
The original design for the Faros packet--the cigarro popular (people's cigarette) of Mexico.

Mexico Cooks! has often pondered the 21st Century way we meet one another: via social networking websites like Facebook or MySpace, via common-interest web boards, and via personal matchmaking sites.  The current phenomenon of being the friend of a person halfway across the world, a person one will perhaps never meet face-to-face, is the electronic version of my sixth grade pen-pal: a boy I never met, but whose life was loosely entwined with mine for more than 30 years.  Jean-Pierre, are you reading this?

Mexico Bob Mrotek is a big man with a big heart.  He's slightly larger than life and is filled to the brim with the joys of living in Mexico.

Bob writes a marvelous blog about--well, as Bob says, "It's a little like the old TV show Seinfeld.  It's a blog about nothing."  That's his take on it, but Mexico Cooks! thinks that Bob's blog is about the really good stuff: the inconsequential trivia of life in Mexico that adds the chile, sal y limón (chile, salt, and lime) to daily fare, that adds cultural literacy to your more general knowledge of Mexico.  Want to know the origin of the ultra-Mexican expression 'chupar faros'?  Bob wrote a great column about that, just a year ago.  Want to know how to use certain Mexican modismos (colloquialisms) in your daily conversation?  Bob has written at least twenty bilingual dialogues to help you.  

Mexico Bob is a also big booster of Irapuato, the town in the Mexican state of Guanajuato where he lives.  Irapuato is known as La Capital Mundial de la Fresa--the World Capital of the Strawberry.  Along the roadsides around Irapuato, strawberries are sold in woven wicker baskets, like the basket in the photo. 

You'll also see stands selling locally-grown strawberries frozen with fresh cream.

Mexico Bob and his delightful wife Gina (upper right corner), Mexico Cooks! and Judy (lower left corner), superimposed on the map of Irapuato.

After knowing one another in the blogosphere for a year or so, Bob, his wife Gina and I met for lunch in Morelia last January.  We made a plan to meet again in Irapuato so Bob and Gina could show Judy and me the town.

Quite the student of history and architecture, Bob took us on a walking tour of downtown Irapuato.  He showed us his favorite pastry-supply store, the Cathedral and the main plaza, and several churches.

This Irapuato pastry-making supply store carries everything from powdered gelatin to birthday candles.

The dome of Irapuato's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, with jacaranda trees in bloom.

The main plaza has a beautiful dancing-waters fountain.

We snacked on these delicious gorditas de trigo (little fat wheatcakes), similar to the gorditas de nata (little fat creamcakes) sold all over Mexico.  These gorditas have the strong, sweet flavor of cinnamon.  The comal (griddle) is made of clay; the fire under the comal is carbón (rustic charcoal).

Construction for Templo San José (Church of St. Joseph) began around 1570.  The small church was built for the use of the Otomíes, one of the local indigenous groups.  The facade was constructed between 1770 and 1780.  The style of the columns is estípite, from the Latin word meaning 'trunk of a tree'.  Michelangelo was the first to use this style pilaster, in 1526.  Typically, estípite columns are covered with intricately detailed decoration.

Our last stop in Irapuato was for lunch at El Rincón de la Arrachera, Av. Comisión Federal de la Electricidad #2581.  A family operation, the restaurant serves buffet-style skirt steak, chorizo para asar (spicy sausage for grilling), caramelized onions, chiles güeros y verdes toreados (grilled yellow and green chiles), several house-made salsas, and queso fundido (melted cheese).  Along with that, each table receives fresh, hot-off-the-griddle handmade tortillas, mixed salad, a choice of several drinks, and choice of dessert.  The meal is all-you-can-eat, and we all ate till we simply could not hold another bite.  Everything was delicious.  I'd tell you the price, but Bob and Gina refused to let us see the check.  The owner, Miguel Angel Conejo Carcía, cordially invites all of Mexico Cooks!' readers to come enjoy his hospitality. Mexico Cooks! seconds the motion--the restaurant is absolutely terrific!

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

Museo Regional de Arte Popular (Regional Folk Art Museum) in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

El Museo Regional de Arte Popular (Regional Folk Art Museum), located at the corner of Calle Enseñanza and Calle Alcantarilla in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.  This small museum, the original site of the oldest college in the state of Michoacán, now holds arts and crafts treasures of the regional indigenous Purhépecha people.  Exquisite examples of copper, silver, clay, wood, straw, and textile work from the 16th Century to the present allow visitors to compare old and new techniques.    

Mexico Cooks! has visited Pátzcuaro's Museo Regional de Arte Popular (Regional Folk Art Museum) so frequently over the course of the last 30 years that we all but have the exhibits memorized.  Some of the items are such favorites that at times, they populate our dreams.  This marvelously carved wooden dance mask, with its long beard and exceptionally large nose, makes us laugh every time we see it.  Notice the cut-out slits between the mask's eyes and the eyebrows.  They allowed the wearer to see where he was going while he danced.

This 17th Century Christ is made of pasta de caña de maíz. 

Sometimes erroneously called 'corn dough', the core of the entire Christ figure pictured above is made of a finely kneaded paste created from the ground-up inner parts of cornstalks and a liquid exuded from deltatzingeni (the bulbs of regional orchids).  Early artisans created an armature, a 'skeleton' of dried corn leaves and incidental small pieces of wood.  Tiny parts (such as fingers) of some figures were sometimes formed using turkey feathers as the armature.  Artists then sculpted a figure with pasta de caña.  The artisans incorporated insecticides into the corn/orchid paste, which has protected these sculptures over the course of several centuries.  The Museo Regional in Pátzcuaro has a number of pasta de caña figures dating to the 16th and 17th Centuries.

Mexico Cooks! is particularly fond of the museum's display of an early Michoacán kitchen.

In the photo above, you can see many components of a traditional Michoacán cocina (kitchen).  The wood-burning cookstove, at lower left, is made of clay-covered adobe.  Long rectangular holes for firewood are under recessed round openings for balancing round-bottomed clay cooking pots.  Ocote (sticks of fat pine kindling, stored in a metal holder built into the stove, near-middle left) quickly lights the fire.  Ollas de barro (clay pots) stack for storing kitchen staples--no lids required.  To the right of the stacked ollas, copper vessels line a wooden shelf.  Other ollas are ranged around the lower kitchen shelf.  At middle left, above the ollas, two carved wood cuchareros (spoon holders) are both decorative and utilitarian.  Above the cuchareros, another wooden shelf holds pottery cups and small dishes and pitchers.  Above that shelf, the intricate wall art, made of individual tiny clay cups, is typical of nearly every region of Mexico.  Whether a simple or complex design, in Mexico's traditional kitchens, it's always made of cups.

A carved wood cupboard, built into the museum wall, holds copper mugs, pitchers, bowls and platters made in Sta. Clara del Cobre, Michoacán.  The graduated-size copper utensils hung on either side of the cupboard are measures for dry and liquid ingredients.

A charola de maque (inlaid lacquer tray) from the 19th Century.

This large carved figure of Saint Ann holding the child Virgin Maria is made of one piece of wood--except for one detail.  When you visit the museum on your Mexico Cooks! tour of Pátzcuaro, look closely for the fine line near the ears of both heads.  The faces were carved separately to allow for the placement of the figures' glass eyes.

Mexico Cooks! covets this hand-embroidered tablecloth.  Every part of the cloth is sewn with a Mexican dicho de la cocina (kitchen sayings).  We've often told the museum docents that if the tablecloth disappears, it will be at our house. For more dichos de la cocina, see Panza Llena, Corazón Contento.

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

Templo de Santiago Apóstol: Tupátaro and the Painted Churches of Michoacán

The simple whitewashed facade of Tupátaro's templo (church) of Santiago Apóstol (St. James the Apostle) belies the intense beauty inside.  Note the pale-purple orchids blooming in the tree at the left.

The evangelization of Michoacán's Purhépecha tablelands, where many of the state's largest group of indigenous people live, was realized during the 16th and 17th centuries.  Religious and secular orders who came to New Spain during the earliest part of the Spanish Conquest worked ceaselessly to convert the native peoples to Christianity.  In the 16th Century, Franciscan and Augustinian priests worked together with the first bishop of Michoacán, Don Vasco de Quiroga, creating 'hospital-towns' all along a route through the mountains and valleys of Michoacán.  Today, that route is still known as 'La Ruta de Don Vasco'

Bishop Vasco de Quiroga, an intellectual student of Thomas Moore's Utopia, saw in the area that is now the state of Michoacán an ideal place to put Moore's social theories to work.  In Michoacán, Quiroga found a thriving crafts-driven economy, a well-developed and organized community, and the opportunity to lead the indigenous to higher and higher goals of barter and commerce.   Although Vasco de Quiroga had already founded a similar 'hospital' in Mexico City, he invested his entire life in perfecting the idea throughout Michoacán's Meseta Purhépecha.

The retablo (altarpiece) in Santiago Apóstol is made of carved wood covered with 23.5 karat gold leaf.  The six paintings in the retablo, painted by a single artist in the 17th Century, are oil on canvas. 

Michoacán's pueblos hospitalarios ('hospital-towns') were evangelized in a manner unlike that in other regions of New Spain. The term 'hospital-towns' refers to the founding of towns specifically for the purpose of offering hospitality to the stranger and religious education as much as physical care for the sick.  Each of the several pueblos hospitalarios was built along similar lines: they included a convent, a church dedicated to a particular patron saint, a smaller chapel dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, and a huatápera (meeting place), which was the actual hospital and travelers' hostel.  The huatápera was the heart of the complex and the church was its soul.  

Religious architecture in the Purhépecha towns was characterized by the use of adobe brick and mortar walls and carved volcanic stone entryways. The roofs were originally made of tejamanil (thin pine strips) which were later covered with clay tiles.  The jewel of the interior of the simple churches was the high ceilings.  Either curved or trapezoidal, the entire wooden ceiling was profusely hand-painted by indigenous artists with images of the litanies of Mary and/or Jesus, with angels, archangels, and apostols. They are filled with symbols of medieval European Christianity adapted to the perspective of the native Purhépechas.  Serving as decoration, devotion, and education in the faith, these churches and their ceilings, along with their finely detailed carved retablos (altarpieces), are some of the greatest artistic treasures of the region.  Today, they are still an important part of the Route of Don Vasco.

El Señor del Pino (The Lord of the Pine), 18th Century crucifix venerated on the altar in Tupátaro.

For years, Mexico Cooks! has been fascinated with the Templo de Santiago Apóstol (Church of St. James the Apostle) in Tupátaro, Michoacán.  The tiny church was founded by Spanish Augustinian missionary priests who arrived either with or soon after Don Vasco de Quiroga.  Under the careful conservatorship of Mexico's INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia), Santiago Apóstol is one of the small 16th Century churches in Michoacán that has been restored to its original glory.  Frequently called the Sistine Chapel of the Americas, Santiago Apóstol of Tupátaro is one of the most important early churches of Mexico.  INAH recently honored Mexico Cooks! with permission to photograph and write about this national treasure.

The highly revered statue of Santiago Apóstol (St. James the Apostle) stands at the left side of the church altar.  Built on a platform made to be carried on townspeople's shoulders, the statue processes solemnly through Tupátaro every year on the saint's feast day.

The 500-year-old wood-plank floors, built over crypts, creaked as we entered the church and walked toward the altar. 

Rays of sun semi-illuminate the six oil paintings of the retablo (altarpiece): the crowning with thorns, the flagellation, the way to Gethsemane, the prayer in the garden, the adoracion of the Magi, and, high above the rest, Saint James the Apostle on his horse.  The angels on either side of Santiago Apóstol have mestizo (mixed race) faces; all six paintings were created by the same hand.  The sense of antiquity and reverence are palpable in this early New World church.

Detail of alterpiece sections Santiago Apóstol (St. James the Apostle) and La Adoración (Adoration of the Magi).

The classic baroque carved wood columns of the retablo, covered with 23.5 carat gold leaf, are adorned with bunches of grapes, mazorcas (ears of corn), granadas (pomegranates), and the whole avocados which represent this region of Mexico.  In addition, sculptures of four pelicans decorate the altar.  The pelican, with its young pecking at its breast until blood flows from its flesh, is an early Christian symbol of Christ who nurtures his church with his blood.

Detail of the life-size pasta de caña crucifix, Templo Santiago Apóstol, Tupátaro.  Pasta de caña, unique to the central highlands of Mexico, is made from corn stalk pulp mixed with paste from orchid bulbs.  Shaped around a wooden or bamboo armature, the paste is allowed to harden.  It's then carved, covered with gesso, and polychromed.

On the right of the altar stand carvings of the four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  On the left are four Doctors of the Church: St. Gregory, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Ambrose.

The wooden bóveda (arched) ceiling, entirely hand-painted by indigenous serfs in the 18th Century, is the most spectacular feature of the church.  The paintings include the Passion of Christ, twelve mysteries (stories to meditate) of the lives of the Virgin Mary and Jesus, 33 archangels holding Christian symbols (one archangel for each year Christ lived on Earth), and other religious and secular symbols. 

This archangel carries the three nails used to hang Christ on the cross.

Each of the archangels wears distinct clothing, has a unique face, and different wings.  Each stands on clouds.  In the photographs, you can see that the lower sections of each panel are flat against the wall; the next two or three panels form the beginning of the boveda, and the higher panels curve against the ceiling.  Each individual archangel panel measures three to four meters high; together they span both sides of the length of the church, from entrance to altar.

This archangel carries a Christian flag.

This archangel carries a sponge on a pole and a vessel filled with vinegar.   When Christ said, "I thirst,", as he hung on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink.

La Anunciación (The Annunciation), one of the mysteries of the life of the Virgin Mary.  The angel is telling her that she will be the mother of God.

La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper), a mystery of the life of Christ.  The food on the table is food found in this region of Mexico.

La Resurrección (the Resurrection). 

The panels showing the mysteries of the life of Christ begin at the front of the church and move toward the altar; the panels showing the mysteries of the life of the Virgin Mary begin at the altar and move toward the front of the church.  Watermelons painted on the beams between the panels represent the blood of Christ.

This panel is positioned directly over the altar.  In the center is a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

The ceiling panels and other paintings were painted directly on wood, using tempera paint made with egg yolks.  Vegetable and earthen dyes color the 18th Century paints, which have held up very well for nearly three hundred years.

The front panel of the altar, unique in the world, is made of pasta de caña, linen, cotton, and silver leaf.  The dedication inside the oval reads, "Se hizo este frontal par al el Santísimo Cristo del Pueblo de Tupátaro a espensas de sus devotos y dando sus limosnas siendo Eusebio Avila año 1765." ("This altar front was made for the Most Holy Christ of the people of Tupátaro at the cost of his devoted followers and giving alms, being Eusebio Avila year 1765.")  The panel was recently restored by Pedro Dávalos Cotonieto, a local sculptor who specializes in pasta de caña.

The tiny church has an exquisitely beautiful museum.  Juan Cabrera Santana, the church caretaker and our exceptionally knowledgeable guide, showed us its treasures.

Sixteenth century saint, Museo Santiago Apóstol.

La Santísima (The Holy Virgin Mary), fresco, Museo Santiago Apóstol.

Tupátaro, Michoacán town plaza.

Mexico Cooks! is grateful to INAH (the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) and to Juan Cabrera Santana for their kind permission and guidance in bringing the Tupátaro Templo de Santiago Apóstol to our readers.

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Chocolate:: El Gozo de Un Manjar de Dios: Savoring the Ambrosia of the Gods

The tiny storefront with the hand-lettered sign Joaquinita Chocolate Supremo is at Calle Enseñanza #38 in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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