Mexico Cooks!

Celebrating February 2: The Christ Child on Candlemas Day in Mexico

Niños Dios: one Christ Child, many colors: ideal for Mexico's broad range of skin tones. Mercado Medellín, Colonia Roma, Mexico City. 

For about a month prior to Christmas each year, the Niño Dios (baby Jesus) is for sale everywhere in Mexico.  Mexico Cooks! took this photograph in 2013 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 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 form a small portion of Mexico Cooks!' nacimiento.  Click on the photo to get a better look.  Note that the Virgin Mary is breast feeding 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 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--mine is always 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 and placed in the manger.

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.  All photos copyright Mexico Cooks! except as noted.

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 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?

The oldest tradition is to dress the Niño Dios in hand-crocheted garments.  Photo courtesy Manos Mexicanos. 

According to Christian 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.  

The Niño Dios dressed as San Juan Diego, the indigenous man who brought Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Roman Catholic Church.

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.  A few years ago, 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 baby 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 purple and gold finery is very elegant.

 
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.

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Popcorn, The Original Mexican Corn. Maíz Palomero, El Máiz Original de México.

From the un-popped kernel to the fully popped microwave-able snack treat, popcorn's evolution is many millennia old.  Popcorn was the first corn in Mexico, domesticated at least 5000 years before the common era. In other words, the cultivation of popcorn is at least 7,000 years old--and probably closer to 11,000 years old!


The non-profit organization Tortilla de Maíz Mexicana, founded by my dear friend Rafael Mier, celebrated its first birthday on November 17, 2016.  In the single year of its existence, the group has gathered together more than 153,000 followers on Facebook.  Every one of these followers, people from all over Mexico, from Guatemala, and from other countries in Central and South America, is nervous about the decline of the tortilla, the possible loss of Mexico's native corns as well as those where they live, and the near-extinction of popcorn: Mexico's original corn. Here's the link to the group; please join! Tortilla de Maíz Mexicana

Update: just prior to publication of this article, membership in the Facebook group Tortilla de Maíz Mexicana jumped to over 200,000 members!  There is plenty of room for more, join up!


Two of the first beautiful ears of maíz palomero toluqueño (popcorn from Toluca, Mexico) that the preservation team harvested in late September, 2016. 


This basket is filled to overflowing with maíz palomero (Mexican popcorn), seed sourced and sown in the State of Mexico by my colleague maestro Rafael Mier and his team of assistants: harvested on September 25, 2016, a day to remember.  The thrill of being just a tiny part of this project makes my heart skip a beat! 


One ear of maíz palomero rests in the palm of my hand. The photo gives you a good idea of the size of these ears; compared to the size of USA-grown hybrid ears, these are tiny.  USA growers have hybridized popcorn to give a large ear that yields more popcorn in a smaller planting area. Popcorn, however, has been hybridized, not genetically modified. There is NO GMO popcorn.  Think otherwise? Google is your friend!

Obtaining the popcorn seed was the result of an exhaustive investigation in which he traveled to different small towns around Toluca (in years gone by, a tremendous source of Mexican popcorn) to obtain the grain. To Mier's great surprise, almost no one had kept any seed from former plantings.  Popcorn truly was on the verge of extinction.  Mier explained, "The United States is the leader in popcorn production, the popcorn business in that country has dedicated itself hugely to the grain’s development. Mexico could have the power. We are only lacking programs that push a viable cultivation of the varieties that are in Toluca, Chihuahua, and Jalisco. With those, we could satisfy the national demand.”

Here's Mexico Cooks! as part of the very first harvest of Mexican-grown popcorn in the grand project of saving this original Mexican corn from extinction.  I was so, so excited to peel back the green husks of this ear of popcorn, harvested just moments earlier, and see the tiny ears grown from 50-year-old seed.  Yes!  CIMMYT (International Maize and White Improvement), an international seed bank with research facilities near Mexico City, gave Maestro Rafael enough banked, refrigerated seed to plant several small parcelas (sections of land) with popcorn.

These tiny dehydrated olotes (corn cobs)--each measures two to three inches long--were discovered in 1965 in the cave near Coxcatlán, Puebla, and are on daily exhibit at the Tehuacán (Puebla) Museo del Maíz (Corn Museum). For more information about this cave and its agricultural and archeological importance, please see Mexico Cooks!' article dated October 1, 2016.  These corn cobs are carbon-dated to approximately 5,000 B.C.E. All photos copyright Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.


One huge pot filled with popcorn, a direct descendent of Mexico's very first corn: maíz palomero (popcorn). Today, many thousands of years after Mexico's great-great-a thousand times-great-grandparents domesticated maíz palomero, 95% of all popcorn grows north of the Mexican border.  Popcorn has crossed the border into the United States of America and become one of the USA's most popular exports.  Photo courtesy Lori Lange.

Popcorn is a simple food that we associate with snacking and with moments of entertainment. Who doesn’t want some buttered, salted popcorn at the movies, or while enjoying a day at the fair? Long ago in what is now Mexico, popcorn was already a treat: they were called “corn flowers” and according to the 16th century chronicles of Fray Bernadino de Sahagún, popcorn was sold in what is now Mexico’s plazas and was used as necklaces and in rituals. People did eat it, of course, but its consumption was not recreation-based.  

In this beautiful and evocative video, Maestro Rafael explains what has happened to Mexico's maíz palomero and what he and others, including myself, are doing to save Mexican popcorn from extinction.  Even if you don't understand Spanish, you'll be able to watch the process of planting and harvest.  Video courtesy Rafael Mier.

Despite the fact that Mexico is the country of origin of all corns, including popcorn, less than 2% of the popcorn eaten in Mexico today is grown here. The enormous majority comes from the United States of America, with a much smaller amount imported from Argentina. “In Mexico, over time we’ve lost the planting of this corn,” comments Rafael Mier. “Sowing popcorn is difficult work now because our native seed is all but extinct,” he says. He and his team are working every day to reverse Mexican popcorn's slide into extinction. Photo: invitation to the November 17, 2016 public presentation of the popcorn project.  

The best way to get involved in this project is to join the Facebook group Tortilla de Maíz Mexicana.  If you'd rather not use Facebook, subscribe to Mexico Cooks!.  How? Look at the right-hand side of this page: you'll see a box titled, Share Mexico Cooks with Your Friends. In that box, there's a link called, "Subscribe to this blog's feed". Click on that, then follow the simple instructions. Mexico Cooks! will arrive in your email inbox every Saturday morning at about ten o'clock.

We look forward to having you as part of the Mexican popcorn and tortilla team!  During 2017, Mexico Cooks!' 11th consecutive year on line, you'll see a lot more about what we're doing in this initiative.

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

Looking Back Through 2016, Part Two :: Una Mirada Hacia Atras 2016, Segunda Parte

Ceremonial tortillas from the state of Guanajuato, made only in the Otomí communities of that state as food for certain ritual occasions. These were served at Restaurante Azul Condesa during July 2016, when Guanajuato's cuisine was featured for the month at the restaurant. They became so deservedly popular that the restaurant has continued to offer them.  The tortillas, made of nixtamalized corn masa (dough), are shaped, pressed, and cooked on one side on a comal (griddle). They are then flipped and stamped with a hand-carved wooden stamp that has been dipped in muicle, a liquid vegetable dye made from a wild plant.


In mid-July, it was my tremendous honor to host an evening in honor of Zarela Martínez (seated, center), who in 1987 opened Zarela, a Mexican restaurant that is credited as being a pioneer of regional Mexican cuisine in New York City.  She is the author of several wonderful cookbooks, including Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined (1995) (nominated for Best International Cookbook of the Year, James Beard Foundation); The Food and Life of Oaxaca: Traditional Recipes from Mexico's Heart (1997); and Zarela's Veracruz (2001). Some of the guests surrounding Zarela are: (seated) Celia Marín Chiunti and Rosa María Villareal; (standing from left) Rafael Mier, Marisa Zannie, Pedro Luis de Aguinaga, Mexico Cooks!, and Sonia Ortiz. 

As a frequent visitor to a local tiradero (slang for flea market--literally, garbage dump), Mexico Cooks! has bought many wonderful old things for decorating the home place. This is not one of them.  In August, a friend asked me to photograph this tableau of a javalí (wild boar) and rattlesnake for her nephew, a fan of taxidermy. One can buy anything from a silver ring to--well, a stuffed javalí--at this flea market.


I often go out looking for interesting graffiti, and almost always find something fun.  This cat face, stenciled onto a wall close to my home, looks very much like Risa, my tortoiseshell kitten.

An event in Mexico City at the end of August brought several cocineras tradicionales (traditional cooks) to visit from Michoacán.  This woman spent most of the day pat-pat-patting truly hand-made tortillas to serve to the public along with home-style food.  The gentle rhythm of her hands against the masa (corn dough) coupled with the laughter of other cooks made me feel like I was home again in Michoacán.  Listen as she pats out the tortilla; imagine the smell of woodsmoke.  Both are still iconic to rural Mexico.


This hard-working market bag advertises a butcher shop in Tehuacán, Puebla.  No recap of the year 2016 could be complete without at least one mention of the life-changing weekend I spent in this south-central part of Mexico.  Remember the Mexico Cooks! article about the cave where...well, re-read it here: Corn, An Ancient Gift from Mexico to Feed the World. Chills still run up the back of my neck when I think about gazing into this small hollow space, a shelter in the mountain.


Early September took us to the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Palace) in downtown Mexico City.  The traditional music group Los Folkloristas celebrated its 50th anniversary here.  A good friend is a member of the group and made certain that another friend and I had great seats, a couple of levels below the glorious stained-glass dome.

Sometimes a person can't help being ecstatic.  Meeting Laura Esquivel (author of the extraordinary and ground-breaking Like Water for Chocolate, among other wonderful books) near the end of September was a real highlight of my year.  She was part of the press conference for the MODO exhibition Del Plato a la Boca--the beautifully curated, kitchen-oriented show will be at the museum through February 2017. Don't miss it.


Mid-October took me to Toluca, in the State of Mexico, to see the Cosmovitral.  The Cosmovitral is a beautiful stained glass-enclosed botanical garden.  The group Aztec Explorers, which organizes mostly day tours for people new to Mexico City or the surrounding area, invited me to come along to see the kind of work they do.  The tour company advertises primarily to people who live in or near Mexico City and want to make friends with others while enjoying an overview of sites they've heard about and want to see.  If this sounds like a day that suits your style, you'll enjoy the inexpensive tours that Lilia and Peter give.  By all means tell them Mexico Cooks! sent you.


Remember the gorgeous October 15, 2016 super moon?  I took this shot with my cellular phone, from my bathroom window!  Moon over Mexico City, a lucky shot indeed.


For November 2, Día de Los Muertos, Mexico Cooks! took a small group of tourists to that flea market I mentioned above--no taxidermy this time, though. Alfredo Vilchis Roque, who is proclaimed as "the Da Vinci of the market", built an altar for Day of the Dead 2016.  Click on any of the photographs for a larger view.  Sr. Vilchis, whose work has been exhibited at the Louvre and is sold at a Paris gallery (among others), was generous enough to point out several fascinating aspects to the altar.  Look, for example, just at knee level and in front of him: there's a tribute to Juan Gabriel, Mexico's world-famous singer and idol, who died on August 28, 2016.


November 17, 2016, marked the launch of a program called Salvemos el Maíz Palomero de México (Let's Save Mexican Popcorn).  Part of the project for the preservation of Mexico's native corns in general as well as for the preservation of the tortilla made of nixtamalized corn, the popcorn event was particularly designed to bring the near-extinction of Mexico's original corn to the attention of the press.  It was a tremendous success; even Aristegui Noticias, the foremost news in Mexico shown on CÑÑ (CNN in Spanish), picked up the story and broadcast it to the Spanish-speaking world.  You'll be reading a lot more about this multi-faceted project in the weeks and months to come, right here at Mexico Cooks!.


Whatever your faith, may the New Year bless you with abundance in all things, especially joy and peace.  From our house to yours, we wish you a blessed 2017.

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

Looking Back Through 2016 :: Una Mirada Hacia Atras 2016

One of Mexico Cooks!' first restaurant breakfasts of the New Year was at Lalo, where I ate these delicious huevos a la florentina (eggs with spinach) served on an English muffin and quite simply fabulous.  This was the first of 2016's wonderful breakfasts at Lalo, but there were many to follow. 

In February, 2016, Mexico Cooks! was inundated with numerous wonderful tours going all over Mexico, from home base in Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, to Oaxaca, to part of the State of Jalisco, and ending in March in rural Michoacán.  This year, let me know where in Mexico YOU'D like to go--starting now, we've added parts of eastern Veracruz to your choices!  This particular market stall, with its papel maché piggy mariachi, is a favorite joyous site along on of my tour routes.

I thought this little guy would be scared in the market's meat aisles--instead, he fell in love with a pig head!  Two seconds after I snapped this picture, he leaned over and kissed its snout.  


Tours with Mexico Cooks! aren't entirely about pig heads. In March 2016, we were with a group in San Miguel de Allende, visiting this extraordinary and very upscale shopping venue for home and garden decor.  The goods are pricey, but if your wallet can stand it, you'll be carrying beautiful items back to your home.


During a week-long tour to Oaxaca, our group breakfasted on typical pan de yema (egg yolk bread) and bubbly Oaxacan hot chocolate, made with water in the traditional way.


While in Oaxaca, we learned to make Oaxaca-style mole verde (green mole), among other dishes, in the most generous, love-filled, best cooking class ever. This simple dish, rich with flavor, is now a staple on Mexico Cooks!' table at home.  If you'd like to take this class, let me know and we'll schedule a tour in Oaxaca.

Another fantastic meal in Oaxaca included this gorgeous salsa, made in part with freshly roasted tomate verde (tomatillo, in English) and roasted tiny heirloom tomatoes.  It looks good and it is way better than good. The photo makes me want to be there now.


Later in the spring, Mexico Cooks! toured with another group in rural Michoacán.  One of the highlights of the trip was a comida (Mexico's main meal of the day) at the home of cocinera tradicional (traditional cook) Rosalba Morales. Rosy holds a bowl of charales (tiny lake fish) that she prepares according to her grandmother's recipe.  

In May, Mexico Cooks! took the opportunity to take two groups of visitors to an exhibition titled Indumentaria y moda en México, 1940 – 2015, sponsored by Fomento Cultural Banamex, A.C. This stunning show of hand-made indigenous dress plus Mexican high fashion, accented by paintings of the period, was mounted by the extraordinary curator Ana Elena Mallet and her team. The pictured Tzotzil clothing from the mid-1930s, from a private collection, was hand spun, hand woven and hand sewn in Magdalenas, Chiapas.


This is a giant tamal called a zacahuil.  I was fortunate to eat a portion of it in June 2016. The zacahuil, which in this case measured almost 1.5 meters in length, is made in many parts of Mexico.  This one, from the part of Mexico called la huasteca potosina, (where the ancient Huastec indigenous people lived in the western part of the state of San Luis Potosí), is wrapped in papatla leaves and contains very coarsely-ground (quebrada) masa de maíz nixtamalizado (nixtamal-ized corn dough) that is patted out along the leaf.  The women lay an entire butchered pig on the masa; the pig is then filled with whole raw chickens which are slathered with salsa, and the belly opening of the pig is closed.  The meat, wrapped in the leaves, is roasted directly on the red-hot coals in a clay oven.  The roasting takes approximately 10 to 14 hours.  Normally the zacahuil shines as the star of any wedding, baptism, quinceañera (a girl's 15th birthday party), or any important feast. Believe me, it was jaw-dropping to see and jaw-dropping to eat.

This marvelous Spanish-language video shows the complete process of making the zacahuil from the Huasteca potosina.  Even if you don't understand Spanish, you'll LOVE seeing the preparation of the giant tamal.  If you are ever invited to eat a portion of a zachuil, be sure to say yes, thank you!

Next week, Mexico Cooks! invites you to come with us as we travel through the second half of 2016.

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