Mexico Cooks!

Juchitán, Capital of the Istmo of Tehuantepec

Typical public transportation in Juchitán de Zaragoza (also known as Juchitán de las Mujeres).  These three-wheeled vehicles, some covered like this one and some open to the air, buzzed around everywhere in the city, taking people wherever they needed to go.  


Our last day in the Istmo, chef Silvana hired a mototaxi driver to give us a tour around the area.  Look at its wonderful roof--an old-fashioned fabric for just the right touch.  We whipped along having a fantastic time, waving at pedestrians and being waved at, people laughing with us as we tooled along.

Juchitán, the largest city on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, (population about 100,000), prides itself on its culture and its traditions.  The iconic statue at the entrance to town is based on a photograph taken by one of Mexico's most outstanding photographers, Graciela Iturbide.  To quote the Getty Museum, "Between 1979 and 1988, Iturbide (b. 1942) made a series of visits to Juchitán, Mexico, where—in her words—she photographed the way of life there "in complicity with the people." Located in the state of Oaxaca, Juchitán is an ancient, communal, matriarchal society. It is also an open, fiercely independent, fiesta-loving city. Since the early twentieth century, the women of Juchitán—their dress and manner—have been national symbols, and Iturbide's photographs capture them in public and in private as they conduct their lives in this ancient city in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec."


The 1979 Iturbide photograph, called "Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas" ('Our Lady of the Iguanas'), shows the power and dignity of a Zapotec woman, who carries on her head live iguanas that form a bizarre crown.  


In the Juchitán municipal market, we were talking about iguanas with a young muxe who sells ropa típica (regional clothing) of the area. He pointed across the aisle to a booth where the owner prepares licuados (smoothies, more or less) and lo and behold, we saw this big black iguana, tethered to a tree branch.  It's the Ctenosaura similis, native to the region and the most common iguana found (and hunted for food) in the Istmo.  In theory, the iguana is protected by law--but in practice, it and its eggs are much eaten in Mexico.  The meat is truly delicious, I didn't care for the leathery eggs.


In the Juchitán market, a vendor offered iguana eggs, cooked in caldillo de jitomate (thin tomato broth) with green chiles.  The eggs are about 1.5" long.  I tried to eat one, but I really didn't like the texture or the flavor.  Imagine that, something I didn't like!  


We devoured several of these delicious fresh chiles jalapeño, roasted and stuffed with picadillo (a hash made of beef or pork plus chopped vegetables and fruits), then battered in beaten egg, fried, and served with delicious caldillo (thin tomato broth).


I've eaten various kinds of smoked fish--whitefish, salmon, and others in the USA, marlin in Mexico--but I had never seen smoked tuna until chef Silvana and I went to the Juchitán market.  The vendor at this stand gave me a little chunk to taste.  Out of this world!  Smoked tuna, meaty and completely delicious, is now on my have-to-have-it-again list.  This pile of tuna pieces was about 18" high. 


Meet the Chrysobalanus icaco, a fruit endemic to the Istmo and known at least in Juchitán as jicaco--they're the rosy pink ones.  One name for them in English is the cocoplum.  As you can see in this week's photos, in Juchitán we saw several things that were brand new to us.  The jicaco fruit is prepared as a tea to combat diarrhea, and people cook and grind the leaves and stems to combat dysentery.  The seeds can be toasted and ground and prepared as an atole (thick drink usually served warm) to provoke vomiting.  Chef Silvana and I ate part of one raw fruit; it isn't at all sweet, hasn't a lot of taste, and is very astringent and medicinal.  It makes you pucker up and not in a good way!  


Flower seller, Juchitán market.  In this part of the Istmo, it's crucial to find and take advantage of shade wherever possible, and equally crucial to drink lots of water.  The time in late April-early May that we were in the Istmo, the daily temperatures climbed to well above 100ºF, with 100% percent humidity.  Thinking about climate change, I asked a young man in the market if this year's temperature and humidity were unusually high; he said, no, they were normal for the time of year.


We bought several necklaces made of plumeria flowers (aka frangipani) at the Juchitán market.  The plant is named for French botanist Charles Plumier, who traveled to what is now Mexico and found it.  Described by Charles Linnaeus in 1753, it's called flor de mayo (May flower) in the Istmo.  I'd always thought it was native to Hawaii, but no: it's Mexican.  In the market, we saw many young women wearing these necklaces, saints' images were draped with them, and the flowers' sweet fragrance wafted through the air.


The Juchitán market sets up every day on the streets, around a park and spread out to another close-by area as well.  We peered into the back of the city's municipal building to see what remains of the market where it was set up in the past.  Why?  Close to midnight on September 7, 2017, an extremely strong earthquake (8.1 on the Richter scale, said to have been the heaviest Mexico earthquake in over 100 years), with its epicenter just off the coast of Oaxaca's neighboring state Chiapas, hit the Istmo.  Juchitán, a city of well over 100,000 people, suffered severe damage, including to its municipal building. 


Photo above: the municipal building in Juchitán, the morning after the September 7, 2018 earthquake. 

We were deeply disturbed to see how little recovery has been possible, and we later learned that there is no plan to rebuild the municipal building.  Its offices and the market have been relocated, the daily market now sets up outdoors, in a park near the destroyed building.  Wherever we looked in the city, huge piles of rubble left from damaged or demolished buildings (homes and businesses alike) remained in the streets and on the sidewalks.  People told us that there is no place to put the rubble, so it simply sits there, a constant reminder of the disaster.  Many people told us that none of the funds collected by the government and by other agencies have reached them; people continue to live in the streets, some under tarps and some with nothing to protect them from either the intense heat or the intense nightly rains. 


Just one of hundreds of destroyed homes and businesses in Juchitán.


Another.  Of course Juchitán was not the only place seriously affected by the earthquake.  All of the towns in the area show similar damage.  You might well ask why few repairs have been made, why the funds collected and designated for direct assistance to the Istmo--estimated to be $45 million U.S. dollars--haven't been disbursed.  The answer: government corruption.  Sadly enough, it is all too common for donated funds to end up in someone's pocket rather than in the hands of those for whom it was destined.  Should there be another devastation of this type anywhere in Mexico, please ask me about alternate ways to donate money so that it will actually get to those who need it.

Next week: a trip to several small towns in the Istmo.  Despite the shock of seeing so much earthquake damage, we loved the rest of what we saw and did and want to share it with you.  See you next week!

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El Istmo de Tehuantepec :: Tierra del Mar, Tierra del Sol, Tierra del Buen Comer, y Tierra de Sorpresas

Along the 2-lane highway between Tlacolula and the Isthmus, Chef Silvana and I stopped to have the gas tank filled.  (In Mexico, a gas station attendant performs that chore.  There's no self-serve here.)  In a little nicho between the men's and women's bathrooms, this figure on his miniature golden throne caught our attention.  El Niño Dios de Pemex patiently awaited a visit from anyone who cared to visit him.  He looks very sweet in his Pemex uniform--compete with company patch!--and straw hat.


Entering the city of Tehuantepec, this sculpture of a tehuana--the symbol of the region--greeted us.  She's dressed in full tehuana vestido de gala, including her resplandor, the lace headdress.


Another sculpture of La Tehuana, with a silver over copper mask and resplandor of actual lace, electroplated with silver.  Work of Mexican sculptor Ana Pellicer, Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán.

A glorious hand-embroidered made-to-measure velveteen huipil (regional Istmo de Tehuantepec blouse) created by fabulous costurera (seamstress) Sra. Nancy González at Taller Bizuudi, 16 de septiembre #99, Ixtepec, Oaxaca.  That's her handsome son behind her.  The highly colorful embroidered huipil (blouse) and its companion enagua skirt, the characteristic dress of the women of the Istmo, are available in a range of quality and price in the markets and shops of the Istmo.  


Here's a good look at the traje de gala (fancy dress) of the tehuanas--the women of the Istmo de Tehuantepec.  Chef Silvana and I were invited to this dance--more about that in a minute!

The Isthmus (Istmo, in Spanish) of Tehuantepec is the largest region in the state of Oaxaca, connecting the southwestern part of the state of Oaxaca with the western part of the state of Chiapas.  Part of the Istmo is on southern Oaxaca's Pacific Ocean coast, part is inland to the north and east.  Prior to the building of the Panama Canal, the Istmo was the shortest land trade route between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; if you look at a map of Mexico, you'll see that the Istmo is the narrowest part of Mexico's "waist".  Fairly distant from more populated parts of Oaxaca, the Istmo has its own cultures, its own manners of dress, and its own foods.  Several distinct indigenous groups live in the Istmo, each with its own language.


The first night we were in Tehuantepec, we enjoyed wonderful tlayudas at Cenaduría Juanita, an outdoor supper stand near our hotel.  The tlayuda is one of the iconic foods of Oaxaca; made from a very large corn tortilla (actually called tlayuda), the dish can be eaten for desayuno (breakfast), comida (Mexico's main meal of the day), or cena (late-evening supper)--or any time in between!  These were absolutely wonderful, maybe the best tlayudas I've eaten.  


Here are a lot of tlayudas--the simple tortilla--pressed, toasted, and ready to be prepared as tlayudas--the meal.  These measure about 13-14" in diameter.  Each one will be spread with asiento (the delicious brown fat at the bottom of a pot of newly rendered pork lard), then layered with smoothly blended black beans, then with tasajo (seasoned semi-dried beef) or cecina (seasoned semi-dried pork) or chorizo (spicy pork sausage) or even with shredded chicken.  Then one adds shredded quesillo (you might know it as Oaxaca cheese), then shredded fresh cabbage, slivers or slices of green chile (either fresh or pickled), sliced tomatoes, sliced avocado, fold it in half, and toast it on a griddle or a grill till the cheese melts.  Add the salsa that you like best and get your mouth ready for a taste of heaven.  Any tlayuda recipe is very forgiving: add this, leave this out, put more of this or that, add (as in the picture above this one) pickled red onions, turn your avocados into guacamole and add that.  However you prepare them, the only "requirement" is that you start with that freshly toasted tlayuda base.


Chef Silvana holds a memela.  A small, freshly toasted tortilla is the base for a smear of asiento, a smear of creamy black beans, maybe some tasajo or cecina, a lot of queso fresco (fresh crumbly white cheese), some sliced avocado, and then topped with either red or green salsa.  These Oaxaca-style memelas are usually about four inches in diameter.


The next morning, we went to the Tehuantepec market to see what it had to offer.  Mid-market, we met the delightful María del Carmen Suárez, who sells her famous home-made budín (in this case, a type of flan that she makes with breadcrumbs) and her excellent pickled vegetables.  We spent quite a while chatting with her; she sells at the market several days a week.  She did tell us that she'd be working the following day, but not the day after that.  We didn't ask why, but we later found out.  Remember that photo (up there ^^) of the tehuanas dancing?  The plot thickens.


María del Carmen's budín.  It was very good, with no indication of bread crumbs in its texture other than a pleasantly slightly thicker consistency than normal flan.


So: the surprise!  Silvana and I had been out the entire day, driving among several small towns around the city of Tehuantepec.  Mid-evening, we pulled back into town and parked, intending to go find something to eat.  Wait--music!  Drums!  Shouting!  Flags and banners!  What's that coming toward us?  A PARADE, and not just any parade--dancing down the street came a contingent of laughing, shouting muxes, the "third sex" of the Istmo world.  Much associated with the city of Juchitán, muxes also live and work--and play--in Tehuantepec.  These gorgeous creatures beckoned to us: "Vénganse!  Vénganse!  Vénganse con nosotras al Baile del Barrio!"  ("Come on!  Come on!  Come with us to our Neighborhood Dance!")  We scurried out into the street, linked arms with some of the beautiful muxes, and paraded through town, backed by flags, banners, flowers, and music. 

A few blocks outside Tehuantepec's Centro Histórico, we were led to a blocked-off street covered with a lona (tarp), decorated with papel picado (cut paper streamers), and alive with joyful, dressed for the gala muxes, their companions, and people handing out plates of food, pouring tequila, passing around bottled beer, and hugging everyone who came along--including us.  We were invited to sit down, invited to eat, invited to drink.  And then, shouts of, "A bailar!  A bailar!"  ("Get up and dance!  Get up and dance!")


And suddenly we heard a scream: "Amigaaaaaaas!  Amigaaaaaaaas!"  We turned around to see--María del Carmen, from the market!  She grabbed both of us and hugged us hard.  "AMIGAAAAAAS!"  So this was why she didn't work today--she had to get ready for the Baile del Barrio!  "María del Carmen, why didn't you tell us the other day?"  "Bueno--bueno, I wasn't sure..."  We laughed and hugged and were so glad that we actually had met someone before who was at the dance.  She looked beautiful, in her traje de gala.


Our delicious dinner: Tehuantepec-style chicken in a flavorful, spicy sauce, served with macaroni salad and a pile of tortillas.  "Is that enough?  Do you want more chicken?  More tortillas?  Another beer?  Wait, here's another shot of tequila!  No, wait, let's dance first!"  The people at the dance made us feel entirely welcome and totally at home.   

We had the best time ever!


EVER!  I'm grinning ear to ear just looking at these pictures.  Such sweet, beautiful memories we made, all of us together.


Beautiful young women, beautiful older women--nothing separated us during this magical evening.  I know for sure that the next time I go to the Istmo de Tehuantepec, someone will scream out, "AMIGAAAAA!" and she will be a friend from this night, connected by the joy of music, dance, and by our shared experience of a chance encounter that meant the world to all of us.

Next week, further travels and surprises around the Istmo.  Come along!  Get up and dance!

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On the Way to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec :: First Stop, Sunday Market at Tlacolula, Oaxaca

If you go to Tlacolula on a day other than Sunday, you'll easily be able to see the exterior of Templo Santa María de la Asunción.  Be sure to visit both the inside of the church and its adjacent chapel--the chapel in particular is breathtaking.  If you go on a Sunday, Tlacolula, an easy drive of approximately 45 minutes south of the city of Oaxaca, has what is in my opinion the most vibrant, colorful, and fascinating market of anyplace in Mexico.  I go every chance I get and it never gets old.  You'll still want to visit the church, but there will be crowds around it!


Everything you can think of--and a lot of things you would never thing of!--is available at the Sunday market in Tlacolula.  Here, beautiful squash blossoms, ready for use in your kitchen.  Did you know that only the male blossoms are harvested?  The female blossoms are left to develop squash.

The last Sunday in April, just after the end of the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, my travel companion, chef Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona, and I rented a car at a rental agency just steps from our hotel in the city.  Even though I had booked the rental prior to our trip, the paperwork took much more time than we anticipated.  Nevertheless, we made it to the market in  Tlacolula before noon.


Not far from the entrance to the market, we looked for this delightful woman from San Marcos Tlapazola, a nearby potters' village.  We had spent some time talking with this woman at the Encuentro, where she and some other potters had a booth--you can see that they specialize in beautiful, softly shaped red clay kitchen and tableware.  She looks very serious, but her sense of humor doesn't quit.  We were often doubled over laughing at something one or the other of us had said.  San Marcos Tlapazola offers an annual red clay pottery festival--interested in going?  I'll find out the dates for 2019 and we'll set up a tour of that town and other artisan towns. 


Hanging links of chorizo oaxaqueño, a deliciously spicy pork sausage.  The chorizo here is stuffed into natural pork casings; the links are almost always shaped like little oval or round balls, about 2" in diameter. 


We were really hungry and were looking for a stand inside the market where we could eat Oaxaca-style barbacoa.  There was just enough bench seating at this booth for the two of us, so we slid in to try some of the house specialties.


The barbacoa!  We ordered a bowl each, plus a taco for each of us that was much bigger than we could possibly finish.  The bowl of barbacoa was filled with plenty of beef and consomé (the spicy liquid that the meat had cooked in overnight); we added our own condiments of sliced radishes, chopped cilantro, onion, and shredded lettuce, plus either red or green salsa.  Was it good?  My mouth is watering just looking at the pictures!


These guys enlivened our breakfast with their accordion/guitar duets and great songs.  Chef Silvana, whose family roots are in Chihuahua, requested that they sing El Corrido de Chihuahua.  They did, and what fun!  She was singing right along with them, and it felt like old home week.

Any of you who grow cilantro have probably experienced "bolting", the point at which the plant shoots up a tall, frondy stem filled with flowers.  Most garden sites recommend that you forget about stopping bolting and plant cilantro seed consecutively so you can always have fresh leaves.  On the other hand, you could let your cilantro bolt and harvest the fronds and flowers; that's what you're looking at in the photo above, for sale in the Tlacolula market.  Those little fronds are just as flavorful (if not even more intensely so) than standard cilantro leaves.  The flowers?  They're equally terrifically "cilantro" and are prized in traditional Mexican food!  Try it this summer--harvest from at least one bolted plant and you'll be a convert.


These delantales (aprons) are a symbol of home cooks in this part of Oaxaca.  Made from typically checkered fabric, they are then machine-embroidered with intricate and beautifully colorful flowers.  If you should see a woman wearing one of these aprons in another part of Mexico, you can be almost positive that she bought it in Tlacolula.  I have one--you should, too!


What in the world is this!  No, not a new-to-you kind of mushroom, and not little rocks--it's a special kind of cacao (chocolate) bean that's used to make chocolateatole, a drink particular to Oaxaca.  These cocoa beans, as they're known in English, have been buried in the ground for up to eight months, until the beans ferment and turn this grey and white color.  A cook can ferment them herself, or buy them already fermented in the market.  See here for more information about the preparation of chocolateatole.


These are Oaxaca-style polychromed jícaras; this style is often used as a drinking vessel, as well as for the preparation of tejate, a cold and refreshing chocolate drink.  The jícara is the mature fruit of the Crescentia alata tree, commonly known in English as the calabash tree and in Spanish as the tecomate, or güiro, among other regional names.  The immature fruit can be bound as it grows to shape it into elongated bottles, rattles, and other shapes.  When allowed to mature without intervention, it is normally round; the pulp is removed from the fruit and the shell is dried. Once dried, the jícaras are either carved (see photo below) or are painted with plant resins, which gives them a totally natural finish that resembles a chemical varnish. Because the jícara is round on the bottom, you'll need a ring-shaped reed base called a rodete or yagua to allow the jícara to sit straight on a table.


Most of the jícaras in this basketful at Oaxaca's Mercado 20 de noviembre are dried and then carved with wonderful animals.  The tecomate tree grows primarily in coastal areas and the jícaras are usually dried, carved or painted by artisans who live where the tree grows.


Rodete (base) for the jícara.  These are available from the jícara vendor in the size you need to support the size jícaras you purchase.  Ask the vendor to make sure you're buying the right size.  Photo courtesy Artefacto.com.


These are very large Oaxaca-style metates with their metlapil, or mano (the tool that's shaped like a rolling pin, alongside one of the metates).  All of these metates are painted with flowers, and some have the legends "Recuerdo de Oaxaca" (memento from Oaxaca) or "Regalo de los Padrinos" (gift from your godparents--in this case, padrinos of your wedding).  It's common for newlyweds to receive this crucial piece of kitchen equipment as a wedding gift.  If one whispers your name and you want it for a memento, be sure to try to pick it up before you buy it to carry it home to Cleveland with you.  You might reconsider.


The Tlacolula market isn't anything like the sterile experience of a supermarket, where you push your cart around, stuff it with boxed, canned, or frozen items, shove it to the checkout point, pay, pack up your plunder, and leave.  Most Mexican markets--whether municipal markets or tianguis (street markets)--are for shopping, for listening to music, for having a bite to eat, for catching up on how the new baby is, whose son graduated from secundaria (junior high school), who's getting married and to whom (and maybe why so quickly), how god-awful much prices have gone up, and simple chisme (gossip) in general.  The vendors all get to know you, and if you missed last Sunday's market, they ask if you were ill.  You know all the vendors, and you ask how their husbands/wives/children/in-laws are faring.  The market--whether it's the Sunday market or a weekday market--connects you to the pulse, the beating heart, of your town.  See, your neighbor will help you tuck those tomatoes into your rebozo (long shawl).  I'd far rather have this deep connection with my community than anonymous supermarket speed, wouldn't you?


We're back in the chapel at Templo Santa María de la Asunción, Tlacolula.  This is Jesús, in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday).


When I took this photograph at the Tlacolula market in April, I didn't notice the section of the newspaper this woman's flowers were wrapped in.  As far as I'm concerned, it says everything.

Next week, we travel farther south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where we eat extraordinary food (cucarachas, anyone?), swoon over local textiles, go to a dance, and attend a couple of parties.  Come along with us, you don't want to miss a minute!    

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Seventy Kinds of Tamales, Seventy Cooks, One Fabulous Morning :: Fourth Day, Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras de Oaxaca

When we who know tamales think about Oaxaca-style tamales (and who here reading Mexico Cooks! doesn't know tamales?), this is what comes immediately to mind: a tamal oxaqueño like the one above, made from maíz nixtamalizado (in this case, corn prepared to make masa para tamales), filled with mole negro, mole amarillo, or another typical Oaxaca filling, wrapped in banana leaves, tied up, and steamed until ready to be devoured.  Who knew that there were so many, many more traditional kinds of tamales from Oaxaca?  Oaxaca is a state of eight regions, and each region has its tamales specialties, and oh boy!  Get ready for thrills, chills, and corn-based excitement.

Early on the morning of April 28, 2018, the last day of the Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca had an incredible treat in store for its attendees.  In one large section of Oaxaca's centrally located Plaza de la Danza, all of the Encuentro's dining tables were squeezed tightly together to form several rows of demonstration stands.  Seventy of the participating cocineras bustled about, each readying her space for the biggest tamales-making party I've ever seen.   Each cook carefully made her mise en place--not that she would have called it that: having made tamales all her life, each cocinera knew in her bones just how to put her ingredients in exactly the place, exactly in the order, in which she needed them to be at hand.  


A portion--just a small part--of the tamales demonstration.  The crowd of attendees was so intensely packed and fascinated by what we were seeing, and the number of cocineras was so large, that it was difficult to make a plan to see all of them.  Plus, the absolute beauty of so much living tradition playing out before my eyes caused me to continually wipe away tears of joy and gratitude that I was present.  So moving...


Cocineras tradicionales in another section of the large demonstration space.  The tamales resulting from the cocineras' preparations were later steamed and sold to the public.  Right to left in the photo: cocineras tradicionales Sra. Gladys Hortencia Calvo García (in the white apron, preparing tamal pastel de carne) ; Sra. Rosario Cruz Cobos (tamales de masa cocida con costilla de puerco en hoja de pozol), (skip) and Sra. Emma Méndez García (tamal Nioti Nal'ma).


These are leaves from the almendro: the almond tree.  Cocinera tradicional Sra. Raquel Silva Méndez from San Juan Bautista Cuicatlán (Zona Cañada) used them to wrap tamales de frijol.


Tamales de piedra (stone), which in fact are made with nixtamalize-d corn masa (dough) moistened with liquid from cooked black beans, formed on a base of leaves from aguacate nativo (native avocado trees), and then further wrapped in part of a banana plant trunk.  In this photo, the jícara contains sea salt.

Watch Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz, from San Juan Teitipac in Oaxaca's Valles Centrales, as she prepares tamales de piedra.


Here's the finished tamal de piedra, ready to be steamed.  You can see the green avocado leaves poking out of the bundle; the aguacate nativo leaves add a slight anise flavor to these tamales.  This tamal is one of the interesting types that I had never seen before attending the 2018 Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.


At the top, freshly rendered manteca de cerdo (pork lard). Below, home-made sausage for tamales de salchicha as prepared by cocinera tradicional Sra. Anel Felisa Hernández Morga, of Ejutla de Crespo (Zona Valles Centrales).  This was another tamal new to me.


Another truly unusual Oaxacan tamal which I first tasted at the initial Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales in April 2017: tamal de tichinda, made with mejillones de agua dulce (sweet water mussels), incorporated shell and all into the nixtamalize-d corn masa (dough).  These are wrapped in totomoxtle (dried and rehydrated corn husks) and then steamed; cocinera tradicional Sra. Brígida Martínez Ávila of Zapotalito, Tututepec (Zona Costa) is preparing these.  Another variety is similarly made but is wrapped in banana leaves.  

Let's watch Sra. Martínez as she makes the tamales de tichinda.  Notice that she fills one totomoxtle with the masa/tichinda mixture and then adds a second corn husk for further stability of the tamales.  She sets them aside to be steamed later.


Tamales de tichinda, ready to be steamed.  I dreamed about these delicious tamales for an entire year and was so thrilled to know that I could taste them again in 2018.

Expert hands making the initial folds of banana leaves, slightly warmed over a flame to make them soft and flexible, enclosing masa and a filling. 


The second step of folding the banana leaves to enclose the masa and filling.


The final step: tying each bundle securely together with a strip of the same banana leaf.


Cocinera tradicional Sra. Elena Tapia Flores, who came from San Juan Colorado, Jamiltepec (Zona Costa) to prepare tamales de hierbabuena con pollo (tamales with mint and chicken) at the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.

Sra. Tapia kneads the masa for her tamales until it is the perfect consistency for spreading on rehydrated totomoxtle (dried, then rehydrated corn husks).


The prepared masa for Sra. Tapia's tamales de hierbabuena con pollo.  The flecks that you see in the dough are hierbabuena (mint).

Cocinera tradicional Sra. Catalina Chávez Lucas from Tlacolula de Matamoros (Zona Valles Centrales) prepares tamales de conejo (rabbit tamales).


Ingredients for tamales de cambray oaxaqueños: banana leaf, nixtamalize-d masa, and a mixture of chicken, potatoes, raisins, almonds, and mole paste.


Tamales de cambray, the finished product.  These are right up at the top of my "favorite tamales" list.  They are slightly sweet, slightly savory, and in my opinion, just right.


Cocinera tradicional María del Carmen Gómez Martínez of the Sierra Norte, filling one of her tamales de mole amarillo (yellow mole).


See how María del Carmen's tamales are rolled up?  I've never seen tamales made in this style before, have you?

These two elderly women, both cocineras tradicionales, really touched my heart: they kept plugging away and made so many tamales together.  Life's much more rewarding when we share its work and its joys, its sorrows and its happiness, with one another!

Mexico Cooks! and everyone I met or talked with had a fabulous time at the 2º Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, held April 25-28, 2018, in the city of Oaxaca.  If any of you would be interested in attending all or part of this incredible festival with me in 2019, please let me know as soon as possible.  I'd be glad to send you a quote for a tour, for all or part of this incredibly exciting event.

Meantime, come back next week for the start of the next leg of the Mexico Cooks!/Silvana Salcido Esparza of Barrio Café Phoenix fame to continue our tour of Oaxaca: next, we're going to the southernmost part of the state: the Isthmus of Tehuantepec!  Here we go: first stop, the Sunday Market at Tlacolula, Oaxaca!

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

Market to Table :: Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca, Days Three and Four

Oaxaca's Mercado de la Merced.  It's small compared to the city's downtown Mercado 20 de noviembre, yet quite complete in its offerings and is arguably the most traditional of Oaxaca City's markets. You'll find everything from freshly baked pan de yema to--well, to anything you might need from a market.  The Merced also has a number of excellent fondas--small, often family-run restaurant stands where one can eat well for a relatively low price.  The market is at the corner of Calles José María Morelos and Leandro Valle in the city of Oaxaca.


We started our morning at the famous Fonda Florecita inside the Mercado de la Merced.  Foamy hot chocolate was the envy of this piggy bank.  Although I have eaten here with great pleasure on many other occasions, none of us were too happy with breakfast today.  We finished fairly quickly and took a walk through the market to see what was available and interesting.


These oval, "pleated" tomatoes are shaped almost like kidneys--hence their name, jitomate de riñón (kidney tomatoes).  They are endemic to Oaxaca and have a slightly different and more intense tomato flavor that gives a truly special taste to the dishes in which they're used.


On the left, locally grown granadas (pomegranates).  On the right, a tiny fruit called jiotillo, similar to its large cousin, the pitaya.


Anywhere you wander in Oaxaca, you'll find chapulines (grasshoppers) for sale.  They come toasted with salt, chile, and a little jugo de limón (juice of Mexico's most common lime).  These are my favorites, the tiniest ones.  Sprinkled into a quesadilla, served with guacamole, or as a botana (snack) on their own, they're delicious.  Yes, they really are.  


What we see in Mexico is often a surreal juxtaposition of objects.  Here, a market vendor displays raw chickens with their feet splayed out below a huge and beautiful magnolia flower, still on its branch.  And why not.


Left to right: locally grown and freshly harvested ajo (garlic), an enormous green pod--close to 18" long--called cuajinicuil, tiny green miltomates in a plastic bag, and granadas (pomegranates).


Later we cut the cuajinicuil open at the edges to see and taste the edible parts inside.  The raw, fluffy, white, fibrous material protects the green seeds and is the part that's eaten as a sweet fruit.  The green seeds, which are just under two inches long, can be cooked and eaten, but are not eaten raw.  We and several friends tried the white part and pronounced it delicious and refreshing.  


Outside the market, newly laundered jeans hung on a chicken wire fence to dry.  

We grabbed a cab from the market to the Plaza de la Danza in Oaxaca's Centro Histórico to continue with Day Three at the Second Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.  


Just inside the entrance to the event, we saw this wonderful example of ingenuity: a wheelbarrow, converted into a fogón (fire enclosure, the flames are just visible)--complete with a cal (builder's lime) coated clay comal supported by bricks for preparing tortillas.  The use of cal gives the surface of the comal a non-stick coating. Cocinera tradicional Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz of the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, was in charge of preparing the tortillas.  We'll see more of doña Martina next week, in a special event at the Encuentro.  "Doña" is an honorific given to women (it's "don", for men) as a sign of respect.


Ceviche made from wild mushrooms by young cocinera tradicional María del Carmen Gómez Martínez from Tlahuitoltepec, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca.


Garnachas--in this case, five small tortillas similar in size and shape to the antojito known as sopes, served with frijoles negros refritos (refried black beans), and with picadillo, among other toppings, all accompanied by delicious crumbled cheese and verduras encurtidas (pickled vegetables).  Served with choice of salsas.


Cocineras from the Zona Triqui, west and slightly to the north of the city of Oaxaca City.  The indigenous Triquis live in some of the most remote villages of Oaxaca state; outside their region, their food is very little known.  These women, and several other Triqui women, traveled with some difficulty to bring their cuisine to the Encuentro.  They were unfortunately disappointed in the public's limited understanding and acceptance of the food they prepared.


We were much enamored of each community and region's typical dress and hairstyle.  Unfortunately I don't have notes to indicate some of the communities.  There was simply too much to see, to much to hear, too much to experience, and above all, too many people crowded into booths to take highly detailed information. 


Making tortillas with a press.


These beautifully dressed and coiffed cocineras tradicionales are anticipating what writer/chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas will say as she takes notes on what the food they prepared and served in their stand.


Panza rellena con barbacoa (sheep stomach stuffed with meat and spices and then long-cooked).  The panza had just been removed from the cooking vessel and cut open.  The fragrance was delicious!  The panza, along with several other dishes made of sheep, was prepared and served by cocinero tradicional Sr. Irving Sergio Clemente Villegas from Villa Tejuapam de la Unión, Teposcolula, in the Zona Mixteca.  Men rather than women are almost always in charge of making barbacoa. Each molcajete (volcanic stone grinding vessel) filled with traditional green and red salsas was actually bigger than the panza itself.  


One other barbacoa expert was selling his wares at the Encuentro.  Sr. Alejandro López Cosme from the Villa de Zaachila in the Valles Centrales prepared Niño Envuelto made of barbacoa de res (beef barbacoa) or barbacoa de cerdo (pork barbacoa).  Niño Envuelto translates literally to "a child wrapped up" and is the term used for making a jelly roll, so you can imagine how the meats are prepared for this dish.  The beef is cut very thin, the way tasajo is cut, and well-seasoned.  Then it's rolled around vegetables, layer upon layer, in a covering of native avocado leaves; the native avocado imparts an anise flavor to the meat.  Then it's slathered with a concoction made by don Alejandro, covered, cooked for several hours, sliced, and served with salsa.  Photo courtesy El Universal.


Cocinera tradicional Sra. Faustina Lucía Valencia Sánchez from San Antonino Castillo Velásco in the Valles Centrales, preparing chocolateatole early on the morning of the fourth day of the Encuentro.  Sra. Valencia generously took the time to instruct us in the specifics of this uniquely Oaxacan drink.  The foam for the drink, made of a particular kind of cocoa beans that are buried underground to ferment for as many as eight months--along with ground, toasted wheat, sugar, cinnamon, water, and other ingredients--is made separately from the atole itself, which is white.  The foam is whipped until quite stiff with a special molinillo (chocolate beater) which has no loose rings.  Once the foam is ready to be used, it will hold its shape for several hours or more.  To serve the drink, one's cup is first filled with atole blanco, and then the thick, heavy foam is heaped on top.  The foam is often made some time prior to the day it will be served, and then dried solid; when the festivities are about to start, the dried hunks of foam are ground to powder, sprinkled with water, and beaten again to use on top of the atole blanco (white atole).


Cacao fermentado (fermented cacao beans), the principal ingredient for Oaxacan chocolateatole.  You might be familiar with champurrado, the chocolate atole (note separation of the words) made in many parts of Mexico.  Chocolateatole is not champurrado, it is a drink unique to Oaxaca.

Grinding the fermented cacao beans on a metate to prepare for the foam for chocolateatole.

Chocolateatole oaxaquéño, topped with a large amount of extremely thick chocolate foam and ready to be drunk.


The Encuentro offered four full days of academic conferences in addition to offering food from every region of Oaxaca. We heard panel conference about El Quehacer de una Cocinera Tradicional (The Tasks of a Traditional Cook), moderated by chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas; about La Cocina Oaxaqueña como Patrimonio del Estado de Oaxaca y la Importancia de Preservarla (The Oaxacan Cuisine as a Heritage and the Importance of Preserving It), presented by teacher, writer, and designer Claudio Sánchez Islas; El Maíz Como Patrimonio Gastronómico (Corn as a Gastronomic Heritage), presented by Maestro Rafael Mier Sáinz Trapaga (photo above); and Conversario de Cocineras Tradicionales del Estado de Oaxaca "Historias de la Vida" (A Conversation Among Traditional Cooks from Oaxaca: Life Stories, again moderated by writer/chef Margarita Carrillo de Salinas.   

The group of eight cocineras tradicionales who willingly shared their life histories.  Left to right: Sra. Carina Santiago Bautista, Sra. Faustina Lucía Valencia Sánchez, Sra. Martina Sánchez Cruz, Dra. Ana Laura Martínez (director of the Culinary Arts School in Tijuana, Baja California); Sra. Dolores García Arroyo; Sra. María Sarah Gómez Galán; Sra. Emma Méndez García (holding the microphone), Sra. Elena Tapia Flores (in the white cap), Sra. Porfiria Bautista López, and chef/writer Margarita Carrillo de Salinas, the moderator of the panel.  This conference was so moving that we in the audience wept unguardedly as these women spoke.  They opened their hearts and minds to tell us who they are, why they cook, and the incredible deep personal meaning their cooking holds for them, for their children, and for future generations.  It was an honor and a privilege to be present.

At the end of that conference, cocinera tradicional Sra. Emma Méndez García, from Huautla de Jiménez, La Cañada zone, sang her gratitude to the audience with this song in her native Mazateco language.  Sra. Méndez prepared five distinct dishes for the Encuentro, among them pipián con huevo duro (a seed-based sauce with hard-boiled eggs), tamales with tesmole (a pre-Hispanic recipe), and quelites (native greens).

On that beautiful note, we'll stop until next week.  Come back on June 9, 2018, to enjoy Mexico Cooks! final report about the Second Annual Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Oaxaca.  We're going to visit 70 cocineras traditionales as each of them prepares tamales important in the region where each cook lives.  You know that I've been to many, many of Mexico's fantastic food events, but I have never been so bowled over as I was by the tamales demonstration.  Don't miss it, right here in one week.

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