Mexico Cooks!

Simona Barra Saludable in Morelia, Michoacán :: Discovering a Restaurant During the Pandemic Lockdown

The exterior of Simona Barra Saludable during lockdown.  Photo courtesy Voofla, Morelia Pet Friendly.

Morelia, Michoacán--where Mexico Cooks! lives--has been under quarantine for several weeks due to the novel coronavirus, and is currently under full-on lockdown.  The government's list of essential services that can remain open is fairly short, and the list of who's allowed outside includes only people who work for those services.  The list of private citizens who are allowed to go out for medicines, food, or banking is even shorter.  This is the case pretty much everywhere in the world right now, and options for discovering unknown eating places are limited, to say the least.  To my considerable surprise, yesterday I had that pleasure.

A word to the wise: due to the pandemic, we have not been to the restaurant.  Nevertheless, the restaurant came to us!


Luisa and the huge wicker basket of marvelous breakfast foods that Simona Barra Saludable brought to our home yesterday morning.

For a surprise breakfast to celebrate a special occasion, Luisa, who was looking around online, spotted a restaurant offering home delivery.  The project director, Josvi Luna Silva, sent her their menus.  Unbeknownst to me, Luisa placed a breakfast order to be delivered to our home.  Clueless, I asked her on Thursday what she might like me to prepare for breakfast on Friday morning.  "Don't worry about it," she said, flashing her glorious smile.  "I'm in charge of breakfast.  And no, don't ask."  


Center: yoghurt with granola and fruits.  Both sides: combo of orange/carrot juice.  Photo courtesy Simona Barra Saludable.

At ten o'clock Luisa set the breakfast table.  At 10:15 the doorbell rang.  At 10:17, I walked into the dining room to discover her holding an enormous wicker basket filled with containers: two biodegradable black takeout boxes, two tall glasses full of a beautiful dark-orange juice, a mysterious small paper bag, little clear-plastic cups filled with--salsas?  They didn't look like salsas, but what?  A clear-topped container with what might have been--I couldn't tell!  She sat me down and started taking everything out of the basket!

Left: four enchiladas verdes with chicken.  Right: a LOT of chilaquiles rojos.

Here's what we discovered: 
--a blend of fresh orange/carrot juice
--yoghurt with granola and seasonal fruits (locally grown blueberries, red raspberries, and blackberries)
--a huge amount of chilaquiles in red salsa, topped with cream, crumbled cheese, and thinly sliced red onions
--another box of chicken enchiladas in green salsa
--a half-order of waffles and and their syrups (in those clear-plastic cups!)
--a stack of three small pancakes, prepared with finely ground coffee and stone-ground chocolate beans in the flour and topped with pecans, berries, and cacao nibs
--two tall cups filled with hot coffee


An order of three really marvelous hot cakes.

My jaw dropped to see these beautiful dishes.  Every presentation was perfect, and what we ate was exquisite, prepared with the best local ingredients and freshly made to Luisa's order.  You readers know that I can be a bit snarky about how food is prepared, but I could find nothing that could have been better "if only they had...". 

We did our best, but we couldn't finish everything.  But how lucky is that: we put the leftovers away for later!


Not only was the food impeccable, but the service was as well.  Our breakfast arrived on the dot of its appointed hour.  And the prices are truly accessible and fair.  The photo above is one part of the restaurant's April-May menu.  Photo courtesy Simona Barra Saludable.  Click on the photo to enlarge for a clearer view.

The staff at Simona Barra Saludable is fully professional, and it shows.  Sra. Claudia Peredo Rincón is the owner of the space; Chef Jonathan Rangel Hidalgo, who heads up the kitchen, graduated from CEDVA, a professional working center in Morelia which offers a degree in gastronomy.  Josvi Luna Silva, the director of the restaurant project, graduated from the Colegio Culinario de Morelia with a culinary degree.  Among the three of them--and with their staff--they have created a marvelous option for all of us who appreciate really careful, creative, and professionally prepared meals.

Are you tired of cooking?  Do you want a wonderful option in Morelia, for breakfast or for midday?  Let's help Simona Barra Saludable survive the lockdown.  Call them today, or tomorrow, or any day next week starting on Tuesday.  You can pick up your meal, or they'll take it to you.  Or you can order from Rappi, if you have that app.  You'll be so happy that you called--and by all means, tell them that Mexico Cooks! sent you.  You're going to love it.

Simona Barra Saludable
Calle Santiago Tapia 679
Centro Histórico
Morelia 58000
Michoacán
Tel.  443-355-3366
Hours:  9:00AM - 4:00PM (during the current coronavirus lockdown).  Take out or home delivery ONLY.
            Tuesday through Sunday
            8:00AM - 8:00PM (normal hours once this lockdown is over).  
            Monday through Sunday

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Rajas con Crema :: Chile Poblano Strips with Cream, A Mexican Classic

The chile poblano is one of the most commonly used fresh chiles in Mexico's kitchen.  A very large, fleshy chile, it can measure as much as seven or eight inches long.  The stem end is much wider than the point, and the color ranges from dark green to almost black-green. Shopping tip: if you buy chiles poblano that are flat on all sides, they will roast more quickly than if they are deeply creased in spots.  The flat sides will evenly touch the roasting surface.

The chile poblano is commonly used for preparing main dishes such as chiles rellenos, including the seasonal and festive chiles en nogada.  It is also used for making rajas de chile poblano con crema (strips of chile poblano with cream), a marvelously flavorful vegetable side dish.  All photos by Mexico Cooks! unless otherwise noted.

To prepare chiles poblano for use in any recipe, wash and roast them.  Don't try to use them with the peel on; the peels will be as tough as trying to chew through plastic.  Mexico Cooks! uses a cast iron comal (griddle) placed over a high flame to roast as many as four to six chiles at a time.  Other cooks prefer to roast these chiles one at a time over an open flame, or on a broiler pan in a slightly open oven. No matter which roasting method you use, the roasted chiles should look like the ones in the above photo.  Photo courtesy Maura Hernández.

Once the chiles are roasted, put them in a plastic bag, twist it shut, and allow the chiles to 'sweat' for 10 to 15 minutes.  You'll easily be able to remove the blackened peels.  It's best not to rinse them--or rinse them only a little--as rinsing removes a good bit of the delicious chile poblano flavor.  

After you have peeled your roasted chiles, they will look like this.  If just a bit of toasted peel sticks to the chile, it will simply add another layer of flavor to your dish.  Click on the photo to enlarge and better see the remaining blackened bits of peel.

Make a slit down the full length of each chile and cut off its stem end.  Remove the seeds by brushing them into a trash receptacle.

Chiles poblano, roasted, peeled, and laid flat on a cutting board.  The next step is to slice them into strips--rajas, in Spanish.

Rajas, ready to prepare and serve.  For this meal, Mexico Cooks! used three large chiles to prepare a side dish for two people.

The ingredients include half a white onion, sliced very thin, and about one-third of a large sweet red pepper, diced. Sauté in hot oil until soft and translucent.  Mexican cooks normally use fresh corn kernels in this recipe; I happened to have no fresh corn on hand, but I did have part of a sweet red pepper that needed to be cooked, so I used that instead.  

Peppers and onions, ready for the addition of the chile strips!

Continue to sauté the vegetables until the chiles are soft.  Because the chile strips are already roasted, the sauté process will not take long.  You do not want your rajas to be over-cooked; they should still be bright green at the end of cooking.

Add about half a cup of crema para la mesa (Mexican table cream or creme fraiche--NOT sour cream) to the vegetable mix.  Stir until well incorporated. 

The cream will become a thick sauce for the vegetables.  Salt to taste.  The chile poblano is generally quite mild and flavorful, but once in a while you will come across one that is surprisingly spicy.  There's no way to tell by looking at them whether they are mild or hot, and either way they're delicious and not overly 'hot'.

Mexico Cooks! served the rajas de chile poblano con crema alongside strips of a very large chicken breast, lightly dusted with salted flour and sautéed in olive oil seasoned with a smashed clove of garlic.  This chicken breast half, which weighed nearly a pound, made ten strips and was plenty for the two of us for our main meal of the day.  This simple meal was easy and delicious.

Provecho! (Good eating!)

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Saint Jude Thaddeus in Mexico City :: San Judas Tadeo, Patron Saint of the Impossible

Normally during the pre- and post-Easter season, Mexico Cooks! devotes its articles to this holy time of the Christian year.  This year, Semana Santa (Easter Week) observations and celebrations--including all Roman Catholic Masses--have been closed to the public due to the novel coronavirus quarantines everywhere in Mexico.  Rather than Easter observations, I offer you an older article about a different religious belief.  


Mexico City's Templo San Hipólito, built starting in 1559 to commemorate the 1520 victory of the Mexica (later known as the Aztecs) over the Spanish invaders in a battle that became known as la Batalla de la Noche Triste (the Battle of the Sad Night), one of the worst defeats the Spanish suffered at the hands of the people they subsequently conquered. The church was finished late in the 17th century.  

The church location has been a major influence in Mexico City since those early times. Prior to the building of the church, the first mental hospital in the Americas, founded by Bernardino Álvarez, stood on this corner.  San Hipólito was the first patron saint of Mexico's capital city.


A prayer card image of St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of difficult or impossible causes.  Your Catholic mother or grandmother--or maybe you yourself-- probably have an image like this tucked into a Bible.


Not your grandmother's version of St. Jude.  Photo courtesy Tattoomuch.com.

Today, Templo San Hipólito is the site of enormous devotion to Saint Jude Thaddeus, known in Spanish as San Judas Tadeo.  The most venerated statue of the saint in Mexico is here, and Mexico is deeply devoted to him and to his image. San Judas's feast day is celebrated on October 28 each year, when as many as 100,000 faithful converge on the small church. The huge number of faithful who visit their beloved saint--starting with the first Mass celebrated at midnight--inevitably cause chaotic traffic jams at the corner where the church is located, one of the busiest junctions in Mexico City. 
 

The video will give you an idea of the devotion to St. Jude.

Devotion to San Judas in Mexico City is so great that his feast day is celebrated not only on October 28 each year, but also on the 28th of every month.  In July a few years ago, Mexico Cooks! went to visit the saint on his day.


Merchandise sold by vendors around the perimeter of the church--merchandise like these rosaries--is often colored green, white, and gold, the traditional colors of San Judas's clothing.


My companion and I arrived at Templo San Hipólito relatively early, but people had been pouring into the church for each Mass of the day; on the 28th, Masses are said on the hour, all day.  This view, from outside the church entrance, did not prepare us for the packed sanctuary.


Once we entered the sanctuary, we were unable to advance beyond the half-way point due to the enormous number of people already inside.  At the top middle of this photo, you see a very large statue of the Virgin Mary. Below her is San Judas.

Unlike predominately female crowds at Masses in other churches or at prayer services devoted to other saints, the majority of this crowd is male.  While women are certainly present, you can see in the photo that the people in front of us were almost all male.


Custom here is to wrap a figure of San Judas in scarves, scapulars, beads, and medals.  When I asked this woman, seated on a bench along the inside of the church, if I might take a picture of her statue, she said yes, but bowed her head to show him, not herself.  It's also customary to take small gifts, such as the candy this woman is holding, to share with others at the church.


St. Martín de Porres is also much-venerated in Mexico. This life-size statue of him, holding a real broom, is at one side of the San Hipólito interior.  Notice that much of the broom straw has been broken off and taken by the faithful. Click on the photo (and any photo) to enlarge it.  


This young man gave me permission to photograph him and his statue.  


Many parents dress their babies in the green, gold, and white colors of the saint.  Usually they have made a vow to St. Jude to do this in thanks for a favor granted; oftentimes, the favor granted is the birth of a healthy child after complications of pregnancy.


The man who carried this large and elaborately wrapped statue during the entire Mass set it on a stone wall so that I could photograph it.


Vendors along the sidewalks sell every kind of St. Jude-related goods.  People carry these candles into the church to be blessed, and then carry them home to light their personal altars dedicated to the saint.


We visited many of the booths selling figures of San Judas.  The sizes range from about six inches high--like the ones at the left in the front row--to life size or larger. The seated figure just right of center represents Jesús Malverde, an 'informal' saint (one revered by the people but not a saint in the church).  Jesús Malverde, a Sinaloa legend, is also known as the 'narco saint', the 'angel of the poor', or the 'generous bandit'.  The green sign refers to the copitas (little goblets) filled with San Judas's seeds of abundance just above it.  Each goblet with seeds costs 10 pesos. That's approximately 40 US cents, at today's exchange rate.

Feeling like your own world is standing on its head due to the pandemic?  You might want to try a chat with St. Jude.

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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and What Sustains Us in Isolation

Because of the novel coronavirus, many of us in Mexico and around the world have been self-quarantined (bajo cuarentena, sheltered in place, or any of a number of English- and/or Spanish-language names) for two or more weeks.  Many more of us are unable to keep a full-time quarantine--due to work requirements, income difficulties, and a number of other situations).  That's me in my brand new cat mask, a gift from Luisa to help keep me from innocently spreading germs to the populace--and to keep me from breathing in others' germs.  Remember that if you are wearing a mask, that it MUST cover both your mouth and your nose, the two most common places where germs, along with your breath, can flow out, and can flow in.


Mexico Cooks! has been out of the food loop for about two weeks.  The 17th Encuentro de Cocineras Tradicionales de Michoacán just barely scooted in under the quarantine wire (it took place March 13-15, this year) and my favorite restaurants in Morelia are closed until further notice.  I've tried to simplify food and household necessity shopping, most (but not all) of the items I've ordered are being delivered, and I'm preparing nourishing meals with fairly basic ingredients, as I'm sure most of you are, as well.  Some items are hard to find here, just as they are hard to find in other countries.  We who live in central Mexico are blessed by a continued proliferation of high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables, meats (particularly our beautiful chickens), and fresh fish and seafood.

We read so many opinions and ideas about how to live in newspapers, magazines, medical journals, and on social media.  Do this, do that, don't do that, don't do this.  Stay home, wear a mask, don't wear a mask, go out but not to big events, do what you want--pay no attention to any of it, hide under the bed...what's the answer, or is there an answer?  Given quarantine, social distancing, and other situations to which no one is accustomed, what sustains us physically, psychologically, and intellectually--and in particular, because I have had almost no in-person contact with others, what sustains me during these unusually isolated days?  

My personal answer is: my family of friends, the group of boon companions in my life whom I love intensely.  Pretty much constantly available for a chat on Facebook or Whatsapp, through photos on Instagram and other social media, and privately available via photographs that I and others have taken all over Mexico, we are a family of choice.  Most of us live distances apart from one another, but distance doesn't disrupt our deep caring for one another.  I'd like you to meet a few of them, so that you know that the deep love that supports me comes from many sources.

Cynthia Martínez, chef/owner at Morelia's Restaurante y Cantina La Conspiración de 1809.  Cynthia and her husband, Roberto González, have been a major source of love and care for me since--well, for almost 15 years, since I first moved to Morelia, Michoacán in 2007. 
  

Rafael Mier is a mainstay in my life and has sustained me in every way possible since we began to form our friendship about five years ago.  A close friend, a colleague, a teacher, a gentleman: what more could a person want in a friend?  


Anita and Ken Caldwell, much-loved adopted family since at least 2002, when they still lived in Ohio and before their move to Mexico.  We spent a glorious, loving time together at the end of February 2020, just prior to their move from Ajijic, Jalisco back to the USA.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world. 


Rose Calderone, the irreplaceable, irresistible, Wonder Woman of Morelia.  We're sisters through good times and bad, it doesn't matter that we don't have the same Mom and Dad.  Sistahs!  I'm a lucky woman to have Rose in my life.      
 

Rosalba Morales Bartolo, cocinera tradicional de Michoacán (traditional Michoacán cook).  Rosalba is one of the wisest, deepest, most spiritual women I know, we have been friends for 10 years, and we have been there for one another through thick and thin.  Photo courtesy Cynthia Martínez.


Alma Cervantes Cota.  A pillar of strength in my life, we have been close friends since 2009, sharing joys and sorrows and so many of the puzzle-pieces of our lives.  No matter what, I know that I can count on Alma--and she can count on me.


Darrell Schmidt.  We've been friends for more than 20 years, sharing philosophies, ideas, commentary on our private and public lives, and many, many lengthy meals.  We last spent time together in February 2020, snarking and complaining about growing old.  But--in truth, there is nothing much better than being 'old' friends.  


The ultimate Paco (Francisco de Santiago Lázaro), a renaissance man if there ever was one.  Chess master, student of literature, literate in every respect, knows more Mexican slang than anyone else, and is truly the most knowledgeable person I know, about all things Mexico City and beyond.  We're close friends, colleagues, and almost-but-not-quite siblings.  I'd pick Paco for a brother any day.  A tip of the hat to his wonderful wife, Lourdes Rosas, for letting me take so much of his time.


With (back L to R) Alam Méndez Florián (chef at Pasillo de Humo), Alondra Maldonado, Paco de Santiago and (front L to R) Cristina, Lourdes Rosas, and her daughter Monse.  Rafa must have been taking the picture!  At Restaurante Pasillo de Humo, Mexico City, doing what we do best together: eating and gossiping talking!


Pamela Gordon of Toronto.  There's no one with whom I have shared deeper care, broader sharing, and talk that has ranged from the earliest memories of our lives to the latest news about our adventures in the kitchen ("Look at this recipe, let's both make it tomorrow!") and our (between us) many, many much-cherished cats.


Luisa Fernanda Ruiz Montiel, my nearest and dearest.  Luisa is an enormous gift from the universe, beyond definition and beyond words.  

My personal list of close companions, here in Morelia or at a distance, could go on for pages.  Leslie Morrison, Claire Ramsey, Amaranta Santos, Lucero Soto Arriaga, Joaquín Bonilla, Evan Schoninger, Tonia Deetz Rock, Linda Katz Verdugo--I wouldn't know where to stop if I added every name and photo.  Think about your own family--whether chosen family or family of origin--and give thanks that they are present to you in this time of separation.  What we we do without them?    

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