Mexico Cooks!

Dando la Vuelta en la Ciudad de México :: Roaming Around in Mexico City, Part Four

Roof at Casa Luis Barragán, Calle General Francisco Ramírez 12 and 14, Col. Daniel Garza, Distrito Federal.  If you are at all interested in modern Mexican architecture, this museum is a must-see.  Arquitecto Luis Barragán changed the face of Mexican building, pioneering in the use of forms and space as joining both utility and beauty.


Baby bok choy at the Mercado San Juan.  Each of these little bok choys is about six inches long, perfect for steaming.  Most of the most-used fresh Asian vegetables (long beans, bitter melon, snow peas, bok choy of two or three kinds, and more) are regularly available at this downtown Mexico City market. 


One of my favorite market stall signs: Bacon Shop "La Guadalupana", a Mercado de Jamaica pork butcher puesto (booth) that sells far more than bacon.  And the happy little pigs are mariachis.


Just around the corner from Mexico Cooks!' former Mexico City headquarters, this tree wears a multi-colored and textured knit jacket.


A wheelbarrow full of mamey (pouteria sapota), perfectly ripe, beautifully cut, creamy sweetness.  The mamey looks like a small fuzzy football and tastes like a baked sweet potato.  Sunday market, Tlacolula, Oaxaca.

Metates (the rectangular grinding stone) and their metlapiles (the rolling pin), used for grinding everything from chocolate to chiles, beans to edible bugs.  One doesn't use the same metate for everything; separate metates keep the flavors of each of your ingredients pure.  

Pink graffiti on a window.  The little sign reads, "Fresh paint".  Click on any image to make it bigger, for a better view.


Tomatoes for salsa, roasting directly on the red-hot embers.  Private home, Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca.  "Sí, siempre los asamos así.  Agarran más sabor." ('Yes, we always roast them this way.  They take on more flavor.')

Tortillas freshly toasted on the comal (griddle).  These tortillas, prepared in Puebla by traditional cooks from Querétaro, bear a "Q" stamp indicating their place of origin.  In long-ago years, tortillas were often stamped with similar carved wooden stamps.  The stamps were carved with pictures or letters that identified the owners.  The dye, based on the wild plant called muictle, is steeped in water to bring out the color used to stamp tortillas.


Fresh morel mushrooms, Mercado de San Juan, Mexico City.  Morels are available at this market fresh during the rainy season, and dried all year long.


A pre-Hispanic waterspout in the shape of a monkey's head.  Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City.

Jícaras (hand-carved or painted drinking cups from the tecomate tree), Mercado Benito Juárez, Oaxaca.


Misitu, the Purépecha word for cat.  Mural detail, Santa Fe de la Laguna, Michoacán.

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

Dando la Vuelta por México :: Roaming Around in Mexico, Part Three!

In February 2019, Mexico Cooks! returned to live once again in Morelia, Michoacán.  It's been a joyful return, to the welcome of wonderful old friends, well-remembered streets and markets, and the beautiful colonial city itself.  I found a terrific house in Morelia's Centro Histórico, walking distance to most anywhere I need to go.  You can expect to hear a lot more from me in the months to come about the cuisines, customs, and creativity of the people of Michoacán.  The photo above is Morelia's Cathedral by the light of the full moon.


Workshop for creating a flavored salt.  In a volcanic stone molcajete (that's part of it, in the photo), I ground roasted maguey worms, dehydrated pineapple, sea salt, and a chile de árbol or two.  The flavor of mine was just so-so; a fellow behind me made a fantastic salt, flavored with a roasted scorpion.  Who knew!  Each of us participants got to bring our salt home in a test tube.  


Late this spring, a friend and I traveled to San Miguel de Allende, where we saw friends and tried some of San Miguel's many restaurants.  My personal favorite meal was brunch at Marsala: Cocina con Acentos, a truly innovative and delicious Mediterranean niche in the center of the city.  The photo shows my plate of Marsala-style eggs Benedict, accompanied by a so-good mimosa.  In addition to a full menu of brunch choices, one is also invited to partake of the buffet of freshly baked scones, cheese biscuits, marmalades, a magnificent house-made terrine, and a number of other take-what-you want items.  I can't wait to go back!

One of the highlights of the trip to San Miguel de Allende was the opportunity to meet in person a man I have long admired from afar.  Charles Hall manages Rose Anne Hall Designs, a highly successful family business which produces mouth-blown glass items for the home, as well as the most beautiful hand-made candles in Mexico.  Under Charlie's direction, the business dedicates itself to hiring people with disabilities--or what would appear to be disabilities--but who are enabled by the opportunity to create.  Charlie is a businessman, a philosopher, and a humorist, and a wonderful human being.  


In the lovely traditional kitchen at the home of good friends in Santa Fe de la Laguna.  It's always a privilege to be with them.


Cocido, or caldo de res, in my own kitchen and ready to serve.  So simple, and so delicious.  


Embarcadero San Pedro near twilight, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.


If you've been reading Mexico Cooks! for very long, you know that I have a strange fascination with pig heads.  The staff at this market booth are all great people and love showing off their wares.  This handsome fellow has a mouthful of alfalfa.  They are also a bunch of goofballs: they always encourage my market tour clients  to kiss the snout--and I must say that in the spirit of fun, quite a few do!


These miniature chairs--about the size to seat a one-year-old baby--were all but viral on Facebook when I uploaded the photo.  Turned upside down with potted plants on the bottoms of the straw seats, the chairs make a charming entrance into my home.


Last--but definitely not least--was my outrageously wonderful end-of-June birthday party, with the crowning touch of this spectacular cake.  A huge shout-out to the Colegio Culinario de Morelia, to chef Joaquín Bonilla, to chef Juan Carlos Montaño, and to the crew who brought and served this marvelous creation.  Between the delicious cake, the just-right frosting, the assortment of cookies and candies--and gold leaf!--that decorated the masterpiece, party guests were thrilled and so was the birthday girl.  Such a wonderful birthday gift!  Mil gracias a todos ustedes del Colegio!

Come back next week for a look at the rest of Mexico Cooks!' year 2021.

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Dando la Vuelta en la Ciudad de México :: Roaming Around in Mexico City, Part Two

This white pozole from Mexico's state of Guerrero ranks close to the top of Mexico Cooks!' list of best pozoles in Mexico.  The pozolería (pozole place) is right here in Mexico City--come with us next time, we go as often as we can. 


A selection of beautiful crystallized fruits at Mercado Medellín, one of the several Mexico City markets where Mexico Cooks! takes tours.  In the photo from nine o'clock: sweet potato, pineapple, whole orange, more sweet potato, squash, and at six o'clock, chilacayote squash and another orange. The inner group consists of squash, a limón, and a fig.


Sangre de cora, a drink prepared with tequila, sweet agua de jamaica, and frothy egg white.  It's adorned with jamaica blossoms.  Jamaica is a cousin of Mexico's hibiscus; in English, it's called roselle. The drink takes its name from the Cora indigenous group, which is native to western Jalisco and the coastal state of Nayarit; the delicious drink was served to me in Mexico City at a press event for the Riviera Nayarit.


They look like gears, don't they?  Actually, these are molinillos (chocolate frothers), stacked up for sale at a market.  There's nothing else like this market in all of Mexico-- Mexico Cooks! would be delighted to take you along for a tour!

Oaxaca is filled with culinary delicacies not seen elsewhere in Mexico.  Here, a platter of Oaxaca quesillo (think string cheese, but a million times better) stuffed with tiny chapulines (grasshoppers) and rolled jelly-roll fashion in anise-flavored hoja santa (holy leaf).  This is one of the most delicious things Mexico Cooks! has eaten in 2015.  Thank you, Restaurante Las 15 Letras!

Carmelite nuns buying carnations by the armload at Mexico City's wholesale flower market.  An entire bundle of these flowers, the size of the paper-wrapped flowers standing on the floor, will set you back about 70 pesos--less than $4.50 USD.


And now for something completely different--gai lan (Chinese broccoli), stir-fried with garlic, as served at our favorite Chinese restaurant: Jing Teng.


These exotic fruits from South America are curuba--banana passionfruit. Each fruit is approximately 3" long and an inch in diameter.  The sweet pulpy seeds are reminiscent of normal passionfruit, but less acidic.  The skin isn't eaten. We recently saw these at one of our favorite downtown markets.


Look at the color of the flesh of these ruby red grapefruits!  Mexico Cooks! was particularly taken with the extraordinary cut made by the vendor to display (and give tastes of) the fruit.


Mexico's own tuna--aka the prickly pear cactus fruit.  The market vendor who offered these for sale had brought along the entire cactus paddle to show clients how the fruit grows.


The tuna has a zipper-skin that's so simple to peel.  Just cut off each end of the tuna, make a lengthwise slit in the skin, and peel the skin away from the flesh.  Easy-peasy!  The tuna's texture is similar to that of watermelon, the flesh is sweet and refreshing, and the seeds are swallowed. Served chilled, they're even more thirst-quenching.


From a small restaurant in the state of Jalisco, this flan napolitano con queso (flan made with cheese) is one of the best I've eaten.  My comida (main meal of the day) companion assured me that he isn't a flan fan, but one taste of this one and he said, "We should have ordered two."  More the texture of cheesecake than custard, one slice of this rich, creamy dessert was plenty for the two of us.


And finally--Frida!  This portrait of Mexico's iconic painter Frida Kahlo is actually a tattoo on the inner forearm of a young woman I saw on the sidewalk outside a market. Claudia very graciously allowed me to photograph just her arm. Here's yet another reason to spend some time with Mexico Cooks!: you never, never know what you'll see next in this enormous and enormously diversified city!  
 
Looking for a tailored-to-your-interests specialized tour in Mexico? Click here: Tours. 

Dando la Vuelta en la Ciudad de México :: Roaming around in Mexico City, Part One

Mexico's summer always gives us an abundance of flor de calabaza (squash flowers) to be used in the kitchen. Prepared as sopa de guias (squash vine soup), quesadillas, or stuffed with cheese, these flowers are delicious and are readily available in many Mexican markets.  Did you know that only the male flowers are harvested?  The female flowers are left to develop squash.  

You might like to try this Mexico Cooks! recipe in your own kitchen.

Flor de Calabaza Estilo Cristina 
Squash Flowers, Cristina's Style

Ingredients

2 large bunches flor de calabaza, washed and patted dry
1 medium white onion
4 chiles poblano
1 chile serrano
2 large russet or other large white potatoes
Flour
Sea salt to taste
Vegetable oil, freshly rendered pork lard, or half vegetable oil, half bacon grease for frying.

Procedure

Peel and dice potatoes into 1/2" cubes.  Boil until just fork-tender.  Drain, allow to dry, and reserve.

Roast chiles according to your preferred method until the skin is blistered and they are well-blackened.  Sweat for 10 minutes in a closed plastic bag.  Remove skin.  Slice each chile lengthwise to remove seeds.  Dice peppers in 1/2” squares. 

Rough-chop flor de calabaza into 1 1/2" pieces.

Dice onion into 1/2" squares.

Mince chile serrano.

In a large sauté pan, heat the vegetable oil until it shimmers.  While the oil is heating, shake the reserved potatoes in flour and salt in a plastic bag. 

Sauté onions and chile serrano in oil or oil/bacon grease mixture.  Add the floured potatoes and sauté until crisp and pale golden, adding more fat if needed.  Add the diced chiles poblano and continue to sauté for about 1 minute.

Add the flor de calabaza and sauté just until tender. 

Add sea salt to taste.

Serves 2-3 as a side dish.


Late in the spring, we were invited to attend the opening of El Rebozo: Made in Mexico at Mexico City's extraordinary Museo Franz Mayer. The exhibition, which was originally mounted in London, featured both old and new rebozos (long rectangular shawls) as well as some other typical Mexican garments. One of the many rebozos in the exhibit was an exquisitely embroidered shawl from Oaxaca. This is a detail of that Oaxacan rebozo.


This photograph of Evita Perón, wife of Argentina's Juan Domingo Perón during his first term as president of that country, was part of an exhibit at Mexico City's Museum of Modern Art (MAM) during the spring and summer.  The photograph formed part of an exhibition of the works of Giselle Freund, a self-taught photographer who worked in Argentina and Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s.


This tiny ironwood mortar and pestle (the mortar is only about 2" high) comes from the state of Sonora, in northern Mexico.  It is made specifically for use at the table, for an individual diner to grind one or two chiles chiltepín, which are highly spicy and famously used to season certain dishes from the cuisine of that state.  The grinder is passed from person to person at the table, along with a dish of whole chile chiltepín.


Chile chiltepín from Sonora.  Each chile is tiny but extremely picante. Photo courtesy Hunter Angler Gardener Cook.

Beautiful ceremonial tortillas from the state of Guanajuato.  The tortillas are made in the usual way and are then stamped prior to baking with a wooden stamp dipped in vegetable dye.  Mexico Cooks! was privileged to see these twice in one summer, first at an event at the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana in Mexico City and again at the Primer Encuentro Nacional de Cocineras Tradicionales (First National Meeting of Traditional Cooks) in Morelia, Michoacán.


This is the tamarillo or tomate del árbol (tree tomato), a native of the South American Andes.  Each fruit is approximately 2.5" long.  The flesh is fairly firm and deeply flavorful, both sweet and earthy.  You never know what you'll see when you take a Mexico Cooks! tour--our group found these delicious fruits at a downtown Mexico City market.

Come back next week for more summertime wanderings with Mexico Cooks!. Our summer was far too interesting for just one article!

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