Mexico In Review

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Above is a selection of food pictures from our trip to Mexico - it was a fantastic two months. Below is an index of all of the blog posts from the trip, grouped by location.

Mexico City:

Mexico City
Mexico City - Salón Corona
Mexico City - Happy Chinese New Year!
Mexico City - Candelaria
Mexico City - El Vampiro
Mexico City - Bellas Artes
Mexico City - Slow Food Tamalada and Mescal Tasting
Mexico City - Some Miscellaneous Pictures
Mexico City - Views From La Torre Latinoamerica
Mexico City - Boating the Canals at Xochimilco
Mexico City - The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Post
Mexico City - The Red Tree House
Mexico City - El Huarache Azteca
Mexico City - Chapultepec Park
Mexico City - Tacos Al Pastor at El Tizoncito
Mexico City - More Miscellaneous Pictures

Oaxaca:

Oaxaca - Season of My Heart Cooking School
Oaxaca - Tamales at the Etla Market
Oaxaca - More Tasting at Etla Market
Oaxaca - Pipían
Oaxaca - Tetelas de Juxtlahuaca
Oaxaca - More Cooking Class Dishes
Oaxaca - Celebrations in the Street
Oaxaca - Mariscos La Red
Oaxaca - El Tlapanochestli Cochineal Farm
Oaxaca - Mexican Breakfast
Oaxaca - Anatomy of a Carnicería
Oaxaca - Mole Coloradito
Oaxaca - Dance Festival
Oaxaca - La Biznaga
Oaxaca - Some Miscellaneous Pictures

Puerto Escondido:

Getting from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido (and back)
Puerto Escondido - La Vida Tranquila

Veracruz:

Veracruz - Breakfast at Antojitos Lolita
Veracruz - Port of Veracruz and San Juan de Ulúa
Veracruz - Café Lechero at Gran Café de la Parroquia
Veracruz - Fish Market

Mexico City - More Miscellaneous Pictures

Jacaranda trees are all over Mexico City, and are in full bloom at the moment. The back courtyard of the Sectretaria de Educación Publica is filled with them. It makes for a great setting to view the huge number of Diego Rivera murals here.

Coconut filled candied lime from Dulceria de Celaya.



Preparing the set-up for tacos al pastor.



Rotisserie chicken is a big thing in Mexico. They serve up whole or half chicken on location or to go, usually accompanied by tortillas, rice and a little bag of salsa.




The corrugated tin exterior of parts of the Mercado Jamaica are covered with a large mural. The market itself is known for its large selection of fresh flowers.



There is a "Turibus" which does a roughly two and half hour tour of central Mexico City. We had heard good things about it, and planned to take it, but during Semana Santa it proved to crowded as all the locals with time off work turned up.



We stopped in at the Dolores Olmeda museum on our way to Xochimilco. It is set on the grounds owned by the late Dolores Olmeda Patiño, lover of Diego Rivera and lover of hairless dogs. In addition to a fine collection of works by Rivera and Frida Kahlo, it houses a collection of "Perros Xoloitzcuintles". The large one in the photo below is a statue. Thee smaller one is not.

Mexico City - Tacos Al Pastor at El Tizoncito

Tacos al Pastor, much like the Greek Gyro or the Turkish Döner Kebap, are carved off of large cones of layered meat (usually pork). The yellow bit at the top is pineapple (a chunk gets cut off to garnish each taco), and the bottom is help up by large onions.

El Tizoncito claims to have invented Al Pastor. While they certainly have been around for a while, these days they have a hard time claiming much street cred - what with logo-emblazoned staff and a flash-heavy website.

Still, their tacos are pretty good. We had their "Pastor Al Centro", a combo plate with cebollitas (grilled small onions), chilangos (corn tortillas topped with frijoles and pastor), pollitas (flour tortillas with cheese and pollo al pastor) and tacos de pastor.



They also give you a very attractive and tasty assortment of salsas, along with chips and a nice warm bean sauce.



The taco de pastor in all its glory, garnished with onion and cilantro.



Here is a short video of the tacos being cut:

El Tizoncito
Tamaulipas 122
Col. Condesa
Mexico, D.F.

Mexico City - Chapultepec Park

Covering 1800 acres, Chapultepec Park is a vast oasis in the center of Mexico City. We were there during Semana Santa, and it was packed with local families.



We climbed the twisting path up to the Castillo, erstwhile home of Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota.



Atop the castle is a beautiful courtyard and gardens.



The castle now houses the National History Museum, containing numerous relics from its days as the ruling seat of the empire. It also hosts a number of large murals, including this one by (I believe) Juan O'Gorman featuring Benito Juarez:



Chapultepec is also home to the famous National Museum of Anthropology and History. It really is an incredible museum, but since we had seen it on a previous visit, we skipped it this time around.

Mexico City - El Huarache Azteca

After shopping at Mercado Jamaica (we bought some Chiles Costeños and some Mole Verde en Pulvo - powdered green mole paste), we were getting hungry. Based on a recommendation from Good Food in Mexico City, we wandered north of the market to a side-street packed with Huarache joints and stopped at El Huarache Azteca.



Huaraches, named because they are shaped like the sole of a sandal, are masa pockets filled with refried black beans and then fried. They are then layered with a variety of toppings. Above is the Huarache Pueblerino, which boasts longaniza, nopalitos and queso fresco.

The other one we tried was the Huarache Granjero - topped with a massive slab of marinated, grilled chicken breast and drizzled with crema.



Both were good, but the Pueberino was definitely the winner. Here is a shot of their menu:

El Huarache Azteca
Torno 154
Col. Artes Gráficas
Mexico, D.F.

Mexico City - The Red Tree House

Located in the picturesque neighborhood of Condesa, the Red Tree House provided great bookend stays for us at the beginning and end of our trip. The house is beautiful and the owners are friendly and welcoming. With comfortable rooms and shared living and dining areas (not to mention the friendly house pooch, Abril), it is easy to feel right at home.

We will certainly be back some day.

Mexico City - The Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Post

Any visit to Mexico City would not be complete without seeing the works of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Especially if your mother is a fan (mine is) and wouldn't forgive you if you didn't (she wouldn't).

First stop on our agenda was the Palacio Nacional, where huge murals by Rivera line several of the second-floor courtyard walls.



A closer view of a section of one of the murals:



Bellas Artes also houses some great works by Rivera. Below is a section of "Man, Controller of the Universe":



Another mural from Bellas Artes - "Carnival of Mexican Life. Dictatorship":



The Museo Mural Diego Rivera is a must stop on the edge of the Alameda opposite Bellas Artes. It houses a single, huge mural - "Sueño de una tarde de Domingo en la Alameda" ("Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park"), part of which is shown below:



But the absolute best place to see Rivera murals in Mexico City is the Secretaria de Educación Publica, a public building just behind the Catedral Metropolitana. It took us well over an hour just to see everything. I tooks tons of photos, but I'll limit myself to just a few here.

"The Capitalist Dinner":



"Entry into the Mine":



"The Embrace":



Ok, so this is mostly a Diego Rivera post, but we did see some Kahlo as well. While visiting Coyoacán, we stopped at the the Museo Frida Kahlo, located in the house where Kahlo was born and lived with Rivera until her death. While it doesn't house any works by the pair, it is filled with many of their personal belongings. Unfortunately, no photographs were allowed inside the museum.



When we were in Oaxaca, the Oaxacan Cultural museum had a fascinating exhibition of photographic portraits by Juan Guzman of famous artists in Mexico, including Rivera and Kahlo.



We saw a nice collection of works by both Rivera and Kahlo at the Dolores Olmeda musuem in Xochimilco, but again, no photographs were allowed. We also tried to see the famous "Las Dos Fridas" at the Museum of Modern Art in Chapultepec Parque, but it was not currently on display (the museum was well worth a visit, though).

Mexico City - Boating the Canals at Xochimilco

Xochimilco on a Sunday was all we hoped it would be - a barrage of color and sound as groups of Mexicans enjoyed a beautiful afternoon on the canals.



Because there were only two of us, we didn't want to rent our own boat. Instead, we took a lancha colectiva (a shared boat) from Embarcadero Salitre to Embarcadero Nativitas. At only 10 pesos per person for a roughly half-hour ride, it was a great deal.

As you float down the canals, vendors in their own boats come by hawking their wares. This boat was selling cervezas preparadas (prepared beers).



In particular, they were selling cheladas. They have large plastic cups that they have pre-prepared by adding some lime juice and spreading chile salt around the rim. When you order, they take a large cold bottle of beer and dump it into the cup.



This is the result. Tasty and refreshing.



When we arrived at Embarcadero Nativitas, we had lunch in a restaurant called El Mirador overlooking the canal. We had Conejo al Carbon (barbecued rabbit) and Barbacoa de Borrego (slow roasted lamb). Both were very good - especially the rabbit, which had fantastic flavor.



This is the official price list posted at Embarcadero Nativitas.

Mexico City - Views From La Torre Latinoamerica

Completed in 1956, the Torre Latinoamerica was, at the time, one of the tallest buildings in the world and the tallest in Latin America.



Located near the Alameda, it is well worth a trip to the top. You get a top-down view on Bellas Artes.



And a nice perspective on the Zócalo.



You can see the color-coordinated street vendors as they stretch out down the street.



When we were there a local scout (or some such) troop was having a ceremony at the top. Maybe it is where you get your "Conquering Fear of Heights" merit badge...

Veracruz - Fish Market

One of the places we hoped to visit in Veracruz was the downtown fish market. Unfortunately, it was closed at the end of January and moved to a new location. Apparently the vendors didn't want to go, and had to be forcefully removed by riot police. You can find more information here.

We went to the new market ("Plaza del Mar"), and were disappointed. It is a sterile, uninteresting location north of downtown. The fish stalls are not really inviting for public perusal, and while there were a number of fondas around, they had no customers. Unless things change, I wouldn't recommend going. If you do want to go, take a bus marked "Pescadaría" from the east side of Plaza de la Republica.

Fondas still exist at the old market location downtown on Landero y Cos, but they aren't faring much better. No customers to speak of - just annoying hawkers trying desperately to get business.

The only place we saw any evidence of locals in number enjoying seafood was in fondas in and around Mercado Hidalgo. Unfortunately, we didn't go there until our last day, and had already eaten, so we didn't try anything.

Update: I looked more closely at the link I posted above, and it turns out that the restaurants that used to be in the old fish market have moved to a new location - "two blocks from the Zocalo, between the Holiday Inn and across the street from the Post and Telegraph offices".

Veracruz - Café Lechero at Gran Café de la Parroquia

Gran Café de la Parroquia is an institution in Veracruz. I took the above picture in the late morning when it was quiet, but come evening the place gets packed.

The reason people come is for Café Lechero. In essence, it isn't much different than cafe con leche/latte/au lait, it is more the presentation that makes Lechero special.

You are served a glass partly filled with strong coffee. The waiter then clinks on your glass with a spoon.



Another roaming waiter brandishing a kettle comes by and artfully pours a tall stream of scaldingly hot milk into your glass. It is quite the production, and the end result tastes good, too.



Here is a video I found that gives you a feel for the process.

Veracruz - Port of Veracruz and San Juan de Ulúa

Veracruz is, above all else, a shipping port. Our hotel looked out over the main port area, and one day after snapping the above picture we happened to see the same ship leaving from our hotel window.



The stone fortress you see in the picture below is San Juan de Ulúa.



Originally an island, and now located in, and connected to the rest of the port structures, San Juan de Ulúa was originally built in the 16th century as a defensive structure by the Spanish.



Many of the walls of the fortress are composed primarily of coral, as you can see in the section below.



For a century or so, the fortress served as a prison, primarily for political prisoners. Its thick walls and isolated location provided a perfect site.



Small stalactites have formed on the roofs of many of the rooms.



We spent several hours in fascinated exploration of the place.



It is definitely worth a visit. Our guidebook said that you could get there by bus, but there no longer seems to be one. Instead you need to catch a cab - the best place to leave from is Plaza de la Republica (just east of the Zócalo).

Veracruz - Breakfast at Antojitos Lolita

We happened across this place while looking for breakfast our first morning in Veracruz, and boy were were glad we did. They had a bunch of variations on Mexican breakfast that we'd never had before. Have I mentioned yet that we love Mexican breakfast?

First up was Hueovos Cubanos. You can hardly even see the fried eggs under the lake of (very tasty) pureed frijoles. The fried plantains and meaty pieces of bacon were also great. In particular, we really liked the sweetness of the plantain mixed with the savory of the frijoles.



Huevos Veracruzanos was fluffy scrambled egg wrapped in corn tortillas and then also flooded with frijoles. Topped with spicy chorizo and jalepeños, drizzled with crema and sprinkled with queso fresco. Fantastic.



Since we'd had such a great breakfast on our first visit, we came back again on our last morning in Veracruz. This time it was Heuvos Motuleños - two fried eggs in a stack with ham, corn tortillas and frijoles, decorated with fried plantains and avocado slices, and topped with a few peas for good measure.



And finally, Huevos Divorciados. This wasn't a new one for us, but we like to order it in different places because it gives us a chance to taste both the green and red salsas. In this case, the red was very good and the green a bit lacking (just spicy and without much flavor). Divorciados usually come over corn tortillas, but in this case they were separated by a bed of chilaquiles instead.



Antojitos Lolita is located on 16 de Septiembre between Escobedo and E. Zapata.

Oaxaca - Some Miscellaneous Pictures

We bought chocolate (for making Mole Coloradito and hot chocolate) from this stand in the main Oaxaca mercado. They also had a nice variety of dried chiles, and you can see mounds of mole paste on the right.

Oaxaca's zócalo is always active and full of people, day and night.



In the park next to the zócalo, there are always a bunch of vendors selling "globos".



Maguey (Agave) plants growing in front of the Iglesia de Santo Domingo.



Nopales, fresh from our local market. We used these when we made tasajo and cecina enchilada tacos.



A truck full of garlic at the Etla market.



Flowers on a tree in the Ethnobotanical Gardens. We took a guided tour one morning and really enjoyed it.



One of the structures in the ancient city of Monte Albán. It is an easy day trip from Oaxaca, and definitely worth it - particularly if you have not been to other ruins in Mexico.



Soaking chiles and tomatillos - we soaked all of our produce in a dilute chlorine solution in order to ensure disinfection.



Nothing gets much better than a "home"-made chorizo quesadilla.



Taco stands selling tacos (mostly made from various pig face parts) and big bowls of pozole set up shop outside the main mercado at night.

Oaxaca - La Biznaga

Based on a recommendation from a couple we met in Puerto Escondido, we had dinner one night at La Biznaga. Self-dubbed as a "Cocina Mestiza", La Biznaga serves up a slightly upscale take on Oaxacan cuisine. The setting is very nice - a spacious open courtyard with a retractable roof.

We started with the "Trilogia Zapoteca" and the ""Ensalada Fresca". The Trilogia was a sampler trio of appetizers - a "Candela" (cheese and chile strips wrapped in Hierba Santa), a "Cerro Viejo" (a fried "corneto" filled with what tasted like caremlized onions) and a "Memela" (kind of like a sope, but bigger - topped with refried black beans). All were quite good, but one of each was enough. The Candelas and Cerros Viejos are available as individual appetizer plates and would likely be too much of a single thing unless shared with a group. The salad was a spinach salad with bacon, grapefruit and pecans and was lightly dressed with what tasted like honey. The flavors went very well together, and the bacon was nice and meaty.

The appetizers and salad were enough food that we didn't have room for two full entrees. Instead we ordered a bowl of the "Sopa Azteca" (tortilla soup) and the "Pescado El Duranjo". The soup was a weak version that was not very well seasoned. The fish was a salmon dish that came covered in a spicy "burnt" tasting chile sauce with orange segments. The sauce was good, but very intense. The fish was served with rice, tortilla chips and guacamole.

All in all, a very nice meal. We accompanied it with a few glasses of Chilean red wine (a merlot and a cabernet) that were both enjoyable and reasonably priced.

Oaxaca - Dance Festival

The week we were back in Oaxaca there was a dance festival going on - the "Muestra Internacional de Danza Oaxaca". They had free exhibitions every evening, and we stopped by most days to check it out. Above is a group from Veracruz doing a "fisherman's" dance - they are carrying a net between them.

Also from Veracruz was a dance done by women balancing candles on their heads.



The last night of the festival was the "Monumenta Danza de la Pluma". Here you can see some of the "plumed" dancers.



"Chinas Oaxaqueñas" carrying baskets of religious symbols made from fresh flowers also participated in the Danza de la Pluma. It isn't clear exactly where the use of the word "China" comes from, but you can read this wikipedia article about it.



And finally another of the dancers in the Danza de la Pluma.

Oaxaca - Mole Coloradito

The dish above is our version of Enmoladas de Pollo - corn tortillas filled with shredded chicken and then topped with Mole Coloradito.

We've become big fans of Mole Coloradito. We like it much better than the darker moles, such as Mole Negro. It isn't too sweet and has a complex savory base with a nice kick of heat. After having it in our cooking class, we wanted to try making it ourselves.

Instead of making it from scratch (which we want to do when we get home), we purchased mole paste from our local mercado. They sell it in little bags like this:



The first time we made it we just added chicken stock, and it tasted great. The stock was made from scratch - using chicken bought from our favorite chicken lady at the mercado:



Her chickens weren't necessarily the prettiest, but they tasted great, and she was very nice. Here are the chicken bits about to be turned into stock:



After we made our first mole, we talked with the mole paste vendor about it and she admonished us for not adding tomato puree. We made it again, this time with tomato, and it was even better.

This is Mole Coloradito over a poached piece of chicken (in this case a thigh) - the way it is generally served in Oaxaca.

Oaxaca - Anatomy of a Carnicería

During our second visit to Oaxaca, we shopped daily at the "El Merced" mercado. After a while, the vendors at our favorite stands started to recognize us. Above is a picture of the carnicería we did our shopping at.

The little sausage links you see hanging are very typically Oaxacan. The lighter ones are beef, and the darker ones are pork. They taste similar, both having a sharp, tangy and spicy flavor. As we mentioned in our Mexican breakfast post, we used chorizo a lot during our stay.



The trays in the center of the stall are also very Oaxacan. First up is tasajo, which is thinly pounded beef that has been air-dried (the amount of aging varies - you see everything from very fresh, red meat to that which has darkened considerably with age). Tasajo has a very rich, full flavor, perhaps from some sort of marinade (although as you can see below there are no obvious visual signs of it).



Next up is cecina, which is also pounded thin, but is made from pork rather than beef.



And the chile-rubbed version of cecina is called enchilada.



Here you can see the enchilado out of the tray.



One day we bought both tasajo and enchilado from the market and made up a taco platter. The green sliced in the front are nopalitos - made from prickly pear cactus leaves that have been trimmed (not by us - you can buy them prepared at the market, usually from little old ladies sitting outside or in the aisles) and grilled.



Put some meat in a warm corn tortilla, plop on some guacamole and pico de gallo and you're ready to go.



In addition to the meats shown above, we also bought pork trimmings one day which the vendor told us would be perfect for making posole broth. She was right.

Oaxaca - Mexican Breakfast

We absolutely love breakfast in Mexico - Huevos a la Mexicana, Huevos Rancheros, Huevos Divorciados (like Rancheros, but with both red and green salsa - why choose?), we love them all. Back in Oaxaca, we are now staying in a place with a kitchen, so we've been able to shop at the local mercados and cook. The picture above is a chorizo and vegetable hash topped with a huevo estrellado. The chorizo here is fantastic, and we've been using a lot of it.

When we were in Puerto Escondido, we had a breakfast dish that was new to us - Huevos al Albañil, which loosely translates as "homebuilder" or "bricklayer" eggs. It has eggs scrambled in big chunks mixed with salsa (usually green, but sometimes red) and served on top of corn tortillas. This is our version, with some chorizo on the side:

Oaxaca - El Tlapanochestli Cochineal Farm

While in Oaxaca I was fortunate enough to tag along with a friend to a workshop at Tlapanochestli, a small farm cultivating La Grana Cochinilla and other crops for use as natural dye products.

Cochineal (cochinilla in Spanish) is a parasite that grows on prickly pear cactus paddles. It has been used to produce a vibrant red tint since pre-hispanic times.



Tlapanochestli offers a multitude of workshop topics. Ours focused on learning how to use La Grana Cochinilla to create various dyes for wool and cotton yarns.



First we weighed the cochineal, then ground it to a fine powder.



The powder was mixed into hot water and carefully measured quantities of acids or bases were added to adjust the PH. After soaking the yarns in the dye for about an hour, they took on beautiful shades of red.



Changing the PH had the affect of moving the tint's color from bright red to either an orange or violet direction. Mixing it with other natural plant based colorants, such as indigo and muicle gave us an even greater range of hues.



The bugs have a long history of being grown and harvested in Oaxaca and much of the region's current prominence and strong infrastructure can be attributed to the production and trade of cochineal during the days of the Spanish conquistadors.

With the advent of cheap, synthetic dyes however, the difficult business of cochineal farming has been nearly abandoned (imagine having to build greenhouses and shaded areas for bug infested *cactus*).



Today however, interest in the product is resurfacing since the natural colorant is safe (non-carcinogenic) and can be used in a number of applications from textiles to foods, beverages, cosmetics and more.



All in all, I enjoyed a beautiful day out at the cochineal farm.