Yucca appears in the cuisine of several tropical parts of Mexico, of which it is a native, including Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, and the Yucatan. It is made into fritters, tortitas (patties), and bolitas (battered yucca), and often flavored with orange, achiote, and other characteristic regional flavors. It is used to make "dough" for meat pie, eliminating the need for wheat flour dough, which is good news for the gluten intolerant.
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Why did it take so long for the rest of the world to discover quinoa, the centuries-old sustenance crop of the Andes? Held sacred by the Incas, who called it "the mother of all grains," quinoa is actually a pseudo grain, consisting of seeds, and is not a member of the grass family, so it does not contain gluten. It is a welcome addition to meals in Mexico, where it has gained enormous popularity and taken on characteristic Mexican flavors.
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Tejate is a pre-Hispanic corn and cacao based drink. It is likely the only complex food recipe in all Mexico still enjoyed today just as it was thousands of years ago in Oaxaca.
When visiting a Oaxaca...
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Although grown most frequently in the tropical coastal areas of the country, plantains are found in markets all over Mexico, where they are called plátano macho and look like bananas on growth hormones, ranging in color from bright green and unripe to nearly black and looking overripe.
Unlike bananas, plantains are not eaten raw, and their high starch content means that they are frequently used as a vegetable, especially in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa.
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Besides the seemingly endless string of fiestas, weddings, baptisms and saints' days throughout the year, the warm months bring graduations galore. Everything from a kindergarten commencement to the completion of a PhD is celebrated exuberantly in Mexico. And the season's balmy weather invites merrymakers to move outside.
Even the start of the rainy season does not deter al fresco festivities.
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Americans commonly mistake Cinco de Mayo, the day that commemorates the Mexican Victory over the French in Puebla (1862), for Mexican Independence day (1810). Cinco de Mayo has become an American holiday synonymous with mariachis, margaritas, Corona beer, and Americanized Mexican food like jalapeño-studded nachos and cheese-smothered burritos.
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There are approximately 8,000 avocado farms in Michoacan and, although Mexico exports a great many, supplying 45% of the world's avocados, there must be a lot of room for avocado-themed culinary creativity among the region's cooks. What do they do with them besides making guacamole, cold soup, salads and dressings, salsas, and using the dried leaves as seasoning?
For one thing, they make ice cream.
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Mexico. After many years in the country, my husband and I had bought countless wrestling dolls, wrestling masks, wrestling themed tee shirts, purses and refrigerator magnets for eager friends and family members up north, not all of them children. We'd even gone to see Nacho Libre, the Jack Black movie about a Mexican luchador filmed in the Central Valley region of Oaxaca. But, somehow, we'd never gone to see lucha libre, despite the fact that Puebla, just a few miles away, has one of the most important venues and passionately dedicated aficionados.
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Semana Santa — Holy Week — is the observance of a solemn religious occasion. But the mood in most of Mexico during Easter time is far from solemn. With the exception of the Good Friday passion plays and processions, the atmosphere is festive, with people taking to the streets and beaches to celebrate spring and rebirth.
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I read cookbooks the way some people devour novels, not with the casual perusal of, say, a newspaper or a magazine, but with the curl-up-and-dig-in enjoyment of die hard mystery or romance fans. Many, though not all, of the cookbooks I've read in the last 25 years or so are Mexican, and my favorites are those that tell the story of a region, an era, or a family. One that tells all three is
La Tradicional Cocina Mexicana y sus Mejores Recetas by Adela Fernandez.
Author, playwright, director and folklorist, Fernandez grew up in the beautiful, colonial Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán, daughter of the iconic film director Emilio Fernandez, known as "El Indio."
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