The Cooking School At Zihuatanejo by Daniel Kennedy
The story is related to us by Jeff Farrell who, with his wife, Mia, purchases a property high above the rooftops of Zijhuatanejo, overlooking the famed Playa de la Ropa beach with the Pacific Ocean beyond. They fulfill an ambition and turn the place into a restaurant, Casa Blue. And it's not your ordinary everyday restaurant. This is a cooking school where you can join other diners around the cooking island and help prepare your meal under the tutelage of Jeff and Mia.
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Mexico's Leafy Green
A common misconception about Mexican food is that it does not use many greens other than seasoning herbs such as cilantro and epazote. One reason for this is that foreigners or new arrivals to Mexico h...
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The Pineapple: Sweet Symbol of the Tropics
"The pineapple," wrote Fernandez de Oviedo in the 16th century, "appeals to every sense but that of hearing." This chief steward to the royal family of Spain may seem, from a 21st century point of view...
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Zacatecas: Culinary Gateway
The state of Zacatecas, in the northwestern part of the central Mexican plateau, has been culturally significant since pre-Hispanic times, when it was one of the few holdouts not conquered by the Aztec...
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Cooking with seeds: Semillas en la cocina
This month, as the Equinox marks the start of spring, the idea of planting a garden begins to seem like more than a distant dream. Northerners look toward the return of warmer weather, and south-of-the...
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The French Influence On Mexican Cooking: La Comida Afrancescada
Modern Mexican cooking is considered by culinary historians to be a fusion of three cuisines - indigenous, Spanish and French. This column has covered pre-Hispanic ingredients and techniques in the pas...
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Early Fusion Food: Inside A Colonial Mexican Kitchen
One of the rewarding aspects of investigating the history and evolution of Mexico's rich and varied cuisine is the availability of authentic sources. The Spanish chroniclers took painstaking notes on n...
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A yearly culinary ritual: La matanza
Beginning in mid-October, and lasting for a month, a five-hundred-year-old ritual encompassing history, tradition and cuisine takes place in the valley of Tehuacan, in the Mixteca Poblana region of sou...
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Cinnamon: Mexican cooks use the real thing
As part of the 16th century culinary fusion that resulted in Mexican cuisine, the Spaniards brought spices to the New World, along with olives and olive oil, almonds, grapes, dairy and wool-bearing ani...
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Jicama: a sign of changing culinary seasons in Mexico
A native of Mexico, Central and South America and Asia, the jicama has been part of the Mexican diet for centuries. Culinary anthropologist Sophie M. Coe tells us that jicama "was almost always eaten raw and praised for its cool crispness" by the Aztecs. The Maya, in whose diet root crops were prominent, mention jicama in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel.
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Karen Hursh Graber: Menu & Kitchen Consulting, Food Research, Cooking Classes & Mexican Cuisine Presentations
The fields of Menu Consulting and Food Research/Writing have, in recent years, expanded to include information on culinary traditions and ingredients on an international scale. Economic globalization,...
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From The Halls of Moctezuma: Cooking with Leaves
One of the earliest food preparation techniques in many parts of the world was wrapping food in leaves and cooking it over an open fire, usually either steamed or roasted. In some instances, the food w...
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Mexican yucca in orange sauce: Yuca en naranja
Yucca has always been a staple in the cooking of the Caribbean and the Yucatan peninsula. Fairly bland on its own, it takes well to the flavor of other ingredients. In Mexican yucca in orange sauce, it...
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Mexican Wedding Feasts: La Comida de la Boda
June is a month of family celebrations; in México as well as north of the border, weddings, graduations and Father's Day are all prominent June occasions. This month, I happily recall a couple of the ...
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From Masa To Mesa: The Many Faces Of Tortillas
It is nearly impossible to walk more than a block in any Mexican town without encountering a food vendor or two, with either stands on the street or small storefront businesses. The national affinity f...
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Dining in the DF: food and drink in Mexico's capital
A look at the myriad dining experiences to be had in the capital itself, Mexico City, commonly known as "el D.F.," short for Distrito Federal.
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A Gastronomic Circuit Around the City or When Lost in Mexico, Follow Your Stomach: El Estado de Mexico
A friend from western Mexico is on the phone, planning a trip to visit us down south in Oaxaca.
"From the map, it looks like there's a freeway loop around Mexico City," he says hopefully.
Yes, well. ...
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Mexican mangos: fantastic flavor, big business
The Cuisine of Tabasco: Heartland Of Pre-Hispanic Cooking
Nestled along the southernmost coast of the Gulf of Mexico is the state of Tabasco, birthplace of the Olmecs, called the "mother culture of Mesoamerica", and the Chontal Maya, famous as seafaring trade...
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The Cuisine of Michoacán: Mexican Soul Food
If Michoacan is "the soul of Mexico," as it has often been called, then its food is Mexico's soul food, for few other places in the country can claim such a profound and long-lasting indigenous influence on their regional cuisine. This western state, part of the Bajio region located north and west of Mexico City, has retained its culinary roots for over a millennium.
read moreBeans, a staple in the Mexican kitches: Frijoles
Since pre-Hispanic tmes, beans have been a staple in the Mexican kitchen. They appear in a world of traditional recipes, from frijoles refritos or refried beans to frijoles charros (cowbooy beans) and ...
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The cuisine of Chiapas: Dining in Mexico's last frontier
Although the mention of Chiapas frequently brings to mind images of masked revolutionaries and steamy jungles, Mexico's southernmost state is a beautiful combination of mountains, plains and seacoast w...
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Mexican Cookbooks: A Holiday Wish List
Although many of the recipes I try come from friends, market salespeople, food stand cooks and restaurant chefs in many parts of Mexico, there is nothing like a good cookbook for inspiration, especiall...
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Rice: The Gift Of The Other Gods
Just as corn was called "the gift of the gods" in ancient Mesoamerica, the same phrase was used for rice in what is now Southeast Asia. In several Asian languages, the word for rice and food is the sam...
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Campeche: Cocktails and Seafood in a Pirates' Paradise
Picture a small tropical city nestled up against sparkling coastal waters, surrounded by fortress walls, complete with drawbridges and moats to keep out invading buccaneers. Where, in the twenty-first ...
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