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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Wrap It Up: A Guide To Mexican Street Tacos - Part I
TACO ORIGINS
TACO BASICS
TACO STREET SMARTS
TYPES OF TACOS
PART TWO: NIGHTTIME TA...
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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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The Food of Semana Santa: A Seasonal Celebration of Popular Cuisine
Semana Santa - Holy Week - is the observance of a solemn religious occasion, the mood in most of Mexico during this time is far from solemn. With the exception of the Good Friday reenactments - passion...
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Demystifying Mole, México's National Dish
Although Cinco de Mayo, the May 5th holiday commemorating the 1862 Battle of Puebla, is celebrated with much more fervor by Mexicans living in the United States than in México, one exception is...
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Regional Cuisines Of Guerrero: From Beaches to Mountains
This seems like a good time of year to talk about the culinary specialties of Guerrero, the Mexican state whose coastline is home to some of the country's most popular winter resorts, including Acapulc...
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From New Spain To Nouvelle Cuisine: Pasta Mexicana
As anyone who has ever eaten a comida corrida - the "daily special" at restaurants in Mexico - knows, the course called sopa seca will either be a plate of rice or some shape of pasta wit...
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Food For Valentine's Day: Mexican Native Aphrodisiacs
A friend in Puebla recently arrived at a party with a handful of pamphlets on a symposium dedicated to the topic of aphrodisiac foods. While this largely conservative central Mexican city is not the fi...
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Exotic summer refreshment: a guide to Mexico's tropical fruit
Mexico is blessed with an abundance of fresh tropical fruit. Beautifully arranged platters of fruit are served in restaurants, and disposable cups or bags of fruit on street corners. No matter how humble the setting, these street-corner offerings are always cut into attractively uniform strips or wedges and served with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and powdered chile if desired.
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Getting to the Heart of Oaxacan Cuisine: A Cooking Class with Susanna Trilling
The longer one lives and travels in Mexico, the more meaningless the term "Mexican food" seems to become, for the true cuisine of Mexico contains such distinct regional differences that some people cla...
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More Cuisine Of Puebla, Cradle Of Corn
Some of the following recipes are for dishes described in "The Cuisine of Puebla, Cradle of Corn" . I've recently returned from a trip north, where I scouted several supermarkets to check on 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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The Food of Durango, Mexico's Wild West
The northwestern Mexican state of Durango, a fantasyland of rugged mountains, pine forests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, fertile valleys and yucca-strewn desert is perhaps best known as the location for ...
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The Slow Food Movement in Mexico
Just about anyone who has read cooking columns, culinary magazines or cookbooks in recent years has come upon the term "slow food" or "the Slow Food movement." But what exactly is the Slow Food movemen...
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Valentine Flowers from the Kitchen: Delicias de Flores
Each year, when February is on the horizon, I find myself thinking about the preparation of homemade treats for Valentine's Day.
Being an incurable romantic, having a wedding anniversary on Valentine'...
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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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Mexican Sweet Potatoes, from Soup to Dessert: Los Camotes
One of the most interesting aspects of writing about Mexican food is its history, which spans at least five centuries and reflects the cultural and social influences of both the pre-Hispanic Mesoameric...
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Soup Of The Day: La Sopa del Dia
Although the Mock Turtle sang the praises of "soup of the evening, beautiful soup", here in Mexico it's "soup of the day", that first course that is required on any comida corrida menu. Most Mex...
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A Guide to Mexican Cheeses (Part 2): Los Quesos Mexicanos
Last month's column (Part I) presented a guide to Mexico's many cheeses, along with suggestions for substitutions when certain cheeses are not available. However, with the enormous variety of internati...
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Vanilla: A Mexican Native Regains Its Reputation
Mention vanilla, and people are apt to think of the ice-cream flavor they select when confronted with a mind-boggling choice involving everything from chirimoya to cheesecake: "just plain vanilla." Wha...
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Mexican Wild Game - Duck And Quail
During the fall, when the weather changes, so do our culinary aspirations. Cooler temperatures inspire techniques like roasting, baking, braising, and a lot less outdoor cooking in most parts of the No...
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A Guide to Mexican Cheese: Queso Mexicano
Mexican markets, especially the open-air variety, still bear an uncanny resemblance to their pre-Hispanic predecessors. The colors and aromas of carefully arranged piles of fruit and vegetables, bundle...
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Jicama: A Sign of Changing Culinary Seasons
After returning home to Oaxaca from a recent two-week trip out of the country, I walked up to the corner produce stand to check out possibilities for dinner. The first thing that caught my eye was a ne...
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Cooking with Cactus: Nopales Cactus
Every April, the central Mexican village of Tlaxcalancingo, Puebla, celebrates the Feria de Nopales, a tribute to its most important crop, the nopal cactus. Set against a background of snow-capp...
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The Pumpkin, An Ancient Mexican Native: La Calabaza Grande
Perhaps the quintessential symbol of autumn, the pumpkin is a Mexican native and an ancient staple food. The oldest pumpkin seed found dates back as far as 7000 BC, according to archeologists excavatin...
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