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 with the ubiquitous tomato sauce. Up until recent years, this sauce hadn’t varied much since the colonial era, but the influence of Mexican […]
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The Canadian author and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro said that “The constant happiness is curiosity.” If this is the case, then chef and cookbook writer David Sterling must have taken great joy in putting this book together, for it reflects tireless research that was surely driven by an intense desire to learn as much […]
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The milpa, or cornfield, is probably the most important element in the life of the rural Mexican farmer, apart from his family, or maybe alongside his family, because the milpa represents generations of his people working the soil. Even in places where agricultural production has been industrialized to the point of overshadowing any importance a milpa might have had before, the […]
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When we moved to Mexico in the 1980s, berries were not a common sight in the produce markets. There was a seasonal appearance of local blackberries in cooler regions, and a spring strawberry season, but blueberries were nearly impossible to find in most town markets, and raspberries were even less common. Home cooks in the […]
Continue ReadingWhen I told Carmen Titita Ramirez, owner of the highly acclaimed El Bajio restaurant in Mexico City, that I would be spending time in Xalapa, she responded with her usual exuberance and proceeded to write a list of regional dishes I had to try and where to try them. Titita was born and raised in […]
Continue ReadingApril is a warm month in Mexico and, while some people choose to spend time at the beach, many others prefer to stroll the streets of the beautiful colonial cities. One of the most architecturally impressive of all, having originated during the era of Spanish colonization, is 400-year-old Aguascalientes, known for its magnificent public buildings, […]
Continue ReadingThe previous column on immigrant cooking in Mexico dealt with the Mennonites of Chihuahua, a group that brought Northern and Eastern European culinary traditions to their new country. A far different cuisine came with the Italians, who largely migrated during the Porfiriato, in the last part of the 19th century. The great wave of migration from Europe during the […]
Continue ReadingFrom Cholula to Chicago, taco lovers everywhere know that any taqueria that calls itself poblana, or “from Puebla,” will have tacos arabes on the menu. But not everyone knows that this regional specialty of meat roasted on a vertical spit and served in the thick, pita bread-like wheat tortilla called pan arabe is a prime example of the Mexican- Lebanese culinary fusion that […]
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Having family members spread out across the globe, we are fairly frequent travelers, with chances to try the cuisines of different countries and their regions. And inevitably, when presented with a new ingredient or use for a familiar one, I ask myself, “How is this used in Mexican cooking?” or even “Is this used in Mexican […]
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In recent years, “seasonal” has become a culinary buzzword, something seemingly new and novel in the U.S. and Canada, where just about anything is available at any time, no matter its origin or how far it must be shipped. In contrast, Mexican cooks have traditionally relied on local availability to determine what to buy and […]
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