Mexican Kitchen 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, bundles of herbs, and all manner of corn dough-based food baking on the comal is not that much different from the descriptions given nearly five hundred […]
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Mexican Kitchen by Karen Hursh Graber Read Part I – Beef Continuing a look at meat cuts and how they are named and used in Mexico, we will first consider pork. The old saying that you can eat every part of the pig but the squeal is especially true in Mexican cuisine. In addition to […]
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Mexican Kitchen by Karen Hursh Graber Read Part II – Pork and Lamb and A Guide to Mexican Cheese: Los quesos mexicanos One of the most puzzling aspects of marketing for the newly arrived resident of Mexico is shopping for meat. It is frequently cut differently than it is north of the border, to […]
Continue ReadingNo kids’ party in Mexico would be complete without a gelatin, and this one is so easy and attractive. It really does look like sparkling mosaic tiles set in a background of white, and is just like the ones sold by the “gelatin ladies” on street corners and in little stores, plastic cups and all. […]
Continue ReadingThe 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 the many movies shot under its startlingly bright blue sky. Because of the diversity of its landscape, Durango has been the setting for films ranging from […]
Continue ReadingThis dessert is so popular in Mexico that it comes in cans, but nothing beats home made. Chongo is the Spanish word for a chignon, which the curds resemble when they separate from the whey. This dessert should be prepared in an earthenware pot such as a Mexican clay cazuela. Ingredients: 2 quarts raw milk […]
Continue ReadingShortly after arriving at Tenochtitlán in the fall of 1519, Hernán Cortés and the Spanish conquistadores were granted an audience with Moctezuma at his breakfast table. They found the Aztec ruler sipping an exotic drink called xocóatl (meaning bitter water). Made from ground cacao beans boiled in water, flavored with vanilla and other tropical spices, and chilled with bits […]
Continue ReadingExotic-looking even on a map, the Mexican state of Veracruz stretches along the Gulf Coast like the graceful tentacle of a sea creature. Within the boundaries formed by the warm coastal waters to the east and the Sierra Madre Oriental to the west is an enticing pot-pourri of cultures. The indigenous, the Afro-Cuban and the […]
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Continue ReadingMexican Kitchen 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 claim that they can tell what part of the country they are in just by tasting the food. This may be […]
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