I first met the comadre through a colleague of mine at the University of Puebla, Mexico. I was in the habit of bringing meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and other “gringo food” that the professor’s elderly American father missed, to his house in Cholula, the small town where we both lived, and where the comadre worked as his housekeeper. She […]
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Many years ago, our intrepid little band of gypsies became hopelessly lost on a trip through what was then relatively undeveloped Baja California. Too dark to be on the road, and too late to find accommodations, the situation called for some ingenuity, and we got permission from a farmer to park our van alongside his […]
Continue ReadingWhen asked by the New York Times magazine to write about the most important contribution of the past millennium, Italian author Umberto Eco chose the humble bean. In How the Bean Saved Western Civilization, Eco points out that in the five centuries after the year 1,000 A.D. Europe’s population nearly tripled, and the amount of […]
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Start with an endless array of fabulous dishes from the greatest chefs in the Americas. Add a lavish serving of wines born in regions from Napa Valley to the fields of Chile. Sprinkle with warm, sun-splashed days, beckoning beaches and spirited nightlife. The result: The tempting event called the Cancun-Riviera Maya Wine & Food Festival, staged in […]
Continue ReadingBeginning 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 southern Puebla. Traveling through this rocky, hardscrabble land, one wonders how the inhabitants have sustained themselves for thousands of years and marvels at the fact that […]
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Even before the current food obsession permeated a large segment of the population, there were those of us who collected cookbooks. Some we appreciated for the gorgeous, glossy, good-enough-to-eat photographs and some we used over and over until they were dog-eared, splattered with stains from being open in the kitchen, and literally falling apart at […]
Continue ReadingPicture 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 century, could this possibly be? No, it isn’t Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Nothing constructed by a theme park could come close to the real […]
Continue ReadingTo the north and west of Mexico City lies the region known as El Bajío, often called “Mexico’s breadbasket.” This rugged, high plateau bears a distinct resemblance to central Spain, home of its original settlers. Religious and hard working, they preserved many of the Spanish cultural and culinary traditions, and this part of Mexico is […]
Continue ReadingIt 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 for snacking has given rise to an unbelieveable array of antojitos y botanas – appetizers and snacks – most of which are based […]
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Traveling through the Sierra Mixteca, which we have done many times on our drives from Puebla to Oaxaca, I am always reminded of the story of “stone soup:” a meal is prepared starting with just a stone in a pot of water, which becomes a tasty supper after all the people of a village have […]
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