The Culture of Food
: Mexico
Green chilaquiles always remind me of my pebbled street walks on the car-less streets of Oaxaca. Passing church after beautiful church and determined to spend my morning meal at one my favorite restaurants, Las Quince Letras. Surrounded by cobalt blue and marigold walls with fuchsia bougainvillia tree accents, the restaurant’s fresh morning patio was serenaded by songbirds and a trickling pitter-patter of a corroded fountain. Chilaquiles are the quintessential any-time-of-day meal in Mexico. For breakfast, add scrambled eggs. For lunch,Read More ...
Traditional pastel de tres leches, or three milks cake calls for condensed milk, evaporated milk and whole milk. In many Latin American countries, this cake is a must at weddings and quinceañeras and paired with seasonal fruit and nuts. It’s dense, moist, fluffy and sweet; a perfect combination to showcase at celebrations and family gatherings. Many bakers add rum, cognac or rompope to the milk mixture to balance out the sugar. I went a step further and drizzled itRead More ...
Editor´s note: The following Capirotada recipe is a guest post from Sandra Perez-Ramirez, author of the blog MamáNoticias.com. Ten years have elapsed since I came to the United States and I am amazed at how I can still saber in my palate the traditions of the food of my native Mexico, and especially, my grandmother’s delicious recipes which I prepare in her honor during Lent. This year has been very special, because for the first time in several years myRead More ...
Living in a border town like El Paso, Texas, it was not unusual to cross the border down to Mexico on a weekly basis. Mexico was ten minutes away and Sunday morning mass, breakfast and maybe even a haircut were our Ciudad Juarez family day trips. This was a custom for many families living in a border town. As we headed back to the U.S. the wait at the crossing bridge seemed an eternity as kids. We napped, read theRead More ...
Among the many foods my husband and I crave from Mexico, enfrijoladas and chilaquiles definitely top the list. My husband is always saying that the enfrijoladas they made in his house growing up were the best (so were the quesadillas and chiles rellenos and romeritos and the list goes on and on and on!) So you can imagine I am measured with a really long stick any time I attempt to make any really Mexican meal. I definitely need inspirationRead More ...
The smell of freshly made tortillas immediately takes me back to my childhood – specifically the time I was between 6 and 8 years old. As many of you know, I was born in Peru, but I had the fortune to live in several countries as I was growing up and one of them was Mexico. So, as a child, I would be given one peso so that I could run out and get some freshly pressed tortillas when the tortillero visitedRead More ...
A couple weeks preceding Dia de Muertos, we begin creating and preparing the decorations for our altar. One very important element and colloquial symbol incorporated in the altar is the sugar skull (calaverita de azucar). Sugar skulls represent and honor a departed soul. Customarily, the name of the person the altar is dedicated to is written across the skull’s forehead. If you do not have an altar to display them on, sugar skulls can also be given to lovedRead More ...
Editor’s note: This is the sixth post in our Flan Week celebration in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today is the turn of Ericka, our The Culture of Food regular contributor and author of Nibbles and Feasts. Ericka shares with us a story and recipe of a traditional and easy flan de cajeta from Mexico . We hope you’ve been enjoying Flan Week and come back for the last recipe {Fat-Free Flan?!} tomorrow. The smell of simmering cajeta at my grandmother’s house signified two things:Read More ...
