Cooking Workshop - Mexico City

Today I decided to go off the beaten path for toursists and participate in a local cooking workshop. Our host, who conducted the workshop runs her own restaurant and works with "mayoras" (ladies from the countriside without formal culinary education, but with lots of knowledge and experience in cooking). We made different types of salasas, guacamole, we learned about different types of chile, we learned how to deal with the masa (corn dough), how to press and roast tortillas, how to make quesadilla, sopes and tlocoyos. Very cool and informative workshop.

In Mexican cooking, quelites is a family of edible greens. The word comes from the Nahuatl quilitl, and in Mexican food culture it refers broadly to tender edible leaves, shoots, stems, young plants, and even some flowers. They have been part of Mexican cooking since pre-Hispanic times, and they are especially associated with seasonal, local cooking and the world of the milpa and traditional markets rather than with one specific ingredient.

Here are some examples:
- Verdolaga is the fleshy, juicy, slightly acidic one. Cooked into stews, especially verdolagas con carne de puerco, and more generally its young leaves and tender stems are used in soups, broths, and other cooked preparations.
- Berro is a darker green with a fresher, more peppery profile. In rural central Mexico it may accompany tacos, while in cities it often appears in simple salads.
- Quelite cenizo is a more rustic, earthy cooking green. Our chef said it's classic, so... so be it ;-)

We have so many edible vegtables in the wild that we (as humans) don't cultivate...

Another intersting thing is the huitlacoche. It's an edible fungus that infects young corn, growing between the kernels and swelling them into soft gray-black galls. In Mexico it has been harvested since ancestral times, especially during the rainy season, though today it can also be cultivated in a controlled way. When it is still young and tender, it is prized for its deep, earthy, mushroom-like flavor and is commonly cooked in quesadillas, tamales, soups, and stews, often sautéed first with onion, garlic, chile, and even goes on pasta, pizza and risotto! In other parts of the world it totally disqualifies the corn or sometimes entire batches or fields.

Chiles are very diverse and are used everywhere in MExican cooking. Every type of chile can be either fresh or dried. Here is a short mental map of them:

• poblano → ancho when dried
• chilaca → pasilla when dried
• jalapeño → chipotle when smoked and dried
• morita is a smaller smoked-dried jalapeño / chipotle type
• mirasol -> guajillo when dried
• chile de árbol is often sold fresh, but is used very often dried (same name goes for both)
• habanero is mostly used fresh rather than dried

Here are the characteristics and use of each:

• Poblano: large, fleshy, dark green, broad and conical, with relatively mild heat. It is the classic chile for chiles rellenos, rajas, and roasting/peeling. When dried, it becomes ancho.
• Ancho: the dried poblano. It is broad, triangular, reddish-brown, and especially valued for color, body, and depth rather than aggressive heat. It is one of the main dried chiles in red sauces, moles, adobos, and many guisos rojos.
• Chilaca: long, dark green to almost black, somewhat twisted, fleshy, and sometimes quite hot. In central Mexico it is often roasted and peeled, then used in rajas, chopped, ground, or stuffed. When dried, it becomes pasilla.
• Pasilla: the dried chilaca. Long, dark, wrinkled, and moderately hot, it is used for salsas such as salsa borracha, as well as moles, adobos, revoltijo, and meat stews.
• Mirasol: the fresh form of guajillo. Its name comes from the way the fruits point upward “toward the sun” on the plant. It is used fresh in some regional stews and salsas, though outside those contexts you are much more likely to encounter its dried form, guajillo.
• Guajillo: the dried mirasol. Smooth, shiny, reddish, and elongated, it is one of the standard dried chiles because it gives red color and consistency to sauces, moles, and stews.
• Jalapeño: fresh, fleshy, green, conical, and medium to fairly hot. It is used in salsas, rajas, fillings, and everyday cooked dishes. When smoked and dried, it becomes chipotle.
• Chipotle: smoked, dried jalapeño. Dark, wrinkled, and distinctly smoky, it is one of the hotter dried chiles and is especially associated with adobos, escabeches, canned chipotles in adobo, and brothy dishes.
• Serrano: small, green, pointed, and clearly hot. It is one of the most common fresh chiles in Mexico and is used raw, cooked, roasted, or fried, especially in fresh and cooked salsas.
• Morita: a small smoked-dried jalapeño type, related to chipotle. It is very hot but also slightly sweet, and is used much like chipotle in salsas and adobos.
• Chile de árbol: long, thin, and very hot. It can be found fresh, but it is most commonly used dried, especially for fiery table salsas and to sharpen sauces.
• Habanero: small, lantern-shaped, and extremely hot. The classic chile of Yucatecan cooking. It is usually used fresh rather than dried, often in salsas and condiments, and commonly appears green, yellow, or orange depending on ripeness.

I asked ChatGPT to label the above photo with all the chiles on it:

CDMX - Centro Historico

Today Renata went home to New York, I continue on my own. I checked out from the appartment on Jalaca and dropped off my suitcase at my new place 2 blocks away. I took then the public transportation to Zocalo, where I joined a free walking tour exploring the historic center of the city. The tour was conducted by an antropologist woman, who was very knowledgable not only about the city and its sites, but also about the history and the people living here in pre-hispanic periods. I learned that the entire city is sinking way more than Amsterdam or Venice. It sinks about 30 cm every year. That's the reason why buildings are tilting, surfaces are not quite horizontal. I also learned about the pre-hispanic religious site that was in today's Zocalo's place. We found some remainders of the site under the Spanish cultural center:

Pre-hispanic ruins right next to Zocalo:

We walked around Santo Domingo Square. The Spanish inquisition's building is on the right with the double cross on it. As we mentioned Aztec human sacrifices before, and people were devastated hearing those stories, I gently reminded people on the inquisition and how many people were killed in the name of the holy cross.

After finishing the tour I explored Casa Azulejos: It's an 18th century residential palace fully covered with blue-and-white Talavera tiles from Puebla. The inside is a restaurant. I was cheeky enough to sneak in, take photos and even go up the stairs without being noticed.

Finally I went over to the other side of the road and entered the Palacio de Bellas Artes. It was originally conceived as the new National Theater under Porfirio Díaz, and construction began in 1904. It was supposed to be finished quickly, but budget problems, technical difficulties, and then the Mexican Revolution delayed it so much that it only opened in 1934. Its style is a striking mix: the exterior is mainly Art Nouveau, designed by the Italian architect Adamo Boari, while the interior is mainly Art Deco, completed later under the Mexican architect Federico Mariscal.

CDMX - Museo de Arte Popular and Museo Mural Diego Rivera

We started the day with souvernir-shopping. The Mercado de Artisanias La Ciudadela is north of Roma Norte and has several artisan shops and workshops selling artifacts in the style of Oaxaca and other parts of Mexico. Several things are just cheap souvenirs, se saw shop owners diligently sitting and removing made-in-china labels from small souvenirs. But there is also real art mixed together with the cheap stuff. Those things are beutiful and expensive. From the market we headed to the Museo de Arte Popular, which was recommended to us by two Canadian ladies from our tour in Xochimilco. And damn they were right! It is worth every minute spent in it. The building is also interesting, it has an internal courtyard and the exhibition rooms are around it scattered over 4 floors.

From the museum we walked to the Diego River's famous mural museum. Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central (“Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central”). Rivera painted it in 1947 for the Versalles dining room of the Hotel del Prado, across from the Alameda. The mural is basically his giant visual “dream” of Mexico: more than a hundred figures from roughly 400 years of Mexican history all gathered in one park scene. Its rescue story is part of why the museum exists. In 1960, the mural was moved from the restaurant to the hotel lobby and mounted on a metal support structure. That turned out to save it: when the 1985 Mexico City earthquake almost destroyed the Hotel del Prado, the original restaurant was in ruins, but the mural could still be rescued. In December 1986, it was carefully protected, moved to its current site, and the museum was then built around it; the Museo Mural Diego Rivera opened in 1988.

For lunch we returned to the taqueria Califa de Leon, which is probably the cheapest Michelin-star restaurant of the workd, the beef-fillet tacos are fantastic. As tasty and juicy it is, I'm not sure about the trend of Michelin to give stars to restaurants without proper service and seating. You basically need to take your plate and drink and go to the neighbor shop and ask to sit there. Then at the end you need to tip them something for it. It's a little weird but for the taste it's totally worth it! Just ignore the fact that they have a star and you'll enjoy it very much. Finally we did some grocery and souvenir shopping in a proper supermarket in Polanco.

Teotihuacán

Teotihuacán is an ancient Mesoamerican city near CDMX, It's famous for its pyramids and precolumbian architecture. It's one of the must-dos if you're in Mexico City. The Teotihuacan culture was hundreds of years before the Aztec culture became dominant in Mesoamerica. 600 BCE the area was covered with villages, with population that was not so significant. However from 100 BCE to 750 CE, Teotihuacan evolved into a huge urban and administrative center with cultural influences throughout the broader Mesoamerica region. The two most significant buildings: Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were built 1-4th century CE. The peak of the Teotihuacan culture was 350-650 CE when the city's population reached the 125000. In 450 CE the city covered an area of 30sqkm. We started the day early (relatively to our practices) and ended up being at the site around 10am. We figured that taking a Didi saves a really time in this case so we opted for this luxury both ways. Climbing is only possible up to half ways on the Pyramid of the Moon, but this is enough to give a fantastatic bird-eye view on what used to be the huge city.

Downtown houses:

The Feathered Serpant god and he green bird:

We optimized for sun and heat and decided the visit the museum at the very end. The collection includes interesting artifacts of the Teotihuacan culture and things related to burial of the dead.