Tag: corn

Postcard from Puebla, Mexico: Sprouting a new crop of enthusiastic chefs

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A green and yellow stamp featuring a corn plant and flower, labeled 'FLORA DE MEXICO' and 'maiz' with a moon in the background.

Above: Seafood soup at Mucho Bueno Pesca y Pisto

Our prior trip to Puebla was a decade ago, and the food scene has changed dramatically since then. You will find only one revisited restaurant represented in this alphabetical summary of places we enjoyed. While you might be expecting photos loaded with plates of the region’s famed chiles en nogada, we were not there during their season, which is now.

A bunch of fresh huauzontle, a green herb with small flowering buds, displayed against a white background.
Above: Fresh huauzontles

Chefs’ elevation and celebration of herbs and vegetables native to the Americas has increased, often corn-centric. Several places introduced us to huauzontles, a bushy, wild herb related to quinoa and amaranth.

Augurio compressed huauzontles into breaded patties filled with fresh goat cheese afloat in a pool of chile pasilla mole. The restaurant manages to combine an upscale contemporary feel with traditional ingredients and recipes of “baroque” Puebla.

Continue reading “Postcard from Puebla, Mexico: Sprouting a new crop of enthusiastic chefs” →

Postcard from Merida, Mexico: Mayan gods molded man from masa

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An engraving by Fernando Castro Pacheco illustrates the importance of corn to Mayans in a book by Alfredo Barrera Vasquez, Poema en Cinco Puntos Cardinales, published in Merida in 1976.

According to ancient beliefs rooted in the Yucatan, Mayan gods created a world full of plants and animals yet still felt unfulfilled. Their egos required more. They yearned for creatures capable of worshipping them, offering them tributes they craved. Like chocolate.

After attempts with other materials, the gods settled on corn, corn mixed with water and perhaps a bit of their own blood. So the first four men were formed from ground kernels of white corn and the women from yellow. Man not only was created from corn; he became dependent on corn as the cornerstone of his diet. Fortunately, there was a deity for that – Hun Nal Yeh, the god of corn.

So it is only natural that the critical role of corn in the world of the ancient Mayan and Mexico today is heralded in El Gran Museo del Mundo Maya of Merida. Continue reading “Postcard from Merida, Mexico: Mayan gods molded man from masa” →