Oaxacan cuisine
Well-known features of the cuisine include ingredients such as chocolate (often drunk in a hot preparation with spices and other flavourings), Oaxaca cheese, mezcal, and grasshoppers (chapulines), with dishes such as tlayudas, Oaxacan-style tamales, and seven notable varieties of mole sauce.
The cuisine has been praised and promoted by food experts such as Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless and is part of the state's appeal for tourists.
[7] Corn is generally dried and ground to create a dough, which is used for a number of dishes, including entomatadas, empanadas, and tamales.
[3] The main flavoring agent is the chili pepper, with varieties such as amarillos, chilhuacles, chilcostles, and costeños, but the most distinctive is the pasilla oaxaqueña chile.
[1][3] Characteristic herbs include hoja santa, often used in chicken, pork, and fish dishes as well as mole verde, along with epazote and pitiona.
Lesser-known regional specialties include ice cream flavored with rose petals, and squash flowers found in empanadas, quesadillas, soups, and more.
[9] Other tamale varieties include amarillo (yellow), verde (green), rajas (chili pepper strips), chepil, elote (fresh corn), and dulce (sweet).
[9] Oaxaca is famous for its chocolate, traditionally hand-ground and combined with almonds, cinnamon, and other ingredients, usually drunk as a hot beverage.
[11] The cooking here retains much of its indigenous flavour, such as dishes prepared without fat (unknown before the arrival of the Spanish) and the use of the valley's abundance of vegetables and herbs, especially in its moles.
It also includes a section specializing in meats such as tasajo and chorizo cooked to order and eaten with large corn tortillas, guacamole, and various grilled and fresh vegetables.
This urban centre has a number of upscale restaurants such as La Biznaga and Los Danzantes, run by professional chefs, but they all work to blend Oaxacan with contemporary cooking.
Susana Trilling is an author, chef, and television host who runs the Seasons of My Heart cooking school in Oaxaca.
[3] Oaxacan moles require multiple ingredients and long cooking times, and for this reason are traditionally served only for special occasions.
[2][13] Mole negro is slightly sweet, black in colour, and contains six different types of chili peppers, plantains, onion, tomatoes, tomatillos, cloves, cinnamon, chocolate, nuts, tortillas, avocado leaves, and more depending on the recipe.
Mole coloradito is brick-red in colour and contains ancho chili peppers, tomatoes, garlic, sesame seeds, almonds, cinnamon, and oregano.
Mancha manteles is red and uses ancho chili peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onion, thyme, cloves, and almonds.
Another red mole is chichilo, which uses chihuacle, negro, pasilla, and mulato chile peppers, tomatoes, marjoram, allspice, cloves, and avocado leaves.
Rojo is red, as its name suggests, with ingredients such as chocolate, guajillo chili peppers, onion, tomatoes, garlic, oregano, nuts, and sesame seeds.
[14] Various insects are consumed in the state, including ants and grubs from maguey plants, but the best-known of these is grasshoppers, called chapulines.
This time begins with the hatching of new grasshoppers, called nymphs in English, which taste sweet, commanding a premium price.
[10] The most common way to eat them is fresh off the comal and with a tortilla, but they are also consumed fried with chili powder as a snack (especially with mezcal) and can be found in more sophisticated preparations, in a sauce or mixed with eggs.
